Retired U.S. Army Gen. James Thurman has said the U.S. government should reconsider the budget and the number of soldiers the service branch needs, the Army reported Thursday.Thurman said at a Thursday Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Russia’s resurgence and other national security challenges the country currently faces also require reconsideration.
C. Todd Lopez writes Thurman, one of the commissioners of the National Commission on the Future of the Army, made the remarks in response to questions about a report that NCFA released last month about the military branch’s structure and policies with regard to the size of the force.
The commission recommended in the report that the Army’s force should not be lower than 980,000 uniformed personnel, Lopez writes.
Thurman noted that the assumptions used to arrive at a decision to reduce the service branch’s budget and draw down the military force are no longer applicable due to dramatic changes in the state of global security.
“We are not out of Afghanistan. We’re probably putting more in,†he added.
