Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said the Army Transformation Initiative will reassess all requirements, prioritize programs that contribute to lethality, cancel unnecessary initiatives and encourage leaders to take risks, DOD News reported Wednesday.
“The Army Transformation Initiative will make us into an Army that is lean, agile and relentlessly focused on empowering its soldiers. We need to get rid of what we don’t need, acquire what we do and chisel our organization down to a lean, lethal fighting machine,” Driscoll said Wednesday during the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee hearing.
Analysis of Proposed Changes Under Army Transformation Initiative
During the hearing, Driscoll told lawmakers that the service will submit to Congress in 10 days an analysis detailing its proposed changes under the Army Transformation Initiative, including its plan to restructure formations, consolidate Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into one entity and cancel programs like the Robotic Combat Vehicle and the M10 Booker light tank, according to a report by Defense News.
“We’d be happy to come by any time, but I think very specifically, you will have that detail within 10 days,” Driscoll said.
According to the Army secretary, the amount of spending planned over the next five years for programs the military branch will cancel or redirect is worth approximately $48 billion.
Expanding ‘Transformation in Contact’ Initiative to Army Guard
The Army Times reported that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said the service has begun identifying Army Guard units for the Transformation in Contact, or TIC, initiative, which started with three infantry brigades.
“We want to do that as fast as we can in the Guard as well,” George said during the Senate subpanel hearing. “They are identifying those units who can do that in the Guard.”
TIC seeks to deliver drones, infantry squad vehicles, counter-drone equipment, electromagnetic warfare capabilities and other new equipment to operational units as they prepare for major training activities and deployments.
The general noted that the Army Guard will have access to those same systems.
