Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday ordered a top-down transformation of the Army in a sweeping directive aimed at reorienting the service toward great power competition.
With a sharp focus on countering China, developing space and counter-space capabilities, and accelerating the Pentagon’s new Golden Dome strategy, the aggressive modernization effort directs the Army to cut aging legacy systems, restructure headquarters commands and more rapidly field new technologies.
The memo ordered a merging of Army Futures Command, based in Austin, Texas, with Training and Doctrine Command, headquartered in Fort Eustis, Virginia, and merging Forces Command, U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South.
“To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems,” Hegseth wrote.
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“Simultaneously, the Army must prioritize investments in accordance with the Administration’s strategy, ensuring existing resources are prioritized to improve long-range precision fires, air and missile defense including through the Golden Dome for America, cyber, electronic warfare, and counter-space capabilities.”
Hegseth wants the Army to be able to field long-range missiles capable of striking moving land and sea targets and achieve electromagnetic and air-littoral dominance by 2027 as the potential for conflict looms in the Indo-Pacific theater.
The memo calls for reducing manned attack helicopter formations in favor of inexpensive drone swarms and the reduction of general officer positions to focus command structures on the warfighter.
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Hegseth ordered the Army to enable AI-driven command and control at theater, corps and division headquarters by 2027 and expand 3D printing for weapons.
The memo also calls for bulking up the Army’s presence in the Indo-Pacific and more joint exercises with allies in the region.
The procurement of obsolete systems will be ended, per the memo, and “redundant or ineffective” programs will be canceled or scaled back, including manned aircraft and excess ground vehicles like the Humvee.
The Army will review and cancel inefficient contracts and work to shift from program-centric funding to capability-based funding, and add right to repair provisions in all contracts, as well as implement performance-based contracting to reduce waste.
The defense secretary also calls for reforms to hiring and firing systems, and reduced spending on climate initiatives, legacy sustainment initiatives and excess travel.
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