The Army announced it's cutting these jobs. What does that mean for Fort Liberty?
The Army plans to cut 32,000 jobs while making room for another 7,500, it announced this week.
In a report that was released Tuesday, officials said they will phase out positions that are either unfilled or tied to previous counterinsurgency missions.
The reports states the planned reductions are for job slots, and not individual soldiers.
"The Army is not asking current soldiers to leave,” the report stated. “As the Army builds back-end strength over the next few years, most installations will likely see an increase in the number of soldiers actually stationed there.”
The report stated that Army leaders plan to have 470,000 soldiers in the regular Army by fiscal year 2029, which is an increase from the current force of about 445,000 but a decrease from prior plans that allowed for up to 494,000 troops.
What’s getting cut and what it could mean to Fort Liberty
Fort Liberty, home of the Army’s airborne and special operation forces, is the most populated installation in the world with about 53,700 troops.
According to the report, Army special operation forces “have doubled in size” during the past 20 years.
An analysis that examined special operations requirements for large-scale combat in multiple theaters “indicated that existing Army SOF force structure meets or exceeds demand in large-scale conflict relative to other capabilities,” the plan stated.
Officials identified 3,000 spots that could be reduced and will prioritize the reduction of positions "that are historically vacant or hard to fill .”
During the Global SOF Foundation’s modern warfare symposium in November at Fort Liberty, Christopher Maier, assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, spoke about cuts to Army special operation forces.
Maier said leaders looked at unfilled billets when considering cuts but want to protect high-end capabilities to preserve counterterrorism crisis response while looking toward the future of fighting, whether that’s against countries like China, or supporting allies and partners.
During the same symposium, Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson, deputy commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Liberty, declined to say which specific units could face cuts calling it “sensitive information.”
Among USASOC’s 36,000 troops are Special Forces, Rangers, special operations aviators, civil affairs soldiers and psychological operations units.
During a Senate Armed Service Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities meeting in May, North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd asked officials about cuts.
Former USASOC commander Lt. Gen. Kenneth Tovo said that he believes special operations forces are driven by its intelligence community and that special operations is one area in which he was concerned military services could make cuts.
“That will be devastating,” he said. “Without the intelligence capability, our operational capability is hobbled at best.”
Tovo said Green Berets, psychological operations and civil affairs also can’t afford to lose soldiers.
“They are the prime forces for competition ... if we take cuts in those, we’ll certainly have less capability,” he said.
In an Oct. 6 statement about the potential cuts, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Florida, a retired Green Beret and chairman of the House Armed Service Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness, indicated the Army was considering cuts to jobs “like intelligence analysts, psychological operations troops, and logistics personnel.”
In a statement to Task & Purpose this week, Waltz identified the same jobs, along with civil affairs officers and others who are key to special operation forces, saying they "shape the battlefield below the level of conventional war.”
He told the publication that special operations’ “find, fix, finish and exploit,” approach in modern warfare is still needed with how Iran and its proxy forces are currently operating in the Middle East.
According to the Army’s plan, the majority of adjustments in other Army occupations will be about 10,000 spots within close combat forces.
The report stated that legacy formations previously sized for soldier-intensive counterinsurgency operations “will now be optimized for large-scale or multidomain combat operations.”
“Implementing these force structure changes represents a significant shift for the Army, moving the Army away from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to a focus on large scale combat operations against highly sophisticated adversaries,” the report stated.
Those reductions include:
• Inactivating cavalry squadrons in continental U.S.-based Stryker brigade combat teams and infantry brigade combat teams.
• Converting infantry brigade combat team weapons companies to platoons.
• Eliminating some positions across regular Army security force assistance brigades representing a reduction to capacity at minimal risk.
The 82nd Airborne Division has several squadrons under its 73rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Liberty, while Fort Liberty is also home to the Security Forces Assistance Command and 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade.
What’s being added
The report stated that the Army plans to add 7,500 positions and 30 new or upgraded weapons systems into current and new types of units.
The plan also calls for building five multi-domain task forces designed to:
• Increase the depth and scale at which Army forces can protect Joint and Coalition forces and conduct intelligence gathering and synchronization.
• Deliver cyber effects to shape operations.
• Deliver long-range fires in support of joint force maneuver.
The task forces will include a multi-domain effects battalion, a long-range fires battalion, and an indirect fire protection capability battalion.
Three task forces will be assigned to U.S. Army Pacific, one will be assigned to U.S. Army Europe-Africa, and another will likely focus U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, the plan stated.
The Army also plans to make “significant investments in the force structure supporting integrated air and missile defense at the corps and division levels.”
Under the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty is the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, which has two battalions that use long-range Patriot missiles. One of the battalions is currently deployed to the Middle East.
The new additions to air and missile defense units will include:
• Four additional indirect fire protection capability battalions that will provide short- to medium-range capability to defend against unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, rockets, artillery and mortars.
• Nine counter-small unmanned aerial system within the indirection fire protection capability battalions and division air defense battalions;
• Four additional maneuver short-range air defense battalions, which counter low-altitude aerial threats, including unmanned aerial systems, rotary wing aircraft and fixed-wing aircraft.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How is Fort Liberty affected by Army cuts?
