Gordon Lubold
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon is poised to make controversial cuts to the Army’s storied special-operations forces, amid recruiting struggles and a shift in focus from Middle East counterterrorism operations to a threat from China.
The Army is cutting about 3,000 troops, or about 10% from its special-operations ranks, which could include so-called trigger-pullers from the Green Beret commando units who have conducted some of the nation’s most dangerous and sensitive missions around the world, from the jungles of Vietnam to the back alleys of Baghdad.
The reductions would enable the Army to rebalance toward the large conventional ground forces needed in a potential fight in Asia. The trims in the ranks of special forces would also help the Army cope with a recruiting shortfall in a strong labor market. But opponents of the cuts, notably senior special-operations officers, have argued they could hinder training of U.S. partners, including the Ukrainian and Taiwanese militaries, and limit the elite units’ ability to respond to crises.
The service plans to brief Capitol Hill in the coming days on the reductions. Mostly, the Army plans to cut special-operations troops in supporting roles such as psychological warfare, civil affairs, intelligence operators, communications troops, logistics and other so-called enablers, U.S. military officials said. The cuts would follow the reallocation last year of more than 700 special-operations troops from the Army and other services. In sum, the cuts to the Pentagon’s umbrella Special Operations Command would amount to about 3,700 troops since last year.
The reductions have been fought hard from within the special-operations community, but they are expected to happen, U.S. officials said. The final documents have yet to be signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, officials said.
As with any such force reduction, however, the proposed cuts could be overturned by Congress, which has loud advocates for the Pentagon’s special-operations community. If it goes through, it would amount to only about 5% cut to Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla.
But more broadly, the reduction would mark the beginning of a new era for the Pentagon. The U.S., long engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflict zones, has relied heavily on special-operations troops as the go-to force to fight counterterrorism and conduct the counterinsurgency operations in the war on terror.
Hunting and killing Bin Laden
Allied special forces fought extensively in World War II, and Army units deployed to Vietnam early on, training and advising South Vietnamese fighters. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized them to wear their signature green beret, according to a U.S. Army history.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, SOCOM, which also includes the Navy SEALs, the Marine Corps’ special-reconnaissance force, Air Force special operators and others, has grown to about 75,000 from 45,000, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The Army contributes about half of those forces, or about 36,000. Troops and civilian support staff now operate in about 80 countries.
Special Operations Command oversaw the hunt and ultimate killing of Osama bin Laden, the ground raid in Syria that killed the head of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the 2003 rescue of soldier Jessica Lynch in Iraq, and hundreds of other sensitive, perilous operations over the years.
Today, special-operations units are peppered across Europe, to help train Ukrainian forces to fight Russia, as well as East Asia, including in Taiwan, where they are training allies to defend against possible aggression from China, and West Africa.
But as the U.S. focuses more on the so-called great power competition with China, some policy makers see less of a need for the highly trained and specialized troops, officials said. Instead, they favor pouring more resources into the kind of conventional forces expected to be more relevant in a peer-on-peer conflict. The Pentagon has shrunk its presence in the Middle East, leaving half-empty the sprawling American bases that were a hallmark of the war on terrorism and the springboard for some special-operations missions.
In addition, the Army is struggling with a debilitating, multiyear recruiting crisis amid a strong economy. This year, the service missed a 65,000-soldier recruiting goal by 15,000 people, and its overall strength is projected to drop it as low as 440,000 in 2025 from about 453,000 now. Special-operations forces have contributed to an imbalance, Army officials said, in which some jobs have gone unfilled and units aren’t fully manned.
Ultimately, the issue went before Austin, who ordered that the cuts go ahead as planned but not include trigger-pullers, a U.S. official said. Other officials anticipate that some Green Berets and some “unfilled” Green Beret slots will be cut. In any case, the cuts will occur at the discretion of Special Operations Command, and officials expect they could come through attrition of soldiers in coming months and years, officials said.
“The Army is in a moment of transformation,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters at the Pentagon this week. “There are new capabilities that we need to bring into the fore.”
Most senior special-operations officers, including SOCOM commander Army Gen. Bryan Fenton and Christopher Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, opposed the cuts out of fear that the reductions will deprive the command of the flexibility it needs to conduct counterterrorism and training of partner nations.
“It’s why the Ukrainian army has been so lethal against the Russians—it’s undeniable, why would you cut that?” said one person familiar with the proposal. “Anyone can squeeze the trigger, but in order to hit something, you gotta be trained.”
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