June 1, 2007:
Two years before September 11, 2001,
the U.S. Army began a massive reorganization. The war on terror didn't slow
down this series of reforms and transformations. The army is still in the
process of forming new combat brigades, and reorganizing combat support forces
to make all this work. One of the major changes is a consolidation of MOS's
(Military Occupational Specialties), with 200 of these job categories being
turned into 150. Most of the MOS consolidation is in the technical fields,
which is where most of the proliferation has occurred over the past few
decades.
The army reorganization is increasing the number of
combat brigades from 33 to 43, without increasing the size of the army. To do
this, some 40,000 troops were transferred from support jobs, to combat
brigades. On top of all this, Congress wants the army to increase its size by
about ten percent. That will mean another four or five combat brigades.
The reforms, planned in the late 1990s, have
themselves been reformed by the knowledge gained, in the last few years, during
combat operations. The goals are still to do more with the same number of
troops, a transformation that has also been going on in the civilian world. But
the army usually has to estimate what impact reforms will have on combat
performance. However, there's a lot less uncertainty with the current round of
reforms, because there is a war going on, to show what works, and what doesn't.
This is a confluence of rapid technical change and wartime urgency. The last
time this happened was during World War II, a period of rapid development of
new technologies, particularly in aircraft and electronics. This produced new
weapons types (electronic warfare, jet fighters, nuclear weapons) that are
still standard gear. The current transformation is introducing personal electronics
for troops, robots and "smart" weapons. Warfare will never be the
same because of what is happening here.