ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The Heritage Foundation’s “2020 Index of U.S. Military Strength” once again scores the U.S. Army as “marginal” because dramatic improvements in brigade combat team readiness are offset by continuing struggles to modernize the force and grow troop levels. 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper credits the Army as leading military transformation in an era of great-power competition. He even called the Army “ruthless.”

The Army isn’t losing any momentum in its transformation journey, despite a challenging and tumultuous year, the service’s top leader said.  

European allies remain vital to U.S. national security, but the U.S. military’s current posture in the region is “too small and without depth,” a former commander of U.S. Army Europe testified before Congress.

Long-range precision fires will be “extremely important” in deterring future conflict amid “endless” competition ahead, the Army’s top general said.

Army leaders are continuing to address critical issues facing troops today and press for change as part of the service’s efforts to take care of soldiers and their families. 

“There's a lot of great things going on in the Army, but there's also some things that we need to address,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville.

The military’s diversity and inclusion efforts are not just for “diversity’s sake,” but are critical to the readiness and capability of the joint force, the military’s top general said. 

To win on the future battlefield, the Army must be faster than its adversaries and better at harnessing emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence, autonomy and robotics, senior leaders said as they wrapped up a new exercise as part of the Project Convergence initiative.

The Army is modernizing its ammunition plants with a goal of meeting future requirements so that there is “no significant shortfall in conventional ammunition production by the ammunition industrial base,” Gen. Edward Daly, Army Materiel Command commander, told a congressional committee concerned about aging infrastructure. 

The demonstrations and emotional calls for social justice across the country this summer led to tough conversations between Army leaders and their soldiers—and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy plans to continue those talks as the service works to eliminate bias in the ranks.