An Army general received his fourth star during his promotion ceremony on Nov. 8, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Carolina Sierra)
WASHINGTON — The US Army is weighing a massive overhaul that would see a reduction in the number of general officer billets and restructure the service’s organizations charged with developing requirements and buying weapons, Breaking Defense has learned.
While no decisions have been made, the tentative plan would leave the Army Chief and Vice Chief of Staff as the only functional component four-star general officers, reduce the number of Program Executive Offices (PEOs) managing weapons programs, and merge Army Futures Command (AFC) with Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).
Two sources in industry have seen a document laying the plan out, while another three have heard details that match the document, they tell Breaking Defense. A timeline for such a plan being executed, or if the plan will go through at all, is unknown, but industry is taking it as a sign that major changeups are becoming inevitable with the Pentagon’s largest service.
When informed of the details of the plan, John Ferrari, a senior nonresident fellow at AEI and retired Army Maj. Gen., said, “The CSA [Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Randy George], along with the new administration, is really looking hard at reducing the bureaucracy to enable the actual fighting units —so overall a good first step with more needed.”
An Army official confirmed that senior leaders are weighing this structural shakeup, but said a decision has not yet been made or no actions taken. A spokesperson with Army public affairs declined to comment and several other offices, including the service’s acquisition shop, did not respond to questions by press time
Futures Command Without A Future?
When AFC was stood up in 2018 under the first Trump administration, a four-star general was placed at the helm and charged with speeding up the requirements process in order to get tech and weapons into soldiers’ hands quicker. At the time, part of TRADOC’s mandate was redirected towards AFC, with the new command assuming responsibility for shepherding in new weapon requirements. As part of that change, for example, AFC created cross-functional teams (CFTs) around requirement portfolios like aviation, ground vehicles, long-range fires.
According to the circulating document, the service is considering merging AFC and TRADOC together, and taking those CFTs and converting them back to Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate — an organization inside the service that helps develop and integrate capabilities based on doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities.
“Some of this is back to the future, for example, AFC mostly came from TRADOC and so putting it back makes sense,” Ferrari said. “Additionally, AFC was premised on devolving to its acquisition authority and that did [not] happen, so it is a brave leader who says we tried it and it is not delivering results we expected and admits that out loud.”
General Officer, PEO Reductions
Both AFC and TRADOC are four-star billets right now, as are Army Forces Command and Army Material Command. Under the proposed plan, they would be downgraded to an undisclosed level.
As a result of those billet downgrades, only the Army Chief of Staff and Army Vice Chief of Staff desks would be run by four-star generals, according to the tentative plan. (Presumably the combatant commands and component commands would remain four-star posts, but the document does not address those structures or any changes that may be coming.)
Proposed changes to the Army’s structure do not stop with AFC and TRADOC.
If senior military leaders ultimately sign off on the plan, the 13 Army PEOs that exist today will be pared down to nine.
To get to that number, PEO Ground Combat Systems and PEO Combat Support & Combat Service Support will merge into one shop, while PEO Command, Control, Communications, and Network, and PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors will also merge. The PEO for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation would be eliminated. (The document does not detail the additional change required to get down to nine PEOs).
“Thirteen PEOs is a lot given how small the Army procurement budget actually is; one can imagine this might be the first step of a broader acquisition streamlining; each PEO is a bureaucratic stovepipe, and each PEO injects exponentially more synchronization issues, so this is a big move but getting to many fewer than nine is probably needed,” Ferrari speculated.
Downgrading the PEO billets is also on the table.
Today, each PEO is typically helmed by either a two-star or one-star general. But according to the paper, the remaining nine PEOs would all be one-star billets. The Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, currently helmed by Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, would also be aligned for a downgrade to a one-star post. The document notes that this would only occur once Rasch left, meaning this could potentially be a roadmap for how the service handles the other billet downgrades — waiting for a higher-level officer to leave before being replaced with a one-star.
While Ferrari broadly supported that possible shakeup, one industry official said the plan to have only two functional four-star generals is “insane” and would hamper the PEOs ability to move out on programs.
“It absolutely neuters the ability of the program offices to have maneuver space in the decision-making process,” the source added. “One-stars don’t have the sway of power.”
