The Government Accountability Office, in a just released report on DOD’s management of military force structure, suggests that one way the Pentagon could provide more personnel to meet Army needs is to “reassign and retrain available personnel for high-demand Army skills” from within the Army and within the other services. (The other services are already providing what is termed “in lieu of” troops to supplement the Army.) And, the report notes that Joint Forces Command has identified “over 200,000 reservists from all the services’ reserve components” that “could be potentially available” for such retraining. GAO does point out, though, that this maneuver would shortchange missions of the other services, not to mention playing havoc with service-specific training and recruiting and retention. No kidding.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
