US army 'to shrink to 74 year low'

US defence secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed shrinking the Army to its smallest size in 74 years, closing military bases and making other military-wide savings as part of a broad reshaping after more than a decade of war.

Mr Hagel outlined his vision in a speech at the Pentagon, a week before President Barack Obama is to submit his 2015 budget plan to Congress.

Mr Hagel said US forces must adjust to the reality of smaller budgets, even as he asserted that the United States faces a more volatile, more unpredictable world that requires a more nimble military.

"We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centres of power and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable and in some instances more threatening to the United States," he said.

Under the Hagel plan, which Congress could change, the active-duty Army would shrink from its current 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000. That would make it the smallest since just before the US entered the Second World War.

Mr Hagel said the president's budget proposal will include a government-wide "Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative" that would provide the Pentagon with 26 billion dollars (£15.6bn) on top of the 496 billion dollars (£297.6bn) it is due to receive in 2015 under terms of the budget deal passed by the Congress two months ago.
Among the bolder moves in the proposal is the elimination of the Air Force's fleet of A-10 aircraft and its venerable U-2 spy planes, as well as reductions in the size of the Army National Guard. Those moves are expected to draw some opposition in Congress.

Mr Hagel said the administration will propose a new round of domestic military base closings in 2017, while noting that Congress has rejected such requests in recent years.

Army leaders have been saying for months that they expect their service to shrink as the nation prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan this year.

General Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said recently that whatever the future size of the Army, it must adapt to conditions that are different from what many soldiers have become accustomed to during more than a decade of war. He said many have the misperception that the Army is no longer busy.