The Army wants to recruit 61,000 new soldiers this fiscal year, a sharp increase over last year and a return to the higher goals of the previous two years.
The target is “ambitious, but achievable,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said as the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army, or AUSA, opened on Monday in downtown Washington, D.C.
The Army has already begun working on its fiscal 2025 goal: recruiters have enlisted some 11,000 soldiers who will begin serving next year under the delayed entry program.
The Army exceeded its fiscal year 2024 recruiting target of 55,000 new soldiers by half a percent. Its success was due in part to its implementation of a program designed to get applicants’ physical fitness and test scores up to scratch. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, this Future Soldier Preparatory Course graduated 13,206 students into basic training in 2024.
The 61,000 number is similar to the Army’s 2022 recruiting goal of 60,000 and its 2023 target of 65,000 new soldiers. Both years the Army missed its goal by about 15,000 soldiers. The service has attributed its recruiting struggles to low unemployment numbers, the prevalence of obesity, and the COVID-19 pandemic preventing recruiters from visiting high schools.
At the same time, the Army is working to retain the talent it already has, especially in technically complex fields like electronic warfare and drone operation, which are at the center of an Army modernization pushed dubbed “transforming in contact.”
Speaking at a media roundtable after Wormuth’s speech, Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy George said retention numbers are higher than normal in the three brigades selected for the modernization program.
Wormuth also signaled that the Army is open to cutting more programs, nine months after canceling a major helicopter program because it concluded unmanned, current, and space-based assets could do the job. The Army had already spent nearly $2 billion on the program, the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft.
“As we continue modernizing our weapons systems, we are also asking ourselves every step of the way, “Does this capability make our troops more lethal?” Wormuth said. “If the answer to any of those questions is “no” or even “maybe,” we are willing to make hard choices and adjust course.”
The Army is also collaborating with Congress to develop what Wormuth called “more agile funding” mechanisms to acquire drones and counter-drone and electronic warfare technology.
The service recently worked with Congress to reprogram money to start fielding company-level drones in 2025 instead of 2024, and to field 3D printers to units for creating their own drones, Army acquisition secretary chief Doug Bush said at an event held by think tank CSIS.
