WASHINGTON — Buoyed by the surge in recruits, the army will expand its basic combat training, a move leaders hope will mark a turning point in preparing for the challenges of future wars.
The extra training begins in October and comes as the Army tries to reverse years of poor recruiting, when it failed to meet its recruitment goals. New units in Oklahoma and Missouri will train as many as 4,000 recruits annually.
Army leaders are optimistic they will reach their target of 55,000 recruits this year, saying the influx of new soldiers has forced them to expand the number of training sites.
“I am pleased to say that last year’s recruiting transformation efforts have put us on track to accomplish this year’s recruiting mission, with thousands more waiting for basic training” in the coming year, Defense Secretary Christine Wormuth said. Adding the two new sites, she said, is a way to quickly train and deploy Soldiers into units, “with further expansion likely next spring if our recruiting numbers continue to improve.”
The expanded training is part of a broader effort to restructure the military so it is better able to fight a sophisticated adversary like Russia or China. The U.S. military has spent much of the past two decades fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than fighting a broader war with another high-tech, more capable nation.
Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, chief of operations for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said there will be two new training companies at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and two at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
The growth is driven by the successful Future Soldier Prep coursewhich was established in August 2022 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, as a new way to bolster recruitment. That program gives underperforming recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and advance to basic training.
The program was founded two years ago has been quoted as a major reason that Army leaders expect to end years of recruiting shortages this fall. In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, the Army brought in just over 50,000 recruitswhich is a far cry from the publicly announced ‘stretch goal’ of 65,000.
The Army has a total of 151 training companies working with recruits at Fort Jackson and Fort Moore, Georgia, in addition to the 15 training companies assigned to the Preparatory Course. Army leaders have expanded the Preparatory Course, which is expected to bring in nearly 20,000 recruits this budget year and that number is expected to increase through 2025.
Due to the Army’s recruiting problems, the number of recruits attending basic training has declined in recent years. As a result, the 15 training units, which total 27 soldiers per unit, including 16 drill sergeants, were available for the preparatory course. But as the preparatory course grows, those units are not available for basic training.
“We don’t want to mess with that, because right now that formula works and it’s delivered a lot of value to the Army,” Walkawicz said. So the Army is creating the four new companies and has developed plans for more, if needed.
She added that Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood have the infrastructure, barracks and space to house the new units and can accommodate more if needed. The program’s costs are limited because the Army already has the necessary equipment and quarters, but there will be maintenance, food, personnel and other costs. Army officials did not provide a total price.
The move to add units is the latest change in what has been a tumultuous time for the military. After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the service grew dramatically to meet the country’s combat needs, the U.S. military began to see a decline in recruiting.
Unemployment is low, corporate jobs pay well and offer good benefits, and it is estimated that only 23% of people between the ages of 17 and 24 are physically, mentally, and morally qualified to serve without receiving some form of waiver. Moral problems include drug use, gang affiliation, and criminal records.
Those problems only grew when the coronavirus pandemic hit and recruiters were unable to meet students in person at schools, fairs and other public events.
In 2022, the army was short of 15,000 men of its 60,000 recruitment goal, and the other services had to dig deep into their pools of delayed admissions to meet their recruitment numbers. In 2023, the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed their recruitment goals. Marine Corps and the small Space Force has consistently achieved its goals.
Partly in response to the shortage of recruits, military leaders have the size reduced of the police force by about 24,000, or nearly 5 percent. They said many of the cuts were to jobs that were already vacant.