Army exceeds 55,000 recruitment goal, reversing 2022 and 2023 shortfalls
The Army surpassed its recruiting goal of 55,000 new recruits in fiscal year 2024, while adding 11,000 individuals to the delayed entry program, which will support next year’s recruiting efforts. This marks a significant turnaround after the service missed its recruitment targets in 2022 and 2023. The success is largely attributed to the Army’s Future Soldier Prep Course, which helped more than 13,000 recruits meet academic and fitness requirements for basic training.
The Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force also met their recruiting goals this year. The Navy came close, signing up thousands of recruits but falling just short of its goal to get them all through boot camp by the end of the fiscal year. Navy leaders credit new initiatives, such as the Future Sailor Prep Course, with helping underperforming recruits meet qualifications.
Despite this year’s progress, military leaders warn of future challenges. The Army and other branches are concerned about a predicted decline in the number of college-age recruits and the continued impact of low unemployment, which makes recruiting more difficult. Only about 23% of young adults are eligible to serve without a waiver due to physical, mental, or moral qualifications, further shrinking the pool of potential recruits.
Looking ahead, the Army plans to increase its recruitment goal for 2025 and continue adapting its strategies, including expanding the use of artificial intelligence and targeted outreach. Military leaders remain cautious, recognizing the competitive recruiting environment, but are optimistic about the boost these improvements provide.
The Air, Space and Cyber Conference 2024: Weapons and Warfare
This week on Weapons and Warfare, the team is on location at the AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber 2024 Conference. Hear from Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, as they provide a progress report on the United States Air Force’s effort to restructure in the face of the Great Power Competition.
Also featured in this episode:
The U.S. and its allies take a tougher stance on China in the South China Sea.
The Air Force releases first video of the B-21 Raider in flight.
The Army’s elite parachute demonstration team, the Golden Knights, take a leap with a Canadian VIP.
Weapon of the Week: The battle for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, commonly known as the CCA, is heating up. It’s a first look at General Atomics and Anduril’s efforts to put their machines in the air.
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Does Jupiter’s moon Europa support life? NASA mission aims to find out
NASA is just weeks away from its first mission designed to explore Jupiter’s massive moon Europa. Ahead of the historic launch, the agency started releasing videos on Monday, Sept. 23, offering a behind-the-scenes look at what’s going into the Europa Clipper Mission.
NASA is highlighting the efforts of five engineers each week leading up to the launch window of mission, which is starts on Oct. 10. The engineers are working on the giant spacecraft that will explore Jupiter’s moon in search of a “global saltwater ocean beneath its icy shell.”
The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, and it will collect data with nine instruments and conduct an experiment using telecommunications to gather gravity data on the unforgiving radiation environment of Jupiter.
The length of a basketball court, the Europe Probe is the largest spacecraft ever to be developed for a planetary mission. If NASA finds that Europa is a habitable world, a second Europa mission will return, this time landing there to further study signs of life.
“At the time of launch, I will have been working on the Europa Clipper for a dozen years,” said Dipak Srinivasan, the lead communications systems engineer. “You know, seeing it from its infancy, literal napkin designs of what this spacecraft could look like, to actual realized hardware, to get it on its journey to Europa. It’s just going to be a wonderful feeling.”
Military embraces additive manufacturing to maintain aging equipment
Despite the modern advancements in America’s national defense, the military still relies heavily on decades-old equipment. The B-52 Stratofortress, the CH-47 Chinook and the M-61 Vulcan are all still in service because they remain effective. However, maintaining such old equipment presents challenges, as parts that were once easy to obtain are now scarce or no longer produced.
Part of the solution could lie in additive manufacturing, a process the military is rapidly adopting. To the casual observer, additive manufacturing might look similar to 3D printing, but the scale is vastly different. While 3D printing might produce a chess piece at home, additive manufacturing can create a ball valve for a Navy vessel.
Andy Pfister, the vice president of aftermarket and product development at Fairbanks Morse Defense, explained that using traditional methods to obtain the same part could take six to 36 months.
“The big innovation with that, I can get that in six weeks,” Pfister said. “I’m going to get it in six weeks every single time. If I need it faster, I can even get it faster, and I know what I’m getting is good. This efficiency allows for better scheduling and increased manufacturing efficiency.”
The efficiency of additive manufacturing is gaining support from those involved in getting boats in the water or aircraft back in the sky. Pfister noted that while valves might not drive the price of a boat, their timely delivery is crucial for ship schedules and Navy deliveries.
“Anything we can do to get our customers in the warfighter what they need, when they need it, is really going to help the supplier industrial race deliver on what the Navy needs,” Pfister said.
Each branch of the Department of Defense (DOD) is finding ways to take the process out of the factory and into the field. For the Marine Corps, this means turning additive manufacturing into expeditionary manufacturing, bringing the process to where it’s needed most.
The USMC has created Expeditionary Manufacturing units, enabling the units to meet the needs of the Marines in the field where they’re operating.
The Army also embraced the process, producing the largest U.S. civil works component ever made by additive manufacturing. The Poe Lock ship arrestor, used to stop a 100,000-ton vessel, was completed in 12 weeks instead of the 18 months conventional manufacturing would have taken. This allowed the Soo Locks between the Great Lakes border of the U.S. and Canada to reopen in March 2024.
After Hurricane Michael damaged large parts of the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida in 2018, the Air Force turned to additive manufacturing to help rebuild. In 2023, this included a printed facility for robotics research, the first of its kind on an Air Force base worldwide. Air Force leaders noted that the building meets both military building codes and Miami-Dade wind code standards.
The additive manufacturing industry was valued at $14.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach over $69 billion by 2030, according to Vantage Market Research.
The DOD’s challenge now is widespread implementation, building the infrastructure to shorten supply chains and keeping American troops ahead of their near-peer adversaries.
As danger of space debris grows, could wood be the safest solution?
Reports of metal parts landing on people’s property from SpaceX’s spacecraft have gained international attention. The debris from the Dragon Crew spacecraft is posing as a major concern for astronomers.
Metal chunks of the spacecraft have been found on a Saskatchewan farm, a North Carolina hiking trail, and another was found in Florida after hitting a home. No one was injured but space experts said it’s just a matter of time before one of these incidents becomes deadly — unless something is done to help prevent it.
NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX claim the space debris in orbit should burn up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but these recent incidents seem to somewhat dispel that notion. Scientists also contend that even if space debris does burn up, it releases an ozone-depleting chemical into the air known as aluminum oxide.
However, solutions are in development. A Japanese astronaut and engineer invented the world’ first wooden satellite, which is set to launch later this year. When it returns to Earth, it burns up into water vapor and carbon dioxide, which is a much cleaner alternative to aluminum oxide.
The wooden satellite doesn’t solve the problem of liability, though. While NASA is required by federal law to compensate victims impacted by space debris, there is no legal precedent for what private companies have to do for those impacted by their fallen spacecraft debris.
In the case of the Saskatchewan farmer, SpaceX employees reportedly picked up the debris with a U-Haul truck and drove off. SpaceX reportedly donated thousands of dollars to a local skating rink at the farmer’s request but no follow-up by U.S. or Canadian government occurred.
Any compensation that SpaceX did give the farmer is voluntary since it’s a private company and no damage occurred during the incident.
The lack of accountability has some questioning what would happen if someone were killed by SpaceX’s debris. Currently, there is no “space law” for private companies to sort these legal matters out. That is why accountability advocates are pushing for more regulation of private companies exploring space, urging agencies to take action “before disaster strikes.”
How the Department of Defense’s $850 billion budget breaks down
It’s budget planning time in Washington. That means it’s time for the Department of Defense to submit its request for money from the American taxpayers.
For fiscal year 2025, the Pentagon is asking for $849.5 billion. That’s only about 1% more than it requested last year, which doesn’t keep up with inflation.
This is an overview of how each branch of the U.S. military plans to spend its share of the funds. However, Congress still hasn’t approved last year’s budget request from the Pentagon. Instead, the DOD is still operating on a continuing resolution, which impacts a whole host of budgetary issues.
Also, in order to keep the government from shutting down last fall, Congress and President Joe Biden agreed to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which set a hard cap on defense spending in fiscal year 2025. So, some plans that were in the works for years are now delayed.
All that together means every dollar amount is an estimate and is subject to change, depending on how long it takes Congress to act and what level of funding it deems appropriate.
The Pentagon
As a whole, the DOD’s nearly $850 billion budget includes a 4.5% pay raise for service members, more funding for child development centers and on base facilities, and more money for service members to apply towards their basic housing allowance.
In the Department of the Navy — which actually oversees both the Navy and Marine Corps — the Navy is requesting about $204 billion in funding. The Marines are asking for just under $54 billion.
That represents a total budget increase of under 1%. So, the Navy, like every service branch, said it had to make some hard choices. The Navy previously said it would stop buying F/A-18 Super Hornets so it could save funds for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter being developed in coordination with the Air Force. Now, the Navy is saying the billion dollars in fiscal year 25’s budget originally meant for the NGAD program will have to be reallocated.
The Navy said budget constraints also mean it needs to divest of 10 ships — retire them early. This is something Congress hates to do, especially now that China has the world’s largest fleet by number of ships.
The Navy said it could save a lot of money if it didn’t have to keep up with those 10 ships. That money could be used to help buy the six new vessels the Navy wants, a list which includes a new Virginia-class submarine, a couple of Arleigh Burke class destroyers and the Marine Corps’ first Medium Landing Ship.
The Marine Corps is also requesting funding for its helicopter fleet. But like the Navy and the NGAD, the Marines are also delaying spending on some unmanned programs in favor of maintaining readiness.
United States Coast Guard
Staying on the water, the United States Coast Guard is requesting the smallest chunk of change from Congress — just $13.8 billion. That’s less than what the Coast Guard requested in last year’s defense budget too. The Coast Guard said the money will be used to buy several new cutters and pay for upgrades to its MH-60 helicopter fleet.
United States Army
The Army is requesting $186 billion, a large portion of which will go toward personnel costs, as well as operations and maintenance. The Army is the largest and oldest of all the branches, employing more than 442,000 active duty soldiers plus another 325,000 national guardsmen and 175,000 reservists.
The Army already axed its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program, and, with the added budget constraints, announced the Extended Range Cannon Artillery program is now also dead. Although, some of the work being done on the munitions for that will continue.
The Army’s budget request includes money for more munitions, including the new Precision Strike Missile, which is replacing the ATACMS. The Army is also setting aside funds for the new Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a battlefield goggle display for foot soldiers that has been in development for years. If the next round of testing goes well, the Army wants to buy more than 3,000 units in fiscal year 25.
Now looking at the Department of the Air Force, which includes both the Air and Space Forces. The Air Force is requesting $188 billion. Space Force is asking for $29 billion from the defense budget.
With the money, the Air Force said it can procure 90 new aircraft, including 42 F-35s, 18 F-15EXs, more than a dozen tankers, some helicopters and a handful of the new T-7A Red Hawk trainers.
However, the Air Force also wants to divest of 250 aircraft including 32 F-22s, 26 F-15Es and 56 A-10 Warthogs. In terms of munitions, the Air Force wants to buy a slew of long-range missiles and anti-ship weapons. But, somewhat surprisingly, there is no money set aside for Lockheed Martin’s ARRW hypersonic missile.
The Space Force is the smallest of the branches, but its mission is vital to the entire Defense Department due to the increase of space-based communication. To that end, the Space Force wants to spend the bulk of its budget beefing up the satellites it puts into space by making them more resilient.
The Space Force wants to increase its number of satellites as well. The service wants to fund at least 11 launches in fiscal year 25, and it’s putting a large chunk of its requested budget toward more research, development, test and evaluation activities.
All of these numbers and figures are subject to change because a lot of fiscal year 25’s spending depends on fiscal year 24’s budget, which Congress has been sitting on since 2023.
Also, in addition to paying for all of its regular bills, the Pentagon is footing the tab on some border security operations and some supplies sent over to Ukraine. Those things are supposed to be paid for by the supplemental funding bill that Congress is also still sitting on. So, in the meantime, those costs are being covered out of some services’ core budgets, which means there’s even less money to go around.
Air Force bringing back a centuries-old rank to attract cyber, IT experts
In February, the Air and Space Forces announced two dozen service-wide changes at the AFA Warfare Symposium. One change is the Air Force’s decision to bring back the “warrant officer” rank. The decision was motivated by the increasing threat of cyber attacks from China and Russia.
The rank of warrant officer is a way to recognize soldiers or sailors with extensive experience and seniority — a position earned by warrant rather than commission. This places the recipient between the commission officer and the non-commissioned officer ranks.
The practice can be traced back to medieval England, finding its way into the Royal Navy in the 1500s. The rank of warrant officers found its way into the American military as well, where it still exists today — except for in the Air Force. The Air Force phased out the position in the late 1950s, with the last active duty warrant officer retiring in 1980.
“We’re gonna engage in developing a warrant officer program specifically for cyber and IT professionals to be able to ensure that we have that technical talent now and into the future,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Alvin said.
Now, 44 years later, Air Force leadership is bringing the rank back as a way of attracting people with specialized skills who want to serve, but hadn’t considered doing so previously.
“There’s something specific about this career field, why it’s attractive and it’s a nice match for a warrant officer program,” Alvin said. “The pace of change of the cyber world, the coding world, software world, it is so rapidly advancing. We need those airmen to be on the cutting edge and stay on the cutting edge, so we’re gonna pursue that, all those in the area of developing our people.”
What was previously an arms race has been shifted into the digital world.
“Both China and Russia are actively developing and fielding more advanced capabilities designed to defeat U.S. power projection,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. “The need for modernization against capable, well-resourced strategic adversaries never stops.”
I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage
But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion
And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank
The threat of international cyber attacks is also concerning people not in uniform. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voiced his concerns after a nationwide outage of AT&T’s services.
“I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage,” Rubio posted. “But I do know it will be 100 times worse when China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a Taiwan invasion. And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank.”
Air Force leaders are working to find ways from preventing those types of attacks from happening. As threats from countries with vast resources grow, the leaders are also looking for ways to expand and strengthen defenses.
“So it gets back to how do we maintain our competitive advantage,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Joanne Bass said. “Airmen and guardians want different pathways to serve, and we are in a organization that we’ve got to keep some of our technical expertise, deep technical expertise, and that’s all we need them to focus on.”
It is unclear when the reintroduction will occur, however, the rank of warrant officers comes with more status and higher pay.
“We want to retain people, particularly enlisted who might go out into the commercial world now instead of staying in the Air Force,” Kendall said. “So we’re gonna give them a little more pay, a little more status, and let them do what they want to do. So hopefully that’ll be helpful for retention.”
Air and Space Forces gearing up for future threats: Weapons and Warfare
In this episode of Weapons and Warfare, the Air and Space Forces are making changes to improve their readiness in the face of constantly evolving threats from around the world. Senior leadership is giving service members a glimpse into the direction each branch is headed.
Also featured in this episode:
A timeline for the delivery of F-16 Fighting Falcons to Ukraine.
The Navy commissions its newest ship in San Diego.
Houthi rebels claim victory in the downing of a U.S. Reaper drone.
An engineer from the Air Force Research Laboratory explains how nature served as inspiration for the MUTANT — this week’s weapon of the week.
You can subscribe to the Weapons and Warfare podcast on the platform of your choosing here.
Congress is holding Air and Space Forces back: Weapons and Warfare
In this episode of Weapons and Warfare, Ryan Robertson hits the road and reports from the AFA Warfare Symposium in Colorado. Robertson examines how Congress’ failure to pass a new budget is holding back the Air and Space Forces’ ability to adapt and keep pace with threats from around the world.
Also featured in this episode:
The top boss of the Air Force Special Operations Command weighs in on the grounding of the V-22 Osprey.
Leaders within NATO admit they underestimated Russia’s ability to conduct and continue its war on Ukraine.
America has a new fighter ace as one U.S. Marine Corps pilot is rising to the occasion in the skies over the Red Sea.