Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a retired U.S. Army Green Beret and chairman of the subcommittee on readiness, said he was "stunned and appalled" over reports the Department of Defense is considering making cuts to the Army's special operations forces.
Military officials have previously raised the prospect of such a personnel decision, though the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Army will cut about 3,000 troops, roughly 10% of its ranks, and will inform Capitol Hill of its plans in the coming days.
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The reported cuts would apply mostly to troops in support roles like psychological warfare, civil affairs, intelligence operators, communications troops, and logistics.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth acknowledged this week that "there's some room to make some very modest targeted reductions there" because “the Army is in a moment of transformation where we are really pivoting from [counterinsurgency] and [counterterrorism] to large-scale combat operations: So, we’ve got to transform our force structure,” according to Breaking Defense.
She and Gen. Randy George, the chief of staff of the Army, are expected to brief lawmakers on force structure changes in the near future, though some have already shared their skepticism.
“I am stunned and appalled by reports indicating the U.S. Army will cut 3,000 troops from its special operations ranks as a means to manage their worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam War," Waltz said in a statement on Thursday. "The Secretary of the Army is trying to claim she’s only cutting support troops like intelligence analysts, psychological operations troops, and logistics personnel. In reality, these support troops are critical to our special operators success in remote locations in 60-70 countries on any given day all over the world."
Last month, Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) expressed a similar sentiment, saying he was "very concerned" about how a possible reduction in special operation forces could hamper the United States's competition with China.
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“I'm very concerned about the pacing threat of China simultaneously with the reduction of SOF. When you look at the things that would deter China, SOF are on the tip of the spear. And so I think that the more we invest in our special operations, problems that ultimately could harm our nation over the next decade or two could be prevented,” he said, per Defense One. “It’s unclear that this administration understands the value of SOF. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be proposing cuts.”
“There’s been no decisions made,” George told lawmakers in July during his confirmation hearing regarding possible cuts.