Army Special Forces headcount: No Mas
An article in yesterday’s Army Times discussed Lt. Gen. John Mulholland‘s latest plans for U.S. Army’s special operations forces. An excerpt from the article:
“I’m not particularly interested in growing Army special operations forces any bigger than it is today,” said Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Army special operations forces are expected to finish their currently planned growth by 2017 and at that point, “we’ll be pretty well postured,” Mulholland said.
This is partly because growing Army SOF force structure comes at the expense of the larger Army, the three-star told a Sept. 21 conference hosted by the Institute for Defense & Government Advancement.
“I don’t think you’ll see SOF growth across the force, not just in the Army,” Mulholland said.
It seems as if it is not just the Marine Corps that is complaining about how SOF recruiting drains the best NCOs from the general purpose forces.
The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review sets a goal of fielding about 660 special operations teams across the entire SOF community.
The article goes on to detail by region the current worldwide distribution of Army Special Forces manning and missions.
