Army may temporarily boost troop size

The Army may add as many as 30,000 soldiers to its ranks temporarily as it struggles to reconcile commitments around the globe with plans to become a lighter, more agile force, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker said Wednesday.

"There is no question that the Army is stressed," Schoomaker told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Schoomaker said increasing the size of the Army by up to 30,000 troops on a temporary basis would fill a gap until the service completes a transformation effort. But he said the Army can't afford to permanently add more troops at a cost of $1.2 billion per 10,000 soldiers.

The Army is already operating at about 11,000 soldiers above its allotted active-duty size of 480,000 troops. Army leaders can temporarily increase the size of the force by issuing stop-loss orders preventing personnel from leaving the ranks for up to 90 days before or after a deployment. Since the Vietnam War, the Army has invoked such orders to handle unforeseen operations and address shortfalls in specialized fields.

Schoomaker said the Army ultimately should be able to scale back as it becomes more efficient through restructuring. For example, he said, by converting 10,000 military support jobs to civilian positions, the service would free up slots for positions in areas that are chronically understaffed, such as civil affairs, military police and transportation units.

Additionally, Schoomaker said, revamping the Army Reserve by reducing the number of headquarters positions would allow for better use of reserve personnel in combat and combat support positions.

Schoomaker told lawmakers that permanently adding uniformed personnel is too expensive and would divert resources from transformation efforts, which include billions of dollars in spending for buying new, more lethal fighting vehicles.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who has introduced legislation to increase the size of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force by 8 percent, said stop-loss orders are "masking" the fact that the military does not have enough troops to meet its commitments. She argued that the Defense Department could scale back some of its weapons programs, such as development of a national missile defense system, to pay for more troops.