The Government Accountability Office, in a just released report on DOD’s management of military force structure, suggests that one way the Pentagon could provide more personnel to meet Army needs is to “reassign and retrain available personnel for high-demand Army skills” from within the Army and within the other services. (The other services are already providing what is termed “in lieu of” troops to supplement the Army.) And, the report notes that Joint Forces Command has identified “over 200,000 reservists from all the services’ reserve components” that “could be potentially available” for such retraining. GAO does point out, though, that this maneuver would shortchange missions of the other services, not to mention playing havoc with service-specific training and recruiting and retention. No kidding.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
