US ground forces have difficulty recruiting personnel. This is stated in the report of the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the United States.

“It is difficult for the US Army to ensure even a small increase in the size of its forces due to problems with staffing. In fiscal 2019, funds were allocated to 478 thousand regular troops, in fiscal 2020 this figure increased to 480 thousand, but did not reach the planned mark of 492 thousand. In fiscal 2020, the number of reserve troops remains essentially unchanged, ” according to the report of the center, the text of which was reviewed by RT.

The document notes that in the light of problems with staffing and maintaining the number of personnel, regular and reserve ground forces are forced to revise their plans in the direction of reduction.

“The plans for fiscal year 2019 contained calls for an increase in the number of military personnel to 1,040,000 by fiscal year 2023 ... In fiscal year 2020, the final strength of all components of the US army will be 1,005,500, and by 2024 it will grow to only 1,016,500 “Thus, in the 2020s, the size of the US army will be at a level comparable to the period preceding its increase after the September 11 tragedy,” the report says.

The army reserve and the US National Guard are also experiencing similar difficulties, center analysts add.

“The US Army reserve planned to increase its strength to 200 thousand troops, and the US National Guard to 343 thousand. Instead, they both have difficulty maintaining their strength at the level of the final indicator for fiscal year 2019,” the document says.

  • American soldier
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  • © The US Army

Overweight and criminal record

It is worth noting that other American expert organizations have repeatedly attracted attention to the situation with a shortage of personnel in the US ground forces. So, in 2018, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Thomas Spor, who is the head of the defense of the Heritage Foundation's analytical fund, noted that the country's armed forces would be in an unenviable position if they could not achieve the necessary goals for staffing.

“We in our armed forces need a constant influx of volunteers. And if we don’t have people who meet certain requirements, our armed forces will suffer, ”Spore noted in an interview with ABC News.

In his interview, Spore emphasized that in 59% of cases, young people cannot serve in the army due to health problems, including obesity.

“Over the past ten years, these statistics have gone up, Americans have become much more obese and overweight. About ten years ago there were only two states where one third of Americans suffered from obesity. Now there are thirty such states, ”the retired general and military expert explained.

In 2018, the RAND Corporation conducted a study among 18 thousand military personnel of all branches and types of US troops, during which it turned out that 66% of them were overweight or obese.

Another major problem is the lack of education. About 25% of young people are screened out at the selection stage, because they do not have a secondary education or a diploma of general education, as required by service in the US Armed Forces.

Another 10% cannot serve due to problems with the law and criminal record. Thomas Spore noted that there is a real struggle between the U.S. Armed Forces and American companies that require labor for the criminally accused young people with secondary education. Despite the benefits package offered to potential recruits by the U.S. Department of Defense, volunteering is not easy for the Pentagon.

“They should not only be fit for service, they must voluntarily join the ranks of the military,” said Thomas Spore in an interview with ABC.

Recall that for most of the twentieth century, the American army was manned according to the draft principle. However, growing dissatisfaction with the US participation in the Vietnam War and the fighting in Cambodia led to large-scale anti-war protests, one of the results of which was the abolition of draft in the army in 1973. The last member of the US Armed Forces called up for military service was fired due to reaching retirement age in 2011.

The head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, Alexander Mikhailov, recalled that the American army is one of the largest employers in the country. In his opinion, the shortage of military personnel is associated exclusively with the ineffective actions of the Pentagon.

“In the USA there is no draft as such, the army is being completed on a contract basis, which makes the armed forces one of the largest employers in the country's labor market. The effectiveness of attracting new recruits to the army does not depend on patriotism or the growth of the economic well-being of American citizens, but solely on the effectiveness of the Pentagon, ”he said in an interview with RT.

  • US Armed Forces
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  • © The US Army

A matter of prestige

Despite the high level of salaries, the image and popularity of the American army inside the country leaves much to be desired, experts say. They attribute this state of affairs to the protracted wars in the Middle East.

“Americans can’t boast of any kind of precise, surgical, beautifully held military action. Usually they work clumsily, bombarded everything with air bombs, then rockets, then they begin to clean up. This is not to say that the Americans show a high class of military knowledge, as we observe from exacerbations in the Middle East. Too many victims among the civilian population, too ambiguous work of special forces on the ground, ”the expert said.

A similar point of view is shared by the head of the Center for Military-Political Studies of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Batyuk.

“Service in any army that does not win, but suffers defeats, can hardly be prestigious. Throughout the 21st century, the United States has not won a single war. The war in Afghanistan, which has become the longest in US history, is lost. As, however, is the war in Iraq, ”he said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, the expert emphasized that the total number of those soldiers and officers whom the American command could throw into battle is still very impressive. However, this is not enough for global dominance, he believes.

“Apparently, this number is not enough to ensure America’s global presence in all theaters of operations important from the point of view of official Washington. And this is beginning to seriously concern the US military-political leadership, ”Batyuk noted.

If necessary, any decisive action can suddenly be taken, a shortage of forces, means and well-trained servicemen may be revealed, Batyuk noted. He suggested that this could be one of the reasons for the indecisive actions of the United States in relation to Venezuela.

“When John Bolton was standing on the podium and holding a notepad with a clearly visible note“ to transfer five thousand soldiers to Colombia ”, this was done specifically so that everyone would see it. But the problem is that the Americans have nothing to transfer either to Colombia or to another Latin American country. The southern command, which is responsible for this region, does not have combat-ready units at its disposal, ”the analyst said.

According to him, such a situation could become a serious problem for Washington in the event of a serious military-political crisis.

“At present, the Americans simply do not have such a reserve, which could be raised at any time by alarm and transferred to anywhere in the world. It really can become a serious problem in the event of a sharp aggravation of the international situation, ”Batyuk concluded.