Army leaders need to show their ‘homework’ for transformation plans, lawmakers say
“You chose to give us a plan with few details, with no budgeting and a failure to answer a lot of our questions, and now [I’m] hearing about how this plan will be implemented from my own constituents, not from leadership,” said Rep. Eric Sorensen.
Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy George join “Fox and Friends” to discuss the new Department of Defense memorandum on Army transformation and acquisition reform, at the Pentagon, Washington, DC, May 1, 2025. (DoD/US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)
WASHINGTON — Members of the House Armed Services Committee delivered a bipartisan message to senior Army leadership today: They need a much clearer picture of the Army’s plans for the new transformation shakeup.
“We need to see your homework,” Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said during a hearing on Capitol Hill. “Overall, this significance should be based on thorough assessment of requirements, and it should include a detailed blueprint of the specific changes being proposed and how the Army plans to implement them.
“We need those assessments and blueprints … We also need you to provide us a timeline for implementing ATI [Army Transformation Initiative],” he added.
It’s been just over a month since the service began unveiling a massive overhaul of its force structure and cuts to a slew of legacy and newer weapons under the ATI umbrella. Details about just what this means have been coming out in drips and drabs since then, prompting Rogers to prod Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George for more details today, while also calling the plan “encouraging.”
And he wasn’t alone.
The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., also applauded service leaders for diving into that very difficult subject of force structure and weapons cuts, but said the “devil’s in the details” and those details are needed.
Driscoll explained that the Army is rolling out the ATI changes that it can right now (think force structure) but not yet halting the weapon buys lawmakers greenlit in the fiscal 2025 continuing resolution. Those ATI directed program cuts (i.e., M10 Booker, Robotic Combat Vehicle, Maneuver Support Vessel-Light and more) will only be reflected when the White House delivers a comprehensive FY26 budget request for the Pentagon. Lawmakers will then have to approve the program cuts if and when they pass a spending bill and associated authorization one.
But, Driscoll warned, ATI cuts won’t stop there.
“The way that we envision ATI, and how we have described it throughout the formations, is this will be an iterative process. … There will be no one date where everything with our first batch of ATI will be completed,” the newly minted secretary added. “We will be hopefully doing what the best companies in America do, and learning as we go.”
While lawmakers wait for those details to emerge when the FY26 budget request is submitted, Army leaders may continue hearing about a broad swath of ATI concerns, many which extend to uncertainty about how the workforce will be hit in various districts.
Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., for example, voiced concerns about how the shakeup will impact Rock Island Arsenal with the proposed merger of Army Sustainment Command and the Joint Munitions Command.
“I am frustrated by how the Army has decided to roll out this Army Transformation Initiative,” Sorensen said today. “It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle that we’re on here. We all want to make sure that the Army is lethal [and] it is ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
“However, you chose to give us a plan with few details, with no budgeting and a failure to answer a lot of our questions, and now [I’m] hearing about how this plan will be implemented from my own constituents, not from leadership.”
Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, also spoke out against plans to get rid of the 1st Assault Helicopter Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment within the Army Reserve’s 11th Theater Aviation Command. The unit operates UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and has been used in disaster relief efforts, including hurricanes.
“[Lawmakers] can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy. And you’ve come into my house, where I was born and raised, in this county, and you’re taking something away from me, and I want to know why,” Luttrell told the two leaders.
