REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

For over two hundred years, the United States Army has served the nation in peace and in war. It is truly America's Army -- a Total Force consisting of the active Army, the Army National Guard, the Army Reserve, and civilian employees. It is the world's premier land combat force, trained and ready to answer the nation's call. The primary mission of our Army remains what it has always been -- to fight and win the nation's wars. But the Army is also called on to perform a number of other important missions -- from peacetime engagement, to preventing conflict, to providing humanitarian assistance. Whether conducting operations in support of national security policy, participating in joint and combined training exercises, or stationed overseas, American soldiers are the nation's standard bearers throughout the world. Committing the Army commits the nation. Soldiers on the ground are our nation's strongest signal of resolve and are the ultimate expression of American will.

The Army has changed significantly and must continue to change to meet the challenges of the post-Cold War world. It is now a power projection army, based largely in the United States. It is smaller, more versatile, and more deployable. It remains a highly skilled and professional Army, serving the nation in a challenging time. It is an indispensable component of the national security strategy of engagement and enlargement, forms the strategic core of joint military operations, and is essential to deterring or defeating an adversary.

SERVING THE NATION

The 1990s have seen a significant increase in the number of missions that the Army performs in support of the national security strategy. This increased demand accentuates the flexibility and importance of the Army in an ever-changing global environment. In the world today, ground forces are required to meet the requirements of engagement and enlargement.

Wars are won on the ground -- history has confirmed this time and again. The Army contributes to the nation's ability to force a decision by providing unique capabilities to conduct sustained land combat. Our superior land combat force, logistical sustainability, communications, intelligence, and special operations forces capabilities are critical in war and essential to win the peace. The nation needs the Army to compel enemies, deter potential foes, reassure and lend stability to our allies, and in times of emergency, lend support to our communities at home.

When all else fails, the Army compels adversaries to yield to our nation's will through the conduct of sustained, high tempo land warfare under all conditions -- day and night. This was demonstrated in operations to compel Noriega to leave Panama, Saddam Hussein to depart from Kuwait, and the military junta to leave Haiti. Success was assured because of the multiple capabilities built into a force that allows the nation to commit it, without reservation, into any situation.

The Army deters others from actions hostile to our nation's interests. Forward deployed Army forces provide continuous presence and represent U.S. commitment to our allies. They are our nation's strongest deterrent. American troops have deterred aggression in Europe and Korea for over 50 years. Today, the Army's ability to project power continues to deter aggression around the world. Trained, ready, sustainable, and rapidly deployable forces guarantee that aggression will be costly to potential adversaries. The deployments to Kuwait of over 6,000 soldiers in 1994 and 3,500 soldiers in 1996 were a compelling deterrent to Iraqi aggression.

The Army reassures friends and allies. American soldiers are a visible symbol of U.S. commitment to stand firm against any external threat to their sovereignty. The demand for Army forces is increasing -- the majority of forces for missions to which America has committed its military resources since Operation Desert Storm have been Army. In the recent past, our deployment of Patriot missiles to Korea reassured Korean allies, and the deployment of forces to Haiti stabilized the political situation and provided time for democratic development. The almost 20,000 soldiers deployed to Bosnia professionally and firmly implemented the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Accords. Through the military-to-military contact program, the Army is taking an active role in the democratization of former Soviet and Eastern Bloc nations. The Army also continues to reassure allies in Kuwait, the Sinai, Macedonia, the border region of Ecuador and Peru, and in over 65 other countries around the world.

Finally, the Army supports communities throughout the United States. For decades, the Army has provided military support to civil authorities during natural disasters, civil disturbances, and other emergencies requiring humanitarian assistance. American soldiers provided logistical and security assistance to the Olympic Games in Atlanta; provided relief supplies, logistical support, and other equipment in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran; assisted local authorities in fighting fires in the West; and aided flood victims in the South, Midwest, and Northwest. Today, the Army continues to contribute to the counterdrug activities of international, federal, state, and local drug law enforcement agencies at home and abroad.

ARMY PRIORITIES: READINESS, MODERNIZATION, QUALITY OF LIFE

The Army's primary mission is to fight and win the nation's wars. In the post-Cold War world, the Army has also performed a number of other important missions -- from peacetime engagement, to conflict prevention, to humanitarian assistance. The enormous importance of the Army's varied and wide-ranging missions and the limited resources that are available require careful consideration to the Army's priorities -- readiness, modernization, and quality of life.

Readiness

The Army's highest priority is to maintain a trained and ready force. When a crisis arises, the President will not ask if the Army is ready. He will assume, and rightly so, that the Army is ready to secure the nation's interests, wherever and whenever needed. Tough, realistic, mission-focused training and high quality people ensure the Army is a force capable of decisive results in any endeavor.

America's Army maintains a steadfast commitment to quality training. It is one of the Army's greatest strengths. Our training system remains a model for other armies, particularly for new and developing democracies. The Army meets training readiness objectives primarily through home station training reinforced with quality training at combat training centers. These training centers provide the richest unit training by virtue of a professional staff, opposing forces, battlefield instrumentation, and feedback to participating units. The Army also participates in numerous joint and combined training exercises to enhance its ability to operate as a member of the joint team with the other Services and coalition forces. As committed as the Army is to quality training, it is also mindful of its environmental stewardship to protect the land, air, and water entrusted to it by the American people.

The Army also is investing in simulators and simulations to enhance training and produce more capable units in the future. Through an initiative called Future Army Schools -- 21st Century, the Army is establishing a Total Army School System with fully integrated active Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve schools. The Army is leveraging information age technology in its distance learning program. This program allows the Army to deliver training and education to widely dispersed geographical areas where and when needed. Each component is expanding efforts to reduce duplication, share information and resources, and make tough decisions on necessary organizational change.

High quality people are absolutely imperative to maintaining a trained and ready army. They are the defining characteristic of a quality force and are the overarching requirement for America's Army. Peacekeeping operations, disaster relief, humanitarian missions, and other military operations require soldiers who are skilled, well-trained, and well-led. They must be capable of adapting to complex, dangerous, and ever-changing situations throughout the world, often while operating in small groups, in remote locations, and in ambiguous situations.

We continue to enjoy success in attracting and retaining high quality recruits. Today's soldiers are the best educated and well disciplined in our history. We are meeting our recruiting goals in the active Army, in terms of both quantity and quality. However, success is not easy in the recruiting business. The active Army recruiting mission continues to steadily increase as the drawdown concludes and we begin to replace losses one-for-one -- from 63,000 in FY 1995 to 73,000 in 1996 and approximately 90,000 in 1997. We have added 350 noncommissioned officers to the active recruiting force since 1994. That increase provides the force needed to meet the continuing challenge. Increased funding for advertising also has produced significant results over the past two years. Our latest Youth Attitude Tracking Study shows an increased awareness among youth of the Army's opportunities. We will continue to succeed only with adequate funding and with the tenacity of our dedicated force of recruiters.

Sustaining the force is also a critical element of readiness and is necessary to achieve the intended objectives of any operation. Providing the needed fuel, ammunition, food, supplies, repair parts, medical support, repair of equipment, life support activities, transportation, and other aspects of support are crucial to the effectiveness, morale, welfare, and continued readiness of our force. It requires an extensive, complex, yet effective infrastructure to acquire, manage, store, move, and distribute the required materiel and services. Initiatives to modernize the Army's logistics infrastructure, such as Total Asset Visibility and Velocity Management, have provided more efficient and responsive support, while producing substantial savings. They will continue to challenge us as new technologies and concepts evolve.

Modernization

Modernization is a continuous process essential to ensuring the Army is capable of successfully responding to our nation's needs today and in the future. Modernization permits the Army to meet requirements with a more capable and versatile force. The Army faces tremendous opportunities and significant challenges as the 21st century rapidly approaches. Our modernization challenge is to leverage new technology to maximize our greatest asset -- the American soldier. We must employ information age technology at every level and modernize our equipment to provide the technological overmatch needed to obtain rapid, decisive victory.

In order to achieve the level of modernization required to ensure our soldiers are adequately equipped, the Army must fund modernization more robustly. We are taking prudent steps to recapitalize our procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation accounts. We are achieving savings for reinvestment through acquisition reform efficiencies, by reducing infrastructure through careful and deliberate privatization, and through more efficient ways of doing business.

The Army's modernization program makes the best use of available resources. Our strategy is to balance capabilities to ensure a force capable of dominance across the full spectrum of military operations. Our modernization program is designed to ensure the Army retains the warfighting capabilities required to accomplish assigned missions and to maintain the ability to fight and win with minimum casualties as an integral part of a joint or combined team. The nation needs a modernized, flexible, and responsive force prepared to execute a wide range of military operations against diverse threats.

Because modernization dollars are limited, we are buying a limited number of new, high payoff weapons while extending the lives and capabilities of many existing systems. We will also retire some older, expensive-to-maintain systems that provide minimal return in combat capability. Upgrading proven weapons by adding information technology will increase capabilities and lengthen the lives of our weapon systems. Still, the Army will eventually reach the point where additional product improvement of today's systems will provide only marginal benefits. Therefore, in the out-years of the Future Years Defense Program, we are programming the resources necessary to achieve decisive battlefield dominance.

The Army's modernization program continues the flight test program and development of the reconnaissance mission equipment for the Comanche helicopter and funds most of the demonstration and validation phase on the Crusader field artillery system. The program also continues improvements and upgrades to the Abrams tank, the Apache helicopter, the Bradley fighting vehicle, tactical and theater-level missile defense programs, and other systems that are essential to digitization of the battlefield. It also provides procurement funds for the family of medium tactical vehicles, which will modernize the Army's aging medium truck fleet.

Quality of Life

Quality of life for both married and single soldiers is a top priority of the Army. It is an extremely important factor in ensuring we attract and retain quality soldiers. Quality of life, more than any other single factor, influences a soldier's decision to reenlist or leave the Army. We are committed to ensuring our soldiers receive adequate pay, retirement benefits, health care, housing, family support, commissaries, and the prospect of a full and rewarding career.

The quality of life of family members also is important. Sixty-six percent of the Army's soldiers are married. As the Army deploys units more frequently, Army families must be prepared to deal with the stress and uncertainty that deployment brings. Through the Army Family Action Plan -- a bottom-up process beginning with family symposia at the installation level and extending to the most senior Army leaders -- the Army addresses quality of life issues and improves services to soldiers and their families.

Quality housing is another important example of our commitment to sustaining a suitable quality of life. The Army has increased funding for both family housing and barracks programs. We are focusing our efforts on investing in essential, high-payoff facilities. The Army's Barracks Program will transform barracks into single soldier communities that meet the design standard agreed upon by all the Services -- a net living area of 118 square feet. The goal of our Army Family Housing Upgrade Program is to renovate family quarters on a 35-year cycle, while reducing recurring maintenance, energy consumption, and inconvenience to occupants.

Well-managed quality of life programs are critical to ensuring that the Army continues to attract and retain the quality people necessary to maintain a quality Army. A standard of living comparable to that found in civilian life is directly linked to successful mission accomplishment. The Army is committed to the continued improvement and enhancement of its quality of life programs.

THE 21ST CENTURY

America's Army is ready today and preparing for tomorrow. We are building the Army of 2010 today -- Army XXI. But even as we build Army XXI, we have begun to anticipate changes beyond the year 2010 to provide the Army leadership with a long-term view of warfare in the next century.

The information age is upon us, and the Army is acting to take full advantage of digital technology. Our 21st century Army must be prepared to conduct quick, decisive, highly sophisticated operations. The Army will integrate emerging information technology with sound doctrine, reinvented organizations, and quality people to make a smaller force more lethal, more survivable, more versatile, and more deployable.

We are transforming an industrial age army into an information age army that will possess the capabilities America will need in the next century. By integrating information technologies with the weapons of today and tomorrow, leaders will be able to act on real-time information and near real-time intelligence. The capability to integrate all elements of combat power faster than an opponent will allow America's Army to overmatch any adversary and ensure decisive victory.

While retaining and improving the programs that have successfully built today's ready force, the Army is fundamentally changing the way it does business as it prepares for the future. The Army is at the forefront in implementing the National Performance Review principles and initiatives. These allow the testing of new and innovative ways of doing business. The Army has institutionalized a quality approach to managing change. We are redesigning the Department of the Army headquarters and major Army commands by reexamining the way they function. We will divest the Army of those functions not absolutely essential, and reallocate resources to support our core capabilities.

The Army also is making fundamental changes in the way it develops, acquires, and fields new capabilities. Acquisition reform enables us to leverage resources, thereby creating significant savings needed for developing our 21st century Army. We have fostered significant acquisition successes by streamlining and reengineering our acquisition programs. Our dedication to real, lasting reform is reflected in our training program. We have trained over 5,000 personnel through our acquisition training seminars and are developing career path training programs for Army acquisition personnel.

CONCLUSION

The tasks America asks of the Army are more complex and more diverse than at any time in the past, but the expectation is and will remain the same -- be ready to fight and win, to control the land, to force a decision. Warfare in the future will not be remote, bloodless, sterile, or risk free. It will still be war, and ultimately, wars are won by soldiers on the ground. Today's Army is trained and ready to deliver decisive victory across the full spectrum of military operations. Simultaneously, we are looking to and planning for the 21st century. As it has for over two centuries, the Army is and will remain ready to answer the nation's call.

/signed/ Togo D. West, Jr. Secretary of the Army