Latest news with #RandyGeorge
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Army Reserve Is Gutting Aviation Units. Thousands of Soldiers Are Being Left in the Lurch.
Thousands of Army Reserve soldiers are being forced to scramble for new assignments after the service abruptly ordered the dismantling of its helicopter units, a sweeping move that has caught commanders off guard and upended aviation operations across the country. The cuts, which are set to eliminate all of the reserve's helicopter units by the end of the summer, are part of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George's broader push to modernize the force by shedding legacy formations and redirecting resources toward emerging technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence. But the transition has left troops questioning both the pace and planning of the changes. spoke with 16 Army Reserve aviators, including commanders and senior noncommissioned officers, who expressed frustration with what they described as a chaotic and poorly communicated rollout. All requested anonymity, citing concerns about retaliation, as they were not authorized to speak publicly. Read Next: Air Force Rebrands Facebook Page to Combat Rumors, Leaked Memos and Reddit Threads "There was no heads-up, no briefing," said one senior noncommissioned officer. "Just an email saying aviation's going away and we need to find somewhere else to go." News began trickling out within the aviation community's inner circle in February when Brig. Gen. Roger Deon, the head of Army Reserve Aviation Command, began meeting with commanders to give them a warning that the Pentagon had its sights on Army Reserve aviation for cuts, multiple senior officers with direct knowledge described. The plan to cut all of the component's aviation didn't materialize until May, and that information took longer to reach the rank and file. "That's whirlwind-fast for government work," one aviator noted, expressing frustrations with the rapid closure of units. Some reserve aviation units are now working to find alternative roles for their pilots and full-time personnel, including potential placements with federal agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Opportunities within the National Guard or the active-duty Army are limited and often require relocation, adding another layer of complexity for service members and their families. For junior enlisted soldiers and part-time reservists in support roles such as mechanics, crew chiefs and administrative staff, the road ahead is even more complicated. Transferring into a new unit or occupational specialty can take months of retraining, a process that can be especially burdensome for reservists balancing military obligations with full-time civilian jobs or college coursework. "There was no time to plan," one senior reserve aviator told "This was all put on us to just figure out; there's been no support on this." It's unclear how many soldiers will be affected. Maj. William Allred, an Army Reserve spokesperson, declined to say, noting operational security. However, the number of soldiers in formations is routinely publicized information. "While the soldiers in the Army Reserve Aviation Command will be impacted by the cuts, they will have the opportunity to continue their military service in other units where their skills can be utilized," Allred said in a statement to Army Reserve aviation as a whole includes about 4,600 soldiers, including some fixed-wing aircraft formations, though helicopter units make up the lion's share of the force, with units in California, Washington state, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey and Kentucky. Changing components isn't easy. Parts of National Guard service may also be less attractive to reservists, some of those soldiers explained. The reserve often compensates troops for travel and hotels during their weekend duty obligations, a perk that is absent in the National Guard -- much to the chagrin of reservists who have been interviewed and are looking to switch components. And Guard service often carries heavier demands. The component is routinely tapped for both overseas deployments and domestic missions, including disaster relief, border security and civil unrest response, duties that can sometimes be a greater burden on part-time soldiers compared to their reserve counterparts. Acquiring federal benefits is also more complicated. The Army Reserve has not yet developed a comprehensive plan for soldiers to exit their contracts, but if they join the National Guard, they may also be required to repay generous enlistment bonuses of up to $20,000. The Army Reserve declined to comment on questions related to bonuses. "We were told if we received a bonus, we'd have to pay it back," one enlisted soldier said. Unlike their active-duty counterparts, reservists can't easily pivot to new units, particularly in large states or places with significant geographical gaps between units. Many people balance civilian jobs and family obligations, making relocation nearly impossible. Others have highly specialized skills -- such as air medical -- that are now disappearing. Some units are scrambling to land spots in the National Guard, with upcoming weekend drills hosting recruiters, but that option comes with limited slots and often requires troops to sign new multi-year contracts. "It's mostly been on our own accord, [to] find a new home, to figure it out," another soldier noted. Meanwhile, lawmakers in both parties are growing increasingly frustrated with the Army's disjointed rollout of major force structure changes, criticizing what they see as a lack of transparency and strategic coherence. While there's broad agreement on Capitol Hill that the service needs to modernize and move beyond a doctrinal framework that's remained largely unchanged for decades, many say the Army has failed to articulate its plans clearly. Several Capitol Hill aides expressed concerns to that there is a perception reforms are being implemented in an ad hoc and overly hasty manner, leaving Congress in the dark. One of the units on the chopping block is the 1st Assault Helicopter Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, a Texas-based formation with a record of responding to domestic emergencies, including relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey in 2017. "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," Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, told George and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll during a budget hearing last month. Related: Decades of Troubles for Air Force Maintainers Set to Get Worse with Job Consolidation Solve the daily Crossword
CNBC
17-06-2025
- Automotive
- CNBC
Gen. George on the Army's push into new tech
CNBC's Morgan Brennan speaks exclusively with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George about his plans for rolling out new technology like autonomous Infantry Squad Vehicles and hundreds of drones to make the Army more effective and lethal than ever before.
CNBC
16-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
How the Army is cutting costs and rethinking policy to move faster on new tech
In western Louisiana, a Black Hawk helicopter ride away from the Fort Johnson military base, sits a vast complex of wilderness that the U.S. Army uses to train soldiers for combat. The expanse, what the Joint Readiness Training Center's calls the "Box," stretches 242,000 acres. It was there that the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division recently completed a two-week rotation and that the service's top military official, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, paid servicemembers a visit. "We immerse our units in the training that's here. We have a professional opposing force that also has the latest technology, and this is where we learn, adapt and transform," George told CNBC. "This is our fourth brigade that we have basically brought through here and we are completely changing the technology that they're using, how they're organized, and then how they operate." The 1st Brigade is a new type of military unit: a "transformation in contact" (TIC) brigade. The Army stood up the concept a year ago, and this one represents the most modern to date, equipped with artificial intelligence-enabled platforms, SpaceX Starlink internet connectivity, retrofitted autonomous vehicles and nearly 400 drones. "What makes this one unique is the scale," said Trevor Voelkel, commander of the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team. "The technology has improved, and we're trying to maintain pace with that." George, whose military career spans four decades, said the Army is on the cusp of a "paradigm shift," ushered in by TIC brigades. Last month, America's oldest military branch unveiled the Army Transformation Initiative in what is expected to be its biggest restructuring in at least a generation. Greenlit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and spearheaded by both George and his civilian counterpart, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, the initiative enables the Army to trim some jobs and reposition others. It also calls for shifting more defense dollars to products that can be made quickly and cheaply as battlefields become more autonomous and as "exquisite weapons systems" like tanks and aircraft that cost millions to make have proven to be vulnerable to drone strikes. Part of the reimaging is an effort to expand beyond the rigid, years-long acquisition process that has defined defense procurement and helped perpetuate legacy programs — whether services like the Army want to continue investing in them or not. "We know our formations want to move faster, and we are trying to get the whole system to move much more rapidly," said George. "A big part of that is stop buying the things that we know are not going to be as effective on the battlefield so that we can infuse our formations with the things that really will be." Army leadership has talked about improvements to bureaucratic processes for years, but it's been slow going. What makes this initiative potentially different is an extended continuing resolution coupled with a flurry of presidential executive orders — and the existence of the Department of Government Efficiency that could help a deeper cultural shift take root. "There's just so much change happening inside the Army, inside the [Defense] Department that wouldn't have been possible a couple years ago," said Katherine Boyle, a general partner at investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, who cofounded the firm's American Dynamism practice and has invested in startups like Anduril. "To see that culture of change, and that culture of DOGE-ing oneself, of cuts, of making sure that you're spending money in the right way, of innovation really hitting different agencies, I think, it's in some ways very hopeful for people who are building new technologies who want to work with the government," Boyle said in a recent interview with CNBC. In the Box, the TIC brigade soldiers were supplied with 40 new technologies from 10 different companies — many of them not traditional defense contractors. Engineers and executives from the companies were embedded alongside the soldiers to troubleshoot issues and ensure changes could be communicated back to production lines in real time. Take Skydio, the largest commercial drone maker outside of China, which sells products to the Army. Its drone wasn't flying the full range advertised during testing in the Box. "We were able to discover that it wasn't some crazy electromagnetic issue. It was actually an issue in the settings where the drone was set on low power," said Mark Valentine, president of Skydio's global government business. "So instead of going through weeks of trying to understand how that happened, within 24 hours, we were able to identify the default setting was low power, set it on high power, and that solved the problem." Then there's the example of autonomous vehicles. The Army has a fleet of 100,000 Humvees acquired and sustained over decades. The service needs new capabilities, and General Motors is manufacturing new infantry squad vehicles (ISV) based off a modified Chevy Colorado. Driscoll asked why commercial self-driving tech couldn't be adapted for military vehicles, and in 10 days startup Applied Intuition had retrofitted a GM ISV to be autonomous and to the Box it went, according to Applied Intuition cofounder and CEO Qasar Younis. "I think we can move faster than we are," George said. "Our troops can handle the move. They can go fast and so what we've got to do is break down all the bureaucracy … to make sure that we're moving at the speed that we need to for them." "Nobody's still using the VCR. We don't need to continue to buy a VCR just because somebody sells it," he said. "We need to have the latest technology that's on the battlefield."
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'This would make great TV': How Donald Trump got the parade he wanted
In June 2024, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and his aides were at a Virginia military base where the service was putting on one of its live-action shows for kids and families. The event -- a decades-long tradition known as the "Twilight Tattoo" -- was a spectacle. Soldiers from ceremonial units reenact the history of the Army, complete with Revolutionary War garb, music, theatrical vignettes and military pageantry, all meant to serve as a kind of salute to Army soldiers and their families. George and his top communications adviser, Col. Dave Butler, were attending with several media executives, when one of them leaned over. "This would make great television," the executive said, according to Butler. MORE: Democrats slam military parade as Trump's multimillion-dollar 'birthday party' George and his staff had already been talking about how to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday. Maybe, they thought, the National Park Service would let them host one of their live-action shows on the National Mall, the officials thought. After President Donald Trump took office and the June 14 birthday was getting closer, the Army began to toss around more ideas. One idea was to add tanks or other iconic Army equipment to an exhibit parked on the National Mall where tourists could learn about the Army's history of fighting the nation's wars. MORE: Trump warns 'any' protesters at military parade will be 'met with heavy force' Butler said he doesn't remember who first broached the idea of turning the Army's show into a parade. But once the idea was floated, no one seemed to push back. By June, the Army had a plan of what they would include: 6,700 soldiers, 150 vehicles, including dozens of tanks, 50 aircraft flying overhead including World War II-era planes and high-tech weaponry like rocket launchers. Trump, a former media executive himself, seemed game to the idea. One official involved in the planning described it like "knocking on an unlocked door." "We wanted to reintroduce this nation's Army to the American people," Butler said. "To do that, we thought we needed to be in their living rooms and on their phones. We needed something that would catch the national eye." MORE: What to know about 'No Kings Day' protests across US to counter Trump's military parade As the Army prepares for its birthday parade in downtown Washington on Saturday, not everyone is on board. About 6 in 10 Americans say that Saturday's parade is "not a good use" of government money, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The White House has not released an estimate of the parade's cost, with only the Army's portion of moving troops and equipment expected to cost up to $45 million. Security is expected to add significantly to the price tag. Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Army veteran who deployed with the Illinois National Guard during the Iraq War, said the money would be better spent on helping troops pay for essentials like child care. "Donald Trump's birthday parade has nothing to do with celebrating the Army's 250th birthday -- it's to stroke his own ego and make taxpayers foot the bill," said Duckworth. Duckworth and other Trump critics also note a military parade is often associated with countries like Russia and North Korea, where dictators march its soldiers and equipment through their streets. Advocates are organizing protests in cities other than Washington -- dubbed the "No Kings" protests. MORE: Trump's military parade: What to know about the Army anniversary event Trump, who turns 79 on Saturday, said he wants a military parade to show how great the country is. The president first pushed the idea in 2017 after attending the Bastille Day parade and celebration in France, saying he wanted to "try and top it." That effort was canceled after price estimates topped $90 million. When asked Thursday what he hopes the public will remember about the American parade, Trump said, "How great our country is, very simple, and how strong our military is." "We have the strongest military in the world," he added. According to Army officials involved in the planning effort, including Butler, the White House helped the Army plan the birthday celebration as an event focused on the Army's service to the nation. There are no plans currently, for example, to sing the president happy birthday. The president also is not expected to speak, leaving much of the festivities to the soldiers. According to the schedule, Trump will watch the tanks and soldiers march down Constitution Avenue from a viewing stand near the White House. Toward the end of the event, he will receive a flag from a soldier who will parachute on to the White House Ellipse. After that, the president will give the oath of enlistment to some 250 soldiers. The event concludes with fireworks over the Tidal Basin. Still, there are some of Trump's fingerprints on the event. In the final days leading up to the event, the White House made an unusual request. Trump, they said, wanted the Air Force to bring its fighter jets to the Army's party. If weather allows, the Thunderbirds will now do a flyover. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly defended the move to let the Air Force participate in the Army's birthday parade. "The President wants the Army Birthday Parade to feature the strength, talent, and creativity of all our military servicemembers," she said in a statement. "The Thunderbirds flyover will inspire patriotism and awe for all who attend!" 'This would make great TV': How Donald Trump got the parade he wanted originally appeared on
Axios
11-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
U.S. Army can't "continue to buy VCRs" amid global security shift
The U.S. Army Transformation Initiative trotted out by service leaders last month is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be additional pivots, debates, cuts and media appearances. Why it matters: "The risk is in not changing," Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told Axios during an interview in his Pentagon office. "We've got to get better by 2026," he said, shrugging off longer-term ambitions like the Army of 2030 or 2040. "I think we have to be improving on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis." State of play: The changes introduced May 1 — combining Army Futures and Training and Doctrine commands, shifting to mobile brigade combat teams, axing AH-64D Apaches and M10 Bookers and more — are colloquially known as "1.0." There's "going to be 2.0 and 3.0," George said, "and that's how we need to look at it." He did not say what each iteration might comprise or target. Officials have claimed ATI will save some $48 billion over the next five years. Context: The goal is to produce a force that can shoot and kill more accurately from farther away while also being harder to detect, especially on the electromagnetic spectrum. "World events will tell you that we need to make adjustments," George said. (We spoke just days after Ukraine's surprise Spiderweb drone assault.) "We don't want to continue to buy VCRs just because that's what people are producing." Between the lines: Expect the fruits of canceled programs to be applied elsewhere.
