Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1993
Fiscal year (FY) 1993 was a year of challenges and transition for the U.S. Army. In the wake of the end of the Cold War, the service struggled to maintain its readiness while redefining itself for future operations. "America's Army," as Army Chief of Staff (CSA) General Gordon R. Sullivan referred to it, was in the midst of reducing its end strength from approximately 611,000 to 572,000 during the course of the fiscal year, as well as experiencing the strains of a changing institution. In the post-Cold War era, the Army was still feeling the impact of having been through a 25 percent cut in the size of the active force; a one-third reduction in the number of major combat units through the inactivation of one corps and four divisions; and the closure of eighty-two installations and the realignment of another twelve under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) directives. After nearly five decades, the Army was also reducing its presence in Germany, cutting back on the forces that we re once part of its frontline defenses. A soldier returning to Germany in FY 1993 after a five-year absence would immediately notice the changes. Since 1989 one of the Army's two Europe-based corps had fought a war in Southwest Asia and then returned to Germany for inactivation. Other divisions and units that had spent years in Germany were also inactivated or returned to the United States, while hundreds of installations that had served as Americans' home away from home were vacated and returned to the host nation.
One of the Army's greatest challenges during the fiscal year concerned the continued transition from a forward-deployed force to a power-projection force, keeping most forces in the continental United States and relying on increased strategic air and sea lift assets to rapidly move units to trouble spots. The Army reexamined where its forces were stationed and moved them to posts with access to the best transportation and training facilities. The reduced need for military installations also brought another round of base closures for the service to manage.
As Army end strength continued to decline in FY 1993, operational deployments remained on the rise. Army soldiers were engaged in a variety of missions that included nation building, counterdrug activities, and
disaster and humanitarian relief. The Army termed these missions operations other than war (OOTW), since Army soldiers were not actively engaged in hostile actions. There were at least 20,000 soldiers deployed overseas on more than 1,000 operational missions during the fiscal year. These deployments represented a 100 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. On 17 January 1993, for example, the 10th Mountain Division (Fort Drum, New York) and supporting units were on a peace-making mission in Somalia, while a reinforced battalion task force from the 1st Cavalry Division (Fort Hood, Texas) deployed to Kuwait in two days to meet a possible threat from Iraq.
In March 1993 John W. Shannon, the Acting Secretary of the Army, and General Sullivan issued the Army's annual posture statement, which outlined the Army's goals to maintain a "strategic force capable of decisive victory." The posture statement proclaimed the service's commitment to training and readiness for its active, reserve, and civilian components in support of being prepared to deploy anywhere in the world to accomplish national interests with complete success. To achieve these goals, the Army increased its efficiency. For instance, the creation of the provisional position of Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management (ACSIM) streamlined control of Army facilities to raise the quality of life on installations and thereby improve productivity, aid retention, and increase combat readiness. Along these lines, the Army developed the Installation Status Report during the fiscal year as a means for the Chief of Staff to monitor the fitness of the Army's existing infrastructure. Army leaders also benefited from the ongoing development of automation programs, including the Army Tactical Command and Control System (ATCCS), a comprehensive approach to automating Army command and control systems with improved communications. The modern-day Louisiana Maneuvers (LAM), which enabled Army leaders to seek new approaches to solving Army-wide problems such as battlefield digitization, continued. During the fiscal year the Army also revised its war-fighting doctrine, FM 100-5, Operations, to keep pace with post-Cold War changes such as force projection and participation in OOTW.
The challenges of declining budgets, a smaller force, and time spent away from training due to OOTW deployments pressed the Army to maximize the quality of training at every level of the training base. During the fiscal year the Army continued to reorganize the training support structure and to introduce new training to active and reserve component units. For example, the Total Army Training Strategy was an important measure intended to provide enhanced collective and institutional training support to the Total Army.
In an effort to eradicate unnecessary obstacles to service and increase readiness, the Army expanded opportunities for women in FY 1993. A
change in Department of Defense policy expanded the role of women in the military. In response to guidance from the Secretary of Defense to the services to open more specialties and assignment opportunities to women, the Army opened more than 9,000 new positions to women in combat aviation assignments during the fiscal year and examined opening additional positions in the future.
As reduced budgets and downsizing presented Army leaders with difficult choices during the fiscal year, the service maintained important modernization programs such as the RAH-66 armed reconnaissance helicopter, the Advanced Field Artillery System, and the Javelin missile system. Funding for procuring new equipment, however, was down 27 percent from FY 1991 levels, and some systems, such as the Javelin, were funded only for low-rate initial production.
The Army's medical research programs and the Corps of Engineers civil works programs continued to benefit the nation in FY 1993. Army medical research programs made advances in developing antibiotics and blood plasma proteins that may one day assist civilians injured in accidents or violent crime. Army medical researchers also investigated diseases that threatened public health and discovered a new means to fight malaria. Corps of Engineers civil works programs were instrumental in protecting lives and property during the 1993 floods, and new projects begun in FY 1993 can be expected to provide more benefits in the future.
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Last updated 30 October 2003