The current growth plan for the U.S. Army is not sufficient, according to service secretary Pete Geren, and the service will either have to increase numbers or shrink demand if it is to be successful.

Geren enumerated challenges facing the Army for an audience at the Center for National Policy Nov. 18. Properly sizing the Army was at the top of his list, which also included full spectrum readiness, better preparing Guard and Reserve components for operations, improving and streamlining contracting and acquisitions and family support.

Growing

"We're growing the U.S. Army, but is it enough? If demand stays the same, the answer is no," Geren said. Determining the right end strength for the Army begins with a "realistic" Quadrennial Defense Review and a national security strategy, he added.

The challenge to full spectrum readiness is the element of time, Geren said. "Whatever slice of the spectrum we choose to neglect over a period of time, our enemy will exploit," he said. When soldiers are averaging only 12 months at home between deployments, there isn't enough time to properly train them for anything other than their own jobs. "We have a mission-essential task," he said. "We only have time to get ready for what we're going to do next." Until the Army can achieve a dwell time of 18 to 24 months home for its soldiers, "we can't prepare properly," he said.

Geren pointed to the current acquisitions model as successful for peacetime or Cold War operations, "but in today's war, with a nimble enemy, the program-of-record model is too slow." He proposed accepting more risk into programs and being comfortable with what may sometimes end up being a so-called 80 percent solution.

"There's a certain risk that comes from responding to an urgent need urgently," Geren said. "We have to be able to accept an 80 percent solution if the urgency in the theater requires it."