APG Announces Cuts to Military Force

Aberdeen Proving Ground will cut more than 100 positions as part of the national reduction in military personnel, according to a statement the installation released Friday morning.

The proving ground will cut 126 Army positions, the statement said. More cuts, involving civilian personnel, may be coming this fall.

“What is important to remember is these reductions are designed to maintain the proper balance between structure, readiness and modernization,” APG Senior Commander Maj. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford said in the statement.

In all, the Department of Defense is shedding 40,000 military personnel and 17,000 civilian employees by mid-2016.

“Budget constraints are forcing us to reduce the total Army,” Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson said in a statement Thursday. “These were very difficult decisions to make as all of our installations and their communities offer tremendous value to our Army and the nation. In the end, we had to make decisions based on a number of strategic factors, to include readiness impacts, mission command and cost.”

Recommendations on how many civilian positions will be cut at Aberdeen Proving Ground will likely come in late September or early October, according to officials.

“We anticipate that the majority of the Department of the Army Civilian reductions will be absorbed through attrition and positions that are currently unfilled,” Crawford said. “The analysis of installation impacts for civilian reductions is ongoing.”

While most installations across the country were advised to cut personnel, the Department of Defense directed one local military base—Fort Meade—to add 99 positions in the next year, increasing its Army workforce by 2 percent; it currently has 4,924 Army positions and will have 5,023 by mid-2016, according to Army Times.

Aberdeen Proving Ground’s reduction will impact approximately 5 percent of its Army population, which is 2,614 and will be 2,488 by mid-2016, Army Times reported.

According to the U.S. Army, the most-impacted installations—where more than 1,000 soldiers will be cut—are Fort Benning in Georgia (3,402 soldiers); Fort Hood in Texas (3,350 soldiers); Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska; (2,631); Lewis-McChord in Washington (1,251); Schofield Barracks in Hawaii (1,214); and Fort Bliss in Texas (1,219).

Army officials say if sequestration continues without a change, there will be further reductions by 2019.