HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday expressed support for the Army’s termination of a program that assessed the branch’s leadership selection process.
He shared on social media platform X an image of a report about the Command Assessment Program’s cancelation, captioning the post, “Good riddance.”
“Promotions across @DeptofDefense will ONLY be based on merit & performance,” Hegseth wrote.
The Internet Archive, an organization that publishes what it calls a “digital library” of internet sites, has a January memo on the Command Assessment Program from former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. She said the program uses objective assessments to identify, assess and select leaders for command and key leadership positions in the branch.
“For the past 5 years, CAP has successfully demonstrated itself to be a critical component of the Army’s centralized selection process that identifies, assesses, and selects the most qualified and ready commanders, command sergeants major, and leaders at the battalion and brigade level and in other key leadership positions,” Wormuth noted.
She added that the Army’s assistant secretary would review the branch’s leadership selection process and its impacts to officer retention. The assessment would involve an examination of demographic trends from before and after the program was implemented, according to Wormuth.
Army Public Affairs said in an article published on the branch’s website in January the Command Assessment Program helped reveal how qualified and “ready” leaders are selected.
“As we face an increasingly complex and unpredictable global security environment, it is more important than ever that we select and develop the most qualified Soldiers to lead our formations,” Army Public Affairs noted.
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