US Army chief says end strength will stay flat in upcoming budgets 4 days ago Gen. James McConville, left, said Army end strength will likely stay the same if budgets don t grow, but the service will do what it can to make sure numbers don t go down. (Spc. Thomas Scaggs/U.S. Army) WASHINGTON The U.S. Army chief of staff has said that if the budget top line in future years either stays the same or decreases, he doesn’t see the service’s end strength dropping, but he also doesn’t see it growing. “When it comes to what chiefs have to grapple with in a budget, it’s end strength and structure, it’s readiness, and it’s modernization. Those are the three kind of big resource buckets we have,” Gen. James McConville said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Next symposium, held virtually March 16.