The U.S. Army plans to ask the acting defense secretary, Robert Salesses, to eliminate a Pentagon office that was created to reduce harm to civilians in conflict areas.
A memo dated Jan. 20 asks offices within the service to prepare a request for senior Army leaders to review no later than Feb. 21. It would call for the defense secretary to relieve the Army of its responsibility for the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and then ask Congress to abolish it.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the memo, which was signed by Lt. Gen. Laura A. Potter, the director of the Army staff, and described earlier by The Washington Post.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III formally established the civilian protection office about a year and a half ago, following work by his predecessors under the first Trump administration, Mark T. Esper and James N. Mattis, to study how the military could reduce the harms to civilians in war.
Mr. Mattis began that effort in response to a 2017 Times report on the many civilians who had been killed by U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
The center employs about 30 people, according to a defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe its functions. That team works with nearly 170 service members and civilians spread across the military’s combatant commands, which carry out operations around the world, the official said, adding that it was unclear whether the Army or Pentagon leadership would try to eliminate those positions as well.
With an operating budget of $7 million, the official said, it is the smallest “center of excellence” in the Army, and it directly supports planning for operations such as airstrikes in Yemen as well as analysis of those strikes.
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