The 5 Most Cost Effective Investments in Defense Trump Should Take Now
Dan Goure
Security, United States
Here are the five most cost effective near-term investments that the incoming administration should make.
President-elect Trump has made it clear he intends to rebuild a U.S. military that has been underfunded and overextended. He wants to improve both the military’s capacity – adding 75,000 soldiers back into the Army, increasing the number of Marine Corps infantry battalions and building more Navy ships – and capability – providing, for example, hundreds of additional modern fighters to the Air Force. He also wants to take on the waste that is inherent in any large, complex system with more than 3 million uniformed and civilian “employees” and spending nearly $2 billion a day.
There are lots to do for a military that has been at war for 15 years. Where should the new President and his national security team put their focus? The immediate problem is to shore up deterrence. President Trump’s ability to protect the American people and their homeland from attack, secure vital economic and political interests overseas and establish satisfactory relationships with countries such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran will depend, in large part, on the credibility of U.S. military forces. Simply put, if competitors, prospective adversaries and so-called crazy states believe that no military options exist by which they can achieve their objectives, their only choice will be negotiations and compromise.
The problem is that the U.S. has spent nearly two decades investing in capabilities for counter insurgency but not for other types of conflict. This made sense at the time; the prospects for state-on-state conflicts seemed to have diminished significantly while violent jihadists were threatening to conquer entire countries. The U.S. military overall and our Special Forces, in particular, are really good at counter-terrorism, both technologically and operationally. But we underinvested in high-end conventional and strategic capabilities.
At the same time others, including potential adversaries, have been investing in advanced military capabilities, both quantity and quality. U.S. technological advantages are fast eroding. Russian ground and air forces pose a formidable challenge to U.S. and NATO forces in Europe. China is investing in air and sea power to, at a minimum, dominate the Western Pacific. Terrorist groups such as ISIS are operating advanced Russian anti-tank guided missiles that can kill our M-1 Abrams and Hezbollah may have as many as 100,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel.
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