Commentary
The current appropriation for the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Defense budget is capped at $892.5 billion, the largest ever. However, with the worldwide arson campaign of the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. Military is finding itself outpaced significantly by China in many important metrics such as shipbuilding, nuclear forces, cyber, and others. The U.S. Navy is firing missiles at a rapid rate to keep open the Red Sea, but their ships are rusting and behind on maintenance.
Congress is now working on a $150 billion immediate supplemental for the DOD which will bring it to over $1 trillion in spending, another first. The threat of the Chinese led alliance of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and South Africa is real and being projected right to the beaches of America with Chinese fighting age males making boat runs into Florida from their forward staging bases in the Bahamas and Chinese and Russian Bombers conducting regular patrols on the West Coast of the U.S. The increase in defense spending is badly needed – but there needs to be Inspector General and Congressional vigilance to ensure the large budget increases are used judiciously to build capability and lethality not slothful bureaucracy.
Getting the priorities straight
To properly receive, manage, and project these staggering sums of money, the defense priorities must be clearly communicated. The good news is that the 12 lines of effort for the supplemental are relatively clearly stated. Here they are with some editorial:
Servicemember quality of life: About $9 billion will go toward barracks construction, health care and assistance to military families. Well past due, the DOD bases are looking dumpy, worn, and unkept. DOD has been squeezed in the Base Construction and Maintenance accounts since 2010. Too much time has been spent on DEI and CRT classes, not enough on basic housekeeping of base infrastructure.
Shipbuilding: This will include the purchase of warships and additional funds for the maritime industrial base, including the domestic production of key components and workforce development efforts. It also includes a “historic” investment in unmanned ships. Very Very sorely needed. The four U.S. Government yards look like 1940s backlots. New shipyards are being proposed that can be built as “greenfield” new start facilities that are state of the art. China’s capacity is 200x greater than America’s output. Other than that, everything has been going great.
Golden Dome: Congress will make “significant investments” in interceptors, space assets and counter-drone technology that will contribute to Trump’s goal of establishing a missile shield for the US homeland. The American homeland is largely defenseless against ballistic missiles, aircraft, cruise missiles, and drones. China knows this and is challenging the greatly weakened air defense of America. 2024’s very successful defense against massed Iranian strikes on Israel showed that Reagan’s vision of missile defense works. It must be layered and take care of all forms of threats.
Munitions: These funds will focus on building up the stockpiles of munitions most needed in a fight against China and also includes investments in the solid rocket motor supply chain and measures needed to implement the White House executive order on critical minerals. The U.S. Navy has used and continues to burn through ammunition at a dizzying pace in the Middle East. The Houthi conflict is in many ways a proxy conflict by China, intended to exhaust the American ammunition reserves.
Nuclear deterrence: This will include spending meant to speed up the modernization of the nuclear triad “as well as new capabilities,”. The Obama/Biden cult of surrender let the nuclear force atrophy into a very poor state. They fought the simple and logical move to re-attached nuclear warheads to Tomahawk cruise missiles on submarines and surface ships in the U.S. Navy to provide greater theater deterrence. The joint Chinese/Russian/Iranian/North Korean nuclear weapons count is likely double the American strategic count of roughly 1,400 nuclear warheads.
Scaling innovation: These funds are meant to push funds toward defense technology startups who have demonstrated they are ready to start building their products at scale. A great vision – passionate follow through is needed and the DOD Acquisition System is not just broken, but destructive to innovation. Companies like Anduril are attempting to turn the whole model upside down by being innovators of new capabilities as opposed to being a “Defense Contractor” who shakes down the Government for funds to develop what the Government thinks it needs.
Readiness: Congress will put money toward depot maintenance for Air Force and Navy aircraft and ships, as well as address certain capability gaps for the Army, Marine Corps, National Guard and special operations community. Maintenance and logistics is everything! The American Military had developed maintenance and logistics into a legendary art form, unparalleled in history. And then it collapsed with bizarre ideology such as DEI that was corrosive and toxic to these tenets because only white males focus on maintenance and logistics. The tanks, ships, and aircraft will somehow provision and fix themselves. That model does not work.
Air Superiority: This will include additional funding for the Air Force and Navy’s sixth-generation fighter programs, existing fighter force structure, and will prevent some planned aircraft retirements. The Air Force had developed a brilliant “High-Low” mix of the F-15 and F-16 aircraft from lessons learned in Vietnam. This was an incredible duo. The F-22 and F-35 were to be the follow on “High-Low” mix. A paltry number of F-22s were purchased and the F-35 showed up decades late throwing many of the lessons learned out the window. No bubble canopy for maximum pilot vision, gun absent in two of the three versions, and carriage of missiles minimized in the stealth mode, and so on. Colonel John Boyd, creator of the “OODA Loop” would not be happy. The F-35 is software with wings. Promising capability, but vulnerable to cyber bugs.
Deterrence in the Pacific: This spending is meant to deter Chinese action against Taiwan and help pay for unfunded priorities for US Indo-Pacific Command. Much needed, the theme is now Disperse, Harden, and Camouflage. It has taken almost two decade for this to take hold inside DOD planning culture. Too many of the U.S. Forces are still postured in a December 6, 1941, mindset. Aircraft and ships wingtip to wingtip, very convenient for a Chinese first strike.
Border security: This will help pay bills incurred as the Defense Department augments the border security mission. Border Security is National Security. The Border must be militarized. The situation is now so bad inside Mexico that it has become a sanctuary for Chinese led Mexican Drug Cartels to safely plan and provision their deadly mayhem inside of America. Venezuela and the Bahamas are additional footprints of Chinese led training and logistics, right in Americas front yard. The first step is to make the entire border secure, then selectively make exemplar strike at the worst of the worst examples right across the border to teach an important life lesson.
Pentagon audit: Congress will make a “significant one-time investment” meant to speed up the timeline for the Defense Department to pass an audit. If the Pentagon were a private corporation, it would have had its leadership arrested under Sarbanes Oxley, twenty years ago. Basic cost accounting is needed at the Pentagon, DOGE is the tip of the spear at finally making this happen, despite the best efforts of the E-Ring Swamp Monsters.
Military intelligence and classified programs: This line of effort is classified. If I told you, I would have to…
Make America Great Again includes transforming the U.S. Military into the most lethal and capable force in the world. A massive re-capitalization of almost everything is needed, but extreme vigilance is needed to make sure the increase in budget is not squandered into the pervasive inefficiency, ideology, and behavior that has ensured America can’t deter conflict, only manage it to an indecisive outcome once it starts, which unfortunately has been the model since World War II.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization
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