America's military is unchallenged because of the quality of its people and because the American defense industrial base provides them with the weapons, systems and equipment that is ahead of anything a potential enemy could field.
But that equipment lead is in danger. "Today, America's defense industrial base [is] at a pivotal moment," Hicks said. "The COVID pandemic revealed how fragile and brittle supply chains have become. The war in Ukraine has revealed how nation-state aggression is a real threat requiring information age ingenuity and industrial era capacity. And the need to modernize and stay ahead of our pacing challenge reveals how the [defense industrial base] has been affected by decades of yo-yo dieting, inconsistent funding and blinkered demand signals."
Spotlight: Support for Ukraine
The Pentagon, Congress and the industrial base must work together to deliver combat-credible capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale to deter aggression and win if called on to fight. "But the truth is the engines of production never spin up from zero to 60 overnight," Hicks said.
When Ronald Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989, the Soviet Union was the threat and America could tolerate years and decades-long equipment timelines because the Soviets, the pacing challenge of the 1980s, were relatively slow and lumbering. "However, this is not the Cold War or the post-Cold War era," she said. "With [China], we are in a persistent generational competition for advantage, and we have to double down with urgency and confidence. That's why the Biden-Harris administration's focus on American innovation, manufacturing and production has been so important for national security, because our military strength depends in part on our overall economic strength here at home."
#MavenScouts #SpeedOfRevelance #NationalSecurity #Innovation
