Military Transformation: Issues for Congress and Status of Effort

Abstract

This report assesses the status of military transformation across the Department of Defense and indicates issues of potential interest to Congress Other CRS reports focus on individual Service efforts and functional areas. This report will be updated at least annually. On September )3 1999 at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina, then Texas Governor George W. Bush made military transformation a central theme in his campaign for President. In his words "the real goal is to move beyond marginal improvements to replace existing programs with new technologies and strategies. To use this window of opportunity to skip a generation in technology." (George W. Bush. A Period of Consequences. The Citadel, South Carolina. September 23, 1999.) In% 2001, President Bush re-emphasized transformation, three months after the 9-it tragedy, adding special urgency to the effort. (George W. Bush. President Speaks on War Effort to Citadel Cadets. The Citadel, South Carolina. December ii, 2001.) Based on a changing world security environment coupled with a broader spectrum of military missions, his Administration has made transforming the Department of Defense (DOD), in particular the uniformed services, one of its priorities. The push for transformation refines and accelerates a process underway for more than a decade. Dramatic advances in technology associated with the new field of information operations has formed a common thread binding most of the individual Services efforts in recent years. Research and experimentation have contributed to the potential range of possibilities available to the 21st century warfighter. Each Service department has approached transformation with its own vision and priority has been assigned to organizing those visions with an eye toward jointness and interoperability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 14, 2003
Accession Number
ADA435541

Entities

People

  • Lloyd D. Deserisy

Organizations

  • Defense Acquisition University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Acquisition
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Information Operations
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Governments
  • Procurement
  • Security
  • South Carolina
  • Standards
  • United States Government
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • International Relations and Conflict Resolution
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Systems Analysis and Design