The Defense Budget: Is It Transformational?
Abstract
In the Presidential campaign of 2000, George Bush often addressed the need to transform the Armed Forces. Once elected, he gave military transformation a central role in defense strategy. The administration presented its defense budget for fiscal year 2003 after 12 months of review. Did that budget support transformation? The initial reaction is mixed. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, which has been vocal in advocating transformation, registered its disappointment: "[The] new defense plan appears very similar to the defense plan this administration inherited...Perhaps most questionable is the administration's decision to continue to move ahead with three new tactical fighter programs...Likewise, the Crusader artillery system seems inconsistent with the goal of having an Army that is light enough to rapidly deploy." Some other supporters of modernization were more encouraged. The Lexington Institute was optimistic in part because it did not take the DoD budget as a break with the past: "Last year's trendy buzzword for what new management at the Pentagon would mean was 'transformation.' In the end they made the right choice, fully funding all three [tactical fighter] programs...Even the Army's widely criticized Crusader howitzer program...turned out to be a major improvement necessary for the conduct of future land warfare. A critical fight over military transformation did not occur with the development of the FY03 budget. It will unfold over the next 5 to 10 years as the services acquire the next generation of materiel as well as the doctrine and organization to operationalize them. To ensure that those future decisions actually transform the military, innovative technologies must become sufficiently mature, political and military leadership must foster innovation, and national security strategy must support a new approach to warfighting. The current defense budget certainly takes those steps. This is the path to transformation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA483754
Entities
People
- David L. Norquist
Organizations
- House of Representatives