Military Spending in a Resourced-Constrained Environment

Abstract

The current financial crisis represents the greatest threat to national security. As such, the Department of Defense must be prepared to curtail spending across the board to include altering plans for the acquisition of major weapons systems. According to current strategic documents to include the National Security Strategy, the Quadrennial Defense Review and the National Military Strategy, the rationale for investing in such materiel is predicated on assumptions and assessments that are no longer applicable in today's and tomorrow's multi-nodal environment. The DOD must rebalance its procurement portfolio to address threats across the spectrum of operations more adequately. Instead of focusing spending on the conventional end, more attention should be paid to non-conventional threats in the form of investment in technologies and materiel that more directly confronts such adversaries. Failure to do so jeopardizes the ability to respond to existential threats effectively and exacerbates an already precarious economic situation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 25, 2011
Accession Number
ADA547459

Entities

People

  • David H. Tabor

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Investments
  • Military Budgets
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Security
  • Tactical Aircraft
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Strategic Security Studies