These Are The Five Big Decisions Now Facing The Pentagon

Wikipedia

Robert Farley, National Interest: 5 BIG Decisions That Will Decide the U.S. Military's Fate

"The United States no longer has the luxury to make the procurement mistakes that it has enjoyed over the past two decades."

Over the next decade, the United States has some enormous decisions to make about the future of its military establishment. The technological and resource advantages that the United States had enjoyed since the end of the Cold War are waning, narrowing the margin of error for the U.S. military.

These decisions go beyond questions of military necessity; they require a level of national deliberation that has become sorely lacking. The post-Cold War glow, followed by the desperate efforts to piece together victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, have made long-range procurement planning difficult, and have put off big decisions that need to happen as part of a national conversation, rather than a technocratic debate between the Pentagon and the services.

Here are five of the biggest decisions that the Pentagon, and by extension the nation, faces over the course of the next decade.

WNU Editor: I would add two more .... (1) modernizing America's nuclear forces, and (2) how many aircraft carriers should that the U.S. Navy have.