Dave Majumdar
As rival powers rise to challenge the United States, the Pentagon is faced with the problem of how to face down a spectrum of challenges that range from nuclear deterrence, to high-end conventional wars to the low-end counterinsurgency fights. The United States military has to be able to do all three of those things at the same time, but the question for the Pentagon is how.
“This is our problem statement,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told an audience at the Association of the U.S. Army Exposition on Oct. 9. “How to maintain a safe and secure nuclear deterrent and maintain a decisive conventional force that can also fight irregular warfare.”
The Defense Department is taking a three-pronged approach to the problem.
“First, everything we must do must contribute to the increased lethality of our military,” Mattis said. “We must never lose sight of the fact that we have no God-given right to victory on the battlefield... Even as our competitive edge over our foes and adversaries decreases due to budgetary confusion in this town and the budget caps, I am among the majority in this country that believes our nation can afford survival. And I want the Congress back in the driver's seat of budget decisions, not in the spectator's seat of automatic cuts.”
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-military-needs-be-ready-wage-3-very-different-types-22666
