Hegseth: Pentagon must return to long-term planning against strategic adversaries
In a Pentagon town hall, new defense secretary vowed to make longer-term plans, deploy tech faster, and have fewer flag officers and smaller staffs.
Patrick Tucker | February 9, 2025 07:28 PM ET
Pentagon Defense Department Strategy
Autocracies like China and Russia have at least one advantage the United States does not, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday in a Pentagon town hall: They can make plans far into the future to change the global balance of power in their favor.
It’s time for the United States, and particularly the Defense Department, to do the same, he said.
“They have the convenience of planning without…the pesky people problem of voting and ballots. They can plan 15, 20 years and then drive that plan without consequence to their own population, which does have strategic advantages,” he said of China and Russia. “I think you're going to see a defense strategy coming out of our office that tries to look that far down the line…and rapidly field and look at systems that are not about congressional districts or budget line items.”
The Defense Department has undertaken long-term strategic planning before. During the Cold War, U.S. defense strategy was shaped by long-term planning documents like NSC 68, a top-secret 1950 report presented to President Harry S. Truman, and Project Solarium, a 1953 strategic exercise aimed at evaluating and formulating U.S. policies to counter the Soviet Union. These efforts, often spanning 10 to 20 years, provided the foundation for key policies such as the "New Look" doctrine, which emphasized nuclear deterrence through projects like the hydrogen bomb, and sustained investment in U.S. alliances to counter Soviet influence across the globe. The thinking was big-picture, and the time horizon was long.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/02/hegseth-defense-department-must-return-long-term-planning-against-strategic-adversaries/402858/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
