The nation’s mine infrastructure is facing a historic nearly-40 plus year period of neglect and under-investment since the end of the Cold War. This decay also includes industrial capacity, explosives, training, infrastructure, ships and personnel.
The Navy has struggled over the past quarter century to implement changes in a challenging budget environment. The evidence of struggle is clear.
Through the decades, as the U.S. military has expanded its range of capabilities, Naval Oceanography has become the Department of Defense’s premier environmental situational awareness provider.
The future of the Arctic and its stability depend on how effectively the U.S. can depict battlespace awareness in the region. Well-equipped sensors and novel computing methods and artificial intelligence will allow the United States and its allies to reach that goal.
The Arctic is the next frontier for U.S. military operations, where the physical environment poses a major threat to achieving strategic dominance, managing assets and ensuring freedom of the seas.
There is a big mismatch between the Biden administration’s new National Defense Strategy and its push for forces to be equipped for global campaigning and the current projections for the U.S. Navy. The conventional manned fleet, the combat logistics force and the developing unmanned side of the Navy all need additional support to meet the NDS’s campaigning requirements.
The sea services and wider Biden administration ought to take a page out of our international peers’ and rivals’ books.
It’s time to scrap the U.S. armed forces. If you just spewed your Cheerios across the breakfast table, I should clarify. I’m not suggesting we abandon the military, beat our swords into ploughshares and become pacifists. But it’s time to overhaul how the nation organizes the military services by unifying the service departments into one warfighting component — the United States Defense Forces.
