The Association of the U.S. Army is urging Congress to swiftly pass the national security supplemental to support the Army while investing in America’s defense industrial base.
Efforts to attract high-achieving college students to serve in U.S. government national security jobs often fail because the hiring process does not favor new blood, according to a new report from the nonprofit Center for a New American Security.
The hiring process can take more than two years—a long stretch for someone who has just completed a degree and is looking for their first full-time job.
Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, the Defense Intelligence Agency director who is soon to retire, told a Senate committee that the world has dramatically changed during his 39 years of Army service.
“In 1984, it was a bipolar world,” he said. “The United States and our partners [were] in a Cold War with the USSR,” he said, speaking of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that formed in 1922 in the aftermath of the Russian revolution to combine 15 republics into a one-party state. It was the world’s largest country until its fall in 1991.
The White House’s 2022 National Security Strategy prioritizes force modernization, an endorsement of the Army’s multiyear transformation initiatives.
“A combat-credible military is the foundation of deterrence and America’s ability to prevail in conflict,” the strategy says. “We will modernize the joint force to be lethal, resilient, sustainable, survivable, agile, and responsive, prioritizing operational concepts and updated warfighting capabilities.”
National resilience requires close cooperation between the Department of Homeland Security, DoD and the Army, experts said Oct. 12 at a forum held during the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Exposition.
“Our country is no longer a safe haven for those who want to do us harm,” said Lt. Gen. A.C. Roper Jr., deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command. Building national resiliency is national defense, he said, noting potential adversaries have been watching as the U.S. responds to disasters and are ready to react if given a chance.
Climate change and the accompanying reduction in drinking water will pose a serious risk to national security by 2040 unless mitigating action is taken, an Army Corps of Engineers environmental engineer warned during a webinar hosted by the Army Futures Command’s Mad Scientist program.
DoD is committed to developing the right people, priorities and purpose of mission as it continues to defend the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says in a March 4 message to the force.
In the three-page memo, Austin outlines his top priorities: defending the nation, taking care of people, and succeeding through teamwork. Accomplishing these goals will require “aligning our priorities and capabilities to a changing and dynamic threat landscape,” he writes.
Interim national security guidance from President Joe Biden heavily focuses on closely working with allies and partners and “renewing our own enduring sources of national strength.”
The Biden administration’s pick to be deputy defense secretary warned a Senate committee to prepare for tighter military budgets.
Kathleen Hicks, a former Pentagon official who most recently was senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, would be the first woman in U.S. history to serve in the second highest DoD post. She would serve under Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general who is the first Black person to lead the Pentagon.
Fearing that the White House and Congress are headed for a budgetary stalemate, the acting defense secretary warned lawmakers of the potential harm.
“No enemy in the field has done more damage to our military’s combat readiness in years past than sequestration and budget instability,” Patrick M. Shanahan told the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense. Shanahan has been acting secretary of defense since Jan. 1.
