The Acting SecDef certainly comes across as a short-termer here, and not too coherent, either, but his candor is refreshing. https://twitter.com/nancyayoussef/status/1350168583943430144

“[W]e have to come out of the mindset of the Cold War... big units, big high-dollar weapons systems... [W]e need to start paying attention.... [A]t NORTHCOM... since they don’t get a lot of money, guess where they put their emphasis?  What’s between your ears.”

“...the information environment, domain awareness, using commercial stuff.... public-private partnership. That’s the future...”

“But still, it’s like no, we need to buy this many more…and those programs, you see them.  Trillions of dollars over the course of…I’m like, come on.  So I still think we have a hangover on a lot of that…high tech, very expensive weapons systems.”

Re: the F-35: “that investment, for…that capability, that we’re never supposed to use, ‘well, we have to deter, blah blah bluh blah…’ Are we fifth generation?... ‘well we need to invest in the sixth generation’ ...we have created a monster, but you know that.”

In that context, his comments about the professionalism of the Russian defense establishment, which does more with less, make sense.

DOD spends an astounding amount of money, certainly, but it’s hard to say what results. It’s tempting to see a version of the “resource curse” at work.

For all the assertions that “deterrence is eroding,” there’s no good way of measuring that, short of an actual failure of deterrence. Yet we have huge problems at home that continue to fester. Perhaps more of our energies might go there. (End)