Opinion: The military-industrial-congressional complex is holding our national security back
By David Ignatius David Ignatius Columnist covering foreign affairs Email Bio Follow Columnist March 14 at 7:31 PM Sen. Mark R. Warner is all for defense modernization. But just don’t touch those aircraft carriers, six of which are based in Norfolk.
The 2020 budget, shaped by acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan, does propose some important changes. Spending for space programs would increase about 15 percent, and funding for cyberprograms would rise 10 percent. Yes, the Navy wants to add two new carriers while dropping the Truman, but it also proposes to build two big drone warships and some unmanned subs. The Army plans to cut or reduce 93 outmoded programs for vehicles, weapons and helicopters to make room for modernization.
Some high-tech spending involves classic Pentagon log-rolling among the military services. Take, for example, “hypersonic” weapons, the bright shiny objects that will be streaking across Pentagon skies. The 2020 budget proposes to increase spending on hypersonic weapons to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion but gives the Army, Navy and Air Force their own hypersonic systems .
“Often, it’s the future that ends up without a chair when the music stops,” said Brose. He now works for a start-up company called Anduril Industries that wants to be a disrupter. It has built a system that uses artificial intelligence to fuse sensors and drones to solve defense problems, such as perimeter security at military bases or along the border, more effectively and cheaply than conventional systems. The Pentagon seems interested, but Congress will have the final say.
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