PILLAR III: PRESERVE PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH Priority Actions M O D E R N IZ ATIO N : The United States must retain a ready force that is capable of protecting the homeland while defending U.S. interests. Readiness requires a renewed focus on training, logistics, and maintenance. We must be able to get to a theater in time to shape events quickly. This will require a resilient forward posture and agile global mobility forces. IMPROVE READINESS: Ensuring that the U.S. military can defeat our adversaries requires weapon systems that clearly overmatch theirs in lethality. Where possible, we must improve existing systems to maximize returns on prior investments. In other areas we should seek new capabilities that create clear advan- RETAIN A FULL-SPECTRUM FORCE: tages for ou r m ilita r y wh ile The Joint Force must remain capable of deterring and defeatadversa r ies. We must elim iing the full range of threats to the domestic manufacturing nate bureaucratic impediments United States. The Department sector, a solid defense to innovation and embrace less of Defense must develop new expensive and time-intensive industrial base, and operational concepts and capacommercial off-the-shelf solubilities to win without assured resilient supply chains tions. Departments and agendominance in air, maritime, is a national priority. cies must work with industry to la nd , space, a nd cyberspace experiment, prototype, and rapdom a i n s, i nclud i ng aga i n st idly field new capabilities that those operating below the level can be easily upgraded as new of conventional military contechnologies come online. flict. We must sustain our competence in irregular warfare, which requires planning for a longACQUISITION: The United States will pursue new term, rather than ad hoc, fight against terrorist approaches to acquisition to make better deals networks and other irregular threats. on behalf of the American people that avoid posing costly dilemmas for our Support for a vibrant cost overruns, eliminate bloated bureaucracies, and stop unnecessary delays so that we can Defense Industrial Base put the right equipment into the hands of our A healthy defense industrial base is a critical element of U.S. power and the National Security Innovation Base. The ability of the military to surge in response to an emergency depends on our Nation’s ability to produce needed parts and systems, healthy and secure supply chains, and a skilled U.S. workforce. The erosion of American manufacturing over the last two decades, however, has had a negative impact on these capabilities and threatens to undermine the ability of U.S. manufacturers to meet national security requirements. Today, we rely on single domestic sources for some products and foreign supply chains for others, and we face the possibility of not being able to produce specialized components for forces. We must harness innovative technologies that are being developed outside of the traditional defense industrial base. CAPACITY: The size of our force matters. To deter conf lict and, if deterrence fails, to win in war, the Nation must be able to f ield forces capable of operating in sufficient scale and for ample duration to defeat enemies, consolidate military gains, and achieve sustainable outcomes that protect the American people and our vital interests. The United States must reverse recent decisions to reduce the size of the Joint Force a nd grow the force wh ile modern izing a nd ensuring readiness. 29