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How does Bilden’s background compare to the nine men who’ve held the office of Navy Secretary since 1980? “I believe he has as much relevant experience for SECNAV as recent SECNAVs when they came into office.” said Bryan Clark, a retired Navy commander and a former aide to the Chief of Naval Operations. “Ray Mabus was a naval officer for one tour, but didn’t have much to do with the Navy and military after that until he became SECNAV. Donald Winter and Gordon England were engineers and defense business executives before entering office. Bilden’s experience and education in international 

The Trump Administration began work this week on its promise of an across-the-board enlargement of the U.S. military. The President-elect has thus far described his plan only in the broadest of terms, but those terms portend a sustained period of higher defense spending—something Congress has been unwilling to approve since it passed the Budget Control Act (BCA) in 2011. Chief among those who will shape the future of the American military is Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who waded into the debate last week with a strong, coherent outline that not only aims to restore the capacity of a significantly hollowed-out force, but also provides direction for how the force should evolve as it grows. There is a lot in this report, but we will restrict our comments to the larger context of the plan and its impact on American Seapower.

Thomas Mahnken, head of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, says both conventional and nuclear forces need to be rebuilt instead of favoring one over the other. The U.S. has historically relied more on strategic nuclear weapons during periods of lower defense spending and spent less on those systems during conventional buildups. But after 15 years of counterinsurgency warfare in the Middle East and recent drawdowns at a time of heightened conflict in Iraq and Syria, both forces need rebuilding, Mahnken says, particularly because Russia and China have gained ground militarily. “We are now in a period characterized by the reality of great‐power competition and the increasing possibility of great‐power conflict,” he says. “The ‘wars of the future’ may no longer lie that far in the future.”

"Trying to bring in cyber expertise through the reserve component is part of it," responded Thomas Mahnken, a former DOD official and current president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "I think more broadly, military...tends to accord rank with seniority with pay, and in the cyber world, certainly in the private industry, those things don't always align."Mahnken said that Congress must think about granting more authorities to the services that would increase the flexibility to attract talented people from the private sector.

The irony is “our drawdown has occurred when we’re at war,” Thomas Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said. Now, in high-end warfare and in a time of increased great power competition, he added, “We’ve given [Russia and China] a decade and a half to catch up” and “that includes our nuclear deterrent.” At the same time by not investing in the future, there “are few programs ready right now to accept funds.” He specifically mentioned growing the size of the fleet to at least 350 ships as one of those programs that “cannot be accomplished in four or eight years” and will required sustained investment. Mahnken, in answer to a later question, called for a return to a strategy of being able to fight and win two major regional conflicts at nearly the same time. “We always want to have that margin of security.” During the campaign, President Donald Trump said expanding the size of the fleet and increasing defense spending were among his top national security priorities. While both Russia and China are seeking to become regional hegemons, they are pursuing that goal in different ways. Wood said Russia is using a more militaristic approach — backing separatists in Georgia and eastern Ukraine and seizing Crimea. Beijing’s leaders “see China as a rising power” economically, diplomatically and militarily. China poses “a much greater challenge” than Russia whose economy is hurting, Mahnken added. China’s leaders “believe [disputed territory] already belongs to them” in eastern India, islands near Japan and artificial islands in the South China Sea and Taiwan and believe they can get their way through economic intimidation.

Mahnken asserted that the military needs more resources for both readiness and modernization. He noted the uniqueness of the recent drawdown in that it is the first one to occur “all the while the United States has been at war.” Mahnken said “the risk calculus has changed” with the return of great-power competition, citing Russia and China as challenging U.S. power in certain theaters. He recommended investing in capabilities in the high end of warfare. “We need a truly global strategy that also deals with regional challenges,” he said. He cautioned that the capacity of the Defense Department to effectively and rapidly absorb a large infusion of capital is limited, and that rebuilding the military — such as increasing the Navy’s battle fleet to 340 or 355 ships — will take time and cannot be completed in four or eight years.