Senior Fellow Thane C. Clare speaks about the challenges to rapid innovation against the backdrop of Red Sea operations.
“Thane Clare, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a former Navy officer who served as commander for the guided-missile destroyer the USS Mustin, said that in many cases, ultimate authority is in the hands of the secretary of defense. The military is capable of quick innovation of new technology — Clare pointed to defense production in the 1950s and 1960s — but it depends on urgency from those at the top. It’s partly a mix of bureaucracy, appropriations and the reality of developing, testing and then fielding any new weapon or military system. With the scope of the different fields needed to move a system or munition from concept to adoption, it comes down to isolating a specific issue to solve and having one person fully responsible for the work.”