The Pentagon didn't get everything it wanted for 2017 in the President's budget proposal. But it got a lot: $524 billion in the base, plus another $59 billion for overseas contingency operations. It's a mix of cost-cutting reforms and investments in what the brass sees as five strategic challenges. Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to offer his insight.

A $6.7 billion request for military cybersecurity, some of which is to be directed at developing offensive cyber capabilities. Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments tells me that military brass likely saw how Russia knocked out computer networks in Georgia and Ukraine. A proposal to keep the much-argued-over A-10 ground support plane going until 2022.

The overarching theme I get from Adm. Richardson’s strategic “Design” is the need for the Navy to become better able to adapt and change with the security, information, and maritime environment. Although we often talk about how the Navy is adaptable and flexible, in fact our methods for training sailors and preparing units to deploy are pretty rigid industrial-age processes. 

2016 will be challenging for the Navy. At sea the fleet will continue to face demands that exceed its supply of forces, while at home the fiscal 2017 budget is likely to make difficult choices that prioritize high quality over adequate quantity.

In the near future, evading detection by legions of drones, and failing that, surviving what Andrew Krepinevich of the CSBA calls a “mature precision-strike regime” near an enemy coast, will be very challenging for any surface ship...

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are operating today under unsustainable levels of stress because of a fundamental mismatch between the demands placed on them and their supply of ready forces. Both services are striving to establish deployment cycles they can maintain over the long-term, but are unable to stick to them.