CSBA in the News

The idea that militarily relevant technology, from missiles to GPS guidance, is proliferating ever more rapidly around the globe is not a new one. Nor is anyone predicting that the United States will be technologically backwards in 2030. But leading thinkers are increasingly concerned that, in a few key areas, potential adversaries, especially China, will erode America’s technological advantage, catch up, or even surpass us.

Where’s the strategic beef? That’s what Andrew Krepinevich wants to know.

The debate about U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan beyond 2014 is ramping up, with dueling defense experts suggesting a force of more than 30,000 or fewer than 10,000.

/…/For their part, some defense contractor executives are now making it a point to stress that sequestration, if a fiscal cliff deal isn’t reached by Jan. 1, would be less of a “guillotine” than a “speed bump.”

Washington’s budget negotiators are considering cost-saving changes in the nation’s entitlement programs, with one notable exception: military health care.

Every year, salaries and benefits for service members take up a larger share of the Pentagon’s overall budget, threatening to crowd out all other military priorities. “If we continue on our current path — with personnel costs growing the way they have — we’re eventually going to price ourselves out of being able to field a military of any size,” warned Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The administration has put forward a plan to rein in the costs in part by increasing fees for military health care, but Congress quickly overturned the proposal. Will the president, in a second term and no longer fighting for reelection, be able to push through unpopular cost-cutting measures to put the military’s budget on a sustainable path?