The post-COVID budget crunch – and the need to grow seapower and airpower for a Pacific contest with China – make it all too tempting to cut the Army. But that would be a grave mistake, warns retired three-star general Tom Spoehr.
"I will be very curious to see how the Space Force shakes out in the next year or so. It's not going away but how it manifests itself could be different," said Victoria Samson, Washington Office director for Secure World Foundation.
The Trump administration waited four years to come up with a plan to increase the size of the fleet, dumping it on the Pentagon's doorstep even as the moving vans were getting ready to pull up to the White House.
With shrinking budgets and a growing need for new technologies, “the Army will need to make a compelling case to Congress to fund new capabilities and truncate legacy programs,” said CSBA’s Tom Mahnken.
"Not sure if this is a black swan, but I would not be surprised if the next administration kicks off an internal review of the services’ roles and responsibilities, with an eye toward reducing excessive redundancy in force structure and capabilities," Mark Gunzinger says .