Introduction Thank you for the opportunity to come before your committee today. I know that I speak for the entire panel when I say we are honored to have been chosen to take on this challenge -- the opportunity to influence the future directions for our nation's military forces and the institutions underpinning their success. While the national security establishment has made great progress in understanding and reacting to the fundamental world changes since the end of the Cold War, we are well aware that we still have a long way to go. Moreover, now is the time to consider how we will meet the needs of the nation in the 21st century -- an era that will be quite different from the past as well as the world today. Extending our nation's military strength and world leadership into the next century will require a combination of the knowledge gained in the past and a vision of where we must be headed in the future. Importantly, it also will require the ability to create new and innovative approaches and determine if these concepts will work in the future. I am convinced our team, panel members and staff, is ready to meet this challenge.
Philosophy The "Military Force Structure Act of 1996" calls for a comprehensive examination of defense strategy, the force structure, modernization, infrastructure, and other elements of the defense program and policies. Its objective is to develop alternative defense strategies and force structures that will meet U.S. security challenges of the 21st century. Specifically, the legislation assigns to the National Defense Panel two tasks: to review and comment on the 2005 focused Quadrennial Defense Reviewing conducted by the Department of Defense, and to conduct an independent assessment of alternative force structures through the year 2010 and beyond. We also remain cognizant or our inherent visionary role and the impact our recommendations might have as this committee deliberates during the next several years. We hope our objective assessment will be helpful to you, as we take our responsibility quite seriously. To meet the challenges before us, the Panel believes that its greatest contribution lies in setting directions for the future and in identifying paths to meet them. We do not intend to propose specific numbers of systems or organizations that should make up future forces. We cannot analyze in depth all the issues that must be addressed by the Department. In short, we are not going to try to duplicate the range of activities carried out by the Department. Instead, we believe that our real contribution is to look beyond what we are doing today, and towards what we should be doing tomorrow. To do this we must fully explore the future and its potential implications for our military forces. Additionally, we must consider how the forces of tomorrow should be supported by the infrastructure, management processes and organizations that make their operations effective. Tomorrow is not far away -- the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that will command our forces in the future and are already in the force today, as are many of the systems and platforms they will operate. Our approach, therefore, will be to look back from the future -- that is, to identify where we will need to be and the determine how to get there. For example, to know where we should be in 2010 and beyond, we need to carefully consider:
With this understanding, we will develop strategies that have the potential to succeed in the world of the future, We can then examine the capabilities and force structure alternatives that might meet them. We know, however, that the future cannot be predicted and that enormous uncertainty will remain. Therefore, we must consciously pursue approaches which are capability based and yet able to adapt to emerging threats to our national interest. That is, as new challenges to our national security mature, we must ensure our capabilities continue to evolve in a manner that will be successful against them. Let me also make it clear that we do not see our mission as one to either balance the federal budget, nor one which is automatically budget driven. Instead, our analysis must be guided by the needs of the future and the strategies that best get us there. I am confident our work will result in decision making that both identifies savings opportunities _and_ identifies innovative opportunities to strengthen or augment current approaches. We look forward to making both the easy recommendations, as well as the ones that some may find less appealing, yet are critical, for our future. We also realize that we cannot be all things to all people, and stand prepared to recommend what we feel are the best alternatives and approaches. Finally, the review we now begin is not geared to specific programs organizations or management procedures. Instead it is about a plan for the future we hope to realize, and the consistency of current and future capabilities, organizations and management processes to get us there. Allow me to summarize how we view the key aspects of our job. We will strive to:
We seek to achieve these goals by reaching out to those within the Department, and throughout government, industry, academia and research institutions who are willing to offer their ideas and expertise -- we know we cannot do this alone. Moreover, the creative and innovative thinking that will support meeting the challenges of tomorrow is not the sole domain of those of us currently in the defense arena, but will result from the cooperation and collaboration of those who share a desire to meet the national security needs of America in the next century.
Current Status and Future Plans You are already will aware of the expertise and talent base represented by our panel members. They include strategists and specialists with extensive experience in defense issues, global business and technology development. I am fortunate to chair a panel that is enthusiastic and extremely committed. We also plan to engage a variety of others with varied backgrounds to infuse their thoughts into the Panel's deliberations. We have also assembled a small group of broad strategic thinkers to support the panel. This group can best be described as people with creative minds, our overarching strategies are supported by the appropriate knowledge base and analysis. In addition to those already mentioned, we are inviting the defense community at large to offer their thoughts on both specific topics and general directions for the future. This morning in a meeting open to the public, the Panel heard from experts from three respected research organizations on a variety of topics. In two weeks we will have a similar session. It is my intent to ensure the Panel's deliberations are enriched by the considered thinking available throughout both the defense community and other arenas. The Panel and the staff have concentrated our efforts to date on meeting your objective of providing the Secretary with our views of the direction and emerging results of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review. To this end, we have met with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary, the Chairman, the Service Chiefs, and the JROC as well as a number of other senior DoD staff. In addition to delivering an interim report and drafting a final set of comments on the QDR in mid-May, we have committed to continuing to provide advice and constructive suggestions to the Secretary. Importantly, we believe, as does the Secretary, that our insights can be of great value both during the Department's review as well as after it is completed. More importantly, we concur that the QDR should be seen as an important milestone in a longer journey to define our security needs for the 21st century. We have also been developing the analysis plan and tools that will support our longer term objective and the delivery next December of alternative force structures. I have already mentioned our outreach program that is directly contributing to this challenge. Additionally, we understand the importance of gaining the perspective of the Services, our Allies and the regional and functional CINCs before a true understanding of the future, a strategy to meet it, and a set of capabilities for 2010 and beyond can be crafted. This June we will visit many of those locations to hear their thoughts first hand.
Concluding Thoughts Our goal is to give you the very best thinking available. How do we do this? We consider future challenges and the needs of the nation. We make sure we have a sound vision and strategy for our country's national defense. We consider all opportunities for new thinking and innovation. Finally, we offer real and implementable ideas that will support future success of both our forces and the institutions that support them. As I said earlier, we welcome your thoughts and ideas. I am determined that our final report and the process we go through to develop it will be rigorous, enlightened, and progressive. Thank you again for this opportunity to support our nation's defense and to come before your Committee. I look forward to your questions. Return to Global Beat Home Page Nuclear Watch | East Asian Security | Economic & Monetary Union | NATO Expansion | Nuclear Weapons and Proliferation | U.S. Defense Policy | Publications | Events | |
