Military Readiness
President-elect Trump’s stance on military readiness echoes the assessment of the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Index of U.S. Military Strength.
The report concluded that, under current conditions of “capability, capacity and readiness,” America’s military is “only marginally able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.”
Trump’s proposal, according to his speech on military readiness, first calls for the defense sequester to be eliminated and a new budget established to rebuild the military. Under the new budget, Trump asks for equipment and personnel to be expanded in the following ways:
- Increase Army to 540,000 soldiers.
- Increase Marine Corps to 36 battalions.
- Increase Navy ships and submarines to 350 vessels.
- Increase Air Force fighter aircraft to 1,200 planes.
- Modernize and improve America’s ballistic missile defense power.
Additionally, Trump plans to strengthen America’s cybersecurity, establishing a robust system to protect America from cyber attacks, to assist military personnel in fighting our foes and to thwart our enemies’ attempts to spread harmful ideology and garner international support.
As he explained in an October speech, Trump plans to ask for a complete review of our cyber defenses and to “strengthen and augment” the capabilities of Cyber Command. Further, all established systems will require regular reviews to ensure they are constantly secure and state-of-the-art. Trump believes this will provide effective defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.
Such an enormous expansion will be expensive, and American Enterprise Institute predicts the foundation of Trump’s plan to cost $55 to $60 billion per year for four years, on top of the four-year plan already set by President Obama. AEI further estimates that “adding in crucial smaller programs, accounting for weapons cost and growth, and returning the entire force to adequate readiness” will push the cost $250 to $300 billion more over the same four years.
To fund such expansion, Trump calls for reforms that will do away with government waste, shrink the size of the federal workforce in a responsible way, reduce government bureaucracy, collect unpaid taxes and require payments from countries whose security we provide. At the time this article was written, there was no indication as to how this buildup would affect military members’ paychecks.
