Gambling with Ground Forces

by SWJ Editors

March 4, 2014 

Gambling with Ground Forces: The 2015 Defense Budget and The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review by Travis Sharp, Center for a New American Security Policy Brief

Abstract: The president’s FY 2015 defense budget released today finances its bet on technological superiority by gambling with ground forces according to Travis Sharp, an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Mr. Sharp notes, “By betting on technology over size, the FY 2015 budget intensifies the debate over whether to prioritize men or material as defense spending declines.”

Mr. Sharp writes, “Prioritizing technology over size has a strategic logic and conforms with historical practice.” However, he argues that focusing on high-tech modernization without simultaneously implementing policies to regenerate ground forces quickly should a crisis erupt constitutes strategic negligence of the highest order.