FRANK KENDALL
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Pentagon — larger than any one geopolitical foe — is its struggle to move quickly enough to keep up with technological development and the breakneck evolution of the modern battlespace. And while the Defense Department has rolled out several initiatives to make up ground, in his first op-ed since assuming the title of secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall argues below that there’s a way to go faster, with Congress’s help.
Over the last two years in my position as secretary of the Air Force, I have begun each of my eight Congressional budget posture hearings with a reference to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s warning that almost all military failures can be summed up in the words “too late.” My obsession is that the Air Force and Space Force not be “too late” in acquiring the capability needed to remain the most capable military in the world.
Ever since I returned to government service in 2010 after a 15-year absence, I have been sounding alarms about China’s military modernization program. There is no time to lose in responding to this challenge, and that is why the 2022 National Defense Strategy marked an historic shift by identifying China as the Defense Department’s “pacing challenge.” More than ever, we are hard at work deploying cutting-edge capabilities to our warfighters in the immediate term, and we are investing in the capabilities we’ll need in the future to make sure that deterrence across the Indo-Pacific region and beyond remains as real and strong as it is today.
As part of these efforts, the DoD has submitted a legislative proposal to the Congress that would cut at least one year, and often two years or more, from the lead time to fielding new capabilities.
During the first year of my tenure, the Department of the Air Force analyzed the operational problems that we had to solve to maintain our ability to project power in the Western Pacific. A year ago, that work produced well-supported recommendations for the initial set of capabilities needed to maintain our superiority. The recommendations were buttressed by analysis and included the funding streams needed to complete the necessary new product developments.
Included in the recommendations are a dozen “new start” programs. The Department of the Air Force then worked with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to finalize the fiscal year 2024 budget that was submitted in March 2023. Under the normal process, we will continue to wait for several more months, even if Congress passes authorization and appropriations on time.
The legislative proposal we have submitted would allow the Department to cut well over a year from this process, which currently requires formal congressional legislative approval before a “new start” program can be initiated. Under the Department’s proposal we would have the authority to take the early and relatively inexpensive first steps down the path to fielding needed capabilities. Under our proposal, programs could not proceed beyond the early milestone known as preliminary design review. The activities we would conduct (generally in a competitive environment with industry) would include systems engineering, requirements definition, preliminary design, and modest risk reduction. All of this would be done without any contractual or budgetary commitments beyond the early preliminary design review milestone.
This is a tightly focused and targeted proposal. It builds on but does not replace other reforms enacted by the Congress. The Department’s request is capped at $300 million per year, total. Service secretaries using this authority would be required to obtain approval from the secretary of defense and notify Congress within 15 days. This sum is adequate to conduct a small number of pilot programs to test out the concept, but not anywhere near enough for general application. This is a modest request and a genuine reform that I have argued was needed for decades.
Over my career in national security and defense new product development, one drumbeat has been constant: the process is too slow. This proposal represents low-hanging fruit that would eliminate one to two years from critically needed programs without any risk.
The United States needs a bigger toolkit to maintain our competitive advantages and strengthen stability and deterrence. When we discover innovative applications of technology that will give us a significant military advantage, we need to act.
The teams we assembled to address our highest priority operational challenges did great work, and I’m very proud of them. However, their solutions were delivered over a year ago, and we are certain to have to wait at least months longer for new start authorizations and funding. With Congress’ support, we can get on with that work, and hopefully avoid the disaster of being “too late” when we are truly needed.
Frank Kendall is Secretary, Department of the Air Force.
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