John Ferrari
The Army currently appears to be holding the weakest hand in the Pentagon budget deliberation process. Just look at the Senate, which is recommending an add of $150B to defense, with priorities listed as growing the Navy and strengthening the shipbuilding industrial base; building an integrated air and missile defense for the Homeland, and investments in the nuclear enterprise.
There is only one plus up for the Army: maintaining military readiness. Additionally, the incoming administration has questioned the need for forward deployed troops in Europe, which historically has been a major rationale for the size and structure of the Army. With two strikes against it, the Army is now going to be entering the woodchipper called DOGE and its slash first, fix later philosophy.
It may be best for the Army to move first and make the difficult choices on its own. Specifically, with little new money coming into the Army, the best deal the Army can hope for is to keep its own savings. The only way to do this is to ask the Secretary of Defense to let the Army DOGE-itself before Elon Musk and his crew can get the knives out.
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