A panel of retired generals and business executives Monday recommended far-reaching reforms to the organization and focus of the nation's national security apparatus, saying that recent reform plans issued by the Defense Department do not go far enough to prepare U.S. fighting forces for the future.
The National Defense Panel (NDP), chaired by Philip Odeen, president and CEO of BDM International, Inc., released its congressionally mandated report, "Transforming Defense: National Security in the 21st Century," at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. In the report, the panel concludes that the current U.S. military strategy that the nation should be able to win two regional wars at the same time will be inadequate in 20 years.
"We are concerned that this construct may have become a force-protection mechanism--a means of justifying the current force structure," the panel's report says. "Without significant change in our national security structures and processes, we face the grave risk that we will be unprepared for the future."
Future threats, the panel said, include the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, information technology warfare, terrorism, organized international crime and continuing national and ethnic violence. To prepare for these threats, DoD must make sweeping changes to its structure, the NDP argued.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre's Defense Reform Task Force in November recommended that 150,000 Defense positions be opened up to competition with the private sector. But the NDP said 600,000 positions could potentially be privatized. The DoD task force also recommended two additional base closure rounds, one in 2001 and one in 2005. The NDP said that more than two rounds may be necessary and called on Congress and DoD to complete the two recommended rounds earlier.
The NDP also recommended the creation of a Joint Forces Command to coordinate work among the various Unified Commands, and proposed a Joint Battle Lab, where the services would experiment with new technologies and exercises.
Another important issue, the NDP said, is integrating active-duty forces and reserve forces. The Army in particular must work on the integration of its forces with the National Guard, the report said.
"The reserve components, the Guard in particular, have a very important role to play, not only as part of the total force, but within the confines of the 50 states as well," Odeen said.
The report also recommended a major review of major weapons systems investments, suggesting that some may need to be canceled. Odeen said military strategists may look back 20 years from now and question current investments.
"As we sit there and look out that far and look back at today's budgets and today's weapons, what are some of the issues that jump out at us?" Odeen said. "We said, gee, we don't understand the logic of a number of these systems." The NDP did not specify which systems should be eliminated.
The panel also recommended a revamp of the nation's intelligence structure and a more unified approach to the use of outer space for national security purposes. In addition, U.S. forces will need to be trained how to fight in large urban centers, the NDP said.
Acquisition regulations must be further revised to promote innovation and privatization and outsourcing must be increased, the panel declared. A recent change to the rule governing depot maintenance, allowing 50 percent of the work to be performed by the private sector, does not go far enough, the NDP said. Most depot work should be open to competition, it suggested.
Defense Secretary William Cohen endorsed the NDP's report, on which he is required to provide comments to Congress by Dec. 15.
"The NDP paints a compelling and, I believe, accurate picture of a future in which terrorism, information operations and weapons of mass destruction play a more prominent role, even posing direct threats to the U.S. homeland," Cohen said. He said he was pleased that the NDP endorsed additional base closure rounds and Defense infrastructure downsizing.
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