Rhys McCormick and Andrew Hunter, respectively a research associate and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a joint article published Tuesday on Defense One that the U.S. Army should shift its focus from fielding new military platforms to building up capabilities.Both said they believe the military branch should adopt a modernization strategy that focuses on the development and deployment of critical capabilities across the areas of air and missile defense, logistics, advanced protection, cross-domain fires and electronic warfare.
“Even with more money, a modernization approach focused primarily on new platforms would narrow the scope of capabilities the Army can pursue and delay their fielding by a decade or more,†McCormick and Hunter wrote.
They urged the Army to also implement an agile acquisition process through deployment of capability upgrades to warfighters “in regular, sizable increments.â€
The military branch should continue to fund the Army Rapid Capabilities Office, establish a new modernization fund that will work to immediately respond to opportunities and challenges as well as ensure the availability of human capital to support the modernization strategy, Hunter and McCormick added.
