Defense News:
History will regard the year 2018 as a period of profound change within the U.S. Department of Defense. This past year saw the release of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, a strategy characterized by three lines of effort: build a more lethal force; strengthen alliances and attract new partners; and reform the department for greater performance and affordability.
To resource these lines of effort, Congress passed the largest defense budget in history with overwhelming bipartisan support. As a result, we are restoring readiness to our planes, ships and munitions; strengthening our relationships around the world; and reforming the department as we modernize the force.
By growing force size, increasing partnered training, improving fighter jet maintenance and expanding foreign military sales, we have generated momentum toward NDS implementation. Now we must increase that momentum by bridging gaps in our capabilities and capitalizing on the technological and industrial advantages that will increase our military’s lethality. As we look to build on this progress in 2019, three areas offer opportunities to assure our military advantage now and into the future: missiles, space and cyber.
