DefenseNews:

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville recently earned headlines for admitting the service’s 2022 budget challenges will cap personnel at roughly 485,000. His assessment heralds hard modernization decisions servicewide, but the metastasizing threats to U.S. air and missile bases — and the resulting readiness hurdles — mean Pentagon leaders need new answers on base defense, and fast.

They should aggressively embrace emergent technologies, especially high-energy lasers, high-power microwave systems and networked sensors. These capabilities provide a sustainable, lethal edge that can protect America’s bases while balancing the burden among her warriors — if Congress maintains funding and allows these systems to reach soldiers in the field. Failure in this regard invites dire consequences for American service members and assets on bases worldwide. Both are already in our adversaries’ crosshairs.

As special assistant to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis while he developed the 2018 National Defense Strategy, I saw how rapidly senior leaders could reorient the Defense Department to new geopolitical realities. From my later experience in the office of personnel and readiness, I know that same adaptability is desperately needed now to confront the evolving threat to U.S. air and missile bases…



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