The Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, summed up his assessment of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) in the following statement: “With our “ends” fixed and our “means” declining, it is therefore imperative that we innovate within the “ways” we defend the Nation.” Strategic planning and transition to Joint Force 2020 (JF 2020) in a fiscally constrained environment affords DoD senior leaders the opportunity to be more innovative than ever before in assessing and mitigating risks to effectively confront a multitude of increasingly multifaceted security challenges. In the long run, a leaner, agile, adaptable, interoperable, and technologically sophisticated JF 2020 is necessary for the Combatant Commanders to
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Issues that pose risk to missions are: “providing sufficient enabling capabilities, building partnership capacity, and securing DoD systems in cyberspace.” In example, an ally or partner’s lack of ability or willingness to support common goals may present an operational risk. When it comes to cyberspace, a failure to secure systems would pose a major risk to operations, personnel, and mission accomplishment. In such cases operational risk may be mitigated through the development of bilateral and multilateral capacity to improve interoperability to protect common interests through security cooperation, agreements, and …show more content…
Institutional risk includes “reforming acquisition processes, optimizing information technology acquisition processes, and maintaining the defense industrial base.” Ultimately funding is needed to modernize and mitigate risk. In order to create funding flexibility, the services look to congress and the states to support often controversial and politicized initiatives for institutional reform, such as reduction in excess or obsolete infrastructure and changes to personnel compensation. Complicating matters is DoD’s acquisition process which is poorly suited for keeping pace with global innovations in information technology (IT). The inability to efficiently acquire powerful IT solutions hampers efforts to leverage IT as a force multiplier to enhance agility, flexibility, and responsiveness. DOD must reform the IT acquisition process, drawing on successful commercial practices, with a view to accelerating the acquisition cycle. Reforms to compensation and acquisition processes will be essential to ensuring that JF 2020 keeps the technological
Issues that pose risk to missions are: “providing sufficient enabling capabilities, building partnership capacity, and securing DoD systems in cyberspace.” In example, an ally or partner’s lack of ability or willingness to support common goals may present an operational risk. When it comes to cyberspace, a failure to secure systems would pose a major risk to operations, personnel, and mission accomplishment. In such cases operational risk may be mitigated through the development of bilateral and multilateral capacity to improve interoperability to protect common interests through security cooperation, agreements, and …show more content…
Institutional risk includes “reforming acquisition processes, optimizing information technology acquisition processes, and maintaining the defense industrial base.” Ultimately funding is needed to modernize and mitigate risk. In order to create funding flexibility, the services look to congress and the states to support often controversial and politicized initiatives for institutional reform, such as reduction in excess or obsolete infrastructure and changes to personnel compensation. Complicating matters is DoD’s acquisition process which is poorly suited for keeping pace with global innovations in information technology (IT). The inability to efficiently acquire powerful IT solutions hampers efforts to leverage IT as a force multiplier to enhance agility, flexibility, and responsiveness. DOD must reform the IT acquisition process, drawing on successful commercial practices, with a view to accelerating the acquisition cycle. Reforms to compensation and acquisition processes will be essential to ensuring that JF 2020 keeps the technological