Politico | US lawmakers urge Pentagon to be choosy when deploying troops
- 14 House members warn that overextension now will degrade long-term readiness and modernisation efforts needed to counter rising threats like China
- Combatant commanders, the lawmakers say, ‘have few incentives to be frugal’ in requesting extra forces, which risks overtaxing the military services
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Connor O’Brien on politico.com on April 5, 2021.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Pentagon leaders to be more exacting in approving commanders’ requests for additional forces, warning that the overextension of personnel and resources now will degrade long-term military readiness and modernisation efforts needed to counter rising threats such as China.
What they said: In a letter on Monday to Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks, 14 House lawmakers argued “there is a need for increased prudence and scrutiny” in approving requests for forces made by combatant commanders that fall outside the Global Force Management Allocation Plan, a Pentagon blueprint that allocates forces to the commands.
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Combatant commanders, they warned, “have few incentives to be frugal” in requesting extra forces, which risks overtaxing the military services and hindering their efforts to adapt to competing with great power nations such as Russia and China if the Pentagon approves the requests.
They slammed a “near-limitless” number of combatant command requests for forces in recent years.
“The ‘tyranny of the now’ is wearing out man and machine at too high a rate to ensure success both now and later,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Future readiness can no longer be sacrificed at the altar of lower-priority requirements.”
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“At this rate, the desire to solve every immediate problem, regardless of strategic prioritisation, may hollow the force for the next generation,” they added.
The letter was led by congressmen Rob Wittman and Seth Moulton. All but one of the lawmakers who signed the letter sit on the House Armed Services Committee.
Context: The plea comes as the Pentagon weighs how best to distribute Pentagon resources to counter China and Russia with a budget that, while sizeable, is likely to remain largely flat.
Former defence secretary Mark Esper conducted a review of combatant commands’ posture to reallocate troops to meet the Trump administration’s defence strategy aimed at Russia and China.
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A top concern among lawmakers has been how the Pentagon will balance long-term threats posed by a rapidly modernising China and current conflicts such as those in the Middle East.
What lawmakers want: The members posed a series of questions in their letter to Austin and Hicks on requests for forces by commanders, including what their threshold is for approving such requests and whether that threshold was met by a high volume of requests over the past two years.
Read Politico’s story.
