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Cruz: Rebuilding America’s Military
Not to be outdone by Rubio, new military build-up from Ted Cruz:
American Resolve: Rebuilding America’s Military
Not to be outdone by Rubio, new military build-up from Ted Cruz:
American Resolve: Rebuilding America’s Military
Rebuilding America’s Military
The Constitution is unambiguous and clear. The defense of our nation and the security of our citizens is the exclusive and mandatory responsibility of the Federal Government. A nation that is unable to assure the sanctity of its sovereign borders and incapable of influencing global events will soon struggle for its very existence. Every American intuitively knows this, knows also that their individual liberties depend upon a stable and secure nation.
However, America now faces a momentous decision. Almost a decade of irresponsible defense cuts has slashed the number of combat personnel, seriously degraded their combat readiness, and shrunk the size of our Army, Navy and Air Force below any reasonable standard. If America continues to lead from behind, continues to invest in crony capitalism that has crippled our weapons modernization programs, continues to follow the failed Obama/Clinton military strategy that has created global instability, it’s quite simple, we will lose the ability to guarantee our safety at home and abroad.
America will either respond to the challenges of our time, will recognize the sacrifices of those who have served this great nation, will restore our global leadership – or America will not. America either steps up as a unified, resolved, proud and unflinching defender of individual freedom and American values, returning to President Ronald Reagan’s formula of “peace through strength,” or America forever loses that chance. Further hesitation, fecklessness and indifference will only continue to embolden opportunistic adversaries, accelerate global lawlessness, and deprive the United States of its God-given potential.
We must once again offer a shining example to the world and provide calm, steady leadership during these difficult times. If we fail to do so, if we persist in ignoring our responsibilities, the void that is left behind – the void that has led to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, Chinese claims to false-island territory in Asia, and a staggering increase in radical Islamic terrorism – will continue to be filled by aggressive and malicious adversaries. The United States is at an historic crossroads – we must honor our commitments, to those who paved the way for this great Nation, to our fellow Americans, and most importantly, to our future generations.
Defining the Problem
Rebuilding America’s military begins by understanding just how far our national defense capabilities have fallen from the high point of the Reagan years from the strength that was – and must be again – America’s hallmark. Our entire fighting force is shockingly undermanned and ill-prepared. Last year, the Chief of Staff of the Army stated that his units were at “historically low levels” of combat readiness and the Commandant of the Marine Corps declared that “half of our non-deployed units are suffering personnel, equipment and training shortfalls.” The Chief of Staff of the Air Force recently proclaimed that “we are getting too small to succeed.” And, for the first time since 2007, the United States Navy was unable to maintain a carrier presence in the Arabian Gulf. Every single portion of our Armed Forces has felt the strain.
Land combat forces – In 2010, the U.S. Army was authorized 562,400 active duty soldiers, by the end of 2016 that number will have dropped precipitously to 475,000. And this administration has plans to drive it even lower, to only 450,000 soldiers by the end of 2018. Unless our leaders are able to prioritize our national defense appropriately, there is a possibility that the Army could be reduced to as few as 420,000 soldiers by 2020. Attempts to garner this “peace dividend” are assuredly met with enthusiasm by our adversaries.
Air power – At a time of increasing global commitments, our ability to project power and obtain air superiority is tragically anemic. In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, America possessed 134 fighter squadrons and over 8,000 total manned and unmanned aircraft. Today, the USAF has 60 combat squadrons and a total force of fewer than 4,000 aircraft. Compounding this lack of capacity is the sad truth that many of these airframes are serving well beyond their original life expectancy; in fact, many of the airframes are older than the pilots who fly them.
Sea power – The U.S. Navy now has just 273 deployable fighting ships, a far cry from the 573 that Reagan left us. In fact, the United States objectively has the smallest Navy since 1916, when the country fielded only 245 active ships. Yes, today’s ships are vastly more capable than those of the First World War, or even Reagan’s day. But, the size of the world’s oceans has not shrunk, and while our modern ships have become more capable, so too have those of our adversaries. Projecting power abroad and securing the global commons to ensure the free flow of commerce has not fundamentally changed since the First Barbary War.
Strategic forces – The triad of capabilities that has served as an effective deterrent to nuclear catastrophe since the end of World War II is on the verge of slipping away. Unfortunately, each portion of the nuclear triad –submarines, long range bombers, and missile silos – is rapidly approaching the end of its service life and will require modernization. Each leg of the triad is vital to the continuing success of strategic deterrence. And, while we dither about the importance of missile defense, Iran and North Korea conduct ballistic missile tests.
Conventional Forces
In a phrase, we are running a “security deficit” – living on borrowed time and relying on aging conventional and nuclear forces. To be safe tomorrow, America must invest today. Domestic and international confidence in our ability to protect our Homeland and our allies depends on taking action – now. America faces a rapidly decreasing gap between our combat capacity, capabilities and readiness; and those of our adversaries. Some say this does not matter. The historical record is clear: It does. And so we will scale back on the bloated bureaucracy and social experiments, and we will invest in our military with a simple goal: more tooth, less tail – that will guide every decision.
The protection of our country and enforcement of our security interests abroad requires an Army that consists of at least 525,000 trained and fully equipped soldiers, not a further retreat to force levels that prevent engagement across multiple theaters and fails to deter our adversaries. The Nation must be prepared for the possibility of multiple, near-simultaneous conflicts, instead of a force that is, according to the previous Secretary of the Army, teetering on the “ragged edge” of military readiness. The President must stop his recent rush to mass produce Special Operations forces. The President is doing this in order to send smaller teams of warfighters to conduct critical operations so he can claim there are no conventional boots on the ground. Our Special Forces are the finest fighting units in the world, but they cannot be mass produced and they are not an answer to our lack of conventional capacity. The entire end-strength of our Armed Forces must be rebuilt; we must strive to have a total active-duty force of at least 1.4 million Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. Anything less creates a continuing training and readiness gap that risks the lives of the men and women who volunteer to serve this great Nation.
While our Air Force struggles to modernize because of budget cuts and still flies airplanes that have marked a half-century of service, our opponents are rapidly developing fifth generation stealth fighters that will significantly alter the balance of air warfare. Defeating this threat will require that we rebuild to at least 6,000 total airplanes, with a minimum of 1,500 tactical fighter aircraft to ensure our air superiority. The United States must have a decisive advantage in the air arena and must aggressively pursue advanced fighter technology. But, we must also recognize that one of the most-stressed portions of the Air Force works behind the scenes. The pilots who operate unmanned aircraft face a never-ending increase in the demand for the surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities they provide. We simply cannot conduct aggressive air campaigns without accurate target acquisition, which requires that we increase the number of unmanned aircraft and pilots in order to provide our Combatant Commanders the information they need.
China and Russia continue to develop and deploy increasingly advanced maritime fleets. While their navies are rapidly expanding the ability to project power offshore, we have reduced the number of operational aircraft carriers, the centerpiece of our naval forces, to just 10. America’s ability to effectively deter our adversaries, but rapidly and overwhelmingly project power in multiple theaters when needed, requires a commitment to 12 carrier strike groups. The United States must significantly increase the number of ships to at least 350, with an appropriate mix of large and small, surface and subsurface combatants that ensures we can counter our adversary’s anti-access/area denial strategies.
Once access into our adversary’s littoral region is accomplished we need the ability to project that power ashore; the U.S. Marine Corps must be provided sufficient sea and air lift capacity to conduct large-scale amphibious and air assault operations in a contested environment. The Marines are our first responders, the first to fight, in times of crisis. We need to reverse the cuts to the manpower of the Marines. I will commit to you this – I will not simply bow down to political correctness; I will also review the Marine Corps’ request for exemption from the policy of requiring women to serve in combat positions.
Strategic Forces
Ohio Class ballistic missile submarines, the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad, already saw their service life extended once to allow time for a replacement. The Ohio Class replacement program is the future of our irreplaceable sea-based nuclear deterrent and construction of 12 new ballistic missile submarines must be highly prioritized in the defense budget. The air leg of the triad, largely based on bombers that first flew 50 years ago, also needs modernization. The Long Range Strike Bomber is critical in order to maintain a visible and deployable presence that deters adversaries and reassures our allies. Lastly, the Minuteman missiles that stand perpetual guard in our defense have been deployed since the late 1960s and must also be upgraded.
Not only must we be able to conduct strategic deterrence, we must be able to provide for our defense from the same threat. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense program that counters the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles is vital to our future survival and requires significant reinvestment after the damages done during the last seven years of neglect. We need to develop new, more effective kill vehicles to counter the ever-advancing capabilities of our adversaries. We must expand the missile defense network by building a site on the East Coast in order to better protect the entire country from any rogue, accidental or systemic ballistic missile attack.
We have to look at opportunities to exploit Ronald Reagan’s brainchild – a defensive weapon so powerful that it negated our enemies’ strongest offensive capabilities – and, for example, deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to South Korea, and to partner as closely as possible with the Israelis as they implement Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow 2&3. We could send no stronger message to enemies like North Korea and Iran. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles are most vulnerable to intercept during their boost phase of launch, we must develop the ability to destroy the threat before the warhead can separate from the missile. And, we must not be constrained to the surface of our planet when planning our future defense; we must look to the stars as well. We need to develop and deploy capabilities that will provide a visible deterrence and, if required, protect our space-based national assets from any threat, by any nation. Space is a new environment of strategic competition and we must be able to domestically provide assured access to that domain, and if necessary, deny our adversary’s capabilities.
The increasing ease with which our adversaries conduct non-linear attacks that fall below the threshold of conventional action places us at a disadvantage. We face a capability gap in domains like cyberspace that must be filled. The entry barriers for a nation or rogue actor that wants to conduct cyber warfare are easily surmountable; the impact of their malicious activities is potentially disastrous. We need look no further than the recent theft of Federal government personnel data by Chinese hackers. That attack was an incredibly brazen act of espionage, a huge blow to our national security, and many argue that it was an act of war. We must review and promulgate a new cyberspace strategy, designed to anticipate and thwart cyber attacks on American private and public institutions, instead of remaining on the defensive against aggressive state and non-state cyber adversaries. Therefore, just like against the nuclear threat, we need to officially declare a policy of retribution so our adversaries clearly understand the United States will no longer idly stand by while we are being attacked. This means giving the United States Cyber Command the necessary authorities and cyber weapons to aggressively strike back when needed. This is the type of generational investment we must make to fully modernize our fighting forces in the 21st Century.
Paying for Rebuilding
Make no mistake about it, a generational rebuilding of our national security will not be a cheap or easy proposition. We can and will pay for our necessary defense, without bankrupting our children, through 1) significantly accelerating economic growth through sweeping tax and regulatory reform; 2) cutting spending; and 3) selling Federal assets and properties. I strongly believe as a nation we must be prepared to invest at least 4.1% of GDP over the first two years of my administration to get this right, after which we will use 4% of GDP as a guideline. Controlling government spending and unleashing economic growth will address the costs and are desirable in themselves. My detailed spending plan reduces federal spending by at least a half trillion dollars over ten years. These reductions are just a start. The resulting savings would be in addition to my plan to Audit the Pentagon to identify and eliminate unnecessary programs. We will seize the opportunity to sell federal assets and properties that would be better used in the private sector, thus generating additional revenues. And we will bring back a proven approach from the prosperous days of the Reagan administration: a private-sector panel, known as the Grace Commission, to assess federal spending levels and evaluate areas of waste and fraud for removal.
Ronald Reagan proved that restoring economic growth is key to restoring military strength. If we grew at 5 percent for the next decade instead of 2.1 percent, we would enjoy $5.9 trillion in real total additional federal revenue, and a cumulative $14.3 trillion in additional real wages — about $110,000 more per household over the decade. That’s on average about $590 billion dollars in added revenue per year.
Similarly, if the economy grew at 4 percent for the next decade instead of 2.1 percent, we would enjoy $3.7 trillion in real total additional federal revenue, and a cumulative $9 trillion in real additional wages — about $70,000 more per household over the decade. That’s on average about $370 billion dollars in added revenue per year.
Either scenario would provide more than enough resources to fund a rebuild of our defense forces and send a clear signal to global trouble-makers to think twice. Increased peace and global stability will in itself encourage economic growth. We can begin a cycle of economic strength leading to military strength, leading to peace and still more economic strength and so on. We really can re-ignite the promise of America.
America can get to 5% growth. It is not unprecedented. Since World War II, the US has had four 5-year periods of average real GDP growth over 5 percent, and 13 different years where we exceeded 5 percent growth. My own state of Texas has averaged 5 percent annual GDP growth since 2010. By contrast, President Obama is the first president in US history to fail to have even one year of economic growth over 3 percent. We can do better – much better.
Why Americans Should Care
The world long ago departed an era where two super-power nations vied for supremacy; one intent on expanding the tyranny of Communism, the other led by a man whose straightforward vision – “We win; they lose” – spread liberty across the globe. Reagan’s bold and principled leadership defeated America’s largest adversary – without ever firing a shot. He accomplished this by building military strength that was founded upon America’s strategic objectives, not building a military based on the budget whims of partisan politics.
Today, we face not just one, but many adversaries who would topple our great nation from its pedestal. And we face internal antagonists who seem content to let it happen, who insist that Defense spending be relegated to luxury status – something nice to have if we can afford it after all of their pet programs. Entitlement programs have soared in the past decade and reckless spending has spiked our national debt so high, that interest payments on our debt will surpass what we spend on defense within the next decade.
While we neglect our military modernization, Russia, China and Iran continue to invest heavily in theirs. Russia has announced aggressive plans to continue the modernization of their military; China has an indigenous aircraft carrier program, is aggressively pursuing the ability to project power far from its homeland, and for the first time can place intercontinental ballistic missiles on strategic submarines; and Iran has just been gifted $100 billion from the current Administration to fund their global terrorism. The result of this disparity is predictable: our adversaries cross line after line to see if the President will react. We recently watched in humiliation as our Sailors were held at gunpoint by Iranians. They were taken hostage the same day President Obama spoke ardently about his nuclear agreement with Iran; and yet he said nothing about the plight of ten Americans detained by that same terrorist nation.
Our all-volunteer force deserves better. They deserve a leader who will provide them with the finest weapons systems and the best training. They deserve the full and unapologetic support of a Commander-in-Chief once the momentous decision is made to send them into harm’s way, not a minimal commitment of forces and overly restrictive Rules of Engagement. And, the finest military professionals on the planet deserve an investment in their careers, their health, and their families that respects their many sacrifices on our behalf.
My Promise to America
America can most certainly rebuild our defenses; it’s not too late. But, it will require a determination that our military should be structured and built to defeat any and all credible threats to our nation. Instead of our military’s size being driven by a budget that is created by weak-kneed politicians who are pandering to their bases for political convenience, it must be driven by sound, logical analysis of our strategic objectives. Our national security objectives should be guided by a few inviolable principles:
America’s moral leadership in the world is vital; it is not optional;
“Peace through strength” is not outdated, it is the heart of deterrence—but it requires both peace and strength;
Our military strength must be matched by our ability to operate across multiple, non-kinetic domains that include space, cyber and information;
Our military must be able to address state and non-state actors, be able to conduct conventional and non-conventional campaigns;
Our allies must be reassured, our commitments firm; and
Our military strength will not replace the “battle of ideas,” which we must win.
These principles are simply a foundation and will need creative, forward thinking by America’s best and brightest military and national security experts to obtain fruition. But, with the courage of our convictions, our proud history as a world leader, and our hard-won principles, especially those of individual freedom, human rights, and moral leadership, we will succeed in our goal. The United States will never seek war, but if our military forces are called upon, they will be able to impart overwhelming devastation upon our foes. The world will once again respect America’s moral fiber and our commitment to defending our interests. Under Reagan, our nation was secure, confident, prepared and respected because he believed that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” and he was willing to fight to protect that freedom.
Under focused, new leadership, America can, and will, rebuild our military. Under new leadership, America will once again commit itself to the defense of our freedom and that of our allies. In new-found and well-grounded confidence, America will help restore a more secure world, and in that world, greater security at home. Our moral and constitutional imperative requires nothing less than a pledge to every American; a pledge that the United States will once again enjoy prosperity, will once again be a trusted agent of liberty, and, that we will invest in our military to ensure a bright future for our beloved country.
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http://www.tedcruz.org/american-resolve/
