Jerry Hendrix’s Post

Project 2025 put a key Jan. 6 figure in charge of military strategy. His plan is as dangerous as you’d imagine https://lnkd.in/gjAQ88AD 

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to lead the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) disregards all requirements for the U.S. secretary of defense: an individual who can ensure the United States’ armed forces remain the best led, best trained, and best equipped; can provide the DOD with the strategic vision to confront an always-evolving threat landscape; and can oversee complex operations in an era of intensifying great-power competition. Hegseth would fail in each of these requirements. Indeed, his nomination reflects a broader pattern in Trump’s administration picks: a preference for loyalty above all else. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications, credibility, and leadership experience is a stark contrast to previous secretaries of defense such as Robert Gates or Leon Panetta, who had previously managed complex government agencies such as the CIA (both Gates and Panetta) or the Office of Management and Budget (Panetta).  The consequences of Hegseth’s appointment would reverberate far beyond the Pentagon. His lack of credibility and diplomatic acumen threatens to undermine alliances, embolden adversaries, and weaken America’s standing on the global stage—all outcomes that raise risks to the safety of the American people.

War is a racket, and so is the drumbeat for great power conflict. My take on the argument for a military buildup to "deter" China or Russia, and its potential economic consequences. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/dmS6nfF6

Changes in US military priorities, strategy, and culture could be on the way

Elon Musk and the Government Efficiency Panel Panels have been appointed by both the Bush administration and the Clinton administrations. Several of their recommendations have been adopted and a minute amount of government overlap and waste was eliminated. The biggest area of waste is in the DOD and the Black Ops budget. In fact, the Black Ops budget is about 35 trillion over the last 10 years which is about the same amount as our debt. Interesting eh? And I have a retired Navy friend who is. my neighbor and he audited and handled fighter jet budgets for the Navy. One Company Bo.... was invoicing the expected 1.18 billion for the f18 Hornet fighter jet (a fantastic profit margin) but what is worse is that the DOD recorded this as about a 20 billion expenditure. Where did all the extra go? Often to generals and port and graft and who knows? Perhaps Black Ops... The US spends 10 times more on defense (not really defense, our ways all over the globe are offensive in so many ways) than the next 10 largest militaries combined. We would be more than defended if we closed 80 percent of our overseas military bases outside the US and US trust territories and cut the DOD budget by 60 percent and be just fine. The way we do this is by bringing most of our troops home and really practicing defense, including our borders. The Visigoths are already in our homeland while we blow our budget, balloon our deficit and interfere in foreign nations affairs daily, everywhere, against the urgent advice of our first president George Washington.

𝗝𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗞. 𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗛: #IndustrialPolicy The Berlin summit's industrial policy recommendations echo the 1980s efforts to salvage the US Democratic Party amid Reaganomics. Today, the call for innovation and state capacity comes against a backdrop of concentrated market power and financial dominance. Can we truly rebuild state capacity without confronting the banks, military contractors, and tech giants? Or are we destined to repeat the mistakes of the past? Read more: https://ow.ly/jW6z50Swj9x

The numbers make you reevaluate just how powerful the force is and if it were to boil over, how terrible the outcomes would be for our Allies and US Forces in the Pacific. “According to the Pentagon’s most recent public report on Chinese military power, for instance, Beijing now possesses roughly 1,000 medium-range ballistic missiles with a range of between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometers and 500 intermediate-range ballistic missiles with a range of between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometers. If a war were to break out, the PLA could now target nearly all U.S. forces within hundreds of miles of the Chinese coast.” https://lnkd.in/e5qWj-5w ✍🏼 Hal Brands and Zack Cooper Center for Strategic & International Studies (Report Referenced: https://lnkd.in/eb2PwrR5)

On Friday, Hon. Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the 29th Secretary of Defense and his message to the Force was a reminder of the important work which must be done, not only from the services, but for the defense industrial base and others supporting the DoD. This is not a political post, but merely support to the priorities as outlined in his post. In his second bullet, he highlighted, "reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit and rapidly fielding emerging technologies." These four topics are the cornerstone to a strategic future for the Department of Defense and all four are interrelated and dependent on each other. 🤝 Beginning with "rapidly fielding emerging technologies," the ability to develop, test, evaluate, prototype and implement novel technologies is key to true innovation. It requires the ability of companies to speak with users, gather feedback on their pain points, iterating and executing, rapidly and efficiently. The most successful and novel deployments of new capabilities come from the #Soldiers, #Sailors, #Airmen, #Marines, #Guardians, who spend hours trying to solve a problem "of using what we have and trying to doing more with less." These new capabilities to support the warfighter should be intended to make their jobs easier and provide them with the ability to do MORE with better solutions. They deserve better! 💰 As a taxpayer, I am regularly frustrated with the fact that the government can't pass an audit. The fact that Secretary Hegseth placed this as a priority highlights the importance of accountability for all services and DoD agencies to track their fiscal data in an appropriate manner. 📃 Senior leaders across the #DoD have been calling for a massive overhaul of the acquisition process for years. The speed at which technology is advancing creates an interesting challenge at trying to change the acquisition laws, while also affording the current legacy systems to continue, which are necessary for the DoD to stay their current course. Additionally, this isn't entirely on the DoD to change, it requires bi-partisan support from the Legislative Branch of government as well. ⚙️ Reviving the Defense Industrial Base involves: holding all companies accountable for performance (even those who are 'too big to fail'), ensuring the capabilities MEET OR EXCEED the needs of the #warfighter, bringing dual use companies into the fold, holding all companies accountable for delivery and terminating contracts for those who don't deliver. I applaud the transparency of the DoD's priorities from the onset and look forward to supporting our warfighters in any and every way.

Excellent piece from former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates in The Washington Post. Secretary Gates discusses something that I advocate for consistently — we need more bang for the buck for the dollars we allocate to the Department of Defense. My second book, "The Ever-Shrinking Fighting Force," is all about this goal. We need to couple reform with increased resources, especially to expand capacity in our industrial base. It’s imperative that Congress, the White House, the Pentagon, and industry work together to develop, fund, and deploy the capabilities necessary to make certain our warfighters always have the upper hand and are never in a fair fight if deterrence fails. Read more: https://lnkd.in/exj9bDx5 #NationalSecurity #Defense #Congress #Innovation #Technology #DefenseIndustrialBase

Injecting politics into decision-making around military leadership is a recipe for a mass exodus of military talent. Military appointments must remain merit-based. Is an upending of this system mixed with a purging of generals what we really want during a time of tense geopolitics?   See my comments in The Hill among a chorus of national security experts who understand the details and essential nature of these professionals. #2024Election #MilitaryLeadership #TheHill