Building Tomorrow's Defense Workforce Today.

• Author: Sax, Chris
• Position: NDIA Perspective

American national security faces many destabilizing challenges that threaten to upend U.S. military supremacy. These threats, including an unprecedented rate of change in technology, the rise of great power competitors, and the criticality of non-traditional space and cyber warfare domains, exist across an increasingly interconnected international system.

Despite this litany of outside threats, our nation faces an impeding domestic problem the Defense Department and defense industrial base must unite to address: a critical shortage of workers qualified, clearable, and interested in working in our nation's defense ecosystem. To meet these challenges, NDIA launched the Defense Workforce Project with an aim to create the conditions to develop and maintain a robust, ready, and cleared defense workforce for 2040 and beyond.

The threat posed by an inadequate defense labor pool threatens industry and government alike. America's STEM education output increasingly lags our international competitors. U.S. manufacturers struggle to find cleared workers to fill their openings for skilled employees. Our defense workforce doesn't demographically match our population, and new technologies are disrupting how and where we work. The United States and its defense industrial base need a heathy, robust talent pipeline to ensure U.S. forces continue to enjoy decisive competitive advantage across the spectrum of future conflicts.

The Defense Workforce Project is comprised of multiple working groups led by subject matter experts examining these challenges to the future health of the American labor pool. During its first year, NDIA established four working groups focused on: improving pathways for STEM education; bolstering the skilled workforce; exploring the impact of technology on the future of work; and increasing the defense community's diversity and inclusivity by expanding and tapping into talent pools.

In addition to the Defense Workforce Project, NDIA partnered with Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, as they established the Defense Workforce, Innovation, and Industry Caucus, also known as the DWIIC. The caucus serves as an open line of communication to lawmakers for issues such as supply chain resiliency, research and development, onshoring, cybersecurity, and any other challenges within the defense industrial base. NDIA will work with the caucus' growing membership and develop a program of meetings and events to educate members and...