Industrial Readiness Requires Steady Commitment.

• Author: Farrell, Lawrence P., Jr.
• Position: Brief Article

As the United States undertakes an extended campaign against global terrorism, the changing landscape of the nation's security invites an examination of the readiness of the nation's defense industrial base and some of the factors that affect its health. Further, we must consider the importance of communicating these facts to the American people and the Congress, while they are focused intently on the military instrument of national power.

We define military readiness as well-trained personnel manning systems that are immediately available for combat operations. This implies a sustained resource commitment over time that supports a robust training tempo. It also implies a sustained resource commitment to maintenance and supply activities so that systems will be available in adequate numbers to meet mission requirements.

With some exceptions, we characterize industrial base readiness in a similar fashion. A healthy industrial base is underpinned by sustained resource commitments to design, development, and production programs. These long-term commitments, on one hand, ensure that we deliver the future systems that will maintain our technical edge and contribute to future readiness. On the other hand, they help secure the requisite industrial and technological skills, so that the industrial base will be able to deliver, over time, those systems that guarantee victory for our armed forces.

It is important to remember that any call to arms is a "come as you are" event for the forces themselves. They will deploy and fight with what they have on hand. The systems on hand were designed, perhaps, 20 years ago, developed and prototyped about 10-15 years ago, and entered into production less than a decade ago.

Their fighting edge is underwritten by high-quality training and periodic upgrades to these systems. The same is true of the industrial base. It responds with the skills at hand and with existing production lines. The industrial response involves the acceleration of existing production or the modifications and upgrades of in-service systems. New capabilities are not available in the short run.

As mentioned above, the industrial base at its best is designing, developing and producing systems that will be used several years into the future. These realities generally are not well understood by the American public and, as a result, do not receive consistent treatment by the U.S. Congress.

The point to be made is that our preparation to deal with...