Exclusive: U.S. must overhaul military readiness and tech metrics, report urges
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Today's metrics don't give the U.S. military an accurate sense of its own readiness, as the Pentagon battles outdated procurement procedures and other countries quickly up-gun their troops, according to a General Catalyst Institute report first shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Misunderstandings about what works where and who is available when can be deadly. The report warns, for example, that flying a jet off Virginia is different than over a far-flung battlefield.
- "We need, in order to be survivable and lethal in that space, true, honest feedback of how our units are going to amass capability and execute the orders" of the president and defense secretary, GCI's Jonathan Clifford told Axios.
- "You can think about readiness as being binary, being zero or one. But in reality it is gray, just like the battlespace."
Driving the news: The report advocates for a composite readiness index. It would prioritize commander feedback, including on materiel performance downrange, the numbers on hand and ability to integrate with other services.
- Weapons or vehicles that regularly score low, the report states, should be scheduled for modernization — or sent to the scrap heap.
- "What is survivable in one theater may not be in another, and that will help commanders make more-informed decisions, or make more-informed decisions on their budgeting and capabilities," said Clifford, who previously worked on the Hill and in the Pentagon.
Zoom out: The report also suggests:
- Mandating adversarial testing, including for electronic and cyber vulnerabilities;
- Formalizing a "venture-capital-as-a-prime" model and better educating contracting officers about private markets and money;
- And investing equally in American production and innovation.
The bottom line: "Readiness is thrown around quite often as a buzzword," Clifford said.
- "A system that was born out of the 1980s, post-Goldwater-Nichols, is just as ripe for reform as the technology the Pentagon is buying."
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