This is What Assumption of Additional Risk Looks Like

For a defense planner provided with limited resources to distribute among numerous priorities, risk calculations must be made.  This is the process at the heart of the entire defense budgeting system.  In times of plenty, the decisions are somewhat easier, though resources are always “scarce” to some degree.

In the present environment, those resources are particularly scarce.  This statement causes many a jaw to drop, what with a base budget in the neighborhood of $500B and contingency funding atop that.  Readers of this blog are less likely to stare agape at the screen, as you recognize that even with all that money being spent, the military requirements of the world’s leading democratic power are considerable.

Read the rest at Information Dissemination.

Bryan McGrath (@ConsWahoo) is the founding Managing Director of The FerryBridge Group. A retired Naval Officer, Bryan spent 21 years on active duty including a tour in command of USS BULKELEY (DDG 84).  His final duties ashore included serving as Team Lead and Primary Author of the US Navy’s 2007 Maritime Strategy “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.” McGrath is an Adjunct Fellow at the ‎Hudson Institute and Assistant Director of the Hudson Center for American Seapower.