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President Donald Trump delivers a speech about the economy at Rockland Community College Fieldhouse in Suffern, New York, on May 22, 2026. (Getty Images)
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The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt transits the Philippine Sea on April 5, 2024. (DVIDS)
The United States Department of Defense is unlikely to get the sustained funding required to achieve its desired scale and capabilities. Therefore, maintaining costs will be a central challenge for the department. Norm Augustine warned several decades ago about the punishing increases in platform costs, and operating costs have continued to climb. What capital and operational strategies should the department consider? To what extent should the DoD be concerned about deferred costs like veterans’ benefits? And how might the Pentagon address political and cultural obstacles to change?
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