THE COVID-19 EFFECT: Defense Secretary Mark Esper is looking ahead to when the coronavirus pandemic is just a bad memory, and he sees a future in which the Pentagon will be forced to retire weapons systems and tactics developed over the past decades in order to fund a broad range of new technologies to prepare for an entirely different kind of warfare.

In a wide-ranging interview with Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, Esper said he fears the enormous economic damage wrought by the COVID-19 virus will make it impossible the fund the 3% to 5% annual growth in the defense budget needed to modernize and adapt the force to future threats.