For Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, fostering innovation can mean ditching uniforms for casual wear and working while listening to club music at an office in Austin, Texas.
“They don’t wear uniforms — they work in a high rise,” he said of entrepreneurs working at an Army office at an accelerator hub in Texas. “There’s techno music and people wearing hoodies. So we’re doing anything we can to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of the country and get away from flagpoles and tanks out in front of the headquarters buildings.”
McCarthy was part of a conversation Friday morning that included Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. The civilian leaders spoke at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that focused on the delicate balance of modernizing the military while maintaining force readiness. Each addressed issues within the theme.
Barrett said standing up the Space Force is attracting new, young talent that will help the Air Force reach modernization goals. “The Space Force has been an extraordinary magnet for young people to want to be part of the military,” she said.
“Modernization is really going to take a toll for all of us,” Barrett added. “We will be taking risks, measured, calculated risks, and building for a longer-term, strong future.”
Modly said a goal of reaching a maritime fleet of 355 ships may take 10 years, and he is not counting on a higher “top line,” or a budget increase, in either a second Trump term or a Democratic administration.
“We have a readiness hole that we’re still digging ourselves out of,” he said, describing a new mix of ships that will include autonomous and lightly manned systems.
McCarthy cited the Army’s “breathtaking demand worldwide,” including the deployment of 180,000 soldiers in 140 countries, as a challenge in reaching modernization while maintaining deterrence.
“We’ve increased the rotational deployments to areas of the world where we have a particular competition in play, if you will, against near-peer competitors,” he said.
McCarthy pointed to a New Year’s Day deployment within 24 hours of 1st and 82nd Airborne Division soldiers to the Middle East as evidence that readiness is strong. Nonetheless, he said, maintaining deterrence worldwide absorbs 60% of the Army’s budget.
“When you have 40% or less of your budget to be able to modernize the force, the challenge is striking that balance between the new capabilities and divestiture,” he said.
To achieve balance, McCarthy and the other service secretaries said they will need the private sector to make the investments that allow America’s armed forces to look beyond legacy equipment and systems.
Convincing Congress to support investments in space and technology that don’t already have a constituency is also a challenge, said Barrett.
“Both of those are harder to sell because there aren’t tires to kick,” she said. “The air and space business is an especially technology-dependent process.”
Modly and McCarthy made note that space technology investments benefit all the forces.
The Navy secretary said space is essential for helping ships that roam the vast Pacific, and McCarthy said the Army is the “largest consumer of space in the department,” using space technology for troop movements and positioning.
Modly said the industries needed may not exist for another 10 to 15 years, but matching the investments of adversaries in areas such as hypersonics is critical to our national security. “Moving that technology to production capacity is a big, big leap,” he said.
McCarthy seconded the vital role of the private sector: “We need buy-in from industry and the Hill.”
