“As we and our coalition partners take the fight to ISIL both where it began as a tumor and where it has metastasized,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at a speech in Washington on Tuesday, “we have to coordinate efforts more than ever before.”

Carter’s address seemed at first glance to be straight D.C. inside baseball—a commemoration of the 30-year anniversary of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, which reorganized the Department of Defense—and a discussion of possible changes to defense acquisitions. However, the secretary’s remarks on the budget illuminated the very real practical and strategic challenges that the DOD will face not just in 2017, but in the years to come.