President-elect Donald Trump’s goals for revitalizing U.S. military capabilities are similar to those that president-elect Ronald Reagan espoused in 1981. One lesson to be learned from Reagan’s success in rebuilding a hollow military is that it’s important to have a long-term plan laying out administration defense objectives. That’s what defense secretary Caspar Weinberger provided in his first annual report, setting forth a plan for increasing the buying power of the defense budget by 48% between 1982 and 1987. President Trump will need a similar plan that sets goals and identifies program priorities to prevent his defense agenda from being captured by protectors of the status quo. I have written a piece for Forbes explaining the importance of formulating a five-year defense plan at the outset of the new administration that can be read here.
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