In order meet the U.S. military's security obligations, Congress should increase the Presidents request. Specifically, Congress needs to ensure that adequate funding goes to the following programs:
1. Restoring the loss of naval power. . Any military analyst can tell you that the best way to avoid war and to prepare for it if it does come, is to have forward deployed forces. Currently, the only U.S. service capable of effectively achieving America's forward deployment needs is the U.S. Navy. While Reagan's dream of a 600 ship Navy was never realized, and possibly was never needed, few would argue that the Navy's current just-over-300-ship navy is adequate.
The U.S. requires freedom of access to the seas, shipping routes, and sea-lanes of communication. To achieve this, special attention should be devoted to enhancing the Navy and Marine Corps surface and subsurface platforms, auxiliary units, amphibious capabilities, mine countermeasures, antisubmarine warfare, and long-range Naval gun support (the latter entailing bringing back the Navy's big guns, the battleships New Jersey , the Missouri the Wisconsin and the Iowa , some of which are now used only as floating museums.)
2. Increased air and space capabilities. Airpower is essential to maintaining a forward deployed force. As such, much of America's airframes no longer can meet current military requirements. For example, just a few years ago, the U.S. Navy began retiring its all weather attack bomber, the Intruder. These planes were around since the Vietnam war. Some of the airframes in use at the time of retirement were over two decades old. But, even as the Intruder began its retirement, the Navy had, and still has, no sufficient replacement (some argue that the new F/A 18 E/F Hornet can meet the missions of the former Intruder. This is questionable. Only the Intruder provides truly all weather capabilities and it a better nighttime bomber with a much longer range. The Navy was made to understand this during recent air raids on Iraq).
But also important is the military use of space. Not only does space provide the military with weather forecasting capabilities, but also it is essential to communications and intelligence gathering. As America's defense force grows smaller, having the capabilities to monitor events around the world from space grows increasingly more important. New satellite systems, better optical/imagery satellites, and larger capacity weather and communications satellites are needed if America's military is to remain effective in the next century.
