The Pentagon’s Investments: Strategies for New National Security Needs

This Capstone analyzed the Pentagon’s current investments and considered a range of strategies for ensuring emerging U.S. national security needs are appropriately prioritized. The team was given both a broad mandate and a vast quantity of information to analyze, to include defense budgets, service priorities, and a series of documents numbering in the tens of thousands of pages. The Capstone team first conducted a thorough review of recent national defense strategies and observed a growing emphasis on responding better to an increasingly competitive global environment in which developing expertise in emerging ideas, concepts and technologies is central. Next, the team analyzed trends within the overall budget and highlighted areas where the investments might not completely align with the current strategy. The team then produced a novel and flexible methodology consisting of six weighted metrics to assist in evaluating potential investments. The methodology was validated by applying it both to a historical example as well as to new and emerging technology. The end result is a tool for the U.S. Department of Defense to use in conducting future assessments that compares the nation’s current security priorities with its near-term investment allocations.