New Report Suggests US Military Should Be Treated as a Corporation

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(Newswire.net — March 25, 2017) — The BPC report released Monday claims the strategy of recruiting young people into the military in their teens and 20s, and removing “all but the most-senior-ranking service members by their early 40s” is a “70-years-old strategy” that has to change.

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a $54 billion increase in military spending, however, the report states that money boosting will not solve the issue. According to the report, the current system is a “holdover from the Cold War, reflecting the national security priorities and American society of that time.”

The world has changed since the Cold War and U.S. faces an unsustainable growth of personnel costs, combined with the lack of enthusiasm for joining the military. In addition, thoughtlessly throwing money into a bureaucracy and spending $trillions to interventions across the globe boosted the cost of military personnel which increased more than 50% in the last 15 years, and continue to grow year to year.

Increasing the military budget to follow expenses isn’t going to solve the problem, according to the BPC report.

“You can’t buy your way out of this problem, and we’ve been trying to buy our way out of the problem with bonuses and all the other things,” former defense secretary Leon Panetta, co-chair of the BPC study team, told the Breaking Defense.

“Frankly that’s why personnel costs have gone up 50 percent in the last 15 years,” he explained, adding that authorities should consider “creating a more sustainable military system,” that suits the U.S. by current standards, minding the future aims.

The report suggests that military should recruit more members with specialties ranging from cybersecurity to translators in order to answer modern threats. In order to do that, the report calls on lawmakers to implement 39 policy proposals to create a FAST military (Fully engaged, Adaptable, Sustainable, and Technically proficient).

In addition, some parts of the BPC report suggested a requirement for every young American to take the military’s Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, as to determine their individual skills.

Serving in the U.S. military involves frequently relocating across the world so military spouses need to be able to manage a career and quality child care services in conjunction with their family needs. The proposed program would treat the U.S. military as any other corporation with HR services that focus on treating individuals rather than the whole system.