HUDSON INSTITUTE
CAN THE U.S. REGAIN BATTLEFIELD SUPERIORITY AGAINST CHINA?
APPLYING NEW METRICS TO BUILD AN ADAPTABLE AND RESILIENT MILITARY
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POLICY MEMO
Can the U.S. Regain Battlefield
Superiority against China?
Applying New Metrics to Build an
Adaptable and Resilient Military
BRYAN CLARK, DAN PATT, AND TIMOTHY A. WALTON
Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute
January 2022
Organizational behavior is driven by metrics and measurements,
which can compel change more effectively than a urry of
management directives from the C-suite. With Pentagon leaders
calling for new ways of building and ghting the force, the time
has come to re-examine some of the US military’s fundamental
metrics and assess how they could better incentivize the
characteristics needed for future combat.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has undergone near-
constant reform since its founding in the wake of World War II.
Frustrated by the department’s fragmented decision-making,
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara restructured Pentagon
processes during the 1960s to implement the same analytic
and data-driven industrial approach he previously applied at
Ford Motor Company.
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Additional changes ensued over the
following decades: During the 1970s, the failures of Vietnam
spurred the establishment of independent intelligence and
assessment organizations; during the 1980s, the Goldwater-
Nichols Act reorganized acquisition and operational relationships
to promote inter-service integration; and, during the 1990s,
decreased defense spending prompted efforts to wring greater
efciencies from the defense enterprise.
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The pace of change
only accelerated over the last two decades as defense leaders
sought to produce a sophisticated, networked military by
creating additional paths to speed acquisition and standing
up more than a dozen new support agencies and combatant
commands to address emerging missions.
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The steady drumbeat of US defense reform stems in large
part from frustration with the Pentagon’s inability to innovate
