SEPTEMBER 2019
U.S. Military Forces in FY 2020
e Strategic and Budget Context
Mark F. Cancian
Part of U.S. Military Forces in FY 2020: e Struggle to Align Forces with Strategy
CSIS Senior Adviser Mark Cancian annually produces a series of papers on U.S.military forces, including
composition, new initiatives, long-term trends, and challenges.
is first white paper in the series analyzes the strategy and budget context for building forces in FY 2020,
criticisms of the strategy, budget and resulting force plans, and risks for sustaining force levels in the future.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
▪ e administration’s FY 2020 budget proposal continues defense spending increases to align U.S.
military forces with a national defense strategy (NDS)focused on great power competition. is
strategyprioritizes capability over capacity.
▪ us, the FY 2020 budget prioritizes modernization to compete with China and Russia and maintains
the higher readiness levels achieved in the FY 2017-FY 2019 budgets. It expands force structure only a
little. Even defense buildups have limits and require trade-os.
▪ However, day-to-day operations for ongoing conflicts, crisis response, and allied engagement continue
to put high demands on forces.
▪ ese unrelenting operational demands require force structure and drive the services to a high-low mix:
high for great power conflict, low (or less high) for day-to-day deployments and regional conflicts.
▪ Although widely supported, the NDS has been criticized by some for being underfunded and by
others for being too aggressive, while the proposed FY 2020 budget has been criticized for not making
sucient changes to align with the NDS.
▪ e future presents two major risks for sustaining force plans: (1) a lack of real growth in future
budgets; and (2) softening public support.
Additional white papers published over the next month will take an in-depth look at each of the military
services, DOD civilians, contractors, and non-DOD national security programs.
