The National Defense Strategy says the Pentagon should focus on countering and deterring China and Russia, but the department’s $738-billion budget request for Fiscal Year 2020 suggests it intends to put money into other lesser priorities, the author of a major analysis of Pentagon spending told USNI News. Travis Sharp, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, asked rhetorically in a telephone interview, “if China is Threat 1A, why would shipbuilding and aircraft be budget losers?” One answer, he suggested, could be that the Defense Department was “focusing on capability rather than capacity. That’s possible.” The … Continue reading Budget Analysis Shows DoD Spending Doesn’t Line Up With Focus On High-End Fight