The global challenge that China poses to the United States is more difficult for the public to grasp than what they see on their phones in the bitter combat happening in Ukraine and the Middle East, Kathleen Hicks, the Pentagon’s number two civilian, said Tuesday.
Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, said the People’s Liberation Army’s “relentless modernization and expansion” to back up its global ambitions is the “pacing challenge” that China presents to the United States.
“Polycrisis,” a word created to describe multiple crises like China-Taiwan, Ukraine and the Middle East happening simultaneously, “is the norm of the day,” she said at the Center for Strategic International Studies event.
To manage those, “make sure you have a North Star,” a strategy that can adjust to the reality without losing sight of the nation’s top priority, she said. Doing this comes with “how you design that force and how you manage that force” so it is scaled sufficiently to be effective in multiple theaters at the same time, Hicks said.
That comes down to taking care of those serving and their families.
Forty percent of the Defense Department’s budget goes toward people programs – from pay and compensation to training and equipment, as well as taking care of families and service members themselves. Hicks noted progress in reducing sexual assaults in the ranks and also the increased attention on suicide prevention.
The numbers on “the talent side” show “we have excellent retention” among service members. In “recruiting, we’re in good shape.” But that could change, she said, since there are fewer and fewer potential recruits coming from families with a history of military service.
On the civilian side, Hicks hopes to “build out [efforts in DoD] to have a Talent Management Policy that can show the value of serving in the government. Answering an audience question, she said that translates into knocking down barriers to applying for government careers and the drawn-out process to receive a security clearance.
In the larger strategy picture, Hicks said the Pentagon holds an “asymmetric advantage” over China and Russia. The United States has allies and partners who share values and are willing to work with Washington.
“We’re a value-aligned network,” she said. That has been shown most clearly in allies’ willingness in Europe and the Pacific “to call foul” when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Since then, they also proved willing “to stand firm and provide Ukraine for its defense” as the war entered its third year, she added.
“There is no silver bullet” in the department’s toolkit to address all the challenges an organization like the Pentagon faces, Hicks said. The scale is enormous: 3 million employees and a 535-member board of directors. It also operates globally with legacy systems coupled with major advances in software that require agility and flexibility in combat operations.
Barriers holding back innovation efforts in the Pentagon start with Congress having to fall back on continuing resolutions to keep the government open, Hicks said.
“You can’t innovate … if you can’t start,” Hicks said. Until the budget is passed, the government is to operate at the spending levels with the programs that were approved the year before. “You can’t make that time up,” she added.
The final spending package for the current fiscal year passed in March. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
She added that another barrier to innovation comes in the Pentagon culture of not “holding folks accountable.” But that is the “normal way of business” outside of government.
One of the largest cultural changes she would like to see is a willingness “to embrace the red” in the real sharing of data. In short, this means reporting what’s not working as expected or at all. This transfer of reliable complete data can raise performance levels and safety. One of the examples she provided was in ensuring “food security.”
Hicks added that she understands “it’s really hard down at the granular level” to acknowledge those missed targets and failures.
While the Pentagon must hold people accountable, Hicks said it also must reward people for innovation.
That applies to the services as well. Hicks described the Marine Corps Force Design 2030 effort as “exactly the right kind of force we needed” to meet the Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon put more money toward the initiative to push it forward by three years.
