2021 index of u. S. Military strength. This is the seventh edition of the index and the index has come one of the flagship publications. Our goal has been unchanged. It is to provide both the leaders of this country and the American Public a premiere open source and author tatetive of Armed Services and their ability to protect the nation. I think we have not only achieved that goal but continued with this effort. And this years edition is the best ever. In addition to our usual subjects, it includes National Security concerns and one of these is the emergent of the new space force. We have a new chapter on the subject of space this year and look more hearing from the editor of the new index in his presentation later. Today as part of our launch, we welcome a speaker with decades of matters, representative Mac Thornberry. He was the first elected to congress in 1994 and has supported a Strong National defense since. He is currently the Ranking Member of the house Armed Services committee and served as the committees chairman from 20152019. He has sponsored or cosponsored a number of bills to make the department of defense not only ore neglecttive but more innovative and endeavored to ensure that our Armed Services to get the services they need to defend the nation. Congressman thornberry has made it his mission. And he has written extensively about the importance of our military and its status. There is quite simply no other member of congress who is more respected or more thoughtful on defense matters. Therefore comes as no surprise no surprise that this National Defense authorization act is named after him. He is retiring from congress this year and we are grateful to hear his thoughts how the strength of the military in the years to come. It is my pleasure tore welcome congressman Mac Thornberry to the station. Mr. Thornberry congress has given the new tools and they are being used to greater effect, they are still too much resistance to change both in the department and within congress. So with this impressive body of work before us, my mind naturally goes to, ok, what do we do about it . I thought i might offer on my way out of public life, that i might offer a suggested todo list for congress, for the executive and legislative branch and for the National Security community atlarge. I narrowed it down to the top 10. I will be able to give some headlines, but theser to me, the 107 things that we should work on to improve our situation. Item number one is keep people first. The demographics, the skills we need, the importance of families in career decisions, the training and professional education required, the standards for promotion and assignment, all of that is changing. And yet, if we get the people part wrong, then the rest isnt going to matter very much. Number one, i have to say is keep people first. Number two is to provide stable, reliable funding that grows at 3 to 5 above inflation. I think the National DefenseStrategy Commission had it exactly right. Thats what it takes to defend the country. If we choose to do less than that, then congress and the president have to shoulder the plame for the consequences. And just because we are in one gain, i have to say no c. R. s, regardless of the amount of the continuing resolution, it does damage every time and i can give you a laundry list of pecific ways that this c. R. If it goes past december. Number 3, provide greater flex built of funding. Writing hundreds of pages of requirements of who can build that precise thing having protests and buying thousands of hem, those days are going by the wayside. Congress, especially the appropriators, have to get more comfortable with a pot of money being available for a particular purpose and then full transparency on how those funds are used. Flexibility is the key to help attract more suppliers to do business with the department of business, to overcome that infamous valley of death, to enable more experimentation and prototyping and get technology into the field faster. Speaking to traditional approaches makes those things much harder. Item number 4 is be relentless in whatever needs to be changed to get the best technology that our country can produce into the hands of the warfighters faster. That means the resources have to be brought to be bear. Private industry as well as government, private capital as well as government funding. Weve made plog and hopefully we will make progress in this years ndaa that we are now negotiating in encouraging businesses to do with d. O. D. And small and Midsized Companies to bring innovation to the table and to help all of that to move at a greater rate of speed. But there is a lot more to be done. Updating our aapproaches to things has to go beyond d. O. D. A story in the wall street journal said china is no longer leading the you when it comes to 5 delnch g it is running away with the game. A few weeks ago, d. O. D. Proposed deas on other ways that we can deploy 5 delnchgep and utilize spectrum and you think the sky is about to fall in. National security is no longer br planes, tanks and ships being willing to pursue other shoes but make a huge differ in our country defending itself. Number five. And that is have a lot of public discussion about new technologies and their applications for defense. N 2011, then Speaker Boehner asked me to do a committee. We were able to come together with a set of recommendations and we had the snowden the leaks, we had wikileaks and everybody that the government was reading your emails to grandma. That made it politically impossible to consider any sort of cyberrelated legislation in congress for several years. Our adversaries do not vr ethical concerns but we can parallel ourselves by misinformation or lack of understanding when it comes to artificial intelligent intelligence, all sorts of issues. I believe that it is important to have a little innoculation th hearings, with thinktank seminars, with papers, with a Greater Public discussion about these technologies, about what they mean and what they dont mean to help prevent this sort of parallels cyst from setting in in the future. Number six, understand and shore up the Industrial Base. We are making significant progress because of covid and understanding where the suppliers and components of our various Defense Systems come from. Of some ofnerability those things. But it is complicated and we havent gotten our arms around the problem completely. Our Industrial Base has to include trusted companies and allies and partner nations as well. But we need to understand it and then it may require some targeted government actions to help ensure it will be available to us. Number seven is nurture our alliances and partnerships. As churchill, there is one thing worse fighting without our allies. We cannot do everything ourselves. There is some repair that he needs to occur in those relationships. We should be candid about our differences and about our expectations when it comes to allies and partners but a lot of that candid talk better be hand lt outdoors. Item number eight is dont neglect the nukes. Im glad to see that heritage as set aside our Nuclear Deterrent in another. They may be charitable of where we are than i would be, because on both the weapons and the delivery systems, there is absolutely no margin for error. The index notes that. We have allowed everything to age out at once. And i have to say, im particularly concerned about where the chinese are headed with their size and capability of their nuclear program, like a lot of things related to the chinese, we have probably been too complacent when we look at that issue. But, all of our other defense efforts for the country rests upon a foundation of a safe, reliable, effective Nuclear Deterrent. And this is another one, that if we get this wrong, then probably the rest of these things isnt going to matter much. Item number 9 is make every effort to keep nondefense. There are going to be differences but somehow through those differences over the years, congresses and president s of both parties have been able to come together and enact a Defense Authorization bill for 59 straight years. Good lord willing we will have number 60 before too long. But that fact, in and of itself, is important for allies and adversaries and especially for the men and women who are risking their lives for us. They need to know that the country stands together behind them in support of their mission. Now, to do that, sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Sometimes you have to accept some things you disagree with. Sometimes we have to actually compromise. But we should never forget that the top goal of russia and other adverse areas is to divide us. To sow dissension. I dont worry about our ability to overcome any outside adverse area. The only thing that could keeps me up at night is the decisions we make for ourselves. The only one that can defeat ourselves are americans ourselves. Item number 10. Every one of us must make a concerted effort toll educate and remind each other the reasons that a Strong Defense is important. By any measure, the last 70 years has been a time of unmatched human progress. Life expectancy, living standards, poverty rates, people with a say in their government, the number of People Killed in war, any metric you want to use highlights that the last 70 years has been special. And i believe all of that progress was made possible by two basic decisions that the United States made after world war ii to keep a Strong Defense and stay engaged in the world. And yet today, both of those decisions are under attack in both political parties. Im afraid that too many of us have lost sight of what it takes o keep this unparalleled prosperity and security, too many people dont realize its not just our safety, its our jobs, our quality of life, our whole society that depends pop the security that is provided by the u. S. Military. Ronald reagan said that all great change in america begins around the dinner table. So if i could wave the magic wand and get one of the 10 items that i am suggesting for my todo list, it would be to have a conversation around every dinner table in america about what we have achieved in the last 70 years and what it took to achieve it, the sacrifice that has been made and the dangers of letting it all slip away. F we are negligent, im afraid we will inhabit a world that is more dangerous that we could even see civilization start to slip backwards as has happened before in history. United states of america is the greatest force for good in the because the World Americans decided we had to be. The alternative was too terrible. And now we have to decide whether to continue or to abandon those two crucial decisions that have guided us with both parties for the last 70 years and has done so much, not just for ourselves, but for all of mankind. As i depart congress, i hope and pray that we choose wisely. Thank you. We have to remain strong. That is normal and i thank you very much for that statement. Now we get to turn to a very special event. On behalf of the Heritage Foundation and our president , this is james, this is my pleasure to inaugurate award, an award we call the guardian of the gate award. The Heritage Foundation will honor distinguished careers with an emphasis on strong support and supporters for our armed forces. But if you think about it, the thing. A twoway the things that are bad must be stopped but you have to let the good as well and they have to come in freely and in some cases be welcomed. A guardian is constant by guarding the gate of our nations interest and important to honor those who carried this heavy responsibility throughout their careers and distinguished themselves and their charge as a guardian of the public trust. And we can think of no better honorey to be the first recipient of guardian of the gate award than representative Mac Thornberry. Representative thornberry, your many years of service to our country and congress and unwavering support for our military makes this a fitting tribute to your accomplishments. America is safer in the world bus of you and because of your efforts and we thank you for your dedication and for your leadership over the course of your very long career. You have appear inspiration to the heritages foundation career. It was inspired by the collaboration with you over the years. But we look forward to your continued impact on National Defense issues even after you leave congress. You have been a true guardian of the gate. So please join me in picking up our award. [applause] indiscernible chatter] we are going to shift onto the part of the program and talk about the index and what a great honor to have congressman thornberry at the end of a stellar career and dr. Holmes mentioned not only with the Heritage Foundation on the important topic of military strength. What i would like to do is talk p about the index. Just very briefly and get into what the index says about the state of military power. And what we tried to keep in mind, you could have discussion 10 t a plane, tank or five, or what have you, but that absent context. Is it easy to work or difficult to work in the world . That tells you whether you need more military power or less. Its that context that we try to provide within the construct of the index itself. As has been mentioned in various ways, we have a military for a certain reason. Not just for parades or looking for employment opportunities, its there to defend the country. If you have history buffs in the im going to butcher a name, th century a. D. , a roman philosopher said if you want peace, prepare for war. And when you think about defending the country, if you go back to our own constitution, defending the country is one of the only few specified tasks of the federal government. It gets involved in a lot of things it wants to do and plays popular for electorate. Nd when you talk about defense budget. And it drives our thinking of how we need to support it. We spend lots of money on our ilitary, 740 billion. Run deficits because of that because of the great divide. And the additional obligations, but thats a lot of money. What we want to do is explain to the American People what at the are getting for their money, tting a competent, readily military, is it being spent well. We believe that in surveying the landscape, there is no other capable effort undertaken by anyone where time is spent by a number of scholars to bring insights on the nature of the world and the military and write this in an accessible way. Ill give you some statistics. They want to make the American Public informed and so that when we do have this these debates and people have some idea what they are talking about. And this is again another purpose for the index. I will be going through a lot of slides here and im not expecting our viewers to look at dashes. Of this is on heritage. Org military. And if you want to dive into one of these graphics, click on the links and download it. But by the numbers, 20 ought thors contributed their times and talent to make this impossible. 20,000 footnotes, and why is that a big deal . If we are saying something and providing a data data point, what is north korea doing, what is United States army doing, Great Britain doing, we link that to a source some you can go into it and read the same thing that we are reading and come to a different conclusion. Footnoting to win credibility to the index and replete with graphics and maps and carts and all sorts of things, tables, 62 of those in addition to the programs. You have heard mention about major acquisition programs. Are they on track . And we address those components as well. Since we have the index, we distribute both hard copies and distribute it online, what a useful mechanism to talk about things that are really important to National Security and status and use of military power, when i taug about a tank. Can i make more of them. Do i have an Industrial Base. Am i experimenting, do i have an crew that is effective. How does it relate to other tanks. In each edition of the index, we provide four to six eas ace and Talent Management and mobility. In this set right here, we haves as that have been written on the american irl Intelligence Community. If you needed to get military power for the United States. Es a tor has provided us an on alliances. What is the nature . We have the we have provided one about the defense Industrial Base and the status to make up mcfarlandall and germ has addressed about navy, army, air force and marines, do they play well together. Are we developing ways to utilize military power that is much more effective in the world of joint experimentation, who really understands it. And the commissioner did a fine job. I mentioned on programs, again, dont try to read the slide. Download it and look at it at your leisure. F15 fighter, what is the status of that current capability, how old is it, and how many do we have, and do we have a new capability coming on the line . Is it being underfunded or problematic. Each one of the services, 104 major programs and we have made it readily available to the public. As we talk about this front matter and thinking about military power and for me the time keaways is time, the how long it takes to do things and acceptable risks. If i had the ability to generate power overnight, perhaps im willing to take soy risk because i know i can catch up but that is