Doing Things That Can't Be Done

The current DoD organization has served our nation well. It is the most capable military the world has ever known. However, it is based on a Cold War mindset that does not efficiently respond to the rapid changes in today's global environment. There are several defects: the organization bureaucracy has become inefficient; service parochialism has become an Achilles' heel; and the structure is ill equipped to respond to joint, interagency, and coalition partners. To develop a future force structure to (1) support emerging missions that are (2) within fiscal constraints, while striving to (3) improve "jointness" and achieve the objectives outlines in national security guidance, the U.S. needs a major restructuring of the Department of Defense. This paper provides the background and explores new concepts that lead to a proposed DoD reorganization. It overviews the past, present, and future of the U.S. military to get a better understanding of the size and scope of the issue. Next, it looks at various organization concepts and creative thinking to help brainstorm new possibilities. This leads up to the six steps of a proposed reorganization: (1) Step One: Streamline overhead. Eliminate the three service secretary staffs and transfer their functions up to OSD and realign down to the military departments. (2) Step Two: Reduce layers. Transition and consolidate service-specific three-star level commands into standing joint task forces. (3) Step Three: Change mindset. Establish a joint promotion system. (4) Step Four: Reduce duplication. Consolidate the numerous defense and service support agencies performing similar functions into single agencies. (5) Step Five: Increase flexibility. Transform the current military departments that contain both "tooth" and "tail" to smaller, more flexible "corps" focused on core competencies (tooth), and establish a joint support force (tail) to augment these warfighting corps. (6) Step Six: Adapt concepts. Modify the combatant comma conc