Why is the U.S. military—long considered the global gold standard in defense innovation—so far behind in this new and dangerous trend? According to a former senior adviser to Hegseth, Marine Corps veteran Dan Caldwell, the main reason harks back to an age-old problem: Generals and commanders are always fighting the last war.
“They’re not just fighting the last war, they’re fighting the last two or three wars,” says Caldwell, who was fired in April along with others in Hegseth’s inner circle. “I think you still have a class of officers and career civilians in the DoD whose formative experience was in Desert Storm or Iraq and Afghanistan, and they still look at those conflicts as the framework for analysis going forward.” That, in addition to traditional wargaming in the Pacific, means that most of the Pentagon’s attention and resources is still on “major prestige acquisition programs” like the F-35 jet, the Sentinel missile program, more Navy ships and expensive precision munitions, he said.
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