The Defense Department’s 8 percent challenge: What to cut and where to invest

On March 21, AEI’s Todd Harrison and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Seamus P. Daniels hosted Melissa Dalton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Defense Priorities’ Jennifer Kavanagh, AEI’s Elaine McCusker, and Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution to discuss how the Department of Defense can cut and reinvest 8 percent from its budget, in line with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s guidance. All the panelists used AEI’s Defense Futures Simulator to process the cuts and reinvestments.

Broad themes from the experts’ decision-making included cuts to the Army, largely reinvested in the Navy and the other services; investments in air and missile defense and missiles and munitions at the cost of other categories not related to lethality; and, strategically, cuts to the force structure in favor of modernization and operational readiness plans. All the panelists stressed how difficult this exercise was and emphasized the need to take a strategic approach to cuts and reinvestments.

Watch at American Enterprise Institution