Our legacy platforms have served us well for decades, but we're running out of upgrades that will keep us ahead. Technology is changing too fast, and our enemies are too adaptable.
I've stepped down from jobs that paid me well more than what I was working anywhere else. And each time, it was to serve the public good and to serve the young men and women of our armed services.
The Brits are escorting their ships, and we will escort our ships, and I assume other countries will escort their ships.
Child care is very important, so I want to put dollars there, and I want to make sure we get the policies right.
I've got a lot of military kids who are not in on-base child care, and they should be. So it's things like that I'm going to change, either from a funding perspective or a policy perspective.
You have to give the soldiers, the Army, a clear vision.
Seventeen consecutive years of irregular war, extended years of budget uncertainty, and an increasing complex security environment have eroded our competitive edge.
I think the presumption is, for some reason, anybody who comes from the business or the corporate world is corrupt.
We certainly have the best special operations forces in the world and know how to do counterterrorism extremely well.
We are at war, if you will, in the cyber domain now, constantly battling countries, such as Russia or China, who are trying to do everything from steal our technology to influence our elections to put out disinformation about the United States.
The goal is to deter war, and this can only be done with a strong, modern, and ready military that has overmatch in all domains.
The surest way to deter adversary aggression is to fully prepare for war.
AI will allow the soldier to act and think much more quickly. Whoever gets to AI first, I believe, will have dominance for many years afterward.
We are extending basic training. It'll be the longest and toughest in the world.
In many cases, the reason why our child development centers are not at full capacity is that we have an insufficient number of providers.
Now, 'high-intensity conflict' is a fancy word for saying tanks on tanks, aircraft shooting each other out of the sky, a great deal of violence at a level we haven't seen since probably the Korean War or World War II, where you have big armies facing off against one another.
The bottom line is this: in an era of mounting fiscal challenges and competing demands, we must actively seek ways to free up time, money, and manpower to invest back into our top priorities.
Together, we will remain the most ready and capable military force in the world, which is what our nation expects and deserves.
The National Defense Strategy remains our guiding document, and everything we do should support its stated objectives.
Having previously served in the regular Army, National Guard, and Reserve, I understand well the sacrifices our service members, civilians, and their families make to protect this great country.
