Defense transformation can be defined as large-scale, discontinuous, and possibly disruptive changes in military weapons, concepts of operations and organization. The issue for the 2nd session of the 109th Congress is how to take the concept of defense transformation into account in assessing and acting on Administration proposals for DOD.

The US defence budget continues to grow at a remarkable pace. At $419bn in the coming fiscal year, it has grown by more than 40 per cent in just five years.

The Pentagon is working to develop a suborbital space capsule within the next five years that would be launched from the United States and could deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within two hours

The catalogue of what we have lost for refusing to increase the size of the force to respond to the post-9/11 world is considerable. It has played out in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in the larger war on terror, and is causing structural damage to the force itself.