Transforming America's Force Projection Capability

[...]Congress remains interested in force projection capabilities and capacities, as evidenced by the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces (Committee on Armed Services) for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 and specific language on Army watercraft, US ship operator participation in wargames and exercises, and another Mobility Capabilities Requirement Study (MCRS). [...]strategic fires and maneuver capability will be enabled by technology and materials breakthroughs, such as non-TNT, non-toxic, stable explosive in munitions; and small, portable nuclear power generators supporting directed-energy weapons fires, adaptive basing, shipboard life support, and bulk fuel demand reduction throughout the strategic support area. Combatant commanders may soon start populating their integrated priority lists with expanded strategic maneuver capability requirements, prompting the Joint Staff to champion their collective cause with OSD and JIIMC C Simply recapitalizing ships in the standard configurations and roles, or purchasing additional legacy surge ships without making modifications enabling a degree of strategic maneuver capability, only solves a capacity problem-not the capability issues of contested MDO. Adversaries are more likely to achieve their objectives in competition short of war where their influence is greater-gaining advantages through focused efforts, such as obtaining controlling interest in global transport companies, ships, and enabling equipment; investing in and owning critical deployment infrastructure; and adopting advancements in materials science and technologies.