Arnold Punaro, CEO of the Punaro Group, said the U.S. needs 3 to 5 percent real growth in defense budgets to implement the National Security Strategy amid the great power competition with countries such as China and Russia.
“The challenge is not how much we are spending … it’s what do we get from what we’re spending … We should be measuring outputs, not inputs,” Punaro told Paul Lawrence, a retired U.S. Army captain and industry veteran, in a video interview posted on LinkedIn.
Punaro, a previous Wash100 awardee, cited some recommendations highlighted in his book “The Ever-Shrinking Fighting Force,” including the need to streamline the acquisition process within the Department of Defense by eliminating red tape and bureaucracy and the need to reduce the defense overhead while increasing the number of fighting forces and capabilities.
He also called on DOD to advance reforms by linking the requirements, acquisition and budget processes.