Speaking in October this year on the readiness of U.S. armed forces, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper referenced Task Force Smith — a unit decimated in the early days of the Korean War as a result of being sent into combat with insufficient training, inadequate munitions and equipment, and understrength manning.
This spectacular battlefield failure gave birth to a new rallying cry: “No more Task Force Smiths!”
As the military ramps up for great power competition, the lessons of Task Force Smith still resonate within the Pentagon. After two decades of focusing on terrorists and other non-state opponents, the U.S. Joint Force must once again consider battle with major state powers. None of the services wants to find itself as unready for that kind of fight as was Task Force Smith. Yet each faces challenges.
The Navy, for example, is still recovering from years of being under-resourced in manning and high operational tempo. This has produced inadequate training and maintenance backlogs —problems that directly contributed to two fateful collisions in 2017 and the deaths of 17 sailors. Yet even as the Navy strives to address these shortcomings, some are calling to cut defense spending by as much as 10 percent.
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