{"id":19626,"date":"2019-08-28T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T09:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/28\/night-court-comes-to-the-pentagon\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:56:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:56:02","slug":"night-court-comes-to-the-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/08\/28\/night-court-comes-to-the-pentagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Night court comes to the Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday confirmed his department spanning review won\u2019t be limited to finding savings from \u201cfourth estate\u201d agencies, but will potentially involve cutting legacy programs that are diverting money away from next-generation projects needed to combat China and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking at the SENEDIA industry conference in Rhode Island on Tuesday, Esper touted the forthcoming review by saying he was open to \u201cdivesting of legacy capabilities that simply aren\u2019t suited\u201d for future battlefields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy commitment is to look throughout the DoD enterprise, beginning with the fourth estate, and look for ways to find money to invest in those technologies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked by reporters on his way back to Washington if he was willing to cut legacy programs loose to fund future capabilities, Esper said, \u201cI\u2019m looking for programs that don\u2019t have as much value relative to another critical war-fighting capability, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve already found money, and it\u2019s just going to be a long process,&#8221; he added. \u201cI have a dollar amount in mind but I want to make sure I can refine it a little better before I can release anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Aug. 2 memo kicked off a department-wide review of programs ahead of the development for the fiscal year 2021 budget request. The goal is to find savings and drive a \u201clonger-term focus on structural reform, ensuring all [defense-wide] activities are aligned to the National Defense Strategy while evaluating the division of functions between defense-wide organizations and the military departments,&#8221; per the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo reform is too small, too bold or too controversial to be considered,\u201d the memo reads, noting that there will be an emphasis on finding savings through the so-called \u201cfourth estate,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2018\/09\/11\/gao-to-dod-fix-fourth-estate-inefficiencies\/\" target=_blank>internal DoD offices<\/a> that don\u2019t fall under one of the services, such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Information Systems Agency, and the Missile Defense Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the memo, first reported by Inside Defense, was signed out by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, it makes clear the marching orders came from Esper, who as Army secretary spearheaded the now-infamous \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/land\/2019\/05\/31\/army-freeing-up-another-10-billion-for-priorities\/\" target=\"_blank\">night court<\/a>\u201d budgeting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under that effort, the service took a hard look at legacy department programs and cut a number of them, refocusing funds on efforts to challenge China and Russia. Then-Army secretary Esper helped guide those restructurings through Congress, and the process, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/ausa\/2018\/10\/08\/armys-night-court-finds-25-billion-to-reinvest-in-modernization-priorities\/\" target=_blank>found around $25 billion in savings<\/a>, has garnered largely positive reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, is it fair to call Esper\u2019s forthcoming review a larger version of the night court process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you want to call it that, that\u2019s fine with me,\u201d the secretary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris Brose, a former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee who is now head of strategy for Anduril Industries, played a major role in attempts to reform the Pentagon from 2015 through 2018. Beyond fourth estate cuts, he believes Esper must make tough and far-reaching budget decisions to compete with China and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe bigger thing I think and hope he will do is look at all the activities of the services through the context of the National Defense Strategy. That\u2019s the most important impact you can have,\u201d Brose said of Esper. \u201cThat, to me, is what bringing \u2018night court\u2019 to DoD really means. It\u2019s not only figuring out how to close data centers or wring savings out of Defense Health Affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defense secretary is uniquely empowered to look across all activities and make hard choices within and between the services. He should be asking the big questions about force design, force development, force structure, roles and missions, Brose said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNot only are those the most important questions, that\u2019s where the real money is,\u201d Brose said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been saying a lot of the right things for a long time. The question is whether we can implement the things we say are important. Buying Thing 1 means you have to divest from Thing 2.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And for Esper to be effective at making consequential and forward-looking changes, he will have to do what he did as Army secretary and personally lead the process, not delegate to a deputy or, say, the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, Brose warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe thing I can\u2019t stress enough is the amount of his time he devotes to making this work will determine whether it succeeds or fails,\u201d Brose said. \u201cUnfortunately for many, many years, the secretary of defense has prioritized or been forced to prioritize jobs other than sitting in his office with senior decision makers and going through the gory details of programs and making hard decisions. Often, that gets kicked down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For his part, Esper indicated Tuesday he plans to stay directly involved \u2015 as much as his other duties will allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It\u2019s a long road. I\u2019m spending two hours a week, 90 minutes to two hours a week on this in formal session, so we\u2019re just going to work our way through it week after week after week,\u201d the secretary said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf you want to call it that, that\u2019s fine with me,\u201d Esper said when asked if his new review was the equivalent of a Pentagon-wide night court process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3323,3380],"class_list":["post-19626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AVODVG73MZBHTH53UTNM3CIRBA","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2019\/08\/28\/night-court-comes-to-the-pentagon\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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