{"id":32767,"date":"2018-12-10T03:30:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T03:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/10\/us-deputy-defense-secretary-a-look-at-missiles-space-and-cyber-in-next-years-national-strategy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:38:17","slug":"us-deputy-defense-secretary-a-look-at-missiles-space-and-cyber-in-next-years-national-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/outlook\/2018\/12\/10\/us-deputy-defense-secretary-a-look-at-missiles-space-and-cyber-in-next-years-national-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"US deputy defense secretary: A look at missiles, space and cyber in next year\u2019s national strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

History will regard the year 2018 as a period of profound change within the U.S. Department of Defense. This past year saw the release of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, a strategy characterized by three lines of effort: build a more lethal force; strengthen alliances and attract new partners; and reform the department for greater performance and affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To resource these lines of effort, Congress passed the largest defense budget in history with overwhelming bipartisan support. As a result, we are restoring readiness to our planes, ships and munitions; strengthening our relationships around the world; and reforming the department as we modernize the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By growing force size, increasing partnered training, improving fighter jet maintenance and expanding foreign military sales, we have generated momentum toward NDS implementation. Now we must increase that momentum by bridging gaps in our capabilities and capitalizing on the technological and industrial advantages that will increase our military\u2019s lethality. As we look to build on this progress in 2019, three areas offer opportunities to assure our military advantage now and into the future: missiles, space and cyber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlook 2019: World leaders and analysts speak on the state of global security and the defense industry<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, we will leverage advances in long-range precision fires, hypersonics and missile defense systems. We will improve and adapt the systems that protect our homeland, international partners and overseas assets from adversary missiles. We will also accelerate efforts to pursue next-generation missile defense technologies to defend against advanced missile systems. At the same time, we will develop offensive capabilities including hypersonic strike systems, advanced intermediate-range cruise missiles and improved ballistic missiles. These capabilities will be part of a modular and cost-effective architecture, allowing us to take advantage of commercially available systems and economies of scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In space, we will move forward with a legislative proposal for the Space Force as a sixth service of the U.S. military and establish a space-focused combatant command. Simultaneously, we will build the Space Development Agency, a joint development arm that will merge the varied space-based systems and technologies living within the department with new technologies and equipment to dominate this contested, war-fighting environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\t