{"id":36594,"date":"2021-02-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/02\/09\/the-system-worked-as-designed-is-bad-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:50:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:50:02","slug":"the-system-worked-as-designed-is-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2021\/02\/09\/the-system-worked-as-designed-is-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The system worked as designed\u2019 is bad news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine that, for years, the U.S. intelligence community warns about a specific national security threat that could come to pass. One day, it finally does. International observers sound the alarm. The press picks up the scent. Within two weeks, the threat breaches U.S. defenses, and two weeks after that, Americans begin to die. But it takes six months for the U.S. Army to agree to fill the capability gap with a counter-weapon of its own design, and more than a year after the first American casualties, the Army rolls it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in fact, just happened. It\u2019s the timeline of the Army\u2019s response to the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>, an unambiguous threat to life and livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a full year for the service to design, approve and distribute a face mask \u2014 called a Combat Cloth Face Covering, or CCFC<\/a> \u2014 for its soldiers, an effort that required an additional $43.5 million<\/a> in contracts to provide temporary solutions. That comes out to about $45 per mask, if you assume every active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldier received one. A pack of 20 N95 masks at Home Depot costs about $20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, the Army congratulated itself<\/a> on the \u201cexpedited\u201d timeline, compared to the 18- to 24-month procurement cycle such an effort would normally take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe system worked as designed,\u201d tweeted<\/a> a former Marine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is precisely the problem. National security strategy is supposed to align ends and means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this has never been easy, the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of how focus on one threat eclipses others, leaving those we ask to fight our nation\u2019s wars flat-footed. The intelligence community for years<\/a> warned<\/a> about a pandemic<\/a> similar to the one that has, to date, killed more than 440,000 Americans and 130 service members. While it is impossible to prepare for every threat outlined by the director of national intelligence in the lengthy \u201cWorldwide Threat Assessment\u201d reports, it should be easier to respond to the obviously lethal ones once they emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Army has to spend a year and millions of dollars to replicate something of such a low level you can buy it at CVS, it calls into question whether the services can really counter the cutting-edge future threats<\/a> their civilian leadership tells them are right around the corner. And that question has staggering consequences for the viability of the Defense Department\u2019s latest organizational principle: great power competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The official Army-designed, -tested, and -refined face mask \u2013 the Combat Cloth Face Covering (CCFC) \u2013 will be provided to new Soldiers during the second quarter of FY2021. (Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ephemeral yet urgent idea of great power competition occupies most of the pages of the past few National Security Strategy documents. As yet, though, there exists no clear operational definition of \u201cgreat power competition\u201d as much as there is a laundry list of possibilities, from action below the level of armed conflict to irregular warfare to even conquest of a peer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without clear threats around which the services should organize, train and \u2014 crucially \u2014 equip, they have to maximize flexibility at the expense of preparation. A year to provide a face mask can hardly be considered flexible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the issue that not all ends \u2014 like convincing allies and partners to turn down proffers of Chinese technology, and combating Russian disinformation campaigns \u2014 align with the Defense Department\u2019s means. As others have noted<\/a>, it\u2019s hard to see how the presence of a Ford-class aircraft carrier would convince<\/a> Germany to pass on Huawei\u2019s 5G network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, there are major budget implications at play. A system that \u201cworked as designed\u201d still cost millions in additional taxpayer funds. How many times can the U.S. budget afford to spend additional millions to plug a hole the national security establishment couldn\u2019t foresee? And how likely is it that, if the Army didn\u2019t have something as simple as face masks for a pandemic, the Pentagon\u2019s $750 billion budget already has the equipment on the shelf for the myriad ill-defined dangers that we are told we must respond to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, responsibility lies with civilian leaders who write our national security strategies and elected representatives who vote to provide more conventional weaponry than the Defense Department requests. The threats to our Navy include those that decimate the crews<\/a> of its aircraft carriers without firing a single shot. Our Army can\u2019t maintain its readiness until it addresses sexual assault<\/a> in the ranks. And as much as our Air Force needs defense from missile attacks in the air, it needs defense from the effects of climate change<\/a> on the ground even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\t