Rapid Fire August 1, 2013: Hagel Reveals SCMR Tradespace

• US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke publicly for the first time about the options laid out in the infamous Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR) conducted by his department. He refreshingly acknowledged that “[p]ast efficiency campaigns have shown that implementation can be very challenging, so effective follow-through is critical, if savings targets are to be realized.” While program or force structure decisions have not been made, cuts are clearly coming, and they won’t affect all services proportionally. The SCMR process defined the core tradeoff as a tension between force capability (i.e. troops) and technology capacity.