【英文】国际战略研究中心报告：2021财年的美国军事力量：增长的最后一年（129页）

英文研究报告 2021年03月29日 06:14 管理员

Te pandemic has disrupted the nation’s social and economic life and has had a major impact on DOD’s operations and industry. Te bottom line is that DOD has, so far, weathered the pandemic better than the country overall, as DOD’s infection rate is lower and its lethality rate is much lower.72 Te longterm efect on DOD is unclear. Because the pandemic has had such a major efect on the U.S. society and economy, many speculate it will have a major long-term efect on national security. At a minimum, there will be a replenishment of DOD’s medical inventories and some enhancements of dual-use forces (i.e., those that can do both warfghting and humanitarian assistance). Still, it may be that two years from now, when a vaccine is widely available and economic and social life have returned to some version of a pre-pandemic normal, DOD will retain its current structures and missions.

Changes at the federal level could focus on domestic agencies such as FEMA, CDC, and HHS. On the other hand, polling shows that infectious disease now tops Americans concerns about security. Tis could drive changes in DOD.Public concerns about future pandemics might drive an efort to expand DOD’s role in such national emergencies regardless of the level of the defense budget. Tis might involve creating new DOD institutions for medical research or greatly expanding those that already exist. It might involve expanding dual-use capabilities, such as building a new generation of hospital ships (which Congress is already contemplating). It might involve reversing the proposed restructuring and shrinking of the military medical community. (DOD has proposed to focus its medical community on “military readiness”—capabilities needed for conficts—and reducing those capabilities that apply solely or primarily to dependents and retirees.)