Book Description

The United States is transitioning from an industrial age to an information age military. This transition requires transformation in warfighting and the way we organize to support the warfighter. Although the end-state of transformation cannot be fully defined in advance, we do know some of the necessary prerequisites for transformation. In particular, we know that early transformation requires exploiting information technology to reform defense business practices and to create new combinations of capabilities, operating concepts, organizational relationships and training regimes. Successful transformation of U.S. military forces and Department of Defense (DoD) processes requires a strategy with clear objectives. Effective implementation of the strategy requires commitment and attention from the Department's senior leadership and clearly assigned roles and responsibilities. This document communicates the Department's strategy for transformation and assigns senior leader roles and responsibilities to ensure implementation of the strategy. Senior leadership commitment to transformation will mobilize the rest of the Department and stimulate the bottom-up innovation required for successful transformation. Effective implementation of the transformation strategy is an essential prerequisite for strategic management of the Defense program. It will allow the Department to define transformation investments that address future risk with enough specificity that they can be balanced against the other three primary risk areas identified in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR): force management, operational, and institutional risk.