US Defense S&T Community Uncertainties to Start 2025
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The DoD simulation and training community ended 2024 in a good place from the perspective of having broad, general support from the outgoing Biden administration and on Capitol Hill for major training and education programs. The January 6 summary of key S&T provisions in the FY 2025 defense bill was the final bookend to close out President Joe Biden’s administration and this session of Congress.
Trump Administration Takes Charge
Fast forward to later this month when President-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House and a majority Republican Congress will be seated on Capitol Hill. In a matter of days, the chess board will look very different. These representative issues are generating a number of uncertainties for the US DoD S&T enterprise:
How much funding will Pentagon learning (training and education) programs receive in the Trump administration’s first (FY2026) budget to be delivered to Congress this spring. Deficit hawks and other policy actors may have oversize influence on the Trump administration’s military spending plans;
- Senate hearings for new defense department leaders should begin in earnest later this month. What will be the priorities of the US DoD’s new civilian leadership;
- Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are the new president’s point men on implementing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program. The new administration should be well-advised to remember that hard-working, competent full-time DoD personnel support S&T activities as program managers, contract experts and in numerous other capacities. Unknown at this point is whether the DOGE program will take broad, general cuts across the defense department and other federal workforces, or will have more focused, precision-like employee reductions in the quest for efficiencies and savings;
- Tariff, trade and like-international policies under consideration by the new president and his advisors may upend much of the increasing bi- and multi-national collaboration and cooperation we have observed in the S&T community. Whether this post-election talk remains bluster or becomes policy and unravels many business agreements across the global S&T community remains to be seen; and
- NATO and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere. The new president remains lukewarm at best on continuing the US’s participation in NATO and other global organizations. We’ve reported and commented on the US and its partners stepping up the scope and fidelity of their exercise and other training activities with one goal: train as they will operate in a multi-national context.
The level of the new Trump administration’s support and commitment for NATO and its other global partnerships remains to be seen.
On MS&T Editorial Watchlist
We look forward to following and commenting on the funding and other support for US DoD S&T programs after the new Trump administration takes office and the new Republican-majority Congress takes its place on Capitol Hill.
