GOP lawmaker eyes procurement reform to meet demands of modern warfare

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., on Tuesday called for substantive reform to the U.S. military's procurement process in light of the changing demands of the modern battlefield. Speaking on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show, McCormick highlighted the consolidation of contractors and asserted that it led to inefficiencies at the Pentagon. 

"We're talking about how we originally had about 51 major contractors," he said. "We consolidated down to four, and we became very inefficient. CEOs were literally making a living off of a 10-year R&D process, then 10 years of procurement, and then 10 years of sustainment."

McCormick further added that the rapid pace of military technological evolution required the system to be more adaptable. "We're in a new era of warfare where literally what was good last year is not good this year," he said. "We had production problems with the 155 [mm] rounds. Now 155 rounds are rarely used because triangulation counterfires are so effective that if you use those, you're probably dead meat."

U.S. stockpile of missiles depleted

On top of the slow-moving process, the military appears ill-equipped to operate its current arsenal. Earlier this month, a top U.S. military official testified that the country is quickly depleting its stockpile of Tomahawk defense missiles and might not have enough for a potential long-term conflict.

The military has been using these missiles recently in strikes against the Houthis, a terrorist group in Yemen. Acting U.S. Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby suggested the Defense Department should seek out manufacturers who can build similar weapons to use as replacements while the U.S. rebuilds its stockpile.

"If we go to war with China, it's going to be bloody and there's going to be casualties, and it's going to take plenty of munitions," Kilby said during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. "So our stocks need to be full."

McCormick said that while the U.S. is still one of the top military superpowers, China is a country to keep an eye on regarding military strength. 

"The problem is, when you get to China, anytime you have a government: the most effective kind of government is a dictatorship or a theocracy or somebody with a monarchy where one person calls all the shots. China has that huge advantage. They don't have to waste time voting on things. One person, Xi Jinping, gets to decide the direction of their country: their military, their development, their procurement."

He further opined that lobbyists and special interest groups often interfere in the procurement process, leading to the acquisition and maintenance of outdated material.

"We have a ton of waste in our military," McCormick said. "You could say 30% of the Air Force assets really aren't needed anymore, and could be put in much better pots of money. But we have people, especially in Congress, that are protecting theirs instead of developing new technologies which can take their place in their districts, and that's one of the things we need to address right now."

Director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute, Will Thibeau, said the U.S. has to invest in attributable systems in order to keep the military strong. 

"Russia has spent the last week almost bombarding Ukraine with drones," Thibeau said in a soon-to-be-aired episode of the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. 

"Half of those drones have been decoys and fakes... basically just gliders with no weapons. "They're able to do that because it's all cheap, and even if 50% of the systems get shot down, there's still a lot of the remaining 50% that are going to cause havoc on the enemy."