House backs DOD classifying NMS

The House Armed Services Committee supports the Pentagon's decision to classify the National Military Strategy, according to the panel's version of the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill.

"The committee believes that the NMS [National Military Strategy] should be re-focused to provide a strategic framework for the development of operational and contingency plans by the combatant commands, and to provide joint force and joint capability development guidance to guide resource investments by the military services," according to the bill. "To provide such guidance, the committee believes that the NMS should be a classified document."

Transparency advocate Steve Aftergood notes on his Secrecy News blog that the new bill demonstrates that, in some areas, "the arrow of transparency is pointed backwards and previously unclassified categories of records are becoming newly restricted or classified."

Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford said during a May 29 appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the 2016 NMS, unlike previous years will be classified.

"The national military strategy will be a classified document," he said, noting that the NMS has "historically been written for the public."

Dunford, however, said the Pentagon "will certainly articulate to the public the guts of a national military strategy," despite plans to classify the NMS.