QDR Talk

A top Marine official this week briefly discussed a topic that soon will be on everyone's lips: the Quadrennial Defense Review.

Speaking on Jan. 22 at the Stimson Center in Washington, Maj. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Marines' representative to the QDR, said budget issues will play a major role in the run-up to the QDR -- and noted that the review itself will focus on force structure and size, among other issues.

“It all boils down to money; it all boils down to force structure and force-sizing,” he said.

The service will “see what happens with the continuing resolution, with sequestration, with the debt ceiling, and those decisions on those items are going to actually inform and I think shape the way the QDR is actually going to go,” he said.

Another important topic: forward presence. Through the QDR, the Pentagon may look at how much forward presence is needed, whether it will be permanently forward-based or rotationally oriented, and what the services expect from it, McKenzie stated.

The other services are looking at similar issues, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense has begun its QDR work as well, McKenzie stated, though the Marines do not expect to begin in earnest until March.

“There's a lot of intellectual energy that is focused on some of the problems the QDR could address,” he said.