Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Jansen said today he's set to soon debrief Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Pat Shanahan, the deputy defense secretary, about a June industrial base examination held at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
Speaking at a breakfast hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association today, Jansen, the commandant of the Eisenhower School, said the June event, which was held on the 19th and 20, included about 110 participants, 12 moderators and a facilitator.
"The composition was diverse and we spent months and months and months . . . to try to do everything we could to not get stuck in an echo chamber," he said, noting participants included members of the defense industrial base, representatives of commercial innovation, supply chain participants and government employees.
"I had hoped to be able to come and share some of the actual observations and takeaways," Jansen told the audience today. "We have not yet debriefed DEPSECDEF and the chairman so that's coming up. We're still on target for a September conference."
However, Jansen said the key decision posed by the event is whether the United States is going to organize.
"If you acknowledge that we are in fact in a great power competition, take a look at our competitors," he said. "Our competitors are well organized, and we are not. And it's worse than that. Our competitors are not just well organized -- they've taken the best of us and they've harnessed it."
"Talking about China now, in particular, taking the best of capitalism and some of the bounties that it brings, and they've harnessed it and are making it work for them while still maintaining an authoritarian and, some may say, ever more ruthless society and application of control on their people," Jansen added.
He said the event particularly examined the industrial base, the innovation base and mobilization.
Jansen noted the innovation base has changed, arguing the U.S. government used to drive key innovations, such as the space program and the Internet. "That's not necessarily where it's happening right now," he said. "It's happening in the commercial sector."
Jansen acknowledged that his efforts come as the White House finalizes a defense industrial base study mandated by an executive order last year.
He said he's read the report, which defines gap areas. Jansen said that while at a recent dinner, Alex Gray, a White House staffer who focuses on the defense industrial base, was asked how much it would cost to plug those gaps.
"In that microsecond between the time that the question was asked and the question was answered, I thought in my head, 'There's no way he can answer this, there's no way that they got to that level of detail,'" Jansen recalled. "And he answered it. He says, 'Well, you'd be surprised. It's in the single-digit billions of dollars.'"
Jansen said, however, that filling those gaps would raise questions.
"If you're going to place that money, what you're doing is you're getting in the business of keeping things that are economically inviable viable," he said. "People are going to start rightfully making observations: Is the federal government picking winners and losers?"
Hawk Carlisle, NDIA's chief executive, said at the same event the White House-mandated industrial base study is done, but remains in staffing.
"It was supposed to come out in May. It hasn't," he told the audience. "There are challenges getting this through the process."
Carlisle also said there is a planned "part two" of the study.