Zach Nunn: “I want to commend Senator Lieberman and Senator Coats for their leadership on this issue. The amendment they are…”

“I want to commend Senator Lieberman and Senator Coats for their leadership on this issue. The amendment they are offering, of which I am an original cosponsor, and which I worked with them on, will build upon the recommendations of the 1995 report on the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, that there be a quadrennial defense review. Secretary Perry has decided to conduct that review. This would ensure that a number of important defense issues are addressed during the course of that review, and will establish a national defense panel that will play a key role in the defense review that would conduct its own forward-looking review of force structures. I am reminded, Admiral Owens, former Vice Chairman of Joints Chiefs of Staff, in his testimony on the eve of his retirement, and in frank discussions with many of us, stated that he believed that the acquisition of new platforms such as planes, ships, and tanks, are far less important than the incorporation of new, forward-edge technologies and information systems and the platforms already in the military's inventory. He even stated that such technologies would permit cuts in existing platforms, in terms of numbers.”