What do you see as the military's greatest challenge in 2023 and why?

I believe the greatest challenge for our military in 2023 will be figuring out how exactly the military will be able to meet the possible demands that will be placed on a leaner force. With multiple threats from state and non-state players our forces may be heavily tasked. Additionally, as we restructure and rearm in the post Iraq and Afghanistan years by replacing aging and outright abused equipment and make available/increase training for our troops, our law makers will need to right-size the budget in order to equip the armed forces to do the job with all the tools they need to take the fight to the enemy and serve those that need our help.

I read a response by a retired officer, that said our biggest challenge is recruitment and retention. These our enormous problems, especially with the current policies of promoting far-liberal people to high positions of authority in the military.

But our biggest problem, noooo! Our biggest problems are China and Russia!

Russia: The Russians are fighting what qualifies as a proxy war with the United States in Ukraine. When one country, in a limited war gets in trouble and their backs are to the wall, what will they do? Well, you know the old proverb, “desperate people do desperate things”! Plus, Putin may be dying! Who knows what is in his brain if he is dying? And we know Stalinsky will do anything to keep from giving up his country.

Chinese: One thing the Chinese are, is too smart to let two other countries get into a nuclear war. Then the Chi/Coms will have no country to play "Big Brother" with.

It takes just eight, ten megaton ground bursts to create a “nuclear winter”. No matter where those eight bombs go off, in a year we will all be gone. And there is no such thing as a “limited nuclear war”, tactical weapons only lead to escalation.

So, we are down to our militaries biggest challenge. The Chinese have the biggest military by far in the world. Much bigger, well equipped and you know they are well trained. They are well ahead of us on all these issues.

Why don’t we have Hypersonic missiles? Are the Chinese ahead of us? OF course and at this time we are doing nothing to change the dynmaic. At this time, we are no match for them, unfortunately. The events in the last ten years in the US have left the military short handed and under equipped. Not only that but General No-Name wants you to call him, “her”.

Finding a better quality service member

I see personnel recruitment and retention as the biggest challenge. The generation of people of target recruitment age are not disciplined nor patriotic enough to make into highly trained troops. They have been raised on so much propaganda that they no longer know what it means to love and serve this great nation.

Equipment, training, and subpar leadership
At some point these three issues will converge, consideration the many moving variables it takes to run the military. Much of the equipment used were made by companies which no longer exist which makes repairs, upgrades, replacement, and general maintenance almost impossible. Lack of/ and or inadequate training leads to faster degradation of these components, exponentially faster when there's a limited number of personnel who know these systems. The cost of repairing, maintaining, or replacing components is another huge inhibitor. In my experience leaders were reluctant to send personnel to schools. Now we are left with people who are undertrained, and inexperienced.

I'm in Rosenberg Texas77469where do I go?

Recruitment and retention are the biggest challenges for military today. The military must provide good incentives for recruit and their families. Sometimes it is a challenge to put food on the table for servicemen with young children including daycare and family services. Military must be clear when they put forth all the benefits and incentives for recruits and their families. Specify all the programs available that will support their families for the rest of the servicemen's career.

Education of the young people. When you fix this everything else falls into line i.e.: Security, recruting and retention, integrity, everything Hence Addressing apathy in the public sector towards patriotism by education as early as possible by people who know what it is to serve our country.
The soldiers of the US and their families understand the cost, as they and their families pay the price on a daily basis. They'd have the drive and have taken the responsibility to serving our country.
I remember the gulf war and when the people that were taking advantage all the benefits that the military had to offer like: Pay, free college tuition, and other administration services all the sudden found themselves being called up to do what they had signed up for were surprised. Many felt that it was appalling that they had to follow thought on what they had to do.
I know that we can't legislate morality, but what the military can do is push the agenda of why patriotism is important to those who have no clue, to those who have no idea as to what it took for this country to exist. so here is my suggestion to fix the issue I believe will help the military and it's challenge.
Education of the Young people that have not yet reached the decision that the country is there for them without compensation.
Experience soldiers with degrees that are veterans should be the only ones that are allowed to teach American or US history in the schools from elementary school up. Their passion and intolerance of people not paying attention to what it took for this country to become a reality will produce people that understand the cost. The cost of freedom, the cost of capitalism, the cost of the sacrifice of those fallen soldiers, and those alive with families that that now protect them.
If you fix the underlying education and understanding, then the best and the brightest will gravitate to the military, they will be respected and seen as important for the soul of America, they will lead the change towards civility, and self sacrifice towards something bigger than an individual.
Hope this helps,
God bless you all for trying to make it better. let me know how I may help be a part of the solution.
Respectfully Submitted.
Joe Halpin

I can only speak for the Air Force side of the house, but the budgeting process is the military's greatest challenge. I saw first-hand as a contractor all the fraud, waste, and abuse and complete inability by the military to get necessary projects (weapons and cyber) done. There are a lot of reasons for this:

1) Going with the lowest bidder. You get what you pay for.

2) Related to point 1, every 1-5 years a contract is up for bid, and they often go with the lowest bidder, so the contract ends up with another company and everything has to start over.

3) Every 2 years leadership changes in the military. It takes them either 1 year or the whole 2 years to understand all the contracts and projects involved in their mission, then they move. Rinse and repeat.

4) Along with 3 above, I witnessed the worst morale I had ever seen at 16th AF as a contractor. Airmen couldn't do their jobs because of stovepiped information, and their commander was on his way to retirement and couldn't have cared less about them or the mission. You could feel the misery walking into that building. So these Airmen realize they have all these Cyber certs that could make them 6 figures on the outside, so they leave. Why stay when they can get paid more and not have to deal with poor leadership and military BS?

Retention of exemplary servicemen and women. Respect for our servicemen and women.