Without private capital, we will miss our small window to rebuild our military

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower launched 73,000 American troops alongside 156,000 Allied forces on D-Day. Already postponed 24 hours, the invasion proceeded in the face of rough seas, strong winds, and low visibility in order to seize a small window in time of enormous consequence.

Missing that window would have pushed the effort out weeks, risking Germany further strengthening its defenses and discovering the planned invasion. That could have changed the course of the entire war.

We find ourselves at another consequential window for our nation’s security, as the new computing technology that President Trump has renamed “super intelligence” by executive order explodes with new capabilities.

With a $1.5 trillion goalpost for defense investment in the president’s fiscal 2027 budget, we can launch a targeted campaign to attract private capital to the urgent task of modernizing our military, or we can risk the U.S. military falling behind the pace of innovation — a gap that grows wider and faster the longer we wait.

Non-market economies don’t require this kind of coordination with private markets. They can redirect money at military innovation and enlist any industry into the military apparatus with a single directive.

The U.S. and her allies, on the other hand, depend on a robust and motivated private market, ruthless in identifying excellence and hesitant to invest where risk is high and returns aren’t guaranteed.

That may sound like a disadvantage, but it is actually our greatest asset. We just need to mobilize that asset while the window remains open.

It’s no secret that our defense industrial base, from shipbuilding to munitions, has shrunk to a shadow of its World War II height. In the absence of global wars, that is to be expected to a certain degree. But some capabilities have slipped too far and must be rebuilt, while others, like drones and........

© The Hill