"...I'm in a transitional period so I don't wanna kill you, I wanna help you."

“Unless you are prepared to give up something valuable you will never be able to truly change at all, because you'll be forever in the control of things you can't give up.”

- Andy Law 

Transformation:  a complete or major change in someone's or something's appearance, form, etc.

Transformation may be a necessary occurrence when presented with external and/or internal stimuli. But stimuli, in and of itself will not push a complacent organization to adjust to new circumstances or to "whither on the vine." It also takes a charismatic and innovative leader, who has courage and political capital, to take on an entrenched bureaucracy and navigate through the "because that is how it always has been done" mindset. 

In the context of national security, an evolving geopolitical environment necessitates a re-evaluation of the threat. Force on force direct action will always be a national security concern but is limited to a couple of nation-states, China and Russia. Instead, the most pressing threats for the near to mid term are: terrorist organizations, localized and radicalized militias operating in failing/failed states, and/or sectarian/tribal organizations as a destabilizing force in a country or region.

So the Department of Defense (DoD) is currently at a cross roads, experiencing both significant external (such as a changed operational environment) and internal pressures (such as a decrease in available resources). Recent DoD transformation attempts - modular Army units, integrated networks, or adoption of new technologies to project capability further in denied arenas - have resulted in mainly re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It is time to stop viewing the world in terms of the Cold War and look at a world no longer beholden to the 20th century Westphalia construct.

WARNING: RADICAL THINKING AHEAD!!

True DoD transformation begins with re-organizing force structure to meet a brave new world.  The basic tenant to restructure the force is to eliminate the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines and arrange the U.S. military into: Air, Land, Naval, and Special Operations Components. Yes, that is right, eliminate the services as we know it today and re-organize around capabilities.

Consolidating like entities into a singular service component should reduce redundancies and produce resource efficiencies. An example of eliminating redundancies would be that military schools (such as flight school or basic infantry school). Instead of three/four service oriented military schools, a consolidated approach would meet shared needs across all the current services. Consolidation would also shake up the ranks of the senior officer corps. Without the bloated HQ infrastructure, the number of generals and their staffs would be decreased. Instead, some of those billets would be reassigned for enlisted, non-commissioned officers, and junior officers so that even with a smaller force there is more combat capable forces.

The meat of my suggestion is to:
Incorporate the Army and Marines into a total land force. All land force members would go through the same basic training and then assigned to a specialized capability (airborne, air assault, amphibious landing) with its own follow on advanced training. Land Component units would be modeled on the Marine Expeditionary Force construct and smaller and modular with organic combat and combat support elements.

The Air Component would include all the Services' air frames - fixed wing, rotary wing, and UAVs (except for those that are designated as organic to Special Operations), along with the maintenance and air specific support elements. Both Naval and Special Operations Components would follow suit: with the Naval Component integrating all forms waterborne craft (and submarines) with its organic maintenance and specific support elements; and the Special Operations Component would transfer the current USSOCOM elements.

I can already hear the naysayers, those bound to their individual services rather than what is in the nation's best interest going forward. As with any independent/radical thinking, it will rub people the wrong way, especially those most vested in the current status quo. But for the military to maintain its supremacy in a resource constrained environment, it needs to evolve. And this is only the first step.