By Dmitry Filipoff

This week CIMSEC will be featuring submissions sent in response to our call for articles on redefining readiness.

Debates about readiness can take on many forms. What scenarios and threats should forces be ready for, and along what timeframes ? How do we measure readiness through subjective and quantitative perspectives? How do we accept risk and tradeoffs in readiness as commitments are balanced against the health of the force? Readiness policy holds sway over myriad elements of national strategy and the administration of armed forces, and it remains to be seen how readiness will be calibrated to meet the demands of great power competition. 

Below are the articles and authors being featured, which may be updated with further submissions as Redefining Readiness week unfolds.

“Moving Toward A Holistic, Rigorous, Analytical Readiness Framework,” Connor S. McLemore, Shaun Doheney, Philip Fahringer, and Dr. Sam Savage
“Proficiency Versus Effectiveness: What Readiness Is Not,” by Jesse Schmitt
“Just Say No: Defining New Force Allocations for Effective Commitments,” by Michael D. Purzycki
“Sea Control 254 – Defining Readiness with Admiral Scott Swift (ret.),” by Jared Samuelson

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org.

Featured Image: PACIFIC OCEAN (April 29, 2021) – Two F/A-18 Super Hornets assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erik Melgar)