Cost Contest: Defense Spending (In)efficiency and the Future of U.S.-Chinese Military Competition

Grant Year: 2022

Travis Sharp will investigate the dynamics of the U.S.-China “cost contest,” in which the powers seek to allocate defense resources most efficiently in the context of their larger military competition. He will undertake research and organize a workshop to assess the dynamics of the cost contest in three domains over the past two decades: ground-based long-range fires; aircraft carrier operations; and space-based command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance. The project’s findings will appear in a report.