Not all so-called legacy systems are created—or recreated—equal. As the future is fielded, all the military services will be a blended mix of old equipment and new technologies. Indeed, new technologies often need a platform with which to partner and demo. Leaders must more carefully consider what legacy systems are worth keeping and updating, particularly as the war in Ukraine exposes fragile supply chains, brittle US military capacity, little slack for disruption, and dwindling stocks of key weapons and munitions. 

Legacy systems can keep capacity from sliding even further and possibly be useful in war, whether as tech playgrounds or by being updated and given entirely new missions. The Pentagon should avoid throwing aside older weapons systems in favor of wholesale investments in new technologies and platforms. While modernization is necessary, the Department of Defense does not have the time, track record, or funding to rapidly field replacements to older systems.

Not only can enduring platforms keep needed capacity from sliding further, at times they can be entirely repurposed for newer and emerging missions. As Inside Defense has reported, the Navy is considering adding a mine countermeasure mission to the Independence-class variant of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) while outfitting some of its Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships with the anti-ship naval strike missile. This is welcome news for a ship that Pentagon leaders have sought to decommission, and is the latest example of the services adapting legacy systems designed for one operational challenge to new uses.

Because of ongoing bias for capability over capacity spanning at least three administrations, the US military’s fleets and inventories of capital assets (like ships and planes) have shrunk past what should be an acceptable comfort level for policymakers. This military drawdown has stretched what little slack is left in the force and left the services without sufficient equipment to execute all of the missions assigned to it. Instead of cutting everything that supposedly won’t survive the threat ring (read: reach of Chinese missiles, rockets, and other munitions) our military’s older platforms can act as a bridge for the next generation of capabilities to come online, and help the military sustain capacity in the wake of withering divestments.

The A-10 is yet another example of repurposed legacy systems. Like the Littoral Combat Ship, this air-to-ground attack aircraft has been caught up in divestment fights between the Hill and the Pentagon. But despite some retirements allowed in the latest defense policy bill, a new mission is being tested on the 47-year-old aircraft.

In a recent training exercise with B-1B bombers in the Indo-Pacific, A-10s deployed with the ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, a decoy weapon that can confuse enemy air defense systems by mimicking US aircraft. This is a significant change in both mission and operating environment for an aircraft better known for providing close air-support. The A-10’s presence in the Indo-Pacific also demonstrates its utility in dynamic force employment operations, which as the 2018 National Defense Strategy notes, allows US forces to “be strategically predictable, but operationally unpredictable.”

So too the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone provides another example of the utility of legacy systems. Developed for its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability, Global Hawk Block 20 and Block 30 variants are now being outfitted with sensors to assist with the testing of hypersonic missiles. While officially divested from the Air Force’s inventory as of the last two years, these aircraft are still playing a valuable role in testing the next generation of missile technologies. And, as an added bonus, the Global Hawks are more easily deployable than ships currently used in the Indo-Pacific to test hypersonic missiles.

The armed forces should be searching for other ways to repurpose and repackage their older equipment with new purpose. With construction lead times for new weapons platforms three to five years at best, Washington doesn’t have the luxury of quickly replacing what is permanently traded away.

The post Give Legacy Weapons a New Lease on Life appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.