2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) Report, DTD Mar 14

According to the QDR Fact Sheet:

• The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is a legislatively-mandated (USC 10, Sec. 118 (a)) review of the Department of Defense (DoD) strategy and priorities.
• The Secretary of Defense delivered the 2014 QDR report to Congress on March 4, 2014.
• The QDR report outlines the strategic direction of the Department and establishes priorities to determine appropriate resource investments.
• The 2014 QDR advances a national defense strategy that protects and advances U.S. interests, sustains U.S. global leadership, rebalances the Joint Force, and controls internal cost growth, while preserving and enhancing the health of the All-Volunteer Force.
• To accomplish these tasks, the QDR takes account of the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centers of power, and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable, and in some instances more threatening to the United States.
• The QDR embodies and builds on the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance priorities, preparing for the future by rebalancing our defense efforts in a period of fiscal constraint
•  It advances an updated strategic framework emphasizing three pillars:
  • Protect the homeland, to deter and defeat attacks on the United States and to mitigate the effects of potential attacks and natural disasters.
  • Build security globally, to preserve regional stability, deter adversaries, support allies and partners, and cooperate with others to address common security challenges.
  • Project power and win decisively, to defeat aggression, disrupt and destroy terrorist networks, and provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
• To support these pillars, the QDR establishes DoD’s force planning construct to ensure U.S. forces are sized to conduct key types of operations in overlapping timeframes. At the President’s budget level, the U.S. military will be able simultaneously to:
  • Defend the homeland
  • Conduct sustained, distributed counterterrorist operations; and,
  • Deter aggression and assure allies in multiple regions through forward presence and engagement.
• If deterrence fails:
  • U.S. forces will be capable of defeating a regional adversary in a large-scale, multiphased campaign; and
  • Denying the objectives of – or imposing unacceptable costs on – a second aggressor in another region.
  • The Department is pursuing innovative ways to achieve our goals, including new presence paradigms and closer strategic cooperation with allies and partners.