Graying workforce, skills gap posing challenges for the defense industry

Drivers

• Senate appropriators are backing a substantial boost in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs next year. They also are supporting plans from House appropriators to spend about $11 billion in military construction projects next year, even as lawmakers continue to argue over the total level of defense spending for fiscal 2022. If approved by the full House and Senate later this year, the legislation would boost discretionary spending for Veterans Affairs by nearly 9% (to about $113 billion) and raise total department spending to nearly $270 billion next year -- the largest level in history.
• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, said mastering emerging technologies is key to deterring aggressors and winning future wars. Milley cited emerging technologies as crucial to prevent or win wars if deterrence fails, including artificial intelligence, long-range precision fires, hypersonics, unmanned systems, biotechnology, 3-D printing and miniature electronic components.

Drawbacks

• The House Appropriations Committee’s 2022 defense bill reflects concern with Department of Defense (DoD) recruitment and retention challenges, especially when it comes to career and technical education (CTE) and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) issues. The committee is concerned that DoD’s recruiting and retention programs are not as effective as they could be to employ personnel for the challenging types of vacancies within the department and the armed services.
• The defense industry is facing an aging workforce, a growing skills gap and continues to have difficulty in talent acquisition resulting from a lack of qualified technical graduates. As the pace of technological advancement quickens, the work and skill qualification levels grow increasingly advanced. While these challenges were in play even before the disruptions of 2020, they are only expected to worsen.