Outgunned, Outranged US Army Hurries to Forge Long-Range Weapons

Longer-reaching artillery, missiles are a key to Army's 6-point game plan for the era of 'great power competition'

A Russian Grad multiple rocket launcher system fires in Kubinka Patriot Park outside Moscow on Aug. 22, 2017. Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. military needs a longer stick.

For decades, U.S. aircraft carriers—effectively mobile airfields—and forward air bases have been the foreign policy muscle of then-President Theodore Roosevelt’s adage “speak softly and carry a big stick.”