Without private capital, we will miss our small window to rebuild our military

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower launched 73,000 American troops alongside 156,000 Allied forces on D-Day. Already postponed 24 hours, the invasion proceeded in the face of rough seas, strong winds, and low visibility in order to seize a small window in time of enormous consequence.

Missing that window would have pushed the effort out weeks, risking Germany further strengthening its defenses and discovering the planned invasion. That could have changed the course of the entire war.

We find ourselves at another consequential window for our nation’s security, as the new computing technology that President Trump has renamed “super intelligence” by executive order explodes with new capabilities.

With a $1.5 trillion goalpost for defense investment in the president’s fiscal 2027 budget, we can launch a targeted campaign to attract private capital to the urgent task of modernizing our military, or we can risk the U.S. military falling behind the pace of innovation — a gap that grows wider and faster the longer we wait.

Non-market economies don’t require this kind of coordination with private markets. They can redirect money at military innovation and enlist any industry into the military apparatus with a single directive.

The U.S. and her allies, on the other hand, depend on a robust and motivated private market, ruthless in identifying excellence and hesitant to invest where risk is high and returns aren’t guaranteed.

That may sound like a disadvantage, but it is actually our greatest asset. We just need to mobilize that asset while the window remains open.

It’s no secret that our defense industrial base, from shipbuilding to munitions, has shrunk to a shadow of its World War II height. In the absence of global wars, that is to be expected to a certain degree. But some capabilities have slipped too far and must be rebuilt, while others, like drones and hypersonics, must be accelerated to recapture our lead, as theaters like Ukraine and Iran have revealed.

More is now possible for us than ever before, but the same is true for our adversaries. Trump’s fiscal 2027 defense budget reflects the moment at hand. It calls for a generational reinvestment to harness computing power and secure military dominance for the next 80 years.

But a once-in-a-generation undertaking cannot — and should not — be achieved through appropriated dollars alone. The president has rallied industry to arms, and we must fuel that battle with capital.

America needs a national security capital Strategy that aligns public policy, private investment and national security priorities.

We have done this before. The arsenal of democracy, interstate highway system, space program, and internet all emerged from different combinations of public purpose and private ingenuity. The government established national priorities and helped absorb risks. American enterprise supplied innovation, investment and execution.

The 21st century challenge is arguably even greater. Advanced computing and manufacturing, critical minerals independence, energy infrastructure, and resilient supply chains will require trillions in investment over decades. This transformation can only be realized when government and private capital work together towards the same goal.

Existing programs can serve as the foundation for a larger, coordinated effort. The Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital and the Army’s Strategic Capital Initiative recognize that government can use its authorities, assets, and demand signals to reduce uncertainty and activate much larger pools of private investment.

A national security capital strategy should model these mechanisms to compel public companies, commercial banks, pension funds, insurers, infrastructure investors, venture capital, private equity and individual investors across America’s capital markets.

We need to create conditions in which investments that strengthen America’s security also become among the world’s most compelling long-term investment opportunities. Eisenhower understood that some windows don’t remain open indefinitely. Neither will ours.

As we have seen recently in the technology space, markets will embrace long-term opportunities aligned with big shifts in aggregate capital flow if they believe the potential multiple on invested capital to be unprecedented. The rebuilding of the U.S. military, and the rebuilding of U.S. industrial capacity along with it, is exactly that same kind of multi-generational wealth-creation opportunity for all Americans. However, a groundbreaking today will mean a productive manufacturing facility two years from now and a return on invested capital even further on the horizon.

Lawmakers and policymakers are the stewards of this vision, planting seeds that will bear fruit beyond our season. The markets must see this demand signal and stewardship in our capital deployment at scale. They must see the unwavering prioritization of national security in our permitting and regulatory decisions as well, mirroring our efforts in computing and energy dominance.

Deliberate stewardship will instill confidence beyond an individual budget or election cycle and drive predictable demand, faster acquisition and partnerships that reward innovation.

We have a narrow window of favorable conditions to mobilize private capital to rebuild and reinvigorate our military. We need to use public policy to strategically unleash thousands of banks, corporations, entrepreneurs, and investors.

That’s a maneuver centralized economies can’t replicate.

America has world-leading technology companies, universities and entrepreneurs, abundant resources, an extraordinary industrial base, and the deepest capital markets in history. Our strategic advantage lies not simply in possessing these assets, but in connecting them.

The 2026 National Defense Strategy calls for supercharging the defense industrial base. The Era of Super Intelligence will accelerate the technologies the industrial base produces. A national security capital strategy can provide the financial architecture connecting the two.

America’s next strategic advantage isn’t technological dominance; it’s our ability to finance technological dominance at scale.

Marc E. Andersen is U.S. Army Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary, Financial Management and Comptroller.