Defense

How McCain, as Pentagon’s watchdog and friend, left his mark on the military

U.S. Sen. John McCain, the political maverick and war hero who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2015, was one of the Pentagon’s best friends and toughest critics.

The Arizona Republican helped shepherd historic defense spending increases for 2018 and 2019 and the most sweeping reform of the Pentagon since Goldwater-Nichols in 1986. McCain was also unrelenting when it came to cost overruns and schedule delays on military weapons programs.

“He’s done a great deal to restore confidence in the American military and make it clear that there is always going to be someone watching,” said Anthony Cordesman, a Center for Strategic and International Studies expert on military strategy and a former national security adviser to McCain. “He was one of the stronger voices saying we have been underspending on defense, and a lot of that message has gotten across.”