If confirmed, my overall guiding objective for our relationship with India would be to solidify an enduring strategic partnership underpinned by strong defence cooperation with an Indian military able to collaborate effectively with the United States to address shared interests.

Mark Esper

Stay focused on your mission, remain steadfast in your pursuit of excellence, and always do the right thing.

Mark Esper

Clearly, we need a strong economy to build a strong military.

Mark Esper

Good alliances are made of strong, capable partners.

Mark Esper

The bottom line is this: in an era of mounting fiscal challenges and competing demands, we must actively seek ways to free up time, money, and manpower to invest back into our top priorities.

Mark Esper

I think artificial intelligence will likely change the character of warfare, and I believe whoever masters it first will dominate on the battlefield for many, many, many years.

Mark Esper

I think, generally, the NCOs and officers in a platoon or company want to take care of their soldiers, and they understand it doesn't run from nine to five, like in the civilian world.

Mark Esper

You have to give the soldiers, the Army, a clear vision.

Mark Esper

Our legacy platforms have served us well for decades, but we're running out of upgrades that will keep us ahead. Technology is changing too fast, and our enemies are too adaptable.

Mark Esper

The goal is to deter war, and this can only be done with a strong, modern, and ready military that has overmatch in all domains.

Mark Esper

If confirmed, my overall guiding objective for our relationship with India would be to solidify an enduring strategic partnership underpinned by strong defence cooperation with an Indian military able to collaborate effectively with the United States to address shared interests.

Mark Esper

I think the presumption is, for some reason, anybody who comes from the business or the corporate world is corrupt.

Mark Esper

If you see something that doesn't make sense, ask. Change it. Think about dollars, think about your soldiers' time, think about efficiency.

Mark Esper

Our adversaries must see diplomacy as their best option because war with the United States will force them to bear enormous costs.

Mark Esper

I can't tell you what the Army end strength will be. I know it has to be above 500,000. I know it has to be above 500,000 in the regular Army - and I've always said associated growth in the Guard and Reserve.

Mark Esper

Our warfighting doctrine is that we don't want to be in a fair fight, and we want the fight to always be tilted in our favor.

Mark Esper

We closely track the systems Boeing builds for us, and they're some very capable systems. So that's been my focus. It is something that I look at every month. I look at the metrics for all major combat systems and our platforms, which Boeing builds many, and they're successful platforms.

Mark Esper

AI will allow the soldier to act and think much more quickly. Whoever gets to AI first, I believe, will have dominance for many years afterward.

Mark Esper

President Trump has called on other nations to do more, and they have responded. By the end of 2020, our NATO allies will spend an additional $100 billion on defense, an unprecedented increase that will make the alliance stronger.

Mark Esper

I've been studying China for quite some time now, and I'm big on China as well. And I think we need to be very concerned about Chinese technology getting into our systems or the systems of our allies.

Mark Esper

The Brits are escorting their ships, and we will escort our ships, and I assume other countries will escort their ships.

Mark Esper