Military
MILITARY & NATIONAL DEFENSE
POSITION
The United States must maintain the strength, technology, personnel, weapons, infrastructure, industrial capacity, and national resolve necessary to prevent war through credible deterrence; defend the United States, its territories, armed forces, citizens, and allies; survive a catastrophic attack; defeat any enemy that attacks the United States; preserve American independence and constitutional government; maintain enough surviving power to confront another enemy that attempts to exploit an ongoing war; and end a war decisively without surrendering America's security, freedom, or future.
Peace is the objective. Weakness, appeasement, symbolic retaliation, and national suicide are not paths to peace.
The United States should negotiate honestly, avoid unnecessary wars, maintain reliable crisis communications, and leave every honorable path to peace open. America will not purchase temporary quiet through surrender, abandonment of its allies, acceptance of permanent intimidation, or rewards for aggression.
The road of appeasement leads to retreat, coercion, and surrender. It will not be accepted as American policy.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Deterrence depends on trained people, credible plans, reliable equipment, sufficient munitions, resilient logistics, secure communications, and an industrial base capable of replacing critical systems during a prolonged crisis.
READINESS & DETERRENCE
MPA supports sustained readiness in:
Strategic deterrence.
Missile and air defense.
Cyberwarfare and cyber defense.
Space capabilities.
Naval and maritime power.
Autonomous and counter-autonomous systems.
Logistics, maintenance, and sealift.
Munitions and critical stockpiles.
Domestic defense production.
Resilient supply chains.
Readiness reporting should identify personnel, maintenance, munitions, logistics, and industrial-base shortfalls without publicly exposing operational information that would assist an adversary.
NUCLEAR & WMD DETERRENCE
The United States must maintain a safe, secure, reliable, modern, and survivable nuclear deterrent capable of withstanding a first strike and delivering an overwhelming response.
This requires a survivable nuclear triad; resilient and redundant nuclear command systems; reliable early warning; hardened and geographically distributed forces; secure communications; protected national leadership; lawful continuity and succession; trained forces capable of operating after a catastrophic attack; and sufficient surviving weapons to defeat the aggressor and deter intervention by another enemy.
An enemy must understand that a nuclear or other weapon-of-mass-destruction attack against the United States, its territories, armed forces, or allies cannot eliminate America's ability to respond.
Such an attack will expose the aggressor's weapons of mass destruction, delivery systems, armed forces, command and control, military and political leadership directing the attack, bases and military infrastructure, war-supporting industrial capacity, and ability to continue functioning as an attacking power.
No aggressor should believe it can destroy the American people and then remain intact as a functioning military threat.
The United States will retain sufficient surviving power to stop the attack; prevent additional attacks; defeat the aggressor; secure or destroy remaining weapons of mass destruction; protect surviving Americans and allies; prevent another enemy from exploiting the conflict; and ensure the attacking power cannot repeat the attack.
The United States retains the option of a nuclear response in extreme circumstances involving the survival or vital interests of the United States or its allies. The nature, scale, timing, and means of the response will remain sufficiently uncertain that no adversary can plan an attack around an artificial limitation.
NO TIT FOR TAT RETALIATION
The United States will not limit its response by matching an enemy weapon for weapon, casualty for casualty, or damage for damage.
A policy of symbolic proportional retaliation can leave the aggressor's weapons, armed forces, leadership, and ability to attack intact. That is not restraint. In a war involving national survival, it can become national suicide.
If an enemy uses weapons of mass destruction against the United States, its territories, armed forces, or allies, the American response will be determined by what is necessary to survive the attack; prevent additional attacks; destroy the aggressor's weapons of mass destruction; defeat its armed forces and command structure; eliminate its ability to continue the war; secure or destroy remaining weapons that could threaten America; and preserve sufficient American strength to deter or defeat other enemies.
The response may be overwhelming and decisive.
It ends when the enemy can no longer continue the attack, surrenders, or is completely disarmed as a military threat. It does not end merely because America has inflicted damage comparable to what America suffered.
The legal rule of proportionality does not require the United States to match the enemy's weapons, casualties, or destruction. It addresses whether expected incidental civilian harm would be excessive compared with the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from an attack. It does not protect lawful military objectives from overwhelming force.
America will not commit national suicide through symbolic restraint.
HUMAN CONTROL, FAIL-SAFE PROTECTION & CONTINUITY
Only lawful civilian authority may authorize nuclear use.
Nuclear systems must require authenticated orders; independent confirmation of attack information; two-person controls where applicable; cyber isolation and resilience; continuous testing; protection against unauthorized, accidental, mistaken, or spoofed launch; secure and redundant communications; and a lawful and identifiable chain of command.
Artificial intelligence may support detection, warning, analysis, and defensive recommendations. It may not independently authorize, select, or launch a nuclear weapon.
Continuity plans must ensure that an attack on national leadership cannot erase lawful presidential succession, civilian control of the military, constitutional government, the ability to defend the country, the ability to communicate with American forces, allies, and adversaries, or control over nuclear and other strategic weapons.
ALLIES, ARMS CONTROL & WAR PREVENTION
Treaty allies should share responsibility for conventional military readiness, civil defense, resilient infrastructure, industrial and logistical capacity, and agreed defense commitments.
The United States should maintain credible extended deterrence and regular consultation with allies. An enemy must not be able to separate America from its allies through threats, coercion, or nuclear blackmail.
America should pursue reliable crisis communications, launch notifications, risk-reduction measures, and verifiable arms-control agreements when they improve American and allied security.
The United States will not accept unverifiable limits, one-sided disarmament, restrictions that adversaries routinely violate, an arsenal below the level needed for national survival, or agreements that prevent America from defending itself while allowing an adversary to retain the ability to attack.
PERSONNEL & READINESS
Technology cannot replace disciplined, trained, healthy, and properly supported people.
Military policy must provide competitive pay; safe and adequate housing; reliable medical and mental-health care; family support; modern training; appropriate leave and recovery; functional equipment; protection from unnecessary exposure to hazardous materials; fair accountability and due process; effective transition assistance; and timely veterans' services.
Commanders must not conceal readiness failures, unsafe conditions, personnel shortages, defective equipment, or preventable health risks to protect careers, contracts, or institutional reputations.
CIVIL DEFENSE & CONTINUITY
The federal government must publish an unclassified national civil-defense risk assessment at least every four years covering nuclear attack, major cyberattack, extreme solar events, biological emergencies, catastrophic terrorism, and prolonged infrastructure failure.
Federal departments and states receiving preparedness funds must maintain tested continuity plans for lawful succession, communications, public warning, emergency power, water, food, medicine, transportation, financial services, and restoration of constitutional government.
Continuity plans must be exercised at least annually. A public after-action summary identifying failures and corrective deadlines must be released within 90 days, with narrowly necessary security details withheld.
Emergency supplies and backup systems must be inventoried, rotated, geographically distributed, and tested. Agencies must report unusable stock, unsupported equipment, single points of failure, and corrective funding needs.
Civil-defense planning must preserve constitutional succession and civilian authority. Emergency planning may not create secret permanent governing powers.
CORE MPA STANDARD
America seeks peace, but peace cannot rest on weakness, appeasement, or surrender. We will maintain the people, weapons, technology, industry, defenses, and resolve necessary to prevent war, survive any attack, defeat any aggressor, protect our allies, and preserve the United States. If an enemy begins a war of mass destruction, America will not answer with symbolism. It will respond with the force necessary to end the attack, eliminate the aggressor's ability to continue the war, and ensure that the attack can never be repeated.
Related policies: Defense Modernization, Arsenal Readiness & Future Warfare; Veterans, Servicemembers & Military Families; Foreign Affairs; War Powers, Military Force & Congressional Authorization; National Cybersecurity Standards & Trusted Personnel; National MAQSTEM Research, Innovation & Advancement; Federal Spending & National Debt, including the American Development and Modernization Fund.
Status: Proposed / Draft, not yet formally adopted.
Originally published: August 15, 2026.
Last updated: October 4, 2026.
Version: Draft 0.9.