Strategic neglect in defense sustainment: The curious case of Wake Island Airfield

This article examines strategic neglect in defense sustainment, defined here as the deliberate underinvestment in legacy assets slated for divestiture. As a modernization strategy, strategic neglect introduces inherent readiness risk, degrading both strategic flexibility and operational effectiveness, particularly in high-intensity or crisis scenarios. Drawing on dynamic capabilities and resource orchestration, we describe how sensing, seizing, and transforming decisions shape whether transitions produce seamless capability renewal or operational gaps. We describe a logistics mediation model which identifies maintenance backlogs, diminishing manufacturing sources, workforce attrition, and cannibalization as mechanisms linking neglect to degraded readiness. This phenomenon has been observed with aircraft platforms and we present the unique case of Wake Island Airfield as an installation in transition, highlighting the need to align modernization decisions with logistics realities to preserve operational effectiveness. Our findings have implications for defense planners, logisticians, and strategic leaders seeking to balance modernization imperatives with sustained operational effectiveness.