Hello, there I'm Chuck Todd and welcome to Meet the Press reports.

This is the program where we spend a half hour taking a deep dive into a single issue.

This special episode we are going to take a look at the US military and whether it is ready

for America's next war.

George Washington once said that being prepared for war is one of the best ways to preserve

peace.

There is no doubt that the military is prepared to fight terror groups in the Middle East.

But the Pentagon says that the biggest national security threats today come from China and

Russia.

And war with either of those countries is likely to be far different from anything we've

ever seen before.

In this episode we will talk to former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike

Mullin, about whether the US military is ready for the conflicts to come.

We will also check in with Paul Reikoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,

about the toll that the 21st century wars have taken on our US service members.

But we are going to begin with NBC's Courtney Cuby and a look at how the Pentagon is getting

ready for a war on earth that could end up beginning in cyberspace or even outer space.

After nearly 20 years of fighting, for many Americans, these are the images of war.

American troops battling terror groups, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the mountains in case of

Afghanistan, ISIS in Iraqi towns and villages, and throughout the Syrian desert.

But the way that we fight the next major war is going to look very different from the

way that we fought the last ones.

...