US Army reviews

The relatively low R&D budgets are more than offset by the unique national and international assetts available for serious R&D efforts, and the strong legal support for contracts, agreements and rigorous clinical development.

There are numerous cons, and most have heard all about them. The simple fact is that people get promoted partially due to tenure which results in people incapable of leadership being leaders. There are so many variants available in each career field (and there are hundreds of career fields) that seldom does a senior leader understand the roles of most of his/her subordinates, which in turn leads to some being neglected as far as funding for training and equipment to the favor of the ones with which he/she is familiar. There is a great amount of wasted time, which becomes an accepted fact of life. The military (government as a whole in fact) is an expense not a profit making entity, however that is little excuse for inefficiency. Personal/Family lives of soldiers are negatively effected as a result of being deployed, so when not deployed if the wasted time could be avoided this would help the moral and personal/family lives of the soldiers. There is no organization that you could be employed by that could have more control, normally to your detriment, of your personal life. Many of the rights afforded citizens, due in large part to the soldiers, are not afforded to soldiers. The Uniform Code of Military Justice empowers the same leaders mentioned above (the ones promoted solely due to tenure) to seek legal punishment for laws no other citizen is subject to (such as failure to obey a lawful order, read 'do what your boss tells you to', for which the maximum punishment is 1 year confinement). I have seen it used for good reason and I have seen it used without reason. When it is done without reason, there is no retribution to be sought by the junior member.