<br/><br/>In his first budget guidelines, new US Defence Secretary James Mattis has called for improving war-fighting readiness and building a larger and more lethal fighting force. In his four-page budget guidelines, Mr Mattis also launched the effort to devise the 2018 National Defence Strategy. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said, the guidance provides a course of action to strengthen US armed forces and to make the country more secure. He said, Mr Mattis is committed to achieve maximum value from every taxpayer dollar spent on defence. The guidelines seek to address urgent war-fighting<br/>readiness shortfall across the joint force and new requirements driven by acceleration of the campaign against Islamic State terror group.<br/>''''''''<br/>