The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted healthcare systems, including the US Military Health System (MHS), the nation’s ninth-largest healthcare system. Understanding the MHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic offers valuable lessons for improving quality, effectiveness, and accessibility in future pandemics and public health emergencies. Our objective was to develop expert consensus recommendations to strengthen future MHS pandemic planning highlighting elements that are translatable to civilian health care systems. We conducted a modified Delphi process consisting of a narrative review of MHS pandemic-related documents followed by four rounds of expert engagement: a one-on-one interview, an asynchronous rating round, a synchronous rating round, and a final consensus round. The narrative review produced 102 recommendations from 16 source documents. In round 0 (interview round), 30 experts reviewed and refined these policy recommendations down to 94 recommendations. In round 1 (asynchronous rating round), 21 experts rated each of the 94 recommendations on both importance and feasibility. In round 2 (virtual synchronous rating round), 15 experts in a virtual synchronous meeting rated 19 recommendations that remained as uncertain consensus after round 1. During round 3 (virtual synchronous meeting), 14 experts affirmed the final ratings. RESULTS: From 102 recommendations in round 0, 25 recommendations were ultimately rated both high importance and high feasibility. Expert consensus prioritized public health measures, coordination with other healthcare systems and authorities, and preparedness for personnel and materiel. These recommendations ranged from developing and conducting a series of interagency tabletop exercises to enhance future capabilities, to establishing clear roles and responsibilities for authorities during public health emergencies, to developing an integrated medical operations plan that addresses command and control structure during contingencies, to continuing to refine and communicate formal policies and procedures across several domains. These findings provide a prioritized strategic foundation for refining future pandemic preparedness frameworks for both the MHS and large civilian health care systems.