Closing the gap was also mentioned here years ago. If they, especially China and Russia, are not already on par with U.S. capability, they will be within the next few years. Today’s unintelligence community seems to always be a few years behind the curve.
As both quality and quantity of U.S. forces continue to take an intentional suicidal dive, in five to ten years, maybe an invasion of the United States mainland by China and Russia won’t be so laughable.
U.S. adversaries including China, Russia, and Iran are developing military capabilities that will allow them to compete with shrinking and aging American forces in the coming years, according to a new report.
The report, authored by the American Enterprise Institute and the Foreign Policy Initiative, warns that U.S. adversaries have been bolstering their militaries and purchasing cheaper weapon systems as the United States cuts its defense budget and delays acquisition of new equipment. Both China and Russia have increased their defense budgets by double digits in recent years, for example, while the United States could reduce its military spending by as much as $1 trillion in a decade under cuts known as sequestration.
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The size of the U.S. Navy fleet and the total number of Air Force squadrons have dwindled by more than half since the end of the Cold War. Of the 54 squadrons, less than half are combat ready.
Additionally, several Air Force planes have been in use for more than two decades, including the B-52 long-range bomber, the A-10 Warthog, and the F-15 Eagle fighter jet.
“These older planes are already vulnerable when operating against advanced adversary aircraft and air defense systems such as the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter and the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system,” the report said.
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Gen. Mark Welsh, head of the U.S. Air Force, told Fox News in May that the “gap has closed” between the capabilities of America’s military and its adversaries.
“China and Russia are two good examples of countries who will be fielding capability in the next three to five years; if they stay on track, that is better than what we currently have in many areas,” Welsh said.
“Fighter aircraft in the next three to five years that have more capability than what we currently have sitting on the ramp,” he continued. “The F-35 will stay a generation ahead of them. F-22 will, too. Everything else we have will not stay ahead. The gap has closed.”
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“We have to figure out how you make 30,000 feel like 300,000,” Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Army’s commanding general in Europe, told the New York Times in reference to America’s shrinking presence in Europe since the Cold War.
Full article: China, Russia, Iran Closing Gap with Smaller, Older U.S. Military (Washington Free Beacon)
Global Geopolitics 