The Biden Regime’s underfunding and “poorly defined priorities” has led the U.S. military to become “weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on the global stage,” the Heritage Foundation said in its annual Index of U.S. Military Strength.
NY Post “The current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict,” the report said. “The force would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous [major conflicts.]”
At the same time, the possibility of two-front fighting has increased as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine and China grows increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, according to the report. “In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture can only be rated as ‘weak,’” the report said.
Across the services, the report rated only the Marine Corps as “strong” in the think tank’s assessment of force capacity, capability and readiness. While the Army achieved a “marginal” rating, the Space Force and Navy were labeled “weak” and the Air Force bottomed out at “very weak.” (Unfortunately, the Marine Corps is the smallest branch)
“In general, the military services continue to prioritize readiness and have seen some improvement over the past few years, but modernization programs, especially in shipbuilding, continue to suffer as resources are committed to preparing for the future, recovering from 20 years of operations and offsetting the effects of inflation,” the report said.
That spells serious trouble as the US gears up to face a rapidly growing and increasingly aggressive Chinese military, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said Tuesday.
“The particular problem with that is if you look at our priority theater, the Indo-Pacific, the two priority services are the Navy and the Air Force – and those seem to be the ones that are doing the worst,” the House Armed Services Committee member told reporters.
To strengthen its might, the US must be willing to invest in military hardware – ships, missiles and other weaponry – to supply the force with the equipment needed to prepare for future conflict, according to the report.
“At present, the [Biden] administration’s proposed defense budget for [fiscal year] 2023 falls far short of what the services need to regain readiness and to replace aged equipment,” the report said, “and Congress’s intention to increase the proposed budget by 5[%] accounts for barely half of the current rate of inflation, which is nearing 10[%].”
The armed forces also have capacity problem – not having enough personnel, weapons and other equipment to fight a war. The report rates the Navy worse than its sister services, dropping its capacity rating two notches from “marginal” to “very weak” – the lowest on the scale.
Part of the issue is the Biden administration’s diplomacy-first mindset of “substituting]soft power for hard power,” which Gallagher called “naïve at best.”
The other part is the Biden Regime’s “woke” priorities of “transgender inclusion, pronoun insanity, and anti-white CRT training.”
At the center of the hard-power problem is the Navy’s shrinking fleet size, according to the report. To fight in two wars, the think tank said the Navy would need about 400 ships – a drastic bump from the current 292 ships the service said it had as of last week.
Under President Trump in 2018, Congress passed a law mandating that the Navy reach a target of 355 ships “as soon as possible.” Instead, the service has cut ships faster than they’ve built them.
But even as vessel numbers have dwindled, Navy operations have not slowed – creating an additional hurdle to growing the fleet, Heritage senior defense researcher Dakota Wood said Tuesday. The US has about half the ships it had during the Cold War, but the number of ships at sea at any given time – about 100 – has not changed since at least the early 1990s.
“You’re working your ships twice as hard, the crews twice as hard, maintenance problems mount, so when it finally gets into the [ship]yard, there’s more work that has to be done than was anticipated,” Wood said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese navy already has 355 ships and plans to add about 65 more by 2026, according to the Pentagon’s annual China military report published in November. By 2030, China is expected to have 460 ships.
BLR says
all I got to say about this dismal report is don’t turn loose of your guns , push come to shove you could be called on to mount a rescue of our army so they can live to fight another day
Bubba Grump's Nutz says
My Oath never expires, but if it comes down to my old ass and a mob, I just hope the ammo holds out.
Richard S says
When America has a weak installed CIC, their once formidable strength is useless.
Linda Rivera says
THANKS TO OBAMA-BIDEN REGIME, U.S. Military now rated as “weak,” unable to win a war on one front, let alone two.
Under President Trump in 2018, Congress passed a law mandating that the Navy reach a target of 355 ships “as soon as possible.” Instead, the service has cut ships faster than they’ve built them.
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The TREASONOUS Klaus Schwab “You’ll Own Nothing and Be Happy, George Soros, Bill Gates, Fauci, Obama-Biden regime have MALICIOUSLY SABOTAGED America’s military defenses to ensure America will be easily CONQUERED by her most dangerous and barbaric enemies.
Linda Rivera says
ARTICLE:
Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine.
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Propaganda.
US/NATO and the EU are waging WAR on Russia. Resulting in Russia turning to communist China as an ally. So thanks to US/NATO’s war, China and Russia are now partners against America.
US/NATO are waging war for the United Nations NEW WORLD ORDER The Ukraine govt has boasted that they are a New World Order country.
Linda Rivera says
America’s borders have been wickedly left wide open by America’s ruthless rulers. Millions of illegals invaded and are immediately given financial help.
The AMERICA LAST, AMERICA HATING US regime have gifted massive amounts of America’s military equipment to Ukraine and as of May 24, 2022, gifted $54 BILLION DOLLARS to Ukraine.
Excessively cruel US rulers gifted massive amounts of military equipment to their TALIBAN KILLER TERRORISTS, SAVAGE PARTNERS.
They also gifted their TALIBAN TERRORIST PARTNERS $BILLIONS of DOLLARS and quickly imported almost 100,000 Afghan Muslims who were instantly given free money, food, clothing, housing, medical and dental care and permanent welfare.
US rulers declared they intend to import hundreds of thousands more Muslim Afghans who will be immediately placed on welfare.
Lots of hard core, battle-experienced terrorists were imported. The regime stated they plan to give fast track citizenship to all Afghan Muslims.
John Dough says
Are those who are really ruling going to use Biden to drop that first nuke?
BareNakedIslam says
He won’t drop it first.
Ramez E. Fekry says
I’ve been reiterating for 15 years that the Chinese Armed Forces are the most powerful military force in the history of mankind owing to their lack of multiculturalism and no-holds-barred RoEs (i.e., Rules of Engagement).