So far on this blog, I’ve talked about the strength of the U.S military, it’s expansive budget, and how other countries stack up against the United States. Today, I’d like to discuss whether our military is at sufficient capacity to handle the increasing number of conflicts that we enter in to. A recent opinion article on Fox News made some interesting points about our recent budget cuts.

The Number to Keep in Mind is 25%

As the article points out, the U.S military budget has decreased by 25% since 2011.  25%!! That is quite a significant cut!! When the government makes that much of a cut to our military’s personnel, equipment, and training, one has to wonder if our military is as strong and capable as it should be in this increasingly unstable world we live in? Now, I’m sure with a budget as large as ours, there is some fat to trim, but 25%!!!  That seems like a bit much.

Add to that problem that our greatest threats in the world, Russia & China, are getting stronger at the very same time we are become weaker. This is not a good recipe!!

Soooo….Let Me Get this Straight Continue reading →

In the past couple of posts, I talked about how the U.S. military is superior to all other countries on the planet, from budgets to personnel to assets. However, are two of the U.S.’s biggest military threats, Russian and China, catching up? The answer is, quite equivocally, yes.

Spending

Although the U.S. spends more on it’s military than both Russia and China combined (and you can also add in the next highest 5-6 countries as well), the U.S. has been reducing its military budget. Russia and China, on the other hand, have been increasing their military budges. Although both Russia and China will likely never spend what the U.S. does, they are spending what they allocate very wisely, which will be discussed later. Many of you are probably wondering how this could possibly be happening when the U.S. spends an exorbitant amount more than Russia and China. Well….. here ya go….

Technology

Some U.S. military leaders will agree  that Russia and China have already surpassed the U.S. military in certain areas regarding technology (click here for more information). Many advisers agree that the U.S. is far too dependent on Global Positioning Satellites (GPS). This is quite disturbing because all that Russia or China would have to do to cripple our systems is launch an electronic attack or cyber attack. Do we have sufficient systems in place to prevent such an attack? As recent events have shown, both Russia and China are quite capable of hacking in to our systems. The truth is this..if a war between the world’s greatest powers breaks out (disregarding nukes) the country with the best technology will have a great advantage. We need to become more technologically advanced. We need to be able to protect our technological systems. As the link above points out, we are falling behind both Russia and China in terms of fielding advanced weapons.  Continue reading →