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RE: WW3 Watch: Might the United States Actually Lose a Conflict with Russia or China
Very interesting read.
Do you think the current US administration is :
(a) aware of the issues you raise in your article
(b) willing and able to do anything significant to rectify the deficiencies you identify in the US military preparedness?
Hey @pennsif: Thank you for reading.
(a) Certainly, yes. Trump knows that he needs advisors, and he listens closely to what Mattis and Dunford think. Those two are on top of the problems, as they've been warning about them for several years.
(b) Willing, certainly. Able depends on finances, which depends largely on the Congress. These deficiencies took years to develop, there's no reason to believe that fixing them will not also take years. The Pentagon is filled with waste, fraud, and abuse. Trump or Mattis taming that circus to cut wasteful spending would be perhaps the greatest first step in resolving the problem. Just yesterday, the Army killed a $6B project called Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T), because the tactical communications network was vulnerable to Russian jamming. After roughly 10 years (I believe) and $6B, the Army is no closer to a more reliable or resilient communications network. So the problem is one of the Pentagon's own making, partly for investing in 'good idea fairy' projects and partly for investing in weapons and technology that's basically obsolete before its built. Righting the wrong of sequestration (and I even hesitate to say that because the Pentagon wastes and 'loses' so much money) is going to take a decade, perhaps longer. We have to hire new recruits, train them, equip them, and not lose all of our existing talent with years' of combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's a years long process before we even get to a war. So long story short: yes, the fix is coming, but it's a race against the clock, so to speak.