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For the sake of all humanity, it is indispensable that America
should remain the strongest military power in the World. That military superiority is
now coming into question.
Despite the claim that President Trump was increasing defense
spending, the facts belie such a claim. On February 10, 2020, President Trump released his
defense budget request for the next fiscal year, 2021. The Department of Defense’s budget
would go up slightly by 0.1% over the prior year. But the roughly flat overall budget
is a plateau after sizable increases were pushed through Congress in the years since Trump
took office. Let’s not forget that inflation alone (around 2% annually in recent
years) more than eats up the supposed 0.1% increase in defense spending.
Despite growing concerns about China and Russia, the Defense
Department’s budget would essentially remain flat under President Donald Trump’s fiscal
year 2021 budget request.
The Army continues to shift money around to fund its top
modernization priorities in its fiscal year 2021 budget request.
The Navy is proposing cutting back its shipbuilding accounts by
$4 billion.
The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal would cut
Marine Corps funding by $1.4 billion and reduce the size of the active duty force.
While artificial intelligence has become a top priority within the Pentagon,
a new report by the RAND Corp. has found that the Defense Department has shortcomings in its
AI posture.
The 2021 budget would require real cuts in what our military needs. Air
Force and Navy aviation take the brunt of the proposed cuts. They would force cancellation of four
F-35 and F-22 fighters, two MV-22 Ospreys, four C-130J cargo planes and eight MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The Pentagon request also strips $156 million in additional funds for the
F-35, $180 million for an Air Force light attack aircraft, $650 million for amphibious assault ships
and nearly $300 million for Army vehicles. Another $1.5 billion would be taken from accounts used to
provide equipment for the National Guard and Reserve.
The Trump administration plan calls for acquiring 44 vessels through 2025.
Last year, the service planned to procure 55.
Year after year, Congress has heard from Navy leaders, combatant commanders
and experts about the growing demand for submarine capabilities as countries like China and Russia
step up their undersea activity. They have urgently warned us that we need more submarine
construction, not less, in order to mitigate the nearly 20 percent reduction in the fleet we presently
face within this decade.
President Trump’s 2021 budget exacerbates this submarine shortfall by
decreasing investment in the Virginia-class program. Such a decision yields loss in capability
that does not justify any short-term cost savings, particularly as Russia and China continue
significant investment in their respective submarine fleets.
The Coronavirus has created threats to the 2021 defense budget and
threatens America’s security. As more and more money is needed to fight the virus, Democrats look
to the defense budget as a pot of money to pay for the fight against the pandemic and to buy
voter support in the 2020 election at the expense of the nation’s security. Nearly
30 Democrats (including the Squad — Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
Ayanna Pressley) are demanding that the defense budget be cut.[1]
In September 2020, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that “The
Navy needs a force of more than 355 ships — and more money for vessel construction — to compete with
China” (Ref. 2).
That conclusion is based on the Future Naval Force Study led by Deputy
Defense Secretary David Norquist that was delivered to Esper.
The sea service currently has fewer than 300 battle force ships in
its inventory. President Donald Trump has called for a Navy of 350 manned vessels. To achieve
the larger fleet, the Navy will need more money for shipbuilding. For fiscal year 2021, the Trump
administration requested $207 billion for the Navy, $19.9 billion of which would go toward
shipbuilding. Congress appropriated about $24 billion for shipbuilding in fiscal year 2020.
[2].
As we enter the third decade of the twenty first century, America is
confronted by Russian and Chinese capabilities that enable these countries to destroy U.S. bases
and logistics networks—including those on the homeland. In addition, America remains under threat
from Islamic terrorists in Iran who still label us as the “Great Satan” while moving ever closer
to becoming a nuclear threat with intercontinental missile capability. North Korea is already a
nuclear power.
“China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has already surpassed the
U.S. in missile development and its number of warships and air defense systems under the Chinese
Communist Party's plan to achieve dominance by 2049, the Defense Department said in a sobering
report . . . [Emphasis mine]
“ ‘The ultimate goal of the People's Republic of China, or PRC, is to
develop a military by mid-Century that is equal to -- or in some cases superior to -- the U.S.
military, or that of any other great power that the PRC views as a threat,’ the DoD's annual
report to Congress said.
“To that end, the PRC has ‘marshalled the resources, technology, and
political will over the past two decades to strengthen and modernize the PLA in nearly every
respect,’ the report said.
"Under the national strategy pressed by Chinese President Xi Jinping,
the result has been that ‘China is already ahead of the United States in certain areas’ essential
to its overall aim of progressing from homeland and periphery defense to global power projection
. . .
" ‘The PRC has the largest navy in the world, with an overall battle force
of approximately 350 ships and submarines, including over 130 major surface combatants’ . . .
“That's compared to the U.S. Navy's current battle force of 295 ships.
“In addition, ‘the PRC has more than 1,250 ground-launched ballistic
missiles (GLBMs) and ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) with ranges between 500 and 5,500
kilometers,’ while the U.S. currently fields one type of conventional GLBM with a range of 70 to
300 kilometers and no GLCMs . . .
“In some respects, China is also ahead on integrated air defense systems
with a mix of Russian-built and homegrown systems . . .
" ‘The PRC has one of the world's largest forces of advanced long-range
surface-to-air systems’ - including Russian-built S-400, S-300, and domestically-produced anti-air
systems - making up ‘part of its robust and redundant integrated air defense system’ . . .
“Despite the advances, the PLA ‘remains in a position of inferiority’ to
the U.S. in overall military strength, said . . . the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for
China.
“The 173-page DoD report ‘does not claim that China's military is 10 feet
tall,’ but the Chinese Communist Party wants it to be, and has the plan and resources to reach that
goal . . .
“At an earlier Pentagon briefing on the report, {it was} said Beijing's
military strategy was driven by the view that the U.S. has decided upon a long period of confrontation
to counter the global spread of China's influence.
“. . . China ‘increasingly views the United States as more willing to
confront Beijing on matters where the U.S. and PRC interests are inimical.’
" ‘The CCP {Chinese Communist Party} leaders view the United States'
security alliances and partnerships -- especially those in the Indo-Pacific region -- as destabilizing
and irreconcilable with China's interests’ . . .
“The DoD report, titled ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the
People's Republic of China’ comes about two weeks before Congress is set to return from recess to
convene a Senate-House Conference Committee on the National Defense Authorization Act and the defense
budget for Fiscal Year 2021.
“Defense Secretary Mark Esper has acknowledged downward pressures on the
defense budget to offset the enormous costs of the COVID-19 response while arguing for sustained
increases of 3-5% in defense spending in future years to maintain U.S. superiority and readiness.
“The 20th annual report on China by DoD noted the ‘staggering’
improvements in China's ability to build, coordinate and project power since the first report was
issued. [Emphasis mine]
" ‘DoD's first annual report to Congress in 2000 assessed the PRC's armed
forces at that time to be a sizable but mostly archaic military that was poorly suited to the CCP's
long-term ambitions,’ . . .
“In 2000, ‘the PLA lacked the capabilities, organization, and readiness
for modern warfare,’ the report said. But the CCP, it added, recognized the shortcomings and set
about with determination to ‘strengthen and transform its armed forces in a manner commensurate with
its aspirations to strengthen and transform China.’
" ‘More striking than the PLA's staggering amounts of new military hardware
are the recent sweeping efforts taken by CCP leaders that include completely restructuring the PLA
into a force better suited for joint operations’ and for ‘expanding the PRC's overseas military
footprint.’
“The PLA has already established its first overseas military base in Djibouti,
about a mile from U.S. Africa Command's main base on the Horn of Africa.
- - -
“Despite the progress made by China's military over the past two decades,
‘major gaps and shortcomings remain’ in readiness and operational capability, the report said, but
China's leaders are acutely aware of the problems and have detailed plans to overcome them.
" ‘Of course, the CCP does not intend for the PLA to be merely a
showpiece of China's modernity or to keep it focused solely on regional threats,’ [Emphasis
mine] the report said.
" ‘As this report shows, the CCP desires the PLA to become a practical
instrument of its statecraft with an active role in advancing the PRC's foreign policy, particularly
with respect to the PRC's increasingly global interests and its aims to revise aspects of the
international order’ . . . “ (Ref. 3).
Concurrent with the amazing growth in Chinese military prowess, the United
States has allowed itself to become captive to China’s nearly complete monopolistic dominance in the
production of rare earths minerals.
“. . . rare earths are vital to many of the major weapons systems
that the United States relies on for national security. [Emphasis mine]
“That includes lasers, radar, sonar, night vision systems, missile guidance,
jet engines and alloys for armored vehicles.
- - -
"The United States produces minimal rare earth minerals, but, in 2018,
China produced more than 70% of the crucial minerals. This is significant since rare earths
are needed for use in most electronic devices, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and the aerospace and
defense industries. They are essential to our modern society, and the US depends on China’s
exports. Globally, rare earth production is dominated by China.
- - -
“While the US lists rare earths as critical materials, we have essentially
done nothing to secure its supply. China still controls the vast majority of the global rare
earth industry and hence controls the supply chain critical to producing high tech electronics,
especially those using magnets.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 4)
It has been said that generals are always fighting the previous war
instead of developing tactics and strategies for the next war.
“For most of its history, the United States has had the luxury of fighting
its wars from safe havens. No major international battles have taken place on the continental United
States in more than two centuries, and its offshore territory has not suffered a serious attack
since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II. For the past few decades, even U.S. bases on
foreign soil have faced few conventional military threats.
"The unprecedented immunity has enabled a particular American way of war
that involves massive assaults launched from nearly invulnerable and geographically removed sanctuaries.
In recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Serbia, for example, the U.S. military used secure
bases and logistics networks stretching from the U.S. heartland to the enemy’s borders. From these
vast safe spaces, the military was able to pick its battles strategically and churn out air and
missile strikes with industrial efficiency. As a result, the outcomes of the immediate wars - if
not their aftermaths - were never in doubt.
“In future wars, however, new technologies may enable rival great powers,
such as China and Russia, to carry out precise and devastating attacks on U.S. military bases and
logistics networks, even including those located within the United States itself. Advances in the
fields of aerospace, robotics, machine learning, 3D printing, and nanomaterials are creating new
classes of missiles and lethal drones that can be launched discreetly, travel great distances, and
hamstring massed forces - all for a fraction of the cost of traditional manned weapons.
- - -
"The diffusion of these technologies will render the United States’ current
way of war obsolete. . .
“The U.S. military would have trouble quickly responding to such attacks
because it is so unprepared for them. . .
- - -
“The problem may get even worse. In an effort to counter China’s and Russia’s
anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities, which target the United States’ forward-deployed forces,
the U.S. military is increasing its dependence on combat systems that require secure bases and logistics
networks to function. . . but {this will} run ragged U.S. logistics forces . . .
“It is past time for the U.S. military to prepare to fight without
sanctuaries. . ." (Ref. 5).
So, as the United States is constantly being militarily confronted
throughout the world by nations - large and small - and by numerous terrorist organizations,
we should ask the all-important question: Is America today the strongest military power
in the World and are we, as a nation, doing what needs to be done to ensure that America will
remain the strongest military power in the World for the foreseeable future?
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References:
- 2021 Defense Budget Poses Problems, David Burton, Son of Eliyahu;
Article 414, 21 May 2020.
- Pentagon Chief Unveils New Navy Force Level Plans , Jon Harper, National
Defense Magazine,
16 September 2020.
- China's Military Has Surpassed US in Ships, Missiles and Air Defense, DoD Report Finds,
Richard Sisk, Military.com, 1 September 2020.
- America’s Rare Earth Problem, David Burton, Son of Eliyahu; Article 435,
11 September 2020.
- In Future Wars, the U.S. Military Will Have Nowhere to Hide, Michael Beckley,
Foreign Policy,
20 November 2019.
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