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The 6 Reasons China and Russia Are Catching Up to the U.S. Military
Why the Gap In Military Superiority Is Closing
China and Russia are still behind the U.S. militarily. But they are both showing surprising breakthroughs that – sometime down the road in the future – could threaten U.S. hegemony.
The Washington Times reported last month:
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday warned Russia and China are quickly closing the military technology gap with the U.S. as inconsistent military budgets and slower innovation threaten America’s lead in the military world.
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“It’s evident that nations like Russia and China have been pursuing military modernization programs to close the technology gap with the United States,” he continued. “They’re developing platforms designed to thwart our traditional advantages of power projection and freedom of movement. They’re developing and fielding new and advanced aircraft and ballistic, cruise, anti-ship and anti-air missiles that are longer-range and more accurate.”
The SecDef issued this warning before Russia stunned the U.S. with its long-range missile and electronic communications-jamming capacities.
How could this be happening, when U.S. military spending dwarfs that from the rest of the world?
There are six reasons …
1. Corruption and Pork. America spends a large percentage of it’s defense spending on unnecessary military programs that:
- The generals say aren’t helpful and don’t even want
- Redundant personnel, programs and systems which don’t increase our war-fighting capacity
- Equipment which is built and then immediately mothballed before it is ever used
- Money is being thrown away on ridiculous things like a Homeland Security seminar called “Did Jesus Die for Klingons Too?” and mansions and personal chefs for generals
Indeed – as many lottery winners and star athletes will tell you – it’s easy to piss away even huge sums of money over a couple of years’ time without discipline.
And plain old corruption is wasting huge sums and dramatically weakening our national security.
How much are we talking about?
Well, here's some indication: $8.5 trillion dollars in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996 … has never been accounted for.
2. Fighting the Wrong Wars. A closely-related issue is that the war-fighting assets are being squandered, spread thin and distracted by fighting wars which decrease our national security.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the most expensive in U.S. history, costing between between $4 trillion and $6 trillion dollars.
And we spent additional boatloads of money carrying out regime change in Libya, Syria and elsewhere.
But these wars have only caused ISIS and the Taliban to flourish.
Indeed, the majority of our defense spending is – literally – making us less secure because we’re spending money to fight the wrong wars:
- We’re overthrowing the moderates who help insure stability
- We’re arming and supporting brutal dictators … which is one of the main reasons that terrorists want to attack the U.S.
- We’ve fought a series of wars for petrochemicals, instead of security
- We expend huge sums of money on mass surveillance … but top security experts agree that mass surveillance makes us MORE vulnerable to terrorists (we’re targeting the wrong guys)
3. Never-Ending War Destroys the Economy. We’re in the longest continuous period of war in U.S. history. The Afghanistan War has been going on for 14 years … as long as the Civil War (4 years,), WW1 (4 years) and WW2 (6 years) COMBINED.
Wars which drag on are horrible for our economy. A weak economy – in turn – makes it more difficult to sustain a leadership role in defense in the long-run.
And Americans are sick and tired of war. If our national security was actually threatened, it might be hard for the government to rouse our commitment and motivation.
4. More Bang for the Buck. China has the world’s largest economy when measured by “purchasing power parity” … meaning how much Chinese can buy in their their local currency in their local economy. And see this.
Therefore, China can buy locally-produced military parts and services more cheaply than the U.S. can.
As Bloomberg noted last year:
The lowest-paid U.S. soldiers earn about $18,000 a year. In comparison, in 2009, an equivalent Chinese soldier was paid about a ninth as much. In other words, in 2009, you could hire about nine Chinese soldiers for the cost of one U.S. soldier.
Even that figure doesn’t account for health care and veterans’ benefits. These are much higher in the U.S. than in China, though precise figures are hard to obtain. This is due to higher U.S. prices for health care, to higher prices in general, and because the U.S. is more generous than China in terms of what it pays its soldiers. Salaries and benefits, combined, account for a significant percentage of military expenditure.
But labor costs aren’t the only thing that is cheaper in China. Notice that China’s gross domestic product at market exchange rates is only two-thirds of its GDP at purchasing power parity. This means that, as a developing country, China simply pays lower prices for a lot of things. Some military inputs — oil, for example, or copper — will be bought on world markets, and PPP won’t matter. For others, like complicated machinery, costs are pretty similar. But other things — food or domestically manufactured products — will be much cheaper for the U.S.’s developing rivals than for the U.S.
Those who follow global security issues have known about this issue for a long time. But somehow, this fact hasn’t penetrated the consciousness of pundits or made its way into pretty, tweet-able graphs.
5. Theft. The U.S. Naval Institute, Fiscal Times and others document that the Chinese have greatly accelerated their weapons development timeline by spying on the West and shamelessly copying our military inventions and designs.
If the NSA and other spying agencies had used their resources to stop foreign governments from stealing our crown jewels - instead of using them to gain petty advantages for a handful of knuckleheads - we'd be a lot better off today.
6. Geography. Russia is almost twice the size of the U.S. Russia and China together are so massive – forming such a giant swath of land-based territory, so much closer to the Middle East than America is – that it gives their militaries an advantage.
Bloomberg points out:
The U.S., situated in the peaceful, relatively unpopulated Western Hemisphere, is very far away from the location of any foreseeable conflict. China isn’t going to invade Colorado (sorry, “Red Dawn” fans!), but it might invade Taiwan or India. Simply getting our forces to the other side of the world would require enormous up-front expenditures.
The National Interest notes:
“Defeating China in these scenarios [Taiwan and South China Sea] could nonetheless be difficult and costly for the United States’ primarily as a result of the geographic advantages that China enjoys, as well as specific systems capabilities.”
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A recent RAND report, “The US China Military Scorecard,” … argues that China is catching up to the U.S., is becoming more assertive and confident, and has geography on its side.
And Russia’s proximity to Ukraine, the Baltics and other neighboring countries gives it a huge advantage.
Postscript: Sadly, because we’ve squandered our resources, war games show that the U.S. is no longer invincible.
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Translation. the war monger/MIC wants more money.
This is quite a good summary, Mr. W.
Add to this, maybe as a subset of '2' that the US military is over-extended, and not everything can be "fixed" as quickly as you might like.
Oh, and the average recruit is substantially less intelligent than in the past. At some point up the CoC, that matters.
It also doesn't help to have well-connected politicians and ideologues making military decisions.
Well, a certain predatory ethnic in-group has been doing this since their ethnic cohorts started the Red Revolution and Red Terror in Russia and had built in sayanim spies in the US, with quite a distinguished list of them caught red handed(no pun) spying for the Soviets, so why stop there. Very nice what these dual-citizen creeps do to their supposed allies and benefactors, they continually cry out anti-semitism when caught stabbing you in the back! Look no further than their collective efforts to free Jonathan Pollard.
(NYT, 1993) ISRAEL SELLS ARMS TO CHINA, U.S. SAYS"Israel has sold advanced military technology to China for more than a decade and is moving to expand its cooperation with Beijing, says R. James Woolsey, the Director of Central Intelligence."
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/13/world/israel-sells-arms-to-china-us-sa...
(2013) U.S. Furious With Israel After Sale Of Advanced Military Technology To China
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/22/u-s-furious-with-israel-after-sale-...
(2014) Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. in New Snowden/NSA Document
http://www.newsweek.com/israel-flagged-top-spy-threat-us-new-snowdennsa-...
Add this link to your list http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940730000210 although in my opinion Washington is well aware what is really going on
The Zionists use ,get billions from us and laugh at us.
It is called "Building your enemies". A variation of Henry Fords "Building your Customer" business methodology.
Both result in increasing your funding.
It's a Goliath delusion, an exceptional delusion, a god's chosen delusion enhanced with greed, money and stupidity. Obedience is advancement.
1 thing every military in the world craves more than anything else (& the USA gets more than all militaries combined):
LFTE = LIVE FIRE TRAINING EXERCISE
Blame Obama he's the cunt.
The writer(s) for that Washington's Blog site are such idiots. So this writer is fine with all that money spent as long as it would have kept the U.S the undisputed bullies of the world? You aren't psised off that so much money is spent on needless military shit that could be spent elsewhere and actually BETTER the lives of the population? Brilliant!
And please fuck off with this security bullshit. NOBODY is going to be attacking the U.S.I have never seen a country that makes up shit so much like the U.S. does. The victim card they play is insane and it si typical of how bullies and abusers act.
Just more evidence to me that Washington's Blog is run by some government stooges.
Excellent summary George.
Our military is just a vehicle for scam and fraud.
The Chinese have greatly accelerated their weapons development timeline by spying on the West and shamelessly copying our military inventions and designs.
This may be happening but it is MUCH more common for the Chinese to obtain information on the USA's military technology from our supposed allies, Israel and Western European countries.
In a report done for the DOD a few years ago Israel was mentioned over 30 times in 26 pages of the report as having provided the Chinese either information on our most sensitive weapons systems or having provided actual working versions of the weapons clandestinely to the Chinese. What really sucks is the treasonous bastards in Congress and the Executive branch know all about this activity and essentially do nothing to stop it.
This may be happening but it is MUCH more common for the Chinese to obtain information on the USA's military technology from our supposed allies, Israel and Western European countries.
Exactly - except you need to add that they get it right from McDonald Douglas, Boeing, and GE as well. When the MIC's conveyor-belt of contracts slows down, they give technology away to our "enemies" so they can "catch up", then these ass-lickers like Carter can bleat and screech about how the "Bad guys are catching up!!" to shake down the fucktards in the Parliament of Whores for more of our cash. On top of that, the Russians and Chinese build weapons of war that are durable, repairable, less expensive, and in some cases, disposable, while the US and Zionist MIC build boutique racer-boy toys that make the sparkly-pants generals' butt water ... but are often so unreliable and expensive that they never make a serious showing in theater. Most of the upper "leadership" in the military is an utter disgrace - the good men can't take it and get out ... leaving the psychopaths and man-children to run the show.
Why do we need a military anyway? We lost in lost in Korea, lost Vietnam, lost in Syria, lost in Iraq and lost in Afghanistan. The US would have never won WW2 without the Soviets fighting the Germans for almost 3 years before even entering the war. All countries that we have succeded in regime change are totally bankrupt and destroyed. It makes one wonder. What type of people would actually join the military knowing you are going to fight an illegal war somewhere on the planet and be responsible for killing innocent men, women and children? PTDS is a made up disease to place a label on the symptons that soldiers coming back from the middle east who can't live with themselves because of what they had done. A member of the British Parliment went public 2-3 weeks ago and said that both British and American special forces were in Syria dressed as jihads. These soldiers have to know that what they are doing is completely illegal. Where did our moral compass go?
As far as going to war with China and Russia, we are no match. Russia is proving it now in Syria with their electronic jamming capabilities and their S-300 missile defense systems. No western country has the capability to enter their range without being shot down. Last year a single unarmed Russia jet completely shut down the USS Donald Cook with it's most advanced missile defense system. It didn't just shut down the defense system but the whole ship. They were dead in the water until the Russian mig turned off the electronic jamming system. As one Russia General was quoted after the incident, the US has invested trillions in having an electronic military. We have the capability of shutting these systems down anywhere on the planet. The US and NATO fighting the Iraqies is one thing, fighting Russia and China is something completely different.
What's the big deal about special forces going out dressed as Jihadi's? We ditched the bright red uniforms some time ago, the implication that they are out there doing the Jihadi's job though is ridiculous, like all bad conspiracy theories it requires a vast number of people to remain silent, and how is what they are doing illegal when there is no law? This concept of internation law is humbug. The politicians are openly doing enough stupid stuff without requiring the cooperation of the average squady.
Knowing a few ex-military types I can assure you that they are perfectly normal people, the ones I know are generally nicer than the average person if a little zany.
As for the electronic shut down, bah, it requires technology beyond that which any commercial company or research university has, tin foil hat stuff, why would they even network up with a handy wifi port the entire ships systems? Give the military R&D some credit, they can think of these things too, in the UK military R&D they didn't even allow computers to be connected to the internet and internal networks at the same time, it was one or the other, try hacking that one!
Jamming here might be elaborate, but it comes up against the key problem of strength, a small unit in a jet has to somehow alter or overwrite a much stronger one on the ship, personally I'll bet on the ship. What really happened was just a bit of bravado and low flying going on, no doubt the US were listening to whatever the Mig did and they'll study it, but even 1982 era control systems for the main gun would have been able to hit the jet at that range, hardly a threat.
The Russians are much stronger today, whether they'll get sucked into the imperial path again and squander all their strength though remains to be seen.
Before you go whistling past the graveyard...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_physicists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_mathematicians
"a small unit in a jet has to somehow alter or overwrite a much stronger one on the ship"
Who says the jamming came from the jet?
First principle: Correlation is not causality.
Whether or not the story is true, dismissing it out of hand based on limited information could be a costly mistake. Russian military doctrine and attendant basic research is highly focused on defense and countermeasures, thus it's completely reasonable to assume they are working towards something of this nature. If that were the case, and the theoretical framework exists (which would be classified) then a "missile gap" incident might be just the ticket to get research headed in that direction.
The distance factor is one truism of military power, that military power declines the further it is away from its source.
For that reason the US was weak in Vietnam, even though it had military power that dwarfed the Vietmanese. There are two ways you can use this fact, either to build up power locally to where it is needed, empire building, which explains why Britain became a power in the middle east and far east, because Britain needed to protect its Indian empire.
Or you can recognize the fact and ask yourself the question, where do we need to be powerful? For the UK it is now in Europe and the eastern Atlantic (now that we have no empire), for the US it is in the America's, the Pacific and the Atlantic as America is both a continental and seagoing power.
Both the UK and US can be nigh of impregnable in those areas at a cost they can afford, but that requires a foreign policy and political principles that can avoid entangling the nations armed forces where they are both weak and not needed for national security elsewhere in the world. And one that recognizes that they need allies to influence events far away, such as Europe, because in the long run this approach will not bankrupt them.
There is a simple solution to all this -
Bring our boys home!
Or "Yankee go home!", depending on your perspective.
If US were to withdraw from world affairs, close nearly all overseas military bases, abandon NATO and embrace isolationism (aka self-sufficiency) then all Americans could have their American Dream back. Decent houses, jobs, peaceful towns, empty jails. And pay high prices for durable, good quality domestically made goods.
Getting one's one soldieas into the inland ist a good thing. But it's terrible stupid idea to shut down trade. The isolation of Japan etc, have thrown them back centuries. And not getting back to subsidity will not give decen houces, peaceulf towns and empty jails.
"And pay high prices for durable, good quality domestically made goods." I'd say that we shouldn't even have to do that. We could pay competitive prices for quality domestically made goods if the government didn't shake down businesses every step of the way.
It would take a whole generation to do that.There is no industrial base left.
Nobody is going to be eager to sell the supples to even do it in exchange
for FRNs.Even then, the RoW will be permanently twenty years ahead.
How... typical. All or nothing, too little or too much, everything or nothing, first or last. in short, always... extremely exceptional and exceptionally extreme
A well thought out outsourcing program can allow the US to be Isolationist and have a world Footprint at the same time....
Winning!
Exceptionally extreme was glory days, now its melting into exceptionally mediocre.
The U.S. has been gutted by the military/industrial complex/CIA-bankers syndicate.
Detroit is exhibit #1 that no one gives a fuck and all they want is money and power.
Detroit was once an engine of greatness, of innovation and dreams and now its a ghetto of broken people and Detroit is the model for the rest of America,
Youngstown,Cleveland,Columbus,Pittsburgh, the cancer has metasized and the tumours are growing beneath our feet.
Last to succumb will be New York, but it too will die from the same disease, though an attempt will be made to sell it back to the Dutch, unfortunately after the fire and the flood they won't be interested after all.
China already has defeated the U.S. look on the shelves of any store, all the goods are Chinese. Walmart is the prince of China and he has destroyed us without a single shot.
A Capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with, in America we have spent our last pennies on Chinese TV's to watch our own demise.
America's last export is irony.
There is another factor, what kind of person volunteers to serve under the present CIC? What kind of person would sign up, and want to become a leader, and be allowed to be a leader in a military where Hillary was CIC?
How about the F-35? Way over budget. Can’t do anything well. Late. Still has problems. China stole much of the plans. No pilots are allowed to comment on it’s short-comings.
New aircraft carriers. Now sitting ducks with all the long range anti-ship missiles. USS Gerald Ford. Late and costing (better sit down) $13 billion. Yep, 13, very very big ones. One little silent diesel submarine slips in and sinks it with a two thousand dollar torpedo.
.Mil is the biggest welfare program on the planet.
Technology leadership is a momentary leadership. It is much easier and cheaper to leverage someone elses work than to develop it in the first place. Most times they don't even have to steal it. Our friends/allies and companies give it to them.
What better way to ensure consistent funding than to leak out technology leadership to allow your enemies to push for your own increase in funding?
It really doesn´t help the US at all to have it´s computer networks packed with defence secrets linked up to the internet.
http://map.norsecorp.com/
The F-35 does something really well. It makes some people very rich, whether it works or not. Even worse, we've given Russia and China an example of what NOT to build, so they won't be wasting and misallocating funds on their end.
Wait until TPP gives the rest of the world everything we have left? Our leadership is a disgrace and the people need to come together to rid ourselves of this scum.
This is how they have destroyed the US and continue to destroy us. 28.7 million jobs shipped out of the country by our "Representatives" since 92, they are screwing us? FUCKING AHOLES! This is the benefit of "FREE" TRADE ANOTHER BULLSHIT TITLE. FUCK THIS!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-27/free-trade-vs-american-jobs FUCK YOU UNCLE SHAM! IM SHOCKED AS AN AMERICAN AT HOW FUCKING STUPID AMERICANS ARE TO LET THESE POLITICIANS RULE BY CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.
"FREE" TRADE HAS GIVEN THESE COUNTRIES THEIR POWER YOU GREEDY FUCKING DICKHEADS! MAYBE NOT SO "FREE"?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-27/free-trade-vs-american-jobs sorry here is a functional link.
Just as long as these AHOLES can escape on their private jets along with their "Cash Buddies" when the SHTF. Everything will be just fine, TRUST US.
MY ANSWER IS FUCK YOU! JUST REMEMBER YOU ARE PAYING THESE ASSHOLES TO WORK AGAINST YOU NOT FOR YOU. FUCKING IDIOTS.
28.7 million jobs shipped out of the country by your politicians? Are my fellow Americans not good at math or just plain stupid? Do they get that our government is ruining everything? Your government doesn’t give a shit about u! OBAMA SUPPORTS TPP FOR ALL YOU RIGHTEOUS DICKHEADS OUT THERE, NOT GOOD. OBAMA = NOT GOOD, REPUBLICANS=NOT GOOD, DEMOCRATS=NOT GOOD. LOOK AT THEIR RESULTS PEOPLE, 28.7 million of YOUR jobs shipped out and gone, your salaries are in the pockets of those at the top. This is what they call growth these days.
28.7 million salaries are what just gave us our mediocre bull market? Or our FAKE GROWTH. Think it will be worth it in the end? Think again. They are eating their own tails at this point.
We need to form a group that refuses to pay income tax to people who are of no benefit to us and the group has to be huge. The money I have paid in tax since 87' has been a total fucking waste, anyone who is young remember that. THIS IS WHAT I GOT FOR THE MONEY, DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID.
some education about how Amereeka really works.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOuQOYmRoBc
Thats worth watching, I wonder how many could tell similar stories. Thanks
some education about how Amereeka really works.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOuQOYmRoBc
It is way past time for America to realise it is just one of 200 countries around the world and has no right to interfere in any other country's affairs unless asked for help by the government. No more suporting tyrants like Saudi because they are "our" bad guys, no more supporting Israel pushing out Palestinians, no more supporting regime change, no more crap about shining city on a hill ...
No other country is going to invade America, just take a milli-second to think about the logistics that would be needed, it can't be done.
No more inventing fake enemies just so the MIC can "justify" huge budgets and wars on terrorists, Hussein, Ghaddafi, Assad.
No need for hundreds of bases around the world, no other country has more than a mere handful of foreign bases.
No more allowing giant corporations to write the laws and have revolving doors for jobs between themselves and government or political donations & lobbyists.
No need for "black" or hidden budgets, be totally open and transparent.
Do this and the world will respect America.
George Jingo Washington.
Seems you got infected George,
huh?
read more carefully maybe.
Member for 2 weeks 3 days
LOL!!!!
Turnabout is fair play.
exactly. nothing but stooges for the government as the writer(s) would probably be happy if the U.S could take oevr the world. Sick bullshit and all Americans like that can go fuck themselves as well.
I concur