US Military’s Shortcomings: Most Expensive Does Not Mean Best
Boosting military spending was one of President Trump’s major campaign pledges. The fiscal 2018 defense spending bill introduced by a joint House-Senate conference committee allows $692 billion, including $626 billion in base budget spending and $66 billion more for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund.
There are other security related expenses of other agencies, which exceed $170 billion. They include the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the State Department, the Homeland Security, the FBI, and Cybersecurity in the Department of Justice.
Defense spending accounts for almost 16 percent of all federal spending and roughly half of discretionary spending. The United States spends more on national defense than the next eight biggest national defense budgets in the world combined, including China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan.
The discussions on the need for hikes in military spending are a popular issue. It’s widely believed that the United States is the most formidable military power the world has ever seen. No doubt, America’s military might is great but the armed forces are not faultless. The build-up plans hit many snags on the way. There are weak points serious enough to put into doubt the effectiveness of the current defense programs and combat readiness of the military, be it a nuclear or a conventional war.
Some experts say a US first strike would knock out most of the capability of a Russian counter second strike, with a limited number of nuclear missiles launched by Russia in retaliation blocked by ballistic missile defense. It’s not worth going into details. Even if ground-based missiles in silos and strategic nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) moored at bases are knocked out, Russia’s SSBNs and strategic bombers on patrol will retaliate, inflicting unacceptable damage. The risk is always there and it’s unthinkable. Nobody in their right mind would try it.
Indeed, there is some threat posed by sea- and air-based long-range cruise missiles and B-2 stealth bombers. But “some” is unacceptable for a first strike. If the enemy retains the capability to inflict unacceptable damage in a retaliatory strike, a limited capability to strike him first is useless. Besides, the speed of the delivery means is relatively slow and timely detection is impossible to avoid.
Much ballyhoo is raised about the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) concept – the ability to deliver a precision-guided conventional weapon airstrike anywhere in the world within one hour. No such weapon is on the horizon despite all the efforts applied so far. With much smaller defense spending, Russia is leading the race. “Boost glide” hypersonic weapon technology presupposes the use of ballistic missiles or bombers, which will be detected. The PGS delivered by glide vehicles will be warned about to provoke a nuclear retaliation. The US will actually commit a suicide by striking Russia with conventional weapons to trigger a nuclear response…..more here