Think we have military primacy over China? Think again

WASHINGTON - Here’s a fact that ought to startle every American who assumes that because we spend nearly $1 trillion each year on defense, we have primacy over our emerging rival, China, opines David Ignatius for the Washington Post. Continue reading original article.

The Intelligent Aerospace take:

May 14, 2020 -Ignatius' piece for the Post is based around a new book by Christian Brose, who was once the staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and an adviser to John McCain.

Ignatius says that Brose's book, titled The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, is "the most provocative critique of U.S. defense policy I've read in years."

Brose writes, “Over the past decade, in U.S. war games against China, the United States has a nearly perfect record: We have lost almost every single time."

The author says that in a war, China would immediately disable U.S. spy and communication satellites, accurately target facilities in Guam and Japan, and aircraft carriers would have to move away from mainland China, leaving U.S. F-35s unable to reach targets.

"How did this happen?" asks Ignatius in his piece. "It wasn’t an intelligence failure, or a malign Pentagon and Congress, or lack of money, or insufficient technological prowess. No, it was simply bureaucratic inertia compounded by entrenched interests. The Pentagon is good at doing what it did yesterday, and Congress insists on precisely that."

Related: Highly impressive lineup of Chinese air combat drone types caught by satellite