{"id":82114,"date":"2018-06-14T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/14\/defense-and-delusion-americas-military-industry-are-falling-behind\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:00:30","slug":"defense-and-delusion-americas-military-industry-are-falling-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2018\/06\/14\/defense-and-delusion-americas-military-industry-are-falling-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense and delusion: America\u2018s military, industry are falling behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three great misconceptions of America\u2019s martial power delude both the public and our decision-makers into thinking, and too often acting, as if our nation\u2019s military preeminence is permanent, a preordained birthright. Americans believe we are \u2015 and always will be \u2015 more capable than our adversaries and can rapidly build up to overcome any threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without significant investments<\/a>, we\u2019re probably wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, America\u2019s 2018 military is a smaller, more expensive force largely operating Desert Storm vintage equipment. The lack of a serious conventional foe in either Iraq or Afghanistan masks the real state of the U.S. military. For example, the Air Force went into the first Gulf War with 134 fighter squadrons in its arsenal; of that, 32 deployed and fought. The average age of those fighters was 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the Air Force has only 55 fighter squadrons, average age of 27 years, with one we fund through contingency resources. Because of readiness gaps, the Air Force couldn\u2019t deploy 32 fighter squadrons today without destroying airplanes and risking aircrew lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desert Storm also informed the world about U.S. advances in technology and operational concepts \u2015 new capabilities that enabled U.S. forces to dominate Iraq\u2019s military, the fifth-largest in the world in 1990. Unfortunately, our success led us not only to accept America\u2019s lead in technology and innovation, but to assume we\u2019d always retain it \u2014 a feeling reinforced by the experiences in Bosnia-Herzegovina and early on in Afghanistan and then Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\t