{"id":36418,"date":"2021-07-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/07\/09\/why-america-could-lose-its-next-war\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:58:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:58:01","slug":"why-america-could-lose-its-next-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2021\/07\/09\/why-america-could-lose-its-next-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Why America could lose its next war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Department of Defense loves a good buzz phrase: capability over capacity, making the tough choices, taking risk now to reduce future risk. The DoD has used all three to rationalize a fiscal 2022 budget<\/a> that shrinks the U.S. military\u2019s size in the hope that new technologies will eventually lead to new acquisitions. The truth is the proposed budget is the latest in a series of funding requests that have fallen short of what the DoD needs to rebuild for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of 30 years of \u201cbuilding down to build up\u201d is a military that lacks the capacity to fight a single peer aggressor plus defend the U.S. homeland and deter nuclear attacks. Since defense leaders seem reluctant to be forthright and sound the alarm, Congress must step in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the case of the Air Force. According to the 2018 National Defense Strategy, defeating a peer adversary\u2019s invasion of a U.S. ally or friend is the most stressing requirement<\/a> for sizing our military. Preventing a Chinese seizure of Taiwan or a Russian invasion of the Baltic states will require U.S. forces that can launch large-scale precision strikes and otherwise go on the offensive within hours. Only air power \u2014 bombers, fifth-generation fighters and other air combat systems \u2014 can respond over global ranges in time to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, 66 percent of the Air Force\u2019s bombers have been sent to the boneyard since the Cold War, and its fighter force is less than half the size of the force that defeated Iraq\u2019s military in 1991. For context, the Air Force\u2019s 140 B-1s, B-2s and B-52s \u2014 its smallest bomber force ever \u2014 may be able to generate 30 strike sorties per day. B-52 bombers alone flew an average of 50 sorties per day during Operation Desert Storm. <\/p>\n\n\n\t