Is the Warning Clock on Our National Defense Running Out?

[rangerrebew]

Is the Warning Clock on Our National Defense Running Out?
By Andrew Hoehn & Thom Shanker
July 10, 2023
 

As World War I drew to a close, the British cabinet made a momentous decision. It concluded that the risk of another major European war anytime in the immediate future was low, so it decided to prioritize restoring the nation’s finances, rather than continuing to modernize its military.

In making its decision, the cabinet acted on another consideration. This was a time of rapid technological change. The cabinet concluded that if it did not time its military investments wisely, it could well waste funds by investing in the wrong capabilities at the wrong time. Judging that any major threat stood at more than a decade into the future, it invoked a ten‐year rule to guide its military planning. Year after year, the cabinet would assess the prospects of a future threat, and if that threat was judged to be ten or more years into the future, Britain would continue to focus its time and resources on the demands of policing its empire, which, in the aftermath of the Great War, included parts of the Middle East.


In one of the odd twists of history, Winston Churchill, who in 1928 was Chancellor of the Exchequer, put forth the position that each year that the cabinet determined the risks of another European war to be low, the clock on the ten‐year rule should be reset. Of course, it was also Churchill who, a little more than a decade later, would have to look back at the die he helped cast as British forces escaped crushing defeat at Dunkirk and as the Battle for Britain raged.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/07/10/is_the_warning_clock_on_our_national_defense_running_out_964926.html

[DefiantMassRINO]

America has no such clock.

There was significant divestment form the Defense Sector in the early to mid 1990s' ... End of First Gulf War, Fall of Soviet Union, Peace Dividend, etc.

Much money was thrown at the Defense Sector in the wake of 9/11, but Defense Sector corporate consolidation and poor procurement decisions - such as single sourcing and defining requirements on-the-fly - have given us the underwhelming F-35's, Littoral Warship, and the overdue and overbudget Ford class carriers.

Benchmark weapons of previous wars had similar qualities - technological superiority, superior range, superior lethality, superior resiliance, superior field serviceability, and multiple suppliers.

In the meantime, America's private sector has not been deploying research capitial and manufacturing capital domestically; primarily outsourcing to American economic competitor, India, and future miltary adversary, China.

Many of our civilian and military supply chains have dependencies and single points of failure, mainly with the Chi-coms.

The Chi-coms are building secret police, espionage, and sabotage networks within the United States in preparation for a future war.

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ...