Because modern war uses more artillery than we had though. It’s not always quick and done in a few days. Our artillery and rocket battalions will probably need more ammunition.
No, not modern war. Ukraine. If we stop giving ammo away, we’ll have ammo.
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I think this is a good point. I do think about the Pacific. Which clearly the military and Washington is as well. Development of Guam as a protected by multi level defenses and for air force and up to 6 subs. Prepping a lot of our airstrips in the western Pacific to house F-22s, F-35s, C-130s, C-17s…subs stationed in Australia. A marine MEU located by Darwin. Not quite an MEU but pretty close.
We now have access to 9 bases in the Philippines we didnt have before. Japan is putting in long distance missiles by Taiwan. Japan is about to have the best navy in the world outside of the US and China. In terms of quality.
I think of this as necessary deterrence for China. But it is complicated.
I also question our current philosophy of waging a kinder and gentler war. Rules of engagement, for instance. Just watching the way we’re pressuring Israel to back off when the elimination of Hamas should be the only concern.
We pulled punches in Viet Nam. We have been pulling punches ever since. If we’re going to fight a war, we should do all-out war.
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Just for the record, a lot of what we give to Ukraine in terms of artillery and SAMs and ATGMs do actually expire. They are getting a lot of stuff we would throw away anyways Just for the record.
I wonder if we weren’t already under-supplied before arming up Ukraine and Israel. Now we’ve dealt out tons of what we did have.
Of course, we are also getting the opportunity to field test stuff under real-time conditions.
The most fundamental issue that I see is that the US is no longer the “arsenal of democracy”. It will take many years to restock the weapons already used in the Ukraine war. In addition, the US and its NATO allies are way behind BRICS countries in terms of industrial production and the number of new science and engineering graduates.
Western Europe and the US are no longer the center of the world. The 21st century belongs to Asia.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/rebuilding-us-inventories-six-critical-systems
US Navy: China's Shipbuilding Capacity Is 232 Times Greater Than US
World Steel in Figures 2022 - worldsteel.org
Who told you that?
This is not the end all be all of evidence, but this was the first one that came up:
But I will work to find more articles about our Javelins, Sea Sparrows(which we have figured out how to have on Buk launchers which by itself is pretty ■■■■■■■ impressive), 155 shells, Stingers…
“But still usable.” There is no such thing as expired ammo on a battlefield.
Another example of what I said earlier.
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Yeah. Still usable. Which is why we give them to Ukraine. We’d be dicks if we gave them unusable weapons. 
And I’m trying to find readiness rates for the Air Force squadrons but this is the most recent I could fine from 2022:
I know there are updated numbers but I’m having trouble finding them. And I don’t think they’re better.
The numbers are even worse for Navy submarines.
The Navy currently fields a fleet of 50 attack submarines split between the Los Angeles (SSN-688), Seawolf (SSN-21) and Virginia (SSN-774) classes, with more Virginias under construction. . .
As of Thursday, 18 submarines were in some type of maintenance, PEO Submarines Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker said at the ASNE conference.
Yeah sub production is a ■■■■ show. They’re supposed to give us two Virginias a year. Which we don’t get. So when we’re building Australia boats that will also be interesting.
I can’t wait until Safiel gets into this topic.
Israel?
but for sheer numbers wouldn’t China pose a major threat? (as was mentioned before, wouldn’t a ground invasion from Mexico be fairly easy? is our military intelligence able to actually track large movements of troops?)
If you’re asking if our military intelligence can track large movements of troops…yes. The answer is yes. Its not 1984 Red Dawn.
we would see them coming possibly… I just don’t know if we’d be able to repel them
Contract US Navy shipbuilding to South Korea and Japan?
The industrial base for the “arsenal of democracy” got outsourced decades ago.
