In light of the rising tensions with Russia and China, the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank has come to the conclusion that the US military is “weak” and might not be able to win a war.
The US military’s evaluation was downgraded from “marginal” in the foundation’s annual Index of US Military Strength, which it evaluated in 2021.
The military is “weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were,” according to the report, and is “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.”
The report’s first “weak” rating in its nine-year history. The report stated that it is the “logical outcome” of years of continued use, underfunding, “poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in programme execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.”
This year’s version of the report, which examines whether the US military could win two concurrent regional conflicts, stated that the military “is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict.”
According to the report, this is particularly problematic because the likelihood of a two-front conflict has significantly increased as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China over Taiwan and other regional conflicts.
The report, which was referring to significant regional conflicts, stated that the force “would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous MRCs—a situation that is made more difficult by the generally weak condition of key military allies.”
When it comes to the various US military branches, only the Marines are considered “strong.” The Navy and Space Force are rated as “weak,” while the Army is rated as “marginal.”
Due to its lack of mission readiness and the current deployment of aircraft that would complicate crisis response, the Air Force is rated as “very weak.”
The US nuclear forces, meanwhile, were rated as “strong,” but due to ageing equipment and growing threats, they are in danger of becoming “marginal” or “weak.”