tbf a child could figure that out
even ignoring recent weapons developments, the PLA is very large and would not have to deal with the extremely extended supply lines that the yanks would face, plus the home field advantageUS reliance on costly, sophisticated weapons leaves it exposed to China’s ability to mass-produce cheaper systems in overwhelming numbers, the highly classified “Overmatch Brief” warns.
They will beat us because we are too smart…
the defence secretary, said that “we lose every time” in the Pentagon’s war games against China, and predicted the Asian country’s hypersonic missiles could destroy aircraft carriers within minutes.
…and yet we have not developed hypersonic missiles
They will beat us because we are too smart…
You gotta love how the US is literally following in the footsteps of German nazis here. I guess it has to do with the fact that they brought a whole bunch of them over after WW2, and they architected much of the US military doctrine after. Naturally, they didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing. 🤣
I never thought of it that way! Would you know whar German war doctrine (especially the parts the US incorporated) would have prioritised (especially any oppurtunity costs)?
The US selectively adapted many aspects of the nazi playbook after the war.
One of the key ideas they adapted was the concept of Auftragstaktik which translated into mission command. The US Army used to be very rigid, waiting for orders from the top. The German model relied more on a culture of trusting junior leaders out of necessity, was all about telling a unit what to do as opposed to how to do it. NATO planners were imagining a fast, chaotic war where communications would break down. They baked the idea of decentralized initiative into the 1980s AirLand Battle doctrine. It was about deep strikes and agile counterattacks which is a direct mirror of German Bewegungskrieg.
But here’s a huge opportunity cost. By building the entire US Army around this big tank war in Europe, they let other skills wither on the vine. The army became an instrument for fighting the Soviets and almost useless for anything else. They gutted their own knowledge of counterinsurgency and irregular warfare. When Vietnam happened, and later Iraq and Afghanistan, their doctrine proved completely ineffective. All that focus on maneuver warfare meant they deprioritized the human element languages, civil affairs, understanding local politics.
Basically, they took a lot of German ideas on command and deep battle and welded them to American industrial military complex. But the cost was a kind of institutional tunnel vision. They built a rigid army for fighting USSR and were then surprised that it kept failing in messy, smaller wars that their expensive, complex machine wasn’t built to handle.
Thank you - well explained; any book recommendations?
The German Way of War explains Bewegungskrieg influenced western military thinking. Mission Command directly addresses how the US Army adapted German mission command philosophy. The Challenge of Command discusses leadership concepts including German influences on US officer education. Finally, Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era directly contrasts American attrition warfare with German maneuver concepts that the US later adopted.
Thank you! (Starred)
They like to call China a Paper Tiger but I surmise we start calling the US a lead eagle.
Mao:
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn’t. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_52.htm
Yeah, then libs and fascists started using it every other sentence when talking about China. I like the idea of an eagle that can’t fly. Just like half the jets the US makes now.
This almost happened in 2016 after the Philippine sea kangaroo court. The US carrier groups were planning on pushing right into the SCS after the arbitration. After a high alert, they quietly exited the region overnight as they had been locked on by the rocket force.
And this was back in 2016 when the PLARF/PLAN themselves knew they were not fully ready, but were willing to sacrifice most of their fleet and missile reserve to destroy the carrier battle groups if the US decided to actually invade the region.
Even back in the 90s and early 2000s they tried to plan for almost everything except one, surrender. In the 2000s with no counter to F22s or similar advanced jets, they even considered sacrificing 8 of their J8-IIs per F22 just in order to get close enough to fire a missile.
Paper tigers
