Speaking today at the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel sought to assure arms dealers of continued US spending on advanced military technology, claiming the US military dominance is being “challenged” and the US needs increased innovation to maintain its superiority.
Hagel claimed that both Russia and China are closing the “technological gap,” and that some of their new designs appear meant to “counter traditional US advantages.”
The US spends far more on its military than either China or Russia, and indeed amounts to a large portion of the world’s military spending all by itself. China’s $188 billion, though more than double what any other nation spends, is still a small fraction of America’s $640 billion annual expenditure. Russia is in third place, at $87 billion.
And apart from the US insinuating itself into Chinese maritime boundary disputes in the South China Sea, the US and China are allies, with no real prospect of going to war.
As the Pentagon chief, Hagel seems to be playing up the “threats” posed by these nations, despite them not being enemies, and having much smaller budgets, as an effort to ratchet up military spending in the US, particularly new outlays on advanced armaments.
"US military dominance"?
HAHA! The old fart generals and their mercenaries can't even defeat the Taliban.
Well, one could always go with overkill, but it's not about sterilizing the whole era, there are some political goals to pursue even if they are based on delusion and inability to comprehend reality.
It's actually sad the the medical part of military operations is being so heavily neglected, at least it could yield good spinoffs
They don't call it the military-industrial complex for nothing.
let's face it –
all the warmongering is more than likely for the benefit of the arms industry and the military industrial complex. such a pity so many people have to die, end up maimed, displaced, etc. in the process.
somehow, people across the political spectrum need to join together to put an end to the dominance of the war industry. if only there were massive protests at the NATO meeting in Wales, all demanding an end to all the warmongering.
War for the MIC is like cancer for the medical biz – far far more people make a living off it than die from it. So where's the incentive for the money people to end either? I mean, they're not the ones suffereing and dying, are they?
You can't "end" cancer (that would be akin to ending snake eyes), but you can reorient politics.
So which war in the last 50 years did they win, Granada Doesn't count because in reality nobody really fought back! seriously which war????????
Well. It depends on the wars' goals. Looks to me like the goal is always the same: "Obey or Die". You can't say NO to Uncle Sam, 'cause he's the biggest gangster of all, and he'll just smash your society. If the economic hit men don't convince you, the Marines will come next.
The continued existence of the Taliban looks bad, but Afghanistan is destroyed, so who cares about the image. South Korea said YES to Uncle Sam, and it's a modern country. But North Korea? Not so much. Libya, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, all destroyed. Ukraine is on the ropes. With so many destroyed societies, how could this not be the goal?
astute observation…
Hagel, isn't he the drunk oil guy on DALLAS
Wan't that J.R.?
Wait holy damn, somebody knows that cold-war era show?
Funny how the Russians can spend a fraction what the US spends on 'defense' yet they still manage to produce the Kalashnikov series of rifles and machine guns, the least expensive and most reliable battlefield weapons we've seen in a long time, by the thousands each month. Funny how they churn out helicopters and combat aircraft that are a match for anything we have in the air, but in greater numbers and at a lower cost. Funny how they manage to keep a fleet of Cold War era TU-95's churning the skies on their old patrol flight paths, but we're so afraid of damaging one of our bombers that we keep them grounded and handle them with kid gloves for fear of scratching the paint.
Maybe instead of spending so much for shiny new gadgets and weapons, we should be SAVING money by getting longer life cycles from the weapons systems we already have and ditching the ones that are too costly and inefficient.
Here's a thought: we have hundred, if not thousands, of older model M-60 combat tanks sitting in mothballs in tank parks all over the country. Why not break those out and actually USE them in situations where an M-1 Abrams would be expensive overkill? Why not break out the stocks of older M113 personnel carriers (in their myriad forms and configurations) and USE them when Strykers and Bradleys aren't needed? How many older-model F-15's and F-16's are sitting in the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, proven designs that could be refurbished and used when there is no threat to air superiority? For that matter, how many F-4 Phantoms are sitting in the sun wasting away- how inexpensively could we rebuild and operate those combat-tested veterans for support missions? Is there really any practical advantage an M4 assault rifle has over an older M16A2, other than bolt-on accessories? Is there any real practical advantage to the current desert camouflage uniforms over the older- and plentiful, and less expensive- desert camo BDU's, other than strategically placed cooling panels? Hello, clothes factory with sewing machines?
I tell you, make me the Generalissimo El Presidente of some small-to-medium country, and I guarantee you I could put together a fully-functioning AND combat capable military force built with nothing but perfectly serviceable leftovers and spares that have already proven their worth- and probably have money left over. A perfectly good military can be put together on a relative shoestring budget- but are we willing to be tough enough on ourselves to see it and save for the future? Sadly, I think not.
Here's a thought: we have hundred, if not thousands, of older model M-60 combat tanks sitting in mothballs in tank parks all over the country. Why not break those out and actually USE them in situations where an M-1 Abrams would be expensive overkill?
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Oh they gave all those older tanks to all the police departments across the country, so now they got to go out and buy newer shiny ones to replace them. CHA CHING, CHA CHING
My country is sick, seriously seriously sick!