At a virtual event on Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said a Joe Biden administration would likely rewrite the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and could scrap a Pentagon plan for a 500 ship Navy.
The 2018 NDS outlines a shift in US policy away from counter-terrorism in the Middle East towards so-called “great power competition” with Russia and China. “It appears that they want to start sort of two separate cold wars with Russia and with China,” Smith said, discussing the NDS. “I think that is an extraordinarily dangerous approach. I do not support that.”
Smith took issue with a plan to increase the size of the US Navy from just under 300 ships to 500 by 2045, dubbed “Battle Force 2045” by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Although the plan has been put forward by Esper, it is not yet official Pentagon policy. The current plan is to bolster the fleet to 355 ships by 2030.
The focus on ship numbers by the current administration is a response to the number of ships in China’s naval fleet. In September, the Pentagon released its annual report on China’s military power. It said Beijing has the largest navy fleet in the world with “an overall battle force of approximately 350 ships and submarines.”
But the number of ships is not the only way to judge a country’s naval power. The US currently has 293 battle-ready ships but greatly exceeds China’s navy in terms of tonnage. One example of this is the number of aircraft carriers each nation has, with the US having eleven aircraft carriers, while China only has two.
Smith said the US should focus on naval capabilities, not the size of its fleet. The Trump administration is “obsessed with the idea that whatever China and Russia are building, we have to build 10 more. It’s a fool’s errand,” Smith said.
Smith also discussed the defense budget and said progressives in the Democratic party want to “reshift priorities” away from military spending. Smith said Biden could clash with progressive Democrats over the military budget, which is currently about $740 billion.
In an interview with Stars and Stripes in September, Biden said he does not foresee any significant reductions in military spending. The former vice president said he could see the budget increase in certain areas.
While Smith says a Biden administration could rewrite the NDS, recent comments from Biden suggest he would keep the focus on Russia and China. In an interview on Sunday, Biden identified Russia as the greatest national security threat to the US and said China is Washington’s greatest competitor.
I’m not thrilled with the governments of either Russia or China, but neither is a threat to the USA.
why arn`t you thrilled by the Russian , Chinese governments what have they done to you ?.
maybe chinese took his job
What is your opinion of Washington given your knowledge of Deep State activities and a near-worthless currency?
It doesn’t matter what you think.
Funny how representative democracy works that way.
The US focus on the largest possible aircraft carriers has gone too far. The US also needs some smaller carriers and effective surface combatants. Esper’s 500-ship program would not fix that problem, only waste money on ineffective vessels.
Submarines are the real navy.
They just don’t look as cool during photo ops.
Bad enough Biden will end Trump’s No New Wars policy, but he’s going to start new wars wanking on …. capability.
Caution is required in rethinking naval capabilities. Number one question is — what for? Defense? Offense?
And how to ignore the new anti-sub, anti-ship capabilities announced back in 2018 by Russia? The cold reality is — both are under attack economically, and demonized through ever increasing array of accusations and theatrical scaremongering. Since it is nit a secret that they are collaborating in military capabilities, technology, science and economy — what do we know of their strategies? This is a classic. We, the reigning power assume that our way of thinking —.the assumption of hierarchy and pecking order — is universal. Thus, it is inconceivable that anybody can or will be allowed to be better then US in any field of endeavor, any time in the future. Remain supreme, and denying others even the dignity of having a brain to compete. Collaboration is equivalent to defeat.
Thus the efforts that Trump made to alter the way of thinking — was unacceptable to the deus ex machina.
The automaton that our geriatric by-partisan elite is only capable of — got shaken by few radical ideas posited by Trump, Having been limited by the systemic cage, and his own mistakes, nonetheless no new wars started. But could not extricate US military from any existing entanglements either.
What will Biden do? Very likely the elite will test its muscle — picking a safe bet, a message to China or Russia.
There are no more safe bets, message may come our way as well, But for sure, money will start flowing into “capabilities” we ordinary humans have no capacity to understand.
And when mistakes are made — hopefully we do not defend the geriatric elite, give them excuses.
The future of naval warfare remains submarines and drones, whether in attack or defense, and mostly would be dangerous posturing. Or not.
The model is not new, just the toys. A2/AD (Access to/Area Denial) is countered with SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses). Against China in the Pacific, add ships and subs to the aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppression_of_Enemy_Air_Defenses#Vietnam_War
Surface combatants are the boots on the ground of ocean warfare, needed to demonstrate and enforce presence. They are nearly helpless against opposing anti-ship weapons that have to be removed first.
China spammed surface combatants out of concern for U.S. submarine capabilities. Backed by ground-based systems, China’s navy would likely be first tasked with sub-hunting and secondarily concerned with surface combatants running interference for subs. All while having the numbers to absorb some casualties without much loss of capability.
Still, one U.S. submarine can deliver over a hundred tomahawk cruise missiles, and all China’s modern industry is concentrated on the coast.
Subs and drones don’t just deliver ordinance, they can deliver the ECM/EECM support that would be needed to defeat or defend an A2/AD.zone and run sorties in and out. Once A2/AD is breached, its likely to stay down.
A historical parallel is the learning curve countering Soviet era air defense doctrine in Vietnam, except the U.S. would have to get it right the first time, like how the Israelis applied the lessons of the air war in Vietnam during the Israel-Syria Lebanon war.
Operation Mole Cricket-19 decisively destroyed the Soviet-built Syrian AD system in Lebanon and won Israel a quagmire in Lebanon.
There is no real precedent for dealing with a rising power like China. After losing the conventional war, they have strategic options; China has nukes.
China may be foolish enough to want to engage the U.S. in a conventional duel to let off tensions. They would lose; the damage China could receive would outstrip anything they could inflict on the U.S. mainland.
Which is a mess anyway, and perhaps anticipation of such a war damaging U.S. soil is why domestic infrastructure is such a low priority for the U.S. faction of the Euro globalists.
The Russians under Putin, have always made clear their intent to respond to any NATO attack as a nuclear threat, and shoot the head, Europe, first.
Any NATO conventional assault, would only have one end – neutralize Russian nuclear capabilities just ahead of a decapitating nuclear first strike. Conventional Russian forces until the Syrian intervention existed only to defend border buffer states and their nuclear option.
America and China fighting a war that somehow stays conventional, leaves Europe untouched and two rivals to European hegemony, taken down by one-another.
Fully agree with issues of capabilities — with the exception of our being insensible to the defending parties capabilities. Just as in the field of 5G, artificial intelligence, new industrial revolution tools — our intelligence is failing spectacularly in military affairs. Russia’s announcement in 2018 caught us off guard — it was palpable. The scramble for supersonic — visible. The fear of 5G cryptography based on quantum physics — visceral.
In my view it still goes back to basics. What is the military for?
For Russia and China it is defense as the foundation. Offense as well – but in the service of defense.
What is ours? Control everything on earth, air and space. Defense is not considered. Just assumed that total offense means defense.
This is why total silence surrounds Russian nuclear powered drone subs. The capability to detect and disable all underwater and surface fleets — while being without weaknesses as far as detection is concerned, matters.
We can chose to ignore defense of our continental landmass to our peril. Pacific is very big — no need to control all of it. Hubris naturally nurtures its own Nemesis.
Defense of the United States begins with defending domestic politics.
When U.S. domestic politics became captured through the Democrats by the likes of Euros like Soros, then it didn’t matter what hard defenses the U.S. has. The political battle and political will to fight and win for America the nation state was lost.
The Euros don’t follow Sun Tzu, the follow von Clauswitz; “…war is politics by other means.”
The Yin of that being, politics is another means of waging European imperial wars.
Even more new and improved dish soap.
Get used to washing your hands to Harris-Biden a lot…
Absolutely, will criticize Biden when, and if he is in charge. Only one of us is blind partisan Brock. trump is a warmonger, and should be fired…seen the Apprentice?
Even the Apprentices were given their full episodes to succeed or fail.
Trump is being pulled early, denied a second term, out of fear that he will succeed in further setting back the War Machine.
The record thus far shows, no new wars – an antiwar victory against neocon humanitarian wamongers – and obstruction of COVID-1984.- a libertarian victory against the Deep Police Statism.
Its was people like yourself who encouraged and misled antiwar libertarians and the centre-undecided to abandon the line to further partisan alt-leftism.
lol…”setting back the war machine”…good one..
new and improved dishsoap
And still, four years of Trump delivered No New Wars, and COVID-1984 obstructionism.
Fine, then let’s reelect all members of congress whom actually didnt pass any “no new wars” authorizations. Yeah congress.
The only things antiwar that occurred in the US government in the last four years is this…3 bills to end US involvement in Yemen, 1 bill to end the Afghan war, 1 bill to reassert war powers regarding Iran to congress, 1 bill to lower defense spending by 10%….all of which were blocked by the gop and trump. In fact, trump has never mentioned any of them.
Your grandkids are in surgery, you want the staff not to wear masks cause they don’t work ?
Put him on block. It’s blissful.
Naw. Historians of both the US, and Spanish civil wars note a similarity in the outbreak of those wars. Silence. Sides quit communication, from legislatures to common citizens. How that relates in the information age, I don’t know.
You seem desperate to minimize no new wars and dangers of COVID-1984, resorting to hyperbole fallacy to make non-points.
Trump engaged North Korea in peace talks, 9/11 war pullouts are underway. Biden will likely reverse them and require no staged pretexts to prompt re-engagement and continue to ignore North Korea when not baiting them.
Medical masks are standard in surgery – not normal everyday interaction. They are meant to keep out far larger and sometimes more dangerous bugs and contaminants than respiratory viruses in a clinical setting.
Otherwise, the filter matter in standard medical masks and the cloth fashion masks common now, are too large to effectively filter out viruses; they are only claimed to ‘slow’ the spread, based on estimates and not hard research.
The danger of COVID-1984 cannot be minimized. Like a typical progressive poseur would prefer a highly visible useless action over practical action that does far more.
COVID-1984 lockdown cultism will result in far more deaths than the virus itself. The effect of unemployment in terms of terms of reduced life-years greatly exceeds lives projected to be saved by COVID-1984 lockdowns.
https://www.revolver.news/2020/08/study-covid-19-lockdowns-deadlier-than-pandemic-itself/respirators-surgical-masks-and-face-masks
“Trump is being pulled early, denied a second term, out of fear that he will succeed in further setting back the War Machine.”
In order to “further” set back the War Machine, Trump would have had to set it back even a little already. Instead, he escalated every war he inherited and did his damnedest to write the military industrial complex a blank check.
Nor, if he loses, will he have been “pulled early.” Every president gets a performance evaluation from the voters after four years, either passes or fails that performance evaluation, and is fired if he doesn’t.
No new wars is an accomplishment that deserves a chance of being extended another four years.
The Trump escalations all ended in conditions favourable to a pullout ‘with dignity’, not under fire clinging to helicopter skids or smears of being a Russian stooge that would be politically unacceptable and scuttled.
The performance evaluation given Trump by the MSM and alt-left media was trial by Democratic-RINO propaganda, not any reasonable standard.
You’re entitled to your opinion of whether Trump deserves a second term or not.
I was just correcting your incorrect factual claims vis a vis war and “earliness.”
What incorrect factual claims? Trump continues to attempt drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Trump’s opposition to the Iraq war was the same as most Americans; public resignation “I guess so” in 2003, to hardening opposition by mid-2004, before it was politically correct for many public figure to do so.
The entire anti-Trump argument hinges in Trump’s inability to end at lest one war in just four years against overwhelming elite and popular opposition. Opposition, sadly abetted by
many posters on Antiwar.
Left-partisanship has blinded yourself and others to objective reality. Using the libertarian and antiwar movement as a pretext to promote radical leftism, is off-mission.
What’s unacceptable to many leftists here, is that Trump is a centre-right figure, an anathema to the alt left no matter what he does right.
“Trump continues to attempt drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
He’s the commander in chief. If he orders the troops home, the troops come home. There is no “attempt” about it.
Sure, and being impeached wasn’t the result of trying to pull out of Syria and Afghanistan.
Keep pretending that a President is a dictator who faces no consequences for his actions.
You may get your wish with Harris.
Trump, will face the propaganda consequences of not ending at least one 9/11 war.
Its too bad he didn’t conclude at least one. Watching you and other never-Trumpists squirm out of that would have been far less tragically amusing than watching y’all diss no new wars and impeding COVID-1984 police statism.
“Sure, and being impeached wasn’t the result of trying to pull out of Syria and Afghanistan.”
Being impeached was the result of publicly confessing to no fewer than three high crimes and providing evidence to corroborate that confession.
Yes, a president faces consequences for his actions. Everyone does. But Trump didn’t “try” to pull out of Syria and Afghanistan. He had the power to ACTUALLY DO SO and decided not to exercise that power. Under pressure? Sure. Name the last president who wasn’t under pressure on everything he did or didn’t do.
Again, the mistaken belief that the President can arbitrarily exercise war powers for peace.
Its never worked that way. The American system of checks and balances was designed to prevent radical change.
Overcoming the MIC’s desire to remain at war, would have taken four more years of steady pushing in that direction.
right then. i too will criticize biden’s every move IF & WHEN he is POTUS. until then, bringing him down only serves to perpetuate the trump.
Unless or until there is a sure fire (95+% kill rate) defense system to protect these goliaths, it’s a brain dead path to waste hundreds of Billions on something the Russians or Chinese can destroy in 15 minutes of hypersonic horror as all the bright bulbs watch the grim reaper inbound at mach 5, 7.9, or perhaps 11 like Cheney & crew did on 911in the Pentagon. Luckily the Pentsgon didn’t SINK, but a carrier could.
What rarional would be employed to explain such stupidity..???
Let me refer the reader to the object that struck the Pentagon. It was claimed to be going a mere 500 MPH. Norad had been warned there were possible incoming to DC, but it’s planes were up in Canada. So they scrambed planes from Cape Cod Massachusetts that did not make it to DC in time to do anything. Look at the score on 911, 3& 0, with one strike out in Shanksville. The carriers top speed is 50 knots or less. They are Relics and belong in museums. They are useless against nuclear weapons on missiles. They are most likely helpless against conventional explosives on hypersonic weapons. One thing is sure, they are hopeless for today’s warfare and are sure to be expensive & embarrasing failures if confronted by either China or Russia, &Follow the money! Think of what happened to the Saudis with their billions in Western war equipment when a few drones deviated their refinery, and prestige. Big toys are trouble like a sacred bull. Worse yet planers seem to think they are powerful, because of their size. And the percentage of budget they enlarge. I believe they are death traps with few if any survivors in today’s wars with technically advanced states.
“(UN)Luckily the Pentsgon didn’t SINK”
Fixed.
A few less carriers and allot more college scholarships works for me.
A peaceful and sane U.S. social contract with the military would still have aircraft carriers, but more personnel would be unscarred by war to benefit from the GI bill.
The problem with the Pentagon is less that there’s a Pentagon but more that its always fighting some useless war, usually for NATO rather than real U.S. benefit.
… What Rep. Adam Smith really means is that the USN shouldn’t be focused on making more ships but wasting more money. This can be discerned from the total non-mention of the price tag for naval ‘capability’..
The Democrats have bigger and better ‘defense’ plans for robbing the national treasury than the Republicans. Why build a 500 ship navy when the same amount of money plus more money, can build a 300 ship navy or less?
That’s… capability.
In a total carricature of themselves, a Democratic military spending program won’t have to produce anything at all, like discrete like hulls, just ‘capability’.
… All the while starting new wars….
“new wars”…new and improved dish soap….let me know when 1 soldier trump didn’t add himself, comes home.
Improved soap? Washing your hands to Biden’s additional war crimes already?
… I need to get totally wasted ’cause that’s the only way to entertain the subzero probability of Biden pulling a Nixon and somehow continuing Trump’s no new wars policy and completing Trump’s pullout and drawdown plans…
… Harris-Biden are totally committed to COVID-1984, though.
No way to deny that…
More ships just means more targets , these navy types should research the Spanish armarda where the Brits totally out numbered sent the Spanish packing , british ships where smaller and faster they where like ferrets in a hen house.
With regularity, superiority, arrogance, Hubris, or in Christian terms, pride — is punished. Superiority in our political elite is visible from outer space — and there is no countervailing societal force to urge caution.
This is where we are. Huge and lumbering, insensible to dangers, groupthink powered behemoth. And worse yet, losing patience, flexibility in diplomacy or trade. Neglecting home for the sake of glory abroad. UK did the same in Victorian era, continuing its debt economy until WWI, when it was supplanted by new power. It just took a bit longer to digest it.
more ships sunk means more ships built.
“” could scrap a Pentagon plan for a 500 ship Navy “”
because 499 navy ships is probably enough
https://www.mercatus.org/system/files/deRugy-Barro-Defense-Multiplier.pdf
Government or US facilities tend to dominate a city’s economic activity. Anyone familiar with US domestic base closures or those overseas know the influence.
Possessing the world’s reserve currency is simultaneously and alternately a boon and a bane.
paradoxically democrats r more fascist and imperialist than GOP
The first word of sanity from the Biden camp in 47 years… Sadly I don’t think Biden would actually do that, given he consistently voted for more war in his time in the Senate and the White House.
Just imagine what could have been. Tulsi Gabbard/Bernie Sanders ticket.
Tulsi as President appealing to Republicans and Sanders to the left. Add to that the anti Trump no matter who vote whilst not to forget the youth vote.
Between Gabbard and Sanders a close link and winning formula.
Sanders should have early on endorsed Gabbard and moved his organization over. But no Bernie was greedy and wanted to do it himself.
Sanders had a better chance of winning than Gabbard. Maybe a Sanders/Gabbard ticket with Sanders only doing one term. Gabbard could then run for Pres with someone like Justin Amash as VP.
May I refer commentators also to the latest Unz review article “Returning to the Blob” dealing with the same subject.
LMAO. the bs goes on with empty claims that the chosen puppet has any power. it appeals to the dumbed down who have no idea how the govt operates ,or that there are 3 levels. its just over dramatic hysteria. meanwhile the push to just claim only the red party can save us all goes on. one party,no choice, dictatorship.