I'd love it...and most of what NateBishop said I've been saying for years. (I'd cut the Marines down as well, but nothing like the Army and Air Force). (And we've been out of Iraq since Dec. 18, 2011). China has more submarines than we do (the largest sub fleet in the world). Ours are bigger and better (and more expensive), but they have more. And before you say "they're mostly crappy old diesel boats", they have about half as many nuclear-powered ballistic missile subs as we do. And they're spending rapidly. Another issue is that China's "published" budget numbers a) don't match expenditures and b) don't take into account myriad things that ours does, for instance, foreign military purchases. If the Chinese buy a sub or plane or tank from the Russians, it doesn't count against their budget. Much of their capital defense spending (new bases, R&D, etc) aren't accounted for in their budget. DoD estimated last year that of the $115B "published" number actually entailed between $140-190B. China has publicized that they plan to increase defense spending by 10% per year, with a disproportionate amount of growth put into making their navy into a "Top 5 Navy" by 2030 and a "Top 3 Navy" by 2049. As our defense spending decreases (just continuing the trend line--without even discussing the "deep" cuts we're talking about here) and China's increases (with a large portion going to the Navy), by 2016 China's Naval Spending could easily be more than 50% of ours. And they're a theater force, not a global force. That's not even bringing up Russia's modernization efforts to get to 30 front-line nuclear subs (all less than a decade old) by 2020. Some open-source links (I don't agree with all of the strategies or arguments posted, but they have some stats and references): http://thediplomat.com/the-naval-di...-to-make-of-chinas-defense-spending-increase/ http://www.heritage.org/research/re...should-respond-to-the-chinese-naval-challenge http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/20130522.aspx
According to this we have 14 missle subs and China has 5. We have 57 attack subs and China has 55. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_warships_in_service_worldwide Also a lot of the stuff they buy from Russia is old. The aircraft carrier they have was a 20yr old Russian one that they never finished building.
They have 6 and we have 14. If they had one more it would be half, so I said "almost half". (Edit: looks like they retired the Xia, so they're back to 5. I hadn't read this year's CRS assessment here: Page 42 has the 2010 levels and 2015 projections) They're already landing planes on that carrier, 20 years old or not, about 4 years ahead of projected schedule.
Well we must build a few ships so we retain the capability to build ships. No doubt the same is true for fighter aircraft and drones. We probably have a bomber fleet serviceable for the next 50 years. So we can give up that industry. Kicking out smart bombs and stand off missiles out the rear of a cargo planes seem good enough anyway to cover where the Navy attack air craft leave off. Yes cut the Military down after stripping the government of useless things like Dept of Education, Energy, and chunks of all other. Cut it down to where we match revenue. Oh my gosh, we could call it balanced.
I get what you're saying, Maris, but being "defensive" of your worldwide trade looks a lot like "policing" to others. I'm not talking about Iraq/Syria/whatever, but to use your analogy you have to have a cop on the beat to ensure that our worldwide trade is defended.
I agree. If we weren't so invested in every other country; we'd be okay being isolationists. Problem is we import and export a lot of goods. If we don't have means to protect those shipments; then it could cost a lot of lives and money lost
The largest airforce in the world is the US airforce (obviously) The second largest airforce in the world is the US Navy.
Right, we need war and death to make sure corporations don't take losses on a few shipments, and to set up and maintain their slave labor.
There's got to be a happy medium. We do need to protect our financial interests, but we spend and kill to much to do it.
Or you know, let the companies police their own interests. Problem is, other countries won't let some random security force subjugate and kill them.
