How Does The World’s Major Military Power Run Out Of Munitions?
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Seems like I have a lot of questions these days.
The numbers have been kicked around social media for a while now, but it appears that the Iran war is using up the US missile stock.
CSIS has also been following this closely and suggests some answers: I’m rephrasing, but I think I’m not too far from them. President Donald Trump has found it convenient to pop off a few missiles when he needs a shot of dopamine. Now that he’s trapped himself in Iran, it’s all he can think of to do. He really, really doesn’t want to put boots on the ground, and he really, really doesn’t want to face up to what all this means.
Additionally, we’ve not needed to wage this kind of war until recently, so we (Congress, the President, the military, the public) didn’t feel a need for the capability to turn out missiles fast. Further, we’re shooting down $30,000 drones with $300,000 missiles. The military really needs to rethink that last.
I still find it baffling that the missiles have run out so quickly. What did the military expect to do in a war with China? Wasn’t that the next big danger we faced?
I would also like to know what the military commanders (looking at you, Dan Caine!) have been telling Trump about his war. I can imagine that Trump believes that we can bomb, bomb, bomb Iran forever, because he’s never had to deal with beef running out at Mar-a-Lago, but the military should have some commitment to readiness. What do they plan to do if China decides to attack Taiwan? Longer-There’s no indication that China plans to do this in the near future, and the military can see this as well as I can, but they do have an obligation to what we’ve called readiness.
Longer term, military tactics really need to change for drone warfare. I have seen some reports that Ukraine is starting to advise our military on such things. The question of larger missile production is in some ways more difficult. Trump won’t be president forever, but there might be some plan for what happens if we actually did stumble into a war with China.
And, given all this, what is the DOD budget going for?