Exposé Raises Questions About America’s Battle-readiness

A recent Wall Street Journal exposé should send shivers down the spines of every red-blooded American. According to the article, the United States — the world’s most powerful military — is running dangerously low on defense weaponry, particularly missiles, with no hope of resupplying stockpiles in the short-term.

How vulnerable does this make the United States and the West? It’s not exactly clear, but there are some alarming indicators. “In a wargame simulation published in early 2023 of how the U.S. would respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the Center for Strategic & International Studies estimated America would run out of all-important long-range anti-ship missiles within the first week,” reports the Journal.

It’s not just long-range anti-ship missiles that are areas of concern. As America provides various missiles to support wars in Ukraine and Israel, we are unable to replace them with urgency. As matters stand, it will take four years to increase production of Javelin and Stinger surface-to-air missiles by a factor of two, and this is impacting our allies too. “As with the Nasams [Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System], each missile takes about two years to make,” the article added. Moreover, American manufacturers are blowing through deadlines to complete planes, ships, etc.

It’s not that western powers aren’t trying to restock; they just can’t do it under the current circumstances. Matters have gotten so bad that some Asian countries have given up trying to purchase missiles from the United States and have developed their own, which is both good and bad. It is great that they are self-sufficient, but it’s worrisome that our industry is failing so miserably.

“There was a time when the United States could turn plowshares into swords,” Foreign Policy Magazine reported. “In the Second World War, the United States built more of pretty much everything than any other combatant, from tanks to planes to ships to landing craft.” Fast forward over seven decades, and arms manufacturers have long backorders and struggle to handle the increased demand. There are numerous reasons why the industry is in such unfortunate shape, including the complexity of modern weapons, supply chain issues, workforce shortages and complacency.

A Biblical proverb states, “Iron sharpens iron,” and that can be applied to our defense. Competition with the Soviet Union kept the United States and Europe much more prepared. However, after it collapsed, America was left as the world’s sole superpower and Europe lost its boogeyman. Don’t get me wrong. The Soviet Union’s fall was a boon for all humanity, but in a way, it let the western world doze off at the wheel.

“Much of the West’s ability to make weapons,” reads the aforementioned Journal article, “particularly in Europe, has been eroded as defense budgets fell after the Cold War and by gradual deindustrialization.” The military-industrial complex doesn’t deserve a blank-check, nor should we be wantonly pursuing wars, but we’d do better to heed former President Theodore Roosevelt’s advice: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Having the manufacturing ability and adequate stockpiles serves as an unmistakable deterrent to malefactors, but how strong is that deterrent currently? It’s certainly waning with our ongoing struggles, and it is magnified considering that Russia and China already have almost 2,000 more missile systems than the United States, Europe and Japan combined.

All of this news doesn’t exactly inspire the greatest confidence. In fact, Foreign Policy Magazine asked, “How can the Pentagon mobilize the U.S. defense industry to respond to not just one conflict or two, but potentially three wars?” If it struggles mightily during peace-time to supply Ukraine and Israel, odds are that America would be in for a rude awakening if we were directly drawn into a serious conflict.

These problems aren’t lost on the Pentagon, although they ought to more regularly prioritize critical systems and weaponry, like missiles, over some of their wasteful projects. As bureaucrats are wont to do, they will likely field various task forces to concoct means of replenishing inventories with varying degrees of success, and they’ve already begun looking into ways to ease supply chain logjams. Beyond that, “It’s dusting off a lot of skills that we’ve had in this country that we haven’t used in a while,” explained William A. LaPlante who is the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

It’s a shame that America and its allies are in the current state, but the good news is that there is time to fix the problem and our military is still unmatched. It is hulking and technologically advanced with bases around the globe and a massive nuclear stockpile. Even so, missiles are a critically important component of the so-called “arsenal of democracy,” and we’d be well-served to stock up on the tools that deter attacks.