Would our military be able to handle a war with China or in the Middle East? According to this report, the answer is likely no.

From Daily Caller. The U.S. military is already overstretched in responding to global threats and too weak to deal with the most pressing challenges to U.S. national security, according to a report released by a conservative think tank on Wednesday.

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The Heritage Foundation’s 2024 Index of U.S. Military Strength functions as a report card for the progress of the U.S. military relative to the global operating environment and adversaries’ capabilities and rated the military overall as “weak,” editor and retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Dakota Wood told the Daily Caller News Foundation. …

“As currently postured, the U.S. military is at significant risk of not being able to defend America’s vital national interests,” the introduction to the index reads. …

Overall, all branches of the armed services, as well as U.S. nuclear and missile defense assets, are too old, too weak and too unready, Wood, Heritage’s senior research fellow for defense programs, told the DCNF at a briefing ahead of the report’s formal release.

Heritage blamed the Pentagon’s decision to keep forces deployed for longer than planned, lack of funds, poor discipline in developing and procuring weapons programs, and constantly shifting priorities and policies for driving the decline in U.S. military strength.

“When we say that the U.S. military is weak, it’s not an indictment of the individuals,” the men and women in service, Wood explained. “If you had to go up against Russia or China or Iran or some other actor in the world, you’re just not going to have a sufficient amount of military power to go out.” …

Heritage rated the Army as “marginal,” the Navy as “weak” and the Air Force as “very weak.” Only the Marine Corps came out as strong, thanks to its monumental modernization efforts focused on a worst-case-scenario fight with China, according to Wood, but it remains too small to accomplish the missions the Pentagon tasked it with in the previous year.

The Air Force fared worst of all, receiving a “very weak” rating. Besotted with a pilot shortage, it operates just 75% of the ready fighter aircraft needed to devote to two major conflicts at once, according to the report. Pilots also aren’t getting enough hours in the cockpit — less than 130 each year on average, which in the Cold War era would have rendered them combat ineffective, Wood told the DCNF. …

U.S. nuclear forces are “ancient,” Wood told the DCNF, while one of the most important modernization programs, replacing Cold War-era Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, has encountered financial difficulties requiring secretary of defense intervention to save it from termination. …

The Army is now the smallest on record since before World War II at a time when many warn the U.S. is in a more dangerous place than any time since, Wood said. In 2023 it fielded 452,000 active duty soldiers, and that number will drop to 445,00. …

The Navy received a rating of “weak.”

On a tactical level, it has performed fairly well in shooting down Houthi missiles and drones launched at commercial shipping and mounting counterattacks on Houthi capabilities on land, Wood said. However, it is striving, and struggling, to maintain a global presence with a fleet half the size of what commanders say they need, leading to stress on the platforms and personnel. …

Time is growing short to reevaluate U.S. spending priorities, experts, speaking at a panel after the index’s unveiling, warned. …

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(Excerpt from Daily Caller. Photo Credit: israel palacio on Unsplash)