> The US has had long range missiles and defenses that are effective with stuff from the 80's and 90's All of our weapons systems have undergone significant mo

> The US has had long range missiles and defenses that are effective with stuff from the 80's and 90's All of our weapons systems have undergone significant modifications and upgrades since then, which make heavy use of modern computing. Missile seekers can take advantage of this increased computing power to better track targets, especially when being jammed. We could probably develop replacements for these that used less high-end chips, but that will take time and would probably still result in worse performance, and there will likely be certain features that would have to be dropped. > If China somehow got complete control over TSMC to the point they no longer supplied the US, it doesn't take much to sabotage the factories This is true, but it isn't guaranteed, and the PLA could stockpile a whole bunch of chips pre-war to satisfy their wartime production ordnance needs for a least a little while. While this is viable, it becomes a race to the bottom where neither side has access to advanced chips, and is stuck with whatever the advanced weapons they had stockpiled. > I'm fairly certain my gaming PC could guide a missile They need some custom chips, for a couple regions. First is they need to do some digital signal processing stuff that is implemented in hardware. Second is that the chip needs to be rugged: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_computers#MIL_standards_and_specifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_computers#MIL_standar...