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"But what does it mean for the U.S. to outspend all other nations when China can build warships at 200 times the rate we can?" Nothing - Physical attacks are

"But what does it mean for the U.S. to outspend all other nations when China can build warships at 200 times the rate we can?" Nothing - Physical attacks are becoming increasingly uninteresting, and our ability to target areas and kill everyone in an area don't need hundreds of warships anyway. That's only necessary if you want to be careful. But much more importantly, taking out useful infrastructure no longer requires bombing literally all of it. Increasingly, you can render large swaths of civilian infrastructure totally unusable (and cause many many casualties) without firing many bullets or bombs. As a result, being able to outgun China is becoming increasingly useless as a measure of whether you can "win". (and this assumes nobody wants to just obliterate each other, but instead wants people left standing or land left usable) This isn't to say there is no transition period, but this article definitely doesn't make an argument for skating to where the puck will be in the future, only skating to where the puck might be in the past.

throw0101a 3y ago
> Nothing - Physical attacks are becoming increasingly uninteresting, and our ability to target areas and kill everyone in an area don't need hundreds of warships anyway. That's only necessary if you want to be careful. It does if you want to ship raw materials and goods to and fro, especially via sea lanes. It is if you want to get access to the sources of raw materials and can place troops in those areas to prevent someone else from getting access to them. That was a large part of the context of WW2 in the Pacific.
mvdtnz 3y ago
Have you been asleep since February 2022? Physical warfare is as relevant as ever.
dcow 3y ago
When push comes to shove, the bigger stick wins. You can’t win a war today on just the cyber front, either. The military isn't blind, they have cyber offense and defense programs, bio programs, even a freaking space force. I don’t think the puck has really moved much at all and we haven’t had a war to “skate to” anyway so nothing you say comes from any experience with war. I think the article is simply arguing that we need to get back in shape, and we have to do that based on the programs and exercises that we know work.

throw0101a 3y ago

> Nothing - Physical attacks are becoming increasingly uninteresting, and our ability to target areas and kill everyone in an area don't need hundreds of warships anyway. That's only necessary if you want to be careful. It does if you want to ship raw materials and goods to and fro, especially via sea lanes. It is if you want to get access to the sources of raw materials and can place troops in those areas to prevent someone else from getting access to them. That was a large part of the context of WW2 in the Pacific.

mvdtnz 3y ago

Have you been asleep since February 2022? Physical warfare is as relevant as ever.

dcow 3y ago

When push comes to shove, the bigger stick wins. You can’t win a war today on just the cyber front, either. The military isn't blind, they have cyber offense and defense programs, bio programs, even a freaking space force. I don’t think the puck has really moved much at all and we haven’t had a war to “skate to” anyway so nothing you say comes from any experience with war. I think the article is simply arguing that we need to get back in shape, and we have to do that based on the programs and exercises that we know work.