"'Prepare for war, but search for peace.' We can do it. We have now for quite a while. But it can be expensive. How expensive? Not as expensive as fighting a war and losing. Just a reminder on what losing looks like. Just look at Ukraine. Or Gaza. That is what losing looks like."
The good news for all to know - we spend a lot of money every year on defense. Why? We have six services to maintain and grow. The Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, and our new Space Force. Wait - that is only five. We also have the Coast Guard, but that is not part of the DOD. Of these, the Navy took a hit during the Biden years. Now we are way behind the Chinese Navy. To get back up to parity, we need to go gangbusters in our shipbuilding for the next four years. Or eight years. But do we really need all these ships? All these super subs? Not unless we get involved in a shooting war with China or Russia. Then we will need every single one of them - and then some.
The Air Force is awash in high tech planes right now. Many in the 5th generation phase. Soon we will be addressing the new 6th generation fighters and bombers. Terms like Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) will become common. The robotic "Loyal wingman" planes which will fly alongside the manned NGAD planes will be common. The B-21 Raider bomber which will even make our current B-2 bomber look like yesterday's technology. Plus, we have the F-35 and F-22, which we seem to still be improving. And they are "butt-kickers"! Looking at the Air Force with clarity, I would say we have an embarrassment of riches in that service.
The Marines are good. They don't need much, they don't use much, but they do quite a bit with what they do have. Even when the recruiting numbers were down in the other services, the Marine numbers were good. Pound for pound, the Marines are still the premier fighting force for our nation. When you want the job done quickly and completely, you call on the Leathernecks.
The Army is good. The numbers are coming up in recruitment and retention. We have built lots of armor for the Army to use. They are well positioned all over the globe and have trained well with our allies. My suggestion? Keep on keeping on. "This we will defend" is their motto, and they wear it well.
Not much to say about the Space Force, as what they do is not advertised. Their mission is evolving, and to be guardians of our space-based satellites is now more important and ever. I am glad we don't know too much about this young service as yet. That tells me they are doing some good stuff.
Bottom line? Our current DOD budget is about $850B/year. I can see that growing to $1T/year by the time Trump's term is up. Is that too much? Not if we want to fill the holes we have in the Navy. We do after all, need to defend not only our country, but also Canada. And Greenland. And parts of the EU. And the PI. And Australia. And South Korea. And so forth...
"Prepare for war, but search for peace." We can do it. We have now for quite a while. But it can be expensive. How expensive? Not as expensive as fighting a war and losing. Just a reminder on what losing looks like. Just look at Ukraine. Or Gaza. That is what losing looks like.
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