by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Do you remember the days when the complete and utter dominance of the U.S. military could not be questioned? Sadly, those days are long gone. I have written extensively about how the Russian military has now surpassed us in a number of key areas, but it could be argued that the ascendancy of the Chinese military has been even more stunning. At this point nobody can deny the fact that China is a military superpower, and Chinese defense spending continues to soar…
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
China will raise defense spending by 7.2 percent for a third consecutive year, the country said Wednesday, as it continues a military buildup that a Trump Pentagon nominee has warned is geared toward war with the United States.
Of course when we are talking about China we always need to make a distinction between the figures that are being released for public consumption and what is really going on behind the scenes.
According to Newsweek, some U.S. analysts are convinced that the Chinese are actually spending over 700 billion dollars a year on defense when “unreported outlays” are accounted for…
Some analysts believe China is spending far more than it lets on. Accounting for unreported outlays, some analysts have estimated the true figure is more than $700 billion—not far behind the U.S.
Today, more than 2 million people serve in the Chinese military.
That makes the Chinese military the largest in the world.
Approximately 1.3 million people serve in the U.S. military.
That makes the U.S. military just the third largest in the world.
But at least we have a bigger navy, right?
Wrong.
At this point China has more than 700 warships, while the U.S. now has fewer than 500 warships.
And if a war in the Pacific did erupt, the Chinese could pump out warships far faster than we could.
According to Fox News, China “now has a shipbuilding capacity 230 times greater” than we do…
The Chinese defense industrial base is operating at a “wartime footing,” and now has a shipbuilding capacity 230 times greater than the U.S.’s, making a potential invasion of Taiwan a not-unlikely outcome.
That is nuts.
How did we allow that to happen?
The one bright spot for the U.S. is our Air Force.
The U.S. Air Force currently has more than 14,000 military aircraft, while the Chinese have about 3,000 military aircraft.
But when it comes to missiles, that is another story altogether.
According to Bloomberg, China has the world’s “leading hypersonic arsenal”, while the U.S. is hopelessly behind…
China leads the world in developing, testing and deploying hypersonic weapons, beating out Russia while the US, having already spent $12 billion, has yet to field even one. The weapons can travel five times the speed of sound, making interception by existing defensive systems difficult at best. China, senior US defense intelligence analyst Jeffery McCormick told Congress Tuesday, has the world’s “leading hypersonic arsenal” thanks to Beijing’s two-decade long effort “to dramatically advance its development of conventional and nuclear-armed technologies and capabilities through intense and focused investment, development, testing and deployments.”
What is wrong with us?
Why are we behind both the Chinese and the Russians when it comes to hypersonic missile technology?
The Chinese are also way ahead of us when it comes to missile defense systems. They have been purchasing Russian systems which are far superior to our own, and they have been using Russian technology to improve their own designs…
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
