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The differences between the parties have made "who will fight" the biggest problem for the US authorities. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the face of this problem, even the Skull Party has to respect the actual situation.

As mentioned earlier, after the attack on Manhattan, the United States ran into a lot of trouble. In terms of war, in addition to financial troubles, there are also troubles within the army.

One of the most important things Norris did during his administration was to get U.S. troops out of Iraq and set a timetable for the withdrawal from Afghanistan. By the time he resigned, about 50,000 U.S. troops had been withdrawn from Afghanistan, and the tens of thousands of U.S. troops who remained in Afghanistan mainly trained the Afghan army and rarely participated in combat operations.

The more than 10-decade wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have exhausted the U.S. military.

According to statistics done by the U.S. military, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the average military member spent 248 days overseas per year, twice as long as in the past. The casualties caused by the wars are still a secondary issue, and to be fair, the casualties of these two wars were not significant.

By the time the U.S. military ended its combat operations in Iraq, only more than 5,000 officers and soldiers had been killed. By the time Norris left office, fewer than 3,000 U.S. troops had been killed in Afghanistan. Even counting the wounded, the sum of these two wars was far less than that of the Vietnam War and the Korean War.

It's just that the soldiers are affected, not just casualties.

Before the global financial crisis, the U.S. military's conscription rate fell to its lowest point since the Vietnam War, and almost all units did not recruit enough recruits. Although after the outbreak of the financial crisis, due to the high unemployment rate, the recruitment work of the US military has improved, and many young people have no choice but to join the army, but not many are really willing to go to the battlefield, and most of them just want to eat in the army.

It can be said that the protracted war has had a very big impact on the morale of the US military.

It is undeniable that the attack on Manhattan stimulated the US officers and soldiers to some extent and helped to boost morale, but in the long run, if the United States is caught in a war that is larger in scale, with more casualties and no hope of victory, the most important thing for the US authorities to consider is morale.

In the report submitted by the Pentagon, this issue is explained at great length.

The best way to restore morale is not to win a battle, but to give the officers and men sufficient time to recuperate and return to their families, so that they can realize that only by fighting bloody battles on the front line can their families be protected and their families can live a safe and stable life in the rear.

Affected by this, even the newly appointed defense minister suggested that at least those officers and soldiers who had been withdrawn from the front line should be given more than half a year's leave. Because it is impossible for the troops to take vacations at the same time, they can only let the officers and men take turns to go home to rest, so the rest time of the troops should be at least one year, and preferably one and a half years.

In addition to morale problems, the US military is also facing a more serious equipment problem.

In the war against terrorism, which lasted for more than 10 years, in order to adapt to the brand-new combat environment and deal with those terrorists who did not have heavy equipment at all, the US military purchased a large amount of light equipment, basically completed the lightweight construction of the troops, and became a unit that was good at fighting small-scale battles.

Such a force can be said to be more than enough to deal with the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan.

The problem is that when pulled into the regular battlefield, there is no place for light troops.

This is not just a problem for the Army, but also for the Air Force and Navy.

Although by the time Cronin took office, the U.S. military was still the most powerful in the world, but it was the least suitable for large-scale local wars.

Almost all of these problems are related to the equipment system of the US military.

In the US Air Force, the size of the strategic bomber group has shrunk significantly as a large number of B-52G/H strategic bombers have been put into service beyond their time limit and have carried out excessively heavy combat missions. According to the Pentagon's assessment report, only seventy B-1Bs and less than twenty B-2As are fully operational. With less than a hundred strategic bombers, it is difficult to destroy a country's strategic targets in a short period of time.

The problems of the tactical air force are also prominent. Although all the F-22A ordered have been put into service, Congress only approved the order of more than 100 new aircraft at the beginning of the year, and there are a large number of F-15s in the tactical air force that need to be replaced, especially the F-15E, which has been in service for more than 20 years, is about to be retired. If there are no suitable heavy fighters in service, then the strike capabilities of the tactical air force will quickly fall to the bottom.

The F-35A, which was given high hopes by the US Air Force, clearly cannot be used as a replacement for the F-15E.

It's not that the F-35A is not advanced enough, it's that this fighter is not suitable for deep strike missions and cannot replace the F-15E. What's more, the mass production of the F-35A did not go well, and only two squadrons were equipped, one of which was a training squadron dedicated to training pilots.

To get enough F-35A, in addition to speeding up production, you will have to wait more than a year.

In addition to this, the US Air Force also has a lot of problems in other areas. For example, after the EF-111 and F-4G were all retired, there was no suitable electronic warfare aircraft, and the temporarily modified F-16 could only perform limited air defense suppression tasks, so the US Air Force had to ask the Navy for help many times, filling the gap with the Navy's EF-18G and providing cover for the Air Force's tactical aircraft fleet.

The impact is more far-reaching, as well as the fuel dispensers that have been seriously aged.

According to the plan of the US Air Force, more than 300 KC-135s are about to be decommissioned, and the new tanker aircraft to replace them is still in the demonstration stage. Although the delay in the project has little to do with the Air Force, and is entirely the result of interest group disputes, that is, the KC-330 and Boeing-led KC-767 projects led by Airbus involve multiple interests, causing the Department of Defense to hesitate in decision-making, but when the KC-135 has to be delayed, and the number of KC-10 and KC-130 is not enough to meet the operational needs, the US Air Force's sustained combat capability will inevitably be greatly affected.

Relatively speaking, the problems of the Navy are not so many, but they are also very serious.

Compared to the Air Force, the equipment system of the Navy has not been affected much.

The F/A-18E/F has entered service in large quantities, replacing all F-14s and some F/A-18A/B/C/D, the EA-18G has also replaced the aging EA-6B, and even the delayed F-35C is well underway and will soon be added to the combat sequence and deployed to the carrier.

The biggest problem for the Navy is on aircraft carriers, that is, the construction of two aircraft carriers of the "Ford" class has been significantly delayed.

With the retirement of the "Kitty Hawk", only the "Enterprise" and nine "Nimitz" class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers remained in the combat sequence of the US Navy. Although this amount is sufficient to meet the global operational requirements of the US military, the "Enterprise" has reached the 50-year service life for which it was designed, and the overdue service has brought many problems, such as the latest overhaul that lasted for a year and a half, and the maintenance cost used up is equivalent to that of a Burke-class destroyer. The nine Nimitz-class ships are also not in good shape, the Nimitz has been in service for more than 40 years and is about to reach the end of its design life, and it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain, more and more money is spent on maintenance, and more and more time is spent in the dock.

It can be said that even if the construction progress of the two "Ford" class aircraft carriers is accelerated, the number of US aircraft carriers will be reduced to nine in two years. If the construction of the "Ford" class is delayed again, then in a few more years the US military will have only eight aircraft carriers left that can perform combat missions.

Compared to aircraft carriers, the situation with other ships is not bad, at least the number of cruisers, destroyers, littoral warships, submarines is enough to form ten aircraft carrier battle groups and provide adequate protection for ten amphibious fleets.

The most serious problem is definitely the Army.

When the U.S. military carried out the "lightweight" reform, the army bore the brunt, a large number of heavy forces built up during the Cold War were reorganized into light forces, a large number of M1 main battle tanks, M2 and M3 armored fighting vehicles, M109 self-propelled howitzers, M270 rocket launchers were sent to warehouses, or sold to allies at very low prices, and these heavy equipment were replaced by wheeled vehicles such as "Stryker" and "Humvee".

Although the particularly brutal urban warfare on the battlefield in Iraq has made the US military realize the importance of tanks and combat vehicles, and many M1 and M2 have returned to the troops, joined patrols, and began to serve the US military, but in Afghanistan, where the terrain is more complex and there are not many large cities, the US military equipment is still mainly lightweight.

The problems arising from this are obvious, and it is difficult for the US Army to adapt to a large-scale ground war.

In the words mentioned by the Pentagon in its assessment report, if the enemy cannot be completely destroyed by bombing, US officers and soldiers will have to enter the city with many buildings in wheeled vehicles with almost no armor protection and engage the enemy with various anti-armor weapons.

Even if urban warfare is not taken into account, in field operations, the problems of the US military are prominent.

Although after learning from the experience of the Iraq War, the U.S. military developed the M1A2SEP, that is, the main battle tank specifically for urban warfare, the number of this new main battle tank is very limited, and there is not much difference from the M1A2 in terms of main surname. Compared with a large number of new main battle tanks possessed by a potentially hostile country, the US tanks have almost no superiority, and it is impossible to defeat the enemy in a devastating manner during the Gulf War.

It is not easy to develop a completely new main battle tank, even if it is an improvement of the M1A2.

More importantly, tanks are equipped in batches, and after large-scale equipment of the troops, the number of production is very large, and it is difficult to meet the needs of the troops in the short term.

Whether it is against North Korea or against Iran, it is inconceivable to do without a decent ground force.

The problem of equipment has forced the US authorities to admit that even if the time is ripe, they will still have to wait even if the troops are not ready for war.

This time is not too short, at least a year or two, or at most several years.

Objective factors are not affected by subjective will, and even some members of the Skull Party have to admit that the United States is not ready for a large-scale local war.

Now, the question comes back to square one.

Cronin's mission is not to start a war, but to prepare Scott for war.

(To be continued)