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The U.S. military is “weak” and “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests,” says the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank in its latest report titled: 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength.
Considering the possibility of a competitor taking advantage of the U.S. being pre-occupied with another challenge, the current military force is at significant risk of being unable to tackle a single major regional conflict, which means it is “certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous” major regional contingencies, according to the 2023 Index.
“As currently postured, the U.S. military is at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests. It is rated as weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world,” the report states.
It also identifies four countries — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, apart from non-state actors — who are either in conflict with the U.S. interests or can cause regional instabilities due to coercion or intimidation of their neighbors.
Terming the threat emanating from Moscow as “aggressive” and “formidable” (which is the highest category on the index scale), the report says Russia remains the primary threat to the U.S. interests in Europe and the most pressing challenge due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Differing in perception from the U.S. intelligence assessments, the 2023 Index report says that although Russia “is consuming its inventory of munitions, supplies, equipment, and even military personnel in its war against Ukraine, it is also replacing those items and people.”
“Russia’s industrial capacity remains untouched by the war, and will allow Moscow to replace older equipment lost in the conflict with newly manufactured items.”
The report further points out that “Russia’s military is also gaining valuable combat experience” from the war and therefore “may actually serve to increase the challenge” that the country poses to the U.S. interests in Europe.
On China, the report says, Beijing presents the most comprehensive threat to the U.S. due to its “aggressive” and provocative behavior earning the score of “formidable” on the 2023 Index.
China has continued investments in the modernization and expansion of its military with a focus on space, cyber, and artificial intelligence capabilities, while its army continues to extend its reach and military activity beyond its immediate region, engaging in larger and more comprehensive exercises, including live-fire exercises near Taiwan and aggressive naval and air patrols in the South China Sea.
As per the report, China is taking note of the war in Ukraine and the U.S military developments and has been adjusting its own posture, training, and investments accordingly.
The Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index report finds Iran representing the most significant security challenge to the U.S. and its allies, and interests in the Middle East. Its open hostility to the U.S. and Israel, and sponsorship of terrorist groups like Hezbollah, underscore the problem Tehran could pose.
Iran’s development of ballistic missiles and its potential nuclear capability also makes it a long-term threat to the security of the U.S. homeland, the report states.
North Korea, meanwhile, continues to pose a major security challenge for American allies South Korea and Japan, as well as for the U.S. bases in those countries and on the island territory of Guam.
Pyongyang has engaged in provocative behavior and “used its missile and nuclear tests to enhance its prestige and importance.” Intelligence agencies assess that North Korea has already achieved nuclear warhead miniaturization — placing nuclear weapons on its medium-range missiles — and the ability to reach the U.S. continent with a missile.
Among the non-state actors, the report finds that a broad array of terrorist groups remain the most hostile of threats to the U.S. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and al-Qaeda along with its branches pose a risk to the homeland and to Americans abroad, particularly in countries like Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and the Sahel of Northern Africa.
According to the Heritage Foundation report, the weakening of the U.S. military strength is the “logical consequence of years of sustained use, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.”
This year’s “weak” rating is down from the “marginal” rating that the index provided in 2021 and is the first in the index’s nine-year history.
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