It isn't entirely Clinton's idea, those defense cuts. The real problem was that the USSR fell apart and there wasn't any big enemy to go up against. Remember China back then wasn't the China of today, as outsourcing just started to give China the funds needed to modernize everything back then and those take time to ramp up.
Here's the thing, military budgets are tied to economic capacity. A fun little thing that the GOP has forgotten is that you are better off simply investing in the economy (and no, tax cuts aren't investing into the economy, we're talking shit like infrastructure here) than just add more funds when it comes to military budgets. So the line of thought would be to cut some military programs, invest in the economy, and then use that money to grow military funding while keeping the percentage the same. After that, simply keep investing in the economy and no one will call you out for increasing the military budget... because while the percentage stays the same, the actual dollars keep rising with the increased intake.
No, it was pushed by a few idiots and it became a memetic hazard. History tells us that simply having constantly funding the military without the needed civilian economy is a recipe for disaster. While the US economy was better at growing than the Soviet economy, the growth wasn't as large as what people would think it was, especially after the '70s when companies started automation and outsourcing to cut the unions -and thus workers in general- out of the economy.
No, it must be noted that China was slotted in so they wouldn't get ideas, for history tells us that if a country can't get resources from trade, it will get it from conquest. China has a shitload of land that it considers it's own and its people aren't going to forget it any time soon.
And then to make things worse as China started to become a more clear threat to the US's interests the war on terror sucked a lot of money out of the budget and caused a lot more wear and tear on both men and equipment and also resulted in a lot of deferred maintenance
Understatement of the century. We literally could have built every aircraft and ship and then some currently in the inventory with how much we've spent in the middle East since 2001
We would not be behind in development of weapons.
To be fair with all the upgrades the M1 is still a decent tank and it's not like Leopard 2 is any younger either. Plus with the money freed up from not fighting everywhere we're finally scheduled to start development of a new tank. And we do have a boatload of development programs that are underway in all sorts of categories. Not to mention the fact that in a lot of cases waiting for technology to develop a bit will mean our stuff will be way better than most nations once it hits the field in bulk
Russians are still using T-72A in their active duty units, Turks still use M60 as the backbone of their armoured forces...
Russia has more modern ones.
I know for a fact we have an aircraft flying now that makes an F-22 look like a Tinker Toy. I saw that damn thing late night back in 1993. It came into the base. Landed Vertically on the tarmac. Got refueled and then took off again. Then it did something I never saw any other Aircraft do. It took off at a speed that makes an F-14 on full Afterburner look like it is standing still. It sounded like the sky was being ripped apart. We have some scary level of combat tech that is just not being shown to the publc.
The Army is oddly enough, behind the rest of the branches when it comes to combat tech. They have gone through so many projects, mosthave failed and only caused prototypes compared to the Navy and Air force.
Maybe the Power Armor project I have heard about will be adapted for full Army use. That would be good.
That is about the best the Army has going.
It also could turn very well, that removed the need for turret equipment when the whole ship is a floating turret.
Time to keep it real. Really Old!!!That is about the best the Army has going.
They finally managed to get a new weapon system near its final without cancelling it and sticking with the M4.
We can only hope the NSGW contuines and gets chosen and sent out the next few years.
The Navy has a better track record with new combat tech then the army. Look at the railguns!
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I wish this thing had been built.
It would be the second largets class of BS next to Yamamoto
