The latest Pentagon report reveals the challenges facing the United States in the defense industry capability chain in the face of China's rising defense capabilities, causing unprecedented anxiety. Although the United States prides itself on possessing the world's most sophisticated military equipment, improving the efficiency and speed of high-end** production lines has become an urgent problem for the United States to solve. The report stresses the need to strengthen the defense industry, stressing that only by increasing the speed of production and responsiveness can we stay ahead of the global military race. However, some experts expressed disappointment with the recommendations in the report, which they felt were not specific and feasible. The report proposes a vision for developing a more resilient and innovative chain, including investing in small businesses and attracting foreign companies, but does not provide a concrete implementation plan. In fact, the U.S. defense industry showed signs of lack of stamina earlier this year.
The data reveals a declining trend in the US defense industry: since 1985, there are more than 3 million experienced workers, and in 2021, this number has dropped to 1.1 million. In the last five years, there have been more than 170,000 enterprises withdrew from the military industry, of which more than 40% were small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the U.S. defense industry has been declining as a percentage of GDP, up from 5 percent in 19858% to 32% and is expected to decline further until 2. 27%。The United States has played an important role in the current crisis in Ukraine and the Kazakh-Israeli conflict, and although it has made the United States deeply implicated, it has not allowed it to show weakness or back down. However, with the rise of China's defense capabilities, the United States is starting to feel nervous about the challenges facing the ** chain of its defense industrial capabilities.
Challenges and Solutions for the U.S. Defense IndustryAt present, the United States seems to lack effective stimulus measures for the development of the defense industry, which is a rather serious problem. One report highlights the importance of "surge capacity", that is, a significant expansion of production capacity in a short period of time. However, in the current situation, the United States is unable to achieve such capabilities due to bottlenecks such as aging infrastructure and shortage of funds, which seriously affects the development of the defense industry. The decline in the capabilities of the defense industry is not only due to domestic reasons, but is also influenced by a number of external factors. The most obvious example of this is the long-term supply of military aid to Ukraine. In order to weaken Russia's power, the United States has supported Ukraine through external assistance, and although it has achieved some results, the impact on the United States itself is also extremely far-reaching. If the energy of supporting Ukraine can be diverted to the development of the defense industry, it will certainly have a positive effect, thereby reducing the current anxiety.
The United States has begun to realize these problems, so as early as the beginning of October there was information that military assistance to Ukraine would be gradually reduced. A number of U.S. ** have publicly warned that the U.S. cannot continue large-scale aid to Ukraine, and aid funds are almost exhausted. However, there is also a view that the United States has reduced its military aid to Ukraine in order to free up more resources to support Israel, after all, the United States can no longer support two parties to the conflict at the same time, so it can only abandon Ukraine and transfer more aid to Israel. But if the United States does do do this, it means that the United States still does not realize the seriousness of the problem. The current sluggish development of the US defense industry can no longer tolerate the fact that the United States is devoting its main energies to supporting its allies. However, this idea is not uncommon in the United States, which has long asserted its dominance in the international community, putting international influence first.
After talking about the reasons for the decline in the capabilities of the US defense industry, let's take a look at how the United States is solving this problem. It is clear from the Pentagon's report that the United States is still openly and covertly portraying China as a "major challenge" in order to obtain more congressional funding. This is also the consistent practice of the Pentagon. The Pentagon is showing that it knows the situation in China inside and out, in the hope of more funding. Recently, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense once again stressed that the decisions of the US Congress in recent years have seriously affected the US military, resulting in it falling far behind the level it should be for four consecutive years. If the U.S. Congress continues to postpone the U.S. military's development proposals, the U.S. military will face a deeper lag. In addition, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense also stressed that in order to gain an advantage in the competition with China and prevent the growth of China's strength, the US military has raised many issues that need to be resolved as a matter of priority, and hopes that these proposals will be supported by the US Congress.
It is obvious that the US military still adheres to its previous position, trying to use the "Chinese threat" as a pretext. However, in the face of the continuous hype of the US military, China has made a clear response. In a severe and complex international security environment, China must build a strong military and never allow international sovereignty, security and development interests to be compromised. In addition, the purpose of China's military development is to contain the threat of war, defend its own security and maintain world peace, which is a legal, justified and moderate act.