A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically advanced ones. And it traces a decades-long decline in America’s ability to win a long war with a major power,” the New York Times editorial said.
Photo: Reuters
The editorial said that US dominance in the Pacific two decades ago ensured its capability to defend Taiwan, as China had a small missile arsenal in 2005, which limited its threat to US forces.
Twenty years later, China boasts of missile capabilities that have the potential to destroy advanced US weapons before they come near Taiwan, the editorial said.
Newer forms of technology, doctrines and strategies show that they have become more effective against large conventional forces, with the editorial citing the Ukraine war, where Ukraine has used uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) to neutralize the Russian Black Sea Fleet, as well as the Ukrainian drone strikes damaging and destroying many of Russia’s heavy bomber fleet.
The editorial contrasted the costs of drone manufacturing in eastern Ukraine, “typically cost a few hundred dollars to make,” to the price to build the latest Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier at US$13 billion, and said that while aircraft carriers are superb against relatively weak countries such as Venezuela, they are vulnerable to other forms of attacks, such as hypersonic missiles.
Sweden’s Gotland-class diesel-powered submarine, in a 2005 war game, had landed multiple torpedo strikes against a US Nimitz-class carrier, which would have hypothetically sunk the carrier, the editorial said.
The editorial asked why successive US administrations adhered to the doctrine of relying on its fleet of super carriers and attendant carrier strike groups (CSGs), when drones, threats to undersea cables and Chinese malware seemed to define new ways of war.
Weapons procurement was limited to five major companies, the entrenched mindset of military commanders prevented innovation, and the prevailing view was that “bespoke, complex and wildly expensive” platforms were always superior, the editorial said.
Such a mentality meant the military was unable to obtain rapidly produced equipment in bulk, it said.
The US defense industry’s capability to produce artillery shells, ships, and aircraft at scale and speed has been lost, putting the US in danger of running out of essential munitions in a war against China, it added.
US defense spending should not focus on enormous new budgets, but instead should be more judicious in its investments, it said, warning that “traditional symbols of might risks shortchanging the true sources of American strength: relentless innovation, rapid adaptability and a willingness to discard old assumptions.”
The report was prepared by the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment and was delivered to top White House officials in the past year.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS