| > For example, look at the frivolous spending of the US on it's superior military budget and its belief it is the strongest military in the world. One can just look at the Ukraine vs. Russia war to see there is an immense technological gap between the US and Russia. Everyone thought Russia was the #2 military in the world before the war, but nowadays might be at best #3. Ukraine is holding Russia back and/or inflicting horrendous casualties on Russian forces using only a couple percent fraction of the US defense budget, and largely with old/leftover/unused equipment. Reminder too that Ukraine doesn't have the backing of the US Air Force or the US Navy, which the US would absolutely use in the event of conflict with Russia. Granted, this war has exposed a lot of shortfalls with the US Military with respects to advanced weapons procurement, artillery shell production, and drone warfare, but it's also been an intelligence goldmine for western militaries that is already starting to produce changes in strategy. > the expensive US technology would be quickly overwhelmed and defeated by cheaper technology that were not accounted for in the last few decades i.e. UAVs + AI. Russia has failed to destroy a single Patriot battery or HIMARS system, despite those being in-conflict for a while now. If drones were such a wunderwaffe that made advanced tech useless, then all of that tech would have been destroyed by now. China is likely #2 now with an impressive on-paper military, but they also have not been battle tested in decades with lots of unproven tech. |
The Ukrainians are skilled soldiers, at that moment with a lot more practice than anyone else in the Western world; yet they cannot flush the mobiks out of their dugouts. Same in the opposite direction.
The Houthis are now holding world trade hostage with similar drones and rockets. I would certainly like to see them defeated by the US military might, if only as a reassurance that a tribal army in sandals cannot dictate conditions to the rest of the world. But I am far from certain if it is possible. Air Force is a huge hammer and such drone teams are small midgets in a desert.