„Wir haben keine Zeit mehr“: Der Luftwaffenminister warnt davor, dass Chinas Militär aufholt, während die USA ihre Budgets verpfuschen

25 comments

1. “…as ~~US~~ ***GOP*** bungles budgets.”

2. What a crock of shit. We’re spending more than double China, and 40% of all military spending in the world is done by the US.

3. There are two opposing agendas from the right, one is we have no money to spend so cut Social Security now, the other is we are never spending enough on defense.

4. Bigger problem than budgets unfortunately.

   Just about every major weapon system program has been fumbled in the last decade. Large cost overruns. Less capabilities than planned. Longer development and delivery timelines. Many of them canceled when the final product proves to be of little value for wide scale adoption.

   The biggest problem is that the defense industry is now so consolidated (i.e. monopolized) that even if a program fails… We have to keep pumping money into it because there are no other alternatives.

   We still out out good equipment. But it’s taking a lot longer. It’s more expensive. And it rarely meets expectations or at least doesn’t have major drawbacks. 

   It’s so bad in the navy that the literal program is a complete failure, but kept alive for political reasons. We’re back to producing tried and true older hulls. Boeing is still incompetently screwing around with a new air refueling tanker… Something essentially solved before I was born. The list goes on.

   The only saving grace to all of this is that we can outspend everyone else to the point that we make up for this industrial graft and incompetence. And it’s highly debatable whether countries like China will be able to maintain their own development given their economic and demographic woes.

5. China is also known for releasing a lot more propaganda and overstating the capabilities of their air force solely to “keep up” with American advancements

6. Bought and paid for senators are the reasons for millions getting wasted on weapons that never panned out. That’s why they are focusing on unmanned drones right now. Easy to produce and impossible for a human pilot to keep up with but as soon as Jessica Beil gets shot down, I’m going in after her.

7. Maybe a quick price gouging investigation into our PMCs would solve this.

8. It’s easier to catch up than to stay ahead and the US needs to take this seriously.

   The gap is closing rapidly. Just because it took 20 years for the US to develop a capability it doesn’t mean that it will take other countries a full 20 years to develop it themselves.

   This isn’t a tech tree in a video game.

   China can accelerate their advancement by (a) IP theft, (b) only investing in the tech that turned out to be feasible and useful (focusing their investment on what makes a difference), (c) use modern computing and equipment, and other knowledge that wasn’t available when the US was developing the capability.

   The US tries to be ready to fight every type of war against multiple adversaries at all times. China focuses their spending and advancement on countering a single country. The USA.

9. Let’s pretend for a minute the headline was true, both sides have enough nukes for mutually assured destruction. This is just posturing for more appropriations

10. If you believe that, you will still believe Russia is a military superpower.

11. Idk, whenever government bodies refer to budgets they always seem to cry wolf.

12. This what kills empires; corruption. The ruling class turning the empire into their personal piggy bank.

13. > bungles budgets

    China spends $230B on it’s military per year, we spend $800B. If China is catching up it’s because of incompetence at the DoD.

14. Don’t think the military is hurting for cash with how much money we waste every single year funding it

15. Is their SPENDING catching up? If not, stop asking taxpayers for more and put your fat cat defense contractors on a budgetary diet.

16. Lot of people here saying that China just inflates its military capabilities for propaganda purposes. And whether or not that’s true, I would read the article:

    > Kendall told the subcommittee that his military services were able to win any conflict if called upon today, but China is rapidly closing the capability gap. He said he was made aware earlier Tuesday morning of new, classified data that “was concerning.”

    It’s not Chinese propaganda, it’s American intel

17. China probably doesn’t want war, and even if they were nearly caught up to us in a military sense, all the other tip spenders except Russia, are US allies, and China has pissed off plenty of their neighbors.

    India has slowly crept closer to the USA as Pakistan became less of a relevant US ally, and China has become more aggressive on Indias border. Russia, the only close Chinese ally, is not going to be in a position to help for 20 years. I think most of China’s friends would be content to just cheer from the sidelines.

    While yes China is super frightening the USA and friends have far more cards than we think.

    Also our military budget is what? 700+ billion? I’m always a bit of skeptic and think they just want to give more money to defense contractors.

    Don’t take my word for it, I’m just a dude on reddit

18. Do people really think China are so far behind? All the electronics we make are made there. They send students by the truckload to the best universities around the world. Why shouldn’t they be as smart as the west in developing and stealing technology?! Surely it’s just a matter of time. 

19. If America loses a war, thank the GOP.

20. China also STEALS massive amts of IP from U.S. defense and intelligence corps.

    It’s not all about “the U.S. budget”.

21. Years ago like in the 1950’s the US Command was saying that the Soviets where building a nuclear plane that could stay aloft indefinitely, and that it posed a strategic threat to the US. It was complete bullshit – as it was pointed out the shielding alone would have made it impossible to get off the ground – but it was used to get a bigger military budget.

    I don’t doubt China has upped their game but compared to the US it’s still 2nd world at best.

22. It helps when they steal our IP.

23. Translation: we want more money

24. As long as China’s internal policy of “cheaters always prosper” is intact we don’t have to worry about their capabilities. The paper valuation of military power is just that, a theoretical and highly game-able way to “show power”. In actuality every single branch of the Chinese military is a complete joke in terms of international standing. They are honestly being outclassed by India right now.

25. China just steals the intellectual property of US government defense contractors and creates copies of it… no catching up needed 😏