(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – For the first time in its history, the United States military has received a “weak” rating in the annual review of its state and capabilities by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC.
According to its 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength, the American armed forces are plagued with increasing issues during a worsening global security situation.
These simultaneous developments are putting the U.S. military “at growing risk” of failing to provide for the defense of “America’s vital national interests,” the think tank’s latest military analysis concluded.
“[The U.S. military] is rated as weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were,” stated The Heritage Foundation review.
“This is the logical consequence of years of sustained use, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged,” the analysis elaborated.
Its report on U.S. strength looked into America’s ability to fight and win two roughly simultaneous major military conflicts in different world regions.
The analysis concluded that the U.S. military is presently “ill-equipped” to do that. What is more, it is even sliding in the direction of struggling with even a “single major regional conflict.”
“The patterns of history show that competing powers consistently emerge and that the U.S. must be able to defend its interests in more than one region at a time,” wrote The Heritage Foundation.
The only one of the five U.S. military branches rated as “strong” in the 2023 review is the U.S. Marine Corps, an improvement from its “marginal” rating in the 2021 report.
According to the latest report, recruitment struggles and failure to retain pilots have led to a “very weak” ranking for the U.S. Air Force, the worst-performing U.S. military branch.
“Of the five services, the Corps is the only one that has a compelling story for change, has a credible and practical plan for change, and is effectively implementing its plan to change,” the Heritage Foundation’s report read.
However, it stressed that “the absence of additional funding” would force the US Marine Corps to cuts its battalion numbers, which would further hurt its capabilities.
According to the Heritage Foundation, the second best-performing U.S. military branch is the Army, with a “marginal” rating. The U.S. Navy and Space Force ranked worse, with “weak” ratings.
Heritage awarded a “strong” score to the U.S. nuclear arsenal but warned it might slide towards “marginal” and even “weak.”
“The reliability of current U.S. delivery systems and warheads is at risk as they continue to age and the threat continues to advance,” the conservative foundation warned.
U.S. military strength has hit a decade low, with The Heritage Foundation 2023 review considering the U.S. military "weak" for the first time in the history of its annual report. https://t.co/ypNEQNV2YF
— Newsmax (@newsmax) October 18, 2022
