From this point on the US is in Imperial Japan's position, they can start a war but China absolutely will finish it, and this will become even more apparent in the next few years.
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
The fact that the US Air Force asked the consulting company McKinsey on how to structure their forces to combat China tells you all you need to know really. Do you think a civilian consulting company would be up to the task?
In Russia the General Staff office has people who are regularly tasked with something like this.
In Russia the General Staff office has people who are regularly tasked with something like this.
TBF on recent performance I'd probably trust McKinsey more than the Russian general staff.
everywhere, it's basic function of general stuff.
But as Maikeru reasonably writes, while General Stuff is supposed to be intellectual core of the military, it is still military.
Maybe Prussian GGS was an exemplary case of such organization that actually worked and remained effective long-term, but Russian clearly isn't - typical military degradation processes overcame it long before even Soviet collapse(the military isn't exactly a type of organization built on intellectual excellence, and for most of it it isn't a bug, but a feature).
McKinsey is such an organization, or it will die(or won't deliver).
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
The U.S. DOD does all kinds of studies and regularly uses think tanks for this kind of thing. It doesn’t mean they have handed over control. It just means they are asking an outside opinion.
That's the problem with trying to do military planning. Most often you will see armies made to fight the last war. You had the US going into Iraq and Afghanistan with an army not tailored to do counter insurgency fighting. Huge amounts of money had to be diverted into the Stryker and MRAPs for example. There were shortages of infantry equipment in just about everything like body armor. Money was also put into longer ranged weapons because of the operations in Afghanistan. And now if they want to fight against the major powers the US will basically have to put all that equipment in the trash and start over again.
The Russian General Staff did get several things right. For example the R-77-1 and R-37M AAMs were purchased and they upgraded the MiG-31 into the MiG-31BM. This means they basically enjoy air superiority over Ukraine. They massively ramped up production of long range cruise missiles and they upgraded the strategic bombers to carry them. Where they failed was in things like loitering munitions and drones. This is because in the Russian bombing campaigns over Syria their tactical bombers were used against insurgents with little air defense capabilities. Well Ukraine isn't the same thing is it. They also let their artillery atrophy with huge bets on leading edge systems and little investment into upgrading existing systems unlike what happened with the tanks. Even then one of the major new Russian weapons showed in this conflict with Ukraine, the Lancet, was basically created in the Syrian War.
You pay them a whole bunch of money to get a report with loads of obvious things written in it. And then you get a kickback as they hire you after you retire. It's just a money pit.
You hire McKinsey to justify and elaborate your idea and make yourself looks good to your boss and if things went south you can also outsource the blame to them.
Never underestimate how well-entrenched organizations living in their own loop can be disconnected from obvious things.
Stratolaunch performed the first powered flight of their Talon-A hypersonic vehicle today. Apparently it didn't quite reach hypersonic speed, but was high supersonic during the flight.
The Talon-A is not reusable so it splashed down in the ocean a will not be recovered. The Talon TA-2 will be reusable and will be used on their next flight attempt.
No exactly directly US military, but it is a platform for hypersonic research that seemingly would be directly involved with US hypersonic weapon and aircraft research.
The Talon-A is not reusable so it splashed down in the ocean a will not be recovered. The Talon TA-2 will be reusable and will be used on their next flight attempt.
No exactly directly US military, but it is a platform for hypersonic research that seemingly would be directly involved with US hypersonic weapon and aircraft research.