The Navy continues its struggle to deliver ships on time and on budget, threatening its ambitious plans to confront China. Now is the right time to consider more realistic alternatives to meet America’s security challenges.
The United States’ current plan regarding China is to create a force designed to project power directly into China’s strongest military position. Instead, the U.S. should pursue a defense policy designed to deter aggressive moves in the Pacific.
Air Force leaders say they will apply some, but not all, of the hard lessons from the F-35 to the questionable Next Generation Air Dominance program, all but guaranteeing lagging performance, cost overruns, and schedule delays.
As policymakers in Washington tie themselves in knots to prepare for a highly unlikely war with China, they are failing to properly prepare for other more likely scenarios.
