Everyone, today we won't talk about formalities. Let's directly face a harsh reality for Americans: the U.S. may have already lost control in the military technology competition with China!

The speed of China's weapon development is now like a runaway train that keeps accelerating. In just the past few months, new missiles, ground systems, warships, nuclear triad, especially autonomous drones in the air and sixth-generation stealth fighters, have emerged like a tsunami!

The "The Drive" column even lamented: What the U.S. intelligence agencies are facing is not whether they can track, but rather they simply cannot keep up! Keep in mind, this is a dilemma in the field of intelligence tracking, let alone how the U.S. defense industry competes with China's.

Although some American experts still insist, claiming "this is not a crisis" and "we have enough personnel to analyze,"清醒的专家 have already issued sharp warnings.

Experts from RAND Corporation directly pointed out that due to the extreme secrecy of China's weapons programs, the U.S. intelligence agencies could be suddenly caught off guard by the emergence of new weapons! High-speed missiles, which are small and hard to hide, are a huge intelligence black hole for the U.S. How can you compete when you don't even know your opponent's cards?

Even more critical than intelligence is the lag in countermeasures! Experts from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies warned: Washington must assume that Beijing will act on its words and is fully developing military capabilities.

To develop weapons capable of countering hypersonic anti-ship missiles and advanced stealth fighters requires astronomical funds and revolutionary new technologies! But the U.S. defense industry is still relying on old technologies, squeezing out resources, where can it get such innovation power and speed?

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Esper openly criticized the core problem of U.S. defense development as "priority confusion." Too many districts pushed for irrelevant "pet projects" for local interests, occupying key areas' R&D resources. This directly exposed the sick nature of the U.S. defense system: bureaucratic rigidity, low efficiency, and being deeply manipulated by interest groups!

This is the most deadly contrast: on one side, China's new weapons are emerging like a "tsunami," continuously iterating; on the other side, the U.S. defense system is experiencing an innovation gap, technological aging, and even falling into a vicious cycle of "the more you upgrade, the more you fall behind."

We must face a cold reality: The U.S. has not come up with a truly revolutionary, intimidating new weapon for years!

Look at the U.S. main weapons equipment, almost all are marked with the design of decades ago:

Cruise missiles: The Tomahawk cruise missile was born in the 1970s. Although it has been upgraded multiple times, its body structure and power system are still from half a century ago, and its penetration capability has long fallen behind modern air defense systems;

Fighters: The F-35 fighter's core design concept began in the 1990s. Even with integrated advanced avionics systems, its aerodynamic layout and power design have not broken through traditional frameworks. Compared to the subsequent improved version of China's J-20 and tailless stealth aircraft, the generation gap has gradually become apparent;

Sea and air platforms: The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and Virginia-class submarines, although modernized, still have overall architecture and design concepts based on combat needs from decades ago, with serious lack of innovation.

This is like a company that has long lost its innovation ability, selling its flagship product from thirty years ago with patches and repairs, while the R&D department has stopped exploring disruptive technologies!

Now, China is showcasing autonomous combat drone swarms, tailless stealth aircraft, and hypersonic missiles, which are the forms of future warfare. While the U.S. is still upgrading its old equipment from decades ago, isn't this actively widening the generation gap?

When China is continuously consuming the U.S. intelligence tracking capabilities and countermeasure R&D resources with massive advanced weapons and operational concepts, and when they can't even figure out their opponent's technical path, the U.S. defense system is stuck in bureaucratic infighting and interest group entanglement, even experiencing technological regression. For example, the electromagnetic catapult on the Ford-class aircraft carrier is less reliable than the steam catapult on the Nimitz-class.

More worrying is that even if the U.S. decides to start a new project, it often faces "production difficulties":

Ford-class aircraft carriers: As the U.S. Navy's highly anticipated next-generation flagship, the USS Ford has had frequent failures in its electromagnetic catapults, advanced weapon elevators, and radar systems since its launch in 2017, and has yet to form effective combat capability. Its original deployment plan has been repeatedly delayed, with total costs soaring to $13 billion, becoming a "showpiece without function";

Hypersonic missiles: The U.S. Army's "Dark Horse" hypersonic missile has failed multiple test launches, and it is at least 3-5 years away from operational deployment.

The Air Force's AGM-183A program was once forced to pause and was only barely completed with a partial successful test in 2023, before finally being abandoned.

This is not merely a technical issue, but a deep-rooted systemic disease. It exposes that the U.S. defense industry has developed an incurable "chronic illness" in project management, technology integration, cost control, and innovation speed. Lobbying interventions by interest groups, inefficiency of the bureaucratic system, hollowing of the supply chain, and backwardness of wind tunnels and other infrastructure have collectively led the U.S. defense industry into a vicious cycle of "huge investment, minimal output"!

The conclusion is brutal: Not only are Americans confused by the constantly unveiled weapons from China, but more seriously, they realize that their "old gear" can no longer keep up with this future competition. If they cannot quickly get out of the predicament of "relying on old technologies," the U.S. military will face the danger of being completely left behind by China!

So, do you think the U.S. defense industry still has a chance to catch up with China's? Discuss in the comments section.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7570982825902473769/

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