Report Finds US Military Lacks Ability to Defeat China, Suggests Cold War-Style Defense Spending

A congressional report found that ’the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.’

An F-35 jet lands on the runway of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during the Rim of the Pacific military exercises, about 100 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii, on July 19, 2024. Marco Garcia/File Photo/Reuters

The U.S. military lacks the required capabilities to preserve the nation’s strategic interests and could lose a potential war against China, a congressional report suggests.

The report, published on July 30 by the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, found that “the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”