America’s Worn-Out "Arsenal of Democracy" Looks More Like an Antiques Roadshow

Loren B. Thompson

Defense, United States

The U.S. planes the Chinese intercept look more like exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.

Chinese fighter pilots trying to enforce Beijing's control of nearby airspace must be confused about the U.S. military.  They have been trained to expect the latest in military technology from the world's sole superpower.  But the U.S. planes they intercept look more like exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.

Earlier this month, two Chinese jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane over the East China Sea.  The RC-135 is based on an airframe developed in the 1950s; the last military version of the airframe was assembled in 1965.  In May, the Chinese intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II signals-intelligence plane.  The propeller-driven EP-3 traces its lineage to the Eisenhower-era Lockheed Electra airliner.  The P-3 Orion maritime-patrol aircraft from which it was derived has been in service for over 50 years.

And then there are the B-52 bombers that the Air Force used several years back to challenge Beijing's air-defense identification zone in the South China Sea.  The Air Force stopped buying those in 1962, which means the aircraft it dispatched to enforce America's transit rights in the region were at least half a century old.

This is what happens when a country stops buying weapons but keeps fighting wars.  It ends up with a worn-out arsenal that isn't up to the task of challenging emerging military powers on their home turf.  The Obama Administration announced in 2012 that it was shifting the focus of American strategy to the Western Pacific, but it didn't do much to increase spending on weapons, which had been a bill-payer for other military needs since Obama took office.  In fact, by stressing readiness, it guaranteed the joint force's weapons would wear out faster.