When it comes to our military, it is easy to assume that the United States has the best of everything. For most of us, it’s because that’s how it always was. Having the greatest military coupled with modern, advanced weaponry allowed us to win two world wars as well as successfully use deterrence to win the Cold War.
Our military edge was the product of hard work, not birthright. We earned it. But over the last 10 years our military supremacy has degraded. Gen. (Joseph) Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned that our qualitative and quantitative advantage has eroded.
We’re falling behind in many areas to China and Russia — not just advanced new weaponry, like hypersonic weapons, directed energy and AI — but also in terms of conventional capabilities. That includes aviation and artillery, two key capabilities that are resident in Oklahoma’s military installations.
Why? Simply put, we are not investing enough to keep up. At the end of the Cold War, we had about the same number of fighter aircraft as Russia and China. Our aircraft were also the newest and most capable in the world.
