The F-35 needs to be scrapped. It is not going to have its expected service life because drones are going to develop too quickly. Drones need to be highly maneuverable. And cheap. Instead of expensive, multi-role aircraft, we have smaller, specialized drones and swarm the opponent.
We need a hiatus on new naval craft. Small, fusion generators are imminent. There are several technologies that should be producing net gain energy within a couple of years. We only need one. That, rail guns and lasers means an entirely new navy. We also need to develop mobile, offshore bases. That way we don't need so many bases overseas. We should have a few in Europe, Asia and maybe Africa.
We are making the same mistake the British Empire did. They prized their control of the seas. And in the 1800s, the ship of the line, evolving into the battleship was the key. And that meant having the biggest fleet of state of the art battleships. But they were rapidly evolving, from ironclads, to steel hulls, torpedoes, smokeless powder, large caliber long guns, electronic ranging...
They managed to almost bankrupt themselves. And there was only one battle where two fleets of battleships faced off. Aircraft carriers made them obsolete during WWII. |
