The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 1088 Large Orders and Military Expansion
"We absolutely cannot fight in the Middle East at this time. Our energy is now focused on the battlefield in Afghanistan. We have no ability to open up a battlefield in the Middle East unless we expand our military!" Rumsfeld said: "We have estimated that if we want to fight, we need to deploy 80 troops, and then bring in our allies to form a 100 million-strong coalition force to win the Middle East war."

Rumsfeld, 70 years old this year, is the first person in U.S. history to serve as Secretary of Defense twice.

After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University in 1954, he served in the Navy for three years. In 3, Rumsfeld, who had just turned 1963, ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and was re-elected for four terms. In 4, Rumsfeld, who was only 1969 years old, was selected by Nixon to serve as an assistant to the president and was promoted to director of the Office of Economic Opportunity.

From 1970 to 1973, Rumsfeld served as a presidential adviser. From 1973 to 1974, he served as the US representative to NATO and began to get involved in diplomatic and defense affairs. From 1974 to 1975, he served as the White House Chief of Staff of the Ford Administration. In 1975, at the age of 43, he was appointed Secretary of Defense, becoming the youngest Secretary of Defense in US history.

However, in the following year, after Ford lost the election, he was forced to step down in disgrace. He then turned to the business world and served as president of Hill Pharmaceuticals and General Instrument Company.

Rumsfeld is a "four-term veteran" of the Republican government and is known for his "judgment and foresight". Even when the Democratic Party was in power, he was commissioned by Congress in 1998 to serve as chairman of the bipartisan "Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States" and submitted a report on the missile threat to the United States, overturning the CIA's determination that the United States underestimated the extent of the enemy missile threat. He was called a "hawk" and a "Cold War veteran" by the media.

It was precisely because he advocated breaking the current deadlock and accelerating deployment on the issue of missile defense, which coincided with Bush Jr.'s views, that he was eventually able to serve as Secretary of Defense again.

Regarding the tasks after taking office, Rumsfeld said: "We should not target old threats, but deal with new threats, such as information warfare, anti-ballistic missile systems, counter-terrorism, defending space and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

Rumsfeld defined his main tasks in the near future as persuading Congress and US allies to accept the missile defense system, promoting the deployment of the joint strike fighter, the largest fighter program in the history of the US Air Force, and purchasing 295 F-11 Raptor fighters. This is only the first production order, and the number of orders will increase in the future. Through these measures, efforts will be made to build the US military in the 21st century into a new army with stronger mobility, faster response, and better ability to cope with various forms of regional conflicts.

早在去年9月11日之前，美军便以每架2.2亿美元的价格向洛克希德·马丁公司采购295架F22‘猛禽’战斗机，总订单649亿美元，到2011年交付完毕；同时美军以每艘24亿美元的价格采购原本被取消的27艘海狼级攻击核潜艇，用于取代要退役的‘洛杉矶’级攻击型核潜艇，总订单648亿美元。

In addition, the US military continued to purchase four Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that were canceled that year, with a purchase price of US$4 billion each and a total order value of US$90 billion.

Before September 9, the total order for weapons and equipment placed by the US military was 11 billion US dollars. Although this was not a one-time payment, but was paid in installments over the years, it was a major positive for the US military industry. This also made the military industry the best performer before September 4971, and the military industry sector was the only one that stood out.

After September 9, the US military urgently placed orders for weapons and equipment totaling $11 billion, including tanks, armored vehicles, cannons, guns, bullets, artillery shells, portable air defense missiles, portable anti-tank missiles, portable rocket launchers, anti-tank vehicles, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, and so on.

This also means that after September 9, military-related companies have seen the fastest growth.

But companies like airlines suffered terrible losses.

Now there are more than 20 elite U.S. troops in Afghanistan, plus the aircraft carrier fleet, the total U.S. military force in Afghanistan has reached 10. Although the total U.S. military force is over one million, it also has a large number of military bases, and it is impossible for military bases to not have troops. The U.S. military stationed in Japan and South Korea alone has reached 20, plus Guam and other important military bases in the Pacific, a total of U.S. troops.

There are a total of 15 U.S. troops stationed at U.S. military bases in Europe, and a total of 5 troops stationed in African countries.

That’s a total of 60 people!
The United States is the most powerful country in the world in terms of military strength, with more than 140 million active military personnel and 80 civilian personnel. Of the 140 million active military personnel, 48 are in the Army. It can be said that the U.S. military has no more Army to deploy, unless it expands its military or transfers troops stationed in Europe, the Pacific, and Africa to the Middle East. Otherwise, the United States can only rely on the Air Force and Navy to fight.

The coastal countries in the Middle East are all equipped with Eagle Strike anti-ship missiles. The Americans suffered a lot in Libya and Iraq from the threat of Eagle Strike anti-ship missiles to warships, and they have a deep understanding of this. The United States has also suffered enough from the threat of Aegis air defense missiles to aircraft.

Besides, since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian war, the United States and Israel have lost so many aircraft that they need to be replenished. Although the United States and Israel have ordered a total of thousands of aircraft, it does not mean that the aircraft can be produced immediately after the order is placed. Aircraft production takes time.

The United States estimates that it will take three years to produce thousands of third-generation fighter jets!
This forced the United States and Israel to purchase a batch of second-generation and second-generation and a half aircraft for emergency use.

What makes the coalition forces in Afghanistan dissatisfied is that the loss of aircraft has affected the coalition's air support capabilities in Afghanistan.

"Expand the army to 76.6 and the total force to 192.8 million, and restore the navy, army and air force to the 1991 level!" George Walker said, "The U.S. military must maintain a strong military force to safeguard the interests of the United States and maintain its hegemony!"

To be honest, many people were dissatisfied with the disarmament and reduction of weapons and equipment purchases in the previous eight years, believing that it was a self-defeating measure.

Many Americans believe that the U.S. military should maintain a strong force so that it can have a strong deterrent effect and others will be afraid of the United States.

The US military is an important part of American hegemony.

Many Americans believe that many countries are not afraid of the U.S. military now because the U.S. military has significantly reduced its military forces, canceled weapons and equipment orders, and its military strength has decreased instead of increased, while other countries' military strength is increasing.

If the US military strength reaches the level of 1991, which country would dare to disrespect the US?
Anyone who disrespects the United States will be beaten, just like the United States beat Libya and Iraq!
(End of this chapter)