The Heritage Foundation Releases It’s “2015 Index of U.S. Military Strength”

STALLION TAKEOFF

An MH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter takes off from the flight deck of amphibious assault ship USS America in the Pacific Ocean, Feb. 23, 2015. The America is conducting maritime operations off the coast of California and the ship is optimized for Marine Corps aviation. U.S. Navy photo by Airman John Kelvin Chavez

Breaking Defense: Heritage: US Can Barely Handle Two MRCs; All But Air Force ‘Marginal’

WASHINGTON: The conservative Heritage Foundation has published an ambitious Index of Military Strength, which — not surprisingly — finds that the United States military is not beefy enough to manage the many threats it faces around the world.

The core finding of the well-written analysis is that the US military could handle two major theater wars at the same time — but only just. The old two Major Regional Contingency (MRC) standard dates back to the Cold War, and it took the Pentagon a long time to admit it wasn’t really either rational or doable as a strategic goal. The most recent Quadrennial Defense Review set a strategic goal of creating forces able to win one major theater war and to “hold” an “opportunistic” attacker instead of winning two major theater wars.

Here’s the logic laid out by Dakota Wood, author of the Heritage study:

More News On The Heritage Foundation's “2015 Index of U.S. Military Strength”

U.S. military decimated under Obama, only ‘marginally able’ to defend nation -- Washington Times
Report: US Military Capabilities Are Surprisingly Weak -- Daily Caller
U.S. Military No Longer Able to Fight Two Wars at Same Time -- Washington Free Beacon
Heritage Study Notes Rising Threats, ‘Marginal’ U.S. Military Power to Counter Them -- Seapower
New Heritage Foundation Study Ranks U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Strength as ‘Marginal’ -- USNI
Heritage Foundation Jumps Into Defense Budget Debate -- Sandra I. Erwi, National Defense