Define great. If people mean the ability to blow things up and kill people, then the U.S. military is and has been the greatest military force in the history of the world for a number of decades. This is not meant negatively or as some political or social commentary, simply a cold-hard reality of what happens. If you mean the ability to achieve other political goals, then you may want to ask how great is the U.S. political structure and its interaction with other world-wide elite political structures.
Many people view warfare in terms of epic battles with large numbers of men and machines. These types of scenarios have decreased as the decades have rolled on. The capabilities of smaller forces on all terrains, to include space, that were traditionally used before epic battles are at the forefront now. Furthermore these smaller forces can deploy devastating technologies quickly.
Other countries and private companies have formidable abilities here as well, but in the end, if you screw with the U.S. military and their hands are untied you are going to lose. That is why other countries are focusing on economic warfare, cyber warfare and specific technologies in order to continually close the gap as they have been doing for decades. In 30-50 years it maybe a different story due to technological advantages in terms of raw science, engineering ability, production changes, or the human factor diminishes due to robotics.
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The only easy day was yesterday.
Many people view warfare in terms of epic battles with large numbers of men and machines. These types of scenarios have decreased as the decades have rolled on. The capabilities of smaller forces on all terrains, to include space, that were traditionally used before epic battles are at the forefront now. Furthermore these smaller forces can deploy devastating technologies quickly.
Other countries and private companies have formidable abilities here as well, but in the end, if you screw with the U.S. military and their hands are untied you are going to lose. That is why other countries are focusing on economic warfare, cyber warfare and specific technologies in order to continually close the gap as they have been doing for decades. In 30-50 years it maybe a different story due to technological advantages in terms of raw science, engineering ability, production changes, or the human factor diminishes due to robotics.
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The only easy day was yesterday.