• Outdoor_Catgirl [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    No other country has the amount of aircraft carriers, air refueling tankers, and awacs aircraft as the US. You need all of this shit for invading countries across the world. Other nations really don’t have the capacity for invasion and imperialism that the Americans do. Even if it’s massively overpriced and the capabilities inflated, downplaying the strength of the enemy is not a recipe for victory.

    • BobDole [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      Like crime said, but to nitpick, those three you cited are pretty useless for the actual invasion force. The real invasion forces are by land and sea, which America also has the largest amphibious assault fleet and military sea lift capability. But, let’s not kid ourselves about the actual challenges of invading a peer/near peer nation: amphibious landing ships have enormous radar cross sections (even the fancy San Antonio class) and would be easily sunk by anyone with antiship missile capabilities, especially with how close they actually have to be to the shore.

      Using post-WWII invasions as a guide, the real key is to invade your neighbor or having an adjacent nation under your thumb to stage invasion forces in, as large scale amphibious operations are incredibly difficult to actually pull off.

      Of course, if you invade Grenada then you could pull it off with just aircraft.

    • hotcouchguy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      You need all that shit to bomb poor countries with little air defense. To modern developed militaries, all of those are just expensive targets.

      IMO fighting a peer military will be all about who has better (& cheaper) missiles and drones, and probably stealth aircraft and artillery to a lesser extent.