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The U.S. defense industry is “not adequately prepared” for “a protracted conventional war” with an enemy such as China, according to a think tank study published Monday.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) ran a war games simulation that found that the U.S. would likely be depleted of some of its munitions, including long-range, precision-guided ones, in less than a week of war with China in the Taiwan Strait.
The U.S.’s use of weapons would exceed the Department of Defense’s stockpile, which would make sustaining a long-term war conflict “difficult,” especially as China is investing in munitions and other weapons systems five to six times faster than the U.S., according to the study.
The Russia-Ukraine war exposed the shortfalls of the U.S.’s defense industry, CSIS said, with the study finding that the nation’s inventories of some weapons, including Javelin anti-armor systems and Stinger anti-aircraft systems, are running low as the U.S. committed to sending more of these systems to Ukraine.
