— The United States would lose many ships in this conflict. Many F-35 fighters and other tactical aircraft would be destroyed quite quickly, Gomez said on Wednesday, quoted by the British daily. In his opinion, American forces suffering such heavy losses would be a “really sobering” experience for them.
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Earlier this week, the New York Times published details of the secret “Overmatch Brief” report, which provides a comprehensive review of US military potential. The document was handed over to White House officials in 2024. The authors of the report determined China's ability to destroy American fighter jets, large ships and satellites, and also identified critical points in the US military supply chain.
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“The assessment points to something more troubling than the potential outcome of a war over Taiwan. It shows the Pentagon's overreliance on expensive and vulnerable weapons while adversaries are fielding cheap and technologically advanced weapons. And it highlights a decades-long decline in America's ability to win a long war against a superpower,” the NYT writes.
The ongoing war simulations indicate, among other things, that the most technologically advanced American aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, could be exposed to attacks from Chinese submarines and an arsenal of approximately 600 hypersonic missiles capable of moving at five times the speed of sound.
Internal Pentagon assessments also show that Beijing significantly outnumbers Washington in its arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles. Both superpowers maintain a stockpile of 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
The article recalled that the US estimated that it used about a quarter of its long-range missile interceptors to defend Israel against 12 days of missile fire from Iran in June this year.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced this year that taking Taiwan was a “historical inevitability” and ordered his troops to prepare for a possible takeover of the island by 2027.
As the Telegraph predicts, Beijing is unlikely to take such action unless China believes it has an overwhelming military advantage and will certainly capture the island. “The failure of such a step would be a humiliating blow that would probably end 13 years of Xi Jinping's rule,” we read in the daily.
