The observation of Rear Admiral Eric Ver Hag, commander of the office supervising the maintenance and modernization of US Navy ships, is clear. According to him, the American Navy today does not have sufficient industrial capacities to maintain and modernize its fleet in peacetime. If a conflict were to break out, predicted the American general officer, referring, without citing it, to China, the US Navy would simply not have the means to repair damaged ships quickly enough to support military action in the time.
This observation echoes the conclusions of an internal study of the United States Marine Corps, published at the beginning of the year, which emphasized the absence of sufficient industrial response to repair US Navy ships in the context of a high intensity conflict. Conversely, other countries, such as China but also Russia, have significantly modernized and increased their capabilities in this area, so much so that even with a larger starting fleet, the United States could well quickly find itself inferior. digital if a conflict were to last.
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