How far ahead is the US compared to the rest of the world in Military Technology?
6 Answers
Aaron Maxwell
Aaron Maxwell, Member of the British armed forces, regular reader and researcher
Answered Jan 6, 2016
The US armed forces are in general pretty much the most advanced in the world but there are areas where other countries are superior. For instance Russia usually has a better range of missles, Russian missiles generally have longer range and are faster and more numerous however the Americans have world beating guidance and sub systems in there missiles and carry a bigger pay load. The better question would be who has the most effective military capability because even though American weapons are more powerful and better guided (GPS, Radar, IR, TDL) there russian and Chinese counter parts can engage them first having a potential to take them out before they can even be launched. AGM-158C LRASM, P-800 Oniks
But it isn't just down to missiles and Russia, many countries have a lead over the Americans in some aspects of military technology and training. Even though it can be hard to get a leg up over the Americans (even with 3 or 4 countries (UK, France, Russia, China) trying to out do them they can still compete in a market on all fronts against all of them. However the best way to view it is this, one of those countries above will bring out a new weapon such as a tank or warship that will be the ever in the world, then 5 or 10 years later a new American tank or warship will come out that is better, then the next warship or tank will be released by another country and then the next making a leap frog effect of military technology an example being the Royal navies type 45 destroyer having advantages over an Arleigh Burke but then being outdone by the US navies Zumwalt destroyer.
Another thing that is worthy of mention and note is the F22, when it came out it introduced a lot of new and advanced technologies, a lot of these were highly publicised to show off the capability of the new and advanced plane (stealth features, Thrust vectoring, advanced computer and guidance systems), when these became public knowledge they were copied by the competitors which is why there is a striking similarity between the F22 and Sukhoi PAK FA Chengdu J-20. Which were introduced a lot later and with added features which the US only realised after the production of the aircraft had begun or even finished. But it should be considered that they are just copying the work of someone else, not earning it for themselves so when they have no one to copy off they are not going to be able to compete and have to play catch up to the Americans who are expanding on there knowledge and not trying to figure out why it worked in the first place as they already knew it to begin with. Western militaries develop the tech, eastern militaries copy it.
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Originally Answered: How far ahead is the US compared to the rest of the world in Millitary Technology ?
I'm not one for mindless jingoism or pollyanna feel good sentiments.
If the USS Donald Cook incident, Ukraine incidents, and the recent Israeli fighter intercept in Syria are any indication, the US has fallen far behind Russia. If you aren't familiar with this incidents, the summaries:
The destroyer USS Donald Cook is in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea when an unarmed Russia Su-24 with an ECM pod approaches, turns on its ECM and promptly disables ALL electronics on the ship: this includes all radar, all radio including spread-spectrum SATCOM, all computers (all those Windows PC-based operational systems), etc. The jet then makes a series of 12 faux missile runs directly over the ship to point out that 'if this had been real, you'd be dead 12 times over'. The Cook left the area and no US warships have been in the Black Sea since. Russian Attack Plane Approaches USS Donald Cook in Black Sea
Russian forces (apparently) also used advanced ECM to neutralize all land force (Army) communications provided to and used by Ukrainian forces by the US. This ECM was able to disable all electronic communications including spread-spectrum SATCOM as well as VHF/UHF and microwave communications. Russia's Not-So-Secret Electronic Warfare Campaign in the Ukraine
Two Israeli air force F15s penetrate Syrian air space. Russian turns on what was likely the same ECM system that disabled the Cook. The result is all radar, all radio including spread-spectrum SATCOM, all computers, etc. are disabled on the planes. They were not even communicate with their base except by the lone operating channel of VHF AM radio used for civilian distress. On that channel, the Russia air controllers told the fighters to leave Syrian air space immediately, which they did and have not returned. Russian Fighters Jets intercept Israeli Bombers over Syria
Now in theory, the US was the dominant player in ECM and ECCM technology both during WWII and during the Cold War but recent event make it very clear that not only is this no longer the case, but very core weapons technologies upon which the US depends for pretty much all of its 'Technology Force Multipliers' have been compromised entirely for Army, Navy and Air Force.
There is a theory that the reason that Turkey shot down those Russian jets, in addition to all the other dangerous saber rattling, is because the US wanted to induce the Russians to light up their ECM again, this time with EC3 and other surveillance aircraft in the region that can receive, record and monitor the ECM signals to figure out how the hell they managed to do it and to try to figure out a counter measure if possible. Apparently that failed and they simply managed to inflame the situation while the Russians remained 'as cool as cucumbers'.
Much of this failure is a direct result of outsourcing commercial manufacturing, on the back of which all military technology innovation depends. Military volumes are NOT large enough to enable the learning curves required for modern technology innovation so losing commercial manufacturing, especially in high tech, is a recipe for exactly this kind of situation occurring.
Jeff Gruszynski ... At one time I designed weapons systems. I don't do that anymore.
Updated May 12, 2017 (Accessed January 2020)
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