Pentagon warns US arms may be [becoming] obsolete

America's traditional means of projecting power abroad is growing “increasingly obsolete” and its billion-dollar military hardware could be as ineffectual against future threats as the heavily fortified Maginot line was in defending France against the Nazis, a senior Pentagon adviser has warned... [snip]

In 2006, China sneaked one of its submarines into the middle of a US carrier group — to the mortification of the US navy...[snip]

Even new areas of supremacy, such as US dominance of global positioning satellites that guide “smart” bombs to their targets, are becoming a “wasting asset” as states such as China develop the space technology to destroy them. China already has the ballistic missiles and laser technology to destroy low-orbit satellites on which the military depends.

Krepinevich claims America should devote more resources to cutting-edge nanosatellites to maintain its technological lead and should invest in missile interceptors and laser energy defences* that could counter the threat from adversaries deploying their own “smart” weapons.

Last week Robert Gates, the defence secretary, rewarded him for his prescience with a seat on the influential defence policy board at the Pentagon. Even with this encouragement from Gates, his prescription is likely to run into opposition from powerful vested interests...

[* = both of which the Obama administration has reduced.]

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