The U.S. military is “weak” and at serious risk of being unable to address significant regional conflicts simultaneously should they arise, a new report found.
Released on Wednesday, The Heritage Foundation’s 2024 Index of U.S. Military Strength report revealed how America’s premiere fighting force is ill-equipped to protect U.S. national interests. The 2024 analysis represents the second consecutive year Heritage’s index rated the U.S. military as “weak.”
“As currently postured, the U.S. military is at significant risk of not being able to defend America’s vital national interests,” the document reads. “This is the inevitable result of years of prolonged deployments, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.”
In assessing the military’s effectiveness, Heritage analyzed the “capacity,” “capability,” and “readiness” of every branch of the armed services and provided each with an “overall” score. From worst to best, the scale used to rate each branch is: very weak, weak, marginal, strong, or very strong.
While the Army and Space Force were classified as “marginal,” the Navy and Air Force were graded as “weak” and “very weak,” respectively. The report specifically highlighted the Navy’s waning fleet size and inability to repair ships in a timely fashion as major problems facing America’s maritime power. Similarly, the analysis noted the Air Force’s failure to maintain at least 1,200 “active-duty, combat-coded fighter aircraft” needed to “manage more than a
