America used to be the arsenal of democracy. Is it still? When the Cold War ended, the United States made a series of decisions that seemed reasonable at the time—consolidating defense contractors, closing shipyards, pivoting to lighter forces, betting that China would liberalize. Then came September 11th, two decades of counterinsurgency, and a procurement culture optimized for fighting enemies without air forces or missile programs. Then came Ukraine. Then came Operation Epic Fury—in the course of which the United States burned through over a thousand Tomahawk cruise missiles. Replacement isn’t projected until 2030. Ryan McBeth is an infantry veteran, defense analyst, and one of the clearest voices explaining modern warfare to general audiences. In this conversation with Jonathan Silver, McBeth traces how America ended up dependent on adversaries for the raw materials—pig iron, rare ea
Source: Is America Running Out of Missiles? | Ryan McBeth | Tikvah Podcast
