Why the U.S. isn’t ready for a fight in the Indo-Pacific

U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting on Nov. 14, 2022, in Nusa Dua, in Bali, Indonesia. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Why the U.S. isn’t ready for a fight in the Indo-Pacific – POLITICO

Pentagon’s promise to shore up its forces in the Pacific in 2023 is meeting skepticism.

By PHELIM KINE and LARA SELIGMAN 12/27/2022 04:30 AM EST

The U.S. has pledged to deploy so much firepower to the Indo-Pacific in 2023 that China won’t even consider invading Taiwan. Lawmakers and allies say it’s already too late.

The promise is a big one: “2023 is likely to stand as the most transformative year in U.S. force posture in the region in a generation,” Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said in early December.

But GOP lawmakers say the Pentagon faces a stiff challenge in delivering on that pledge. That’s because Beijing now wields a navy large enough — backed by air power and “carrier killer” ballistic missiles — to challenge longtime U.S. naval dominance in the Indo-PacificAnd deliveries to Taiwan of billions of dollars in U.S. arms are backlogged, due to supply chain issues related to the pandemic and exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.

READ FULL ARTICLE : Why the U.S. isn’t ready for a fight in the Indo-Pacific – POLITICO

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