Next-generation weapons will not win today’s wars

David Gompert rightly points out that “to stay ahead of China requires investment in military research and development” (Commentary, May 30). But the biggest imbalance in China’s favor is not technology, but capacity.

For example, China’s fleet is now larger than ours. The Chinese have massively increased their ammunition stockpiles, while the US military has dangerously few of the precision weapons it would need in a conflict with an equal opponent.

In the 1980s, when the U.S. defense industry was making major technological breakthroughs in areas such as stealth technology, we spent twice as much on procurement as we did on research and development. Today, we spend almost as much on research and development as we do on procurement.

Research and development spending has also grown much faster than procurement spending. Consider that research and development spending increased by $34 billion in fiscal years 2021-23, while procurement of ships, aircraft, and munitions increased by only $18 billion.

Research and development is important and we will continue to do a lot of it, but spending in the near term must be focused on buying larger quantities of existing weapons systems. The next war may not wait until the next generation of weapons are ready for use in the 2030s.