>>384961>Would the US mount a successful ground invasion of mainland china?Absolutely not.
>>384985Future Combat Systems but yeah. But IMO I give the Navy somewhat better marks because, corruption aside, most sailors are doing things that would otherwise just be a "job" in any other context. There are a ton of logistics jobs at ports and on ships and less oorah bullshit, and sailors can seem pretty down to earth in comparison to the other branches and less full of themselves. I think the Air Force is the most pretentious and poncy, and also very insecure for historical reasons.
>>384991The U.S. military is incredibly well-resourced and should not be underestimated, but it's also bloated and inefficient and the military-industrial complex has pushed it so far they're now hamstringing their own capabilities. Look at the F-35 for example, or the Zumwalt destroyer which doesn't have a clear mission profile. The F-35 is particularly egregious because it's designed to spend money and do everything while being a master at none of those things.
The USSR had its own military-industrial complex which helped bankrupt it. When you divert so many resources into an arms race that doesn't get tested by actual conflicts (not talking about insurgencies here) that produces an exponential "boondoggling" effect. Then to keep it going costs more and more, while accomplishing less and less. The Soviets were relatively easy to beat because they simply didn't have the economic resources of the West but were trying to compete on an equal level. Therefore, the U.S. could progressively grind them into dust.
It isn't quite like that any more, if anything the situation has reversed where China can utilize relatively limited amount of resources to compete because of less bloat (although there certainly is bloat) and a different strategy – their military doctrine is focused around fighting and winning a defensive war in their region, not trying to go head-to-head against the U.S. on a global scale. And the defense is always stronger than the offense. So the Chinese air force is weaker than the U.S. air force, given that it's primarily a homeland-defense force and not a global force, while the Chinese navy is now larger than the U.S. navy at least by the raw number of battleforce ships – although fewer carriers of course. And that number is going to rise dramatically during this decade. They're able to steer resources where it counts, and it's the Chinese navy that is getting the hot shit right now and sparkling new stuff. Also the missile forces.
About the missiles: they also combine lots and lots of land-based missiles with their air force and navy to extend their reach into the Western Pacific. There's an old adage in naval warfare that a "ship can't fight a fort," meaning coastal forts defending harbors can't be knocked out by sea. A coastal fort is like a rock to a navy's scissors. You had to land marines somewhere else to then sneak up and attack the fort from behind to clear the way for the ships to take the harbor. Well, in the modern age, China is the fort. It's impossible for the U.S. navy to "defeat" it. And those missiles can travel hundreds of miles into the sea and they're working on ways to have those missiles track and hit ships.