I was thinking today and two thoughts keep popping into my head and both are related to "time".
CHINA:
I'll bet you next months DFAS check that China is watching US action very, VERY closely. Doing to us what we did to Russia in Ukraine - watch and observer. Examine every aspect from planning, to logistics, to bases of operation (both land and naval), executution, weapons system performance, types of systems employed, depth of magazine, command and control, defense system performance, etc. You name it, they are watching and they are getting a lot of GREAT intel off the recent events.
When it comes to Tiawan, they will have learned a lot of valuable lessons.
DEPTH OF MAGAZINE:
Depth of Magzine refers to how long can you punch/defend as a function of munitions. For the Air Force they can have deep magazines, but if you deny utilization of fixed airbases (static targets), then most of their planes can't deliver.
For Naval ships, you have a fixed capacity. Take for example the Arleigh-Burke class destoryers. Their main offensive defensive armament is contained in 96 VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells that are preloaded. Problem is the cells have to be loaded at a safe location (in port or protected harbor), meaning once the cells are expended, the ship has to withdraw from theater to replenish which can take weeks. Although the Navy has been working on at sea replensihment which could shorted the restock time to days. But that means those 96 cells have to be loaded in advance with weapons for a specific mission (land attack, anti-ship, air defense, ECCM, anti-submarine warfare). If you load them all with land attack, you leave the fleet open to having little defense in case of air attack. So typically they will go out with a mixture trying to balance offense and defense.
That means the ships main system has a fixed magazine of 96 weapons. Plenty for small cadence operations, but detrimental for extended operations.
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To quote from an alternative reality - "War, War Never Changes". It's not about who hits first, it's not about who hits hardest, it's about who can keep punching the longest. As the current situiation with Iran progresses, I think we (and China) will see logistics and depth of magazine issues as the US has been consuming high tech weapons at rates that exceed procurement (although DOD has been working to increase procurement rates).
WW
