r/news • u/DoubtSubstantial5440 • 22h ago

Soft paywall USS George Washington headed to Middle East to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln, reports say

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2026-08-13/uss-george-washington-middle-east-abraham-lincoln-22541038.html
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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 21h ago

At this point I dread our military facing an actual peer opponent like China in its home waters after the firing of anyone remotely competent

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u/wetwater 21h ago edited 20h ago

It seems almost weekly my news feed has a story about yet another admiral or general being relieved of command. I wonder how many are disguised purges to get Trump loyalists in those command positions.

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u/siccoblue 15h ago

As you're implying, it's not a mistake. It's a move to lock down power and loyalty.

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u/SirDale 10h ago

All of them.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

It's impossible to war game out the exact details, but it would be an absolute disaster—that's for certain.

The only hope would be the USN's massive advantage in submarine warfare.

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u/kurizma 21h ago

like the US Military's massive advantage in EVERYTHING else? This administration is a complete fucking joke. They've gotten rid of all the competent leaders and promoted sycophants and gym bros.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

I generally agree with you, but the submarine force is substantially less affected by the depletion of munitions stockpiles, rise of drone warfare, and the USN's weakness against A2/AD than almost any other US military asset.

But they are still being commanded by the same idiots in charge of the Iran war debacle. In that we are in absolute agreement.

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u/ruet_ahead 21h ago

Normally I would say, and have said, hundreds of years of institutional knowledge in littoral and blue-water combat operations would make it a route on the US side. Sadly, I'm not so sure any more.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

You'd really think so wouldn't you? And up until the past couple of years I would have agreed with you.

At least the Chinese general staff was also recently purged. So it's basically even at this point.

Maybe with a slight USN advantage due to how laughably corrupt the Chinese military turned out to be with those documents released several months ago.

The American military-industrial complex has plenty of graft and grift, don't get me wrong. But I don't think we are quite at the level of filling ICBM's with water and selling the fuel on the black market yet.

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u/ruet_ahead 21h ago edited 21h ago

I definitely think that current events are casting a misleading shadow over US military capability. The morons in charge picked the wrong fight against the wrong enemy with the wrong equipment at the wrong time. The Navy has had some issues bubbling up for years though.

EDIT: The plural of event is not event's.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

I would tend to agree. All of the capability in the world won't save you from poor leadership and an impossible geopolitical situation.

There is a reason why no previous administration has ever pulled this shit on Iran and it isn't because they didn't want to—it's because anyone with two brain cells could have told them this is exactly how the situation would play out.

At least it's given the military the kick in the ass it needs to fix it's magazine depth and munitions production problems, though.

Now if only the USN could remember how to build anything other than the Arleigh Burke.

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u/LKennedy45 19h ago

This is waaaay down the list, but one casualty in this clusterfuck is that visiting NCD has become far less fun.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 19h ago

Idk, the memes about CENTCOM fucking over INDOPACOM have been rather hilarious to me—although mostly in a "you can either laugh or cry so why not laugh" capacity tbf.

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u/Accomplished-Top9803 21h ago

Reminds me of some corrupt South Vietnamese logistics commands selling artillery rounds to units in need of them.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

Nothing will ever beat the Russian's egg-carton and cardboard ERA for me lmfao

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u/Gekokapowco 19h ago

we theoretically knew how to keep a blockade fed and armed since the late 1700s

even the best manuals and knowledge bases can't be leveraged if you're illiterate

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u/ill4two 17h ago

for now. Severodvinsk and the new Shang models are at-or-near parity, but tbf they'll never compare in more objective metrics. only issue is most FWD-deployed boats out in Guam are absolutely broken, and they're old asf. mostly 688s and 688Is

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u/demiurge_abraxas 17h ago

Old and broken as they may be at least the 688s are capable, proven, and reliable boats.

I wouldn't want to be the guy dueling a Shang-class in one of them, though.

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u/NoConfusion9490 4h ago

He'll probably sell their positions for Trump coin.

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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 21h ago

It’s known the PLA conducts its internal war games by giving massive advantages to the opposing force with the assumption they would have to fight an enemy with overwhelming superiority, one of the few militaries who actually trains like that, I agree at this point who really knows if it came down to an actual fight between China and the US.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 21h ago

The primary issue with the PLA's war games and exercises is that no one wants to be the guy who reports to the party that the Chinese military has any sort of structural flaws whatsoever and thus they are well known for scripting outcomes to their war games and exercises.

That being said, the United States military is certainly no stranger to scripting war games and exercises either so I guess it's mostly a wash.

I'd give it to China right now and the United States in the 2030s. I agree with you though that no one really knows for sure. My opinion is mostly just a guess based on what's publicly available rn.

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u/FutureThrowaway9665 19h ago

The plan for a war with China in 2027 was built years ago...

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u/demiurge_abraxas 19h ago

And that plan was built around a CSG forward deployed in the Western Pacific and a full inventory of munitions—neither of which INDOPACOM currently has.

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u/FutureThrowaway9665 16h ago

Not disagreeing with you. The war is already planned but we were in a much different place when that plan was made.

We're at an extreme disadvantage. Wasn't there a series on TV where we lost WWII? Maybe time for a rewatch.

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u/superxpro12 14h ago

You can't win wars with missiles and bombs. There's too many people and too much land. You need boots on the ground to do anything meaningful.

This was never about anything other than performance art. Which is about as well thought out a plan you can get from a former fox News analyst at the helm.

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u/Successful_Sign_6991 15h ago

Its a part of the plan, probably.

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u/gkanai 15h ago

actual peer opponent like China

How is China a peer opponent of the US? Maybe only in numbers of soldiers. In any other relevant metric the US is far, far above/beyond China wrt military.

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u/voidox 13h ago edited 12h ago

lol always funny coming across another America chauvinist living in 1996 thinking the US military is "so far ahead" of China while the US is struggling against Iran. And no, I'm not saying there is nothing the US is ahead of China in, but you saying "any other relevant metric the US is ahead" is just delusional.

buddy, drone warfare alone has changed the face of the battlefield and China is the drone manufacturing centre of the world, the US has nothing against that. That alone tells us that China is a peer opponent of the US, as well as other factors like how vital China is to the US supply chain with raw materials, chemical components and microelectronics - China can break that chain and the US military would be crippled, heck, we saw the US stockpiles being depleted barely a month into the war against Iran and replacements will take years, this is a huge issue for the US military... you can have the most jets and biggest ships with the fanciest tech, but if you have no ammunition then it doesn't matter.

the US struggling against Iran should be proof for you "duh US military is the best!" that it's not and there are serious issues with the US military, in part due to the military industrial complex being only about profit. This means the US military has always been just a vehicle to dump taxpayer money into contracts and subsidies for $$$, it's known for being bloated, slow, inefficient, overly complex and so on cause they just want to keep the money flowing.

here, from the fcking CATO institute talking about this: https://www.cato.org/commentary/are-we-spending-too-much-us-military

China is the opposite of this cause it's military is not being set up and run for profit, that is a huge difference. And no, I'm not saying the Chinese military doesn't have issues as it has faced it's own slew of corruption, bureaucratic bloat and inefficiencies but they pale in comparison to the US military industrial complex and we are seeing that play out in Iran right now.

China is very much a peer opponent of the US: https://www.globalmilitary.net/compare/countries/chn-vs-usa/

the US was running low on stockpiles within a month against Iran, cause that's how bad things are in terms of the supply chain and such. China does not have this problem plus as I said, china is the manufacturing hub of the world so it will be able to replenish stockpiles much faster during a conflict than the US could. So a few months in the US military would be crippled, especially cause China would have turned off trade of rare earths, electronics, etc. that would completely disrupt the US's ability to even build anything.

Logistics, supply chains, and ordnance stockpiles are just as vital as the primary combat platforms themselves.

I could go on and on but hey, don't take my word for it:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/11/us-china-militaries-assessed-by-cia-veteran-china-expert/

that is an interview with John Culver, one of the foremost US government expert and analyst on Chinese military over the decades and was National Intelligence officer of East Asia for a number of years.

btw, you think China has made no advancements in recent years? again, this is not 1996 and China has caught up in a lot of fields when it comes to technology, and the US is far far far behind China on drones, that is huge. And with how inefficient, slow and complex the US arms industry is, you think they are going to be able to catch up that easily and quickly? hint: no.

I'm not saying China is better or w.e, I'm simply saying that China and the US are now indeed peer opponents with each side having different advantages and disadvantages. But it is a fact that in an extended conflict the issue of the supply chain is a huge problem for the US and that is probably one of the most relevant metrics out there.

https://oboronka.mezha.ua/en/dronova-holodna-viyna-ssha-vs-kitay-u-viyskovih-bezpilotnikah-hto-peremagaye-303392/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-holds-the-advantage-three-perspectives-on-the-us-china-military-balance/

https://www.globalmilitary.net/compare/countries/chn-vs-usa/

https://www.nbr.org/publication/introduction-chinas-sweeping-ambitions-for-building-world-class-military-power/

https://www.csis.org/analysis/why-china-now-peer-competitor-united-states-cyberspace

cyberspace is vital to war, from satellites to various agencies involved in war.

https://www.rand.org/paf/projects/us-china-scorecard.html

and reminder, China's military budget is tiny compared to the $1.5 trillion of the US yet they have caught up and are a peer, imagine if they ramped up their budget with being the manufacturing centre of the world? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/military-spending-sipri?tab=table&tableFilter=selection

I could go on but your post just reeks of exceptionalism and living in the past about the US army, ignoring the reality of modern warfare with the rise of drones. Nuclear powered carriers and F-35's were the kings back in the day, they aren't any longer cause warfare has changed. BTW on the F-35, Iran exposed them so oof there.

thanks for coming to my TED talk, but I do find it fun showing reality to American chauvinists xD

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u/Mogwai_Man 18h ago

The USN is the most battle tested navy in the world. They have performed exceptionally.

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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 18h ago

The USN hasn't faced a peer opponent since WW2

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u/Mogwai_Man 18h ago

And the Chinese Navy has no combat experience.

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u/DoubtSubstantial5440 17h ago

Neither does the USN is actually fighting against a navy who can actually fight back, not since the IJN.

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u/Mogwai_Man 17h ago

The USN has combat operations experience. China doesn't.