China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un sent a warning shot to the United States by standing shoulder-to-shoulder at a massive military parade in Beijing.
Congress has responded in kind by returning from recess to debate the Senate and House Appropriations Committees’ understandable push for more military funding, including more funding for our Army. Yet some Deep State bureaucrats in Washington are arguing the opposite — that America should shrink its Army. At a moment like this, such a move would be a colossal mistake.
Military.com reported the Army could shrink from about 450,000 active-duty soldiers to as few as 360,000. Plans are already underway to cut thousands of civilian and military jobs — supposedly to build a “leaner, more lethal Army” and to help fund President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense program.
Meanwhile, recently departed Air Force Chief of Staff David Allvin dismissed the Army’s budget share as mere “inertia” and suggested the Air Force should grow “at the expense” of other branches. Translation: fewer soldiers, more jets and drones. America can’t afford to gut its ground forces just to shift dollars around between services.
Critics point to China as justification. They argue any conflict in the Pacific would be naval, so we don’t need such a large Army. But that’s backwards. In an age where China’s navy is ahead of our own. The very reason the People’s Republic hasn’t dared to invade Taiwan or directly confront the U.S. isn’t because of the U.S. Navy’s carriers alone — it’s because of America’s overwhelming military might across the board, including its world-class Army. It’s the sheer scale of American power, not just a single service branch, that deters Beijing from rolling the dice.
Yes, the Navy’s carriers — floating airbase cities, if you will — are essential, but while powerful, they can only carry a limited number of planes with limited fuel and weapons. China, by contrast, can launch hundreds of aircraft from permanent land bases and fortified islands in the South China Sea, all backed by missile defenses and radar networks. That means if we rely on carriers alone, we’d be sending a handful of jets to fight against a fortress stocked with far more planes and firepower.
That’s why the Army still matters. It’s the backbone of American military power — the part China can’t match — and it’s what makes Beijing think twice before ever starting a fight in the first place.
America does need more ships. But the real weakness isn’t money, it’s industrial capacity. Even if we raided the Army’s budget, our shipyards wouldn’t be able to replace their losses fast enough in a long war. That’s an American industrial problem, not a budgetary one. Slashing the Army won’t fix it. If anything, it would make the United States weaker across the board, leaving China emboldened and our allies less confident in America’s ability to stand firm.
Critics also argue the Army should stop spending on manpower and tanks and instead go all-in on drones. But Ukraine shows why that’s dangerous. Drones are vital, but both sides have already developed cheap countermeasures — jammers, netting, anti-drone weapons. Russia isn’t advancing because of drones. It’s advancing because, as Defense News put it, Ukraine “simply lacks sufficient manpower and traditional weapons.” Wars are still won by soldiers holding ground.
For all the flashy technology, what really deters aggression is the raw strength of America’s fighting men and women. A robust Army reassures our friends and keeps our enemies guessing. It’s also one of the biggest ladders of opportunity for young Americans looking for good jobs, skills, and a chance to serve their country. Downsizing it in the middle of rising global threats would be madness.
But this problem extends beyond the Army. For too long, the U.S. military has been hampered by bureaucratic inefficiencies that deny our warfighters the tools they require to achieve success. Too many consultants, too many studies, and too many barriers hamper our lethality and effectiveness. The answer isn’t cutting one branch at the expense of another (for example, the Air Force needs more aircraft and bases to deter China, just like the Navy needs more ships), it’s increasing the size of the pie. This will only be achieved by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse at every level and streamlining the acquisition process to cut costs.
Drones can help our warfighters, but they can’t replace them. Carriers are indispensable, but they can’t win without ground forces to back them up. The inescapable fact is that all branches of our military require more assets, equipment, and training to ensure we can stand up to our nation’s primary strategic adversary.
Put simply, downsizing isn’t the answer — and cutting any branch of our military would be a gift to Beijing and Moscow.
Let’s tread carefully.
Retired Col. Robert L. Maness, host of The Rob Maness Show, is a 32-year U.S. Air Force combat veteran and was a member of the Trump campaign’s Veterans and Military Families for Trump Coalition. Follow him on X: @RobManess.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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