Top Marine Says Combat Experience Gives U.S. the Edge Over China’s Military

War is an inherently uncontrolled environment. Managing that chaos requires experienced leaders, from the small-unit level to the most senior ranks. Combat experience can reveal shortcomings in a way that training exercises may not, said Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.

However, not all military operations are the same, so it would be a mistake to put too much value in combat experience in one particular theater of war, Pettyjohn told Task & Purpose.

“American forces have been operating continuously since the 1991 Gulf War, but they have been employed against less capable adversaries and typically in small-scale contingencies,” Pettyjohn said. “Because they have not been engaged in high-intensity conflict against a peer, this operational experience does not include key missions like suppression of enemy air defenses or protecting rear areas, such as logistics hubs and headquarters.”

The U.S. defense industrial base right now does not have the ability to produce enough complex weapons systems that the American military would need for a war against China, Pettyjohn said.

“We need to bolster the existing [defense industrial base] in key areas (e.g. shipbuilding, aircraft, munitions) but also build a new industry that manufactures simpler one-use systems (munitions and drones) that could be rapidly surged in the event of a war.”

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