The U.S. Is Not Yet Ready for the Era of ‘Great Power’ Conflict

Clint Hinote returned from a deployment in Baghdad in the spring of 2018 to a new assignment and a staggering realization.

A classified Pentagon wargame simulated a Chinese push to take control of the South China Sea. The Air Force officer, charged with plotting the service’s future, learned that China’s well-stocked missile force had rained down on the bases and ports the U.S. relied on the region, turning American combat aircraft and munitions into smoldering ruins in a matter of days.