Under America’s national security strategy of great power competition and its national defense strategy of integrated deterrence, the U.S. military last year moved from the idea of “winning the nation’s wars” to “outcompeting China.”
Last year was Joe Biden’s final year as president of the United States, and he did what he could to consolidate U.S. military advantages over its competitors and adversaries. Military developments for the U.S. in 2024 mainly included promulgating strategic documents; authorizing a defense budget; procuring weapons and equipment; consolidating military strength and adjusting deployments; researching how to fight with China; upgrading alliances and partnerships; cooperating with allies in defense science, technology and industry; and conducting combined, joint and Service military exercises.
The series of strategic documents guiding U.S. military developments in 2024 included the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Strategy, Arctic Strategy, Commercial Space Integration Strategy, Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, the Chemical and Biological Defense Program Enterprise Strategy and others. These are supporting strategies for the U.S. National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and National Military Strategy and commonly characterized by the following:
• Clarifying its own roles and relations with other strategies;
• Establishing detailed and operable strategic missions, goals and priorities; and
• Providing strategic guidance for construction and development in specific domains.
The national defense budget for FY 2025 is $883.67 billion, a 4.78 percent increase over FY 2024 ($841.399 billion). Distributed by purpose, $167.849 billion is intended for weapons and equipment procurement; $143.768 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation; $294.464 billion for operations and maintenance; $182.746 billion for military personnel; $43.502 billion for other Department of Defense military activities; $15.212 billion for military construction; $1.81 billion for family housing; and $5.23 million for base realignments and closures. These budget allocations demonstrate the following characteristics:
• The U.S. is consolidating its military power by both sharpening the “spear” of strategic strikes and simultaneously forging a “shield” of missile defense to gain relative and enduring advantages in land, sea, air, outer space, cyberspace and other fields;
• It is accelerating updates of weapons and equipment, and enhancing the upgrading of its triad nuclear strike force and conventional weapons and equipment;
• It has increased its investment in military high-tech and new technologies, and greatly enhanced investment in disruptive technologies such as hypersonic capabilities, artificial intelligence, directed energy and next-generation communication technology to promote the transformation of technological advantage into military advantage;
• Adjustments to the internal U.S. national defense budget are like arrows on the bowstring, but its investment tendencies are still uncertain. The tendencies of Donald Trump 2.0 in the national defense budget are worthy of high attention.
Consolidation of strength
The U.S. total force in 2024 was 1.2845 million in active service (1,500 fewer than in FY 2023), 763,600 in reserve (2,600 more than that of FY 2023) and 795,000 civilian personnel. Currently, the U.S. military has at least 128 overseas military bases in 51 different countries or regions, of which 68 are permanent military bases. Details include:
• In the Indo-Pacific theater, approximately 81,000 service members are permanently assigned to overseas bases to build the Guam base group, Northeast Asia base group and Southeast Asia base group;
• In the European theater, about 67,200 service members are permanently assigned to overseas bases. The United States has taken advantage of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to attract Nordic and Eastern European countries, rapidly expand the number of bases and strengthen the overall deterrence of Russia;
• In the Central theater, approximately 46,000 service members are permanently assigned to overseas bases, and the U.S. military has continued to strengthen its deployments in the Middle East to deter Iran, crack down on violent extremist organizations and engage in strategic competition with China and Russia.
How to fight China
The U.S. military’s research on how to fight China has covered three levels of strategic, operational and tactical operations and have involved personnel, intelligence, warfighting, logistics and communication in all domains — land, sea, air, space, electromagnetics and cyberspace.
• U.S. military publications, including Joint Force Quarterly, Military Review, Parameters, Proceedings, Airspace Power, and Air & Space Forces magazine, are the main carriers of research papers and essays with titles such as Giving Our Paper Tiger Real Teeth: Fixing the U.S. Military’s Plans for Contested Logistics Against China; Considering the Utility of Modern Blockade in a Protracted Conflict with China; and An Industrial Mobilization Plan to Deter or Defeat China.
• Research papers on how to fight with China explore how to apply the military’s innovative warfighting theories to future adversaries, operational environments and operational domains, and these deserve PLA’s great attention.
Upgrading its alliances and partnerships and attaching importance to cooperation with allies and partners in defense science, technology and industry are part of an attempt to maintain military technology advantages over China. Some key details include:
• Bilateral alliances in Asia-Pacific region have been transformed and upgraded; mini-multilateral cooperation has been consolidated further; and the defense partnership with India has been deepened;
• Major expansions of U.S. alliances and partnerships have occurred outside the Asia-Pacific region. For example, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO; Kenya became the 19th non-NATO ally of the United States; and the United Arab Emirates became the second major defense partner of the U.S. in the Middle East.
• The U.S. has reaped significant strategic benefits at relatively low cost through proxy wars conducted by Ukraine and Israel, which have not only weakened Russia and Iran but also increased the reliance on the U.S. for security by allies and partners.
Military exercises
Exercises are an important way for the U.S. military to enhance combat readiness, demonstrate its strength and presence, deter potential adversaries, familiarize itself with the operational environment, verify operational concepts and strengthen military alliances and partnerships.
In 2024, the U.S. military conducted hundreds of combined, joint and service military exercises, with large-scale combined exercises such as RIMPAC, Steadfast Defender and Malabar. Large-scale joint exercises included Bamboo Eagle24-1, Black Flag 24-1 and Typhoon Crossbow 25.1. Large-scale service exercises included a network modernization experiment, Emerald Warrior and Rapid Deployment. The exercises, which were frequent, rich in content, deep and involving a large number of new-type forces, demonstrate the following prominent characteristics:
• Continuously expanding the scale of combined exercises;
• Investing in allied and partner nations’ systemic warfare capabilities;
• Consolidating military preparedness for great power competition and strategic deterrence;
• Strengthening the capabilities of cyberspace, outer space, unmanned and other new qualitative forces for operational use; and
• Emphasizing the use of military exercises to validate operational concepts.
The Biden administration provided $35 billion in military assistance to Ukraine in 2024, focusing on air defense systems, artillery and shells, armored and ground combat vehicles, and unmanned aerial systems.
Over the past four years the Biden administration committed more than $66.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and also provided Israel with $ 17.9 billion in emergency military assistance. It prioritized the delivery of weapons, equipment and other military materials to Israel.
On the whole, under the guidance of America’s national security strategy of great power competition and its national defense strategy of integrated deterrence, the U.S. military in 2024 continued to be transformed. It has moved from the idea of “winning the nation’s wars” to “outcompeting China.”
