Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning
Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning book cover

Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning

Paperback – May 14, 2018

by
Price
$29.95
Format
Paperback
Pages
250
Publisher
Clarity Press, Inc.
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0998694757
Dimensions
6 x 0.63 x 9 inches
Weight
12 ounces

Description

"Martyanov's must-read book is the ultimate Weapon of Myth Destruction (WMD). And unlike the Saddam Hussein version, this one actually exists.” PEPE ESCOBAR, AsiaTimes"Andrei Martyanov's book is an absolute 'must read' for any person wanting to understand the reality of modern warfare and super-power competition." THE SAKER"The arrogant hubris of American exceptionalism and the myths that sustain it are subjected to devastating analysis in this long overdue book..." PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS ANDREI MARTYANOV is an expert on Russian military and naval issues. He was born in Baku, USSR in 1963. He graduated from the Kirov Naval Red Banner Academy and served as an officer on the ships and staff position of Soviet Coast Guard through 1990. He took part in the events in the Caucasus which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In mid-1990s he moved to the United States where he currently works as Laboratory Director of a commercial aerospace group. He is a frequent blogger on the US Naval Institute Blog and on unz.com. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The coming of the revolutionary S-500 air-defense system may completely close Russia and her allies' airspace from any aerial or even ballistic threats. These developments alone completely devalue the astronomically expensive USAF front line combat aviation and its colossal investment into the very limited benefits of stealth, a euphemism for primarily “invisibility” in radio diapason, the mediocre F-35 being a prime example of the loss of common engineering, tactical and operational sense. Radiophotonics detection technologies will make all expenditures on stealth, without exception, simply a waste of money and resources. No better experts on how to waste resources exist than those sponsored by the US military-industrial complex. The situation is no better at sea. The introduction into service in 2017 of the 3M22 Zircon hyper-sonic missile is already dramatically redefining naval warfare and makes even remote sea zones a “no-sail” zone for any US major surface combatant, especially aircraft carriers. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, no technology capable to intercept such a missile exists or will exist. The US Navy still retains a world-class submarine force, but even this force will have huge difficulties when facing the challenge of increasingly deadly and silent non-nuclear submarines which are capable, together with friendly sea and shore-based anti-submarine forces, to completely shut down their own littorals from any kind of threat. Once access through littorals and the sea and even some oceans zones that matter are shut down, as they are being now, one of the main pillars of American naval doctrine and strategy―the ability to project power―collapses. With it collapses the main pillar of American superpowerdom, or, at least, of its illusion. The late Scott Shuger formulated an American naval contradiction: "Because navies can go quietly over the horizon in ways armies can't, naval development presents a country with unique opportunities for going wrong. When a continental power like the United States disregards its natural defense barriers and builds big battle fleets, it has turned from geopolitical realities towards a troublesome kind of make-believe. This kind of navy exists only to defeat other navies that are similarly inclined. That's justifiable only if other navies like that already exist." No carrier-centric navies, other than the US Navy, exist, nor will they exist in the nearest future ... Read more

Features & Highlights

  • Time after time the American military has failed to match loftydeclarations about its superiority, producing instead a mediocrerecord of military accomplishments. Starting from the Korean Warthe United States hasn’t won a single war against a technologicallyinferior, but mentally tough enemy.The technological dimension of American “strategy” hascompletely overshadowed any concern with the social, cultural,operational and even tactical requirements of military (andpolitical) conflict. With a new Cold War with Russia emerging, theUnited States enters a new period of geopolitical turbulencecompletely unprepared in any meaningful way—intellectually,economically, militarily or culturally—to face a reality which washidden for the last 70+ years behind the curtain of never-endingChalabi moments and a strategic delusion concerning Russia,whose history the US viewed through a Solzhenitsified caricaturekept alive by a powerful neocon lobby, which even todaydominates US policy makers’ minds.This book• explores the dramatic difference between the Russian andUS approach to warfare, which manifests itself across the wholespectrum of activities from art and the economy, to the respectivenational cultures;• illustrates the fact that Russian economic, military andcultural realities and power are no longer what American “elites”think they are by addressing Russia’s new and elevated capacitiesin the areas of traditional warfare as well as cyberwarfare andspace; and• studies in depth several ways in which the US can simplystumble into conflict with Russia and what must be done to avoid it.Martyanov’s former Soviet military background enables deepinsight into the fundamental issues of warfare and military poweras a function of national power—assessed correctly, not throughthe lens of Wall Street “economic” indices and a FIRE economy,but through the numbers of enclosed technological cycles andculture, much of which has been shaped in Russia by continentalwarfare and which is practically absent in the US.

Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Reviews

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RUSSIANS ARE MAD

Russia is the second strongest military power in the world and the sixth biggest economy calculated under the more realistic PPP system. So it pays to listen to ex-Soviet naval officer Martyanov who describes how Russians are mad at America for a bunch of reasons.

It begins with World War II where Russians claim America does not recognize Russia's role as the main force that defeated Hitler. Russia suffered 27 million dead and lost tens of thousands of buildings and plants that were destroyed. But this sacrifice has never registered here.

Next comes the era after the fall of the Soviet Union when Russians were willing to adopt any Western policies and especially those from America. They felt let down when American shock-therapy economic polices devastated the Russian economy for about a decade. They felt offended when American officials treated Russia like a lost cause and a subordinate power.

But the real antagonism against America started in 1999 when the US attacked Serbia which was a historical Russian ally. Of course the US did not attack Serbia because of Russia but this war caused Yeltsin to pick Putin as his successor and the massive Russian military build up started around then. Putin has obviously made Russia great again, something Trump is trying to do with America despite all the opposition.

The Russians have many criticisms about America including the education system where Russia and most developed countries do a better job of educating students, especially in math and science. But America still manages to do well technologically with its top STEM graduates. Moreover it is becoming apparent here that it is not necessary to educate everybody beyond some basic language and arithmetic when so many will end up on welfare, smoking marijuana, and playing with their smartphones.

But the main focus of this book is that America's military power is overrated while Russia's is underrated. While America spends tremendous amounts of money on old weapons systems like aircraft carriers, Russia has been concentrating on precision guided missiles including hypersonic missiles. Overall the American military system is too expensive and produces unnecessarily complicated weapons systems like the F-35 fighter which is plagued by cost overruns, delays, and mechanical problems.

The new power of the Russian military was shown in 2008 when its forces defeated Georgia which was American supplied and trained. More recently Russia has been able to protect the Assad government which is its ally in Syria, despite American opposition. More importantly Martyanov explains how modern Russian anti-ship missiles have made carrier groups obsolete. The US of course does not plan to attack Russia but a conflict could easily erupt in the Middle East, especially over Iran.

The main message of this book is that it shows how the US military establishment is dysfunctional. We know that the Deep State in Washington is corrupt and dysfunctional but this book shows how the military is part of this problem.
13 people found this helpful
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The unknown unkowns

One of Sun Tzu’s dicta on warfare is “Know yourself, know your enemy, and you shall win a hundred battles without loss”. This book by Martyanov is essentially that. The question he poses is whether the United States knows its main antagonist – Russia? He makes a convincing case that the administration and the Pentagon do not truly know Russia, and that they have, for a long time, believed its own hype that the US military is without peer; and by the same stroke, underestimated the power and strength of the Russians.

It is possible that Martyanov may be wrong, but it is equally possible that he may be right. And because of this, it is thus crucial that knowledge and understanding not only of the military capabilities of Russia must be complete and accurate, but that the US must also understand the true intent of Russia. Martyanov makes out a case that the US hawks have misled America by creating a false picture of Russia as having an aggressive intent. He points out that years ago, Russia held out the olive branch but was completely spurned by an America believing that the Communist world is dead and that the US is the one and only superpower that can do whatever it likes.

That, of course, is the great danger. Martyanov points to the eagerness to pick a fight with Iran. The warnings by Martyanov in this regard are absolutely important given how prescient he seems to be in 2018, now that we can see the tension rising in the Straits of Hormuz today. If Iran is attacked, Martyanov says, Russia may not sit idly by. He points out that Russian weaponry have already proved their worth in Syria, and Russian troops have done likewise in Georgia and Ukraine. American troops, on the other hand, have not faced an enemy like the Russians. Martyanov compares the wars with the Iraqis as fighting ‘children’.

It takes a lot to have a long-lasting peace, but years of peace can unravel very quickly by ignorance, misreading, and arrogance. These three factors are piling up in an America where hawks have been roosting for some time. The future looks bleak.
6 people found this helpful
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One of the finest books on geopolitics in quite some time

Martyanov brings that foreigner's eye to the US that's filled with intelligence and details which are often overlooked even by Americans who think critically about the status quo and Washington's place in the international order.

Losing Military Supremacy is at its best during its discussion of the intellectual personnel who make up the American military-strategic field, many of whom have never donned a military uniform or been on a battlefield. Martyanov contrasts this inexperience with Russian know-how that's almost always educated with hands-on real war experiences. Along with this, it's explained that U.S. weaponry never had to be terribly effective since none of it has ever been used to defend the homeland, all it ever had to do was make a healthy profit for weapons contractors. Whereas in Russia the arms manufacturers play a tiny role because the imperative for their weapons is pure ruthless effectiveness, nothing more. Their arms have run the gauntlet of military invasion after military invasion, for them to be ineffective would have meant the total destruction of the Russian and Soviet people.

NATO's criminal war on Serbia is addressed and shown to be the key watershed moment that Russia reversed most of its policies towards Washington and the West in general. It was a reassessment that only could have happened under the pressures of an imperialist war against an ally of Moscow. Once the bombs started dropping on Serbia, Russian officials knew with certainty that they simply were not being taken seriously and a new approach was desperately required.

Some other portions of the book that make for fascinating reading are his sections taking apart General Patton and his war loving lunacy. At one point Patton, just after the end of World War II, actually urged an invasion of Russia!

Martyanov also properly slams Solzhenitsyn for the anti USSR works he'd routinely pump out that have little connection to reality but are nevertheless continually extolled in the West. Losing Military Supremacy is never shy about pointing out the incredible achievements of Stalin and the Soviet Union, which is very welcome because almost nowhere can one read an honest account of the Stalin period and the Soviet Union in general. The industrialization that made it possible to defeat the Nazis, the rise in literacy, women's rights, healthcare, good wages, paid one-month vacations, subsidized housing all this positive social development made possible during the much maligned Stalin era.

He expounds on the difficulties of making multicultural nation-states work and how the current U.S. is embroiled in identitarian politics while the contemporary left has given up on the old left's focus on high wages, good jobs and adequate working conditions.

Martyanov's book ranges across a handful of serious geopolitical topics, historical and social analyses and warns of the potential for major international violence if the fading Washington empire is not properly dealt with.
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Beautiful book.

Valuable book. It was object of accurate research by the author. Abstracting the part using math, book very easy to read and understand.
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Important book

I was so impressed by this book that I sent a copy to my brother, who was in the Navy for a few years after college and is still interested in our military. Must reading for anyone interested in the subject.
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Analysis worth reading and reflection

An excellent and thorough analysis well presented.
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Excellent

Very interesting point of view. It is always good to know different points of view in order to make your own.

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