US could burn through key missiles in 'a week' if war with China erupts, top security expert warns
"The U.S. struggle with China is the single greatest competition the United States has ever faced," defense analyst Seth Jones writes in his new book The American Edge.And in an...
By Fox News · Fox News
"The U.S. struggle with China is the single greatest competition the United States has ever faced," defense analyst Seth Jones writes in his new book The American Edge. And in an interview with Fox News Digital, Jones warned that if war broke out over Taiwan , the United States could burn through key long-range missiles "after roughly a week or so of conflict" — a shortfall he says exposes how far behind the U.S. industrial base remains as Beijing moves onto what he calls a wartime footing. Jones is a former Pentagon official and president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He argues the United States isn’t dealing with a superpower like the Soviet Union, whose system was brittle and economically isolated. China’s economy , he noted, is roughly the size of the U.S. and deeply tied into global production. That economic weight is fueling a military buildup across every major domain, from fifth- and sixth-generation aircraft to an enormous shipbuilding sector he describes as "upwards of 230 times the size of the United States." The effect, he said, is unmistakable. "The gap is shrinking." In "The American Edge," Jones lays out how great powers historically win long wars through production, not just innovation — and that’s where he believes the U.S. has the most to worry about. China’s missile forces now field a wide range of weapons designed to hold U.S. ships and aircraft at risk far from Taiwan. That makes stockpiles and throughput central to any American strategy in the Indo-Pacific. CHINA’S ENERGY SIEGE OF TAIWAN COULD CRIPPLE US SUPPLY CHAINS, REPORT WARNS "When you look at the numbers right now of those long-range munitions, we still right now would run out after roughly a week or so of conflict over Taiwan," he said. "That’s just not enough to sustain a protracted war." Jones stressed that China’s strengths often overshadow a major vulnerability: its limited ability to hunt submarines. He said Be…