I guess I need to write a disclaimer about Perun: He's a smug liberal commentator from Australia (the ideology, I don't know what party he votes for in elections), though his gaming channel is pretty comfy. He has a degree of western bias, and has been invited to high profile international weapon conferences. He does attempt to cover conflicts neutrally however.
Some big points I notice:
- The US continues to make staggering investments in assets against China, which will be ready in the early 30s.
- This increase by itself is greater than the entire Russian defense budget for 2025 while in active warfar- Special Military Operations
- "Golden Dome" will provide some protetion against Chinese retaliation on the US homeland which China can threaten with Type 93B Cruise Missile Submarines.
- Golden Dome may also provide good enough insurance against ICBMs for confronting China's relatively small stockpile of warheads.
- Large Investments in US nuclear forces, including a "classified nuclear deterrent", and a small yield ship launched nuclear missile which congress has funded despite navy not wanting.
- 4.5 Billion investment to "accelerate" acquisition of B21 Stealth Bombers,
- Massive increase to US capabilities in naval mining, including autonomous torpedoes and underwater drones, which the PLAN has limited countermeasures prepared
- Combine that with new missiles and the US leaving its missile treaties, it seems like the US may be positioning itself to take an asymmetric stance against China, which sounds unique since it's typically the side close to home that chooses to adopt asymmetric tactics.
You mean Russia, China, and the USA all have missile interceptor programs they're pouring money into, and pretending they're having successful interceptions of ICBM targets? And at the same time, Russia and China are developing new MIRVs and other systems to evade US missile defenses which don't work?
YES.
They.Do.Not.Work.
Whenever these things go up against actual hypersonic missiles they fail; at least the few that have gotten any sort of real world testing. But engineers have also been warning for decades that they are likely a huge waste of money and will likely be completely ineffective, especially in the event of nuclear war.
Every country has to develop them and tell everyone they are developing them and pretend they work in a big psyche-out game with each other. They all know they don't work but they have to hedge bets with the "okay, but perhaps, maybe, possibly....."