What is the most useful part of the U. S. military? If we were running out of money what is the last one you would put money in?

[Anonymous]

Army and Army Reserve

Army National Guard

Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve

Navy and Navy Reserve

Updates

+1 y

For my vote, I would say National guard.
For not only can they be uses to fight a war, they allow us to use the same manpower in the regular economy otherwise, and serve as the emergency force in any kind of domestic emergency.

[BCA6010]

The Army is the only one that you have to have in order to safeguard the country, but the Navy is what gives the US the bulk of its power projection capabilities and global influence, and the realities of modern militaries is that you almost always need dedicated air, land, and sea components that can operate both independently and jointly as needed. The US could feasibly defend itself with the Army and either the navy or air force alone, but losing either of those latter two would severely cripple its ability to sustain operations overseas, and by extension, unable to counter-attack against an invader.

Relying entirely on reserve components (reserves and guard) is idiotic. It saves money, and lets you rapidly bulk up when sh*t hits the fan, but the guard and reserves are poorly suited for anything other than supplementary use, or a more favorable alternative to activating Inactive Ready Reserves or a draft/conscription.

In the US, the Marine Corps is treated like a separate branch even though it's still under the Department of the Navy. It would be by far the easiest branch to actually dissolve, but its role and function would still need to be covered, so getting rid of it wouldn't serve much of a purpose from a "cost saving" or any other arbitrary standpoint. The US is unique in its ability to deploy entire divisions of both Airborne and Marine forces as conventional troops, while both of those roles are generally reserved for much smaller commando or special operations type units in other countries.

[Asker]

Many would argue that operations overseas are on undesirable, some might claim they are unnecessary as well.

That the current offensive posture and efforts by our leaders to police the world at our experience is really more about feeding their political desire to command and control the world then serving any kind of real interest of theses untied States.

That said if you are forced to wage war ships and equipment today has to be built years ahead of time and maintained just like the skills of the people who operate them. The fact that most states do not have coast lines means this has to be done at a federal level in regard to the navy.
The fact that most states are really only interested in domestic threats the same is true of officer training and retention as the war of 1812 demonstrated necessary.

Although it remains possible to maintain a semi-ready land and air force in the Guard it is certainly true that such troops would not be as ready and effective as a full time force. The real question is how ready do you need them to be if our enemies are really months away.

The reserve by contrast is a wast of tax payer money as we get nothing from said solders or equipment outside of war. At least the Navy ships might be used as part of a coast guard.

[Avicenna]

Id say the Coast Guard

[Asker]

The coast guard is only useful to the minority of States that have coasts 23.
Its basically useless to the 27 states which are land locked, which makes us wonder why those states should be made to fund it.

[Avicenna]

Defending coastlines is crucial. A lot more crucial than protecting, say, Germany, and by definition is useful to all states.

[Asker]

@avicenna that depends on where you think your threat is coming from. A land lock state may be more concerned about threats already on this continent, be it natural disaster, domestic disturbances, or in the case of border state forign incursions.

That said i think perhaps we should have merged the Coast Guard into the Navy category as they are both in the same role.

[Avicenna]

We’ve gotten far away from defending our own country and our overseas footprint hasn’t changed with the times. The situation in Europe isn’t the same as it was during the Cold War and in Asia, it’s changed as well.

Our country is invaded daily by cartels and others. The Coast Guard goes some way toward preventing tha which is why I chose it. The military doesn’t have the role of a border patrol, or else my answer would have been different.

The Space Force one day be most crucial, but we’re not there yet.

[Avicenna]

Thanks for the mho

[purplepoppy]

Americas greatest defence is its location. There's thousands of miles of ocean between it and most other countries. Any force crossing the ocean would be sitting ducks therefore holding on to your airforce makes more sense

[Asker]

This is true if your main threat is always overseas, a lot of Americans observe that our own government and our neighbors pose a far more significant threat to our rights than those on the other side of the worlds oceans. In this respect the national guard system is far more useful as well as serving to help secure us from the far more frequent domestic emergencies.

[ChrisMaster69]

It’s pretty much a fucking big island.

it has more civilians with firearms than all of the European armies combined.

it’s a toss up between airforce and navy.

personally I would say the airforce wins it and you can get rid of the rest.

The airforce can get the extra cash for UAV’s which can cover all the US border and coastline 24/7, 365.

there is zero chance of a naval invasion, as it would be sunk miles away from US.

[Asker]

I didn't include an air force as the land based air force in many respects may be thought of as part of the army and National Guard from an institutional role perspective for they must operate from land, just as the navy and coast guard must operate from sea.

The big difference in my opinion is the National guard vs regular army distinction for one can and does also serve a domestic role, where as the other is purely defense.

[ChrisMaster69]

Lol it’s not part of the fucking army 😂😂😂

You need to do some reading on why it’s the Air Force and not the Army.

Also the Navy also operate from land

You do not really understand your own military

You really do not need the national guard.

Bin it and just use your ‘militia’, they all want to own weapons, well big the guard and everyone serves in the Militia.

When you come down to it, as an actual domestic military defence force the guard is not actually required. More civilians own weapons than mobilised national guard, so it becomes pointless, it’s protecting people with more weapons than they have.

[Asker]

@chrismaster69 The navy despite having its own air force is still tied to the sea and what can be reached from said sea. From a Constitutional point of view this is important as the underlining point of a navy is to as suggested protect us from invasion by overseas powers, without necessarily the capability to itself occupy and control land.

Control of land is the domain of the army who's distinct constitutional considerations of funding not more than 2 years at a time is designed to inhibit their use as a source of domestic control.

Instead the "militia" now in the form of the National Guard has the only legitimate standing army, who's spesfic distinction from the regular federal army is that their officers are appointed by the domestic government of the States.

It is for this reason that they are uniquely useful as a relatively safe military force in dealing with domestic emergencies.

The distinction between the Army and air-force is a relevantly recent one with its origins in a power struggle right after the 2nd world war The fact that the Navy had retained its air force however is evidence of the fact that this division is not in itself natural or inherit.

[ChrisMaster69]

The Navy is not tied to the sea.

You know their air craft can and do operate from land

At a guess you were never in the military

[Asker]

@chrismaster69 the fact that the Navy's air force and even marine corp can operate from land and thus take on aspects of the army just means those aspects of the navy should be treated as the army from a Constitutional point of view.

The main problem is not the utility of the military in defending the country but the inherit threat of the same military to the country itself if it is not propertly limited and controlled. This is the reason the militia is the safer and more useful part of the army and air force. Because politically they are less centralized and less of a threat to the people.

[NathanDavis]

deterrents... so, probably the known as well as the more secretive submarines

Russia and China are always surrounded by submarines and they know it, which is also why they're more bark than bite

[KrakenAttackin]

It doesn't work that way. Each branch has a role they play.

[Asker]

Technically the country would survive without a navy, and a regular army. This was in fact the original plan for the first decade.

The militia was to be used as the foundation for building an army quickly if the need arrived, thereby eliminating the inherit threat of a standing army to a free republic in peace time as well as much of its cost.

Therefore in theory thou there is a strong case for maintaining a navy, push comes to shove the navy is more expendable than the militia, and the regular army is the most expendable of the 3.

[Agagagagaga]

@monorprise Have you ever served in the military or gone to war?

[Asker]

@Agagagagaga Your question presumes individual experience within an existing institution is the qualification of judging the effectiveness of rival institutions. This is a bit like asking the milk man if having milk delivered to your door is a good idea. Of course he will say yes, its a good idea for him. If no other opinion were accepted as valid then we would never have tried getting the milk ourselves.

[Agagagagaga]

So that’s a no then.

No military experience. No combat experience. No joint operations experience.

But you’ve got lots of opinions on how the military should be run. 😂