This applies to Europe as much as Taiwan, as the recently advised indefinite postponement of all deliveries, including those already paid for, testifies.
https://x.com/MichaelTLester/status/...125398683?s=20
"There is no supply ship coming..."
I flew CH-53E helicopters in Desert Storm.
Before the push north, a pilot asked our CO when the resupply ship was coming. We needed .50 cal. We needed engines. The Saudi sand was so fine it bypassed our particle separators and ate the compressor blades. We were throwing compressor stalls on landing. One of our aircraft caught fire, lit the magnesium gearbox, and burned to the ground before the war started.
The CO's answer: there is no ship coming.
The American public thought we were an unstoppable machine. We were rationing pistol ammunition.
I learned at the Naval Postgraduate School, taking Maritime Strategy, that Congress had spent years diverting conventional ammunition and parts funding into new missile programs.
Promises to backfill next year. They never did. By 1990 the backlog was unrecoverable.
Today we have burned through half our THAAD stockpile defending Israel. No new interceptors delivered since 2023. None coming until 2027.
Trump is now wavering on the Taiwan arms sale.
There is no supply ship coming.
