Dear Bob.
Its not how much you spend, but what you get for the money. Currently they are building blue water ships like no tomorrow, while the US can’t vet a 14 billion dollar carrier working unless they rip it apart and start over; has to scrap the vaunted LCS ships; turn the now defenseless DDG-1000 class into rear echelon missile platforms (if that even works).
Then there is the F-35 which will also has to stay in the rear as possibly a loyal wing man or a drone platform because it cannot dogfight; its “limited stealth” is exposed by modern radars, has only 200 rounds, and to be effective in bombing has to carry bomb load externally, while its BVR air to air missiles are outranged by the R9-77M recently sold to China by some 100 km.
That was my point - people here conflating ‘announced’ military spending with capabilities and buying power. We’re now getting TROUNCED by China (and Russia too) in new weapons systems, but since we spend more and don’t have the slanty eyes of the Chinese, there is NOTHING for us to worry about. After all, our obsolete nuclear subs will blow them up, if need be (assuming they haven’t yet figured out to jam our communications with them...which they have, by the way).
USS Gerald R. Ford?