I argued often that your army is over-large. There should be no need for a massive expeditionary war, and none is in the offing.
And the incompetence of USAF and USN procurement is legendary, and not to excuse your current government, this has been ongoing for a very long time. The US simply cant build ships or planes at a reasonable cost.
Whats saved the US status in the world is a bunch of technical advantages that are still unmatched. These are legacies of an earlier age.
We have seen the effect of this in Ukraine, against what passes for a military peer -
US recon and signal intelligence, the GPS system (thats the secret behind those HIMARS), HARM and similar SEAD assets using advanced DSP, etc.
It may have cost his life, but it Shinzo Abe and Trump really stepped a lot of things up.
Japan today is not the Japan of even 5 years ago.
Japan or South Korea today would get hurt for sure, but in a real conflict, either of these could absolutely wreck much of whatever China, or the Chinese/Russian whipping boy North Korea tried to do.
And both are super dedicated, and nearly moving “Heaven and Earth” to leap ahead in every category.
In the next couple of years, Japan may well have somewhere between the third and fifth most overall powerful military in the world (all “things” considered).
And we are not even talking about what the US has, or can do in the INDO/PACOM Theater. 🇮🇱🇺🇸🎚