READINESS: Navy, Marine Corps Rate ‘Marginal’ in New Military Strength Survey.

The Heritage Foundation 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength graded the Pentagon “marginal” overall to handle two major regional wars simultaneously.

In the eyes of the more than 20 authors, the U.S. armed forces are capable of handling one major regional conflict, but their capability is questionable after that.

Dakota Wood, a senior fellow at Heritage, said in an online forum introducing the index that the American military is “two-thirds the size it should be” to addresses the challenges it faces. Over time, “modernization has largely been neglected.”

The oceans aren’t getting any smaller.