In this urgent episode of The War Lab, we diagnose a crisis at the heart of U.S. power: military readiness in an era of great-power competition. Drawing on a new briefing (Sept 6, 2025) that synthesizes podcast excerpts and policy reports, we show how a decade of budget shocks and sequestration created a “hollow force” — aging fleets, falling mission-capable rates, pilot shortfalls, and brittle sustainment — just as China rapidly fields modern forces shaped for high-intensity war.

We lay out the problem in plain terms: an Air Force flying fewer hours, Navy maintenance backlogs, depleted spare-parts inventories, and a readiness model that stopped stress-testing true combat capability. Then we connect those failures to strategic risk: in the Indo-Pacific the U.S. faces a pacing competitor whose industrial surge and realistic training threaten to overwhelm America’s eroding conventional deterrent.

But this episode isn’t just diagnosis — it’s a plan. Experts argue for three linked fixes: stable, predictable funding; a rapid sprint to restore near-term readiness (flying hours, spare parts, inspections); and a long game to rebuild capacity and industrial surge (buy more aircraft, grow the pilot pipeline, revive sustainment). We unpack concrete recommendations — from reinstating rigorous external readiness inspections to enforcing a one-for-one fighter procurement floor — and ask what political will it will take to act.

Listen to understand why readiness matters now, what’s at stake for deterrence, and the specific steps needed to prevent strategic decline.