Shocking Warning The US military is “depleted, strained and shrinking” despite threats from Putin and Xi.

THE US military is “exhausted, overstretched and shrinking” while China shows ambition and Vladimir Putin threatens nuclear war, an expert has warned.

Brandon J. Weichert exclusively told The US Sun that Washington is “lagging behind” its rival China by more than a decade.

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The chilling warning comes as US defense officials concluded in their 2022 China Military Power Report that Beijing resorted to “stronger and more aggressive measures” in the Indo-Pacific region over the past year.

They said, “The PRC (People’s Republic of China) poses the most momentous and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system.”

Experts at the Heritage Foundation revealed in their 2023 Index that the US is “at significant risk” of not being able to deal with two major regional emergency events at the same time.

The US Air Force was rated “Very Weak,” while its Space and Marine Corps were rated “Weak.”

Military experts claimed the USAF was struggling with an aging fleet and pilot retention issues, and the Navy was reportedly short of around 100 battleships to fight a two-front war.

It is feared that the navy could further shrink to just 280 ships.

Experts warned: “The US military is [at] a growing risk of being unable to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.”

And Weichert said: “We are in an extremely dangerous time leading up to 2027, when the American military is drained, overworked and shrinking.

“Washington is just waking up – at least a decade too late – to the Beijing threat. But it’s behind the trends.”

But the defense elites recently unveiled their new stealth bomber, the B-21.

It is the world’s first sixth generation aircraft and is designed to survive after hitting even the most heavily defended targets.

A key feature is the ability to conduct unmanned missions, with pilots flying it remotely from the United States.

But China has expanded its military enormously in recent decades.

Defense officials fear China could deploy around 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035.

Beijing’s nuclear stockpile was 200 in 2020 and is estimated to be 400 just two years later.

The US military’s nuclear arsenal — an estimated 3,800 active-status warheads — would still exceed China’s assumed total.

A senior defense official said the nation appeared to be focused on their “accelerated expansion” to ensure they were ready for war.

Beijing is currently on track to build a fleet of 400 ships in just three years – and another 40 by 2030.

China’s military expansion has escalated fears that the nation may be ready to take the first step to reunite Taiwan.

Brigadier General Robert Spalding III (Ret.) previously told The US Sun that China will invade Taiwan within five years.

He said, “We must recognize that China has the strongest military in the Indo-Pacific region and can invade Taiwan at any time.”

Meanwhile, given the devastating war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin continues to threaten to use a nuclear weapon against the West.

The footage showed a Yars strategic missile being placed in an underground layer at a military site.

The Yars ICBM, one of Russia’s deadliest weapons, has a range of 7,500 miles, making it more than capable of reaching the UK and US.

Putin was filmed in late October overseeing the launch of a similar Yars nuclear missile as part of a mock attack on the UK and US.

The commander of the missile forces Alexi Sokolov said: “The Fatherland will get another nuclear weapon, which will make it possible to solve all the tasks at the strategic level.”

And Russian bombers have been seen participating in drills over the Sea of ​​Japan to demonstrate power.

Russian writer Oleg Kashin told The Sun that Putin’s worldview was influenced by spy Georgy Rogozin, who died in 2014.

Kashin said: “The deranged hallucinations of a long-dead Kremlin psychic led to a real war and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.”

Joe Biden warned in October that the world was on the brink of “nuclear Armageddon” for the first time in 60 years.

He said: “Not since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis have we faced the prospect of Armageddon.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as the ability to just (deploy) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up in Armageddon.”

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