Protection of Asian Countries? Impossible The current conflict with Iran shows that, in an adverse scenario, the US cannot guarantee the security of even its own bases. More than 1,500 interceptors were expended without preventing the destruction of the most critical assets at those bases or the significant damage to the infrastructure. In the Asian scenario, a hypothetical conflict would see waves of Chinese missiles that are far more devastating, exhausting air defenses in just a few hours. Two months ago I started a project to assess China’s missile arsenal, and I still haven’t even passed the drone phase, where the Chinese already possess more than 25,000 missiles intended solely for use by drones. Waves of drones would also be far more devastating than the Iranian ones, underscoring the need for Asian countries to invest in this type of countermeasure. The American fleet currently striking Iran is operating at a distance due to the risk of anti-ship missiles, and the exact same thing would happen in the Asian scenario. The US fleet would have to move away from Japan and seek safer, more distant waters. Even with more ships, American assistance would be limited mostly to intelligence support and submarines, with each Asian nation left to fight for its own defense. There is no realistic scenario in which the US would be capable of protecting Asian countries from Chinese fire in the event of a conflict. Although both Japan and South Korea have modern navies, they still fall short in high-altitude drones for ISR and target acquisition in warfare environments, and this capability is extremely important for naval warfare on large areas. The current Secretary of U.S has a reformist mindset, and I know there are several projects underway for INDOPACOM, but I struggle to see any of them capable of providing the same level of security to Asian countries that existed decades ago. -