A new report from the conservative Heritage Foundation has rated the U.S. military weak for the first time ever in its nine years of annual assessments.

The 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength said the armed forces is coming close to “not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital interests.”

“It is rated as weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on a global stage against actual challenges in the world as it is rather than as we wish it were,” the Foundation said.

The report stated that years of sustained use, underfunding, “poorly defined priorities,” “wildly shifting security policies,” “exceedingly poor discipline in program execution” and “a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment” are all to blame for the military’s declining strength.

The Heritage Foundation noted that given recent actions by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, the U.S. military must have the capacity to operate in several regions at once “no matter how much [it] desires that the world be a simpler, less threatening place.”

Individually, the Marine Corps was rated as “strong,” the Air Force as “very weak,” the Navy and Space Force as “weak,” and the Army as “marginal.”

Also ranked was the United States’ nuclear capability and readiness, which was found to be “strong” but trending in the wrong direction.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)