John Braun is weak on defense, despite his Navy experience. He would be a rubber stamp for Trump and Hegseth, whose $1.5 trillion request for additional funding to replace weapons that were ineffective against getting Iran to negotiate a nuclear arms agreement with the USA. In fact, Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than initially reported, as the Washington Post recently explained, with satellite images proving their claim.
The $1.5 trillion request includes big-ticket items, including "Trump Class" battleships, which would be sitting ducks for the kind of drone attacks we've been learning about in Ukraine and Iran. This type of unmanned warfare is the greatest revolution in modern warfare since aerial warfare came of age in WWII.
There is at present no good military doctrine to adapt the US's previous doctrine of expensive, accurate, and hard-to-produce weapons against swarms of low-cost drones and other unmanned vehicles, yet Trump and Hegseth still think they're fighting some war from decades ago. China is more advanced at this point.
Ukraine has been able to create kill zones of around 100 miles, turning the Donbas region into a slaughterhouse for the Russian army.
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is no better. After contacting her office about the above concerns, I received a bland, form letter reply that indicated that there really wasn't much interest in her office about this, although she did vaguely say she's against "fraud and waste."
When I spoke to Brent Hennrich, he listened and understood the issue. He's the only one who's shown any interest in ensuring our defense posture is modernized and adapted to decentralized unmanned-vehicle warfare.
I have over 12 years of experience in the defense industry, although it was decades ago. Believe it or not, the military buys weapons and systems for specific purposes. Back when I worked in defense, for example, I worked on technology to be resilient in the event of a Soviet attack on Germany, as well as communication systems designed to be robust against the kinds of jamming observed in Vietnam and during the 1973 Middle East war. It's not at all clear why buying more Tomahawk missiles, let alone large ships, would be needed when we are experiencing threats that are able to resist them.
It would be great to have a Congressperson who's responsive not only to kids having bananas, but also listens to concerns from people who have actual experience in the fields they discuss. Only Brent Hennrich seems to be able to do this. And despite Braun's military experience, I doubt he has any experience in the processes behind the development of weapons and systems.
Unless our defense is modernized, and unless we have a wise foreign policy not driven by corrupt oligarchs, as is presently the case, the US will be a fading superpower.
John Kowalski
Vancouver
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