SKIP TO CONTENT SKIP TO SITE INDEX SEARCH & SECTION NAVIGATION Account GIVE THE TIMES OPINION GUEST ESSAY The U.S. Military Needs Guns and Soldiers, Stat May 1, 2025, 1:00 a.m. ET Video Jens Mortensen for The New York Times Credit Credit... Jens Mortensen for The New York Times Listen to this article · 7:00 min Learn more Share full article By Mackenzie Eaglen and Brady Africk Ms. Eaglen is a senior fellow and Mr. Africk is the deputy director of media relations and data design at the American Enterprise Institute. The United States possesses the world’s most advanced military equipment, and quality matters immensely in combat. But quantity gets a say, too. And from ships to shells to soldiers, the U.S. military lacks the personnel and materiel it needs to fight a major war. America’s armed forces, with a naval fleet roughly half the size it was in 1987 alongside an increasingly smaller and older fleet of combat aircraft, are equ...