China’s fifth-generation stealth fighter fleet grows while US fighter programs dogged by high costs, delays and doctrinal incoherence

The next war, if not fought with nuclear weapons, will be fought with industry. China has proven that even with tight controls over technologies supposedly "too dangerous" for China to have, they have the capacity to totally outstrip any American military production simply because the MIC of China is state-driven.

Russia, too, has a MIC largely subservient to the state, as does Iran, which alone has totally embarrassed the US-Israel military hegemony.

For Iran as an example: Indirectly its arming of Hezbollah to the point of repelling a sizeable and complex invasion by a neighbouring nation state. Directly, totally defeating the US-Israel air defence network with old stocks of missiles, and maintaining a fleet of American-made fighter jets through indigenous adaptations.

Without a major political shift to nationalise (or otherwise directly control) the MIC of the US its military advantages are diminishing at an astonishing rate, and Europe is struggling to pick up for the slack.

In WW2, (me just parroting random armchair historians), apparently Germany had some technologies that were superior on some technical details you could write on paper, but had some costs/issues wehraboos ignore, and the USSR could mass produce things like tanks that were simpler/good enough/practical.

I imagine history having itself a rhyme.