{"number":10,"slug":"experience-cohesion","title":"Experience & force cohesion","score":0.5,"position":62.5,"rating":"U.S. edge","tone":"us-edge","confidence":"Low–moderate","call":"The United States retains an edge in joint operations, a professional NCO corps, coalition training, and operational experience. That advantage is perishable, and neither side has recent experience in the full scale, attrition, and denial of a peer Indo-Pacific war.","reasoning":["Past combat experience does not automatically transfer to a missile-intensive maritime theater, but institutions that learn and integrate across domains still matter.","Readiness, maintenance, and retention problems can hollow out cohesion even when recruiting totals improve."],"subcategories":[{"name":"Joint operational integration","score":2.0,"position":100.0,"rating":"U.S. lead","tone":"us-lead","rationale":"Mature joint structures and repeated global operations remain a distinctive U.S. strength."},{"name":"Combined training","score":1.0,"position":75.0,"rating":"U.S. edge","tone":"us-edge","rationale":"High-end exercises with allies build trust, procedures, and realistic interoperability."},{"name":"Peer-war experience","score":0.0,"position":50.0,"rating":"Contested","tone":"contested","rationale":"No force has recent experience with the full demands of the benchmark scenario."},{"name":"Readiness and technical retention","score":-1.0,"position":25.0,"rating":"Competitor edge","tone":"competitor-edge","rationale":"Maintenance strain and competition for cyber, space, EW, and industrial talent erode depth."}],"policy_label":"Preserve the edge","policy":"Train complete mission threads under realistic loss: leaders, operators, maintainers, logisticians, cyber/EW teams, and allies together. Protect the NCO and technical cadre, capture and distribute lessons quickly, reward red teams for finding failure before war, and measure deployable team proficiency rather than treating platform inventory as readiness.","indicators":["Joint lessons closed with verified changes to training, systems, or doctrine","Retention and qualification depth in mission-critical technical specialties","Units sustaining mission output after simulated casualties, jamming, and logistics loss"],"sources":[{"title":"Military Readiness: Challenges Across Air, Sea, Ground, and Space","url":"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108888","kind":"Oversight","date":"Mar 2026"},{"title":"FY2026 DoW Inspector General Management Challenges","url":"https://media.defense.gov/2025/Nov/25/2003831751/-1/-1/1/MANAGEMENT%20CHALLENGES%20FY2026.PDF","kind":"Oversight","date":"Nov 2025"},{"title":"Valiant Shield 2026 Multidomain Allied Exercise","url":"https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4522795/allies-come-together-in-the-indo-pacific-for-exercise-valiant-shield-26/","kind":"Exercise evidence","date":"Jun 2026"},{"title":"2025 Military and Security Developments Involving the PRC","url":"https://media.defense.gov/2025/Dec/23/2003849070/-1/-1/1/ANNUAL-REPORT-TO-CONGRESS-MILITARY-AND-SECURITY-DEVELOPMENTS-INVOLVING-THE-PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA-2025.PDF","kind":"Threat assessment","date":"Dec 2025"}]}