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Today, the United States has been the world's largest economy for 129 years, not only leading the world in industry, economy, foreign trade and other fields, but also in military strength is proud of the world. However, in recent years, the US media has frequently reported that the US Navy has committed suicide under pressure.
According to recent information, about 17 people died by suicide for every 100,000 US Navy soldiers in all of 2021 alone.
According to investigations, the real cause of suicide in the US Navy is likely to be caused by the US military's high-intensity cruise at sea and the high pressure of the international situation, and its psychological problems are particularly obvious.
However, the recent emergence of a new figure in American shipyards seems to let us understand where the pain points of the US military are.
"Copy homework" to China?
According to US media sources, the United States will build or modify a number of "logistics ships" for long-distance navigation such as aircraft carriers. These logistics ships will be equipped with very complete living facilities for the Navy's long-range cruise residence.
That is to say, when the US Navy cruises out of the sea in the future, it does not need to completely live on the aircraft carrier it serves, but can work in batches and return to live on the "logistics ship" when the shift is resting.
Wait, does this pattern sound familiar? That's right, this is an almost complete copy of the Chinese "aircraft carrier support ship" Xu Xiake. China's definition of this ship is "aircraft carrier crew training integrated support ship", that is, the "Xu Xiake", which matches the function of the ship to be built by the United States, China has understood as early as 2011!
The Xu Xiake, which was completed in 2011 and entered service, has been defined as a "logistics ship" behind the butt of an aircraft carrier since its birth. With a displacement of about 23,000 tons, the ship can accommodate 2,500 people living at sea for three weeks at the same time, and its data are directly benchmarked against the Liaoning. It is worth mentioning that when designing the Xu Xiake, the research department not only simply wanted the "Xu Xiake" support ship to serve as a regular after-cause support service for the aircraft carrier, but also had ulterior motives to consider the healthy life of the crew - open-air basketball courts, auditoriums, supermarkets, gyms, laundry rooms and other infrastructure and even entertainment facilities were carefully arranged.
The crew can live almost the same life as the mainland on the "Xu Xiake", and when they go out to sea to do tasks, life at sea becomes less boring. By keeping the crew in a good state of mind, the efficiency of the task will be greatly improved.
After being integrated into the Liaoning aircraft carrier formation, Xu Xiake had an important impact on the improvement of the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier, and the composition of this aircraft carrier battle group can be said to be the first in the world.
Therefore, the existence of the "Xu Xiake" is completely necessary. This time, the United States did copy China's "homework."
However, the United States is not without the ability to build a ship that provides logistics for aircraft carriers, but why do they have the "effort" to spend their minds on aircraft carrier logistics ships now? In or in other words, they have been in the limelight for a long time with their aircraft carrier formations, why should they learn from China now?
The cause of the problem lies in the Navy's high suicide death rate in recent years.
The reasons behind the high suicide rate
The U.S. Navy is still an ace-level existence today, because the double-digit nuclear-powered aircraft carrier makes the United States surpass all countries in the world to become the strongest "maritime hegemon". After all, at present, aircraft carriers are still the first indicator of a country's maritime military strength.
Strong naval strength not only gives the United States the confidence to stand tall in the world, but also gives Americans the confidence to have unlimited scenery. For quite some time in the early 21st century, Americans who wanted to serve in the Navy were proud to board the USS Reagan. After all, they also want to be their own heroes.
But real aircraft carrier life does not seem to be as "beautiful" as they fantasize. They thought that if they entered the great nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, they would be able to follow the captain's scenic cruising around the world. However, the real situation is that the high-intensity maritime joint military exercises, overseas patrols and other activities deployed by the US Department of Defense have gradually worn out the hearts of the Navy.
The world's number one position is not so good, if it is dedicated to the common peace and development of the world. But can people like the United States, who keep an eye on China every day in order to consolidate local power and try to put pressure on China in all aspects, can they have a better life? What's more, in mid-2021, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Oss signed a directive that focused on China as the "number one challenge."
As a result, the United States needs to spend a lot of military money on long-term overseas inspections, and watch out for China everywhere. As long as China has any international problems, the United States will immediately send its navy to "wander around the ocean" in an attempt to put pressure on China.
You know, all people who have been working at sea for a long time actually need to face a variety of psychological problems - during long-distance voyages, there is a long time when the land cannot be seen, and the crew sailors are likely to suffer from depression in this situation; And because more positions are needed on the battleship for combat readiness, it is difficult to give the crew more entertainment and pastime, but long-term long-distance sailing requires some entertainment projects to relieve stress, and the crew who lose entertainment is also prone to mental illness.
All of the above problems are reflected in the US Navy. Although under the leadership of naval officers, the soldiers will practice and compete in various projects; But these activities did not meet the entertainment needs of the Navy.
After all, under the instructions of the upper echelons of the United States, they have repeatedly extended their time to go to sea in order to always guard against the "imaginary enemy", what is the difference between the days of drifting at sea and "sitting in prison"?
Do the capitalists care about the good life of the soldiers?
In 2020-2021, the US aircraft carrier Nimitz was deployed for 321 days. In this way, it is undoubtedly to let those naval soldiers "work overtime". The better China develops, the more nervous the US top brass will be, and the greater the pressure on the US Navy.
Even if the navy has feelings for the sea and ambitions for the country, it still needs to live on land, and even more needs to be reunited with its relatives and friends. Under the burden of strong pressure, more recreational activities are needed to divert attention, thereby diluting the pressure. However, the upper echelons of the US military obviously did not pay much attention to this.
During the maintenance and rest of the ship's dock dock, some crew members still need to remain in the cabin to be on standby in real time. Sometimes repairing the ship's warehouse can cause loud construction noise, which makes the crew miserable. Even if you can rest in shifts, you can only live in the cabin, which undoubtedly adds another layer of psychological pressure to the Navy.
You know, capitalists are very "calculating", how can they understand that while the increasingly heavy tasks to go to sea are carried out, the pressure of their subordinates is also continuing to surge, and the psychological pressure brought by sea life needs to be solved by recreational facilities. Although the United States has always been the country with the largest armament budget, most of the money they spend is on weapons research and development, war readiness stacking; And for the spiritual construction of the soldiers, it is ignored.
Only when the problem really manifests itself or cannot be contained, will the upper echelons of the United States find a way to deal with the problem. However, by the time problems are discovered, the Navy has already committed suicide due to excessive internal pressure and several people have died.
The "prestige of the US military" may have entered an endless cycle
In recent years, China's rapid development has brought a lot of pressure to the United States, but not only that, the international situation is not optimistic - more and more countries have begun to attach importance to national sovereignty, and hope for more equal multi-party trade cooperation under China's initiative. Therefore, many former "pro-Americans" began to polish their eyes and did not pin their hopes not only on the United States.
Under such double pressure, the United States is particularly "busy". They spend a lot of money every year on military spending, which is not that the United States is in danger, but they have no choice!
You know, the total maintenance cost of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier during its service life is enough to exceed the construction of the aircraft carrier itself. The United States now has 11 aircraft carriers in service, and the combined cost of using these carriers costs about $33 billion a year. According to 2021 statistics, there are only 12 countries with a total military budget of more than $30 billion. This only includes the cost of US aircraft carriers, not adding those other destroyers, cruisers and other ships.
Therefore, the prestige of the United States in the international community today is largely smashed out of money. The international community environment they have created is completely a straight-up leadership model, in which only interests and no feelings are seen in the eyes of various countries, and once the United States is turbulent or weak, it will have a negative impact on those pro-American factions, and it will also cause the cooperative relationship established in the middle to collapse in an instant.
In this way, the United States is still difficult to ride, and they must spend a lot of armaments to build up their own military strength; More American soldiers are also needed. However, the United States does not have enough population to support more people in the military, so they can only keep those American soldiers who have completed their service and retired in real time on standby. If there is any international disturbance, it will be recalled as soon as possible.
In this case, for the United States, more military spending is needed to pay higher salaries to soldiers; For American soldiers, the salary of soldiers is indeed very high, but they who have been on standby may be recalled by the state, and whether the next recall can return home safely will only be left to fate. In this way, while the psychological pressure increases sharply, the suicide rate will gradually increase.