I feel like this is what happens when you focus on generating profit for the industry instead of being able to actually do warfare. You see it with stock depletion of US missiles where they are rapdily going through it while replenishing stock will take years. Meanwhile their adversaries are actually focussing on being able to quickly produce stuff like drones and far cheaper missiles because they are not on the payroll of Raytheon.

Ngl I sometimes muse if there's a way I can line my pockets while doing "work" that harms the empire. Doing an ai scam a few years ago, for example. But the perennial answer is probably finance.

The reason the is doing bad is not only because of the arms industry. The US presidency can't handle a costly war, and this is why it keeps hesitating. If the US put multiple of its carriers, jets and drones, they would obliterate Iran's capacity of controlling Ormuz, but taking heavy losses in the process. The losses are material ones, like missiles, aircraft, and ships, but also personnel as well. The problem is that the US can't take those losses.

Neoliberalism also made the US industry weak, since they depend on a large supply chain network for most of their arms, a network with many logistical choke points, like Chinese rare earth metals.