The US military is currently the most powerful in the world. Is there anything in place, besides soldiers’/CO’s individual allegiances to stop a military coup?
In: Other
It would be very hard as everything is separated between commands, branches and geographical locations. It would be extremely hard to convince a large number of troops to go along with it, and even if you do say get one unit, that unit alone likely wouldn’t have all the supplies and man power to be affective.
As others have mentioned personnel rotate a lot as well so having enough loyalty and trust to bring together the manpower and equipment needed just wouldn’t be likely and that group would quickly find itself outnumbered.
I think you would likely see the US military completely collapse in a homeland black swan event before you would see enough of it splinter off to take control.
Also if it did, it would also have to deal with a large armed civilian insurgence, the institutional loyalists units and if it was really bad possible foreign intervention.
Similar with a civil war in the US, the population is too dispersed, ideologically intermixed geographically and too nationally and globally economically dependent on each other. Information travels so fast now any attempt at assembling a strong large fighting force and having economic and natural resources that can be utilized meaningfully and quickly before it could be put down just isn’t likely.
Is any of it possible yes but extremely unlikely, like zombie apocalypse unlikely.
Retired Army SFC here.
The key to me seems to be that no one has all the keys to the kingdom One of the strengths of the US military is also the best defense against a coup and that is the sheer size.
It would take a conspiracy of probably hundreds of people to just take over one base.
Only if you literally have a charismatic general that is battle hardened, is connected like crazy and literally has divisions of soldiers willing to die for them. I don’t think many generals like that exist especially in the US. And lastly, you need a political climate where people are actually dying for change. That’s why you see coups now more or less in poor countries. US is a rich country, and you need some serious poverty in every state to create this perfect storm. I guess I’m thinking about Napoleon as a more recent example.
Latest Answers