In modern wars, the importance of military power

You can't afford to fight without money, and no one wants to fight at all;

Aside from asymmetric warfare, in symmetric warfare, it is the use of technology and personnel that determines the outcome. There are countless similar jokes in human history. At the beginning, artillery played this joke. During the Korean War, the United States also made stupid mistakes, while the Germans turned armored forces into scrap iron units. Russia's absolute superiority equipment was hit hard in the street fighting in Chechnya.

Don't ignore the forces of nature and people in different combat environments. If science and technology were enough, the US military would not spend so much time playing hide-and-seek in Afghanistan. Even Iraq is almost finished, and Afghanistan is still not peaceful.

You know, no matter how strong the bulletproof vest is, you will lose your combat capability with one shot. No matter how strong Aegis is, it will be afraid of saturation attack. The confrontation between superpowers cannot be shattered by science and technology. In the end, practicality, cost performance and strength will still be important factors in winning or losing.

A relatively simple example, body armor is a very low cost-effective thing in a symmetrical war. In a symmetrical war without considering casualties, from the impact on the combat effectiveness of the army, sometimes it is better to die if you are injured. The wounded not only affect the mobility of the army (the wounded can't be ignored, and the wounded often walk very slowly), but also often need a certain number of able-bodied men to take care of them, and bulletproof vests can only save lives. No matter how good the bulletproof vest is, it will be seriously injured if it is shot (with the power of bullets in active military rifles, ribs can be basically broken even if they don't penetrate).