This war game has been discussed many times.

One thing to consider is that Van Riper summoned assets unrealistically he used small boats to avoid detection but then attributed load outs that they couldn't realistically carry.

He also moved information unrealistically assuming that his units could communicate as efficently with paper moved by hand as they could with radios.

There are real, valid criticisms of the lessons we should have learned from the exercise, but it's not as simple as most analyses make it out to be.

IKR? "from a 2002 war game"

Have there really been no other more interesting war games in the last quarter-century, or did all the negative attention this got just result in us never hearing about another one?

There have been far more interesting war games in the last quarter century.[0]

This one shows the the US narrowly winning against China in a conflict over Taiwan. The US wins but with tremendous losses -- specifically in the form many munitions that take years to decades to replace.

And it just so happens that we witnessed a conflict play out just a few months ago and that resulted in a similar depletion of munitions albeit with minimal losses of American ships and aircraft.

What's very troubling about this is that in response the US moved munitions from the pacific into the middle east, leaving Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan in a very vulnerable position.

This may explain why the current US president was unusually obsequious to the leader of China when in the past he had been particularly bellicose.

Also, cool fact: While researching this subject I learned that the engines for most American cruise missiles come from a single company.[1]

[0] https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/se...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_International