Navy Adm. Charles A. Richard, the commander of US Strategic Command, issued an unusually blunt warning on Wednesday, claiming that China’s nuclear threat was a ‘near-term problem’.
“As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking,” Richard said. “It is sinking slowly, but it is sinking, as fundamentally they are putting capability in the field faster than we are.”
He said the military was encumbered by red tape, slow to react, and at risk of being dramatically outspent and outmaneuvered by its adversaries, Daily Mail reported.
He added that the country needed to regain the dynamism and can-do spirit of the 1950s and 60s.
‘This Ukraine crisis that we’re in right now, this is just the warmup,’ he said, addressing the Naval Submarine League’s annual gathering in Arlington, Virginia.
‘The big one is coming. And it isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been tested a long time.’
Richard said the current thinking was outdated – and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling showed that an urgent reassessment was overdue.
‘We have to do some rapid, fundamental change in the way we approach the defense of this nation,’ he said.
He claimed America’s rivals, such as China, are making dramatic strides in military innovation – posing a threat to the US.
ZZ/PR
