Washington, March 19 The United States faces an “unprecedented challenge” of deterring two nuclear peers at the same time, senior defence officials told lawmakers, as military leaders warned of growing threats from China and Russia across nuclear, missile, and space domains.
At a House Armed Services strategic forces hearing on Wednesday (local time), Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary of defence for nuclear deterrence and chemical and biological defence, said US strategy had reached “a critical inflexion point”.
“China’s strategic nuclear breakout means we now face the unprecedented challenge of deterring two nuclear peers,” Kadlec said. “This is not a distant problem. It’s a central organising challenge for our defence strategy today.”
He said China was engaged in “the most rapid and opaque nuclear expansion in its history”, while Russia retained “the world’s largest arsenal” and continued to rely on nuclear forces for coercion.
Kadlec said the US must prepare for “the real possibility of coordinated and or opportunistic aggression across multiple theatres”. He argued that Washington did not need to match its rivals “warhead for warhead”, but needed a force strong enough to impose “unacceptable costs on both adversaries under any contingency”.
He called for full funding and, where possible, acceleration of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Columbia-class submarine, the B-21 bomber, and the Long Range Stand Off cruise missile. See More In Details…