Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper says the Army has a comprehensive plan to ensure long-term dominance but that doesn’t mean it is weak today.
“The Army's readiness across its formations is improving. If called upon today, I am confident we would prevail in any conflict,” he said.
While the U.S. Army’s mission is to be prepared to fight and win, anywhere and anytime, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper says it’s no secret China and Russia are “the principal competitors against which we must build sufficient capacity and capabilities.”
Air and missile defense against adversaries such as North Korea, Russia and China requires a “broad spectrum of capabilities” that can address the specific threat each country represents, the officer in charge of deterring a strategic attack against the U.S. and its allies says.
U.S. military dominance “essentially went unchallenged” for about 25 years because of military technical superiority over every potential adversary, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said. Those days are over, he said at a hearing focused on funding research and innovation projects.
“We really believe that this is a time that we have to be very innovative and also very agile and try to identify any impediment that is standing in our way to test new advances,” Work told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee.
Feb. 8, 2017
The Army must begin aggressively restructuring, reorganizing and modernizing to meet the challenges posed by near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China, said Maj. Gen. William C. Hix, director of strategy, plans and policy, deputy chief of staff G-3/5/7.
Hix spoke Feb. 7 during the Gen. Bernard W. Rogers Strategic Issues Forum, which was hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare. The event was held at the AUSA Conference and Event Center in Arlington, Va.
Feb. 6, 2017
Fifteen years of heavy, sustained focus on counterinsurgency operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan have eroded the conventional combat capabilities of the Army and the other services just as Russia and China are flexing their muscles, a former Pentagon policy official told Congress.
Feb. 2, 2017
The United States “cannot do everything, everywhere” but it must respond to some global activity, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus told a House committee at a hearing focusing on the U.S. military’s role in the world. “When the most egregious violations of the most basic principles of the international order we helped shape are tolerated or excused, a lack of action undermines the entire system and is an invitation to further challenges,” he warned.
The nation is facing a complex security environment driven by four nation state challenges and the threat of violent extremism, and that has major implications for the Army and the joint force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. spoke during the sustaining member luncheon at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition.
“We need a balanced portfolio of capabilities” able to deal with a range of adversaries across the full range of military conflict, Dunford said
Russia remains a threat but over the next 15 years, the Asia-Pacific will be the most critical region for the U.S. military, a panel of defense policy experts said Wednesday at the Association of the U.S. Army 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition.
“Asia is the most critical region going to 2030 and beyond, and China’s rise cannot be paused,” said Kathleen Hicks, a senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
