The Army’s chief missile defense officer says potential adversaries are expanding missile and space offensive capabilities and offensive cyber capabilities.
The U.S. would “win” a war with North Korea but not without significant consequences, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress. “It will be a war more serious in terms of human suffering than anything we have seen since 1953,” Mattis said. “We would win at great cost.”
He did not predict a war was imminent. “We are exhausting all possible diplomatic efforts in this regard,” he said, noting the Trump administration is engaging China in hopes of pressuring North Korea.
The Army chief of staff had a blunt assessment for Congress about a potential war with North Korea, saying it “would be horrific”
The U.S. has the airlift capability to deliver an Army armored brigade combat team to South Korea in 30 days, a task that would take up to 200 flights by C-17 transports, but moving a larger force—especially into a contested environment—would tax available mobilization assets, the commander of U.S. Transportation Command told Congress.
April 28, 2017
The top U.S. commander in the Pacific says the threat from North Korea is as real as the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
“The crisis on the Korea Peninsula is the worst I’ve seen,” Navy Adm. Harry Harris Jr., U.S. Pacific Command commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are faced with a threat and a leader who is intent on achieving his goal of a nuclear capability against the United States.”
April 26, 2017
A panel of foreign policy experts warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that it will be extremely difficult to get North Korea to stop or even slow its nuclear weapons programs.
Vice President Mike Pence, on a 10-day visit to Asia, warned the U.S. wants North Korea to “abandon its reckless path” of developing nuclear weapons and testing ballistic missiles.
“The era of strategic patience is over,” Pence said April 17 as he visited the border between North and South Korea. “President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out, and we want to see change.”
Feb. 7, 2017
The top U.S. general in South Korea warns the world has entered the “second age” of ballistic missile proliferation. “This has made for a much more dangerous world,” said Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.N. Command/Combined Forces Korea and U.S. Forces Korea, speaking via video at an Association of the U.S. Army event.
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
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told troops in North Dakota that being ignored by the public can be a good thing for the military.
“I realize it feels at times that most people don't often think about your mission, which I know can be frustrating,” Carter said. “In a way, it's a good thing. Because it means you're doing your job.”
