Ukraine war a 'warmup,' the 'big one is coming' and US behind in nuclear, admiral warns
The US Stratcom head warned that China and Russia are outcompeting America in the nuclear
arena, losing deterrence.
The war in Ukraine is a prelude to greater military challenges to the US in the near future, and America is losing its competitive edge in nuclear weapons capabilities, US Strategic Command head Admiral Charles Richard warned in a speech at the Naval Submarine League's 2022 Annual Symposium & Industry Update on Wednesday, the US Defense Department reported.
"This Ukraine crisis that we're in right now, this is just the warmup," said Richard. "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 in a long time."
"As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking."
US Strategic Command head Admiral Charles Richard
Richard warned that the US was losing its nuclear deterrence against competitors like China and Russia.
"As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking," he said. "It is sinking slowly, but it is sinking, as fundamentally they are putting capability in the field faster than we are."
In its October 27 National Defense Strategy paper, the Pentagon also presented a dire situation in the nuclear balance between the US and Russia and China.
"Our principal competitors continue to expand and diversify their nuclear capabilities, to include novel and destabilizing systems, as well as non-nuclear capabilities that could be used to conduct strategic attacks," said the nuclear posture review. "They have demonstrated little interest in reducing their reliance on nuclear weapons. By contrast, the United States is focused on the timely replacement of legacy fielded systems that are rapidly approaching their end of service life."
"The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the overall pacing challenge for US defense planning and a growing factor in evaluating our nuclear deterrent. The PRC has embarked on an ambitious expansion, modernization, and diversification of its nuclear forces and established a nascent nuclear triad." said the nuclear posture review. "Russia continues to emphasize nuclear weapons in its strategy, modernize and expand its nuclear forces, and brandish its nuclear weapons in support of its revisionist security policy."
"This Ukraine crisis that we're in right now, this is just the warmup...The big one is coming."
US Strategic Command head Admiral Charles Richard
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