U.S Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks has stated that innovation remains the U.S. military’s strategic advantage to counter China’s numerical edge in terms of personnel and weaponry.
This came as she unveiled the Defense Department’s initiative aimed at directly countering the China’s rapid buildup of its armed forces.
Hicks disclosed at a military technology conference in Washington, DC that the “imperative to innovate” was crucial at a time of strategic competition with China.
She described China as “unlike the relatively slow and lumbering competitors” the U.S faced during the Cold War.
The release of the strategy assessment came just weeks after the White House issued a National Security Strategy, which also described China as a major challenger that had “both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.”
Hick noted that while America shed blood and treasure over 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the People’s Republic of China worked with focus and determination to establish a modern military, “carefully crafting it to blunt the operational advantages” the U.S has enjoyed for decades.
In the address which highlighted Washington’s view of the military threat posed by China and its ability to out-scale the U.S military, Hicks averred that the U.S maintained an advantage owing to its ability “to imagine, create and master the future character of warfare.”
U.S Deputy Secretary of Defense stated that China’s main military advantage is “mass: more ships, more missiles, more people.”
“We’ll counter the PLA’s mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat.”
Kathleen Hicks
PLA refers to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
Also, Hicks disclosed that the U.S goal is “to field attritable autonomous systems at scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months.”
“To stay ahead, we’re going to create a new state of the art, just as America has before, she said.
Deploying “autonomous systems in all domains” will be less expensive and “put fewer people in the line of fire,” Hicks noted.
She added that the autonomous systems and can be changed, updated or improved with substantially shorter lead times,” she said.
U.S Aimed At Deterring Chinese Aggression
Moreover, Hicks revealed that strategic goal is to compel China’s leadership to reckon with the consequences of aggression on a daily basis, thereby promoting stability and deterring potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We must ensure the PRC leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, ‘today is not the day’ – and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond.”
Kathleen Hicks
The Defense Department has long invested in autonomous systems – including self-piloting ships and no-crew aircraft.
Hicks said that those systems have proven to be lower cost alternatives to manned platforms and can be produced “closer to the tactical edge.”
“So now is the time to take all-domain, attritable autonomy to the next level: to produce and deliver capabilities to warfighters at the volume and velocity required to deter aggression, or win if we’re forced to fight.”
Kathleen Hicks
Hicks stressed, “Our goal is always to deter, because competition does not mean conflict. Still, we must have combat credibility to win if we must fight.”
“With that comes a solemn obligation: to ensure our warfighters are ready, trained, and equipped for whatever may come. Including if the worst comes,” she added.
