The 2 combatant commanders of the Western Hemisphere testified on nationwide and regional safety at a Senate Armed Companies Committee listening to at the moment.
Military Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander, U.S. Southern Command and Air Power Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Protection Command, stated Russia and China are meddling in Western Hemisphere affairs.
“Whereas america navy stays essentially the most highly effective {and professional} power in historical past, we’ve to account for the latest erosion of navy benefit and take actions now to spend money on modernization, implement progressive processes, prioritize our personnel and civilian hiring practices and enhance agile decision-making in any respect ranges,” VanHerck stated.
Russia and China have the potential and intent to carry america in danger to attain their strategic aims, he added.
These nations have fielded cruise missiles, supply platforms and nonkinetic capabilities to carry in danger important navy and civilian infrastructure in america and Canada, he stated.
“These capabilities permit them to strike with restricted warning and vital penalties. Restricted warning, as a result of an absence of all-domain consciousness, inherently limits the choice house and choices out there to our nationwide leaders, which will increase the danger of miscalculation and escalation,” he stated, referring to the domains of air, land, sea, house and cyber.
To deal with these threats, VanHerck stated his 4 strategic priorities have been area consciousness, info dominance, determination superiority and international integration.
These priorities are important to efficiently defending the homeland and to offering nationwide leaders with time to formulate deterrence choices and, if required, defend and defeat choices, he stated.
There’s been some notable progress towards these key priorities, he stated, together with improvement of over-the-horizon radars that may considerably enhance air, maritime and house area consciousness and the flexibility to detect and monitor threats nicely earlier than they attain North America.
“However we have to go sooner. An acquisition plan based mostly on greater than a decade is just too lengthy,” he stated.
Each the Protection Division and the Canadian Division of Nationwide Protection have dedicated to funding over-the-horizon radar capabilities, he famous.
Likewise, Area Power’s funding in superior space-based warning capabilities and the Navy’s dedication to modernizing the built-in undersea surveillance system are very important to the homeland protection mission, he stated.
“Continued progress would require the division and Congress to simply accept some threat by prioritizing modernization and innovation over sustaining out of date platforms, organizations and infrastructure and infrequently accepting failure as a part of the method,” VanHerck stated.
Additionally, the division should spend money on civilian and navy personnel recruiting, hiring and retention, he stated.
Moreover, the division should proceed to construct on its benefits that come by means of our worldwide alliances and partnerships, he stated.
Richardson stated no area impacts america extra immediately than the Western Hemisphere.
“This area, our shared neighborhood, is underneath assault from a number of crosscutting, transboundary challenges that immediately threaten our homeland,” she stated.
Nations within the Western Hemisphere are feeling the impacts of exterior interference and coercion, she stated. China continues to increase its financial, diplomatic, technological, informational and navy affect in Latin America and the Caribbean, Richardson stated.
China has expanded its capacity to extract assets and will get 36% of its meals imports from the area and 75% of its lithium from South America. China additionally leads the hemisphere in unlawful, unregulated, unreported fishing, raiding the fish of coastal international locations and costing an unlimited revenue loss, she stated.
Additionally, China has additionally established ports in a number of international locations, manipulated governments by means of predatory funding practices, and constructed potential dual-use house amenities, she stated.
Russia and China bolster authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and proceed to have an in depth disinformation marketing campaign within the area, she stated.
Each China and Russia exploit the presence of transnational felony organizations and amplify their destabilizing impacts on democratic governments, she stated.
“We should use all out there levers to strengthen our partnerships with the 28 like-minded democracies within the area, who perceive the ability of working collectively to counter these shared threats,” Richardson stated.