US pushes for fresh thinking to extend military superiority

SIMI VALLEY (California) — Wary of a more muscular Russia and China, United States Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the Pentagon will make a new push for fresh thinking about how the US can keep and extend its military superiority despite tighter budgets and 13 years of war.

Mr Hagel on Saturday announced a “defence innovation initiative” that he likened to historic and successful campaigns during the Cold War to offset military advantages of US adversaries. “We must change the way we innovate, operate and do business,’’ Mr Hagel told the Reagan National Defense Forum.

In a memo to Pentagon leaders in which be outlined the initiative, Mr Hagel said the US must not lose its commanding edge in military technology. “While we have been engaged in two large land-mass wars over the past 13 years, potential adversaries have been modernising their militaries, developing and proliferating disruptive capabilities across the spectrum of conflict. This represents a clear and growing challenge to our military power,’’ he wrote.

In separate remarks to the defence forum, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral James Winnefeld, said Russia and China had begun reasserting themselves on the world stage to capitalise on America’s “distraction” in the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In protecting our allies against potential mischief from these powers, we’ve always counted on our overmatch in capability and capacity to offset the challenges of distance and initiative,” Adm Winnefeld said. “That overmatch is now in jeopardy.”

Mr Hagel said the US can no longer count on outspending its rivals and potential adversaries, but long-standing overseas alliances and America’s reputation for dependability require that the military be able to project power abroad.

“If this capability is eroded or lost, we will see a world far more dangerous and unstable — far more threatening to America and our citizens here at home than we have seen since World War II,” he said.

Other top defence officials also voiced concerns about the Pentagon’s ability to stay ahead of technological advances by other countries, while urging Congress to reverse the mandatory budget cuts, known as sequestration.

Chief of naval operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said the Navy would have to cut forces and reduce its ability to position ships around the world if lawmakers did not ease or reverse the cuts, which are due to resume in fiscal 2016.

“Electronic warfare, electronic attack, anti-submarine warfare — all of these higher-end areas — will fall further behind because we’re just not investing in them,” he told Reuters.

Former Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the budget cuts were eroding confidence in US leadership around the world and that it was time to end the “incredibly stupid” reductions.

The officials are calling for an end to the cuts, citing growing strains amid increasing threats such as Russia’s aggression in the Crimea region and Islamic State militancy in Iraq and Syria, where the group has declared an Islamic Caliphate and conducted mass beheadings.

Mr Hagel also said the US cannot afford to relax or assume that the military superiority it developed during the Cold War will automatically persist. As such, he said he was launching a long-range research and development programme to find and field breakthroughs in key technology, including robotics, miniaturisation and advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing. He said the Pentagon will call on the private sector and academia for help.

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