Pentagon: China Challenging US Military's Technology Edge

[haidian]

Pentagon: China Challenging US Military's Technology Edge
Tuesday, 28 Jan 2014 07:17 PM

The U.S. military's technological superiority is increasingly challenged by China, and efforts to maintain an edge are complicated by shrinking defense budgets that have cut money for development, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer said on Tuesday.
Frank Kendall, the deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, told lawmakers the U.S. military's technological superiority is being "challenged in ways that I have not seen for decades, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region," where China is pursuing a rapid modernization program.

"Technological superiority is not assured," Kendall told the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives. "This is not a future problem. This is a here-now problem."

With China, Russia and other countries rapidly modernizing their militaries, Pentagon officials are voicing increasing concern about the possibility of losing the technological edge that has enabled the U.S. military to dominate the battlefield over the past 25 years.

U.S. defense officials say they do not expect a conflict with China or Russia, but the chances are that some of what they develop will be sold to other nations and the U.S. military may eventually face those systems.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel underscored the value of advanced research in a visit this month to Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, saying the "technological edge that we've been able to maintain is critically important ... in the world that we're in today with more complications, more combustibility."

Admiral Samuel Locklear, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters in Washington recently the military's "relative dominance" had been diminishing after a period of unequalled superiority.

"That's not something to be afraid of; it's just to be pragmatic about," Locklear said, adding that the military would have to think carefully about which systems to develop in the future in order to maintain that edge.

Asked by a lawmaker how the technology race with China was going, Kendall indicated it was not positive, even though U.S. defense spending is far greater than China's.

The base U.S. defense budget will drop below $500 billion in 2014 under a deal finalized in January, while China's grew to $119 billion last year after another double-digit jump.

"Overall, China's military investments are increasing in double-digit numbers each year, about 10 percent," Kendall said. "Their budget is far smaller than ours. But their personnel costs are also far smaller than ours."

Personnel costs make up roughly half of the U.S. defense budget.

Kendall told lawmakers the Pentagon's ability to respond by developing new technologies was "severely limited by the current budget situation," with the department facing hundreds of billions in cuts to projected spending over the next decade.

Lawmakers voiced concern about not having known about Pentagon concerns earlier and asked Kendall when he first realized U.S. technological superiority was being challenged.

"We've had a steady decline (in spending) over the last several years of cuts ... We've been pleading with you guys to come over and tell us the problem," Representative Randy Forbes of Virginia, a Republican, told Kendall.

Kendall said the issue became "a more visible concern" when the department conducted a strategic review after Congress approved the budget cuts in 2011.
China Challenging U.S. Military Technological Edge

 

[master_13]

just another trick from US warmongers asking for more money by trumping up china-threat, the trick gets old but never fails.

 

[gambit]

just another trick from US warmongers asking for more money by trumping up china-threat, the trick gets old but never fails.

Trick? I guess when the PLA modernized, especially in the American mold, it must be because the PLA warmongers pulled a fast one on the Chinese government to get more money, right?

 

[romia]

It's too early to say that,China should work hard for at least a decade to challenge the US force in west Pacific,while at leat 3 nuclear AC group available at 2025 around

 

[Kompromat]

 

[gambit]

View attachment 14790

That is hilarious...

US Federal Budget FY12 Estimated Spending Breakdown - Pie Chart

Welfare alone ranges from 1/3 to 1/2 of Defense, and Welfare and Health Care combined is much greater than Defense. Year after year. Not counting other non-Defense budgets.

And since when is it the responsibility of the government to provide jobs? In a capitalist economy, it is the free market that is the main provider of jobs, not the government.

But wait...Did we not experiment with the government being the guarantor of jobs, from cradle to grave? But of course...It was called communism...And we know how well THAT experiment turned out, do we?

 

[Hypersonicmissiles]

That is hilarious...

Welfare alone ranges from 1/3 to 1/2 of Defense, and Welfare and Health Care combined is much greater than Defense. Year after year. Not counting other non-Defense budgets.

And since when is it the responsibility of the government to provide jobs? In a capitalist economy, it is the free market that is the main provider of jobs, not the government.

But wait...Did we not experiment with the government being the guarantor of jobs, from cradle to grave? But of course...It was called communism...And we know how well THAT experiment turned out, do we?

That's why China (a communist country) will be the largest economy in 10 years

 

[gambit]

That's why China (a communist country) will be the largest economy in 10 years

China is not a communist country. It is an amoral country, meaning it has no philosophical foundation to stand upon, other than the ridiculous 'Chinese characteristics' conditioning for whatever the Party do.

 

[Hypersonicmissiles]

China is not a communist country. It is an amoral country, meaning it has no philosophical foundation to stand upon, other than the ridiculous 'Chinese characteristics' conditioning for whatever the Party do.

Oh no, we are not communist. We are a huge democracy with elections, no state-owned companies, no 5 year plans, no central planning.

Face it, Chinese communism is beating Western liberal democracy.

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

China is not a communist country. It is an amoral country, meaning it has no philosophical foundation to stand upon, other than the ridiculous 'Chinese characteristics' conditioning for whatever the Party do.

Absolute rubbish. The foundations that China stands upon may not be as clearly defined as the west but then again, Chinese are a conservative people who do not constantly spout a litany of the same hypocritical righteousness like some countries do.
Chinese civilization is proven to have withstood the test of time through unwritten 'foundations', Chinese characteristics like loyalty, handwork, education, humility and a strong sense of the greater good is fart stronger than the Western sense of entitlement and freedom.

Our country suffered disasters that would have torn apart lesser nations multiple times over. Our Western contemporary during the Han dynasty is often compared to us but they are ground to dust under Barbarian feet.

 

[jhungary]

Well the article quote from OP point out the defence budget increase if China and Russia versus the budget decrease in the US.

The relation between the assumed technology gap being pulled closer is solely represented by the increase of budget of the two country

Now, for the same reason, I can stand in front of the congress and testified that Japan have increase their defence budget from 55 billions in 2011 to 58 billions in 2014, and that although war between US and Japan is nothigh, but the chance of Japanese military equipment would be transferred to the country of potential conflict and US should therefore increase the budget

Lol sound familiar?

The fact to the matter is, it would be long before China can seriously challenge the American in the western Pacific. Even then, we would have to assume in the next 20 years or so China keep the grow while the American are sitting on their fat *** and do nothing.

 

[elis]

China is not a communist country. It is an amoral country, meaning it has no philosophical foundation to stand upon, other than the ridiculous 'Chinese characteristics' conditioning for whatever the Party do.

Says the american who create zionist Al Qaeda and call them democrats

China don't create Al Qaeda

 

[Saifullah Sani]

Pentagon panics over possibly losing tech edge to Russia, China

The Pentagon is in fear of losing its edge in technology it has held onto for so long and is now factoring this important aspect into its budget. Worry over significant cuts in defense spending might wear down the US military, making its technological edge over Russia and China a fact of the past.
This is partially the reason why the Pentagon is planning on cutting down on troop numbers and getting rid of old weapons. Over the recent years, US defense officials have carefully observed Moscow and Beijing testing a line of sophisticated weaponry. Such artillery ranges from radar-evading aircraft to anti-ship missiles that shoot through the sky many times faster than the speed of sound.
“The development and proliferation of more advanced military technologies by other nations means that we are entering an era where American dominance on the seas, in the skies, and in space can no longer be taken for granted,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week, according to Reuters.
Today, Hagel is supposed to unveil a budget that will include watering down the US Army’s forces by 40,000 to 50,000 troops to amounts that were only seen before America got involved with World War II and getting rid of the fleet of tank-killing A-10, known better as the “Warthog” aircraft.
The U-2 spy plane from the Cold War days will not be used anymore as to allow the Pentagon to concentrate its energy on creating the Global Hawk reconnaissance drone. Even though the Defense Department will put out an estimated $500 billion, it still spends more than the next six or seven countries put together.
Research and development spending though has dropped more than 20 percent since President Obama was sworn into office. It is forecasted that it will continue to fall as a mandatory budget is forcing caps to be put on the department in a couple of years.
“Everything, including R and D (research and development) and S and T (science and technology), takes a big hit in this defense budget,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, as stated in a Reuters’ article.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, China and Russia have been quickly increasing what is spent on security. Both nations have passed new milestones in the tech industry in the most recent years.
According to IHS Jane’s Annual Defense Budgets Review, it predicted in February that growth would be seen in China’s defense spending by 14 percent in 2014 to almost $160 billion with a percentage increase in the double digits. Russia’s is estimated to climb to over 40 percent to almost $98 billion by the 2016 year.
China has already tested out two radar-evading aircraft since 2011 alone. It created its first aircraft carrier the Liaoning in 2011. The nation has also presented an anti-satellite weapon in 2007, making the case that it could threaten US exploration and communication systems.
Beijing carried out a test flight with a hypersonic glider in January, checking out a system that has the ability to deliver a missile to its primary target. The piece of technology can fly many times the speed of sound thus eluding anti-missile defenses which might be in place.
Though the US, Russia, and India are all believed to be working out the quirks of hypersonic technology, only Washington and Beijing have carried out test flights. Meanwhile, China, Iran, and Russia have anti-ship missiles in the development process. These are supposed anti-access and area denial weapons, which have the capability of threatening possible adversaries that try to work close to its coastlines.
Advancements and exportation of precision-guided weaponry to other countries is putting a great amount of pressure on the US Navy. American forces feel the need to adapt, by creating opportunities for its units to work farther away from shore with longer-range weapons on hand.
“The United States has enjoyed a monopoly in guided weapons for about 20 years,” said Robert Work, the former Navy undersecretary nominated to be the deputy defense secretary, as stated in a Reuters’ article, “That monopoly is eroding.”
“It’s not a serious threat,” Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst with the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, “The point they’re trying to make is that if you don’t do something about … the spiraling personnel costs, then you could (face a serious threat).”
In order for the Pentagon to stay one step ahead in technology, it will go ahead and develop a new long-range bomber that to a particular degree, extent counters rivals’ systems, including anti-access and area denial systems, by allowing US forces to work from a longer distance away.
The Pentagon has its eyes set on purchasing up to 100 of the new planes for maximum $550 million per piece and is predicted to look for proposals for the aircraft during the autumn time this year. Putting the A-10 plane into retirement would allow for $3.5 billion in over a five year span to be spent elsewhere in the defense budget. The radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for instance, could be funded instead. It is a multi-role aircraft being created solely to replace a line of other military planes.
Currently, the F-35 is being made in small lots however, the military is expected to purchase 2,443 of this particular model to the tune of $392 billion. Defense officials claim that the 2015 budget, which will become active in October, includes funding to increase the military’s defensive and offensive cyber techniques, which are noted as a crucial part to defending the military’s computer systems and dealing with opposing groups in future combat scenarios.
Navy officials said they are expecting for funds to continue on rolling in for research on laser weapons. For example, one is to be deployed on the USS Ponce this very year with a plan to develop a gun that uses electromagnetic energy as ammo. Already, the Navy has invested $40 million so far on creating the laser weapon. The device can be used against drones, missiles, or a small fleet of boats.
It projects a beam of energy and is inexpensive. This gives the military “a technological edge that has a huge affordability piece to it,” said Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research as quoted by Reuters, “That resonates in the building. This is one of those priorities that we are going to still fund.”


Budget plan: Pentagon panics over possibly losing tech edge to Russia, China | Defense & Security News at DefenceTalk

 

[LordTyrannus]

just another trick from US warmongers asking for more money by trumping up china-threat, the trick gets old but never fails.

this. exactly this

 

[Fukuoka]

I'am fan of Russia and China military, but objectively it's ver far from the USA army

Most of the allies of Russia are destroyed and China is kicked out from several african countries

And it looks like they are not planning to attack JEW NATO

The worst is probably that JEW NATO have thousands of cheap terrorists and Russia/China don't dare make it