Senior US defense officials warned lawmakers about the growing risks of Chinese military power and the need to accelerate US development of hypersonic weapons.
Admiral John Aquilino, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command, said Tuesday that “we need to go faster” in developing and fielding the new hypersonic weapons, which can fly and maneuver at high speeds and low altitudes, evading radar detection.
The concern about China is “both the pace, the speed and the advanced capabilities that they continue to deliver and demonstrate,” he told the House Armed Services Committee. “In this particular lane, we can go faster.”
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, citing both past testimony from Aquilino and the recent leak of classified US intelligence information, said that on hypersonics “we need a capability in the near term that we do not have.”
After Gaetz of Florida, a conservative hard-liner, held up what appeared to be a copy from the leaked documents, panel Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, pointedly reminded committee members “not to display classified information, whether it’s been leaked or not, in hearings.”
Rogers voiced concern that a deadlocked Congress will fund defense through a continuing resolution that would limit new spending initiatives in the year that begins Oct. 1.
Such a stopgap bill “of any length is devastating to the Department of Defense — specifically for Indo-Pacific Command,” Aquilino said.
China is engaged in a “significant and fast-paced expansion” of its nuclear forces and is embracing “rapid technological change” in areas such as biotechnology, “which could be used for purposes including biological and chemical weapons,” Jedidiah Royal, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, said in prepared testimony for the hearing.
Royal pointed to what he calls “risky intercepts” by Chinese aircraft and maritime vessels against US and allied military assets, as well as Beijing’s fleet of high-altitude surveillance balloons as evidence of the risks posed by Chinese behavior.
At the same time, Beijing has demonstrated a “concerning lack of interest in the important lines of communication that underpin a stable defense relationship,” Royal said in the prepared remarks.
Royal cited the refusal of the Chinese defense minister to accept a phone call from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after the US shot down the alleged Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace in February.
A senior defense official who spoke to reporters on Monday said China’s military leadership has denied multiple requests to speak from Austin, as well as from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. Aquilino told the committee on Tuesday, “I’ve had a standing ask to meet with the eastern theater commander and the southern theater commander” of the People’s Liberation Army “for my entire time in this job, and they have yet to accept.”
In addition to the broader conclusions about PRC military strength, lawmakers were presented contrasting visions of US and Chinese fleet strength. Aquilino’s assessment envisioned rapid growth by 2030 in China’s fleet from about 350 today to as many as 440 “including significant increases in aircraft carriers and major surface combatants,” he said.
In contrast, the Navy’s latest 30-year shipbuilding plan outlines three scenarios based on different funding levels and ship retirement rates that envisions a force of about 290 vessels by 2030, essentially today’s force.
“The Navy recognizes the boom and bust profiles of the last 60-plus years resulted in sharp peaks followed by significant valleys, and sometimes breaks, in production,” the plan said. “Today’s shipbuilding and ship repair industrial base is at a level of fragility in the supplier and labor force, amplified by COVID and inflationary impacts.”
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