Pentagon: Russia poses 'serious threats', but China poses 'main' challenge

The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) considered in its comprehensive strategy issued Thursday that the Russian invasion of Ukraine highlights "serious threats" posed by Moscow, but stressed that China represents the "main" challenge to the United States, and revealed that the United States would stop developing nuclear-launched cruise missiles. the sea.

The new US strategy made clear that Russia "poses serious threats to the vital national interests of the United States both abroad and at home."

The new document added that "the most comprehensive and dangerous challenge to US national security is the increasingly aggressive (Chinese) efforts to reshape the Indo-Pacific region and the international order to suit its interests and authoritarian choices."

The document highlights the Chinese rhetoric about Taiwan, which Beijing has pledged to control by force if necessary, as a destabilizing factor that leads to miscalculation and threatens peace in the region.

The US Secretary of Defense said that the National Defense Strategy focuses on sustainable and enhanced deterrence against China, explaining that Beijing is "the only competitor that has the intent and strength to reshape the international order," while the National Defense Strategy - the minister adds - describes Russia as a "severe threat, but it is not capable of challenging Washington in the long run."

nuclear cruise cessation

The new Pentagon document revealed that the United States would stop developing sea-launched nuclear cruise missiles, although some senior US military officials have publicly recommended maintaining that program.

The decision to cancel the development of nuclear cruise missiles launched from under the sea may help US President Joe Biden in responding to calls from his Democratic Party to reduce the US nuclear arsenal, without sacrificing the main components of the so-called "nuclear triumvirate."

The nuclear triad are land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, nuclear-capable bomber aircraft, and nuclear-equipped submarines.

The administration of President Biden issued 3 documents today, Thursday: the National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review, and the Missile Defense Review.

Together, the three documents outline Washington's military priorities for the next few years.

Trump administration

In 2018, the administration of former US President Donald Trump decided to develop a new weapon, cruise missiles equipped with nuclear weapons, launched from the sea, in order to confront the threats from Russia.

However, the Biden administration said in its new document that the sea-launched cruise missile program "is not necessary and will be canceled because the United States has the means to deter any use of nuclear weapons on a limited scale."

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a press statement that his country's military does not need a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile program, because it has enough capabilities in the current nuclear arsenal.

"I don't think this retreat will send any message to Putin (the Russian president), because he knows what our capabilities are," Minister Austin added.

Last April, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told members of Congress that his position on the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile program has not changed, and that he believes that having multiple options remains a need.

In the Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon said the goal of its nuclear arsenal is to deter foreign nuclear and non-nuclear attacks with strategic implications.

"This includes the use of nuclear weapons, no matter how powerful, as well as very large strategic attacks using non-nuclear means," a senior US Defense Department official told reporters.

satellite

In a related development, the White House said that the United States would respond in an "appropriate manner" to any Russian attack against American commercial satellites, noting that it would "hold Russia responsible for any such attack if it occurred."

This came in response to comments by Russian Foreign Ministry official Konstantin Vorontsov at the United Nations on Wednesday that the use of commercial satellites "in outer space for military purposes" by Western countries represents a "very dangerous tendency."

Vorontsov added that "these countries do not realize that such actions constitute in fact indirect participation in military conflicts," adding that "semi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for the response."

The Russian official did not specify which commercial satellites he was referring to, but the "Starlink" satellites for the Internet, which were published by the "SpaceX" company of American billionaire Elon Musk, play a key role in the communications of the Ukrainian army in the face of Russian forces.