This past week, Frank Kendall, the Air Force Secretary, explained to U.S. lawmakers that China’s rapid build-up of nuclear weapons was the most “disturbing” thing that he has witnessed in his close to a five-decade career working in the defense industry.
Kendall issued these statements as he was testifying before the House Defense Appropriations Committee hearing being held this past Tuesday concerning the increasing level of threats being faced by the U.S. from communist China.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything more disturbing in my career than the Chinese ongoing expansion of their nuclear force,” explained Kendall. “For decades, they were quite comfortable with an arsenal of a few hundred nuclear weapons, which was fairly clearly a second-strike capability to act as a deterrent.”
“That expansion that they’re undertaking puts us into a new world that we’ve never lived in before, where you have three powers — three great powers, essentially — with large arsenals of nuclear weapons,” expressed Kendall, seemingly in reference to the U.S., Russia, and China having large nuclear arsenals.
In the past few years, China has taken strides to rapidly increase and sophisticate its military. This includes the development and creation of highly advanced hypersonic missiles and the creation of a number of nuclear missile silos located deep within the borders of the country.
Kendall stated that the most significant threat that both the Space Force and the Air Force are concerned with is “China, China, China.”
Kendall went on to say that the U.S. needs to create and deploy its own cutting-edge weapons systems in order to “maintain the air and space superiority that America and our allies have counted on for decades.”
“In order to proceed with any of these programs, the Department of the Air Force needs timely authorizations and appropriations,” he stated. “War [with China] is not inevitable. But successfully deterring conflict is heavily dependent on our military capabilities.”
“Russia’s latest move on the New START treaty is not helping — it’s going in the wrong direction,” concluded Kendall. “Nobody wants a nuclear war. We do not want to go back to that [Cold War] world of 30 years ago. I thought we would never be in this position again, and here we are. So, we need to be wise. We really need to start talking to them.”
