China threatens US military superiority: official
China poses an increasing challenge to the US military's technological edge while budget pressures are hampering Washington's effort to stay ahead, a senior defense official warned on Tuesday.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, told lawmakers that when it comes to "technological superiority, the Department of Defense is being challenged in ways that I have not seen for decades, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region."Citing China's major investments in anti-ship missiles, stealth fighter jets, hypersonic vehicles and other hi-tech weaponry, Kendall said the United States could lose its dominant position if it failed to respond to the altered strategic landscape."Technological superiority is not assured and we cannot be complacent about our posture," he told the House Armed Services Committee.Asked to assess what one lawmaker called an arms race between the two countries, Kendall said there was cause for concern as China dramatically increases its military spending."Their budget is far smaller than ours, but their personnel costs are also far smaller than ours," said Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics."Our budgets are going in the opposite direction. So just by that metric alone, it's not positive."
