During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the U.S. military used a new generation of technological weapons that left the rest of the world far behind. But according the Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology, and logistics, that advantage is evaporating. Speaking at a breakfast at the Navy League in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday, Kendall said the deterioration has continued during his four and a half years on the job, “in large part because of our budget situation,” including sequestration. Claudette Roulo of DoD News reported on the under secretary’s breakfast remarks:
While the U.S. military’s budget is being cut, China’s budget has been growing at about 12 percent annually, Kendall said, and may soon be as large as the U.S.’s. China is of particular concern according to the under secretary because “no one’s studied us more — including immediately after the first Gulf War — than the Chinese. And they have been building systems since then designed to counteract some of the things that we have.” Kendall is not concerned about war with China, but a stronger military will give that country proportionally more influence in the region. Additionally, the Chinese may sell their technology to other countries that the U.S. might end up facing someday in an armed conflict, and this also poses a problem. Again, DoD News reports:
In October, Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon reported on a draft of the annual report of the congressional, bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that seems to confirm and even expand on Kendall’s concerns:
Accusations of cyberespionage by the Chinese in recent years have also heightened the concerns about China’s ability to keep up with U.S. technology and design systems to counteract it. While Kendall did not address espionage by the Chinese, he said that strategic investments in technology by China are targeted at changing the balance of power in Asia:
Overall, as the one in charge of acquisition the U.S. military’s technological assets, Kendall does not seem optimistic: “I’m worried about whether we’re keeping up or not.”
