China is developing space capabilities and next-generation fighter jets at a rapid rate, while also increasing its global footprint with military facilities and partnerships beyond the Indo-Pacific region, making U.S. force innovation more urgent, officials said Monday.
“The China challenge is not just a challenge for INDOPACOM,” Lt. Gen. Max Pearson, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said during a panel discussion at AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber conference. “In addition to the support base in Djibouti … the PLA continues to pursue military installations, [cooperative agreements] and partnerships in a lot of places. I mean, we’re seeing this across Asia, in the Middle East, Africa, across the Pacific. And we’re seeing the PLA partnering with others: strategic bomber patrols with Russia, naval patrols with Russia, as well as exercises—PLA, Russia and Iran.”
Pearson’s comments follow Beijing’s military parade earlier this month and come alongside media reports that the Chinese navy launched next-generation fighter and early warning aircraft off its Fujian aircraft carrier Monday.
“What I think that means for us all is that we need to understand, we need to study, we need to pay attention to China in all of our theaters,” Pearson said. “The PLA has observed how we fight, the techniques we use, the weapon systems we have, and when you combine that with intellectual property theft that has fueled a lot of their modernization…they have deliberately developed and modernized to counter our American way of war, to counter our ways of fighting, our tactics, our techniques, our weapon systems, and that dynamic…really puts the sense of urgency to the need for us to innovate as a force.”
Brig. Gen. Brian Sidari, the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said the Air Force and Space Force must be “proactive” and “think globally” in regards to China.
“We need to think in simultaneity and not sequentially…We need to throw dilemmas up globally to make them choose…to be reactive,” he said.
Sidari also said he’s worried about how quickly China has been developing space capabilities.
“I’m concerned about when the Chinese figure out how to do reusable lift, that allows them to put more capability in order at a quicker pace,” Sidari said.
China doesn’t put as many satellites into orbit as the U.S., he said, but things could get considerably more challenging if they crack the code on reusable lift and take advantage of mega constellations, or large groups of low-Earth orbit satellites often run by private companies.
“They’ve seen how mega constellations provide capability to the U.S…. and they’re mimicking,” Sidari said. “But we’ll see, right. It’s easier said than done.”
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