Navy Adm. Charles "Chas" A. Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, today joined a panel discussion on important national security concerns:
"All of us in this room are back in the business of contemplating competition through crisis and possible direct armed conflict with a nuclear-capable peer," he said. "We have not had to do that in over 30 years. The implications of that are profound. They're profound for homeland defense. They're profound for strategic deterrence, as well as us achieving national objectives. And this is no longer theoretical."
"Russia and China can escalate to any level of violence that they choose in any domain with any instrument of power worldwide," he said. "We just haven't faced competitors and opponents like that in a long time."
"We need to execute this very good strategy as the threat from China continues to increase," he said. "We don't know where that's going to end, as the threat from Russia continues to increase, along with the other challenges that we face."