US military faces ‘readiness crisis’ to modernise as China advances: Pentagon
Top brass eye speeding up integration of manned and unstaffed systems to overcome shortfalls in shipbuilding, other areas
The US faces pressure to modernise and respond to China’s rapidly advancing military capabilities and ambitions, top Pentagon figures said, vowing to hasten the integration of manned and unstaffed systems to overcome a “readiness crisis” decades in the making.
“They are certainly putting a lot of resources into the capabilities,” said General David Allvin, the US Air Force chief of staff, of the PLA, speaking on Monday at an event organised by the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank.
The US military saw China as “heavily funding” its military capabilities, Allvin said, with Washington eager to reach a point at which Beijing would not think of going “up against any of us”.