{"id":84749,"date":"2018-01-30T19:54:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/30\/the-pentagon-is-planning-for-war-with-china-and-russia-can-it-handle-both\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:30:48","slug":"the-pentagon-is-planning-for-war-with-china-and-russia-can-it-handle-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/01\/30\/the-pentagon-is-planning-for-war-with-china-and-russia-can-it-handle-both\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon is planning for war with China and Russia \u2014 can it handle both?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon is in the opening stages of \u201credesigning the force\u201d around the challenges of Russia<\/a> and China<\/a>, the department\u2019s No. 2 uniformed official said Tuesday \u2014 while warning that America may not be able to afford preparing for two unique problem sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent National Defense Strategy<\/a> identified great power competitors as the major challenge facing the Pentagon, but Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the plans required to counter each nation are naturally \u201cin tension with one another\u201d for resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s why they will be in competition with each other: They are not the same,\u201d Selva explained during an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group. \u201cThere are two unique competitions that we have to deal with, and the elements are overlapping<\/a> but not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary way that tension plays out depends on who would be involved in the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny fight with China, if it were to come to blows, would be a largely maritime and air fight<\/a>,\u201d Selva said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean the Army and the Marine Corps don\u2019t have a place. But when you think about how a potential conflict with China would evolve, it very likely involves a substantial contribution from the naval and air forces, and the Army and Marine Corps would be supporting elements in that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, \u201cthe Russia global problem set is largely an air and ground fight<\/a>. Supported by elements of our maritime component, because you can\u2019t get to Russia, you can\u2019t get to Europe in any large measure without transiting the North Atlantic,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich means there\u2019s going to be a maritime fight to get things to the continent, but the fight itself as it evolves is likely to be an air and ground fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selva noted that in the National Defense Strategy, Russia is identified as a \u201cglobal\u201d challenge, a deliberate move by the planner\u2019s part to try and move away from the idea that Russia is primarily a challenge for Europe to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there are other threats to the U.S. besides Russia and China. In recent strategy documents, the Pentagon narrowed its focus to what it calls the 4 + 1 threats \u2014 Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea is the easier to plan for, Selva noted, as Pyongyang \u201cderives almost all of its military capabilities from buying hardware from either Russia or China,\u201d which means planning for the two peer competitors covers the rogue nuclear state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran, however, is more complicated, Selva said, \u201cbecause the geography in Iran is so compellingly different that we will probably develop some capabilities \u2014 I can\u2019t tell you what they are at this instant for Iran that are decidedly different than for Russia or China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Russian army soldiers drive their tanks along the Red Square during a general rehearsal for a recent Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia. (Ivan Sekretarev\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Affordability<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the focus on great power competition, Selva is working to build out a \u201cglobal campaign plan\u201d for both Russia and China, looking across the breadth of the U.S. military before assigning a combatant commander as the \u201ccoordinating authority for management\u201d of the plan, in case a conflict arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But figuring out which is the likeliest scenario and how to invest accordingly are major challenges being worked out inside the Pentagon. Selva indicated that those challenges will be part of the upcoming National Military Strategy<\/a>, expected to be completed before the end of the year. But the question of having enough funding to prepare for both is clearly on Selva\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s not affordable, then we will express the risk to the secretary, to the president and to the American people,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we have to go to the secretary and president and say: \u2018We are assuming risk on behalf of the American people because we can\u2019t do this set of tasks.\u2019 We can either appropriate the funds to get those tasks done, or we can articulate the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Hunter, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agrees that the Pentagon needs to think of China and Russia as separate threats. But he notes there are areas of common investment<\/a> for both challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn both instances there is a premium on having access to instantaneous situational awareness and ability to find people on the battlefield, and be able to do the command and control to strike in very tight time frames,\u201d Hunter said, adding that broad spectrum C4ISR \u2014 command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities \u2014 is an area in which the Pentagon is routinely investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter also warns not to expect the Chinese or Russians in a shooting war to play fair and try to match the Pentagon one on one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre they going to try and do a straight up assault on the U.S. Air Force? My guess would be they probably won\u2019t do that because that\u2019s probably a losing proposition for them and they\u2019re probably too smart of that,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cMy guess is they will find a way to come at us that, at least, it won\u2019t be something where our advantage is so overwhelming that it becomes a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War with China and war with Russia would have some overlapping qualities, but the Pentagon needs to figure out how and where to invest to deal with both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,62,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3288],"class_list":["post-84749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CC7KKIQGPVDFTJNQXU7JCVIC4I","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2018\/01\/30\/the-pentagon-is-planning-for-war-with-china-and-russia-can-it-handle-both\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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