By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., November 7, 2015 — National defense in
today’s time of transition and turbulence calls for technical as well as
strategic and operational innovation, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said here
today.
In a keynote speech during the annual Reagan National
Defense Forum in southern California, Carter explained how Russia and China
challenge the United States’ capacity to innovate and change.
“Another kind of innovation for the future … is how we’re
responding to Russia, which is one source of today’s turbulence, and [the rise
of China], which is driving a transition in the Asia-Pacific,” the secretary
said.
One of the pillars of his commitment to the nation as
defense secretary, Carter said, is to develop innovative strategies and
operational concepts to change how the department deters and responds to
geostrategic challenges.
Complex Environments
“We must ensure that we and our partners are postured to
defeat threats from high-end opponents in a complex set of environments,” he
said.
To do so requires innovative strategies and operational
plans to defend the United States and strengthen the principled international
order that has well served the United States and its friends and allies,
including Russia, China and many other countries, for decades, Carter said.
“The principles that serve as that order’s foundation --
including peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom from coercion, respect for
state sovereignty and freedom of navigation and overflight -- are not
abstractions,” the secretary said, “nor are they subject to the whims of any
one country.”
Some actors, like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
and Russia, seem intent on eroding these principles and undercutting the
international order, Carter said.
China, he added, grows more ambitious in its objectives and
capabilities.
Russia’s Provocations
“In the face of Russia’s provocations and China’s rise,”
Carter said, “we must embrace innovative approaches to protect the United
States and strengthen that international order.”
Russia is violating sovereignty in Ukraine and Georgia and
is trying to intimidate the Baltic states, and in Syria it is prolonging a
civil war, the secretary added.
“At sea, in the air, in space and in cyberspace, Russian
actors have engaged in challenging activities,” he told the audience, noting
that Moscow’s nuclear saber-rattling raises questions about Russian leaders’
commitment to strategic stability.
“We do not seek to make Russia an enemy,”Carter said. “But
make no mistake. The United States will defend our interests, and our allies,
the principled international order, and the positive future it affords us all.”
Carter said the United States is modernizing its nuclear
arsenal to ensure America’s nuclear deterrent, investing in new unmanned systems,
a new long-range bomber, and innovation in technologies like the
electromagnetic rail gun, lasers and new systems for electronic warfare, space,
cyberspace, and others.
“And we’re accordingly transforming our posture in Europe to
be more agile and sustainable,” the secretary said.
Approach to China
Turning to the Asia-Pacific, Carter said that for decades
the United States has helped create stability in the region, which has enabled
its people, economies and countries to prosper.
“The single-most influential factor in shaping the region’s
future is how China rises and relates to the principled order that has
undergirded regional peace, stability and security,” the secretary said.
As a rising power China will have growing ambitions, Carter
said, but how it behaves will be the true test of its commitment to peace and
security.
Nations across the region are watching China’s actions in
areas like the maritime domain and cyberspace, and the United States is working
on its own and with allies to ensure peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific as
China rises, the secretary said.
Sustaining Progress
On its own, America is using its Asia-Pacific rebalance to
sustain this progress and ensure stability in the region, Carter said.
“We’re putting our best and newest assets from all services
into the region. Qualitatively, we are making heavy investments in capabilities
of importance there -- subsurface warfare, electronic warfare, space, cyber,
missile defense and more,” he added.
The department is changing its operational plans and
approaches to deter aggression, fulfill its statutory obligations to Taiwan,
defend allies, and prepare for a wider-than-usual range of contingencies in the
region, Carter said.
The United States is building on its political and economic
engagement in the Asia-Pacific by finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership
trade agreement, among others, the secretary said, and is strengthening the
multilateral regional security architecture with allies, friends and partners.
Building Capacity of Allies, Partners
“We’re building the capacity of our allies and partners,”
Carter said, along with promoting cooperation, supporting regional multilateral
organizations, modernizing alliances and deepening partnerships.
On his latest trip to Asia-Pacific, his third as defense
secretary, Carter said he heard from U.S. regional allies and partners in the
region.
“We all have a fundamental stake in the security of maritime
Asia, including dynamics within the South China Sea,” he said.
The United States is concerned with land reclamation in the
South China Sea region, Carter added, and China has reclaimed more land than
any other country in the region’s history.
“The United States joins virtually everyone else in the
region in being deeply concerned about the pace and scope of land reclamation
in the South China Sea, the prospect of further militarization, [and] the
potential for these activities to increase the risk of miscalculation or
conflict among claimant states,” he said.
On Nov. 5, Carter flew out to the aircraft carrier USS
Theodore Roosevelt underway in the South China Sea. Last month, tThe
guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen as part of
a task force with the USS Roosevelt, conducted a freedom of navigation
operation in the South China Sea in accordance with international law.
“We’ve done them before all over the world,” Carter said of
the freedom of navigation operation, “and we’ll do them again. We mean what we
say. We will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law
allows.”
Leveraging Strategies
U.S.-China relations will be complex as the nations continue
to balance their competition and cooperation, Carter said, noting that both
nations have agreed to four confidence-building agreements, including one meant
to prevent dangerous air-to-air encounters.
Carter said he’s accepted an invitation from Chinese
President Xi Jinping to visit China in the New Year.
Meanwhile, the defense department works to leverage
innovative strategies and operational concepts in response to Russia’s
provocations and the impact of China’s rise, Carter said.
“We also know we have much work to do still to ensure our
strategies and plans are as innovative as possible, leveraging new technology
used by the best talent in America,” he said.
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