By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.
WASHINGTON: If the United States is serious about “rebalancing” to Asia, it needs to invest some serious cash. Strategic small change won’t deter China or reassure our increasingly anxious allies, says a new report from the influential Center for Strategic & International Studies. And that means the CSIS study’s sponsor — Congress — must get its act together and get rid of the Budget Control Act, aka sequester.
“During interviews with officials in foreign capitals, CSIS scholars consistently encountered concerns about long-term U.S. strategic choices…particularly with respect to China,” says the report. “Chinese and North Korean actions are routinely challenging the credibility of U.S. security commitments, and at the current rate of U.S. capability development, the balance of military power in the region is shifting against the United States.” In particular, the study says, there are “alarming” vulnerabilities in US satellites and “clear and worrying gaps” in electronic warfare.
“Robust funding is needed,” the report says bluntly, “at a level above the president’s [2016] budget,” which itself was above the Budget Control Act caps. “The rebalance to the Asia-Pacific will therefore require the Congress to forge a long-term bipartisan agreement to fund defense at the higher levels for which there is a broad consensus.”
Read the full story at Breaking Defense