Adm. Charles Richard, the outgoing commander of U.S. Strategic Command, is worried that the current construct of U.S. nuclear deterrence may not be working against both Russia and China, which he describes as “near peer” nuclear powers that the U.S. is in competition with. “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,” Richard said on Sept. 21 during a panel at the annual Air Force Association conference (wrongfully) entitled “America Under Attack—Defending the Homeland,” reported the DOD news service. “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.”
Every Defense Department plan and capability rests on an assumption that strategic deterrence, and in particular nuclear deterrence, is holding, Richard said. If that assumption isn’t met, nothing else in the department or the joint force is going to work the way that it was designed. “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.”
