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Top US nuclear commander: Russia is 'the only existential threat to the country right now'
The US, Russia, and China are all in the final stages of developing hypersonic (5+ m/s) cruise missiles which will be virtually impossible to intercept. Putin claimed yesterday that a Russian nuclear hypersonic cruise missile is already a reality.
By Amanda Macias
February 28, 2018
While the special counsel's investigation tries to determine whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, America's top nuclear commander described the nation as a paramount threat to the United States. "Russia is the most significant threat just because they pose the only existential threat to the country right now. So we have to look at that from that perspective," the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, or STRATCOM, Air Force Gen. John Hyten said during the Association of the United States Army's Air and Missile Defense conference Wednesday. Hyten noted that Russia, China and North Korea each assert distinct threats at varying tempos and yet, the U.S. is responsible for dealing with all of them at the same time. "It's not one-size-fits-all and we keep as a nation trying to make it one-size-fits-all and it doesn't work that way," Hyten said of countering threats posed by America's three top adversaries. What's more, the Department of Defense requested a budget of $686 billion, one of the largest in U.S. history, with an emphasis on offsetting emerging threats from Russia and China.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has spoken about the need to create a new nuclear arsenal. "We're modernizing and creating a brand-new nuclear force. And frankly we have to do it because others are doing it," he said earlier this month. "The Korean problem is different than the China problem is different than the Russia problem. Everything we do with respect to Korea impacts China. Everything we do with China impacts Russia. Everything we do with Russia impacts everybody else," Hyten said. Hyten also weighed in on the threat of a potential war with North Korea. "Anyone that wears a uniform does not want war. Goodness knows you don't want a war on that peninsula," he said. "If you've been there you know you don't want to go down that path." Hyten also said that China, Pyongyang's closest ally, poses unique threats to the U.S. as the nation's development in space systems and war-fighting capabilities outpace Russia and North Korea.
The US, Russia, and China are all in the final stages of developing hypersonic (5+ m/s) cruise missiles which will be virtually impossible to intercept. Putin claimed yesterday that a Russian nuclear hypersonic cruise missile is already a reality.
