OPINION
The U.S. Military Must Keep Up with China on AI
As China becomes a peer military competitor, the Republican Party’s new platform calls for a huge bump in spending to advance America’s technological military edge.
The GOP plans to return to the successful idea of "Peace Through Strength" by "rebuilding our military and alliances, countering China, defeating terrorism, building an Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, promoting American values, securing our homeland and borders, and reviving our defense industrial base.
"We will build a military bigger, better, and stronger than ever before."
That’s a huge commitment.
It will require the biggest national security shift since the Truman administration.
It’s long overdue.
Countering China is key.
Until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can be induced to collapse inward, we must become more innovative in the long-neglected area of strategy. We must also pay the price for our national failure to exploit our technological advances in defense.
The platform addresses those hard choices. "Secure Strategic Independence from China" is prime. It ranks with bringing home critical supply chains and "ensuring national security and economic stability" while buying American, hiring American, and becoming "the manufacturing superpower" of the world.
All of these integrate.
"Republicans will ensure our military is the most modern, lethal and powerful force in the world," the platform says.
"We will invest in cutting edge research and advanced technologies."
We have no choice but to push — and do so quickly.
The Chinese Communist Party is skyrocketing ahead on history’s most massive military modernization calendar. While advancing its territorial claims by land and sea, China is developing a sixth-generation fighting system for its air force to dominate the skies.
If trends continue, that system will outmatch existing American military technology due to its vast AI and drone capabilities.
Beijing plans to deploy this system for air dominance in less than 11 years.
No current American fighter platform possesses these advanced capabilities.
The US has been plodding toward deterring China’s rapid advancement by creating a Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) system of its own. NGAD is intended to replace the aging F-22 Raptor, six years away from retirement.
NGAD capabilities far exceed the super high-tech F-35, which the US began building at the turn of the century, well before China introduced many of the military threats that it seeks to weaponize today.
Building the NGAD platform is critical to our ability to respond to these new warfighting tactics from our adversaries stay ahead of China, or simply to avoid falling behind.
It represents a leap in serious Air Force thinking by integrating manned aircraft with autonomous drone wingmen.
While some feared that the Biden administration seemed poised to step on the brakes for NGAD as China races ahead on its air dominance plans, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recently dismissed those rumors, even before the Trump party platform. Some sort of bipartisan consensus, intended or not, might be falling together.
With its unmatched dispensation of cash to decision makers and influencers worldwide and here at home, the Chinese regime sees itself as the ascendant global superpower to replace the United States.
It has moved closer to Russia, is expanding the BRICS bloc to displace American influence, and continues its Belt and Road initiative to control the world’s sea lanes and choke points.
It has established outposts and ports in our own hemisphere.
So what do we do with the old and stretched air dominance segment of our national defense? We have no choice but to develop and deploy a new sixth-generation fighter platform as part of a new, and overdue, national defense strategy.
America’s victory or defeat in Communist China’s air dominance race is America’s decision to make.
Further delay will only postpone the Air Force’s ability to deploy this air dominance technology. NGAD is very expensive, even with modifications to cut costs.
Out-of-control federal spending over the last six years has forced the Pentagon to consider drastic cuts in current wasteful programs.
It’s decision time.
Meanwhile, China builds.
J. Michael Waller is Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy.