Happening now: @INDOPACOM Commander, Adm Phil Davidson testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee 
.@INDOPACOM "laser focused" on @SecDef Lloyd Austin's top 5 priorities, starting w/#COVID19
"We also remain deeply focused on cultivating a safe environment for our DoD professionals...to fulfill their oath to the Constitution" he says
"We also remain deeply focused on cultivating a safe environment for our DoD professionals...to fulfill their oath to the Constitution" he says
"We must also work to eliminate sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism & extremism, which have no place within our ranks" per @INDOPACOM's Davidson "Such abhorrent behaviors are inconsistent w/our values & the principles we are sworn to defend"
"The Indo-Pacific is the most consequential region for America's future & remains the #UnitedStates' priority theater" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson, pointing to #China #Russia #NorthKorea & violent extremist groups
"The Indo-pacific region also experiences frequent natural & man-made disasters" per per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "The negative impacts of climate change, rapid population growth, drug & human trafficking, & of course disease & pandemics"
NEW: @INDOPACOM Commander, Adm Phil Davidson calls #China "the greatest long-term strategic threat to security in the 21st century"
"#China pernicious approach tot he region includes a whole of party effort to coerce, corrupt & collapse governments, businesses, organizations & the ppl of the IndoPacific" charges @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"The military balance in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more unfavorable for the #UnitedStates & our allies" per @INDOPACOM's Davidson
"W/this imbalance, we are accumulating risk that may embolden #China to unilaterally change the status quo before our forces may be able to deliver an effective response" per @INDOPACOM's Davidson
"The greatest danger the #UnitedStates & our allies face in the region is the erosion of conventional deterrence vis a vis the People's Republic of #China" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"Absent a convincing deterrent, #China will be emboldened to continue to take action to supplant the established rules-based int' order & the values represented in our vision for a free & open Indo-Pacific" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"Our deterrence posture in the Indo-Pacific must demonstrate the capability, the capacity & the will to convince #Beijing unequivocally the cost of achieving their objectives by the use of military force are simply too high" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"Indeed, we must be doing everything possible to deter conflict" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "But we absolutely must be prepared to fight & win should competition turn to conflict"
.@INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson praises the Pacific Deterrence Initiative - PDI
If any of what @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson is telling SASC sounds familiar, it's because he and other INDOPACOM officials have been saying it for weeks...
voanews.com/east-asia-paci…
voanews.com/east-asia-paci…
"I think the Pacific Deterrence Initiative funded in FY 21 for about $2.2 billion was a good start" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
US allies, partners responding well to PDI
"Our allies & partners in the region are looking for the surety that the #UnitedStates is a reliable partner in the region & is here to stay" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"Our allies & partners in the region are looking for the surety that the #UnitedStates is a reliable partner in the region & is here to stay" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
@INDOPACOM Multilateral efforts to counter #China?
"I'm quite encouraged by the potential power of an organization like the Quad might bring" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson, referring to US, #India, #Australia & #Japan
"That's a diamond of democracies..."
"I'm quite encouraged by the potential power of an organization like the Quad might bring" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson, referring to US, #India, #Australia & #Japan
"That's a diamond of democracies..."
#China planning to increase 6.8% defense budget for the next fiscal year, per @SenatorWicker, who asks "we're not prepared to match that, are we?"
@INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson: "Nor from what I've heard so far"
@INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson: "Nor from what I've heard so far"
US ability to defend #Taiwan - "Our conventional deterrence is actually eroding in the region" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
#China #disinformation
"China has a vast disinformation machine" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "They use regular media & social media & have nearly a million ppl in their propaganda machine"
"China has a vast disinformation machine" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "They use regular media & social media & have nearly a million ppl in their propaganda machine"
#China's aim is to "corrupt the environment in a way that creates doubt in our allies & partners in the reliability of the #UnitedStates" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"#Russia in the region acts like much more like a spoiler" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "They look to deny the visions of others & are very active as well especially in the diplomatic space but in the social media"
"We see the same kind of effect that the rest of the globe has seen from the #Russia|ns machine" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
To counter, Adm Davidson says @INDOPACOM works w/@StateDept "on the kind of messaging that would reinforce what the #UnitedStates does in the region &, as opposed to providing disinformation, would highlight the ills that others have in the region"
"#Disinformation is part of the new geostrategic fabric that is making the competition so difficult" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
Empowering the inter-agency to push back "critically important"
Empowering the inter-agency to push back "critically important"
#Guam
"I'm a key advocate for a consistent, foxed, 360 degree air & missile defense that would be capable of meeting cruise missile threats ballistic missile threats" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"I'm a key advocate for a consistent, foxed, 360 degree air & missile defense that would be capable of meeting cruise missile threats ballistic missile threats" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"The structure that's out there right now, the #THAAD radar, is not capable of meeting the current trajectory of threats from #China" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
re #Guam
re #Guam
"We all have to understand, #Guam is US territory" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "We have 170,00 US citizens living on Guam. Their defense is homeland defense"
"#Guam is a target today. It needs to be defended" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson, noting #China propaganda video which showed Chinese bombers attacking
#Aegis Ashore is a system that would work - "delivers the kind of capabilities that are needed here by mid-decade" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"We have to demonstrate that any ambition #China might have & any threat it might put forth toward #Guam will come at cost" @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson, saying Aegis Ashore would help "prevent a cheap shot"
"A wider base of long-range precision fires...is critically important to stabilizing what is becoming a more unstable environment in the western Pacific" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "We've got to have offensive capabilities to cause any adversary to think twice"
.@INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson says the missiles need to be ground based, too, not just sea & air
#China "They've quadrupled their nuclear capabilities since the run of the century & they will at least double it during the course of this decade" warns @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
After asking if #China #Russia can achieve nuclear "overmatch" vs the US, @SenTomCotton says, "It is very hard work to win an arms race but it is much better to win an arms race than to lose a war"
US still has superiority in submarines and must "sustain that advantage" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
NEW: "I worry they're accelerating their ambitions to supplant the #UnitedStates" before 2050, per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
"#Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before then, & I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact during the next 6 years"
"#Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before then, & I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact during the next 6 years"
At @INDOPACOM HQ, "we've already conducted the stand down" ordered by @SecDef to address extremism, per Adm Davidson "We came together not only to have the leadership discuss what our expectations are...but also to bring in other experts" inclu @FBI joint terrorism task force
"We're going to have to continue to communicate on this with the force to make sure that our expectations are well known" per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson
#China "developing systems, capabilities & a posture that would indicate they are interested in aggression" per @INDOPACOM's Davidson
"What they've committed in their nearest abroad -#HongKong, Line of Actual Control, #Xinjiang, the kind of pressure they're putting on #Tibet.."
"What they've committed in their nearest abroad -#HongKong, Line of Actual Control, #Xinjiang, the kind of pressure they're putting on #Tibet.."
"It takes our continued support" for #Taiwan to ensure no invasion from #China, per @INDOPACOM's Adm Davidson "Key to that is consistent & persistent arms sales to Taiwan in order for them to continue their capability going forward"
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