Tag: Milley, Mark A

China Could Have 1,000 Nuclear Warheads by 2030, Pentagon Says

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — China is continuing to strengthen its strategic nuclear arsenal and could have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, according to a new Defense Department report released Wednesday. The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on China’s military might estimates that China could have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027 and 1,000 three years later. In addition, it warns that China has “possibly already established a nascent nuclear triad with the development of a nuclear capable air-launched ballistic missile and improvement of its ground and sea-based nuclear capabilities.” Even with the…

China’s Weapon Tests Close to a ‘Sputnik Moment,’ U.S. General Says

Chin@Strategy

General Milley’s reference to a near-Sputnik moment was meant to resonate with a generation that remembers a long-ago Cold War. Sputnik was the launch, in 1957, of a Soviet satellite. It created fear in Washington that the Soviets were getting ahead in the space race, and led to President John F. Kennedy’s declaration that the United States would be the first to land humans on the moon, an accomplishment that was reached in less than a decade. But it also helped spur the nuclear arms race, which was only tamped…

General Milley and the Proper Role of the Military

Chin@Strategy

A new book reports that Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, improperly restricted the president of the United States’ ability to use military force and committed to warning China, an American adversary, of any impending U.S. military action against it. If the book, “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, accurately recounts General Milley’s behavior, his actions could be an egregious series of violations of the norms that govern civil-military relations in the United States. The context surrounding General Milley’s actions is unclear and may…

Biden Expresses Confidence in Milley Amid Questions About His Calls to China

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — The senior-most U.S. military officer did not bypass his civilian leaders when he called his Chinese counterpart in October and January, his office said on Wednesday after the release of excerpts from a new book that alleges that the conversations centered on concerns about President Donald J. Trump. “Peril,” by the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, says that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretly called China twice to offer reassurances that Mr. Trump had no plans to start…