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What’s New: An impassioned short speech on the floor of the Senate by Sen. Wicker, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee
Why it is Important: Part of a growing awareness of China as a multi, multi, multi dimensional threat. And a subtle one.
- Sen Wicker was mostly talking about the Navy and shipbuilding – his home state of Mississippi has some of the nation’s largest shipyards. While he clearly has a parochial interest, that has also given him greater insight into naval issues and power projection.
Even Broader, More Concerning: RADM Studeman’s “An Intelligence Officer’s Perspective on China.” Click the link to view the video or read his remarks.
- “I’m going to be very honest with you: it’s very unsettling to see how much the U.S. is not connecting the dots on our number one challenge, even though the National Security and Defense Strategies call China out.”
Nexus with PNT: China has multiple space and terrestrial sources of PNT.
- This gives them a huge tactical advantage in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait
- It also gives them a huge strategic advantage over the United States because we are overwhelmingly dependent on GPS
- China could threaten to jam GPS globally, or just over the US as a way to dissuade us from defending Taiwan or doing anything else they don’t want us to do.
- China could temporarily jam GPS to damage the U.S. homeland and show their power, reduce our influence in the world.
- Destroying GPS satellites is also possible, but would likely quickly lead to all-out war.
More to Come: Watch this space for more on China and PNT.
