US falling rapidly behind China in preparing for next war, 2 congressional panels hear

The US is falling rapidly behind China in preparing for the next war, which could come at any time, hamstrung by an unduly bureaucratic and decades-behind Pentagon and a public that only responds to crises, two key congressional panels heard on Wednesday.

Republicans and Democrats in both committees largely endorsed work by US President Joe Biden’s administration to establish new alliances such as the US-Britain–Australia military technology partnership, known as Aukus, and the recently formalised US-Japan–South Korea security cooperation.

However, the Defence Department’s outdated security and procurement procedures emerged as an obstacle, particularly to Aukus, prompting lawmakers from both parties to call repeatedly on Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell for help. The senior Biden official pledged to do so.

House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said Pentagon bureaucrats had not yet cleared technology transfers from the US to the alliance’s two members nearly a year after legislation passed that provides the department an exemption for such activity.

“The administration still maintains a lengthy excluded technology list that limits its effectiveness,” McCaul said during his hearing, citing “communications networks, naval acoustics and jet engines” as being among the advanced technologies that are being held up. “I believe it … undermines Congress’s intent.