Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Gary North says “other nations are copying” US military capabilities. While copying is the highest form of flattery, it also means the United States needs to work that much harder to maintain its technological superiority. “Some are stealing our capability and then replicating it, or attempting to replicate it, so we just have to stay ahead of the power curve,” said North during an Air Force Association-sponsored address Thursday in Arlington, Va. To stay ahead, he said the United States needs a weapons platform in the Pacific that has range, speed, stealth, and carries penetrator munitions, among its attributes; however, he declined to go into detail. “We have to integrate what we believe will . . . help us to be prepared for the threats that our nation may face in the future,” he explained. He continued, “We know nations are burying deeper into the ground. We know they are using different methodologies to harden, so we have to be prepared to face those kinds of threats.”
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.