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.”
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at a time, and traverse multiple…