US Power Projection Strategy 'Consistent With' Russian Military Growth

A former Department of Defense official stated that Russian military development capabilities have been taken into account when preparing recommendations for continued US global power projection into the future.

WASHINGTON, December 10 (Sputnik) – Russian military advancements have been taken into account when preparing recommendations for continued US global power projection into the future, former Department of Defense official Robert Armitage told reporters on Tuesday.

“This general approach [of US global power projection] is consistent with what we have seen in Russia’s development capabilities,” said Armitage, who is also the author of the US third offset strategy, at the Center for Strategic Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).

Armitage unveiled the CSBA’s most recent report called Toward a New Offset Strategy, discussing how to exploit US long-term advantages to restore US global power projection.

He added that the United States is concerned about the availability of advanced Russian anti-aircraft systems for export to other nations.

“A challenge for us too is that many of these cutting edge systems that Russia is developing now are also available for export,” he said, pointing at Syria’s requests to be outfitted with such capabilities.

In addition to the United States observing increased Russian advancements in anti-aircraft, missile defense, and space-based defense systems, Armitage added electronic warfare and cyber capabilities to the list of the country's concerns.

The United States must figure ways to make its own systems “survivable” in the face of modern cyber and electronic warfare capabilities, he stated.

The CSBA report, released on Tuesday, focuses on five major advantages the US military still has over potential adversaries, Armitage said.

“The foundation of a new offset strategy could be exploiting US advantages in unmanned operations, long-range, low observable air operations, undersea warfare, and complex systems engineering and integration,” he said.

According to Armitage, the idea is to bring the five advantages together to allow the US “to project power differently, especially in A2/AD [anti-access/area denial] environments”.

Further recommendations by the CSBA include reducing reliance on vulnerable targets including space-based capabilities, forward bases, and easily detectable targets at sea, and short-range air power.

The US military has been hit with substantial budget cuts since the 2013 sequestration. If the budget cuts are not lifted by the US Congress, the military will continue to experience future cuts and fiscal uncertainty in the future, according to Department of Defense press releases.