Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US is building a more lethal force posture in the Indo-Pacific as part of efforts to make sure China doesn’t dominate the region the way it intends to.
China is “the only country with both the will and, increasingly, the power to reshape its region and the international order to suit its authoritarian preferences,” Austin told the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday. “So let me be clear — we’re not going to let that happen.”
Austin said the US would “sustain and sharpen” our war-fighting advantages and bolster its force presence “to build a more lethal, mobile, and distributed force posture.”
He cited the B21 stealth bomber, unveiled on Friday, as a key element of its deterrence strategy, and said the US is charting the best way forward for Australia to get a nuclear-powered submarine as soon as possible — a deal announced early in the Biden administration.
READ FULL ARTICLE : Pentagon chief Austin warns China on Asia-Pacific: US will keep lethal edge in combat | Al Arabiya English
