Department of Defense:
WASHINGTON — In today’s increasingly complex and threatening environment, the Defense Department must sustain the capabilities needed to deter and defend against attacks on the U.S. homeland, its forces abroad and its allies and partners, John C. Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy, said on Capitol Hill yesterday.
“We must make the investments needed to address the ongoing erosion of our operational advantages and remain the pre-eminent military power in the world,” Rood told the House Armed Services Committee’s panel on strategic forces, in support of the fiscal year 2019 DoD budget for missile defense and the policies, programs and capabilities it supports.
“Our adversaries are taking deliberate steps to extend their operational reach and are developing new capabilities to range targets in North America and Canada,” Air Force Gen. Lori J. Robinson, commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the panel.
