Department of Defense

Navy Adm. Charles A. Richard outlined threats the nation faces from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as he discussed the capabilities and integration the Defense Department needs in its warfighting strategies, plans and operations in a taped speech presented at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium yesterday.

“War is over. And we’re entering a sustainment phase in the war on terror. But we’re now in an era of great competition,” Richard said. “We as a nation in the military need to focus on the threats in front of us. And those threats go all the way down to the gray zone area below traditional conventional armed conflict.”

The nation cannot wait for conventional conflict to break out before it starts thinking about nuclear deterrence, the Stratcom commander said.

“Make sure an adversary doesn’t miscalculate where they believe they can win with a jump in escalation,” he said. “This is why U.S. Strategic Command exists. We are here to deter great power war in this era of great power competition.”

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