Military Times:
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. “homeland is no longer a sanctuary,” according to the four-star general in charge of both U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy ended a speech at the 140th National Guard Association conference in New Orleans this weekend with a warning that the era of great power competition doesn’t leave the U.S. mainland uncontested.
Peer-level adversaries are probing U.S. defenses in multiple domains, and the continental United States is well within their sights. “We’re in a changing security environment,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We used to think about the sanctuary we had with oceans and friendly countries to our north and south, but that’s changing with adversaries that are actually able to reach out and touch us now.”
The concern falls in line with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ new National Defense Strategy, which prioritizes peer-level adversaries as greater threats than lower-end insurgent forces like those seen in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.
