WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s national security adviser warned Wednesday that the United States could quickly run out of munitions in a war with China as he called for more sustained defense production.
Jake Sullivan appealed to the incoming administration of Donald Trump to sustain the ramp-up of the domestic defense industry spurred by the war in Ukraine.
“God forbid we end up in a full-scale war with the PRC,” Sullivan said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“But any war with a country like the PRC, a military like the PRC, is going to involve the exhaustion of munition stockpiles very rapidly,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“A big part of the answer to a healthy defense industrial base over time is the ability to regenerate, to surge, to build during a conflict — not just to build before, or to prepare for a conflict,” he said.
Sullivan called for Congress and the Trump administration to keep working on a Biden proposal to create a revolving fund of munitions.
The fund, which was proposed at $500 million a year, would let the Pentagon procure critical munitions even as they run out due to wars such as Ukraine.
Sullivan acknowledged there would be debate in the next administration on the size of the defense budget but said it was critical to keep up efforts to boost a military-industrial base which atrophied after the end of the Cold War when then United States saw no close competitor.
“First and most fundamentally, we’ve got to keep ramping up and accelerating production and procurement of the things that we need most,” he said.
He pointed to efforts to build 155-millimeter artillery rounds for Ukraine.
He said that the United States will produce 55,000 such rounds per month by the time the Biden administration leaves office next month, a 400 percent increase from before, with a goal of reaching 100,000 per month by early 2026.
Sullivan also pointed to the need to counter cooperation among US adversaries — China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
Trump’s team has made clear it is unenthusiastic about the billions of dollars in US weapons for Ukraine and has spoken of forcing a quick settlement with Russia.
Trump’s advisers, notably Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, have said that US resources would be better spent countering China.
Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
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Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
Top US defense official hails ‘model ally’ in South Korea talks
SِEOUL: The Pentagon’s number three official hailed South Korea as a “model ally” as he met with local counterparts in Seoul on Monday, days after Washington’s new defense strategy called for reduced support for partners overseas.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby arrived in South Korea on Monday and is seen as a key proponent of President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
That policy — detailed in Washington’s 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) released last week — calls for the United States to prioritize deterring China and for long-standing US allies to take “primary responsibility” for their own defense.
Arriving in Seoul on his first overseas trip as the Pentagon’s number three official, Colby in a post on X called South Korea a “model ally.”
And he praised President Lee Jae Myung’s pledge to spend 3.5 percent of the country’s GDP on the military.
That decision, he told a forum, “reflects a clear-eyed and sage understanding of how to address the security environment that we all face and how to put our storied and historic alliance on sound footing for the long haul,” according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
“Such adaptation, such clear-eyed realism about the situation that we face and the need for greater balance in the sharing of burdens, will ensure that deterrence remains credible, sustainable and resilient in this changing world,” he added, according to the agency.
Colby also met Monday with South Korea’s defense and foreign ministers, who touted Seoul’s development of nuclear-powered attack submarines as proof the country was taking more responsibility for its defense.
Details remain murky on where the nuclear submarines will be built, however.
South Korea’s leader said last month it would be “extremely difficult” for them to be built outside the country.
But Trump has insisted they will be built in the United States.
Longstanding treaty allies, ties between the United States and South Korea were forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War.
Washington still stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against the nuclear-armed North.
