Mike Rounds Asks Military Official How Would Russia React To A US-China 'Conflict'

yesterday

During Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) asked General Christopher G. Cavoli what Russia would do during a US-China conflict.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman. Let me begin by just thanking both of you for your

00:04service to our country and your families. We sometimes forget about the sacrifice

00:09they make when you are away and we most certainly appreciate all of that and

00:14once again we appreciate what you have done and continue to do for this country.

00:18General Cavoli, our missile defense systems protect not just the U.S.

00:23homeland but our deployed forces overseas, for example in Europe and in

00:27the Middle East. Does EUCOM make use of any of the systems which require the

00:34use of the 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz band of the spectrum to fully operate and I'm

00:42just curious this is something that I've asked every four-starred uniformed

00:47officer as they've come before us because there has been an attempt most

00:51recently to take away the exclusive use by the Department of Defense for the use

00:57of that part of the spectrum and literally to sell it for commercial

01:00purposes. Huge amounts of activity with regard to some of the best physics in

01:06the world for radar and so forth are found in there. Can you share a little

01:09bit about what EUCOM does and whether or not it would impact any of our

01:13capabilities in Europe? Yeah we sure do use it Senator. We use it principally in

01:20our air and missile defense systems as you pointed out which are part of the

01:26system that protects the United States homeland from ballistic missile attacks.

01:31So more than that I could go into in classified session but it is a source

01:37that would have to be worked out if we lost access to that bandwidth.

01:42Are you familiar with some of the physics involved and why we picked that

01:46particular part for our radars and so forth? I would never volunteer just how

01:51familiar I am with physics but yes a little bit. Okay just with regard to that

01:56I mean there is a reason why that particular part of the spectrum is being

01:59so closely protected by the Department of Defense. Is that fair to say? There is.

02:05Thank you. General Cavoli also can you describe how the Ukrainian armed forces

02:11as well as their defense industrial base have evolved over time and just a little

02:17bit in terms of what you've observed? Wow sure Senator. So in 2014 I was a one

02:28star commanding our training enterprise in Germany and throughout Europe and in

02:332015 I was given the task to help to set up a training center in western Ukraine

02:38for the Ukrainians as a response to the invasion and the annexation of Crimea

02:44that had taken place in 2014. At the time they were boy a hand-to-mouth army that

02:52was tied in a tight fight in their eastern area and had suffered from 30

02:58years of post-soviet neglect. They were they were in tough shape. Between then

03:05and 2022 they managed while maintaining a fight in the east they managed to

03:12convert themselves into the force that was able to stop Russia. This came

03:18with the number of important decisions from the United States, specifically an

03:22increase in aid and the initiation of lethal aid, the donation of javelins. I

03:27believe it was in about 2016 or 2017 we gave that. Since then you know the

03:32trajectory sir. They went from being basically minute men with with

03:38javelins stopping a Russian invasion to being an organized force that is

03:42increasingly able to generate force in a reliable and predictable fashion. Very

03:48difficult to do especially on the fly. It's taken a couple of years to get it

03:52going and they've developed a defense industry that is producing many of their

03:56own munitions right now. In fact I would say they're the world leaders in one-way

04:00attack drone technology. Interesting. As you watch this and observe this you've

04:05watched what Russia has done as well. What would be your assessment of how

04:09Russia would react to a conflict between the United States and China? I think

04:16clearly whatever the United States does in the world Russia will find a way or

04:21will look for a way to turn the situation to its advantage and to seize

04:25opportunity. So depending on the exact parameters of a conflict with China

04:29exactly what the conditions were I would expect Russia to try to take advantage

04:33of that either in the information domain or even physically. Would it be fair to

04:38say that if we found ourselves in a theater conflict in the Pacific Rim

04:43region highly highly strong possibility that would also find ourselves in a

04:49conflict in the European theater as well. Or other theaters as well. Yes. Thank you.

04:53Thank you. General Langley I did have questions for you but I will put them in

04:57the record. I thank you for your service as well. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

Mike Rounds Asks Military Official How Would Russia React To A US-China 'Conflict'

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