Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, Roth told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the Air and Space Forces continue to recalibrate their practices, personnel and policies to address “peer adversaries” after years focusing primarily on terrorism.
“Long-term strategic competition with China and Russia demands that we focus on the capabilities we need today to win tomorrow,” Roth told the subcommittee in his opening statement. “Our nation’s competitive strategic advantage relies on air and space superiority, which is underpinned by rapid technological advancement and the extension of space as a warfighting domain.”
Testifying before the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is the first and one of the most important steps in determining how much funding the Air and Space Forces will receive in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. But because Congress has not yet received detailed spending proposals from any federal agency, the questions during Friday’s two-hour session were more general than in a typical year.