by Anders Hagstrom at Yahoo! News
China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal is the most “disturbing” development that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has seen in his decadeslong career, he told lawmakers Tuesday.
Kendall made the statement during a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. Kendall, with a 50-year U.S. military and defense career, says China’s development into a top-level nuclear power is a major issue.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything more disturbing in my career than the Chinese ongoing expansion of their nuclear force,” Kendall told lawmakers.
“For decades, they were quite comfortable with an arsenal of a few hundred nuclear weapons, which was fairly clearly a second-strike capability to act as a deterrent,” Kendall stated. “That expansion that they’re undertaking puts us into a new world that we’ve never lived in before, where you have three powers — three great powers, essentially — with large arsenals of nuclear weapons.”…
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