China is America’s Military Equal Now And In Any Future Fight, Marine General Warns

Key Points:

• Lt. Gen. Stephen Sklenka, USMC Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics, emphasized that China is not just a near-peer but a full peer threat to the U.S., with ambitions to supplant American global leadership.
• Sklenka highlighted China’s massive industrial and military buildup, including shipbuilding capacity 230 times that of the U.S., rapid expansion of nuclear submarines and missile arsenals, and use of AI and drone swarms for innovative warfare.
• Drawing lessons from ongoing conflicts with Iran, Sklenka warned that future conflicts with China would be far more severe, stressing that U.S. military bases must be treated as warfighting formations vulnerable to both kinetic and non-kinetic attacks.
• He called for urgent upgrades to base defenses, including counter-drone systems, resilient power, hardened infrastructure, and integrated base defense, noting that future wars will involve fighting for control of installations, not just from them.
• Sklenka also stressed the importance of preparing for cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, and drone swarms targeting U.S. bases, underscoring the need to rethink and transform military logistics and infrastructure to meet modern warfare challenges.