President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law a $717 billion defense spending bill that puts China in the crosshairs of a host of new US Navy missiles and tactics.
The US Navy will get new, longer-range missiles to outgun China’s missiles, which can get clean shots on US ships well before US missiles have them in range.
The US used to have missiles for long-range ship-sinking but abandoned them at the end of the Cold War. The new spending bill marks their return — and the return to preparing for fights with big navies.
The US Navy also has some new tactics in store for China, hoping to align the region against its aspirations of hegemony.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law a $717 billion defense spending bill that puts China in the crosshairs of a host of new US Navy missiles and tactics.
Beijing heavily protested it and may have scored some small concessions, but the bill puts nearly $1 trillion behind the idea that great power strategic competition has returned and that the US seeks to win it.
The increase in spending comes as China has increasingly edged out the US Navy’s competitive advantage in open waters. The US suffers a missile gap with both Russia and China, meaning those countries have longer-range missiles designed to sink massively valuable platforms like aircraft carriers before they can get close.
The US drifted from a focus on fighting near-peer adversaries like China and Russia after the Cold War, as military planners banked on continued US supremacy to limit potential adversaries to non-state actors and rogue states.