Chief of Naval Operations:More Attention to Deterrence Needed Across the Warfighting Domains

The Chief of Naval Operations,ADM John Richardson,spoke to a breakfast meeting of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on 2 July 2019 in Washington,DC.On nuclear deterrence,ADM Richardson noted:
The nuclear triad remains the foundation of our military strength.It's an incredibly powerful military capability where potentially everybody gets destroyed.We must maintain our ability to be competitive and relevant in this domain...(and to be able to) strike back at anybody who can pose an existential threat to the homeland.
More nations are seeking to join the club.The nuclear element of this mix remains very relevant,very active,and deserves more attention,in my mind.*
ADM Richardson said the US should accelerate the effort to build a cost-effective,credible successor to the Trident II D5 missile.Some nations are developing high tech nuclear weapons,while others are pursuing low tech weapons such as dirty bombs and systems manufactured with 3-D printers.*
On cyber warfare:
We have to have an ability for offensive cyber to truly achieve a sense of deterrence here.*
On space warfare:
The competition is absolutely heating up in space.Of these elements that are going to constitute a tailored strategic deterrent approach,space has got to be one of those.These things operate really fast...and space goes away as an asset.You can see a kind of mutually assured destruction scenario in space pretty easily.Have we thought about that going forward?*
Chemical/biological warfare:
One of the self-deterrent aspects of Chem/Bio is that it's very hard to control.It goes viral,if you will.But with these tailored things,you can get a lot more specific.It becomes a lot more targetable.And so it's something that we have to (keep in) mind.*
Conventional warfare:
We have better sensors,better satellites,better ways to connect that data with our command and control systems,our targeting systems.We had an advantage in terms of precision.The idea of being able to locate things is becoming more ubiquitous.It's less of an advantage.It's really the team that can manage that information better that's going to achieve the advantage.*