Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Oct. 14 called President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion national defense budget “absolutely critical,” warning of a potentially historic military buildup by China.
“We’ve got a near peer adversary who’s building a military, the most historic military buildup potentially in world history,” Hegseth said during a panel at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting in Washington.
“That’s not hyperbole, that’s just an objective truth.”
Hegseth said advances in autonomy, robotics, space, and artificial intelligence could widen the gap between countries leading in those technologies and those falling behind. …