Security Threats to United States Broaden, Deepen
New threat capabilities are reaching more militaries and smaller adversaries. And, these threats will reach farther and with greater impact.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that both the U.S. military and the homeland face similar national security threats in the coming years. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, USA, told the audience at Joint Warfighting 2012 in Virginia Beach that threats to national security will not come just from advanced militaries, so non-military responses must be a part of defense efforts. "We face a far more competitive security environment in which our overmatch over adversaries has diminished," Gen. Dempsey declared. He explained that destructive weapons are moving horizontally across militaries, reaching more forces in many countries. And, many destructive weapons also are moving vertically down to nonstate actors. This trend spreads the threat across the spectrum and increases vulnerabilities. The general added that the U.S. homeland will not be the sanctuary it has been before. Many of the global capabilities that underpin the U.S. military are operated from the homeland, so attacks on the cyber infrastructure or the power grid could disrupt military operations globally.
