According to Austin, he has spent most of the past two decades “executing the last of the old wars”, amid the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
United States Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said in his first major speech that the US and its allies should prepare for a new type of military conflict.
“The way we fight the next major war is going to look very different from the way we fought the last ones,” Austin said on Friday at the change of command for US Indo-Pacific Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Austin pointed at the rapid rate of technological advances, saying they would require “changes in the work we do to keep the United States secure across all five domains of potential conflict – not just air, land and sea, but also space and cyberspace”.
“They mean we need new capacities and operational flexibility for the fights of the future.”
Austin did not mention any particular country as an adversary in particular, however, the outgoing commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Philip Davidson, who was speaking after Austin, pointed at China.
