Carrier-Killer

From time to time, transformative military technologies emerge that can prove to be game-changers on the battlefield and beyond. In the past, for example, machine guns, tanks, and poison gas have inspired and enabled aggression.

Now, China is believed to have deployed a ballistic missile capable of destroying U.S. aircraft carriers at sea over great distances. When combined with other anti-ship and space-control weaponry, the Chinese may be able to neutralize the huge mobile airfields that have for decades enabled America to safeguard its interests and allies throughout the Pacific.

Loose talk about a “pivot” to Asia – made all the more unlikely by the so-called sequestration budget cuts – must not be allowed to obscure, let alone preclude, a national debate about the rising threat from China, and what to do about it.