CNN host Erin Burnett appeared stunned Wednesday after a defense expert warned that the U.S. military is falling dangerously behind in modern warfare under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, pointed to a recent military exercise in which Ukrainian forces overwhelmed a U.S. Army unit.
“Ukraine’s unmanned systems force went up against a U.S. Army armored brigade combat team and tore them apart,” Jones said on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
Ukrainians involved in the exercise told Jones they “hadn’t seen such rich target sets since the beginning of the war in Ukraine back in February of 2022,” he added.
“That anecdote that Seth just told is very unsettling, by the way,” Burnett responded.
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Jones went on to warn that the Army and Marine Corps “have not fully adjusted” to the use of drones, artificial intelligence, and electronic warfare.
“This is what Secretary Driscoll was talking about,” he said on CNN Wednesday. “The U.S., I think, is actually behind.”
Retired Lt. Gen Ben Hodges also blasted the unexplained removal of senior officers, who he described as some of the military’s “toughest war fighters.”
“These people know they are the warrior ethos,” Hodges said. “So I don’t understand why the secretary sends them away.”
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