News that the USS Zumwalt is being retrofitted to house the United States' first shipborne hypersonic weapon raises questions about whether it will be enough to deter Beijing, Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax Sunday.
"The real question is, Is this a horse race?" Sadler, appearing with China expert Gordon Chang on Newsmax's "Sunday Report," commented, noting that the plan to retrofit the ship goes back to President-elect Donald Trump's first term in office.
"It's taken this long, unfortunately, because of, I guess, indecisive leadership and financing on the plan," said Sadler. "But of course, this needs to be based on sound naval architecture and engineering … I think it is a bit better to view this as a stepping stone to something more substantial in future naval platforms like a future destroyer."
The retrofit will allow the Zumwalt to conduct fast and precision strikes from greater distances, and comes as the United States is under added pressure after recent tests by China and Russia to hasten the development of hypersonic weapons, which has been underway for the past 20 years, reported The Associated Press.
Chang told Newsmax that China "has 232 times the shipbuilding capability of the United States," but the problem with the U.S. Navy isn't the number of ships or weapons it has, but its leadership.
"We have seen real problems in the Navy, even more so than in the other services," he said. "All the U.S. services are broken except for the Marine Corps, but the Navy probably is the most broken. And what it's going to take is new leadership. It's going to take new admirals, and it's going to take a new sense of purpose."
The lack of leadership has also created shortfalls in platforms and weapons, said Chang.
"China is basically now in a superior position to the U.S. when it comes to a conflict in East Asia."
Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of Defense, will bring "a lot to the table," said Sadler.
"I think his big mission is going to be restoring the morale and galvanizing the leadership in the Pentagon," he said. "It's heartening to see that President Trump this early has already named his secretary of the Navy ... this is going to be a long haul fight to catch up with the Chinese and to make sure that they stay deterred."
Chang and Sadler also commented on Trump's pick of Massad Boulos to serve as his senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
"What we do know so far in the public reporting is he's Lebanese American, has lots of roots in the Middle East," said Sadler. "He's not a stranger to the Trump family. So that all is very good for Trump and to bring together a tight team that's going to have to operate very quickly and effectively together."
Chang added that Trump had "historic accomplishments" in the Middle East, particularly with the Abraham Accords, and now that he's been elected, he can build on those "despite four years where the Biden administration refused to carry forward on those important initiatives."
With information from The Associated Press.
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