The commander of the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command emphatically said China will continue preying on U.S. technology secrets, especially those having to do with aerospace technologies, to close its huge technology gap with the U.S.

General Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle, Commander of the Air Combat Command, warned the U.S. Congress' House Armed Services Committee the U.S. must remain vigilant against unceasing Chinese cyberattacks aimed at stealing U.S. secret technologies.

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 "They've watched our success and they know how good we are ... They'll steal technology so they avoid the challenges that we faced," said Gen. Carlisle about China.

"The lead we have is shrinking as our near peer adversaries, and countries with which they proliferate, have developed, likely stolen, and fielded state-of-the-art systems."

Gen. Carlisle said many of China's leaps in military aerospace technology were obtained through dubious means. The results of this unrelenting spying are clear enough for the U.S. to be alarmed.

The general gave proof to this claim by showing how similar China's J-31 stealth fighter is to the US' F-35 Lightning II, even in its design.

The Air Combat Command that Gen. Carlisle heads is the primary force provider of non-nuclear global strike combat aircraft to America's warfighting commands. It operates fighter, attack, reconnaissance, combat search and rescue, air battle management and electronic combat aircraft along with command, control, computing, communications and intelligence (C4I) systems, and conducts global information operations.

Gen. Carlisle also said stolen U.S. secrets have enabled China and Russia to develop counter technologies to American air power.

"It now comes as no surprise that our near peer adversaries' capabilities have been modernized to specifically counter and negate American capabilities," Gen. Carlisle pointed out.

"Many other nations, Russia and China in particular, copy very well. Original thought, they're not as good."

Gen. Carlisle said China and Russia are creating threats to U.S. aerial superiority that include the development of their own 5th generation fighters, anti-satellite weapons and new surface-to-air weapon systems that might be able to acquire, track, and target the U.S.' stealth aircraft such as the F-35.

TagsU.S. Air Force, Air Combat Command, General Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle, spying, hacking, china