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Mr. Craig Singleton
Subcommittee on Europe will come to order. The purpose of this hearing is to examine the scope of Russia's and China's hybrid warfare tactics in Europe and to assess policy solutions to support U.S. interests. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war. As the world enters a new age of fifth-generation warfare, malign actors, including the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, are stopping at nothing at undermining our United States and our allies. The rules of engagement are changing before our eyes. Hybrid warfare is in full effect. Across Europe, governments are facing newfound threats. that were once considered unimaginable, blatant violations of airspace, weaponized migration, intricate sabotage of infrastructure, crippling cyber intrusions, and more. Taken together, these actions point to a simple reality. We are at war, even if it is not declared in the traditional sense. The MAD concept, Mutual Assured Destruction, does not apply in this gray zone conflict. We don't know where the line of kinetic conflict lies between the great powers. But what is hybrid warfare? What are these new threats? According to NATO, hybrid warfare is the combination of military and non-military as well as covert and overt means, including disinformation, cyber attacks, economic pressure, deployment of irregular armed forces, and use of regular forces. Hybrid models are used to blur the lines between war and peace and attempt to sow doubt in the minds of target populations. They aim to destabilize and undermine whole societies. While the nature of these threats remains fluid and are changing by the day, I would simply describe the strategy being employed by Russia and PRC through the DIME framework.
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Mr. Craig Singleton
They're using diplomatic information, military, and economic means to intimidate, harass, and sabotage NATO members, states, institutions, and societies. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, these newfound strategies employed by Moscow and Beijing have only increased in intricacy and persistence across Europe. It is vital that this subcommittee identifies, analyzes, and acts accordingly to address these emerging threats today to ensure a more secure tomorrow. In the air, drone incursions over major civilian travel hubs in addition to military installations remain a safety, security, and intelligence challenge. The results of these drone sightings have been chaos for governments and passengers, with airports having to temporarily shut down, with authorities still struggling to grapple with this emerging threat. Just this past September, Polish and other NATO aircraft shot down several Russian drones that entered Poland's airspace, and NATO F-35 fighter jets intercepted Russian MiG-31 fighters violating the airspace of Estonia. Overall, this increase of malign aerial activity has heightened tensions, especially on NATO's eastern flank, that has exponentially increased the potential for future kinetic conflict. On the ground, Russia, particularly through its GRU intelligence service, is conducting a range of conventional and nonconventional sabotage schemes. These schemes include arson attacks on commercial hubs like shopping malls, the sabotage of railways to cause derailments, the severing of underwater power and communications cables, and the smuggling of illicit items and disruption of airspace using weather balloons. While the malign actions range in sophistication and effect, The objective of the Federal Federation is to cause general chaos and damage, not just against strategic targets, but across all areas of society.
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Mr. Craig Singleton
In cyberspace, Russia and PRC are running rampant, targeting governments, businesses, and private citizens across Europe. According to a report from Microsoft, cyberattacks emanating from the Russian Federation against NATO countries has increased 25 percent year over year. I suspect that's low. These attacks target critical infrastructure, government services, financial services, transportation systems, energy, healthcare sectors of NATO members. Similarly, the PRC is unleashing its own state-sponsored hackers, including Salt Typhoon, in addition to continued efforts to embed its own technology throughout key areas of the European economy. Last week, two technology companies based in China were sanctioned by the UK for dangerous and indiscriminate cyber attacks that were carried out against 80 government and private industry IT systems. Frankly, to our witnesses, your written testimonies lend absolute credibility to the fact that we are at war. I wish I could assign them as required reading for a significant segment of the American population. Every nation in Western civilization needs to understand the breadth and the depth of China burrowing into Western national defense backbone and infrastructure just how much China controls. I believe the sovereign nations of the West are awake to the danger. We now need to accelerate our ridding of the West of Chinese influence and control. I look forward to your testimony today. We hope that you can provide this committee with concrete policy recommendations on addressing these hybrid threats that threaten U.S. interests. With that, I recognize the ranking member, Mr. Keating.
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Ms. Laura Cooper
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Russia and China's hybrid warfare in Europe poses one of the most significant threats to transatlantic unity and security since the fall of the Soviet Union. While Russian and PRC tactics are not new, they are enduring. And in recent months, we've seen Lithuanian authorities indict 15 individuals for an alleged Russian plot to blow up mail parcels on aircraft reportedly inbound to the U.S. and Canada.
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