CARLISLE, Pa. (WHTM) – U.S. Senator Dave McCormick advocated for more defense spending in an interview for This Week in Pennsylvania during his Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle.

The summit hosted businesses and leaders in the world of technology, business, government, and education at the U.S. Army War College earlier this month.

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While advocating for more spending, McCormick says the country needs to change how its spending money on defense toward forward-looking technologies, while continuing to increase spending on defense to maintain national security.

“Well, first of all, we need to spend whatever it takes to achieve the mission. What is the mission? The mission is to keep America secure. The mission is to keep our young men and women safe. So if we spend 3% of GDP on defense or 3.5% of GDP or 4%, I don’t think you’d care, if you were safe. If we spent 3% and China became the dominant figure in the world, you’d care. So in other words, it’s one of the few things that I can look at you and say, this is government’s job.”

McCormick says the defense industry supplies 190,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, and the state’s energy resources and universities make the state an even better partner for businesses.

“The world’s changing really quickly,” McCormick said. “Our adversaries are focused on America and taking leadership in the world. The nature of war is changing with drones, and autonomy, and AI, and robots. And the defense budget is going up dramatically. And I’m watching all that and I’m saying, America essentially needs to reinvent defense industrial base, it needs to take advantage of these new technologies, and Pennsylvania should be the point of the spear.”

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Every week, “This Week in Pennsylvania” gives a comprehensive look at the week’s biggest news events in Pennsylvania, provided by the abc27 News team, along with the latest updates on local stories.

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