The United States has the greatest military force in human history. Its humanitarian capabilities, skills and scope are unmatched anywhere on the planet. Our job is to protect American lives and interests from threats around the globe, and it's become abundantly clear that in order to do that, we have to come up with a comprehensive plan for climate change.

The armed forces do not engage in wishful thinking. We make clear-eyed assessments of risk and size up threats before they strike. This means knowing your enemy and the battlefield. When landscapes change, so must we. That's why, earlier this month, we convened a bipartisan panel of military experts to examine the threat climate change poses to national security. And we're not the only ones concerned about this issue: just last week, the National Intelligence Council published a memo on the implications of climate change to our security at home and abroadAfter examining the science and the impacts, the conclusion of both our panel and the intelligence report was unanimous: Climate change presents serious risks to military readiness, operations and strategy. We simply must adapt.

One place we need to adapt is Hunter Army Airfield and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Southern Georgia. Hunter is the aerial launch platform for 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers, supporting nearby Fort Stewart and Hunter based non-divisional units.

The base boasts the longest runway on the Atlantic and a 350-acre aircraft parking area and the airfield is home to the largest helicopter unit in the Coast Guard. Sea level rise will increase the frequency, extent and depth of inundation at Hunter and nearby Savannah, the launch site for forces at Hunter and Stewart.

Kings Bay supports the Navy's Atlantic fleet of nuclear-powered submarines carrying ballistic or guided missiles. It is a critical part of the U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent.

Tidal flooding - which has increased by nearly a 1,000 percent since the 1960s - now affects these area's low-lying roadways, interfering with transport of personnel and supplies. A Category-1 hurricane currently exposes nearly half of the base to storm surges, with a significant part of the base vulnerable to flooding up to five feet. This is a conservative scenario. More dire - but no less possible - predictions suggest that in a few decades a larger storm could drown 95 percent of the base in 20 feet of water. It is not an overstatement to say that this would be catastrophic.

By 2050 major sections of the low-lying bases on the East and Gulf Coasts could be flooded for 10 to 25 percent of the year. Two Marine Corps camps, Lejeune in North Carolina and the Parris Island South Carolina, may be underwater for four months of the year. Langley Air Force Base and numerous Navy bases in the Hampton-Roads/Norfolk Virginia area face the same challenges. From bases in Maine to Hawaii, climate change poses a direct threat to our core abilities, operations and readiness.

Temperature records are now consistently broken month after month. Climate impacts are already worse than what was projected not long ago. We know that past climate trends are no longer an accurate predictor of what the future might hold, so planners would be wise to assume the current worst-case scenarios are actually modest. Our challenge is to plan for and avert a worst-case-scenario future by planning and acting now, without a complete grasp of all of the data, just as we do when facing adversaries in the field.

Climate change will test all of our capabilities as a nation - certainly including our military's bases, training, testing, and ability to mobilize and operate. In order to meet this challenge, planning for climate change must be integrated throughout our national security apparatus and infrastructure, allied nations where we have military installations, and with the civilian communities that are our neighbors.

When it comes to climate change, we need to leverage every resource and ally.

General Ronald Keys, US Air Force (retired) and Brigadier General Gerald Galloway, US Army (retired) are both members of the Advisory Board at the Center for Climate and Security, and authors of "Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military's Mission.