▶ 0:19:38We we uh ladies and gentlemen, we have to wait for a um member of the minority party to start. So, we'll start as soon as they get here.
▶ 0:21:41While we're waiting, just for everybody's information, um, Chair Bergman is in a VA markup that started at 10:00 a.m. this morning. They are rolling votes until the end. He hopes to be here uh somewhere shortly after 3:30, but uh he will be here as soon as they conclude.
▶ 0:23:49The subcommittee will come to order. Ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to clear a recess at any time without objection. So ordered. As I said, Chairman Bergman is in the Veterans Affairs Committee. I am going to read his opening statement now and then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Garandi for any opening statement that he may have. I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today to discuss the current state of our military readiness. Uh overall, the time is upon us to take credible steps in the Indopaccom area to deter future conflict.
▶ 0:24:16China's everexpanding military efforts threaten Indopaccom nations and destabilize the global norm. While I'm pleased that we took the first step toward addressing these Indopaccom threats in our reconciliation efforts last week, we need to be particularly critical of our existing forces and their troubling readiness levels. Aviation readiness, for example, has our aviation forces um especially problematic.
▶ 0:24:40If we have 100 aircraft but half the inventory is not available because of lack of parts, maintenance or personnel, we have really pushed forward and have we really pushed forward in changing the overall readiness. We need to significantly reform our approach to ensure our forces are not only ready in the next decade, but more importantly ready in the next year. As to the Army, I'm particularly concerned about their Indopaccom response. Efforts to reduce Army watercraft and lack of modernization of our ship toshore capabilities are specifically troubling.
▶ 0:25:09Additionally, the Army has significant guard and reserve mobilization concerns. We need to substantially improve manning, training, and material readiness of these forces and expand efforts to provide joint logistics to further deter future conflict. As to the Navy, we need to quickly reduce the 22,000 sailor shortage in our fleet, and we need to get our ships out of dry dock. Our inability to construct and maintain our submarine force is a national and international imperative.
▶ 0:25:35With our air force, it's hard to be a deterrent force when the overall aviation force structure will be diminished by almost 400 aircraft over the next 5 years. When this reduction is compounded with the reduced mission capable rates and demic across the enterprise, we appear to be going in the wrong direction. As to the space force, we find that their mission effectiveness is especially sensitive to their infrastructure readiness and their military manpower shortage put significant strain on a small but motivated cadre of Guardians.
▶ 0:26:03We need to ensure infrastructure redundancy is available with the right guardians to ensure mission success. And finally, my Marine Corps. At the heart of this amphibious ship conundrum is the Navy's inability to adequately support the amphibious force structure and their own assessment that 16 of the 32 amphibious ships are in unsatisfactory condition.
▶ 0:26:27Our amphibious forces are the bedrock of our 911 force and essential for the projection of power in the Indoaccom area. We need to realize the 80% surge ready vision for the entire fleet including our amphibious forces. To all of our witnesses, it is obvious that we all have much work to do. To all of our witnesses, it obvious work to do to credibly deter future conflict.
▶ 0:26:54I look forward to working with each of you to significantly improve the readiness of our military forces. I now now yield to my good friend and ranking member, Mr. Car Mandy, for any comments he may wish to offer. Thank you. I I know there's you're going to be shocked, but I do have a few things to say. First of all, I want to thank the uh the gentlemen that are here that are testifying. Thank you for the the briefings ahead of this uh meeting and and really thank you for your work.
▶ 0:27:24So, I'm going to go ahead and read this because I think it's rather important. This hearing is one of the most important that this subcommittee holds each and every year. While it's preferable to have it after the budget is released, I'm confident that we can still have a robust conversation about the chronic readiness issues facing your departments.
▶ 0:27:43What is unique about this year is that the reconciliation bill we marked up last week, should it ever become law, the Department of Defense would have an unprecedented amount of money to spend in the vicinity of a trillion dollars, perhaps even more extra 150 billion over the next decade. Even correcting for inflation, that's a lot of money.
▶ 0:28:07And I will have no patience for a narative narrative that tells me that you simply don't have enough money to find weapons maintenance, training, fuel, resiliency, housing, and infrastructure sustainment. No matter how much money you will get at the end of this process, there will never be enough to do everything. Certainly not the cost of the major weapons programs as they are current currently in the pipeline and and as they are currently expected to cost.
▶ 0:28:36But if we if we keep sacrificing sustainment on the altar of new and shiny, it's your and our service members who are going to pay the price. But this is a discussion for the next year. At this time, I want to talk about readiness and what it means. Now, we're in a moment where each of you is being asked to balance our past, present, and future sustainment needs.
▶ 0:29:03These witnesses know more than most that we are sustaining buildings and weapons and platforms far beyond their service life. And we must ensure that we have the parts, the people, and the equipment to continue that sustainment. We do not have it now. Earlier in this year, we heard from the go that you are still struggling to meet your own sustainment goals in almost every platform, whether it's ground, air, or naval vessels. And we just heard from the chairman about naval vessels.
▶ 0:29:33When I travel abroad, I hear the challenges our warf fighters are get have in getting the parts they need to keep these platforms flying. We euphemistically call these systems legacy systems. But these are the platforms our soldiers, our sailors and airmen and marines will use if we fight tonight. And it's our duty to ensure that we continue to sustain them while those platforms remain in service. We have not done a good job.
▶ 0:30:02Neither us in Congress nor you and your departments. When we talk about sust sustainment in the present, I think about my favorite platform, the F-35. We as Congress need to work with you to ensure that we have the data rights, that we have the data rights. Anybody listening out there from the private sector?
▶ 0:30:25The parts and the infrastructure to allow maintainers, or as it presently is for some, the contract maintainers to fix this incredibly expensive and presently underperforming platform. We cannot afford to fall behind on holding the contractors accountable to this nation's national security needs just so they can have an extra pretty penny.
▶ 0:30:53And I challenge us, particularly those of us on this committee, that this is our problem as well as the gentlemen before us. That brings me to the need to focus on sustainment in the future. the army. Well, you made a big announcement this last week about your efforts to modernize and transform. I'm delighted that you're doing that. I'm delighted that you're taking the lessons of Ukraine and other lessons into account. Good.
▶ 0:31:22And while I'm sure that we're going to argue about the details, I applaud that effort to modernize, to innovate, and to free all of us from the burdensome procurement processes that too often are used to buy new weapon systems that are often too expensive, too hard to sustain, and late to need. As the readiness ranking member, I would be remiss if I did not counsel you to not forget about the sustainment tail on each and every one of these systems.
▶ 0:31:52General Mingus, I'm talking to you specifically, but I know the other four of you are in the same process. And if you go forward without talking about sustainment, without building into the contracts, whatever that might be, and into your own programming the necessity sustain, we talked to the Air Force about you still have not built the depos.
▶ 0:32:22I'm not finished. For too long, we've built the sustainment cost or plans into contracts with the big defense contractors and it hasn't been done. In addition to incorporating additive manufacturing, data packaging for maintenance and predictive maintenance into these contracts, I want to hear from you about how you are thinking about sustainability in the future in a contested environment and prior to a contested environment.
▶ 0:32:52While we are modernizing the way we fight, we must modernize how we think about sustainment and how to get parts, people, and the fuel to the point of need. My favorite members on the acquisition subcommittees, we need to whack them across the side of the head and say, "Guys, you buy it. We're left to see that it's sustained." Okay.
▶ 0:33:19I want to shift briefly to an issue that's the top of all of our minds. Resiliency. This subcommittee uh when I was chairman and then later uh when Michael Wash was chairman, we took resiliency seriously and we had plenty examples. Earthquake at China Lake, several billion dollars.
▶ 0:33:45Air Force bases on the coast in Florida, five billion dollars. And the Air Force didn't want to listen, nor did my colleagues want to listen about, you're going to build right back where you had the previous hurricane. Are you betting on no hurricane for the next 50 years? Did I mention Camp Lleune? I think I had the Marine Corps. Resiliency becomes critically important. Anybody from Texas around here?
▶ 0:34:10Shall we talk about the big These are critical issues and I know that the current administration has designated resiliency along with DEI and if there's any mention of resiliency it seems as though it's verboten and you're not supposed to talk it or do it and you're supposed to get rid of it. Stupid. Really stupid.
▶ 0:34:34So I want us to spend and I hope we will spend considerable time talking about resiliency in all of its various formats and in all of its various ways in which it affects re uh readiness. Another uh area that's been corrupted by ide ideology is the energy. A whole lot of people think this is the greening of our military bases. Well, it is in part and that's not a bad thing.
▶ 0:35:03It would be a good thing if we could do operational energy issues and reduce the cost of fuel by putting in some sort of a uh green energy system or maybe it's a nuclear energy system. All of those things are possible. But this is more than greening. This is ability of that base to continue to operate when the power is down. We don't have a massive nationwide shutdown of power yet.
▶ 0:35:31But we've had our regional shutdown and each of your facilities when that happens has been affected. So how do you deal with that? Operational energy. We need to think about that. We need to make sure that that's part of what we're doing forward. Advanced batteries, thermal energy, all kinds of ways it can be done. And each of you operate in different uh geographic and u environmental areas and it and the solution varies.
▶ 0:36:00But at least for me and I hope for this committee, we continue to talk about operational energy in the sustainment, the readiness, the resiliency. There's many many other things. I'm going to shut this down. Mr. Chairman, you've been generous.
▶ 0:36:15You guys have an each each of you have an extremely important task and I know that uh you're thinking about all that you have to do but ultimately it comes down to is your organization ready to go tonight or tomorrow or in 2027. What do you need to do that?
▶ 0:36:38I will do everything and I'm sure this committee will do everything it possibly can to encourage you to be ready in every way that that word applies. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the time. Yes, sir. General Mingus, um, five minutes. Keep it close, please, sir. Representative Scott, uh, Ranking Member Garamundi, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. The Army stands ready to defend our nation.
▶ 0:37:07Right now, over 110,000 soldiers are deployed or forward stationed across 140 countries, executing missions that deter, defend, and provide immediate response options. However, being forward doesn't guarantee we're ahead. Our adversaries are adapting faster than our processes, and our army cannot afford to treat readiness, modernization, and force structure as separate conversations.
▶ 0:37:29The Army is building a force that is leaner, more lethal, and equipped to operate in contested domains with speed and precision under transformation in contact or tick. We are enhancing our tactical networks, rapidly fueling UAS, counter UAS, electronic warfare systems, increasing mobility across our formations. In the last 10 months, TIK delivered 11 new capabilities and technologies to war fighters across the 101st, 25th, 10th Mountain, and the 34th Infantry Division.
▶ 0:37:57in FY25 and 26 will expand this effort to entire divisions and beyond i.e. tick 2.0. The army transformation initiative or ATI expands this transformation in contact. It allows us to restructure formations to dominate future battlefields while also advancing the development and delivery of critical capabilities and end programs that no longer deliver value.
▶ 0:38:20Under ATI, we are accelerating the delivery of our new M1 E3 tank, our next future vertical lift, the next generation command and control. We're closing the long-standing gaps in counter UAS, expanding integrated air defense, and bringing long range hypersonic capability. This year, ATI also includes a plan for how we fund and field those systems with more agile and responsive funding tools to keep pace with operational demand and technological advancement.
▶ 0:38:47Lastly, we're expanding our magazine depth by continuing to modernize our organic industrial base. To ensure the systems and munitions we produce are sustained at scale, however, weapons and equipment do not define readiness, soldiers do. And the Army is making targeted investments to ensure that they can focus on their mission. New barracks construction modernization efforts are replacing outdated housing.
▶ 0:39:10Dining facilities are being updated to provide more flexible nutritious options and holistic health and fitness program or H2F in beds directly into our units to ensure peak human performance. Recruiting it remains a priority. The Army exceeded its goal in 24 with over 55,000 and it's targeted 61,000 this year. At the As of this morning, we at 56,279 in the door.
▶ 0:39:34That's 92% of mission and we still have four months to go which means we're starting to build our depth our delayed entry program already this year. And I'll end on budget. The Army is being asked to do more with less and we've reached a point where we is no longer possible. With no budget increases to offset inflation and reduce buying power, the rising costs and paying allowances consume our topline. What's left is no longer enough to modernize the force or sustain our infrastructure required at the pace. The army essentially has three levers.
▶ 0:40:03and strength, readiness, and modernization. Over the past few years, the Army's had to cut billions from our modernization budget, and as a result, procurement is reduced to minimum sustainable rates, delaying fielding of new material to formations and research and development is slowing down. The reality is the Army can afford a large, ready, or modern force, but with the current budget, it cannot afford all three. Thus, Army Transformation Initiative. We are making difficult trades to preserve combat power and ensure we're ready to dominate the next fight.
▶ 0:40:33But we can't close the gaps just through ATI alone. So, we are asking for the means to keep pace with the demands the nation places on us and the threats we know are coming. With the right budget and flexibility within that budget, we still have time to make the right investments. Ultimately, this is about what kind of army we want to put in combat along with our joint partners. one that is postured to win or one that is constantly closing the gaps. That decision is being right being made right now and the consequences will last far beyond this year or next.
▶ 0:41:04Thank you and I look forward to your questions. Admiral Chairman B, sorry, Representative Scott, Ranking Member Garmendy, subcommittee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the readiness of the United States Navy. A ready Navy promotes the national security and prosperity of the United States. Your oversight and funding ensure that we are ready when the nation calls.
▶ 0:41:30In the past year alone, our sailors have defeated hundreds of drones and missiles and executed dozens of strikes in the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. They have strengthened alliances and deterred Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific. And they have supported operations on the southern border. and they have maintained an unbroken strategic deterrent with our ballistic missile submarines.
▶ 0:41:54In short, the Navy alongside and integrated with the joint force remains postured and ready to fight and win. But our adversaries are not resting and neither will we. We must improve with urgency. I've spoken to several of you about a sustained focus on adapting the mindset, skill set, and tool set to drive meaningful process improvement. Regarding our budget, consistent and predictable funding is foundational to our improvement efforts.
▶ 0:42:23At the time when we need to move faster to counter China and global instability, we are fiscally moving slower. Our priority remains our readiness accounts, which are most vulnerable under a fullear CR. We are hopeful OSD contingency funds will mitigate the Navy's most acute readiness needs. Despite these challenges, our Navy will maintain ready platforms, people, and infrastructure.
▶ 0:42:50We set an ambitious goal to make 80% of our ships, submarines, and aircraft combat surge ready by January 1st, 2027. To do that, we are reducing maintenance delays and improving manning, training, modernization, and sustainment. We are seeing progress. In the last year, we increased surface ship debo maintenance from 41% on time to completion to 68%. Unfortunately, this progress is not consistent across all platforms.
▶ 0:43:20I am not satisfied with amphibious ship maintenance. Our Navy and Marine Corps operate as a lethal integrated force and we have work to do here. Our second goal is recruiting and retaining talent. The Navy is committed to attracting and developing Americans who can innovate, solve hard problems, and dominate in combat.
▶ 0:43:39Thanks to process improvements and targeted investment, we contracted over 40,000 sailors last year, the most since 2003, and we are currently on pace to exceed our recruiting goals for FY25. We are also committed to improving quality of service. We have reduced weight list at child uh at our child development centers from 3,400 at the start of FY24 to 3,100 as of March of 2025.
▶ 0:44:07We reduced the pool of unaccompanied housing rooms rated as poor from 25% last year to 21%. And we'll reduce it further through focused investments and devestatures. We are focusing investment on critical infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific, targeting it where it has the most impact on our war fighters. The shipyard infrastructure optimization program is a once- ina century opportunity to improve effectiveness in our public yards.
▶ 0:44:35In closing, I am proud of the Navy's accomplishments in the past year, and I'm excited about the shift of thinking and propelling our nation's maritime rejuvenation. This whole of government and whole of nation effort is essential to our nation's security and prosperity. We have work to do to ensure we will remain the world's premier maritime force for another 250 years. Your leadership and support are critical in that imperative.
▶ 0:45:02On behalf of the sailors, civilians, and families around the world, I thank you and I look forward to your questions. General Mahoney. Good afternoon, Rep. Scott, and thank you. and ranking member Garmeny and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thanks for this opportunity to come and address you on Marine Corps readiness. I'm honored to represent the Marine Corps and have a discussion about a lot of the issues that were brought out in the opening statements.
▶ 0:45:28Since my testimony last year, your Marine Corps has continued to progress and refine our force design plan, which is seven budget cycles deep, and we have refined that plan with our campaign of learning. Our airground task force remain the centerpiece of our crisis response capabilities right on through conflict. We're modernizing our force to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield. As directed by our comedant, we have balanced our modernization capabilities with our ability to respond in the here and now.
▶ 0:45:58Their ability to respond to crisis and conflict tonight. This balance ensures that the over 30,000 Marines forward postured and forward deployed, the vast majority of them in the Indopaccom region are trained and ready to support the combatant commanders competition campaign as well as deter and deny global threats and when necessary fight our nation's battles.
▶ 0:46:22Whether acting as the forward eyes and ears as the joint force standing in in the first island chain or operating with our newest allies in the high north or securing our southern border, your Marines are ready to operate as the song says in any climate place to protect our nation's interest integrated with the fleet and the joint force. But there remain challenges to our war fighting readiness. The most acute detractors, one of which is the absence of predictable funding. for 14 out of the last 15 years.
▶ 0:46:51As everybody here knows, we have operated under continuing resolution for some part of the year and this year for the for the um for an entire year. Uh as CRS have persisted through each year, the lack of on time and predictable funding has hampered our ability to carry out a business plan uh and has constrained our ability to balance that readiness with modernization. The next is a lack of amphibious ship availability which has already been discussed as well.
▶ 0:47:19We have a late to need absence of organic latoral mobility which prevents the movement, maneuver and sustainment of our standing forces at the point of contest at the point of friction and inhibits the flexibility to sustain those forces. These last two capability gaps elevate risk and degrade force readiness across the conflict continuum. We are working closely with our shipmates in the Navy and across the department of the Navy to address the shortfalls with amphib and latoral mobility.
▶ 0:47:48We appreciate in particular this commit subcommittee's continued support in re reinvigorating the maritime industrial base and working towards on time and predictable funding to support these efforts. Despite these challenges, your Marine Corps remains ready. Our personnel, maintenance, supply, training readiness remains strong, just as you might expect. In both recruiting and retention, the Marine Corps has made mission and exceeded expectations in 24. And you heard it here first. We'll do it again this year.
▶ 0:48:17I cannot say enough about the excellence and discipline of our recruiting force who continue to do what others say may not be possible and that is making mission year after year and never compromising standards which is something we will never do. That discipline together with consistent funding remain the key ingredients of our high state of readiness. Our unprecedented second unmodified audit opinion is evidence of this dis of this discipline. And I can tell you from firsthand experience this was no small undertaking. And you also heard it here first.
▶ 0:48:46We'll get the hat-tick this year in a in a clean opinion. With your support for resources, we will work to restore the state of our barracks to a state that our Marines and sailors deserve. Marine Corps is appreciative of the continued congressional assistance support of the comedon's priorities, which are creating an and enduring total force readiness. With your advocacy, we'll sustain our current and future readiness to maintain the honor of being first to fight. I appreciate your attention. I'm happy to answer your questions.
▶ 0:49:18General Spain, Representative Scott, Ranking Member Garmendy, and members of the subcommittee, like the others, I thank you for the opportunity this hearing provides to talk about the elements of readiness for the Air Force. The four primary pillars being parts and supply, people, flying and training, and current infrastructure. To these, I would add elements for future readiness, rebuilding via acquisitions, long-term sustainment, and recruiting and retention at a relevant pace and scale. All in a way that reflects our shared purpose.
▶ 0:49:48I can confident confidently state that America's air force stands ready and able to defend the homeland, ensure a robust nuclear deterrent via our two legs of the nuclear triad, and project power around the world to deter and win as the nation requires. It's our solemn duty, and your airmen are ready. It is also a fact that today's airmen will do so with the oldest airplanes, the smallest force, and with fewer monthly flying hours than at any point in our history. Airmen have and always will get the job done. But today, they do so at elevated risk.
▶ 0:50:18Meanwhile, China's military forces are expanding and modernizing. Their nuclear modernization, longrange missile proliferation, and recent test flights of two sixg aircraft is simply further evidence of the elevated threat in this strategic environment. Conflict is certainly not desirable, nor is it inevitable, but it is our responsibility to be prepared should diplomacy or deterrence fail. Often we have focused on the individual elements of readiness and not how they must be synchronized to create a warfighting capability over time.
▶ 0:50:48Even in this hearing, we will likely talk about individual programs and individual projects, all of which are very important. But the previous strategic environment, mostly permissive and without a significant challenger, allowed us the luxury of segmented attention, priority, and risk. Today's strategic environment does not. Today's readiness requires a synchronized approach, the right parts, and the right maintainers and the right support infrastructure and the right qualified air crew and all in the right balance.
▶ 0:51:18And not or a shortfall in any of these accounts can negate investments in the others. Many of our past decisions were appropriate given the previous strategic environment and associated budgets, but no longer. So, within the Air Force, we've taken deliberate steps to see this for what it is and do something about it. We've specifically prioritized parts and supply and the flying hour program. We have also reconnected our manpower and infrastructure priorities directly to core readiness outcomes in both our processes and our data.
▶ 0:51:47It's our intent to maintain focus and priority on these pillars to strengthen our readiness and improve our lethality. and we're moving out. I'm grateful for this committee and the broader Congress's support. I look forward to your questions and to working with you to deliberately improve our current and future readiness posture and undeniably retain our position as the world's greatest air force. Thank you, General Goodline.
▶ 0:52:09Thank you, Representative Scott, Ranking Member Gari, and all the distinguished members of this subcommittee for allowing me the opportunity to discuss the United States Space Force with you and with the American people today. The space force underpins our nation's capabilities within the joint force, within our economy, and within society as a whole.
▶ 0:52:29In our first five years of existence, we have validated the importance of the space force as a service and made remarkable progress in building an agile mission focused organization that grasps the magnitude of the threat. We have established our identity, developed doctrine, and taken significant steps to integrate space power into joint operations. As a result, our military is faster, better connected, more informed, precise, and lethal because of our ability to harness space.
▶ 0:52:57The world's use of space is growing at an accelerating rate. And as access to and use of space grows, the strategic landscape in space is becoming increasingly complex and perilous, even compared to our other warfighting domains. Our competitors are jamming GPS signals, spoofing and disrupting satellite communications, and developing advanced anti-satellite weapons. Unfortunately, these unsafe and unprofessional behaviors have become the norm rather than the exception.
▶ 0:53:25They create an increasingly hostile environment for the space domain capabilities essential to our security and prosperity and put at risk the continued freedoms to which we have become accustomed. To meet these challenges, the Space Force is accelerating our transformation as a war fighting service through our theory of success, competitive endurance. Competitive endurance is the bedrock of our ability to deter and if necessary, defeat our adversaries.
▶ 0:53:51This approach ensures we avoid operational surprise, deny first mover advantage, and engage in responsible counterpace campaigning. All of which result in bolstering the deterrence of attacks against US An essential requirement supporting competitive endurance is guardian development. We are focused on purpose-built training to meet the unique needs of the United States Space Force.
▶ 0:54:14Our guardians are dedicated professionals, and we must ensure they have the the necessary training, the resources, and unwavering commitment to continue to serve and face these threats head on. At only 3% of the budget and 1% of the personnel, the Space Force offers an immense an immense value proposition for our nation. However, it is woefully underresourced to meet the demands for space capabilities placed on it by our combatant commanders and by the nation.
▶ 0:54:43We must increase investments to deter the threat and if necessary to fight decisively defeat challenges to US superiority. The strategic choices we make today will determine whether space remains a domain for peace and progress or becomes a contested battleground for future conflict. Achieving this vision requires a shared commitment to providing the Space Force with the resources, the authorities, and the support necessary to meet the growing challenges of the space war fighting domain.
▶ 0:55:10On behalf of all guardians and their families, thank you for your support and resolute commitment to ensuring the Space Force remains a cornerstone of joint force lethality and protecting the American way of life. I look forward to working with all of you and I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Um, we're we're now going to move to questions. I'm going to stay on the clock. The ranking member has agreed to stay on the clock and we're going to keep others on the clock as well so that we can get to everybody's questions. I'm going to start with you, General Mingus.
▶ 0:55:40U in the US Army 18X, I don't need a long statement on this, but uh obviously this is a great way to get the right people uh both high school and college athletes who typically have uh better grades or in better shape than than average uh into our pipeline. Uh you've heard my concerns and that if you're an athlete uh especially if you're a D1 athlete, you've probably got some injuries in your past.
▶ 0:56:06and the uh my concern is the Genesis program disqualifying people from service under the 18X program. Can you speak to how we would improve the MEPS review process to enable uh more of these athletes uh with minor recoverable injuries into the 18X program? Yes, sir. Uh first of all, we're exceeding expectations this year for the 18 X-ray for the first time in several years.
▶ 0:56:34Second is talking to Lieutenant General Johnny Davis. He personally looks at every one of those uh that comes in through the if it requires a waiver. And so it has his personal attention to make sure that because I've heard the horror stories too. My son just went through it uh going into into the Coast Guard for a rowing injury. And so we are very cognizant of the fact that we've got some great athletes out there that may have had a bump or a bruise growing up that we need to take a hard look. So he is personally looking at every single one of those. Great.
▶ 0:57:00General Spain, uh, General, uh, Goodline, I want to come uh, spectrum. We talk about space a lot, but spectrum is something that we don't talk about that much. Uh, we cannot win the future wars without both the space capabilities and access to spectrum. Can you describe the operational impact to the Air Force of sharing or even potentially losing the spectrum in the 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz range? Yes sir.
▶ 0:57:30Thanks for the question and appreciate the opportunity to talk on the spectrum issue. I think it's important to understand that virtually all of our radars exist in one of the uh necessary uh ranges of the spectrum that are critical for war fighting capability. Whether that's sensing, sense making uh or target tracking, they exist uh in our airborne platforms and our groundbased radar platforms.
▶ 0:57:53uh we are certain we understand the the demand from industry and we understand uh the draw to that ban to those bands from industry and the and the profit potential there. Uh but we need to study the impacts to war fighting readiness and training ability and our ability to test against advanced threats within those uh domains as well. Representative, the electromagnetic spectrum security is foundational to the way we achieve military security.
▶ 0:58:24We have spent decades building capabilities in those spectrums that you've talked about. Whether that be our radars, our deep space radars, our strategic communications, etc. That would take decades, if not longer, and billions of dollars to replace those national capabilities that we rely on vitally every single day. General Goodline. Uh when we talk about readiness in space, it's not just availability of a platform, but also taskability of that system.
▶ 0:58:51For space-based ISR platforms spanning national, commercial, and now service specific ownership, how are you integrating and deconlicting the task across those platforms to meet the military intelligence and national intelligence priorities? Representative, thank you for that question. And I would say it varies across sensor platform. If you look at our uh legacy systems, we deconlict those by different domains and different weapon systems.
▶ 0:59:15As we move into the more modern systems, our commercial systems are deconlicted by what we call a joint commercial operation cell where we bring all the providers together to make sure we deconlict the taskings and we don't duplicate effort. If you come forward into the new generation resilient radar system that we're building with the national reconnaissance office, we are starting to do deconliction through artificial intelligence and machine learning. If you look at the systems that we're going to field within the next five years, they're all going to be based on artificial intelligence, machine learning.
▶ 0:59:43We will deconlict artificial automatically in a machineto-achine type manner. Okay. Uh General Spain, just very very briefly in the last 40 seconds, just a couple of tangible ways that we could help the air force recovery readiness at a at a faster pace than we currently are. Yes sir.
▶ 0:59:59Understanding the time uh restriction the the biggest thing is in sustainment which was mentioned in some of the opening comments infusion into sustainment is going to pay the most immediate dividends uh for the services in our older and aging uh weapon systems. We appreciate any uh any help on that front and certainly a right to repair and the ability to uh fix our own airplanes as they get older would be uh very helpful. Thank you sir. Thank you gentlemen. Uh Mr. Gendy, five minutes.
▶ 1:00:29I'd like to follow up on all of what you said. Um, I'm curious about deconliction until the hits the fan. Then what happens? Is it really going to get deconlicted? Uh, a big issue. And yeah, I'd like to have a little faster service on my iPhone here, but uh I think there's something far more important that you're doing that we need to pay attention to. So for the commercial FE folks, you're not going to get sympathy here. Navy amphibs raised earlier.
▶ 1:00:59Uh 80% of your ships are going to be available to go to sea. Really? How are you going to get that done? What money do you need to do that? What uh facilities do you need? And finally, uh there was a little program here that uh on predictive maintenance, there was a contract to gather the information. Apparently, it was terminated. So I think there's three things out there. What do you need to get to 80%.
▶ 1:01:25And specifically, uh, the gentleman next to you is concerned about AND fibs. Uh, so how are you going to make those available? That was raised by the chairman a moment ago. A little more detail on it, please. Thank you. Uh, ranking um member Gar Meny, thanks for that question. A couple things. One, I'll have to look into that contract cancellation. That was not my understanding, so I'll take that for the record. A correction on 80% available ships.
▶ 1:01:5180% combat surge ready ships that are not in a depot availability. So those ships that are in a depot availability don't count or aircraft or subs. Of those uh ships, we need to do a much better job on amphibious ships. There's a couple of causal factors. I'll try to be brief. One, we need to be strict and rigid in our planning. 120 days before that availability starts.
▶ 1:02:18We need to lock it down so we can buy the longly material and do the work that needs to be done. In order to lock that package down correctly, we need to do our open and inspects early enough to inform that package. USS America had 190 open and inspects and our normal uh run of show would be to do those in the first 20% of the availability. We pulled that all left. So we understand the condition of those tanks and voids and uptakes so we can better inform the package.
▶ 1:02:49So I think that's a main effort. We're going to do two signature avails. The signature availing down the package for a big deck amphib on the east and west coast a year in advance. So because those ships are so complex and because they're steam driven the LHDs, we're going to pull that left to make sure we have the artisans available to do that work and get it done.
▶ 1:03:11One final thing, we're trying to do our diesel work, diesel overhauls out of the avail work around those availabilities to be conducted un uninterrupted. So, we're having great success there. So, the bottom line is we need to improve and those methods I described are the ways we're going to get to 80% combat service. I suppose this is a yes or no. Uh we've been talking predictive maintenance here for a long time. Are you doing it?
▶ 1:03:36Are you forcing it onto the captains and the executive officers and others on those ships so that they are required to know what is happening with regard to the ship so that predictive maintenance can actually be real? Yes, sir. Great question. You know, from our time alone, I'm a I'm a fan of predictive maintenance, but I can't commit to you that it's universal across our fleet. You do have my commitment, though, that I will work that. And you're in a position to make it universal.
▶ 1:04:06Yes, you are. I would suggest that you push forward to get it done. Otherwise, I'm going to have another discussion with you. And this committee's been working on that for a long, long time. Um, Amphibs, put that at the top of your list. General Mahoney is all been out of shape about not having enough amphibs, as he should be. B-21's coming online.
▶ 1:04:32I think that's an Air Force Do you have a sustainment plan for the Uh yes, recommen member Garmendy, we do have a sustainment plan for the B-21. As you know, the B-21 program is one of our programs that is actually meeting uh its milestones on time and the program is working very well. But yes, I have not seen it. I don't believe this committee has seen the sustainment plan for B21. Please deliver it to us ASAP.
▶ 1:05:01We want to deal with that this year. Um, we think that a and when you get a new platform, there better be a sustainment plan for that. General Mingus, you got a whole new set of platforms that you're buying. Do you have a sustainment plan for each and every one of those? Yes, sir, we do. Every time we bring in a new program, uh, what we do is a Please share that with the committee. Yes, sir. We'll do. I yield back. Thank you, gentlemen's time's expired. Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:05:28And indeed, it's so inspiring and humbling to be here uh with joint service with all of you and uh really I give credit to my wife. We're a joint service family. I served 31 years in the Army Guard domestic service and uh it meant so much to me. And then I'm really grateful my oldest son Allan served for a year field artillery in Iraq. Uh and now uh he's a JAG officer still and attorney general in South Carolina thanks to Guard.
▶ 1:05:55And then I'm really grateful that my third son served Julian uh and as signal in Egypt and also on the southern border Sinai. And then my fourth son was an engineer in Afghanistan and I'm just grateful for that. And then we're joint service Navy. Uh my number two son's a boat school graduate 01 and uh served in Baghdad and also in Naples. And then I'm grateful our family uh previously represented Paris Island.
▶ 1:06:25So I feel like I adopted quite a few people and but my late father-in-law received the Navy Cross as Marine uh service at Okinawa. So over and over and then uh Air Force I'll claim you. My dad served in Flying Tigers uh and to liberate China. uh and I'm just grateful uh for his service and I've got a nephew who is serving in the uh in the Air Force currently at the Pentagon, Allen Heritage. So over and over and one day we'll claim space core space force.
▶ 1:06:54But um uh again just looking at you just uh is again thank you for your service for American families and I believe sadly we're in a conflict that we didn't choose between democracies with rule of law and dictators with rule of gun. The strength of our military and posture around the world is so important to be a deterrence and keep American families safe while supporting our allies.
▶ 1:07:21America must in support and ensure President Trump's direction to promote peace through strength around the world to counter the ambitions of war criminal Putin who began this war and the Chinese Communist Party along with the developing nuclear threat of uh Iran.
▶ 1:07:39General Mingus, in March 2025, the Army issued a stop work order on all assure preposition stocks maintenance and outfitting and permanent downloading and decommissioning of the Army's only preposition stocks is pending decision by the Secretary of Defense. In your written statement, you said that quote preposition stock provide a strategic advantage and rapid response. End of quote.
▶ 1:08:05If the decommissioning of the army preposition stops, what is the army doing to ensure we don't have a gap in the contingency response assets for our combatant commanders? So, we are doing a a worldwide review of all of our preposition stock. Um, as you know, with this administration, they're reviewing all the major O plans, which those preposition stocks are inextricably tied to.
▶ 1:08:31The only one that and this may be where the uh mixup be may have been APS3 which is our a float stock. We are going to bring that ashore, refurb it and actually put it into the theater where it is most needed in Indoaccom and so we will go back. So it was not a stop. Uh we continue to move our AP APS forward and and hey I'm glad you even mentioned Indoaccom. It used to be Paycom but I want to give uh President Donald Trump credit for actually uh promoting Indopaccom.
▶ 1:09:01how important it is that we work uh with India uh as the world's largest democracy. So I'm glad you referenced that. And Joe Mingus, in your testimony, you mentioned the army increased the production capacity for the precision strike missile with plans to procure 400 missiles in FY 2025 to maintain the strong deterrence. Do you believe that this number is sufficient? We would like to get to 500 per year. uh and we have asked for that, but 400 per year is better than the 300 we were last year.
▶ 1:09:31And so we're rapidly increasing our annual production rate for Prism Inc. One and as Prism Inc. 2 and Inc. 4 come online in a couple years, we want to increase those production rates as well. And a concern that uh we all have is as we support uh the people of Ukraine, as we support the people of Israel, as we um face uh the issues that we have in this global war we didn't choose.
▶ 1:09:54There's a concern that we're actually shifting our equipment to other countries that are uh in general weakening our capability. What is your view about that? We've been able to take the replenishment dollars that you gave us uh thanks to this this body um that were tied to those president presidential draw down authorities. And so every 113 we gave away to Ukraine, we bought an AMP and every for every attackum missile we bought, we were able to buy a prison missile. For every old Gimlers missile we gave, we were able to buy a Gimler's ER.
▶ 1:10:24However, there still is a bit of an imbalance in terms of what the authority for replenishment versus what it cost to buy that new equipment. It was about a 3 to1. Thank you very much. I yield back. Mr. Strickland, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Chairman Bergman and Ranking Mender G Ranking Member Gear Mendy. Um, I represent Joint Base Lewis McCord, home to tens of thousands of active duty members and their families. And it's also the military's primary power projection platform into the Indo-acific.
▶ 1:10:54The base hosts onethird of the strategic C17 airlift fleet and critical Army warf fighting units including first corps, Rangers, special forces, and multi-dommain task forces. The Army's recently unveiled transformation initiative directs the elimination, consolidation, and divestment of equipment in entire units. For example, combat aviation brigades are projected to each lose an air cavalry squadron.
▶ 1:11:23General Mingus, I want to learn more about how the army's transformation initiative will affect Joint Base Lewis McCord and the critical capabilities the base provides. What units stationed at JBLM are slated to be cut? What's the time horizon to begin implementation? And what benefits will this bring to war fighting capabilities in the Indoacific? So the state-by-st state details, we are still working through that.
▶ 1:11:47But your point about the aviation brigades in our modeling and simulation, even against the worst OP plan, um we have enough Apaches in our attack squadrons minus the AV the cavalry squadrons to execute those plans. Our master plan, because we have multiple variants of the Apache, both the Delta and the Echo model, we want a pure fleet to the Echo model of the Apaches, which this transformation initiative allows us to do.
▶ 1:12:11cost twice as much to fly a Delta as it does an Echo and we will repurpose those cavalry squadrons to do other type unmanned activities which are going to be much more survivable in the next fight. Thank you General. Um I want to switch to another topic. So government efficiency is a good thing one done thoughtfully and with a focus on service members and outcomes. The Army's transformation plan which has been in the works since well before this administration started shows promise.
▶ 1:12:40What I'm concerned about, however, is that eliminating general and flag officer positions across the DoD based on a percentage quota as announced by Secretary Hegsith may inflict our uniform services with the same Elon Muskled chaos unfolding across the federal workforce. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegsth, we've already seen the dismissal of an eminently qualified chairman of the Joint Chiefs reportedly because he publicly shared his experiences facing discrimination as a black man in the military.
▶ 1:13:10Also dismissed was a disproportionate number of female senior officers. However, we really don't know because under this secretary, the DoD refuses to comment about why it's firing so many leaders. So, I'll start with you, General Mingus. How will the army implement general officer reduction without further politicizing the service and avoiding inadvertent discrimination? Going back to uh our army transformation initiative to preserve combat power. The last thing we wanted to do is take away maneuver formations.
▶ 1:13:40We knew we were overstructured. We had too much too many headquarters. So the consolidation of the reducing of all those things were part of it so that we could preser preserve combat formation as the chief says people that wear helmets. Um so we began a geo reduction inside the army several months ago before this was ever announced. In terms of the announcement that came out yesterday or the day before yesterday, I think it's probably a little too early to tell in terms of what the overall impacts are going to be. Thank you, General Spain. How will the Air Force handle this?
▶ 1:14:10Thanks for that question. Uh, Representative Strickland, I think to General Mingus' point, there's um the Air Force is has always had an opportunity with the department to articulate readiness concerns. Uh it's too soon to say what the exact impact to the Air Force specifically will be with the reductions, but we look forward to seeing the exact language following the announcement and uh and I I have every confidence that we'll be able to work with the department to minimize any particular mission or readiness impacts of the decisions.
▶ 1:14:41Great. Thank you. Well, I have time. Admiral Kilby, how will the Navy implement this? Thanks for the question, Rep. Strickland. I I agree with my counterparts. We have, it's too early to tell exactly how this will manifest itself, but we're committed to making sure that our Navy is globally deployable and we believe in the national defense strategy and I believe in a date 1 January 2027 to be ready to uh sail if called against an adversary and that is China.
▶ 1:15:08And were any of you aware of this potential cut before it was announced by the Secretary of Yes ma'am, we were. Okay. Thank you. All right, General Mahoney. To clarify though, ma'am, we did not know the exact what was, but we knew it was under review. Ask for an opinion. Okay. They asked for an opinion, but you didn't know the specific percentage. That's correct. General Mahoney. Ma'am, our uh ratio of Marines to general officers is is the highest in the DoD. We're 2,700 Marines for every general officer.
▶ 1:15:38We have only two four stars in the entire force. 64 total inforce general officer inventory by statute. Uh so any cut we're going to have to look very very closely at and make sure that that uh the fallout organization maximizes readiness as we go forward. But we will uh follow and we're committed to to follow orders as they're uh given to us. Thank you to our witnesses. I yield back. Mr. Chair, thank you.
▶ 1:16:03Um, Miss Strickland, uh, I too want to say, uh, I think CQ Brown, just a fine individual and, uh, a very capable individual and we're privileged to have had his service, uh, in to our Uh, Congressman Gimenez, thank you.
▶ 1:16:23And um and I I need I need to note that uh during World War II um where we fought the largest conflict in in human history, we had one general for every 6,000 GIS. We now have one general every,400. Uh so I think that uh we can probably do a lot better with with our staff staffing. It's uh I think we're a little bit overstaffed to be honest with you. Um, as far as uh readiness is concerned, I have no problem in in rebuilding in Florida uh because we have uh hurricanes.
▶ 1:16:53But uh as long as it's rebuilding it resilient to to to the threat just like in California and especially Northern California where they have earthquakes and they're actually overdue for a hurricane or for a for an earthquake, I hope they build uh earthquake resistant structures for the military. Um, Admiral Admiral Khilby, um, how many how many how big is our Navy? How many ships does it have? 293 ships in commission, sir.
▶ 1:17:22Do you have crews for every one of We have crews for our ships, but we have 23,000 gaps at sea. So we manage the where our personnel go in our in our readiness cycle to development develop ships and send them so they're fully manned or they're manned to the extent that they can execute every mission when deployed. Um of the 293 ships, how many are combat ready to to sail at a moment's not?
▶ 1:17:51Roughly a third of our ships are in maintenance, a third of our ships are working up and a third of our ships are deployed at any given time. That's just a rough math. And the maintenance cycle, how long does that take? It can it can be extended. Sometimes it can take years if it's a modernization effort. Sometimes it can be as short as six months. So, it depends. Do you have crews for those ships that are extended maintenance? Those ships are crude.
▶ 1:18:16They may have a smaller percentage because of the work being done and we're use those other other sailors to those ships that are working up in advance workups or on deployment. So, could we have a if we have a conflict and we put out all the ships that we can, there may be war fighters that don't have a platform to get on.
▶ 1:18:35There would there will likely be ships in maintenance that are lesser manned than those ships that are forward which means that there are war fighters that don't have a platform to get to to to go to the to the front. Well, there are I I consider being in maintenance a warfighting platform. I need my sailors on ships in maintenance to take care of that ship while that work is being done. So, I don't consider that a waste of time, sir. Perhaps I don't understand your question. The question is, look, when maybe I'll refer to this.
▶ 1:19:03I mean, when I was a I was a fire chief for the city of Miami, right? And so, I had x number of firefighters. I had x number of fire trucks. When a firetruck went to maintenance, I didn't say, "Well, that's it. You guys have nothing to do." All right. There's another truck over there. You get on and you're going to go back to work. Does the Navy have something like that or not? We do not. Our sailors stay with the ships when they go into maintenance because we take care of the ship. There's work we can do that's not in the work package to make sure that ship is being taken care of. Plus, they go to schools and they prepare for their next assignment.
▶ 1:19:34So, just because ships go into maintenance, we don't take the crew take the crew off that ship. Okay. Um, General Spain, um, we've had a a a reduction or we're looking at a reduction of how many uh, fighter aircraft in the air force in the next 5 10 years. Yes sir. Yeah. How many? That is correct.
▶ 1:20:02Um, so there there are roughly 400 uh a little over 400 that we're planning to devest as was mentioned in the opening statements. Uh these are uh decisions to get rid of aging aircraft as we talked about as I talked about in my opening comments uh in order to try to invest in newer aircraft with uh with increased capability uh going forward. Is there any any plan to replace them or are we just going to have 400 fewer fighters and and aircraft in the air force? Yes sir.
▶ 1:20:31The the strategy of devesta invest as I've mentioned to many of you is is uh is very easy to plan for devestatures. is very difficult to plan for procurement. We do have plans to procure advanced capabilities in smaller numbers than the devestatures. Uh some of these aircraft are just aging and and voting with their structures uh and and the cost of maintaining the structures.
▶ 1:20:53And so the sooner we get the older aircraft off of our u off of our u our books and and off our flight lines and into new capability, the better off for the Air Force. No, I I agree with that assessment, but however, I'm concerned at reducing the the number of fighters and and aircraft in our inventory at a time when we're looking at increased threat and I know that, you know, it's it's increased maintenance, but uh you know, I I'm I'm not crazy about reducing our capability. So, with that, my time is up and I yield back.
▶ 1:21:24Mr. Dakota is recognized for uh five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Admiral Kilby, your written testimony discussed the importance of the submarine industrial base and the Navy's significant investments to add capability, capacity, and resiliency to the supply chain. You also noted the results at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and its success in completing maintenance work on both the USS Hawaii and the USS Minnesota, which I visited last year.
▶ 1:21:51I believe that what makes Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard so successful is its workforce, the hardworking civilian employees who do the work necessary to maintain, repair, and sustain these ships. Admiral Kilby, would you agree with that assessment? Rep. Takuda, thanks for that question. I would. I had personal experience in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in 2004 when I took command of a destroyer and it was not the same shipyard as it is today.
▶ 1:22:15So there's a leadership thing happening at Pearl Harbor, an ownership uh of the task, an alignment from the top of the shipyard commander down to the workforce that I've not seen before that I applaud. Thank you. Well, success is what we are committed to right now. And I'm sure you know that Secretary Hicks provided critical exemptions for shipyard employees um from some of this administration's policy on federal civilian employees, including uh the hiring freeze.
▶ 1:22:44At the same time, we have also heard that shipyards are having trouble onboarding new hires due to software issues and new guidance is making it harder for shipyards to sustain the workforce that they need. Uh, more broadly, the challenging environment for federal civilian employees, including the recision of collective bargaining protections is also spreading fear and forcing shipyard workers to make tough choices about their futures. Admiral, um, the Navy has identified workforce development as a key line of effort for our submarine industrial base.
▶ 1:23:13What is the Navy doing now to help ensure that our shipyards like Pearl Harbor can continue to recruit and retain the workforce that they need? Repuda, you've hit it exactly. The shipyards are an area of focus in the Navy right now. There are four big shipyards as you know, Norfol Naval Shipyard, Portsmith, Puget Sound, and Hawaii.
▶ 1:23:34uh we've had roughly 1,900 plus uh folks that have chosen to uh leave that service under the DRP program and we're in the process now of an analyzing whether direct or indirect labor, what trades those uh were were affected by that so we can rebalance and make sure the work continues. We do prize those workers. We do want them to feel valued and we want them to stay on the job. Absolutely.
▶ 1:24:01Well, I hope you'll join us in fighting for their protection so they can keep doing the good work that they do at Pearl Harbor and other areas. Um, we expect three DDG-1000s to be homeported in Hawaii over the next three years and there have been questions about whether the Navy's current approach to fleet maintenance contracting is sufficient in supporting these vessels. The Navy has used alternative contracting strategies before in high off you know uptempo environments including to support forward deployed ballistic missile defense DDGs and roa.
▶ 1:24:29Uh those strategies often included a single maintenance provider strategy targeted at a small number of platforms with significant requirements. Admiral, as the Navy works to homeport these DDG-1000s in Honolulu, has the Navy considered alternative contracting strategies, including with a single maintenance provider to ensure that these critical vessels are um adequately prioritized and supported. Uh Representative Tukuda, I'm going to take that question for the record. I do not know the specific answer to that question.
▶ 1:24:58What we are committed to doing is taking care of those ships and making sure they're maintained and when they sail they're ready to go for that mission. So, uh that will be a different um structure for us because those ships won't deploy with strike groups because there's only three of them. But we're committed to the 1/3 one-ird uh mix of maintenance, training, and deployment that I described earlier. All right. Thank you, Admiral. Um I just have one quick question for General Mingus.
▶ 1:25:24As you know, um, on Friday, Hawaii's Board of Land and Natural Resources is voting on the final EIS for Pohhata training area, um, which is a critical area for training for all of the service branches. Um, we have been hearing throughout the community some serious concerns. We do not know what's going to happen on Friday. Um, but how committed is the Army to successfully looking at renegotiations for this area coming up in 2029?
▶ 1:25:51And um what potential next steps is the army looking at um to meet the community halfway? Yes, ma'am. As you and I have talked a couple times on this, we're absolutely committed. Um and 29 is going to be here before tomorrow. Uh the first environmental impact study is done. We're waiting on the second one that'll be done for the Aahu uh later this summer.
▶ 1:26:10Um, we are open to swaps, other means, and so as you've I've shown you the maps that uh we're open to other uh negotiation tactics on this if this does not uh go the right way later this week. Thank you, General. As I've mentioned, a whole of government approach in terms of how we provide services back to the community in terms of benefits is something we need to be discussing. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back. Thank you. U Mr. Morland, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:26:37Um, as we assess the Indopacific readiness and posture, we must remember that Guam and the US territories are not just strategic assets. They are American communities being frontline risk with limited local resources. The ability to protect and sustain combat power west of the international datine depends on Guam's resilience, infrastructure, and logistics capacity. Areas where federal investment must catch up for the operation resilience.
▶ 1:27:06Um first question is for um Admiral Kilby. Now Guam is asked to shorter national security burdens far beyond the economic its economic capacity. Department of Defense has historically pursued policies which support the island community. During my time in office, this has included about $2.7 million a grant to Guam Memorial Hospital. Uh the reconstruction of the glass breakwater which is really important for us and the historic investment into the island roadways.
▶ 1:27:34So, how can the Department of Defense continue to support in future planning and make the patchwork of authorities easier to navigate? Sir, we're focused on Guam. I agree with you. It is a key uh component of our national defense strategy here, especially focusing to the Pacific. I think we need to look at the sequence of work. All services are interested in Guam, not just the Navy. I do appreciate um the support for the glass breakwater.
▶ 1:28:01I think that was money well spent to prevent something worse from happening in the future and we support uh future investments there in the Navy because we will rely on it. Thank you. Another question for you as well. How about how how can Congress support the expansion of the innovative readiness training in the Western Pacific particularly uh those that enhance both military readiness and local infrastructure resilience. Well, I think it it is a great program.
▶ 1:28:28might need to take the question for the record and get specifics back to you, but as I understand it, being able to have our um medical service member flow into local hospitals benefits both the community and the training for those uh those doctors and nurses. So, I support those efforts and I'll get you a more wholesome answer, sir. Thank you. Uh you also talked about in the Western Pacific focus on the maintenance of your ships. Uh what's your feelings of an SRF dry dock in Guam?
▶ 1:28:59Hey sir, we need to expand the areas where we can do maintenance uh on our ships in the entire Western Pacific. So if if we can do that structural work and it makes sense to us, we'll certainly consider that investment. Multiple places is uh is what we're about and not centralizing. So I look forward to uh working with you on that, sir. Uh thank you. Uh this question next is for Admiral Yu again and also uh General Spain.
▶ 1:29:29Guam is consistently described as the tip of the spear in the Indoacific. What specific investments are being prioritized to harden and expand Guam's role as logistics command and hub? Well, I I'll start first. Uh we're looking at uh we have made investments in the local Appa Harbor and we'll continue to do that. I think those are key investments. One of the seven targets for the Navy is infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific.
▶ 1:29:59So there's a resiliency component to that realizing that we could get in a fight. So the hardening of our systems that includes the electrical grid and all the supporting structures which will benefit not only Guan but the base because we're interdependent on each other. So we will continue to work on those things. I appreciate again the support from MAWR for the uh helicopter uh hanger reconstruction as well as the breakwater.
▶ 1:30:25All those things are important to keep Guam doing what it needs to do and I expect increased usage of Guam from the Navy in the foreseeable Spe Mand thanks for the question. Obviously, we're working with PACAF and Indopaccom uh within their their sustainment uh uh and set the theater strategy to reinforce and and ensure the resilience of Guam uh and Anderson. We thank the Congress for the $ 1.6 billion supplemental.
▶ 1:30:55Uh we're continuing to make progress on uh on on those initiatives and certainly we'll continue to work with you on the additional requirements. Thank you. Uh just really quick, General Money, um how's how's our Marines coming along? Are they on their way? Sir, the Marines are on their way and I was just in Guam last week. Not only is a beautiful island, but when you go up to Camp Blas, there is significant amount of construction going on compared to just a couple of years ago and it's it's really quite impressive.
▶ 1:31:21Uh I was made to understand that there are over 5,000 workers daytoday aboard Blas building that out. And like my compatriate here, I can see no uh condition or future where that would not be fully subscribed. Uh Camp Blas and the other places aboard Guam. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Senson, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you to our chairman and our ranking member.
▶ 1:31:50Um, you haven't seen beauty until you've been to the banks of the Mississippi River in Rock Island, Illinois. I'll say, uh, but I've yet to get to Guam. Uh, good afternoon. And welcome to our witnesses uh General Mingus, Admiral Kilby, General Mahoney, Lieutenant General Spain, and General Gutline. You know, I first want to thank you all, uh for your many years of dedicated service to our country and everything that you do uh to keep our troops and our nation safe.
▶ 1:32:19I'll begin with General Mingus. Uh could you talk a little bit about the organic industrial bas's importance to our nation's So important sir and thank you for that. Um $18 billion over 15 years we're going to invest in the in the organic industrial base to modernize and and automate. Um you know example just with uh a lot of this was driven by Ukraine. Our 155 production went from 14,000 rounds a month to to 40,000 plus now.
▶ 1:32:49And by the end of uh this year, first part of next year, we will be at 100,000 rounds a month. The key in all this though is not just the uh the modernization, but the automation of this because once we get production rates and we build up our magazine depth, we will get to a stockpile level that we're all comfortable with, but in a conflict, we have to be able to then very rapidly accelerate to mass levels of production. And that can only be be done through robotics and automation.
▶ 1:33:14When Senator Tammy Duckworth and I have visited the Rock Island Arsenal together, um I hear from folks there that say we can't build from zero and ramp up to 10,000 of anything, but we can build three and get to 10,000 very quickly. Um you know, at the Rock Island Arsenal, a 946 acre island in the Mississippi River, uh but on my side of the Illinois Iowa border, um the Rock Island Arsenal is the largest governmentowned and operated arsenal.
▶ 1:33:43Uh, we cannot, would you agree, General, we cannot ensure our troops have what they need without the Rock Island Arsenal? I think it's critical to the broader architecture of the 23 organic industrial bases that we have. Yes, sir. And and I agree with you and I'm incredibly concerned about what Secretary Hegset's Army Transferation is initiative, what that means for Rock Island and the entirety of our organic industrial base.
▶ 1:34:09Uh the Army Transformation Initiative mentions the integration of the Joint Munitions Command and the Army Sustainment Command. Um while we all agree that we should bolster our munitions production, you know, I can't for the life of me understand why this administration believes it makes sense to cut the experts who know how to properly scale our munitions production should we need them at a moment's notice.
▶ 1:34:39Um, Joint Munitions Command has has done an an essential job and in an efficient way making sure that we meet the Army's needs around the world. I slashing our own workforce at the same time where we have adversaries around the world making investments to support their industrial-based workforce. Um, I don't know of anybody who could tell us, you know, why on earth we would be doing this.
▶ 1:35:03You know, we need to be make sure making making sure that we move forward and we continue to do the work so that we're efficient and we're responsible to support the war fighter as well as the civilian workforce so our nation can remain ready. This is not just bipartisan, but this makes common sense and I urge the secretary to make this a priority. Thank you. I yield back. Mr.
▶ 1:35:32Higgins, you're recognized for 5 minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, gentlemen. Thank you all for being here. I'm a Army veteran, was enlisted back in the 80s and the 90s. My father was a Navy pilot in World II. And I'm just honored. I share the sentiments. I echo the sentiments my colleague earlier that spoke.
▶ 1:35:58just honored to address you and speak to the future of our our beloved military and protection of not just our republic but but freedom across the world. You know, the sun does not set on the work that you gentlemen represent, the men and women in uniform that you that you represent here today. They're close to our heart.
▶ 1:36:25this this committee is is determined to do the right thing in every circumstance to support our war fighters. So, I just want to say thank you for for your your stellar representation of all that is right and good, not just for our country, but for the world. Each of you.
▶ 1:36:51Now, General Mangus, I got bone to Not really. We just have to make sure that our our bilitine is proper for our soldiers moving through joint readiness training center in Fort Johnson. Uh you had stated in your in your testimony, right?
▶ 1:37:10Every active component, brigade, combat team in the army except three infantry BCTs supporting the immediate response forces scheduled to deploy in support of combatant command requirements and was from your General, do these units all go through the joint readiness training center at Fort Johnson? So we have four national training centers.
▶ 1:37:37One is the the national training center at Fort California, the one you're referenced, the joint readiness training center in Louisiana, the joint uh Pacific uh multinational training center in Hawaii and in Alaska, and then the one in in Europe. So those brigade combat teams will go to all of those as a culminating event over time. That is correct. Yes, sir. And thank you for that answer.
▶ 1:38:01My office has been boots on the ground um at that at at Fort Johnson and and amazing chain of command very responsive super squared away. Um I commend them all. It is the is army leadership aware of the condition of billetine for for the troops that are moving through. Yes, sir. We are.
▶ 1:38:29And I personally stayed in in the R, as we call it, the Ruba. You're right. That's it. Ruba. But, uh, you know, when I went to Ranger School in 1984, uh, Colonel Tex Turner was the commander of that unit, and he used to talk about when he would sit and feel sorry for yourself in the rice patties of Vietnam. Um, he would say, "This isn't as hard as Ranger School. We want our crucible training event to be harder than combat, and so we got to make sure we don't goldplate as well." Yes, sir. No, I understand.
▶ 1:38:55and I our our soldiers are are tough and na by nature so they deal with it but but we have to work together to make sure we have proper building because readiness is what we're discussing in this in this hearing today and that's an important part so thank you for your response to that and I I I stand prepared to assist in any way with that endeavor to improve our ability um Admiral Kilby
▶ 1:39:26regarding the intersection with the United States Navy and smaller ship builders and the the issues that we've had in the last few years regarding uh regular payment schedules even for ship builders that are that are on schedule delivering vessels. Has the Navy taken a hard look at that since the change in chain of command over the last six months? Yes, sir. We have taken Will will you continue to take a look on ship building?
▶ 1:39:53we're we're not doing what we need to do there and I think there's opportunity at smaller yards to do different things. So, uh so as an example, we need to expand our ship building capacity. I'm excited about the interest at the highest levels at Congress in this in the Department of Defense to get after that. So, I I think there's opportunity and there's also the ability to get at what you talk about, which is what are those red tape delays? What is causing that?
▶ 1:40:22How can we get after that and make that more efficient? Right. Yes, sir. And I would encourage you to particularly look at payment schedules, contractual payment schedule for your smaller shipyards because they can lose their workforce if there's a if there's a gap running right there. I thank you gentlemen for being here, Mr. Chairman. I yield. Thank you. And um Congresswoman McAlfred, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the ranking member and our witnesses for your being here today and and your steadfast service to this nation.
▶ 1:40:52I do want to follow up on some of the opening remarks from the ranking member u and focus my questions on increased rates of flooding, risks of severe storms, and frankly the fragility of our energy grids as it all relates to security and readiness at our installations. I'm I'm not here to talk about climate change, Mr. Chair, but I do want to focus on the very real reality that these events are occurring more frequently. They're costing the DoD billions of dollars.
▶ 1:41:17On a a separate but related note, we have 50 states and a handful of regional governing bodies dictating a patchwork of energy policies and aging grids and unprecedented demands, frankly, place our civilian energy infrastructure at risk and thus your installations at risk. It's imperative that uh we have a degree of energy independence in order to literally keep the lights on and be ready to face any risks ahead. So, I'm going to start with Admiral Kilby. um specific to to the Navy, obviously sea level rise is is a concern.
▶ 1:41:48Um can you speak to how the Navy is working to mitigate the effects of these events and then also what you need from this committee to to prepare for what's ahead? Um thank you for that uh question, Rep. Ellsworth. I I'll just talk where as I understand it, you're a member of the Naval Academy board of visitors.
▶ 1:42:07Uh I was struck the last time I went there about the work that's being done around the crew house to make sure that that water level rise doesn't keep doing what it's doing and impacting the columbarium and everything there. So I I know that USNA specifically has a plan. We need to have the same plan at all our bases and do so at areas like Hampton Roads. So support for those efforts moving forward is important for us. Very succinct. I I I appreciate that.
▶ 1:42:35Uh, General Mahoney and General Mingus, in recent years, we've seen extreme weather or po poor planning shut down different states energy grids, including in 2020 21 with the Texas power crisis, resulting in the tragic loss of hundreds of lives. Our military bases again rely on these state energy grids to power uh critical systems. Base grids such as the one at Joint Base Lewis McChord and Marine Corps Air Station uh Myiramar have been identified as at risk to cyber attacks or insufficient to handle future demands.
▶ 1:43:05Generals, what's the Army and Marine Corps doing to address micro grid deficiencies on its bases? And how can again this committee be a part of the solution so that we can achieve some degree of energy independence for the sake of readiness? Ma'am, thanks and uh you hit it right on the head with Myiramar. I will say this having been the commanding general there that the micro grid uh is independent. It causes us to be able to separate from the SDG& grid and provide our own power.
▶ 1:43:33In fact, it powered my my flight line for tactical flight operations. So, as much as it might be an environmental impact effort, it is also of high military value, not only at Myiramar, but we have micro grids at uh Yuma, at Paris Island, and at Camp Leune. As far as cyber hardening goes, I stood in the control room of uh Myiramar and they talked about how they how they are putting those protections back into the SCADA system so that the capability that you have is therefore protected.
▶ 1:44:03And we'll work that through the other micro grids that we have as well. And I would I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about uh the zero emissions base down at Albany, Virginia, Albany, Georgia rather, sorry. uh that that uh is also not only an environmental gesture but a military gesture to safeguard uh our our energy resources and ma'am the only thing I'd add is in addition to what Mo just said is the redundancy associated with it multiple paths multiple means uh to include and I think a lot of us are looking very seriously at the emerging
▶ 1:44:33technology as it relates to these micronuclear reactors uh especially when you look at isolated places like Quadrilene Fairbanks Alaska that are 100% reliant on very fragile uh energy infrastructures. Can I take this further? I think because we have again certain bases and certain installations are doing it really well, but then we have others that are generating but not storing.
▶ 1:44:55What are some lowhanging fruit or or what lessons have you all learned from executing it right in certain places that this committee should reflect on as we move forward with the NDAA budget? Beyond energy, every location is different. uh Colorado Springs, Fort Carson, Colorado, we've lost uh a good chunk of our combat aviation brigade there because of the micro burst and the hail that they have. Um other places going back to Fairbanks, the cold, it's very So every installation is a little unique in terms of not just the energy, but other things that you have to do to protect the force.
▶ 1:45:24And the only thing I would add to that that in every case you have to have a positive relationship between the folks inside the gate immediately outside the gate and at the state and federal levels due to regulations due to other uh uh incumbrances that might be upon you. That is key or you won't get anywhere. I appreciate that and I look forward to working with all of you on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Memer. You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for yielding.
▶ 1:45:52and for all the witnesses who have been here today. Uh, General Mingus, last week the secretary of defense signed a memo on the army transformation transformation initiative that specifically called for the elimination of ineffective or redundant programs such as manned aircraft and excess ground vehicles such as Humvees and jointlike tactical vehicles. Uh, can you please describe what is meant by that? I'll use uh JLTVs.
▶ 1:46:18We have bought to date about 20,000 and there's several more that we have paid for that are going to come off the line. We have enough joint uh tactical vehicles to outfit all our heavy formations. Our striker formations don't need the that particular platform. And for our light formations, we are moving in the direction of the infantry squad vehicle, which is part of this transformation.
▶ 1:46:41By recouping and ceasing further procurement of the JLTV, we'll be able to take that and reinvest it and more rapidly modernize our light formations as an example. Okay. If the army's planning to shut down Humvey and JLTV production, is there a plan to sustain those vehicles readiness and for how long? There is a sustainment for both. We have over a 100,000 Humvees in our formation. They are not going to go away overnight. They will divest over time. Um that when and it's not terminate either.
▶ 1:47:09cease from an army's perspective future procurement. So the Marine Corps uh may elect to continue to buy the JLTV. Uh there may be FMS foreign partners that may elect to buy it. But for us, we would to your specific question, we'll keep that sustainment and maintenance tale open. Would you think that foreign sales might be negatively impacted by by the army's decision to to not use those vehicles in the in the future? We still think there's a lot of interested comp companies, so it's too early to tell what the impact would be to them. Okay.
▶ 1:47:38Uh what are the armor capabilities of the ISVS and how long how is the army plan planning on keeping soldiers using ISVS safe from hostile safe in hostile environments especially with increased use of drones in modern conflicts. When we uh rate a platform mobility firepower protection and leadership uh this was not designed to be a protected platform. Uh I grew up in the days when I had to walk 12 miles and then hit an objective. Our future light formations are going to ride for 10 and walk for two. It was not designed to be a fighting platform.
▶ 1:48:07It's a better boot, for lack of better terms, to give our light formations the agility and not move at 2.5 miles an hour. Okay. Um, what would be the downward secondary effects on the defense industrial base if these if the production lines for Humvees and JLTVs were shut down without a comprehensive replacement? How long would this uh how would this affect second and third order supply base? And can you can you guarantee this would not have adverse effects on other critical programs?
▶ 1:48:33Like I said, the the Humvey is a legacy platform that has been around for almost as long as I have been in the army. Um we do not want to buy we are going to cease procurement of Humvey. That has not preclude others from do that. Same thing with the JLTV. We have enough to sustain the heavy formations that it's needed in. Um as to other partners that want to continue and invest there, that that is uh up to them. Okay. Um have you considered how cancelelling these programs would affect National Guard units? That has been factored in. Yes, sir. Okay.
▶ 1:49:03Also, General Mingus, my district holds a crane army ammunition activity which holds about 25% of the DoD's conventional munitions. We've heard concerns about issues within the storage munitions and the poor poor handling of these of these storage units leading to uh munition damage. Has been any efforts to modernize at army army army munition depots. And what are the current readiness uh requirement levels for army munitions? Yes, sir. We were talking earlier.
▶ 1:49:32I mean, there's a significant investment across our uh industrial base. I can't speak to the specifics of that location. I'd like to take that for the record and come back to you, sir. Thank you. Okay. Uh Admiral Kim uh Kilby, um you testified that the Navy's goal is to have 80 80% combat surge readiness by 2027. Uh if the Navy achieves this goal, will it have enough magazine depth to fill VLS cells with required munitions? Sir, we are challenged in munitions. We certainly need more.
▶ 1:50:03We're ramping up production. Of course, we've used a ton of munitions in the last n 19 months that we didn't predict we'd use. So, we've got to replenish those as well. So, uh for a long time, the Navy procured a minimum sustaining rate and we've changed that. We need to look at it. What's the maximum rate or what's the most effective rate we need to produce those weapons? We've made investments in standard missile six as an example to go from 125 rounds to 300. That's a good investment. We need to stay on it.
▶ 1:50:31So just like we want to get our ships up more available, we want more available munitions for those ships. Okay. Uh you also testified that if you were required to surge tomorrow, you could get 68% of the surf surface ships to sea. If you had to do that, would those ships have the magazine depth required to meet the O plan um that would be a challenge in our preferred munitions. So we we have to replenish those stocks and that's the first part of the answer.
▶ 1:50:58So SM6, SM2, Tomahawk, maritime strike tomahawk in the future for aircraft larazz those are all the munitions we need to pursue for a threat against China. Okay. Thank you. Yield back my time. Thank you Mr. Vasquez. You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for your service and for your time this afternoon. I have the privilege of representing New Mexico's second district, home to White Sands Missile Range and Hollowman Air Force Base.
▶ 1:51:27Uh both bases face a unique set of challenges, particularly around the availability of quality housing for service members and their families. Holland Air Force Base is currently at 99% capacity, probably about 100% by now, for on base housing, forcing service members and their families to live live off base in a rural community where options are limited and more expensive, if they even exist at all. And so, even on base, the housing isn't much better. It's outdated. It's deteriorating.
▶ 1:51:55And it fails to meet the standards of what we owe our airmen and women and our service members. Uh, Lieutenant General Spain, the department's status quo for housing has been insufficient. Beyond simply updating aging units, what steps is the Air Force taking in fiscal year 26 to meet the housing demands at rural installations like Hollowman? Thanks, Representative Vasquez. Appreciate your time and the question and the opportunity to talk about Hollowman.
▶ 1:52:20Uh number one, for Halman specifically, we just initiated a housing requirements uh analysis uh uh effort that's ongoing that should complete this summer. And that'll give us specific recommendations to uh work with the community to adjust our capacity at that location. And that's typically how we do that and and how we intend to move out in other rural locations is a housing analysis uh assess the capacity and then what uh way we can work with the community directly to improve that uh that circumstance.
▶ 1:52:50Thank you, Lieutenant General. I appreciate that and I know our airmen and women uh and some of their families as well as the unaccompanied service members really appreciate that especially being home to the MQ9 Reaper program and the pilot trainers who are so critical uh to uh to our defense here at Whitands Missile Range. Much of the housing on base also dates back to postworld war II era and had seen minimal upgrades in the decades since.
▶ 1:53:13Uh General Mingus, last summer, Whitesands Missile Range and Fort Bliss were supposed to receive roughly $7 million from the Army's installation management command to improve legacy housing. That funding never materialized. Could you explain why those funds were not distributed when Widands can expect to receive those funds and what the Army is doing in fiscal year 26 to improve housing quality in rural bases? Yes, sir. start off to to echo your point, Whismer is incredibly important to us.
▶ 1:53:38That's where our Army uh test and evaluation command does the vast majority of our high-end missile tests and anything that requires uh range and and quality of life there. We've also designated that recently as a remote and isolated place, which helps with a lot of the things you're talking about. That $7 million is still earmarked against that improvements. Uh that proposal is about ready to go out. So, I think you'll see some movement on that here shortly. Sir, thank you so much. Uh I thank you in the community of uh Los Cusus and Alamagordo and the folks at Whitands Missile Range. Thank you for that.
▶ 1:54:08Um last week I voted in this committee to provide uh this department with an additional $9 billion for quality of life improvements including housing because I firmly believe we owe it to our service members, but I also don't want to see that money wasted. Uh, General Mingus and Lieutenant General Spain, how will you ensure that this additional funding is a good use of taxpayer dollars to provide adequate housing and additional quality of life services for members in rural districts like mine? Specific to the reconciliation bill, sir, that's correct. Yeah.
▶ 1:54:37Uh, we expect and I think it'll be um about equal across the services. So, I think we'll see about two billion. Um, if you remember from our testimony last year, both the secretary and the chief, uh, we were able to take our 255 barracks that needed renovation, we were able to deal with almost all of those minus 55, which this $2 billion is already earmarked against those 55 that still need to be moved from Q3 to Q4 up to Q1, Q2. Uh, thanks again.
▶ 1:55:06So, for the Air Force, I think we're going to be able to uh well, once we see what the details are of the language and of the legislation, we'll know exactly what is coming to the Air Force and what we'll what we'll be able to accomplish. We certainly have a a significant deferred maintenance package in this uh in this space across the Air Force and a long list of things that we'll need to complete uh based on the additional funding if it comes to fruition. Uh but certainly housing uh family family housing and unaccompanied housing are top on the list for the Air Force.
▶ 1:55:34We have a long list of uh of projects that we can complete if uh if we are granted the authority. Thank you, Lieutenant General. Thank you, General, for uh your answers. Housing is one of the biggest challenges that we face, especially uh in in places like Alamagordo, New Mexico, Los Cusus, New Mexico. And if folks don't have a safe, affordable place to live, it impacts not only their well-being, but their ability to do their jobs. And that affects our readiness as a nation. Readiness equals national security. And so investing in housing, infrastructure, and quality of life pays dividends down the line.
▶ 1:56:04Thank you all for your time and for your service to our country. I yield back the remainder of my time, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. U Mr. Schmidt, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank each of our witnesses for their service and their leadership. Uh we are all very grateful for your commitment to this country and for the dedication that you've provided over many, many years of service. Thanks, each of you.
▶ 1:56:28Uh, General Mingus, uh, I represent, uh, some significant Army assets in Kansas, and I have a handful of questions, uh, I'd like to ask of you, uh, related to that. Uh, like all of my colleagues, uh, I read with interest the reports of the Army Transformation Initiative, and we're all beginning to sort through what that may mean um, long-term in terms of our strategic thinking and the role of our various ground forces.
▶ 1:56:55Can you talk a bit about uh as we look forward in light of uh of the initiative uh how we should be thinking about the role of heavy ground forces particularly heavy infantry divisions in America's defense going forward? Where do they fit in what appears to be an increasingly mobile and agile uh thinking? Yes sir.
▶ 1:57:17We still um as an army believe that there is a role and the reason and what sets us apart from any other army in the world is the combination of our light striker and heavy formations. Um even though the acute threat and what we are all focused on is in Indopekcom and China uh we're an army that has to be prepared to go anywhere around the world. Um a lot of people like to look at some of the lessons learned coming out of Ukraine and say that the tank isn't going to survive. Heavy formations are not going to si survive on the modern battlefield.
▶ 1:57:47No singular platform is designed to survive by itself. It's the combination of infantry, artillery, armor, engineers, and the sustainment that goes with that in a joint environment in a combined arms fashion that allows us to win uh in the future battlefields that are out there. So, we think our heavy formations absolutely have a role to play in the future. Thank you, sir. And and in light of that, uh how should we be thinking? Uh for example, obviously I have the first infantry division at Fort Riley.
▶ 1:58:14How should we be thinking uh in terms of our ability to rapidly deploy uh anywhere in the world, both uh our equipment and our personnel when the 911 call comes in, so to speak. Uh how should we be shaping our thinking on that going forward? Um any activation of a of an OPAN that requires the mobilization of and the movement of large formations is a is a huge undertaking.
▶ 1:58:40Our forces command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina does a tabletop every year to make sure that those mobilization mass mobilization capabilities across our active guard and reserve are there. Uh the other you can call it a benefit or the the thing that we have uh reaped the results of having had a two heavy brigade combat teams rotating back and forth to Europe for the last three years has exercised those muscles on a on a pretty grand scale that we have not seen in a while. Thank you.
▶ 1:59:09Uh and on a related note uh again thinking about uh the first infantry although this question is applicable obviously much more broadly to our ground forces in the continental United States as we as we take in lessons learned uh not only from what we've observed in Ukraine but but particularly there as well as others the the increasing role of small uh relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial systems and and the need to integrate those with our ground operations going forward both in our planning
▶ 1:59:40uh and uh and in our training. How should we be thinking about uh that sort of uh interactive training of small UAS's and our existing heavy ground forces in the continental United States. So the Germans took the tank, the plane and the radio and put it together in a in a meaningful way between 1938 and 39 and changed how the world fights uh in the land force.
▶ 2:00:03If you take robotics, autonomy, AI, uh fully autonomous, fully robot, I mean all the things that are being put into the our formations today. Um we are rapidly trying to take a look at what happened in Ukraine, what happened in Gaza, what happened other places around the world to make sure that as this technology comes in, it's not just the tech itself, but how do you put it together so that we can still dominate in the future? And sir, last question.
▶ 2:00:29Am am I correct then in concluding that as we do that as we go through this process this learning this preparing this integrating that it's going to require us to have an emphasis um on both the the thinking process and the executing process that is to say that there's a role for what is now trade do and and and thinking through how we do this but there's also a role for big spaces where we can move heavy equipment in cooperation with uh airspaces where we can operate small Absolutely
▶ 2:00:59sir. And so the the chief started our initiative that I mentioned in my opening comments called the transformation in contact where we we infused uh this high-tech across multiple uh platforms that are out there in volumes and and numbers that we probably would exceed in a in a normal environment because we wanted to learn from those formations. At what point do you have too many unmanned systems before you can't employ them or you are overwhelmed by the sensors that are out there?
▶ 2:01:25Um and we have been doing this now through trainups and our combat training centers. So, it's bottom up. We're learning from them exactly how many UAVs do you put in a brigade formation? How many robots do you put in a formation? How many people do you need to analyze the information that's coming from those sensors that are out there? And it's easy in the Pentagon to look under white lights and we think it's 200, but it's much more impactful when you're hearing that from the troops on the ground. Thank you, General. Thanks to each of the witnesses. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Tran.
▶ 2:01:55You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Rank Ranking Member, and to all our witnesses. Thank you so much for being here and for your service to this great country. General Mingus, uh, my first question pertains to the pending decision to offload Army preposition stocks afloat in favor of a land-based location in the Indo-Pacific Pacific theater.
▶ 2:02:14This decision marks a significant shift in our logistical posture and raises questions about the reliability of host nation support in a future contingency, especially given recent geograph uh geopolitical developments. As you may be aware, Vietnam celebrated the fall of Saigon last week during a parade which featured Chinese PLA soldiers marching alongside their Vietnamese counterparts for the first time ever.
▶ 2:02:39a stark and symbol symbolic signal for growing ideological and strategic alignment between the socialist republic of Vietnam and the people's republic of China in evaluating potential land-based alternatives to APS-3.
▶ 2:02:54How is the army accounting for the political risk of stationing stocks in countries like Vietnam, particularly given its one party communist system, geographic proximity to China and the uncertainty of access rights in a scenario? Sir, we have not uh considered Vietnam right now. Australia and Philippines are the two principal locations. Uh but when we began this journey, it started with those uh 78 ships that we had for APS-3 were costing us in excess of $300 million a year.
▶ 2:03:24They were not loaded combat configured and so the offload time would have been when they wherever they showed up, uh they would not have been ready to fight. Um it has also been my experience that unless a float APS is in the exact right spot when a crisis occurs, which we have a hard time predicting, you're generally not going to be in the right spot.
▶ 2:03:44And so we felt it much more effective the acute threat the number one priority for our nation that being China that we download that reset it and put it a ground in a place where it can be used effectively in a future fight. Thank you. Appreciate that answer general. Uh my district is home to the joint forces training base Los Alamos which is strategically located in Southern California and well situated for joint training exercise by having significant uh aviation logistics and training infrastructure.
▶ 2:04:13Given current readiness challenges including pilot shortages, logistics uh constraints and budgetary pressures to maximize resources. I I am concerned that the joint forces training base loss alowl remains underutilized by active components in a tightening environment. Question for all the service uh services understanding that JFTB uh los falls under the California National Guard.
▶ 2:04:41Are there any policy or procedural reasons that prevent your active components from incor incorporating this base into your logistics of training uh strategies under the current readiness strains? And if not, what are the specific reason joint training bases like JFTB Losal have not been more fully incorporated incorporated into uh planning So, no, no policy issues that I that I'm aware of, but I will go back and and find out just
▶ 2:05:11to to make sure. Um, and we do from a whole army concept, guard, active, reserve, the vast majority of our logistics are in our reserve component. And so, it's natural and we do maximize the use of our reserve centers and our reserve mobilization centers, but I'll get a better answer for you after this. Thank Thank you, General. And the um the uh offer to train there goes to the other branches as well. I appreciate you all so much and Mr. Chair, I yield back. Thank you. And uh Mr.
▶ 2:05:41Carbajal, welcome back to HSK. Your your your presence and unique unique perspective has been sorely missed. So you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much uh Chairman Bergman and Ranking Member Gari for uh the opportunity to uh join your subcommittee today. Um you know, Mr.
▶ 2:06:04Wilson was bragging about multi-ervice family that he was and I'm proud that I'm a single service family all Marines uh and and equally proud and also as an enlisted Marine I I must say I used to hate hurry up and wait in the Marine Corps so I'm extremely pleased to see a bunch of officers here doing a little bit of hurry up and wait as well so just thought I'd share that with you.
▶ 2:06:29Um, General Gutline, I'm not normally on this readiness uh subcommittee, but I felt compelled to attend today and ask you about the ramifications of civilian workforce cuts on Space Force. As you are aware, I represent Vanderberg Space Force Base, an important location that supports key missions of the Space Force. I'm quite concerned about the impact of the executive orders, recent executive orders to reduce the civilian workforce on Space Force readiness.
▶ 2:06:58Space force is the connective fabric behind the joint force and without dominance in space there is no conflict we can win. Space force's force structure is very different from other services in that you rely heavily on civilian personnel to carry out the mission. Often these are top performing and highly specialized individuals who could easily get hired in the private sector.
▶ 2:07:23I was alarmed to hear about the disproportionate impact the reductions will have on Space Force with projections that you will lose over 13% of your civilian workforce. General Gutline, can you briefly share with us how many civilians you employ and how many you have lost to each round of the deferred resignation program and did you indeed lose 13% of your workforce? Congressman, thank you for that question.
▶ 2:07:52And as you know the the space force is the smallest force with the smallest budget with the largest AO. So any personnel reductions in the United States Space Force hurt uh especially these we currently have 5,674 civilians they make up about onethird of our entire total force of the deferred reduction programs. 223 took it in uh round one. Another 448 have taken it in round two for a total of 671.
▶ 2:08:21When you combine those DRPs with the hiring freeze, the United States Space Force down is down 13.7% in our civilian population. Say that percentage again. Thank you. Why have so many civilians elected to leave the Space Force? Congressman, some of them were uh to uh early retirement uh as well as you called it out that the space force by its nature is a high-tech force and these civilians can get jobs elsewhere.
▶ 2:08:51Uh you couple that with the return to work and the quality of life uh we are tend to be in high density areas like Los Angeles and the quality of life means that these individuals are driving long distances and they have chosen to take alternatives uh to alternative career paths going forward.
▶ 2:09:09What are some concrete examples of risks you are taking by losing hundreds of employees in a matter of months, especially considering there is a hiring freeze and you cannot backfill these positions? Congressman, I think uh we have done pretty good at covering down on the risk u moving the forces around working to become more efficient and more effective. Uh we are seeing challenges in hiring in areas like child care and base operating support.
▶ 2:09:37uh and as you know the space force employs in place. So we are heavily dependent on those core functions on our bases and that is really where we are taking the risk is is in the infrastructure and the uh daily operations of our our bases. Thank you.
▶ 2:09:50And with my remaining time, I just wanted to congratulate you, General Mahoney, on being the only service, let me repeat that, the only service that has uh obtained uh a clean audit, which I hope the rest of the services can actually accomplish in the near future. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I back. Thank you, Mr. Carveral.
▶ 2:10:17Um that with the exception of my questions will complete the first round. Um so I think uh Congressman Gar Mendy and I have agreed that we are uh both going to ask more questions in a second round. Uh Congressman, you you good? Okay.
▶ 2:10:35Um, Gutline, I'm familiar with the Space Force's new resilient GPS program, and I know Space Force understands its importance given how reliant our military is on space-based capabilities and the growing vulnerability of these systems to threats.
▶ 2:10:56The program is also a marquee example of how Space Force can work with new commercial space companies to deploy new capabilities faster and at lower cost. Um can you tell me you know how Space Force is working in this in this private sector if you will meld with with military R&D.
▶ 2:11:22uh how is Space Force working with this new commercial space uh with these companies to rapidly counter the evolving threats posed by our adversaries. Mr. Chairman, thank you for that question. Uh we are seeing uh more threat activity in space than we have seen before. It is becoming extremely contested.
▶ 2:11:47Uh what is more troublesome is the behaviors that we are seeing from our adversaries are becoming the norms. We're seeing GPS uh uh spoofing, GPS jamming. We're seeing lazing of our ISR satellites. We're seeing shadowing of our national assets in space in a cat and mouse game. So it's become a very dangerous area. You couple that with the fact that we are the smallest service with the largest AO, which means I cannot cover down with military capabilities across my entire domain. I have to partner.
▶ 2:12:16I have to partner with international. I have to partner with commercial and what we call hybrid architectures which is the full integration and networking of commercial allied and DoD capabilities simultaneously. By doing by building hybrid architectures, we're building out resilience. Resilience through capa excess capacity, redundancy and proliferation. We are drastically expanding our attack surface because they can no longer take out one of us. They have to take out all of us.
▶ 2:12:42So in that pursuit for resiliency and hybrid architectures, we are partnering with industry in ways we've never partnered before across any other domain. We are becoming fully into inter interdependent upon each other in a very riskbased decision-making fashion. How much capability and capacity can I accept from commercial and how much do I need to keep in reserve in our DoD? We're having those conscious conversations on a day-to-day basis. The really bright part of this future though is there's more innovation coming out of commercial than there ever has been in the past.
▶ 2:13:10So we were able to leapfrog our capabilities rapidly through these So what I heard you say was that compared to the other services and the the you're the newest you're the newest um war fighter if you will as a as a service component.
▶ 2:13:30the as you're establishing your your capabilities to counter a a truly rapidly changing evolving threat. You have greater need for that involvement with the civilian sector now as opposed to let's say if we're building a new airplane or a tank or whatever it happens to be, we have prototypes to work from and we're going to change some things.
▶ 2:13:59is based on technology, based on the mission. But I hear you say you need to accomplish your mission. And and if I'm if I'm mis stating this, correct me please. But you need that involvement of those outside the DoD resources, all the R&D that's happening within the civilian community, if you will, the space. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Okay.
▶ 2:14:31Um, I know, uh, Admiral Kilby, we talked a little bit about and I think in in your uh, you know, last week, I think we talked these I think thought I heard you say the Navy owes a a three ship ARG, you know, ARG, amphibious ready group. I'll I'll stay out of my my old old acronyms. that's ready to embark Marines and conduct a training cycle and deploy on schedule.
▶ 2:15:02Um, how are we going to get there? And how are we going to get there where actually um we're we're meeting the mission of the 3.0, you know, whatever you want to call it, but we need those deployed Navy amphibious vessels with our marines and sailors on board to be all over the world tomorrow. I mean, we need them there today, but we definitely need them there tomorrow. What any thoughts on the plan here? Yeah, a couple things, sir.
▶ 2:15:32I one, I made that comment specifically because I just want to step into the breach here and say we cannot have what happened on Boxer and Wasp happen again, right? Those two big amphibs for different reasons were delayed and in one case we we sent a disagregated ARG forward. That does a disservice to the MW. It does a disservice to the Marine Corps and the combatant commander who wants to use that asset.
▶ 2:15:57So that's really the genesis of why I said that because I want to be just public about that. What we're doing about it is specifically looking within the surface uh domain. Each one of those, as you and I talked about at breakfast, submarine, surface, air, 80% combat surge ready. Within the surface domain, I want to look at the subset of amphibious ships because I want to make sure good performance at crew dez level isn't washing out bad performance at the amphibious level.
▶ 2:16:27But we have to do a couple things. One, we have to be disciplined in our execution of planning and lock down that availability earlier. Uh, you weren't here, but I talked about doing open and inspects earlier to inform the package to make sure I know what maintenance I need to do so I can buy that long lead material. I need to do some things differently.
▶ 2:16:46I need to do uh diesel u maintenance in our seams which is outside of a major avail so I can free up space real estate on that ship to do maintenance around it. So I just need to be a more creative and focus on the output here which is making sure those ships are available uh to do that work. So we are at 61% combat surge ready in the across all ships today.
▶ 2:17:11That's not 80% and I need to bring that uh that water up to maintain both crews and amphibs in a more effective manner. So I'm committed to do that. Okay. Um, I'm going to stop my first round right now and and turn it over to uh, Congressman Garmeny and then I'll then I'll close it up when you're done. John, uh, Mr. Chairman, you were on a roll. I kind of hate to interrupt you. If you want to continue, I'm perfectly No, I needed a breath.
▶ 2:17:42Well, I went and got coffee when you uh, started, so I'm good to go. Uh, gentlemen, thank you so very much. This is extremely important. uh issues that we're dealing with here. I have to I was listening to my colleagues and um they reminded me that all politics are local. I have no idea what's going on in the upper reaches of Michigan. But I do know that Travis Air Force Base Oh yes, there we are.
▶ 2:18:10General Spain um operates at about I don't know 60% of its potential capacity for lack of a taxi way. The county has made the property available to expand the taxi way. It could be done. It's not in the FEP. Why isn't it in the FEP?
▶ 2:18:30Uh, as near as I can tell, some of the munitions that were headed to, uh, Ukraine as authorized by the White House and then stopped by the Secretary of Defense were on planes that originated at Travis, stopped at Dover, where I think they're probably sitting now.
▶ 2:18:49But any case, um your attention to the taxiway issue, want to get it in the FEP, want to get that done so that the full capacity with the two uh runways that are going to be completed in the next couple of years. So we could do that. Um General Kilby, you and I have talked about the oldest Navy base on the west coast of America, Mir Island, a shutdown in Brack.
▶ 2:19:18Uh it is now operating uh handling a a few naval vessels, non-combat vessels, all to the good. Uh it can be upgraded. There are four dry docks there. They can handle the DDG. I'm not going to take one of your aircraft carriers, but it is there. You talked about the repair problems in the Pacific. Um and using our allies, that's good to a point. at some point uh they have to come home or they should come home.
▶ 2:19:49And so I'd like to talk to you about Mar Island and the Navy's long short-term and then long-term uh use of the four dry docks at Mer Island, which I believe are the only the four plus one. I think there's a floating dry dock uh in San Diego that's about to come online. So we'll talk about that.
▶ 2:20:12Now having taken time to get to what's really important, my district, uh let's move on to uh some of these other things. Um General Mingus, you talked about combined forces and I suppose that you were referring to your own forces uh and the various parts and pieces of that. Uh I would expect that it also includes one or another of your colleagues at the table.
▶ 2:20:38Could you go into that a little bit more about the combined forces and then if you'll pick up the space force issue as you talk about that? Yes sir. I I mean inside the army we have a term called combined arms maneuver which takes all our war fighting functions and puts them together in a meaningful way and you synchronize operations over time. It's fires and intel and protection and sustainment and and that's what we call.
▶ 2:21:06But when you go to joint combined arms maneuver, that's when we put the joint force together and there's very little that any of us can do without the help of each other. Um I can't get anywhere without the air force or the navy. Um, as we think about the first and second island chain, there's going to given the advent of some of our new long range uh precision mission munitions that are we're going to be able to hold maritime targets at risk to help my shipmate here be able to get the fleet back in uh in the first second island chain.
▶ 2:21:36Uh the Marines and us have to work together. They may have the initial punch, but there's this sustainment stuff that the Marines may look to us. And like I said, we can't get anywhere without the Air Force. And so it take the space is intertwined with all of that. Um we have a ton of ground uh control stations that we interoperate. Every one of our vehicles, every one of our humans, every one of our soldiers, they carry some kind of a location device that is reliant on space or communicate through space.
▶ 2:22:04And so position, navigation, and timing, communications, it goes on and on. There's nothing that the land force can't do uh without a space component that goes with it. So that's the power of the joint force. May maybe one addition to a greater extent than ever before that I remember we are relying on each other to serve as each other's munitions.
▶ 2:22:24That's the Air Force and Space Force in particular, but airborne moving target indicator to take weapons that have flown out of the the uh custody of my sensors is is a place we're going to be more and more. So, we've got to be able to work and train and execute together in a manner that um that is going to be completely reliant on the joint force.
▶ 2:22:49I I thought that you might go in that direction and ultimately none of it works if space doesn't work. So uh and we had a long we need to have a long conversation about that and I'm I'm sure the other subcommittees are also uh how that interaction I've um as you were talking about weapons.
▶ 2:23:12I was just looking at the early bird briefing and the Ukraine took a Sidewinder missile, put it on a I don't know some floating drone and shot down I see some smiles now. how the hell they do that. That's the kind of innovation that I think we're that I hope we're seeing in all of your work. I won't ask you that's probably over a cup of coffee in the morning to talk about how they did that.
▶ 2:23:40Uh I'm I'm curious now all of you are also developing your own space assets. How does that integrate with space forces assets? And the ultimate question, why are you doing that? And why are you not depending on Space Force? Um, staying at the classification levels that we need. Well, then let's not go there.
▶ 2:24:07Just let that question hang there and I'll catch you down the road a piece. Okay. Okay. Yes, sir. And I think that applies to uh I think it applies to all of you. And so the integration of these systems and space force, we'll let it stop right there. Um, where do I want to go next? Did you get your deep breath?
▶ 2:24:37You got your breath back. Take a run at it and I'll come back at it. Now I I say this seriously and and and with great respect for my my colleague. You know he is John. You are a few years older a few months older than I am and we're the two old dogs up here. So that's what you get when you have people who have been around a long time and and hence served uh in many different capacities.
▶ 2:25:07So we I appreciate you bearing what this is. Sometimes we'll ask questions that um may not seem on point, but we talk a lot outside of the the hearing room and and are mutually locked at the hip when it comes to number one be ready to to fight, but also be ready to win.
▶ 2:25:28Um readiness I would suggest to you also uh means that you all each service have some level of prioritized surge capability in a non-classified uh scenario and if we need to take this classified at a future date to really get into it.
▶ 2:25:50What are the current major inhibitors to each of your services ability to surge if you needed to fly things, float things, drive things, whatever it is tonight? Are there any are there anything that you would want us to know that are inhibitors? Again, in an unclassified way, you could say very simply, people, I don't I don't have enough sailors to man my ships.
▶ 2:26:15I don't have enough, you know, maintainers to to maintain the tanks, whatever it is. Uh, General Mingus, you want to enlighten us a little bit what you think? We are moving in in the right direction here, but the principal driver of readiness across the army for the last year to two has been the people. Our structure, in other words, the number of flags that we have across uh the army would call for an end strength of about 473,000. Our end strength today is 449,000.
▶ 2:26:46We will end the year I think at about 452,000 and we are on a path to continue to to grow that in the next couple of years. So that as I talked about in the beginning, do we change our structure or do we continue to grow our end strength? But the very closely behind that though is our equipment readiness which we saw a bit of a bathtub um over the last year and a couple of things that culminated.
▶ 2:27:09One was the cascading of some of our heavy formations from the active to the guard which created some turbulence in the supply chain and then the platforms that we gave to Ukraine and the resupply parts that we were pushing over there did dry up some of our um supply chain and uh supply parts that were out there. Our army material command and our uh sustainment enterprise has completely flipped that on its head and I'd love to come and and have them brief you on what we call weapons 360.
▶ 2:27:37complete automation using large language models and advanced uh um artificial intelligence tools that's able to now look at the last 5 to 10 years worth of demand history across every one of those supply chains and much more precisely and accurately figure out what we need to sustain a two armor brigade combat teams in in Europe for the next mark next nine months to be able to have that stuff pre-ordered ahead of time to be able to anticipate and be um um ahead
▶ 2:28:07of the game in terms of what those are. Um so I guess that that's the other piece. Even after we fix the problem, we're going to have to fix the supply chain side of things as well. Thank you, Admiral Kilby. Hey, a couple things, sir. One, maintenance completion on time. That's why we have an 80% combat surge ready goal. So, if we can get our maintenance on time, we'll have more ships available. Manning's a piece of this, too. So, like you all, everyone has testified, we're all working hard on recruiting.
▶ 2:28:34I'm gonna exceed my goal this year, but I need to do that for a couple years to buy down on the 23,000 gaps at sea. It takes nine months to get a sailor from boot camp to the ship. So, I've got to continue on that path to get my ships manned uh where they need to be. Spare parts. I need to continue to buy OPN8 and APN six parts for my aircraft and and ships so I don't cannibalize from other ships to get a ship underway. And that just creates a problem for me.
▶ 2:29:03So, I need the right amount of spares so I can get that done. I need to continue and investigate invest in things like additive manufacturing that make a part in 19 days instead of 40 weeks so I can uh unleash the burden of our ships. Uh and finally, one investment which is a little bit um hidden is this thing called live virtual constructive training.
▶ 2:29:26So, the ability to do training at sea at numbers that I think the adversary is going to throw at me is super important for tactics, techniques, and procedures, proficiency, and currency maintenance. So, that's an investment uh I appreciate your continued support on. General Mahoney. Sir, thank sir, thanks. And I think it uh and this is not a copout answer. It would depend on the duration, the capabilities required uh to surge.
▶ 2:29:53If it is a systemheavy surge, we're going to run out of components for that system. The system itself and spare parts for the system. Let me give you an example. If we had to surge aviation right now, as you know, the F-35 is not where we needed to go. We would run out of machines before we ran out of ordinance and people to man those machines. Conversely, if it was a more manpower intensive requirement, if it was an infantry unit, we are likely to run out of the people to surge over time than we would with the equipment uh that they require in all cases.
▶ 2:30:23I think if conotes expending ordinance, expending uh ordinance systems, we we will run out of those in all cases. So if the if the bumper sticker is depth of magazine, depth of magazine equals people equals systems equals ordinance and ordinance systems. You can't you can't just take one or the other. Depth of magazine uh is defined by all of that. Thank you, General Spain. Sir, thanks. Nothing nothing really new to add.
▶ 2:30:52Uh the sustainment tale for us is critical. If you get into protracted conflict, uh the ability to get parts, supplies, support equipment at the numbers required to sustain a fight over time as we at at the scale that we've seen uh in Europe, we would be stressed to make that happen. No doubt. Eventually, people could be a problem, but that's not the critical problem from our war fighting units at this point.
▶ 2:31:15uh and then generically procurement of critical munitions uh at the scale required is is also a shortfall that we would we would continue to ask for help on uh from the Congress. Thank you, General Gutline. Mr. Chairman, we have a completely different problem. We're your newest service, your we are your leanest service and we are in a buildup phase. So when you ask me what do I need to surge, I need everything. I need people. I need equipment. I need it all. But we are 9,500 strong.
▶ 2:31:43We've got to at least double that to meet the demand of our of our nation and our war fighters today. Going forward, we need more counterp kit, which is the ability to to protect blue and deny red. How do I deny our adversaries use of space and adversaries uh ability to counter us? I need more space domain awareness, which means I need to understand what's going on in the space domain. I need to understand what our adversaries are up to and what their intent is.
▶ 2:32:09And finally, I need more C2 and more communications to round out and use the capabilities that we need. So, we are building up from scratch and we don't have a lot of surge capability. If we went to work went to war today, we would do it on the backs of our people and they are guardians are absolutely dedicated to doing the mission. Thank you. Um, and I want to just again because I asked you the question before about your interaction with those civilian companies over in this new space.
▶ 2:32:43there are we optimally engaging with them or and not I don't want you to dime out any entities in the in the Pentagon but um are there any um bureaucratic obstacles to to you getting the access to the interaction with those companies? Are you being you know you have free access to go out and talk to people? Chairman, we have had more dialogue and more access to commercial than any time in my 34 years in the United States Air Force, the United States Space Force.
▶ 2:33:13The dialogue we are having is more robust than ever. We are having reverse industry days, which means I have industry come here what my problems are in a non a non-threatening environment where I protect their IP and they pitch back to me what they think they can do to help me solve my problems in an open dialogue manner. We published our commercial space strategy last April that that talks about how we're going to partner with industry going forward.
▶ 2:33:36And this year we started putting on uh contract our commercially augmented space reserve contracts to get to buy us a capacity during times of crisis or conflict that we can't necessarily afford during times of peace. So it has been a very robust conversation. The challenges that you're talking about there are some legal challenges they're working on. We're we're going against some policy challenges and we're especially going against cultural Let's uh have a future con. You know, one thing is policy because you got law and you got policy.
▶ 2:34:05Law we either pass a law or you know rescend it. Policy is good policy gives you on-ramps and off-ramps. So let's let's talk more about the policies that will enable Space Force but all of you but especially Space Force because you're still if you will right in your you're right in your future here having having not had to necessarily deploy it yet and see how it works. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Um, Mr. Davis, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you so much, Mr.
▶ 2:34:35Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being with us today. Um, let me be clear. bases like Seymour Johnson Air Force Base located in my district have been in my opinion neglected neglected um despite hosting two F-15E combat squadrons to deploy um and do some really really important work to secure u the the Middle East as well as the American people um to
▶ 2:35:05ensure strike eagles which provide the most avionics and payload capabilities of any fighter remain ready. Um there are many opportunities to decouple flying hours um for maintenance dollars. But what I would like to do is um if we could Spain would like to um understand the commitment of the Air Force.
▶ 2:35:30Um is the plan still with the F-15 and Lake and Heath? Um where are those to go? Uh my understanding was Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and I just want to reaffirm that that's the Thanks uh Representative Davis. Appreciate that question that the current plan uh has uh has not changed for the Air Force.
▶ 2:35:55Uh certainly we intend to continue to prioritize Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and we intend to comply fully with the NDA language that keeps the uh older uh F F15E uh with 220 engines uh around based on that language. The the the discussion about where the Lake and Heath uh aircraft go.
▶ 2:36:16Some of them certainly were intended to go to Seymour Johnson and there's still discussions about the distribution, the full distribution based on now retaining the 220 uh F-15s that we already have at at Seymour Johnson. Um are there or have there been any conversations to your knowledge um not to send any of those aircraft to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base? Yeah. No, sir.
▶ 2:36:38the the dialogues continued about the distribution based on retaining F-15E at Seymour that originally we had discussed devesting and so we're continuing to have that uh dialogue internally and we'll certainly continue to have that with the Congress.
▶ 2:36:54Um, General Spain, uh, as we look at the reconciliation, um, package that went through, um, armed services, uh, 127 million in particular, um, allocated for maintenance and upgrade for F-15E retirements to prevent the retirements. Um, are you aware of those dollars going to any other locations or any other locations, uh, that would, uh, secure those dollars other than Seymour Johnson Air Force Base?
▶ 2:37:24Uh not specifically, sir. I'll take that question for the record on the uh on the details of exactly where those dollars are going. But uh but undoubtedly if they're earmarked for F-15ES, then some portion of that will go to Seymour Johnson. Thank you. Um General, you also mentioned um the importance of remaining compliance with the NDAA language. Um my understanding the language that we approved basically um solidified the strategic basing plan.
▶ 2:37:53Um what are your thoughts then of the recent decision to announce um F-15EX's at Selfridge? Is that consistent with the strategic basin plan? Well, sir, as you know, that's a presidential action and order to uh to move 15 EXs to Selfridge. So that's outside of the Department of the Air Force's strategic basing plan.
▶ 2:38:16uh we continue we intend to continue to work the strategic basing plan for internal decisions but we also fully intend to comply with the order that was given. What um is the impact then when such uh decisions are made outside of the bas strategic basing plan how does it impact um the work that you're doing in the air force? Uh it depends on the details of the ex of the actual order which we're waiting on in this case.
▶ 2:38:42uh but uh for for now we don't really know the exact uh the exact impacts uh while we're waiting on the specific language. So we don't know the exact impact but if I then reach out and I could by way of this question right now you know ask the president command and chief um if you can make an announcement for Seymour Johnson. Um then if other members begin to do the same thing um do you believe there would eventually be an impact?
▶ 2:39:08Any decision made at that level can certainly have impacts if not associated with the corresponding funds to execute the decision and uh could could potentially disrupt previous plans. In this case, we just simply don't know the the details of that uh of that uh decision. And and my last question in the seven seconds here, what's the implications of the cost to now retrofit selfridge um to accommodate this platform F15EX?
▶ 2:39:37Uh we're still working through the cost. Certainly there will be milcon associated with the move from A10s to F-15 EXS uh as a very different platform going into that uh going into that base. So there will be additional costs uh and we'll certainly get the specific number back to you. Thank you. I yield back. Mr. Garin, you're recognized. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 2:40:01and you correctly uh instructed me that these gentlemen have been very generous with their time and their work and therefore I will only ask them about an hour and a half of questions. U no I I'll try to keep it much much shorter than that. Mr. Chairman, you raised the issue of surge. Um there's a very very real problem surging in the Pacific and that's u transport across the Pacific. uh it has not yet been dealt with.
▶ 2:40:31We've been wrestling with this on this committee and in the larger committee for better part of at least seven eight years. Seven or eight years. Um I want to bring to your attention a couple of opportunities that do exist.
▶ 2:40:47Uh first of all uh and the ships act uh which was introduced last week uh and it would create the opportunity to build uh transport vessels of many different kinds in the United States as well as enhance and improve our non-government naval bases navy
▶ 2:41:18non-navy. So, I draw that to your attention. I would appreciate your comments. Um, I can somehow weave this into space and I'm sure I can weave it into the Air Force, but the other three of you, it's most definitely your turf in addressing the issue of surge capacity.
▶ 2:41:39Essentially, the ships act is designed to rebuild our merchant marine uh both in terms of personnel and uh capability of building ships. I I I will not go it in great detail, although I've got about 20 specific questions for each of you on it, which I will ask later after you have a chance to review it. I think you'll find it to be uh solutions for some of the issues that you're facing.
▶ 2:42:08Um the second area I'll make this also short uh really has to do with the research agenda. The research agenda across the government is being um significantly reduced uh by the administration and there is reason to believe that it is being reduced in the department of defense also.
▶ 2:42:31uh and I suspect the research agenda is on virtually everything we've talked about here and some things we've not yet talked about. So as you uh go back, I would appreciate hearing from you about critical research that um enables you to carry out your um future plan, your plans for the uh and uh I would suggest that you will find support for those research programs here and I I
▶ 2:43:01can probably come up with a list of half a dozen without too much trouble and you could probably expand on tripling that. So please take a look at those research dollars that you've been depending on. Uh we want to make sure that they're still there. uh and you know I'm sure it goes everything from health care to PTSD and uh all the electron u uh electric electrical systems that you deal with.
▶ 2:43:27Um I want to also put on the agenda um I've taken too many notes for a Oh, no longer in my district. General Spain is Be Air Force Base. a decision was made that the CCA collaborative combat airframes would be uh at least partially or perhaps even more so at Beal Air Force Base. It's a good choice.
▶ 2:43:54Um having represented that for the previous 10 years, they continue to bang on my door and um not the Air Force, the support people, civilian support. And I would like to have some more detail about what and how and how much. Okay. You were talking about that a moment ago. Um let's see here. Can I shuffle through the notes? Guam dry docks.
▶ 2:44:25uh on the west coast with regard to the Navy using u our allies maritime facilities dry docks etc is all good but nonetheless uh there's a balance here about bringing it home and doing some of the heavy work uh the long-term work here otherwise you're going to have your personnel sitting on some dock someplace wondering what are they going to do there for the next year,
▶ 2:44:56whatever that availability is going to be. So, a little thought about that and how you would use the West Coast facilities. Did I mention Mar Island? I think I did earlier. Um, space capabilities, we'll deal with later. Uh, the training issues, uh, I was talking to one of our colleagues offline here a moment ago.
▶ 2:45:18the training facilities that you have available, particularly the Army and the Air Force, and I think similarly the the Marine Corps perhaps a little less is now general, I want to get the General Mingos the right word here, combined arms in which basically all of you are uh at those training facilities. I'm not sure how the Navy fits into this, but I suspect it it does in some way.
▶ 2:45:47uh how we maintain and protect those training facilities becomes an important part of this committee's work. Uh we've been dealing with this in great detail basically in Nevada, but there's much more and there many other places also. We talked a little bit about Hawaii here a few moments ago.
▶ 2:46:05Uh we will need more specificity on how your General Mingus specifically for you and I guess this will go to Air Force and Space Force also how the combined work that you will have to do to carry out your new ATI um how that fits and the training facilities that you need and where you're going to use them.
▶ 2:46:31I'm thinking specifically about the Air Force uh in the U and the Navy in Nevada. Will you be using those in some way and if so, how? Uh the uh and similarly in so far as this is applicable to the uh to the Corps. I would like to see us get a pretty good fix on what is going to be needed as really all of you are transitioning to a different um modality of dealing with the issues that you have. What do you need for your training facilities?
▶ 2:47:01Where what needs to be protected? What is at risk? So that we can go round and round on this as as we did in the previous couple of years specifically in Nevada. Um let's see. I keep finding this Travis and Mirror Island at the top of my list. I'll put it at the bottom. Um uh the issue of u continuing resolutions.
▶ 2:47:31Uh the appropriations for the current year are not over. We saw some of that in the uh reconciliation issue. I I just know we're going to see more of it in the days and months ahead. uh we're going to need to uh understand how you are maneuvering. I I would be shocked to find that you're not.
▶ 2:47:58So I assume that you are maneuvering to deal with the absolutely mustd do, cannot survive without. Uh it would be helpful to us to have some specificity as we look at the remaining what it would be Christmas before we actually finish the ad NDAA and maybe even the appropriations.
▶ 2:48:19So over the next six months or so um this issue is going to come back to us and to the extent that we have some heads up and it's you know really critical can't survive without uh this or that money money for this or that it would be helpful to know ahead of time. I think I'm going to go back to where I started. Uh General Mus is specifically for you.
▶ 2:48:49I asked this question and it really applies across to all of you and that is uh you are changing uh and General Mingus you have the biggest least currently known change. I suspect the others of you are similarly looking at significant change. I want to know a sustainment plan for each and every piece of that change.
▶ 2:49:14I don't want to sit here another 10 years, which I probably won't be able to do anyway, but I'm good for the next six years. You can count on that. Uh, and I want to know in your change, General Mingus, I'll just use you as an example. I know the others are doing some things similarly and big time changes. I want to know your sustainment plan.
▶ 2:49:36I don't want to ever get caught up as we did with the F-35 and it's 20 years later and oh my where's the depo uh and I can go into the Navy and shipyards and so on and so forth. I won't. But the sustainment issue is incredibly important. Uh and I want to finally compliment I'm trying to figure out which one of you said um resiliency five times over. I hope you don't get in trouble. Thank you so very much. Thank you.
▶ 2:50:06And u number one, thank you to all of you for your preparation uh for this hearing because it can go be broad ranging. I would suggest to you that the next time we get together will be classified probably not too in the distant future. So we'll we'll shape this up because we'll we'll talk about the readiness in that classified setting and it'll probably be sooner rather than later.
▶ 2:50:34Um, there is no better deterrent than readiness because if we're ready to fight, our adversaries will know that and it will deter them. But we have to be prepared to fight and fight in depth.
▶ 2:50:52Um, and I guess as as as Congressman Gar said, and I would echo this, a sustain as you're changing whatever it is you're changing that sustainment plan for that change as you implement. It's almost the difference between transition between legacy and nextgen of whatever it is you're doing and and stopping where you need to stop and sustaining the future.
▶ 2:51:24Um, and I think might help. Well, well, we're not going to this is not going to be a a mission that's assigned today, but we as the United States government, especially the Department of Defense, and this is not service specific, we need to be able to pass an audit. Okay?
▶ 2:51:43It doesn't have to be tomorrow, but we do have to pass it because that drives in the end the readiness in so many ways that we're still doing things that we need to stop doing, but we have not figured out how to stop doing them and account for that and then redirect those resources elsewhere. That's just that's change management. So, and I you guys got a lot on your plate and and you got partners over here.
▶ 2:52:12Um, so with that, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your patience and all your preparation. And this hearing is adjourned.