▶ 0:15:25Chair Wicker: This hearing will come to order. I think our win is for being here today. We are joined by general gregory guillot from northern command and admiral alvin holsey from southern command. The united states faces the most dangerous security environment it has entered since world war ii. We know about the threats in europe, asia, and the middle east but we must not lose sight of threats in our own hemisphere.
▶ 0:15:53Chair Wicker: Both of these commanders face an increasingly complex set of actors who seek to harm americans and undermine our interests. The chinese communist party has exploited our southern border to facilitate the track of thing -- trafficking a fentanyl and other drugs. Beijing has brazenly violated U.S. airspace and to spread its predatory economic practices to south america.
▶ 0:16:23Chair Wicker: China, russia, and north korea pose an increasing nuclear and conventional threat to key U.S. cities, not to be outdone, iran continues to try to kill americans on our own soil. General guillot, I would like to hear your updates in three key areas. First, border security is a priority for the president and I agree with his decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border.
▶ 0:16:50Chair Wicker: President trump has asked you to deliver an updated plan to ensure border security. He has also directed you to assist law enforcement in security and deportation operations. Dod has a lot to offer to support law enforcement. The 2020 defense strategy published by president biden listed homeland defense as the military's first priority. So this is bipartisan.
▶ 0:17:18Chair Wicker: It is clear the american people do believe border security is national security. I look forward to hearing from you on your work in this area. President trump has asked you to contribute to a plan for air missile defense. Please tell us where, and your opinion, new investor should be targeted. Do they involve updating ground-based radars and building up new missile warning satellites?
▶ 0:17:48Chair Wicker: Perhaps they involve developing the most cost-effective methods of intercepting incoming crews and listing missiles. Third, you have laid on the develop at of a new strategy for countering drones in the homeland. My friend and ranking member jack reed held a great briefing on the langley incursions.
▶ 0:18:12Chair Wicker: There have been numerous similar incidents sense, all of them troubling. Senator cotton and senator gillibrand are working together on ways to counter drones. I would appreciate your comments on how we can be more effective in this space. Tell us what new authorities you need. Admiral holsey, I would appreciate an update from you on how adversaries are using economic coercion against key latin american partners.
▶ 0:18:40Chair Wicker: The ccp and should drive a wedge between the U.S. and our neighbors -- aims to drive a wedge between us and our neighbors. It wants our allies to look the other way as it builds so-called gray zones to abuse is trying te gray zones to abuse is trying tr friends to rely on huawei for telecommunications even as numerous latin american leaders have adopted the ccp-controlled
▶ 0:19:16Chair Wicker: Tiktok app. We need no look -- we need look no further than the panama canal. Those facilities pose a risk to the free flow of U.S. flag merchant ships and U.S. naval vessels. This issue must be addressed. The prc has leased a spaceport in the remote patagonia region of argentina.
▶ 0:19:49Chair Wicker: That perch provides the communist chinese with unprecedented surveillance capabilities in our own hemisphere. Since at least 2019, beijing has operated a spy based out of cuba with impunity. This last year in peru, a prc state owned power company purchased the city's entire power grid.
▶ 0:20:12Chair Wicker: Xi jinping presided over the opening of a chinese funded deepwater port just north of lima, which is capable of holding p.r.c. Warships. I would like for you to update the committee on how your integrating military and nonmilitary tools to fight against these predatory techniques.
▶ 0:20:37Chair Wicker: Despite the significant and growing security threats in the region, consistently under resourced to fulfill as many critical national security missions. I look forward to hearing from you about how these resource constraints are affecting south comm.
▶ 0:21:06Chair Wicker: I think our witnesses for being here and now recognize my friend and ranking member of the committee senator reed.
▶ 0:21:16Sen. Reed: Let me join you in welcoming general gregory guillot and admiral alvin holsey today's posture hearing. Over the past month, you have in order to conduct new missions in support of U.S. border security and immigration enforcement.
▶ 0:21:39Sen. Reed: President trump has deployed over 2000 active-duty soldiers and marines to supplement the guard members and reservists already deployed at the southern border. He has directed northcom to seal the southern border.
▶ 0:21:54Sen. Reed: Last week, president trump ordered the defense to permit to expand the department of homeland security migrant operations center at naval station guantanamo bay, cuba to begin transporting migrants via military aircraft to that facility. Thus far, I understand around 100 migrants have been transported to guantanamo.
▶ 0:22:19Sen. Reed: At least half of them are being deigned taint -- detained at the detention center, where alleged and convicted war criminals are also housed. Border security and immigration enforcement is critical to our national security, but wonton them up a is a dubious -- guantanamo bay is a dubious location.
▶ 0:22:44Sen. Reed: It is unfortunate to equate immigrants with international war criminals. The facilities at guantanamo are understaffed. The U.S. military, which is stretch for resources, is no spending to use military aircraft and military personnel time for these operations.
▶ 0:23:08Sen. Reed: While a naval station in guantanamo is prepared for mass migration operations, these are for saving people leaving dire situations in cuba or haiti, not moving individuals already in united states to a place where the status of their rights is ambiguous. I have questions about the legality of the operation and I'm concerned this is part of an effort by president trump to militarize immigration enforcement.
▶ 0:23:38Sen. Reed: I hope the president and secretary hegseth will use common sense and stop spending significant amounts of taxpayer dollars on performative deportation activities. I would like no how these immigration enforcement initiatives are impacting the readiness of your forces.
▶ 0:23:58Sen. Reed: I would ask where estimates of personnel and resources required thus far and any concern you have about if you have to continue conducting such operations, particularly in light of other critical initiatives. U.S. northern command is key to our national security as the principal command for protecting the american homeland. As we consider threats from china and other competitors, our concept must evolve.
▶ 0:24:29Sen. Reed: Northcom publishes defense guidance. When asked for an update on the status of implementation -- the urgency of the mission has been made clear with the recent incursion of unidentified aerial phenomenon in our airspace. America's skies and seas must be secured and the department must provide adequate detection.
▶ 0:24:55Sen. Reed: The trump administration has proposed an iron dorm program for north america and issued an executive order to develop additional missiles. I would note many of these efforts have been underway for years and the concept of space-based interception president trump is interested in has been debated and tested without significant promise.
▶ 0:25:25Sen. Reed: General guillot, I would ask an update on how the homeland missile defense is proceeding. Turning to southern command, admiral holsey, your command faces growing challenges in china and russia and latin america. Political and economic instability in the region presents a situation that our adversaries are seeking to exploit to increase their own influence.
▶ 0:25:55Sen. Reed: China in particular is expanding its presence in the region, including through strategic infrastructure, 5g telecommunications, and at expanding network of space tracking installations.
▶ 0:26:08Sen. Reed: You testified last year the prc and russia are strategic competitors who seek to undermine the micro-see while gaining power and influence in -- democracy while gaining power and influence in the region and partnerships are our best to secure security and economic concerns. For now, the U.S. were means a trusted partner or the trusted partner. U.S.
▶ 0:26:31Sen. Reed: International development programs strengthen -- the region. Now that usaid has been dismantled, I'm interested in your assessment of whether the U.S. will remain the partner of choice or whether china and russia will use this as an opportunity to gain further inroads with our partners. I am interested in your assessment of how we might work strategically with partners in the region to build resilience against these activities.
▶ 0:27:00Sen. Reed: Southcom continues to work closely to support counter narcotics missions. I'm concerned about the growing threats to tco and synthetic opioid trafficking, which are contributing more than 100,000 overdose deaths each year in the united states.
▶ 0:27:24Sen. Reed: I would ask an update on southcom's work with partner nations and other government agencies for counter narcotic efforts. Given southcom's limited posture and resources. We know insecurity through the southcom area is contributing to flow of migrants to the U.S. border.
▶ 0:27:44Sen. Reed: Economic instability continues to be a meijer -- major source of insecurity in the region, especially in honduras, guatemala, and el salvador. Admiral holsey, I would like to know your views on what more can be done to strengthen our borders. Thank you again to our witnesses. I look forward to your testimony.
▶ 0:28:06Chair Wicker: We are now ready for testimony from our witnesses. Before we begin, as members now, there are votes -- two votes beginning at 10:00 a.m. And I will -- we will keep the hearing going when the vote begins I will try to run over quickly and come right back. In the meantime -- at 10:30, ok.
▶ 0:28:36Chair Wicker: A member of our committee will preside and we will keep going. We are ready to begin testimony. General guillot, you are recognized with the thanks of the committee.
▶ 0:28:47Gen. Guillot: Thank you. It is my honor to command the men and women of north american aerospace defense command and united states northern command. I'm pleased to appear alongside admiral holsey. I will elect to highlight three trends in particular that norad and northcom face with direct implications for homeland defense.
▶ 0:29:18Gen. Guillot: First, growing cooperation between china, russia, north korea, and iran to challenge the united states. While the cooperation does not approach the level of complete integration demonstrated by the united states and canada, their transfer of weapons and technology is cause for concern.
▶ 0:29:35Gen. Guillot: The associated risks to north america have grown as a number of russian bomber incursions into the alaska and canadian air defense identification zone has returned to levels not seen since before the russian invasion of ukraine and russian navy surface and subsurface vessels off both U.S. coasts, including in the vicinity of alaska. Second, evolving technologies demand that norad and northcom rapidly adjust our defense posture.
▶ 0:30:03Gen. Guillot: Small aircraft systems proliferate the open market and in the hands of malign actors pose a growing threat to safety and security. Likewise, as competitors continue to target U.S. networks and critical infrastructure in cyberspace a whole government effort is increasingly necessary to mitigate potential harm. Nonstate actors continue to target our homeland.
▶ 0:30:27Gen. Guillot: Radical islamic terrorist groups intended to inspire lone wolf attacks. Like the daily new year's day attack in new orleans. And transnational criminal cartels based in mexico threatened U.S. territorial integrity and the safety of our citizens. Without strategic backdrop, homeland defense is our command's central task.
▶ 0:30:56Gen. Guillot: Nobody waits on norad or northcom. Command's planning and preparation generated swift and effective responses to competitor actions and emerging requirements. Over the past 12 months, norad and northcom intercepted joint russian and chinese bombers off the alaska coast, tracked russian surface vessels off both coasts, detected and assessed numerous north korean missile launches, tracked multiple chinese dual use military and research vessels, supported
▶ 0:31:28Gen. Guillot: Americans in need following hurricane helene and wildfires in california, postured to support hurricane milton response, deployed troops in unique military capabilities along the U.S. southern border, illuminated criminal networks, deployed military personnel to assist U.S. secret service, and improved defensive capabilities against all threats.
▶ 0:31:59Gen. Guillot: Norad and northcom modernization is critical to outpacing our competitors. Establishing a layered domain awareness network to detect and track throats -- threats approaching north america is crucial because you cannot defeat what you cannot see.
▶ 0:32:14Gen. Guillot: I appreciate the department and congressional support for fielding all domain capabilities such as target indicator satellites, the wedge tail, and integrated undersea surveillance system. Defending our borders, protecting critical infrastructure, and safeguarding our citizens will require the best our nations have to offer.
▶ 0:32:42Gen. Guillot: I am grateful to the committee for ongoing support of nora and northcom's -- norad and northcom's vital missions.
▶ 0:32:56Adm. Holsey: I am humbled to appear before you today as commander of the united states southern command. We are a war fighting organization and I move forward to lead this command as we foster democracy, security, and prosperity through the western hemisphere. I'm honored to testify alongside general guillot.
▶ 0:33:22Adm. Holsey: Relationship between southcom and northcom's vital to safety and security of our homeland. The united states and our partners are together not simply by history and geography but by family bonds, security, and economic cooperation and steadfast devotion to democratic values. The commitment to these values is a cornerstone of our collective partnership. Together, we seek to achieve lasting security and prosperity throughout the americas.
▶ 0:33:52Adm. Holsey: Today, this vision is imperiled by a host of threats. These include strategic competition from china and russia, the impact of transnational criminal organizations, boundary challenges such as irregular migration, natural disasters, food and water insecurity.
▶ 0:34:12Adm. Holsey: China continues its methodical incursion into our shared neighborhood with military and economic influence to export is authoritative model to the region. Most focus in the east and west when they think of great power competition. The south reveals china has already established a strong presence.
▶ 0:34:34Adm. Holsey: His predatory investment practices, resource extraction threaten the security and sovereignty of our partners and jeopardize united states national security. Russia supports like-minded regimes like cuba, nicaragua, and venezuela, using disinformation, arms sales, force projection. Moscow is attempting to undermine united states influence in the region.
▶ 0:35:04Adm. Holsey: Tco's fuel instability through the region. They engage in group violence and other criminal activities. They are having devastating effects which will spill over into our hometown.
▶ 0:35:23Adm. Holsey: The joint task force at the naval station at guantanamo in support of the department of home and security to provide safe and humane care of illegal aliens until they are returned to their countries of origin. Our time is now. Deliberate and meaningful action to address these threats is required. Partnerships are our most effective approach. We cannot take this for granted.
▶ 0:35:57Adm. Holsey: To be a trusted partner we must be credible, present, and engaged. I witnessed how presence builds trust. As a result, partners prefer to work with us over china, russia, and other nations to overcome their most pressing challenges. We have and will continue to respond rapidly to crises in any form. Together with our partners we are building capability and capacity to mitigate and respond to threats.
▶ 0:36:27Adm. Holsey: Sustained investment, joint exercises, disaster assistance, among other initiatives enable us to deliver at point of need. As the department sharpens its war fighting edge I'm grateful for the continuous support of congress. This vital support to defending democratic principles and interests that underpin the civility and prosperity of the region and ultimately the security of our nation. Thank you again, chairman wicker, ranking member reed, and members of this committee.
▶ 0:36:55Chair Wicker: Thank you for your testimony. Let's get started quickly. General guillot, you can see from senator reed and me we are interested in the executive order to renew america's aging missile defense architecture. I will jump right in there. How are we going to do this? What are the options? What are your top priorities?
▶ 0:37:26Chair Wicker: With respect to upgrading air and missile defenses, what role do you see space-based capabilities in the effort and is our industrial base primed to execute this mission? What are your top priorities?
▶ 0:37:39Gen. Guillot: The top priority in that -- in our efforts to meet the direction of the executive order is first to establish increased domain awareness. As I mentioned, you cannot defeat what you cannot see. The adversaries have increasing capability of reaching us to threatening us from ranges beyond some of our current systems.
▶ 0:38:07Gen. Guillot: The first layer of any approach to defending the united states or north america from the norad perspective would be a sensor layer from seabed to space of systems that can detect threats from a further distance. Those are seabed, ground-based, air based, and then space-based systems for detecting, tracking, and warning.
▶ 0:38:36Gen. Guillot: Inside of that, I think we build on our existing gbi and in g.I. Capability -- ngi capabilities to defeat inter-continental ballistic missiles.
▶ 0:38:50Chair Wicker: On the sensor layer, how soon can we get there?
▶ 0:38:54Gen. Guillot: Some capabilities are right on the edge. Others are probably three to five years out, but I think inside a year we could have significant capability that can network those into a single sensing grid.
▶ 0:39:08Chair Wicker: Go ahead if you have anything to say about space-based or our industrial based capabilities.
▶ 0:39:18Gen. Guillot: Cooperation with the industrial base is critical so they can keep pace with not only our requirements but requirements based on capabilities of the adversary which are rapidly increasing, so I cannot emphasize enough the need to develop systems and move them on the timeline to field them more quickly to achieve our goal.
▶ 0:39:42Chair Wicker: The ranking member and I spoke about fentanyl deaths. The estimate I have is more than 225,000 americans are estimated to have been killed because of fentanyl overdoses from 2021 to 2023. So what progress are we making their? Who is to blame?
▶ 0:40:08Chair Wicker: I understand that we have been told in the past there are more russian spies operating in mexico city than anywhere in the world. Is that true? What is north -- what is northcom doing and needing to do?
▶ 0:40:26Gen. Guillot: The fentanyl crisis is a significant concern to our command. We have a number of and to unless at work -- of intel analysts at work to provide intelligence that gets after cartel networks that derive the production and distribution of fentanyl and pushes it across the border.
▶ 0:40:49Gen. Guillot: Recently, we have been permitted to increase our isr, our intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to --
▶ 0:40:59Chair Wicker: Permitted by mexico?
▶ 0:41:01Gen. Guillot: No, by the department. But we do have intelligence sharing with mexico to show them what we see and have increased cooperation with mexico to go address the cartel violence in terms of sending more troops.
▶ 0:41:22Chair Wicker: We had 25,000 in a three-year space. Now it is 2025. Has it gotten better?
▶ 0:41:34Gen. Guillot: No. I would not say it is better, but I think we have a better foundation now that we have increased intelligence to make rapid progress against the threat.
▶ 0:41:47Chair Wicker: It definitely needs to get better, so tell us what you need. You have eight seconds.
▶ 0:41:54Gen. Guillot: More isr is the first and then expanded authorities would be required. More advise and assist types of operations between our forces and the mexican forces.
▶ 0:42:09Chair Wicker: We want to be a teammate. Senator reed?
▶ 0:42:13Sen. Reed: Following along in the questioning of the chairman with respect to the space-based systems and used for acquisition of targets and contact with targets, you need unfettered access. Is that fair to say?
▶ 0:42:36Gen. Guillot: To properly employ all those systems, we would have to have uninterrupted and complete access to the entire spectrum.
▶ 0:42:44Sen. Reed: As a result, the proposed spectrum options would complicate significantly your ability to carry out that mission.
▶ 0:42:52Gen. Guillot: Compromising that part of the spectrum is a concern to me and the systems necessary for homeland defense.
▶ 0:43:00Sen. Reed: There is a proximally 2000 active duty personnel at the border and there is always opportunity cost, whatever you do. One of the opportunity costs is the training of these troops. Are you aware of what training is being missed, deferred, or ignored because of this?
▶ 0:43:25Gen. Guillot: All of the forces that come to us from the services are extremely well-trained, disciplined, and highly qualified. If they are conducting missions outside their normal specialty, we have a series of five workdays and one training day and one day off each week. In that training day, we prescribe our leadership to make sure the forces operating outside of their standard specialty have opportunity to train and maintain skills.
▶ 0:43:57Gen. Guillot: Some of the others, such as helicopter pilots and infantry, are doing work that is already in line and maintain their readiness. >> in rough metric, one out of five days -- my math is terrible. I went to west point. So they are doing 20% of the training they would have done at home base.
▶ 0:44:17Gen. Guillot: Yes, sir.
▶ 0:44:20Sen. Reed: Thank you. I do not have the privilege of going to navy or air force. And are holding -- admiral holsey, can you give us a concise but detailed description of your role at guantanamo's migrant detention center and the gitmo?
▶ 0:44:51Adm. Holsey: Southcom plans and postures to conduct migrant operations. One of our enduring missions is to plan for a mass migration scenario. Under the current situation, what we are doing is modifying our existing plan to be able to support microsoft's -- migrant ops and provide safe and humane care in support of the department of homeland security.
▶ 0:45:19Adm. Holsey: To be clear, there are two different sides of the base. One is the naval station, but you have the migrant operations center where we are actually setting up tents and then you have gitmo which has detainees. >> have you estimated the cost that you are going to incur for the operations?
▶ 0:45:47Adm. Holsey: You have to construct facilities for 30,000 individuals, including mess halls, health care centers, sanitation provisions, etc.. How much money is that going to cost us?
▶ 0:46:02Adm. Holsey: We are in the initial phase of the process. Right now, we are still building out and that process is still in play.
▶ 0:46:17Sen. Reed: Going back to the concept of iron dome, unlike the israelis this is not a missile defense system. This is a system of systems. One of the most important aspects is detection rather than interception. Is that fair?
▶ 0:46:40Gen. Guillot: The first and most critical part is the detection capability.
▶ 0:46:45Sen. Reed: I met recently with a defense minister from canada. They are interested in participating. They have legal obstacles, but they assume they can jump over them. Very much participating in missile-defense system and their best contribution could be coming in what way?
▶ 0:47:05Gen. Guillot: I welcome their participation. The first would be to buy into our domain awareness expansion, whether ground-based or space-based and then further down the line if they can see how they would mesh with our existing defense mechanisms in a similar way that we employ fighter craft with norad. Perhaps we could do the same with systems from the ground.
▶ 0:47:38Chair Wicker: Perhaps that will be one way canada could begin to meet its nato requirements as far as defense spending as a portion of their gdp. Let me ask both witnesses to move the microphones a little closer. And then I recognize senator fischer and senator shaheen.
▶ 0:48:05Sen. Fischer: Thank you for your service to this country. The work you do is extremely important. You are going to hear I think a lot about spectrum because here at the senate we are discussing that and you were talking about many think that iron dome for america is similar to what we see in israel. It is not.
▶ 0:48:36Sen. Fischer: It is not. What we are looking at, as you have said, we cannot defeat what we cannot see, so we have to be able to increase domain awareness and increasing domain awareness means that we need additional radars, terrestrial, airborne, space-based, underwater. You hit that in your opening comments.
▶ 0:49:02Sen. Fischer: I am trying to hit it more here to make a point, not just to the media but with my colleagues as well. All of the systems depend on spectrum. The spectrum that the department of defense has. Is that true?
▶ 0:49:16Gen. Guillot: That is exactly correct. >> can those systems function if there is a lot of noise? Which means additional users close by and creating a lot of noise?
▶ 0:49:32Gen. Guillot: No, senator. We have to have complete control of the spectrum to operate effectively.
▶ 0:49:38Sen. Fischer: And operating the systems effectively means protecting the homeland.
▶ 0:49:42Gen. Guillot: Yes. That is the purpose for all of our systems. It centers on homeless -- homeland defense.
▶ 0:49:51Sen. Fischer: To move to a different topic, you predicted during the posture hearing last year that chinese and russian aircraft -- you said they flew a mission into alaska air defense identification zone. Do you assess that the united states will see more of this from china, whether it is aircraft or ships or submarines?
▶ 0:50:19Gen. Guillot: I do think they will increase their presence independently as well as increased cooperation with the russians in the air and at sea.
▶ 0:50:31Sen. Fischer: In that cooperation with the russians, what do you worry about most? >> that instead of just weapons and technology they will treat access met which would shorten our timelines to react to either country's military capabilities.
▶ 0:50:51Sen. Fischer: Are there any authorities or capabilities that northcom and norad would need to protect your ar?
▶ 0:51:05Gen. Guillot: The most important capability we would need is to see further ranges as military capabilities improve. We have to match that with detection capability. At this time, I do not lack any authorities.
▶ 0:51:20Sen. Fischer: Admiral, since you took over command last year, what is your assessment of china's long-term strategic objectives?
▶ 0:51:34Adm. Holsey: The prc has continued to expand economic engagement to have more influence in the region. They are continuing with the belton road initiative -- belt and road initiative so that is one aspect of it.
▶ 0:52:01Adm. Holsey: Right now, when I think about dual use sites and facilities and deepwater ports, I think about the space enabled infrastructure. At least 10 space sites across the region. You get into safe city technology.
▶ 0:52:24Adm. Holsey: When our partners use huawei, now they are a threat of having chinese technology in critical infrastructure. We continue to find ways to deliver for our partners so I do that by engaging in operations as well as trying to make sure from an economic standpoint through the region and working with the office of strategic capital and others to find ways to block out the prc.
▶ 0:52:52Chair Wicker: Senator shaheen and then kotten.
▶ 0:52:58Sen. Shaheen: Thank you for being here and for your service to the country. General guillot, I am not sure if any resources are coming from operations in your area of responsibility to address some of the flights transporting migrants out of the country, but I understand last week the air force transportable hundred four migrants from the united states to india.
▶ 0:53:22Sen. Shaheen: That flight cost the american taxpayers $2.5 million and I understand we are currently spending nearly $30,000 in our for every deportation flight being run by the military when homeland security used to charter flights like these at less than one third of the cost.
▶ 0:53:40Sen. Shaheen: It does not seem like a very effective use of our dollars, given the needs that you talked about in terms of what you require for additional resources to address threats facing the country.
▶ 0:53:58Sen. Shaheen: Are you seeing any of the impacts of those costs yet on budget and do you know how those costs are being paid? >> I have not seen any impact at this point, but I will remain transparent with the committee if I feel strained in that area. As you alluded to at the beginning, those flights are flown by U.S.
▶ 0:54:26Sen. Shaheen: Trends,, so we coordinate to have migrants available but we do not operate those flights.
▶ 0:54:34Sen. Shaheen: Do you know if those flights are coming out of trance,'s -- transcom's budget?
▶ 0:54:47Gen. Guillot: I cannot say for sure, but I assume they are.
▶ 0:54:50Sen. Shaheen: I would hope this committee would know why the military is doing them as opposed to what -- to the way we used to at one third of the cost. >> thank you for the suggestion.
▶ 0:55:05Sen. Shaheen: Over the last year, we have seen an almost 15% decrease in drug overdose deaths. Illegal drugs however, as you pointed out, are still killing nearly 90,000 americans every year.
▶ 0:55:22Sen. Shaheen: Both of your commands rely on partnerships with governments and militaries in the region to help stop the flow of illegal drugs, so can you talk about whether you are seeing impact on the stop on our foreign assistance in countries like latin -- in latin america on the willingness of those countries to cooperate?
▶ 0:55:50Sen. Shaheen: Are you seeing or do you see concern that china may move in in some of those areas where our presence is being discontinued?
▶ 0:56:04Adm. Holsey: China continues to look hard at every opportunity to come in and engage, so we cannot take that for granted. With regard to engaging, they are resilient.
▶ 0:56:23Adm. Holsey: The exercises focus on -- if you look into the eastern pacific now and the first 90 days -- since the first of january we have already interdicted 50 metric tons of cocaine and arrested 84 detainees.
▶ 0:56:43Adm. Holsey: When you think about this piece, 80% of our interdiction last year was done by our partners using a ship special mission bringing out interceptors from our partners along with us so they are all in with us to continue to do that security operation. I have not seen impacts at this point. I will have to let the committee now.
▶ 0:57:06Sen. Shaheen: As you are looking at the challenges with our northern border, are you finding canada willing to cooperate in all of the ways that are important as we are looking at interdiction of drugs and other illegal activities across our border?
▶ 0:57:26Gen. Guillot: I find my counterpart in canada are open to planning potential partnering on the northern border to detect illegal crossings both ways in the future.
▶ 0:57:41Sen. Shaheen: And canada has developed a plan to address their commitments to northcom. Are you seeing that beginning to be built out at this point or is that all still in the future? Did we participate in development of that plan? >> they were collaborative on defining more requirements and modernization is at the be getting stages.
▶ 0:58:06Sen. Shaheen: We are seeing improved radar and missile capabilities already. The next step we will see his arrival of the f-35 in the next years. We do have immediate improvements.
▶ 0:58:23Chair Wicker: Again, I am looking forward to our friends in canada fulfilling their commitment to nato.
▶ 0:58:34Sen. Cotton: I have legislation to address the drone threat in america. We seem to have drones just flying around everywhere and many times people do not know what is going on, notably late last year in new jersey.
▶ 0:58:52Sen. Cotton: This is also happening around our military bases here and you have had drone incursions over joint base langley, the vandenberg space for space, andersen air force base. Could you explain briefly -- what is the threat these drones posed to the U.S. military operations facilities and personnel?
▶ 0:59:13Gen. Guillot: The primary threat in the way they have been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations.
▶ 0:59:23Sen. Cotton: And that is all installations, not just super sensitive ones like nuclear sites. It could be our fighter bases or naval bases?
▶ 0:59:34Gen. Guillot: Yes. There were 350 detections reported last year on military installations and that was 350 over a total of 100 installations of all types and levels of security.
▶ 0:59:47Sen. Cotton: It is the case now that only at certain sites what you might call the supersensitive sites, that authorities -- that commanders have authority to protect against >> drone incursions. >>about half are covered.
▶ 1:00:04Sen. Cotton: Which sounds crazy to me. I think most america things it does not show a lot of common sense. Base commanders at every base around america -- they have the authority and capability to protect their perimeters, say of terrorists got a dump truck and drove it through the front gate or were trying to reach the parameter fence, we would expect base commanders to protect their base with force of necessary correct?
▶ 1:00:31Gen. Guillot: That is correct. I would propose an advocate for expansion of 10030i to include all installations.
▶ 1:00:44Sen. Cotton: I have legislation to do just that. It would give commanders legal authority they need, plus capability required to protect bases from these kinds of incursions and hold them accountable for doing so. Is that what you're advocating for?
▶ 1:01:00Gen. Guillot: That is. I would also like to see the range expanded to slightly beyond the installations so they do not have to wait for the threat to get over the installation before they can address it. Many of these systems can use slant range, so they could survey the base from outside the perimeter and undercurrent authorities we cannot address that.
▶ 1:01:23Sen. Cotton: Even better p last year, you said there were thousands of drone incursions over the southern border and last week mexican cartel leaders reportedly authorized to use drones equipped with explosives against U.S. border patrol agents.
▶ 1:01:40Sen. Cotton: I know this is primarily a dhs responsibility at the southern border, but do you need authorization for dod to share information with dhs and border authorities about these incursions?
▶ 1:01:56Gen. Guillot: Yes. I would like 130i to be expanded.
▶ 1:02:03Sen. Cotton: Sounds like a great idea. I'm glad we have legislation to do that and I hope we can pass it into law this year. Thank you. Admiral, I know the navy is responsible for guantanamo bay southern command is responsible for some operations there, to include operations of violent illegal migrants recently transported. Can you give us a sense of the security measures in place that protect against any risk of violent criminals and terrorists being held at gitmo?
▶ 1:02:34Adm. Holsey: Gitmo is the detention facility where highly trained military police come down on rotation with the guards , on a one-year rotation. They are highly qualified. They have been trained to do the mission. They have been doing it for years, so they are very capable and ready to deals any situation.
▶ 1:02:56Sen. Cotton: And you're confident your personnel are trained and ready to do that and save doing so.
▶ 1:03:01Adm. Holsey: 100%.
▶ 1:03:03Sen. Cotton: I am also confident it is safer to have depraved, savage criminals from other countries waiting at one time obey for deportation than it is to have them waiting in a base on the american mainland soil where we hope they would never be able to cause problems but you never know. There are american citizens on those bases and outside those bases.
▶ 1:03:27Chair Wicker: Senator hirono and then senator sullivan.
▶ 1:03:32Sen. Hirono: General guillot, the president's recent missile defense executive order tasks you with providing them an updated assessment of the strategic missile threat to the homeland. That is the president's direction to you.
▶ 1:03:54Sen. Hirono: I remain concerned about the viability of dod strategy to defend hawaii from missile threats. We are looking at china, north korea. Will you commit to include the missile defense of hawaii as part of your assessment?
▶ 1:04:12Gen. Guillot: Absolutely. Hawaii is -- defense of ballistic from hawaii as part of my responsibility.
▶ 1:04:25Sen. Hirono: Last year, the former national guard bureau chief testified the border security mission provides no military training value to guardsmen, no military training value to guardsmen, and does not prepare troops for great power competition.
▶ 1:04:48Sen. Hirono: Additionally, a report from 2021 found multiple units lost critical training opportunities due to deployments to the border. Ok. That impacts military and operational readiness. Do you agree with the assessment that these missions provide no military training value to guardsmen?
▶ 1:05:14Gen. Guillot: I do not agree. I think specifically in the helicopters and our intel specialties that are conducting missions on the southern border, those are exactly in line with their trained specialty. However, there are -- I certainly recognize there are areas where they are crosstrained and they are not getting immediate benefit to their primary specialty in about half of those roles.
▶ 1:05:41Sen. Hirono: So your testimony is that using military troops at the border is not going to have an impact on readiness? How many troops do we have on the border right now and do you expect that number to grow?
▶ 1:06:00Gen. Guillot: We have 5000 forces on the southern border right now and I expect that number to grow.
▶ 1:06:09Sen. Hirono: As the ranking member on the readiness committee, I have concerns about what these kinds of troop movements will do to readiness. What specific military training events and readiness exercises will northcom forgo due to the resource demands of the border mission? >> to this point, none have been altered and we do not project that we would lose any of our exercises.
▶ 1:06:40Sen. Hirono: As forces are provided by the services, we still have capabilities to conduct all of our scheduled exercises.
▶ 1:06:45Sen. Hirono: The report in 2021 noted there will be some critical training opportunities lost and I am going to follow up with you as to whether that is also what is happening. In your confirmation hearing last september, you stated that southcom's main campaigning tool is security cooperation utilizing a whole of government approach that includes usaid.
▶ 1:07:12Sen. Hirono: How will president trump's decision to freeze foreign assistance and dismantle usaid affect southcom's security cooperation mission.
▶ 1:07:23Adm. Holsey: We are still assessing the impacts of usaid from a military standpoint. I still can do my security cooperation at this time. I look to tradewinds exercise. That is when we do yearly focused on humanitarian assistance in the caribbean, so we go out there and do these missions, train our forces for earthquakes, hurricanes, and the like.
▶ 1:07:50Adm. Holsey: Those opportunities give a chance to develop skills for emergencies or contingencies.
▶ 1:07:58Sen. Hirono: I really do not see how closing usaid would not have negative impact on part of your mission. Regarding guantanamo bay, this is for admiral holsey.
▶ 1:08:17Sen. Hirono: Southcom is responsible for and lamenting the president -- implementing the president's directive for expanding guantanamo bay to house migrants. Who are these migrants, where will they be coming from, and what is the estimated cost for the expansion in support of this development clinic looting food, medical care, construction, and sustainment?
▶ 1:08:46Sen. Hirono: We are talking about a very big infrastructure that we are going to need to house 30,000 migrants. Can you explain how all this is happening? How much it will cost? How it will impact southcom's mission? Weekly? I have run out of time. >> from the standpoint of who decides, that is dhs, who comes to the base.
▶ 1:09:21Sen. Hirono: They decide that point. We support them and supported dhs. With a guard to the pricing, we are still understanding. As we understand how large we will get, we will have a better focus on the price.
▶ 1:09:34Sen. Hirono: So we are going to want to know how much this is actually going to cost. I know you will ask, Mr. chairman, about the amount of money that went to supporting 104 people to india and whether that was an appropriate use of funds.
▶ 1:09:55Chair Wicker: Perhaps witnesses can take that for the record and we will have another round if we need. Then we have senator sullivan.
▶ 1:10:05Sen. Sullivan: I want to echo with the chairman has been saying. We do need canada to step up. When they do not meet their 2% gdp native commitments, it undermines the entire alliance. Appreciate the chairman mentioning that. General, it was good to meet with you the other day.
▶ 1:10:26Sen. Sullivan: We had a meeting with senior trump administration officials and a number of senators focused on the border and they focused quite like your testimony, a lot on the northern border, which I appreciate. I have a chart here which depicts a lot of the air and sea incursions we have seen in the last few years.
▶ 1:10:47Sen. Sullivan: It has been remarkable, particularly the chinese-russian strategic bomber missions and the joint chinese-russian naval task force, a 12 ship naval task force last summer. President trump himself commented we need to increase military investments in alaska as russia and china make more menacing moves in the region.
▶ 1:11:17Sen. Sullivan: That is an example of all the different incursions, air and sea, in the last three years, which is quite astounding. General, I want to go into more detail. Your troops have done a good job of intercepting the strategic bombers. They can't with armed -- they come with armed migs.
▶ 1:11:44Sen. Sullivan: Our navy has done a good job, although the first time we had that joint russian-chinese task force we did not have any navy response, which was ridiculous in my view. These are difficult missions. Made more difficult when you're intercepting strategic bombers. Lots of times our fighters are having to fly over a thousand miles to get to the end to intercept them.
▶ 1:12:13Sen. Sullivan: So my question -- can you put the other side up? Do you agree we need more infrastructure? You and I have talked about reopening the airfield and the navy base out here on the island chain. Or in barrow, alaska to help with the missions. Can you explain that in more detail?
▶ 1:12:47Sen. Sullivan: These incursions are going to increase. This is america. Yet the infrastructure we have for the young men and women doing these dangerous intercept missions at sea and in the air, they need more infrastructure. Their safety and for our rapid response. Do you agree that they do? Would you support reopening the naval base an extension of the barrow runway? This is way up there.
▶ 1:13:21Gen. Guillot: I do agree with you. As you mentioned, the admiral and I are linked and blind -- aligned on all issues in the pacific. I would support for sure maritime and air access.
▶ 1:13:38Gen. Guillot: It is the far north point of alaska because those missions are not only long, thousand miles or more with air refueling's usually at night, but also the hardest conditions if a pilot should have to eject, having had those forward points he mentioned would allow us to reposition search-and-rescue aircraft or land in emergency, which are keep abilities we do not have now.
▶ 1:14:05Sen. Sullivan: I want to thank the men and women under your command. They do these intercept missions all the time. They are tough and dangerous and do not make a lot of news down here in the lower 48 but they are doing a great job. Let me turn to missile defense. Senator cramer and I introduced our iron dome act that reinforces what president trump's executive order does. That is a depiction of that covering the whole united states with integrated missile defense
▶ 1:14:35Systems To Protect Our: . 30 cosponsors, 10 democrats, 20 republicans. Can I get your sense, a commitment to work with me and senator cramer on that? You mentioned the ground-based missile interceptors.
▶ 1:15:05Systems To Protect Our: Those are all based in alaska. Why is it taking so long to fill those 20 silos that are needed? Can I get your commitment to work with me? To accelerate that?
▶ 1:15:18Gen. Guillot: You have my full commitment to work with you on the iron dome. It is the mission to defend and you also have my commitment to work to move all defense industrial base capabilities to the left to bring these capabilities earlier as our adversaries are advancing their capability and we must keep pace. >> I ask you consent that the three charts that senator sullivan referred to be submitted to the record.
▶ 1:15:49Gen. Guillot: Without support --, without objection. >> this morning I received the name miller from one of my long-standing staff members. Mark graduated in richmond from jr tucker high school. He decided he was not college material yet and he enlisted in the marine corps.
▶ 1:16:17Gen. Guillot: He served for four years in the marine corps and it put him on a path, an amazing task. He finished his service and got a social work degree at virginia commonwealth university. Advice to any of my colleagues, if you want someone great in constituent services, pick a marine with a social work degree. The persistence of the marines and skill in working with organizations and listening to people exemplifies that.
▶ 1:16:46Gen. Guillot: Mark sent me this morning, he reached out to send me this article that was on the 10th of january on military.com. Military drops recruiting efforts at prestigious black engineering awards event. I would like that entered into the record. The first two paragraphs, here they are.
▶ 1:17:04Gen. Guillot: The army and other service branches are abandoning recruiting efforts at a prestigious black engineering event this week, turning down access to a key pool of highly qualified potential applicants amid president trump's purge of diversity initiatives in the military.
▶ 1:17:21Gen. Guillot: Until this week our recruiting command had a long-standing public partnership with the black engineer of the year awards, an annual conference that drives academics in professional science, technology and engineering and math. The event has historically been a key venue for the pentagon to recruit talent including awarding scholarships and pitching military service to engineers.
▶ 1:17:50Gen. Guillot: Past events include the army chief of staffs and defense secretary. This was the most talented events we do, one army recruiter told military.com, on the condition that their may not be used. "our footprint there has always been significant. We need the talent." my staffer said to me I would never have served in the military if there were not men and women who looked like me in the recruiting process.
▶ 1:18:18Gen. Guillot: Limiting military recruitment in the name of anti-d.e.I. Will ultimately hurt our military. I was intending to ask questions about north com and south com until I got mark's email this morning.
▶ 1:18:38Gen. Guillot: Intentionally avoiding an event full of stem talent and engineers because it happens to be a draw for black engineers is more than an anti-di initiative. It is an intentional effort to avoid certain kinds of people in recruiting. The article goes on to say it is not just the army that is pulled out of this event. All the service branches have pulled out of this event. I just want to put this on the record.
▶ 1:19:06Gen. Guillot: Two things happened on january 31 that I found unusual. The president donald j. Trump did what every president since gerald ford has done on january 31. He declared february black history month. On january 31 the secretary of defense pete hegseth put out a directive, identity months are dead. That was not the newspaper headline summarizing the directives. That was the directive from the secretary of defense.
▶ 1:19:37Gen. Guillot: Identity months are dead. We have two events on january 31. We have the president and commander-in-chief issuing the standard black history month proclamation for the nation. But apparently at dod it is different. At dod black history month is dead.
▶ 1:19:58Gen. Guillot: At dod we will not recruit engineers who happen to be black to serve at a time when we need more people serving in the military and all of our service branches are struggling with attracting talent. There are a lot of issues dealing with north com and south com. I am glad senator cotton asked about ubs. I have a lot of questions I wanted to ask. Admiral holsey, I'm glad we had the chance to talk to my office.
▶ 1:20:29Gen. Guillot: The U.S. military has been at the forefront of including talent of all kinds. With the actions on january 31, the president acknowledging black history month. But within the d.o.d. Family, this is dead, I worry the military will not be at the forefront, but be behind. And that would be a terrible sellout of an amazing tradition that our U.S.
▶ 1:20:59Gen. Guillot: Military should be proud of. I yield back. >> senator scott.
▶ 1:21:05Sen. Scott: Thank you for the servicemen and women who served with you. All of these hearings are important. I like this one a lot because south com is here. It is from my home state of florida. I was hoping my good friend senator sullivan was still here. I would like, one thing I will always like is if people understood the risks we were having in latin america and we need to put more effort into it.
▶ 1:21:36Sen. Scott: Admiral holsey, we talked about that yesterday and I know you are focused on it. After years of joe biden's open border crisis wreaking havoc on domestic security with millions of illegal alien encounters at the border and dangerous regimes, the safety of our nation's top of my for all of us. I think you have a very important job to bring back peace through strength. Let me just get to the questions. President trump signed two executive orders.
▶ 1:22:04Sen. Scott: One to seal the southern border and another deploying service men and women to the southern border which none of us wanted him to do but unfortunately he will have to do to secure the border. Can you speak to how the administration is preparing for and you do have the ability to face down the problems?
▶ 1:22:25Gen. Guillot: We have the capability and support to meet the requirements established in the executive orders. As you might know we doubled the number of title x forces inside of a week. They are operating in seven roles in support of the department of homeland security. We have also increased some unique military capabilities that will get after the point you made, the cartels, which are driving illegal immigration.
▶ 1:22:54Gen. Guillot: That is primarily through airborne isr, to get more information on those.
▶ 1:23:00Sen. Scott: Is there any chance you will need a carrier strike group in the gulf of america?
▶ 1:23:06Gen. Guillot: At this time I have not gotten to a carrier strike group but I will need increased maritime presence and cooperation with the coast guard.
▶ 1:23:14Sen. Scott: Are the lcs chips -- ships helpful?
▶ 1:23:19Gen. Guillot: Yes, those are in line with what we are looking to do in the maritime.
▶ 1:23:24Sen. Scott: Admiral holsey, I have been up here a little over six years. We talked about this a little bit. End and calm -- indo paycom. South com faces threats to national security. You might need additional assets freshly with with china, russia, iran are doing in the region.
▶ 1:23:57Sen. Scott: Can you talk about the importance of having the right assets to be able to deal with the threats?
▶ 1:24:04Admiral Holsey: To be clear, presence means power. Presence means relationships. Not only when out of the area of the area deployers come, they see us. It builds those partnerships and it shows that we are there
▶ 1:24:34Enduring Sen. Scott: . You talked about the importance of homestead air force base.
▶ 1:24:43Admiral Holsey: Yes. Four homestead air force base located south of miami, we have used it in the past. We are use it as a jumpoff point. We use it in exercises as well. It is a key location when I think about downrange and how you engage will using it as a base to forward deployed.
▶ 1:25:10Admiral Holsey: I am looking at opportunities for unmanned assets as well.
▶ 1:25:15Sen. Scott: Does need to be returned to an active-duty base?
▶ 1:25:20Admiral Holsey: It is up to the air force two answer that but I can use that as an active-duty base.
▶ 1:25:25Sen. Scott: Thank you. >> thank you Mr. acting chairman. I appreciate it. >> first time. Newsfeeds often come across and the department of defense indicated in february 2020 five procurement plan to buy $400 million worth of tesla trucks. I will let that sink in.
▶ 1:25:56Sen. Scott: That's all I will say about that. Admiral, you talked about the activity of the chinese and latin america. Do you believe that activity is significant and number two, increasing? I understand it is public works projects, two ports in panama. Is this significant activity on behalf of china and latin america?
▶ 1:26:26Admiral Holsey: Yes. I think all of their efforts from an infrastructure standpoint, the development of facilities is a challenge. We should be concerned about that. >> two weeks ago we unilaterally disarmed in latin america when we destroyed the agency for international development because it provides funds for these kinds of projects. We have basically left the field in latin america. That should be understood.
▶ 1:26:56Admiral Holsey: We are also talking about competition with china. Here is a place where we basically have left the field. We have surrendered to china in latin america by illegally and unconstitutionally abandoning the vehicle by which we were competing with them in terms of development and be in let america. I think that should be noted.
▶ 1:27:26Admiral Holsey: We have gone almost entirely through this hearing and have not talked about terrorism. In all the talk about pivoting to great power competition, we have taken our eye off terrorism. It worries me that that is still a threat. General, is terrorism still a threat to this country? You mentioned lone wolves.
▶ 1:27:50Gen. Guillot: There is still a threat and one of the primary focus is in the north com part of my job to address that. We have close ties with central command and special operations command to follow their operations overseas. They give me any indication of activities moving towards the united states that we have to plan for.
▶ 1:28:15Gen. Guillot: Of course we have great relations across the internal and interagency to ensure that we have a consolidated look at any threats to the U.S.. >> I hope there is significant emphasis because I worry this is one of those things where we will wake up and find ourselves under attack and everyone is going to say what happened and it is a matter of taking our eye off of the ball.
▶ 1:28:41Gen. Guillot: That is why the greatest threats in this country if terrorists get a hold of nuclear material. There is a growing nuclear family including in iran and north korea where nuclear material might become available and that is the nightmare scenario because deterrence does not work with terrorists. They don't care about dying and they don't have a capital city to destroy. Intelligence and awareness of what the terrorists are plotting is critical.
▶ 1:29:15Gen. Guillot: Admiral, every year when we have this hearing I talked to the south com commander about the fact that we have intelligence reports about drug shipments coming to the U.S. in the maritime domain and we have the assets to interdict 25% of them. To me, that is unconscionable. There are people dying in my state from fentanyl and drug overdoses.
▶ 1:29:46Gen. Guillot: We are not meeting because of a lack of allocation of assets the drug shipments that we know about. That is what is so objectionable about this. Is that percentage still reasonable? 75% is not being interdicted that we know of?
▶ 1:30:06Admiral Holsey: About 10 to 20% is what we can get a hold of. And that is because of a lack of assets?
▶ 1:30:23Admiral Holsey: Yes.
▶ 1:30:25Sen. King: I would argue again that this is a misallocation of recourses. Here is an active attack on america that is killing our citizens. We don't have enough ships whether it is the coast guard or navy in the region to interdict these drug shipments. I think that is a dereliction of duty. Not a view, but of the entire policy apparatus.
▶ 1:30:55Sen. King: This goes back three to four administrations. It is one that I hope that this administration will pay some attention to and correct. Maybe there is a second round where we will talk about icebreakers. Thank you. >> was its state or defense about the teslas?
▶ 1:31:16Sen. King: It was the department of defense. Armored tesla cybertruck.
▶ 1:31:22Sen. Scott: Senator budd. >> congrats on the promotion. General, I enjoyed our conversation earlier this week. I just want to thank you on behalf of those in western north carolina for your efforts there. There were some bureaucratic handwringing at the top that was not from you or the military.
▶ 1:31:50Sen. Scott: Again, thank you for all of those in uniform who have served out west. I want to shift to the southern border. We have heard this a lot from our colleagues and I share the concern about fentanyl. In north carolina we lose every single year the totality of what we lost on 9/11 just in north carolina. That is our whole country compared to just migrate state. I am interested in stopping the supply of these chinese precursors and chemicals that end up in mexico and make their way here.
▶ 1:32:21Sen. Scott: And also stopping the chinese nationals that are being caught illegally crossing our southern border in record numbers. I think it is up by a factor of 50 from 2021 to 2023. What concerns do you have if any that foreign malign actors, not just south american immigrants, but they are using the seven border to access our nation? We will start with you, admiral.
▶ 1:32:46Admiral Holsey: As I looked at the last year or so, we saw an increase in the number of chinese actors coming across. We have been working with the panamanians and colombians to support them in stopping the flow of migration. It has slowed down this year.
▶ 1:33:15Admiral Holsey: We supported them from a logistics and intelligence standpoint, the colombians and panamanians. We saw a drop coming through right now but we have to keep an eye on it.
▶ 1:33:29Gen. Guillot: I want to thank you for your comments for the men and women who did an outstanding job supporting their teammates in the western part of north carolina. I appreciate that. I share the concern on the intent of many that are crossing the border.
▶ 1:33:47Gen. Guillot: In particular, I work closely with border patrol to figure out why the chinese migrants are so many and through such a narrow corridor in the san diego region. My concern there is a wolf in sheep's clothing coming across having someone who intends harm. We work closely with border patrol to see who is coming across and making sure that our intel agencies are tracking them.
▶ 1:34:17Gen. Guillot: I am encouraged by the recent decrease in detections and incursions across the border. As I mentioned, the increase in military presence down there and some of the unique military capabilities I hope will continue to seal the border.
▶ 1:34:34Sen. Budd: Thank you. Let's go to another topic that was discussed. As you mentioned in your opening statement and the discussion with senator cotton, we have seen you a s incursions over sensitive sites and military bases. It is an alarming amount.
▶ 1:34:54Sen. Budd: Can you describe how bases are determined to be covered facilities under title x section 130i entitling them to active defense?
▶ 1:35:09Gen. Guillot: There are nine criteria that anyone of those could allow the base to be covered. It ranges from nuclear deterrence, missile defense, all the way to if it is a test facility. Half of the 360 installations in the U.S. meet that criteria. My request and proposal would be if we look at 130 later I again would be to expand coverage to all military installations and not just those that are covered.
▶ 1:35:40Sen. Budd: Thank you. As the lead synchronizer of counter unmanned operations in the U.S., how are you preparing our bases to defend themselves from these threats? There is a policy discussion in your prior answer but what are you doing right now?
▶ 1:35:54Gen. Guillot: Since we received this responsibility in november, we are responsible for coordinating any response. The authority to defend a base as senator cotton mentioned remains with the installation commander and the services but we can be a synchronizer role to ensure standardized training, response, tactical techniques and procedures.
▶ 1:36:22Gen. Guillot: If the base and service are not able to handle the incursion, we can bring in help from across the interagency to support. Perhaps most critically is work closely with the interagency to give them the authority to operate the systems when they arrive due to our close relationship with the faa. In the future I think we will have capabilities to bring in from north com to assist if the service and installation cannot handle the incursions.
▶ 1:36:48Sen. Budd: Thank you. >> Mr. chairman, in your absence I made a statement about the purchase of tesla trucks. I was misinformed it was not the department of defense that announced this purchase. It was the department of state. I wanted to clarify the record. >> thank you very much for that. Senator warren.
▶ 1:37:10Sen. Warren: Thank you very much Mr. chairman. The trump administration is sending troops to the southern border and holding immigrants at guantanamo, redirecting active-duty personnel from critical missions and costing taxpayers several times more than when dhs does the same job. That seems to be bad for national security, bad for the military families and bad for america's bottom line.
▶ 1:37:41Sen. Warren: We have seen this before. When the first trump administration deployed troops to the border, it had the cost at $1 million over three years. But the gao found that the department of defense estimates were "not reliable" and excluded "significant costs." dod reports to congress missed more than half the actual total cost for entire fiscal years.
▶ 1:38:15Sen. Warren: Gao made seven detailed recommendations for the department of defense to improve its cost estimates but four years later, the department of defense has not executed a single one. Now d.o.d. Estimates that this new deployment will cost almost $1 billion over the next eight months. But that may be another underestimate.
▶ 1:38:44Sen. Warren: General guillot, you are overseeing the border deployment. Does underestimate in the cost of an operation put future missions and future readiness at risk?
▶ 1:38:57Gen. Guillot: Senator, I would assume so. I think I need to point out that north com has not appropriated funds for the southwest border and we have never had programming are past refunding. This is done through the department comptroller.
▶ 1:39:12Sen. Warren: I appreciate that. I am asking the question about the limits and the consequences of running past the limits. The money has to come from somewhere. I am concerned we will see the same problem that we saw last time. Big costs and little transparency and accountability. When d.o.d. Has been taxed with doing dhs's job, it has cost taxpayers a lot more money.
▶ 1:39:40Sen. Warren: It costs three times more to deport migrants on military aircraft than civilian planes that I.c.e. Often uses and has cost I.c.e. Five times more to hold migrants at guantanamo than at facilities in the united states. Any time civilian authorities ask for help, d.o.d.
▶ 1:40:05Sen. Warren: Is supposed to evaluate the request based on six criteria including cost. But we don't even have a cost estimate for the guantanamo operations. Admiral holsey, what do you expect the budgetary costs of south com's guantanamo operations to be through the end of this fiscal year?
▶ 1:40:34Admiral Holsey: We are new into the process right now. We have assets down there to start building up a camp. It is a phased approach.
▶ 1:40:43Sen. Warren: You are telling me you don't know the cost yet?
▶ 1:40:47Admiral Holsey: Not at this point.
▶ 1:40:49Sen. Warren: Not at this point so the decision to deploy d.o.d. Personnel and assets was made without knowing the cost which is exactly what d.o.d. Is supposed to consider in making the decision to deploy. Will you at least commit to provide that estimate to congress as soon as you have it?
▶ 1:41:08Admiral Holsey: Yes. I will work with ost and d.o.d. To get that to you.
▶ 1:41:17Sen. Warren: I will hold you to that. I am relying on both of you to tell us if d.o.d. Blows past whatever estimates you give us. Given the potentially astronomical cost, will you commit to informing this committee if you determine that these operations are not militarily effective?
▶ 1:41:37Admiral Holsey: Yes, senator.
▶ 1:41:40Sen. Warren: All right. We need to know if the operations are having on the magical -- an unmanageable impact on readiness and morale. Political stunts like this can easily damage troop morale. Many texas national guard members who deployed to the southern border have felt isolated, without purpose and some have even committed suicide.
▶ 1:42:04Sen. Warren: I think it is important that we have better oversight over these plans and that we make these plans conform to the law. Thank you. >> thank you very much. Senator king.
▶ 1:42:26Sen. King: One follow-up. General, give us an outline of the russian activity and militarization of the northern arctic ocean. I don't know how to define northern and southern when you are coming from the north pole. On the russian shoreline.
▶ 1:42:47Gen. Guillot: Over the last year we have seen a significant increase in both russian air and maritime activity in the vicinity of alaska, both in the bering strait and the arctic ocean. The incursions in the number of ships this past year equal or exceed the rate that it was before the ukraine invasion, after which the numbers dropped.
▶ 1:43:13Gen. Guillot: We have also seen increase in air patrols on the eastern side, what we call the 2:00 approach through the greenland and iceland cap toward maine and the northeast portion of the united states. I am concerned by that and I expect the numbers on both sides of our coast to increase in the coming year.
▶ 1:43:39Gen. Guillot: Along those lines also, the russian out of area patrols for both surface and undersea was significant last year. I expect to see that again this year.
▶ 1:43:49Sen. King: The chinese are increasingly active, are they not?
▶ 1:43:53Gen. Guillot: Yes. Last year we saw the most chinese vessels off the coast of alaska than we have ever seen.
▶ 1:43:59Sen. King: I was at a conference years ago on the arctic and there was a huge delegation from china and I said, what is china's interest. They said we are a near arctic nation. They are very active in increasing your actions. Where are we? Do we have a port facility in the arctic? Secondly, give us a breakdown of the status of icebreakers.
▶ 1:44:31Sen. King: We are woefully inadequate in terms of icebreakers, particular for the use of the northwest passage.
▶ 1:44:36Gen. Guillot: I was going to use the same word. We are in a woeful situation with icebreakers. The coast guard is working very hard to increase that for us. But at this time, we are currently outnumbered with icebreakers.
▶ 1:44:50Sen. King: They are building one new icebreaker but it is merely a replacement for the ancient one that is about to go out of service. Is that correct?
▶ 1:44:58Gen. Guillot: It is.
▶ 1:44:59Sen. King: So there is no gain in icebreakers?
▶ 1:45:03Gen. Guillot: That's right.
▶ 1:45:04Sen. King: And the ones we have commute between the arctic and antarctic.
▶ 1:45:08Gen. Guillot: That is correct.
▶ 1:45:10Sen. King: How many icebreakers to the russians have in the arctic?
▶ 1:45:13Gen. Guillot: Between 20 and 40.
▶ 1:45:14Sen. King: 20 and 40 to less than one. I would argue that the icebreakers are the essential infrastructure of the arctic region. To say we are inadequate and behind where we should be is an understatement. Thank you.
▶ 1:45:37Chair Wicker: Senator king, let me just say I think you will find a lot of bipartisan support both in the congress and in the administration for a substantial increase quickly in the number of icebreakers.
▶ 1:45:54Sen. King: I believe that is the case. I appreciate that.
▶ 1:45:58Chair Wicker: We have senator peters and senator rosen.
▶ 1:46:03Sen. Peters: Gentlemen, thank you for your service to our country and for being here today. As ranking member of the governmental affairs committee and having served in the U.S. navy reserve, I want to echo my colleague's concerns on the department of defense's role in border and civil immigration enforcement.
▶ 1:46:26Sen. Peters: I will be following up with both the department of the defense and the department of homeland security to get additional information including related to the d.o.d. Deportation flights and the dhs use of naval station guantanamo bay. My questions first general guillot.
▶ 1:46:48Sen. Peters: As you have previously stated, the successful execution of your mission as commander of both north com and norad relies on "cohesive strategies, integrated planning and collaboration across the whole of government." I completely agree with that and your assessment and I believe this also applies to executing south com missions as well.
▶ 1:47:15Sen. Peters: My question for you, how do your commands collaborate with several intergovernmental agencies including the department of homeland security, missile defense agency and infrastructure security agency in excluding your missions? How do you coordinate with these agencies and de-conflict agencies to ensure the successful defense of our homeland while maintaining from her -- framework?
▶ 1:47:39Gen. Guillot: Our partnership with d.o.d. And the interagency is critical to us. The way we approach it is we have well over 100 liaison officers, high-ranking, highly placed and trusted from their home agencies that work in our headquarters and participate in every one of our morning updates , commanders updates and planning efforts.
▶ 1:48:10Gen. Guillot: For the combat and commands, we meet regularly, we talk regularly. For example in the southern border, the responsibility is widely shared between U.S. south com, north com, and all levels of command where we integrate daily in a number of different planning groups and sessions.
▶ 1:48:35Sen. Peters: Wonderful. You both know the importance of artificial intelligence systems and the role that they play in informing commanders decisions by providing predictive analysis, real-time decision support and enhanced situational awareness in a future conflict. Earlier this week we received a classified briefing from commander who shared those views as well.
▶ 1:49:01Sen. Peters: My question to each of you, given the rapid advancements in ai, how do you cai shaping the future of commanders decisions, defense operations and weapons integrations for south com and north com. How can be helpful to accelerate the use of these new technologies?
▶ 1:49:26Gen. Guillot: The use of ar is becoming more important. We use some capabilities to help us look at imagery and find assets and activities with imagery using ai to help alert our intel analysts. Anything in the future that you see from us incorporating artificial intelligence certainly will always have what we call the man on the loop.
▶ 1:49:53Gen. Guillot: We will always have men and women who will go through reads of information much quicker. I think I should point out we are also looking to see what the adversary is doing with ai and how we might be vulnerable to them and their use of ai in our defensive capabilities.
▶ 1:50:15Sen. Peters: Thank you. Admiral?
▶ 1:50:20Admiral Holsey: We are in the process of sending our senior leaders through training to learn about ai. Another thing we are doing, we have an ai machine learning lab where we take 15 years of data based off of a ship size, location, time of year, expected route and we can use that to locate our assets, to interdict them and it has been successful and we are looking at more support to get that faster.
▶ 1:50:50Sen. Peters: Thank you.
▶ 1:50:54Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator duckworth.
▶ 1:51:00Sen. Duckworth: Thank you, chairman.
▶ 1:51:02Chair Wicker: I'm sorry. I should have recognized senator rosen first. That is the first mistake I have made. Senator kelly. Unanimous consent to my left.
▶ 1:51:18Sen. Kelly: Thank you senator rosen. Thank you. Really appreciate it. For both of you, north com and south com have been tasked with supporting a border security integration of enforcement mission.
▶ 1:51:41Sen. Kelly: While I agree that our system is broken and that we have to do more to secure the southern border, I am concerned about the effect of these missions on our military readiness. General guillot, last week over 100 migrants were flown to india on a c17 costing the american taxpayer $2.5 million and using up the limited flight hours allocated to that aircraft.
▶ 1:52:11Sen. Kelly: Using air costs around $28,000 per hour or so, that is four times as much as if I.c.e. Chartered a flight.
▶ 1:52:24Sen. Kelly: Given the strain on strategic airlift assets, are you concerned that continued use of c17's and c130's which are less expensive, are you concerned that using these for deportation flights could impact availability for higher priority missions?
▶ 1:52:45Gen. Guillot: We work closely with the transportation command that operates these flights and we are always looking to see if there are the authorities to contract that capability.
▶ 1:52:56Sen. Kelly: Do you know what missions were dropped and admiral holsey, same for you. Do you know if we dropped any missions to support the flights to india?
▶ 1:53:10Admiral Holsey: Not that I know.
▶ 1:53:12Gen. Guillot: I am not aware either.
▶ 1:53:15Sen. Kelly: Are you aware what the chain of custody looks like for detainees as we transfer them?
▶ 1:53:25Admiral Holsey: As far as right now, dhs has custody for the detainees as far as those coming.
▶ 1:53:33Sen. Kelly: So that is not a military response ability at all?
▶ 1:53:37Admiral Holsey: No, sir.
▶ 1:53:39Sen. Kelly: Admiral, we talked a little bit in my office about this. We are in the midst of a global strategic competition with china who continues efforts to influence politics and societies in the western hemisphere.
▶ 1:54:04Sen. Kelly: They use economic engagement to gain access and influence in countries in latin america and the caribbean. What is your assessment of the security situation in panama and what is your strategy to deter ccp influence in the region without contesting penn a mosque control over the panama canal?
▶ 1:54:27Admiral Holsey: Just like places around the world, china continues to gain their infrastructure influence so we know they have some controlling interest imports on both ends of the canal. We know they have infrastructure projects as well. My role as south com commander is to defend the panama canal in time of crises. I intend to do that.
▶ 1:54:55Sen. Kelly: Do you agree that working with our partners would be part of the strategy?
▶ 1:55:00Admiral Holsey: Yes.
▶ 1:55:02Sen. Kelly: Are partners meaning the panamanians.
▶ 1:55:05Admiral Holsey: Yes, the panamanians are key to working with us. We have an exercise that we do every year where we work with the panamanians and allies in the region to defend the panama canal. Recently the panamanian president recently mentioned that he wants to do the program in panama. We will contie to work with partners and the panamanians as we go forward.
▶ 1:55:31Sen. Kelly: Can you describe what the exercise would look like in panama?
▶ 1:55:35Admiral Holsey: We think about the various actors trying to create an explosion or something in the canal. As we are working to include cyber activities as well. There are various things we do throughout the region and there is always some cyber component.
▶ 1:55:59Sen. Kelly: So we do have a strategy and this exercise being part of a strategy to counter the prc's influence in the region?
▶ 1:56:09Admiral Holsey: Yes. To be clear, I will state what I'd said earlier about presence. Presence meaning power. I will continue to do that.
▶ 1:56:19Sen. Kelly: Thank you.
▶ 1:56:21Chair Wicker: Thank you senator kelly. General and admiral, senator kelly was not the first to mention the cost of the charter flights. To your knowledge, are those figures correct?
▶ 1:56:43Gen. Guillot: I don't have knowledge of that because those are run through U.S. transportation command. I don't have access to those numbers.
▶ 1:56:53Chair Wicker: You will get that to us?
▶ 1:56:56Gen. Guillot: I will.
▶ 1:56:58Admiral Holsey: We will work to get that.
▶ 1:57:02Sen. Kelly: If I can make one comment. About 21,000 pounds an hour for a c17's. 737 is about 5000 pounds per hour.
▶ 1:57:17Chair Wicker: The witnesses will follow up. Senator banks general guillot, the president's executive order to establish the iron dome stresses the need for weapons to shoot down enemy missiles and also the satellites to track them. The eo called for the acceleration of the deployment of the hypersonic and ballistic tracking sensor layer.
▶ 1:57:47Chair Wicker: If north com will have an effective dome, how is important -- how important is it that we have expand the capabilities?
▶ 1:58:00Gen. Guillot: Expanded capabilities would be paramount to having a successful shield over the north american continent. Several banks can you expand on that?
▶ 1:58:10Gen. Guillot: We have to detect anything we want to defeat. The hp tss that you describe is the first capability that we think will reliably track the hypersonic missile. We have some capability already that can detect intercontinental ballistic missile's but those are fairly easy to track because the ballistic profile whereas the hypersonics are much faster.
▶ 1:58:39Gen. Guillot: Getting the space capability to detect and track those that could defeat mechanisms in the end is imperative.
▶ 1:58:45Sen. Banks: How fast we need them?
▶ 1:58:47Gen. Guillot: How fast we need to capability?
▶ 1:58:50Sen. Banks: Yes.
▶ 1:58:52Gen. Guillot: Immediately.
▶ 1:58:53Sen. Banks: My colleagues said the U.S. military operations defend the neutrality of the panama canal are unprecedented and illegal. Do you agree with that?
▶ 1:59:04Admiral Holsey: That is more of a policy discussion. I think the department of state is better equipped to handle that.
▶ 1:59:09Sen. Banks: No opinion on whether or not that is, if you were ordered to defend the panama canal, it will be legal to do so?
▶ 1:59:17Admiral Holsey: My job is to provide options to the president.
▶ 1:59:21Sen. Banks: Fair enough. That's all I've got I yield back.
▶ 1:59:28Chair Wicker: Thank you very much. Senator rosen.
▶ 1:59:32Sen. Rosen: I think the ranking member for holding his hearing. I would like to thank general guillot and admiral holsey for testifying today. We appreciate you. I want to talk a little bit about guantanamo bay. Admiral holsey, has announced it is using our naval base at guantanamo bay to house undocumented individuals detained in the united states. Although I have deep concerns about this misguided policy including about whether we can trust that I.c.e.
▶ 2:00:01Sen. Rosen: Is not detaining american citizens, legal permanent residents or children in these facilities, understanding that you are only implementing policy decided by others, how does dod plan to pay for the transport and care and more importantly, what are the divisions of the missions and
▶ 2:00:31Sen. Rosen: Responsibilities between dod and I.c.e.? Is the military charged with the caring and feeding of those held at guantanamo bay? Are you caring for them when they are there?
▶ 2:00:42Admiral Holsey: We are not paying for them to arrive. Transcom would be able to answer that question. Our role is to provide safe humane treatment of those in the facility. We have done this mission before from a migrant standpoint. We plan every year for a mass migration scenario. It is a modification to the existing mission to bring them onboard.
▶ 2:01:06Admiral Holsey: The role of the military force is to provide supplies, food, care, shelter, medical support at this time.
▶ 2:01:14Sen. Rosen: I guess we have a lot of things to worry about whether it impedes our readiness from a readiness perspective, having to take care of migrants takes you away from your mission. I will move on because we only have three minutes. I want to talk to you admiral holsey about critical language skills. The department of defense is increasingly making investments on countering the people's republic of china. We know they are a major threat to us.
▶ 2:01:45Sen. Rosen: Are there concerns regarding a lack of language, expertise needed for countries in south com's area of responsibility considering the evolving situation of gitmo, the need for more spanish speakers? How will this impact your ability to recruit people who speak all the different languages to enable your critical mission?
▶ 2:02:11Admiral Holsey: To be clear, we are a war fighting organization. Our fundamental duty is to ensure the safety and security of the american people. We look for talent throughout. As I look at the critical skills, language skills in south com throughout my headquarters, I have several multilingual people. We have been able to hire folks. We will continue to do that.
▶ 2:02:41Sen. Rosen: We just want to be sure you are not hampered in doing that because it is critical to have those language skills. I want to move on and talk about with general guillot about safeguarding domain awareness. We have advanced capabilities across domains with the potential to threaten the homeland.
▶ 2:03:00Sen. Rosen: In light of these threats, north com and norad has to ensure that the system is provided with defense systems that are adaptable and modern. They must be hardened because they will be subject to an array of cyber attacks during any contingency. I am encouraged by your efforts to modernize.
▶ 2:03:23Sen. Rosen: What steps are you taking to heart in our command and control nodes particularly in the cyber domain so that we can effectively share operational pictures during a potential conflict?
▶ 2:03:32Gen. Guillot: As you alluded to, the most persistent and present face -- present threat that we face every day is in the cyber domain. With hundreds or maybe thousands of attacks on our networks. The way we harden that is primarily through cyber protection teams that we have that first look at our unique norad and north com networks.
▶ 2:04:03Gen. Guillot: Across the d.o.d. Network in partnership with cyber command to make sure that those are protected. When you go outside of that, we look at critical infrastructure for capabilities that not only help american citizens but also help the d.o.d.. There are four partners we have and three others in addition to north com. Cyber com, the fbi and cisa.
▶ 2:04:35Gen. Guillot: We work with them to monitor the cyber domain to ensure that all of those systems are protected.
▶ 2:04:39Sen. Rosen: Thank you.
▶ 2:04:41Chair Wicker: Senator tuberville. Simple tuberville --
▶ 2:04:50Sen. Tuberville: Thank you for being here. You have tough jobs. You talked about coming together over adversaries. What do we need to do for the next three or four years to protect our country from those coalitions that are coming together possibly for a threat to us?
▶ 2:05:13Gen. Guillot: First we need to continue to work on our ability to detect their activities. Not only are they working together, but even independently they are increasing their own capabilities and they can affect us from further ranges than they could in years past individually and certainly combined, that just magnifies that challenge.
▶ 2:05:38Gen. Guillot: Our ability to detect them from all domains undersea all the way to space is the first so we can watch what they are doing and have awareness. After that is just presence not only with U.S. forces but within our command. Anything we can do with canadian forces to show that we can detect them and respond to them in order to deter their activity would be the second emphasis I have.
▶ 2:06:08Gen. Guillot: Sen. tuberville; how it was our relationship with our partners up north?
▶ 2:06:12Gen. Guillot: On a military bases, it is outstanding. Norad is a binational command. They partner with the united states at every level of the command. We talked earlier about the first time ever the chinese and the russians flew together in the arctic. Our intercept of that was with U.S. and canadian fighters that were completely integrated.
▶ 2:06:37Gen. Guillot: At the mill to mill level, it is excellent. Between north com and sea jock, there are several times where we have russian and chinese ships in the arctic being controlled by the canadians out of U.S. bases to build that strength that. We have.
▶ 2:07:02Sen. Tuberville: Do we actually have an icebreaker that works now?
▶ 2:07:06Gen. Guillot: The coast guard has one that was just repaired but unfortunately it was out of service for a period of time over the last few months.
▶ 2:07:14Sen. Tuberville: We obviously need to add to that, I would imagine. Admiral. We talked about drones made in my great state of alabama. Can you give this group a rundown of what you think about cell don cell dorones and the need for them all over the world?
▶ 2:07:42Admiral Holsey: Over the last couple of years we have seen a decrement of navy acids in the region. One thing the navy is done with this new hybrid fleet, they would incorporate cell drones. They provide great domain awareness. We are doing in operation southern sphere where we will have cell drones in the caribbean and the eastern pacific along with other unmanned assets to counter interact.
▶ 2:08:13Admiral Holsey: It gives us more maritime awareness and it helps our partners as well because we are trying to bring them into this piece so they have a better understanding. One thing our partners continue to ask for his domain awareness, intel sharing. Again, having assets in the region for lack of other assets is making a difference.
▶ 2:08:30Sen. Tuberville: What main reason are they used for? Drug runners?
▶ 2:08:35Admiral Holsey: Right now it is overall surveillance. So they have the capability to patch back to our maritime operations center. They can pick up contacts and complete the picture. If you spread these assets out, they can cover more domain is a post just one ship -- as opposed to just one ship.
▶ 2:08:56Sen. Tuberville: How many do you have active?
▶ 2:08:58Admiral Holsey: We have eight active in the caribbean and three in the eastern pacific and more flowing in. A total of 20 in the next couple of days.
▶ 2:09:06Sen. Tuberville: That's great we appreciate what both of you do and anything we can do to help, let us know.
▶ 2:09:11Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator duckworth.
▶ 2:09:16Sen. Duckworth: It is my term. Thank you Mr. chairman and ranking member read. The number of troops assigned to the border mission continues to grow. We have had this discussion today but I want to emphasize it. With the total expected to reach 3600 and I think you addressed getting closer to 5000 potentially. This number includes infantry and support units.
▶ 2:09:40Sen. Duckworth: Are we preparing for a great power competition with the communist prc or are we asking our marines to lay at the border? Are we asking pilots to be combat ready or are they supporting deportation flights? As we consider the ways to respond to these missions in north com and south com, it is impacting the primary mission of competition and were fighting. We need to factor in increasing costs of d.o.d. Support at guantanamo bay.
▶ 2:10:13Sen. Duckworth: President trump green lit the expansion of the migrant operation center at guantanamo bay. This comes with a range of costs that will impact the overall budget. Everything from medical care and sanitation and education for migrants as well as expenses tied to deploying military personnel to gitmo. Can you provide a breakdown of the costs for increasing capacity to 30,000 people as outlined by the president's directive?
▶ 2:10:39Admiral Holsey: At this time, we are doing a phased approach. We have capability for about 2500. That plane will go up if we phased it in. We have not decided that. I am waiting for the direction. I have a cost estimate of what it will take for 30,000. Right now we are still in the infancy phase.
▶ 2:10:58Sen. Duckworth: You have a presidential directive. Have you started planning to fulfill the directive?
▶ 2:11:04Admiral Holsey: Right now, we are doing a stage approach, a tailored approach. We are working with dhs to understand the flow of migrants. We will not go to 30,000 unless we know the flow will come. We are waiting at this point.
▶ 2:11:20Sen. Duckworth: As the process moves forward, can you get me the data?
▶ 2:11:24Admiral Holsey: Yes. I will work through osd.
▶ 2:11:31Sen. Duckworth: Thank you. Fiscal year 17 was for 13,000 migrants and it cost $33 million just as a comparison. It stands to reason that an expansion to double that capacity nearly 10 years later would almost most cost much more than 33 million dollars projected in fy 17.
▶ 2:11:56Sen. Duckworth: In addition to facilities in 2019, the commander estimated that it will cost more than 100,000 dollars for each guard's deployment to gitmo. As you are doing this, do you have an estimate for the cost associated with this effort even for the first 2500?
▶ 2:12:16Admiral Holsey: We do not. I can say that the cost of running gitmo at this point, the facility over the last several years has been proximally $100 million.
▶ 2:12:27Sen. Duckworth: $100 million per year?
▶ 2:12:30Admiral Holsey: Yes, for the facility and rotation.
▶ 2:12:33Sen. Duckworth: How many detainees are there?
▶ 2:12:36Admiral Holsey: There are 30, 50 and 68 other detainees, migrants through dhs.
▶ 2:12:48Sen. Duckworth: To house 118 detainees there and maintain gitmo it is costing taxpayers $100 million currently and we will project to go up to $30 million?
▶ 2:12:59Admiral Holsey: Just at the gitmo.
▶ 2:13:02Sen. Duckworth: So the cost would be much higher than that. What is the source of funding for the expansion of the mock?
▶ 2:13:09Admiral Holsey: Right now, the services are bearing the initial cost for the initial flow. That is where it is now.
▶ 2:13:20Sen. Duckworth: So it is coming out of the services pockets. What is left unfunded as a result of the shift in priorities?
▶ 2:13:28Admiral Holsey: I cannot answer that right now.
▶ 2:13:31Sen. Duckworth: I would like to address accountability on the dod flights. What is being done to ensure that risks is mitigated for pilots and what security measures are I place to manage the personnel on board?
▶ 2:13:45Admiral Holsey: The dhs controls those flights along with trans com and they have a better understanding of the flow of migrants.
▶ 2:13:55Sen. Duckworth: So trans com is responsible for the safety of the crew of the aircraft?
▶ 2:14:00Admiral Holsey: Yes.
▶ 2:14:02Sen. Duckworth: I think we need to run this down. If the dod does not take ownership of migrants boarding their aircraft, who is responsible for the passengers?
▶ 2:14:18Admiral Holsey: Trans com has a plan in place and they would have a better understanding.
▶ 2:14:25Sen. Duckworth: A lot of unanswered questions. Thank you. Gitmo indeed. -- chair wicker: indeed. I appreciate the members participation today. Concludes the open portion of today's hearing. I would like to thank the witnesses for their testimony.
▶ 2:14:50Sen. Duckworth: Questions for the record will be due within two business days of the conclusion of this hearing. We will commence the close portion of this hearing in senate security in 15 minutes. We are recessed until 11:45 a.m.