Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics And Public Policy Today 20240622

Next, navy and marine corps leaders will discuss the state of the Naval Aviation fleet and National Maritime policy at a forum cohosted by the center for strategic and International Studies and the u. S. Naval institute. Live coverage starting shortly here on cspan3. While we wait for this discussion at the center for strategic and International Studies to start, a look at other happening on the cspan networks today. The National Business group on health discusses how the Largest Companies are handling health care. That will be live, 10 a. M. Eastern on our companion network, cspan2. Then at 10 30 eastern on cspan, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosts a discussion on immigration ant 2016 campaign. Good morning, everyone and welcome csis. I have a brief security announcement before we kick off todays convenient. I want to share with you one of our Building Security precautions. Overall, we want you to know that we feel very secure in our building but as a convener of such meetings, we have a duty to prepare for any emergency situation. I willself as your responsible Safety Officer and i will be lurking in that back corner, should the need arise, i will ask to you please follow my instructions. Before we begin the event, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the emergency exit pathways for this room. For example, if something happens, the front of the building, i will ask that you follow me thought door and down the back staircase. In no convenient should you use the elevator. So we have staircases around and i will point you to the nearest safe exit. So, now, without further ado i would like to introduce vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applause ]o vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applauseu vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applause vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applause vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applause vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applausey vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applauseo vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applauseu vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the the u. S. Naval institute. [ applauseo vice admiral peter daily, ceo of the u. S. Naval institute. [ applause ] good morning. On behalf of everyone, we welcome doubt next install n our Maritime Security dialogue series. The entire series is funded with the generous sponsorship of lockheed martin. Like to recognize them here today, our key sponsor at lockheed martin. Thank you. [ applause ] our moderator today is as miral joseph prayer. Admiral sprayer a 1964 graduate of the u. S. Naval academy. His last command was a as commander and chief pacific. I love the sound of that. He sr. Of offed two president s as the peoples ambassador to the republic of china from 1999 to 2001. For most, a carrierbased attack pilot for his first 24 years of service, he also spent three years as a test pilot at packs river. He has extensive flight and combat experience 5600 flight hours and 10e6r,000 carrier landings. He was qualed any 52 different types of aircraft, held numerous senior operational commands, including two Aircraft Carrier wings and led the formation of the Naval Strike Warfare Center at fallon. Later, a Group Commander and commander six fleet. We welcome admiral prayer as our moderator and i will go into the other directly into the other introductions. Admiral prayer. Thank you for joining us. Thanks. Lieutenant general john davis a marine and a naval aviator. During his career, he has flown over 4500 hours in the aviate b harrier, the f5 and fa18 and copilot in every type model series of aircraft in the marine corps inventory. He commanded vmfa not vmfa, vma 223 and the second marine air wing. He also served as assistant air ops in the third mao in 2003 in iraq for their drive up to baghdad. Lieutenant davis served as Deputy Commander of the joint functional Component Command Network Warfare at fort meade and later came back as Deputy Commander of u. S. Cyber command. He served as deputy come man dant for aviation headquarters marine corps, the leader of marine air, since june, 2014. Welcome. Thank you. Vice admiral Mike Shumaker is a 1982 graduate of the u. S. Naval academy. During his career, he has accumulateded 4,400 flight hours, serve agent 20 commands world wide. He has commanded two fighter squadrons a carrier air wing, two Carrier Strike groups and served as the commander of Naval Air Forces atlantic. He currently leads the entire Naval Aviation force of the navy, ten deployable Aircraft Carriers and air wings and more than 300 aviation commands. He served or has served in his current position as commander of Naval Air Force pacific and as Commander Naval air forces u. S. Navy, the air boss, since january of this year. Lets give them all a big welcome. Okay. The heavy lifting is done. Good morning. And its great to be here with all of you today. Its a particular thank you to csis and to the Naval Institute for hosting this event. You might think from the introductions that the people up here knew what they were talking about, but we will see how that goes. My role is just to keep the things moving. But pete offered me the chance to say a few sentences to use his words, of introduction to sort of set the stage here. So, let try a few of them on you. Lieutenant general davis and vice admiral schumacher, and my how old mikes shoulders are ones on which i rode in the past. They are foremost, they are leaders, they are aviators, they are tactician and they are people of great experience and skill. They are charged now and the jobs that they have now have the machinery and people of aviation ready to go at any time. And these these missions are to support our our nations objectives as well as to support the troops on the ground. And its a big job. Theyre they do this by having people trained and by having up aircraft. And these two things go together to give the capability to man our air wings and to man our carrier decks to respond in the world. So, this is a big job that they have. In addition, they grapple with an acquisition system in the process of delivering an airplane that has been in the works for two decades in order to get here. The challenges with this airplane are not primarily technical ones. They are bureaucratic ones and systemic ones in the acquisition process and they grapple with that as well. Current readiness is what they are about. So, what Naval Aviation does and what these guys are responsible for doing and for answering the bell each time, is to respond to crises in the world, the nations objectives, with arctical air power and alsoobn support troops and to have carrier air wings and Aircraft Carriers in place where Rapid Response is required or there are no land bases available. They are very able to do this and they are what you have here are two committed officers who are committed to the nations well being and they are responsible and accountable for responding and anticipating the bell for Naval Aviation in the world and they are going to tell you how they do it today. So, i turn it over no to you mike shoemaker. Great. Well, thanks, admiral. First off, i would just like to thank csis for hosting today. Its great to be here. Certainly with my counterpart, marine corps side, dog davis. Admiral daily, the Naval Institute, thanks for supporting this convenient and boss, great to see you again. Yes. Our time together was traveled all over out there and great experience working with him and his wife, suzanne and i stoodon his shoulder, not the other way around. So great to be here to talk about the future of Naval Aviation and navy and marine corps aviation and as you look around the world today, i will start with, you know, the fact that our naval forces, our strike groups in particular, remain in high demand. And thats across all of our combat tant commanders. They all would like to see a little more Carrier Striker presence. They clearly understand the value that those carriers and air wings ant Surface Forces that accompany that strike group provide in terms of, you know, an undeniable return value, persistent forward presence, the access they provide and then the option these give them to respond to, you know, from q from across the spectrum of threats and provide, if needed, responds to natural disasters. Even in contested waters and airspace, our current air wing today can operate given the man knew ran built of the strike group and comp soifgs that air wing, operate in that environment, i will talk about not so much todays air wing but featured air wing, i will focus on today i will give a lot of my credit to my counterparts, right hand man in the pentagon, mike, who does all of our aviation programming requirements and as admiral prayer talked about, work through that acquisition process deliver those capabilities that i need, i think the nation needs, so he has been chartered to drive toward our Naval Aviation vision 2025, which admiral bus ahead of me as air boss spent a lot of time working on last year and that is a great document. So as nasty works that, he has been very in a very tight environment, fiscal environment and the challenges we have back there, keep our tight model series on track and deliver those integrated warfare capabilities that i need, our nation needs and the striker commanders need n terms of the platforms, pay loads, sensors and the networks and just done a superb job in that capacity in a very, very tough environment. So, if you look ahead in our future air wing, we transition out of legacy platforms and into what we will have probably the next decade plus in a few communities. First one in our ea 6 bs, gone out of prowlers, the sun down for the prowlers last month, totally transition,000 to the efe 18 g growler, which we will provide really the electromagnetic spectrum dominance in our strike groups and air wings of the future it will provide the advanced Airborne Electronic attack, the ability to screen and protect our strike group and joint forces as well as support our joint joint forces on the ground. The rotary world, our mh 60 romeo sierra transitions are just about complete as well. We have got the last fox trot hotel squadron combination on Teddy Roosevelt now when they come home it that will transition, a complete transition in that community from legacy platforms to the romeo henry 60 romeo and sierra helicopters. The romeo comes with a very capable antiSurface Warfare Antisubmarine Warfare package, airborne lowfrequency sensor, an advanced periscope detection system on board, you combine that with its data link, its radar, its forwardlooking infrared radar, and the stability of very capable Electronic Warfare suite it is the inner defense zone for the submarine commander. Pair that with the hm 60 see youre last, again, designed to be antiSurface Warfare platform but very complementary to the romeo. Works closely with our special operating forces, provides combat search and rescue for that for the air wing. Together, very potent combination and i got to watch them in action numerous times as striker command as we transition and then operated in the north arabian gulf n that electronic the Airborne Electronic aew, airborne early warning, transition right now from our e 2 cs to e 2 ds, two squadrons transitioned, one about to complete back in oceania or in nor for example one is deployed, the first deployed right now in Teddy Roosevelt, vfw 125, advanced radar, newly electronically scanned radar brings capabilities, ability to search and track targets and then also to command and control coordinate the missions across the Carrier Strike group, whether it be integrated air missile defense, longrange antiSurface Warfare, longrange antiair warfare, it is essentially the quarterback for the strike group and comes with some very, very good capabilities in that delta. In the Strike Fighter world, as we phase out of our legacy platforms, replace the legacy f 18 c with our f 35 cs, that has been a bit of a slow pros but one that we need to happen an the admiral worked very hard to make sure we deliver the initial operating cape of that platform in 2018 when its first squadron stands up and gradually stand up to have hopefully about half of our well, you know, one of those squadrons each of our air wings into the middle or so of the next deck killed a. And so thats the capability that we need to get to the air wings right now. It comes with obviously with its stealth capabilities, ability to penetrate both air and surface threat envelopes but the ability to fuse information, collect the signals and things that are out in the environment, fuse it all together and deliver that fuse picture to the rest of the strike group but threw the networking that weve got, we have design there had. So, very critical to the integrated warfare capabilities that will come in that future air wing. Um, the and pass all that information back to the e2, back to our other ships and decisionmakers in the strike group. Our Super Hornets right now will remain the bulk of our air wings right now, well over threequarters of the air wing composition are Super Hornets and they will continue into the, obviously well into the next decade and beyond and they are the workhorses of the fleet. Ability to carry and deliver advanced advanced both airtoair and airtosurface weapons a perfect compliment to the f35 with the mix of cape bullet in that air wing i think will be very valuable. The try on the in one of our Unmanned Systems, we have got im sorry, we got back up here. So, the last of the transitions will be the Unmanned Systems. The first of those is the fire scout which we have been flying now for almost 15,000 hours, operating that platform off of our frig grates in support support of special operating forces off the coast of africa and interfar this koikt missions off the coast of south america. Very proven platform, integrate it with our Romeo Sierras into our lcs, our combat ships, wherever the small combat looks like in the future with the integrated packages go with that. And so that that capability is being demonstrated right now forward in singapore with the romeo and a fire scout operating on fort worth and they have been there on the third rotation, very successful detachment. Additionally, up manned world, we have got triton, which will be essentially followon from the broad area maritime surveillance, demonstrated operating in the fifth fleet the last few years. Three of those air vehicles now it will provide our joint force commanders and our fleet come bhaernsd a persistent maritime isr, Intelligence Surveillance reconnaissance capability designed to set up an orbit in each of our combat and command a ors, give it a multisensor package be able to feed that information, fuse it and prostride to those decisionmakers it will complement the p 8s that will eventually come online. Again, a very capable and a summary warfare platform that can do the entire submarine warfare kill chain from initial detection all the way up to engagement, so a complement asset, triton will complement p 8. Lastly, in the unmanned world will be the unmanned carrier launched Airborne Surveillance and strike asset, u class. Obviously, going through some reviews right now on the building. And i think as a former strike Group Commander, where i see this platforms value is clearly in where it can operate inside those contested environments,]j provide the combat talent commander, more importantly, the strike Group Commander information ahead of the strike group moving in there essentially, the eyes and ears of the Carrier Strike group, move into that contested environment, ability to conduct integrated targeting, integrate target and i. D. Capability, feed that information again back to the networks to the strike group. And put it all together in our advanced in our advanced four class carriersly which we will deliver in the spring of 2016 and that, i think that will be a nucleus of our nuclear Carrier Strike group. Very capable air wing paired up with that that platform, very critical of u. S. Power projection well into the 21st century. Again, the admiral talked at length about the value of that platform. I will hold off, talk a little bit more abouted for forward late but suffice it to say when you put that air wing in the future together with forward, we have got a very, very capable, lethal combination that can sail and operate in contested waters and airspace around the world. Lastly, i think the admiral prayer mentioned the current Readiness Challenges that we have and general davis will talk to this as well. As type commander thats my response bill silt to ensure that that force Going Forward is man, train and equipped toer success. We are challenged right now in that current environment it comes from about a decadeplus, 14 years of so of sustained combat operations. And taken its toll on the force and looking at reset and recapitalize a bit. And that our optimized fleet response plan, which fleet forces has developed, just in the throws of getting the final implementation of that plan and i thank you will give us an opportunity to provide those windows where we can get our care and maintenance and maintenance done on the aircraft as well as predictable deployment lengths inside a 36month cycle. I think as we move into that ofrp plan, we will get the regular deploy. S that our sailors are looking for and the predictability for them and also the ability to surge outside of those deployment windows and i think that will i think that will allow us to focus on that reset and recapitalization. So looking forward to deliver hearing it capability. So, wrap up i couldnt be more proud of what our sailers are doing around the world right now at sea and shore as they represent the United States navy and represent the nation. So, thank you. Thanks, shoe. Dog, over to you. Thank you, sir. Shoe, thanks for being such a good teammate. Good morning, everybody. It is a real honor to be here. I knee a lot of faces in the crowd. And thanks for all you do to keep our nation safe, to keep defense at the top of everybodys interests out there. Thanks to our foreign partners out here, we couldnt do it without you. Im a very proud naval officer. A very proud naval officer. One of the first in my family and now my familys got a ma lot of marines and sailors associated with it. But im also a very proud marine. The United States marine corps exist fosser one purpose, thats to be the nations first and readiness, ready to deploy and move out at a moments notice and fight our nations battles wherever and wherever they may fall against any foe and any clime, any place. The whole ribbon exist is to provide jeep dunford and my marine corps with ready aircraft, ready crews, ready to go take that fight to the enemy. From sea bases and shore bases, extradition bases and shore. The marine corps has unique gear that allows us to flow from a sea base and flow ashore and back again, imperative that our gear can do that equally well. So unique, allows extreme agility. Also looking for its combat power thought to strike that blow when need be and also, too, general mattis used to say, no worse enemy were folks at the war fighting table but also no better friend, okay . When the problems happen out there in the world, the natural disasters, you want marine and navy forces offshore ready to come ashore and we are actually take great pride in being able to do that if you can move men and material ashore to provide combat fire, you can also provide the food and the logistics that people need to establish themselves in their darkest hour. I have got a couple of main focuses. Admiral prayer said it the best, about machines. It is actually more about the people. Number one thing is we are going to equip the man, not man the equipment. And we are going to give our marines the very best tools to go take the fight to them and do what they got to do for me, if my number one job is readiness, i have got some challenges out there, i will talk about that, just as shoe has talked about and the current range, but three main jobs for the deputy come man dant of aviation, one, future building the future us for, future combat capability. For the marine corps, recapitalizing the entire fleet of marine aircraft. We are in the process of doing that about halfway through a process we started before 9 11, 2001. All right, so, about halfway through. Executing the plan we started back in the late 90s and executing that plan now and we have been doing that, oh, by the way, engaged in 14 years of conflict, all right, combat, hard combat, to a large degrees, United States marine corps is still Forward Deployed and still thought and still fighting our deployment to dwell ratios very, very low, which is a bad thing. We are still at good if you want to be busy, bad if you are trying to recapitalize and reset the force. We are Forward Deployed. Many of our Tactical Units are 1 to 212, the raises edge of not being able to train the next wave of getting ready to go very, very busy. Building the future for us, recapitalizing, i will talk about the platforms we are doing that. The other one is current readiness, future readiness, new stuff, current readiness the new stuff. Being marines, being good stewards of taxpayers dollar, extract maximum utility and maximum value out of everything we own. I tell you, we are not doing a good job of that. Taking a lot of my brain cells now, how weeks tract maximum value of all the gear we have and provide maximum readiness for the gear. Very, very combat proven equipment, it is old but it is good. Properly main taped we can still get more life out of that we will extend every ounce of life out of those platforms, every ounce of combat capability until we can transition anew. Be very proud to turn those airplanes into the bone yard when we are done with and be good airplanes, the height of their combat capability as we transition to the new stuff, cause the threats require the new gear. Last but not least is what we call basically connecting the Marine Air Ground tax force, we are buying very highend gear. We want to connect that to the most potent war fighting asset in the battlefield, field, which is the marine Lance Corporal spear. Taking the systems and sensors and capabilities and have my aviation component and pushing that down to the man on the ground, the man on the ground, the end of the day the marine corps fights as a task force. We fight well joint, take pride in that joint combined but designed for felt function to be a Marine Air Ground task force, the way we have been trained from the day we come in the marine corps, its how we process data, its how we plan and i think it provides this extra combat agility and combat cape bullet in battlefield that gives us our own little minijoint force in a microcosm. We say so, we have got our future gear that we are buying, current gear that we are going to maintain and sustain and going to connect that in many ways, we are moving out of the Single Mission platform. How do you extract maximum utility out everything you have, you make everything multimission. Everything multimission. Every platform a sensor, every platform a sharer, every platform a here is the. What am i talking about . We took a c130 j and we need into an airplane called harvest talk, okay, very difficult to get it through the hill but they approved that, but half the air plane is a retruer, the other half a weapons platform, i can pass gas and shoot not at the same time but the same mission, im out there we news to great effect in iraq and afghanistan. We had a relatively low threat environment in the battlefield in iraq and afghanistan. With harvest talk, have a tanker up there passing gas and also an airplane up there with a sensor that can do convey escort, overwatch the road bus small yield precision weapons that our crews trained to use and deployed with great effect. Going to put an air refueling package on a v22 called vars. Why would you do that . cause we needed to have it. Airplane can do that. Putting an air refueling capability on v22 allows to pass 10,000 pounds of gas to strikers or to helicopters or tilt reporters or whoever, a tremendous combat capability. We have put assets on board these continue on board these marine extradition units, the v22 is probably the airplane that is the most you indemand airplane in the department of defense today. We are producing them off the production line pretty quickly. We cant train the crews fast enough to go man them and sustain them at the rate wes need to but putting a v22 on an amphibious ship or on an Expeditionary Base ashore, replacing a helicopter, just retired about a week ago now, but that had a combat rate of 15 nautical miles from a sea base, 75, replace it had with an airplane that goes 450 without air refueling, combat radius, routinely flies 2,000 miles across the ocean, okay . Like its no big deal, right . What happens, airplane for 50mile transit doing about 100 miles an hour, 110 miles an hour, thats charge. Number of minutes 30 minutes not a lot changes in the battlefield in 30minute transit a lot can happen in 450 miles, even doing 280 knots indicated a lot can happen in 2,000 miles, eighthour transit. The guys in the back of the airplane, again, we talked about that Lance Corporal the most important guy thought on the battlefield, getting that Lance Corporal his platoon leader, kwam commander the information he needs to keep up with the changing environment, actually driven change in the marine corps, so we have got this Disruptive Technology, very22, now giving the information to the guys the back, how do you do that . Requires more com gear, more thought goes into how we push information to the guy in the back that are playing and more importantly, because the customer is not a guy you push stuff to, the guy he pulls stuff around, the Google Generation that marine, he or she pulls stuff from information, they want to be able to pull information they want, tailor the information they want and bring that airplane, we are doing that right now in 15th Marine Expeditionary unit, doing this it about the last five or six wti class, infantry officer class, longrange raid, ch53s, v22s a package we called ditch tainter operatebility the back of the plane, pushing streaming video from f had f18s, uafs, into that into the back the back of the airplane out there and we are achieving Great Success with that, employing that operationally. The v22 changed the vat battle space for us, many, many ways, positive ways, but to rethink how we are doing business. The gear so, bottom line, replace the ch46 with a v22 that Disruptive Technology out there really changed the way that we look at our Marine Expeditionary unit. The Marine Expeditionary unit of days gone by is no longer the one of today. Ops disabled by an airplane like that command and control is challenged when you push a marine expedition unit, amphibious ready group, spread over 2,000 miles, one off the coast of africa and the other in the persian gulf, connect that with c130s and v22s, under one commander do that routinely. We had forces in afghanistan, forces off the shore of africa and forces in the mediterranean and one marine expedestrian degreesnary unit years back, phenomenal capability. We are gonna replace our ch53 he can quo a ch53 kilo. We are about 60 through our transition from the uh the h1 whiskey and h 1 november to the glue is u and yankees step change, increases in capability, great changes coming into the fleet. The i have a yate, f18 and prowler in the process of transitioning to the f35, stood up our f35 b squadron, mfa 121 in yuma, arizona, the next will be the 211 and have our trained squadron basically a mixed bag of brits and u. S. Marines down there in buford, North Carolina or south carolina, training to fly the f35 b right now. Um, the f35 for us is that fifth generation platform that is going to change i think change the battlefield much like the v22 changeds. Bottom line, giving us access to the contested battle space that we have not had access to before. It will absolutely, positively change the Marine Expeditionary unit on the way they view the amphibious forces based at sea and Expeditionary Forces in a way that i think is jet had yet to be defined, for our adversaries, quite worrisome, for us a great source of comfort that air kravgt the f35, is an airplane, go from fifth generation to fourth generation. What do i mean by this . No airplane can go from five tot fourth and back to fifth again. Im buying pylons for the airplane, i get pie lips and software that comes in 2017. I can load an f35 b with 35,000 more pounds than i can put on an f18 now. An airplane does fifth generation stuff, for the opening sal voerk the fight, when i have to go to a level of effort, load the pie lips on, load ordnance on, sail to part of the world, take the pie lynn off and go do the mission again. We talk about multigenerational airplanes and multi levels of capability as well. Stale new platform, growing it, tremendous offer, tremendous uity for the a marine corps have one type metal series aircraft, go fourth and fifth gen, fighter capability, attack capability that we need in the out years, vfma 121 did an operational race inspection to get them ready to convince us they were, indeed, ready to go do the declared initial capability and did a fantastic job, interdiction mission we had them do and the defensive counter air, offensive counter air, Close Air Support and army reconnaissance. Really interesting, i wont give out Exchange Rate on the defensive counter air but it was really good, zero losses and theres a bunch of bad guys that are wont be sorting again. The army kwechbs the most interesting one. We gave them a really highend threat environment to go against. Normally, you go do closeair support army reconnaissankocon u want to be in a lowthreat environment to go up there and look for targets, guys nodding their heads who video have done that before. We gave them a highthreat environment to go out there and do army reconnaissance, troll look for structure targets, using the sensors they had on the airplane, gave them difficult targets to find and a difficult threat which in my world is the co of the Weapons School a prohibitive threat, went out there, found the tate,s, dealt with that, hey, we did it, a foreship, no one asked us to do this again, we did it, survived the threat, we found the target, we killed the targets. I said dont ever rule out, you have a capability, dont ever rule out what someone is going to ask you to go do. Dont rule out, never take away the capability from an adversary, never want to take away capability of something we have available us to. F35, no the without its challenges, but bottom line is we are absolutely convinced we are in the right spot, going the right direction and now for us, its about equipping the men and the women that are going to fly that airplane with the right power tools. On the peoples side of it, we always talk about the guys wiggling the stick, doing the flying, doing the fighting or working a sensors for one of our uafs. Lets not forget the folks that maintain that im going to talk to you about some of my challenges in current readiness, okay, it is not just aiming platforms and lack spares and depots that arent producing airplanes the rate they are, also retaining and training and keeping the right enlisted force thought to keep those guys working on the airplanes and with the skillsets they need to generate the readiness they need. One thing we havent done as a marine corps, general dunford talks about all the time it is focus on the leadertoled and the barn for aviation plat forms and making sure our guys have the right training continuum, recur represent training out there and valuing the guys the qualifications. You know, we always we like we wear patches, wti, top gun, we could havet that, thats really cool. Whats really cool to me right now is readiness and how get readiness is not only having a fullup parts bin but also to have a very confident, experienced main teener thattocome out, knows exactly what they need to do trained, well led from the Lance Corporal up Gunnery Sergeant in my barn and aviation maintenance hang hangars, we keep them, we train them, we retain them, strategic imperative from the marine corps and general dunford, our commandant, all over that. Retain the aviators as well, the pilots and air command and controllers and our Weapons Systems officers that do this job is really imperative as well. So, not the powerle toos, its about the aircraft. Um, a lot of people we talk about the t based, i will tell forth United States marine corps, everything we do is can flow from a c base, our future everything will be c basable, twothirds of our combat power is land based expeditionary. And thats for our plans, for the big plans that we have to go support our nation, go from a c base to shore back to c base again. And a lot of that is shore. Right now, i say i have got actually more plans ashore expeditionary environments than i do with float. So a float, ashore, float, ashore, thats the utility of the marine corps. Thats what we are working on, force and readiness. I will tell you our current Readiness Challenges, cap with the notsogood story, we have way tomb airplanes that we cant employ the way we need to werent generate the readiness we need to and bottom line, we have to turn that around. Admiral shoemaker and i spent all day yesterday at navy supply. Two weeks ago, all day down at defense lodge jikices agency, i have been on the hill, been to talk to everybody, been in the process no real surprise that we are not where we need to be at the force and readiness of the United States marine corps, aviation readiness. That is my problem, my responsibility and mine to fix. I am accountable to fix that. We have a strategy to do that. Okay . We have had two outside looks in at marine aviation, two of our type model series, getting ready to start the third. They tell me i can achieve my ratios, just not the way im doing it now. We are taking those lessons learned, driving that home, drive change in the way we do business, okay and for part of thats funding. Part of thats the Human Capital side of t but also, too, its how we operate and how we sustain. And bottom line thats, to me, at the end of the day the history books will not remember it was later than they need, that theres some maybe some dysfunction out there in the different zip codes thought in around around town. The only thing the history books will care about, were we, shoe and i, and our Naval Air Forces ready to go on game day, yes or no . All they are going to care about. All they are going to care about thank you. We choose ready. Yeah. Thanks very much. Thats couple of informationrich presentations and thank you both very much. What we are gonna do is do some questions and answers here. We will do them as long as you want until 10 00, whichever comes first. [ laughter ] is and i had a couple of warmup questions, but i think im going to forego mine and if we get a lull, i may squeezes them in, but in the meantime, yes, back there, sir. Yes, sir, brit mitchell, rep nance institute, baltimore. A pastor, actually. My question, this i wouldnt have come today except that on npr last saturday morning, they had a story on from a naval air Development Facility somewhere talking about how they had developed drones that are not just normal drones but send them up in batches of 24 or 3 2579d drones themselves pick their own leader. And i assume pick the mission. And it scared me so death, so bade got out of the shower and wrote on a paper towel dom here today. Great report but could you touch on that . Is that really viable . That is an informationrich question. [ laughter ] would either of you like to field that . [ laughter ] i would say that i didnt see it. Unmanned air systems, air and ground and sea are a big part of the naval forces future. Im not working on a drone project right now but i do think we are going to integrate man and unmanned with everything we do, all right . And bottom line is at the end of the day, your going to hold Senior Leaders accountable for how both the man and unmanned plat fors are used. Bottom line, i think we will do everything do everything the right way, not at a i havent seen, artificial intelligence, i think there is probably future out there for platforms to be selforganized, selfthinking. I dont have anything in the works right now on that. Over there. Nch two questions, one on v2 how do you see the export potential for v22 with our allies . And the second question, are we building enough Amphibious Assault ships and so forth to carry the marine corps, you know, aviation Expeditionary Forces . Thanks. I think the i think the till Rotor Technology has tremendous potential. We have we already have foreign partners ordering them and flying them and more to follow. I think like all our stuff we need to drive the cost out, reliability in, i think thats probably the v22, a great airplane. I think more to follow on that i think people see the utility of that yes, we need more amphibious ships. We are actually taking a page from the marine playbook as we transition from our, you know, venable c2 greyhounds doing our care on board delivery right now and we will use the bring the vc 22 into the care environment as our logistics connector for the strike groups of the future and given all the things that jon davis talked become flex bit of a that platform gives us the option to do other things as well with t talk about the support of the marines in terms of amphibious ships, thats one we continue to work inside the building, you know, from the my counter part, who is the Surface Warfare Surface Warfare boss or sea lord, we call him, is obviously working that inside the budget, the challenges environment but working to do what we can to support the mar reaps, the ships they need. We will move to this side. Yes, sir. Here he comes. Good morning, gentlemen. Both of you have awe touched on the need for sensors reconnaissance. Can you elaborate on that how you are integrating your systems . The big problem we are going to have in the a 2 ad environment is getting the information so the strike groups go in safely. Talk about how your platforms youre building are going to integrate the sensor information so you can have the isr picture you need. Right. Well, i touched on that a little bit when i described u class and how navy envisions employment. As you said that would be, i think, our initial platform go into that contested environment that environment you just described. Certainly ahead of tried accident or poseidon, our p8s, couldnt operate in there without the initial kind of understanding of that environment which the which that u class will provide and also the ability to operate there, to be able to conduct the integrated provide an integrated picture and targeting of assets and if needed dork the timecritical strike or quickreaction strike capability will come with that, with that as part of the platform. So i think thats critical piece, at least from the strike group perspective, other assets we will potentially use to from a theater be theater controlled or joint air comp pope nent may control but that is one we need at the strike group level, controlled by the strike Group Commander to operate with the strike group and ahead of the strike group in that environment. If i could just we need to make sure all the forces at sea are integrated into that picture, i think it is actually leveraging everything out there go back to every platform sensor share shooter, i say platform it is manned, it is unmanned, it is fiber capabilities, it is space capability, itselfing that we have. I think the assets allow to you get closer, see a little bit more. Our big challenge with the fifth gen platforms we have, how do it i that airplane is a pretty smart player, how i do leverage everything on the player and get them back to the guy on the ground or whoever else needs information in a band wilt and a flow rate they can use and share that . And so to include how we share that with Coalition Partners out there. I think a challenge but also an opportunity. Yes, maam. Hi, lee hudson, inside the navy. Admiral schumacher, could you give us some insight into what you think the aviation meck should be for the future frigate in the same as lcs or do you see being different . Can you say that again . The aviation mix for the future frig grat or the modified lcs, whatever you want to call it . Oh, for the new service . Yeah. Right. Im not sure the design, that falls into my counterparts lane, sea lord. We will have the Acquisition Program and future of our mh60 romeo sear youre rah includes whatever the platform maybe. You mentioned fire scout as well. Fire scout as well. Right. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Bill sweetman with aviation week. Talking about the the need to flap and extend the life of Super Hornets, the problems of readiness, the problems we have had with the classic hornet, a couple of questions, one is it correct that the department of navy plans to bring in f35 c slightly less than one squadron a year in the 2020s, i heard a production of 12 or 35 cs a year. The next part of that question is that leaves us, it appears, very dependent on being able to ship the Super Hornets at a very high rate and how do we make sure we avoid the problems we have had with the classic hornet slep, not gone as planned a lot more things found in those air frames as expected . How do avoid that trap, keep those problems, guarantee those squadrons will be full in the 2020s . Thanks. A great question. I knew it was coming, i see our chicklet chart next to you, we both use described next to you. Did everybody hear the question . Yeah. Okay. So, wither in this situation for a number of reasons. We have deployed the initial introducti diction of the f35 m the navy side. In fact, almost about seven years when within planned at ioc. That forced us to keep our classic hornets, our partners use that term, around a lot longer. 6,000hour airframe we had to extend 6 or 8,000 hours to keep it in the fight. Thats pretty significant engineering feat to do that. So we didnt plan the you described the rhino slep or Service Life Extension program, didnt plan it well for the wor through that right now in our aviation depos. The utilization, as both of us have talked about, the utilization of the force over the last decadeplus. So the hours we put on those classic hornets quickly drove them to those 8,000, 9,000hour limits and forced us to induct them, you know, earlier than we expected. So we got a bit of a backlog at our depos. The capacity there is improving. We learned a lot about how we do the throughput there and as weve repaired those classic hornets that will apply to the program for our rhinos. So i think weve this is not a problem weve solved. General davis has a significant portion of his strikers or Strike Fighters are f18s. Them an the har yers. We have to keep his classic hornets in service for about another 10 or 12 years. Weve got a few less in the navy who are doing the same thing. The problem is getting through the Super Hornets, which would be in the middle 2025 or so. With applying those things weve learned from the classic hornet maintenance work. I think weve got a pretty good plan right now to move forward and avoid a significant reduction gap in our Strike Fighter inventory as those planes get out of service, get repard, and get back into service. Its not an inconsequence shl challenge we have ahead of us and one that general davis and i stay focused on a lot. Part of how we transition, you have to take care of the harrier to make the transition. Its strategic. I will brag a little bit on the admiral who run the Fleet Readiness Centers whos done a great job coming up with a plan to rework our f18s and gives us reason to believe actually, i dont do hope, i look for the numbers and were making the numbers in our depos now were supposed to. We have being working a third line to help us make the numbers we need to, to get the airplanes back on the line. Congress is very good, gave us six f35bs to replace our bas chon losses. Part of the way we reduce the pressure on the don with classic f18 is by the marine corps moving out of the f18. The reserves shutting down in 2030. If we were to get more airplanes, wed be able to move out of the classics a little earlier. Have to take care of the old in order to get to the new, sir. I was going to touch on that. You mentioned, i think, the chart there probably has theres a couple assumptions. 12 per year and 20 per year. 20 per year is where we hoped to be. I think the current realities of the budget environment and other priorities inside navy may drive something between those two numbers. Were still on path to ioc, this capability with our first squadron in 2018. Ill keep working has hard as i can with our leadership in the building to ensure we can stay on the path and get out of classic hornets, replace them with our f35cs as quick as we can. Over here. Morning, gentlemen. Air boss, this question is for you. Its a personnel leadership question. Recently wrote an article in proceedings about c. A. G. And who we select. We havent had a nonvfa c. A. G. Selectee in five years. This leaves out roughly half the air wing in the experience and leadership capability that brings with it. It also limits the career progression of more than half of your junior and midlevel officers and directly impacts retention of some quality personnel. Im wondering what are we doing to make sure that, a, we dont go another five years without selecting a nonvfa c. A. G. , and how can we ensure that this leadership position better reflects the composition of the carrier airline . Thank you. Is that your article . Yes, sir. Well written. Thank you. I read it this morning. I was over at cnp. Bill said you might want to read this before you go over. As you know, hes on a big Talent Management push right now, and hes doing some wonderful things. I agree completely with your article. I look across our aecarrier for, the force of the future, and i look at the aviators flying in growler, flying in our e2ds that can control that fight and the situation awareness they have and the understanding of the missions across the strike warfare commanders responsibilities. To even include our Helicopter Squadron cos. I got this question twice now at both of our National Helicopter association events, east and west coast. We had and i dont think itll be too long before we find, the right helicopter c. O. Whos come up through the ranks and is fully capable of leading an air wing. Theyre integrated right now in many of the events we do. I talked about strait of hormuz transits. They lead all of those events. Theyre integrated with their fighter counterparts. They understand kind of the full portfolio of what an air Wing Commander would be would need to do. All it takes is a little bit of as we put languages and reseptembers for statutory boards, language and recrepts. I control those and tend to take your recommendations as move forward with them. Nice article. On the aisle. Good morning, gentlemen. Dan from the center for defense information. General, this question is for you. You mentioned multimission platfor platforms, which results in multimission people. You also mentioned how difficult it is to then train people. How do you find that balance where you can train people in multiple missions with such limited time in which to train . First off, we need to get more time training. One of the things we laid out, im a Firm Believer in employing and leveraging simulation, but im also a Firm Believer that a pilot or an air crew has to have 15 hours a month in an airplane, no less than that. So we drive our systems and make sure we can do that. Our training manuals support that. I will say i might not be as multimission as my two sons are, right. Theyre a lot more multimission than me. My eldest sons two daughters will probably be a heck of a lot more multimission than him when they come around to go do this. I would say you look at the way people multitask and they operate. I remember i wrote a masters thesis on urban air support in 1994. I remember people saying, hey, thats a helicopter mission, just too hard to do for a jet. I said, things are moving too fast for a jet guy to do an urban environment. It might be for us because i was a major. I was really old then. But dont tell that to the captains. That was what our brains thought in 1994. Too much going on for a jet guy to do urban environment. Now theyre doing it like its cool. Now were doing it with uas. Bottom line is things change. I think the more we again, equip the man, dont man the equipment. Give these kids the tools. We turn over the young guys. Theyre using it completely differently. The demand signal for the coms is not coming from me. Its coming from the customer in the back of the airplane. So i think well man the equipment. Well equip the man, not man the equipment. Well push the information to these guys. I got to make sure that we deliver the Training Systems that give them the minimum amount of actual Flight Training out there. Then a lot of time the construct is one guy in a box with the instructor. Ive seen things where entire units go to a simulator to train. I think theres a lot more we can do to leverage to make sure when that kid does get into that airplane, hes ready for the aticket ride, not to do discovery learning once he or she gets in the that airplane. Back here. General air boss, good morning. Full disclosure, im one of your growler guys, sir. The Naval Service leads the joint force in the spectrum. Im curious, though, do you see a need for any structural changes, either from a man, train, equip standpoint, or operationally, either in the department of the navy or across the joint force or even in the inner agency and our partners to ensure we truly can develop emw where we have unity of effort in the spectrum. Thats probably more key to military operations and all aspects of civil life than we even recognize today. I can tell you as a growler guy, we in the last couple years of operating that aircraft and the new platform forward, we often show up as the smartest guy in the room and have to point out how the military plan and the greater context we operate in or plan to operate in isnt set for success in a kill chain versus kill chain fight where we dont have overmatch anymore. I better. No, but were actually doing all of that. In fact, your community is leading our integration, certainly for aviation. Not that theyre the only platform that would participate. We deliver f35, that comes with some very good Electronic Warfare capabilities. Were just scratching the surface on what growler can do, i think. Theyve been up doing some exercises with our air force counterparts in alaska, northern edge, then down as part of red flags. The guys participating there, i think, are opening some eyes and the capabilities of that platform. We have to keep that at the forefront as we move forward on this emw world. Certainly use that expertise across all Naval Aviation. In fact, across the joint force. If i could, i got the rare honor of serving 4 1 2 years at ft. Meade as a guy who failed college math. Bottom line is i think its going to be complete team ball. I think you need to have everybody in the fight. We used to call the nonkinetic fires are just as important as the kinetic. It requires a lot of thought and planning. Just like you say, structural changes, make sure we do that right, training changes. Id also say that its kind of like not having Electronic Warfare. You have to have Electronic Warfare. Its almost ubiquitous. Every platform, im trying to strap something on that airplane, both high threat and low threat. My guys on the ground, my trucks, my airplanes, my ships. Everything we have out there, were trying to get that capability to include if you go to Weapons School, theyre helping us out in those scenarios. Bottom line, this requires a lot of thought. Our manned and Unmanned Systems are going to be key players in this. The Unmanned Systems have to have the range and the payload to be able to and the com links to be contributors there. Also, by the way, survivable as well so it cant get knocked down in a contested environment. For those of you that are on a tight schedule, its a couple minutes after 10 00, but were going to shift to central daylight time for about five or ten minutes here. Right behind you. Sir, analyst for special operations. Two weeks ago, they had the directed Energy Summit that secretary kendall attended. A commander of the special air force Operations Command got up and said one of his highest requirements right now is directed energy, putting that on the new ac130 ghost rider gun ship. They give it a full comprehensive, offensive and defensive capability. He made the statement of, in our block 60, supposed to be ten years out, im telling you right now its only a couple years out that were going to have that. From your perspective, general davis, your kc130js, with that kind of capability, but also the capability on navy aircraft. The secretary said our focus isnt on that. All were worried about directing energy right now is ground capability. Your comments . If i could really quickly, one, im embarrassed i missed that conference. I actually kind of had a religious moment. My guy is like, how the heck didnt i know about that . Its a big part of our followon, directed energy. We think it has tremendous capability, tremendous potential. A lot of it is about weight. Right now some of the systems are pretty heavy. Id like to be able to get up in everything i own, right. So hauling around a 3,000pound tray might be a bit much for some of my platforms. More and more i think were going to push the edge of the envelope to get that capability on land, in air, and probably at sea. Its part of quiver in our future. My surface counterpart is working hard to deliver that service to his ships. I talked a little bit about the ability to generate electrical generating capacity three times. So we can incorporate that technology as part of selfdefense or even offensive manner on that. As general davis said, weve got to figure out the smart guys in the room and engineers to figure out how we can miniaturize this stuff to make it applicable to aviation platform. As opposed to firing very expensive airtoair to surface weapons, if we could do those kinds of directed energy, i think thats a clear area we have to keep focused and keep working in. Yes, sir . Good morning. For admiral shoemaker, your tenth carrier air wing is under strength of squadrons. What is your schedule to bring that back to life . Thank you. Yeah, right now i think its in 2016 or 17. As we look into the, you know, the budget negotiations and the fiscal realities and constraints that i mentioned, were considering whether we can afford to do that. Weve looked at the carrier plan as we flow it out. I think one of the reasons we even talked about that as an offset is i think an ability with a little bit of risk to be able to support our leveleven. We have some work to do, but if you have one typically in a deep overhaul, a reactor core ov overhaul, complex overhaul. I think we have the ability to do that. The plan right now is to stand it up in 2017. Again, it was one of the things we looked at potentially as a costsavings measure into the very tight budget environment were in right now. Yes . Back here. Ricky matsumoto. There was a report the pentagon rejected the navys plan to carry out shock and survival capability tests on the new class carriers, which was expected to Enter Service in 2016, which might delay the first ships deployment by half a year. From your perspective, are there any strategic implications or consequences of that decision . I think the memorandum signed by secretary kendall was that we would do the initial shock tests before her first deployment. Thats what were working toward. Obviously we counted her getting back into the mix to bring us back from ten to eleven carriers. Were looking at that plan and where it would play out in the deployment cycles. Weve got that guidance and are moving out. Yes, sir . I have a larger question. I think this is about capabilities. When one state has the immense military might and greater military budget than any other state, this will create insurmountment obstacle to a nuclearfree world. How much should we be concerned about, you know, the talk about military capabilities . Were talking about an arms race. U. S. , russia, maybe china, other countries. Actually, i really want the ambassador to talk about it. Thank you. Did you just get a question . Yeah. If i can paraphrase as to how concerned we should be about the arms race and talk about the arms race. I think its something that we all need to be very concerned about but not stampede on this subject. I just read a quotation by Thomas Jefferson recently about the peace being the delightful interlude while the factions are reloading. So this is the a its a the peace we have right now is sort of an awkward one. But with russia, with china, with general dunfords testimony and others on where the big threats are, i think these are things of which we need to be very cognizant and work in our country on those, but i dont think we need to stampede into an arms race. I dont see other countries zoi doing that right now, but prevention is our business. Preventing war is our business. We need to be very ready to do that. So the discussions need to be taken seriously but not stamp e stampeding on it. Yes, maam . In the front row. Hi. General davis, you spoke a little bit about multimissionizing v22. I wonder if the navy has similar plans now that youre buying into it and what the conversation between the two services is about coming up with a common variant for naval v22 presence. I think theyre a little bit different right now. The navy is going to use the airplane as a carryonboard delivery system. Obviously we have a number of years operating the airplane, and we practice having weapons on it. We put a sensor on there and some precision weapons. The sensor integration package, the digital inoperability for longrange communications, and now the fueling capability. Again, marine corps and navy have slightly difficult missions. Im not going to speak for the navy. Theyll chart their own course with the v22. Yeah, i totally agree. Well learn from the marines. Obviously we partner close with them as we bring this capability into the fleet. I think well end up, you know what ive promised our cadre of pilots and air crew is theyll be the ones that move into this new platform. Youll have some extended range. Were beefing up the range of the platform. As i mentioned, the primary logistics connection for the striker, but well look at other options. It brings a lot of flexibility. Weve done very short demo, i guess, two summers ago out on the east coast. The air boss, a lot still to learn about how we would integrate that. They were pleased with out it turned out. I think itll be a great capability we deliver. Well continue working and partnering with the marines as we move forward. Well take one last question. To the patient gentleman over here with the red tie. I thank you. Could you talk to me a little talk to us about the future vertical lift that the army is working on . Theyve set this very far out in the future, and the companies that are currently working on that are very keen to bring that forward. Would the navy ever, or marine corps, ever consider going it alone on future vertical lift . Also, maybe taking the one question. Could you just say whether youre concerned about lockheed martins purchase and whether that could affect any of your programs. Im not worried about it. As long as they produce the helicopters that theyre supposed to. Ive got a couple in the line. Sustain the h3s and h60s. Totally happy. So expect them to do i9nbusines do well. On the vertical lift, were very interested in future vertical lift, very interested in what the folks are bringing. Whats real interesting about future vertical lift is its both variants theyre looking at. It can be do a lot of things for us, for a marine corps. Replacement of the h1. We look to do more and more stuff with an airplane like that. More speed, more range, more agility. Looking to get much more range out of the airplane. With this fly by wire, it could also be unmanned. I have a uas challenge out there for the United States marine corps. If its got high enough reliability, high enough payload capability, it could be both group four, five, manned or unmanned, and to me, if they build the right kind of airplane, a tremendous utility and tremendous agility from a platform like this. Were pretty excited about whats in store. Wed obviously partner with that. I just mentioned we delivered to the fleet. Theyll be around until easily the middle of next decade or so. But that future vertical lift, i think youll see, i wont say similar to how we did joint Strike Fighter, but a joint program across the services to deliver that capability. Okay. On behalf of all of us, i would like to thank general davis and admiral shoemaker, mostly for what you do every day, but especially for being here today. And thanks so much for enlightening us all. Thank you. [ applause ] coming up at 1 00 p. M. Today, live on cspan2, Outgoing Army chief of staff general ray odierno will talk about the future of the u. S. Army. On friday, hell pass his duties to general mark milley. And later today on cspan3, a focus on reaching young people with conservative blogger and author bill whittle and a Panel Featuring barbara bush, the daughter of former president george w. Bush. Also, former Twitter Communications director Gabrielle Stricker on that companys mission and efforts to balance free speech and privacy concerns. Itll be a month or so before debate begins in earnest on capitol hill on the Iran Nuclear Deal. But the case for the deal and against the deal is being made on the campaign trail, by the president in the press, and also on social media across the country, across the world, and as we mentioned, the campaign trail. You heard from jeb bush, some of his comments on the Iran Nuclear Deal. On this washington journal, we want to ask you, whos making the best case for the Iran Nuclear Deal . You can join the conversation on the phone. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. All overs, 2027488002. You can tweet us cspanwj. Theres reaction to the iran deal. Itll be a month or so before congress returns. They return on september the 8th. Debate begins in earnest in the house and senate. Front page this morning of the Washington Times looks at an opinion poll in new york city. The poll Shows New York City supports schumer. They write that president obama has railed against Congressional Republicans for opposing his administrations nuclear deal with iran to score partisan points, but the president has a bigger problem. The American Public generally opposes it too. Polling since the agreement was announced july 14th has consistently shown more people opposing the accord than supporting it. The latest poll, a survey of new york city voters released tuesday by quinnipiac university, showed respondents in the liberal city were opposed to the agreement by 43 to 60 . And looking at other polling on the iran deal so far. The Washington Times writes about the media polls. They have a string of polls that finds americans deeply skeptical of the president s nuclear deal with iran. Cbs, nbc, monmouth university. We mentioned the quinnipiac poll. A large portion of that poll still saying not sure or dont know. Were asking you this morning, who is making the best case for the iran deal . Before he left for his president ial vacation on marthas vineyard, the president did one last interview, which largely focused on that iran deal. Heres some of what he had to say. This is the challenge that ive had over the last several weeks, steve. Ive listened to the krcritics, some of them who announced their opposition before they read the bill or read the agreement. And that is that they will put forward arguments that, you know, after a few minutes can be shown as illogical or based on the wrong facts, and then you ask them, all right, whats your alternative . And theres a deafening silence. What that tells me is that there may be ideological opposition to doing any business with iran. There may be skepticism with any Diplomatic Initiative with a regime that is admittedly antagonistic towards us, antisemitick sponsor of terrorism. And thats an honest argument. If you want to say, we dont think you should deal with iran, then that at least has a logic to it. If youre saying, though, that this is an issue that cant be resolved diplomatically and you share my view that iran cant get a Nuclear Weapon, then you really are narrowing your choices at that point. President obama speaking with npr before he left on his vacation to marthas vineyard. Whos making the best deal, the best case for the Iran Nuclear Deal . First up, doug. Good morning. Hello, virginia. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Morning. Doug, youre on the air. Caller how are you doing . Im doing good. Go ahead, youre on the air. Caller theres no need giving weapons and money to our enemy when it never worked in the past. Doesnt make sense. Good deal. Okay. Don is in kansas on our democrats line. What do you think . Whos making the best case for the iran deal . Caller of course the president and his administration are. Theres no such thing as a perfect deal, and, you know, even though you work on a deal doesnt mean that its going to go the way its supposed to in the future. The republicans and the warhawks out there want to get us into another conflict, it appears, when peace is the way. The president is trying to work with our friends and trying to work things out with our enemies. If were going to be the world leader, we cant be the World Leaders for, you know, conflict. We should be the World Leaders for spreading peace. Heres katherine, whos in new hampshire. Your thoughts. Is the president making the best cases . You think senator schumer or those opposing the deal make the best case . Caller good morning. I think president obamas Iran Nuclear Weapons deal makes sense. And i have just a short suggestion. Do we want another war . Do we want a world of Green Pastures and blue skies, or do we want a world of radioactive rubble . We lost and have injured soldiers and spent 3 trillion on the wars in iraq and afghanistan. We are still spending. So before a war in iran, we should put away, save up 3 trillion in a prewar bank account. Congress would vote and pass raising the 3 trillion by increasing our taxes. Then, say, after ten years if iran has dismantled its nuclear bomb making facilities, complied with the treaty, the 3 trillion we saved and didnt spend on a war could be distributed worldwide, putting it into action projects for clean water, clean air, clean oceans, and clean soil. And i thank you. Thank you. Welcome your tweets as well. Tweet us cspanwj. A quick one here that says, has obama released the full agreement, even the secret ones . Colton is in california on our independence line. Go ahead. Caller hi, so i know that congress and the senate, you know, they like to talk to iran. They also dont like that iran is holding three american prisoners. So why dont they put their foot down and tell iran, were not going to do this deal unless you release those prisoners . Why havent they taken the initiative on that . And of course congress, both the house and senate, will get their chance debating the resolution of disaproprovadisap. Lead editorial today in the Washington Post talks about reaction to the president s comments on some of his critics. President obama made his final comments before the vacation at American University last week. The Washington Post editorial writers say the president has countered them, meaning the critics, with certitude anded a homonym attacks, the combined import of which there are no alternatives to his policy that support for the deal is an obvious call and that nearly anyone who suggests otherwise is motivated by politics or ideology. They write, mr. Obamas rhetoric reached its low point when he observed the deals opponents value war over diplomacy and that iranian extremists were, quote, making common cause with the republican caucus. This was selfcontradictory, writes the post. One of the announced gop opponents, bob corker of tennessee, whos a man mr. Obama himself praised just four months ago as, quote, sincerely concerned about the issue and a good and decent man. If theres anyone whos not a republican partisan, its the arch democrat from new york whos planning a bid to lead the Democratic Senate caucus after harry reid retires. The views of the Washington Post this morning. Love to hear your views on whos making the best case on the Iran Nuclear Deal. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. For all others, 2027488002. Irwin is in florida. Morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Doing fine. Thank you. Caller let me just say that we have dealt with the iranians before led by the ayatollah. Remember the 1980 october surprise when we when the u. S. Went down to met the iranians in vienna, and they held the hostages until the end of the election. Lo and behold a week later, all the hostages were released. We also dealt with the iranians in the year 2001 when we invaded afghanistan. We asked the iranians to allow us to enter the borders Enter Afghanistan through the through the through iran. American troops entered afghanistan, invaded afghanistan. We have dealt with the iranians before. Were going to deal with them now. If we dont deal with them, our allies will turn on us, period. They will deal with the iranians alone. They will money will be released to them, and our european allies will be dealing with the iranians. Its too bad the republicans have made such a political issue of this. Every minute now on tv, you have ads against the deal. Its a shame. Were heading toward war and it will be on the backs of the republicans just like iraq. The american right wings are fools. The american republicans and schumer as well. Leonard, your thoughts on whos making the case for the Iran Nuclear Deal. Caller i really think the whole thing doesnt have anything to do with the deal. Its got to do with the oil. And, you know, shortly after this deal started am i on the line . You sure are. Go ahead. Leonard, cannon city, colorado. Caller yeah, i think the whole things got to do with oil. If the iranian oil comes on the market, gas will drop below 2 a gallon. The people that own the Republican Party are the oil companies, and they dont want that oil on the market. But the republicans, shortly after the deal came through, the republicans in the oil states, they want to sell our oil on the open market. So im pretty sure its got to do with nothing but oil. Thank you. All right. Andrew is next up. Hes in rockland, delaware. Also on our independence line. Andrew, there you go. No, lets try that. Andrew, rockland, delaware. Caller hi there. Im a physician, and i think of myself as a strategist. I originally was opposed to the president s deal for all the reasons that have been presented. People cheat, supporting terrorist states, things like that. Over time i began to think that the president s deal made sense. You cant really blame the iranians for wanting a deterrent to a Nuclear Weapon because everyone is talking about bombing them because theyre not doing what the u. S. Is telling them to do. I really think that the u. S. Should develop a security pact with israel so that an attack on israel would then precipitate an attack by the u. S. In consultation with israel. The reason is that the u. S. Is now giving weapons all the sudden to partners in the middle east to counter the iranians. Israelis are reluctant to have a pact with the u. S. Because, one, they dont think the u. S. Is going to back them, and the recent actions by the u. S. Towards the iranians has furt r furthered that concern. I think that if the u. S. If the United States supports a deal, it will prevent the iranians, at least on a short term, developing a Nuclear Weapon. And the attacks by hamas, hezbollah would precipitate based on the pact a response by the u. S. As well as israel to suppress that, and the iranians would no longer be able to threaten further any nuclear potential or further action. So the net result is that the u. S. Would the pact with israel would lead to more security, and if anyone was foolish enough if the iranian revolution was to continue according to the ayatollah and they actually used the weapon, iran wouldnt exist. So i think that the clever idea is to go along, block the development of the Nuclear Weapon, and have a pact with israel so that hezbollah and hamas would be very reluctant to attack israel, which is the main concern of those people who think that the weapons deep should go through. And youre calling, andrew, for a pact above and beyond whatever the current aid and military agreements we have with israel . Caller right. Because there is no pact. Its not like nato where an attack on a nato member, all the other nato members are bound. This would be a oneway pact. I dont think israel wants to defend the United States for any other reason. We are now essentially giving all the weapons and money for israel, saudi arabia, and our other friends to defend israel. Appreciate your call. There are a number of lawmakers in the middle east, particularly in israel, a bipartisan delegation. Headline here in the Washington Post. Lawmakers take a welltimed israel trip, paid for by aipac charitable arm. They write 58 house members, 22 democrats, 36 republicans, are making the trip this month right before congress is set to consider the controversial Iran Nuclear Deal. The trip being paid for by the american israel education foundation, the charitable arm of the americanisrael Public Affairs committee. The Foundation Funds the travel every two years for junior members. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vocally condemned the iran deal negotiated by the Obama Administration, which is the focus of a fierce fight in congress. Were asking you about that case being made on both sides. Heres defiance, missouri. Daryl is on our democrats line. Caller good morning. Morning. Caller im totally for what the president is doing, goesh negotiating with the iranians for this thing. Israel has been screaming for 25 years iran would have a Nuclear Weapon, and they dont have a Nuclear Weapon yet. Meanwhile, israel has stockpiled hundreds of Nuclear Weapons. Nobody can inspect their nuclear facilities. You know, its just insane what Charles Schumer is doing, and i think he ought to resign and go live in israel. I mean, this is america. You know, when are we going to stop taking marching orders from israel . And you just said it. 48 members of congress are being flown to israel so they can get their marching orders from netanyahu. This is insane. You know, theyve done nothing but undermine this president since hes been in there. Im not for israel because israel hasnt signed any Nuclear Nonproliferation treaties. They havent allowed anybody to inspect their Nuclear Weapons, and iran you know, its just insane. This whole policy is insane. Caller mentioned Chuck Schumer, the new york senator. Politico writing about his efforts on the nuclear deal with iran. Chuck schumer working the phones is the headline on iran. He calls colleagues to explain his decision and assure them he will not be whipping opposition, in other words whipping votes against the president. Also on that aipac trip, another Israel Lobbying Group in washington is jstreet. They have released an ad campaign on their view. Heres a look. The Nuclear Agreement with iran contains the toughest Inspection Program in history with inspectors on the ground and aroundtheclock monitoring at all nuclear sites. Israeli Security Experts say this agreement is the best existing option, the best possible alternative, it must not be rejected. This deal prevents iran from producing a Nuclear Weapon. Thats good for israel, good for america, and makes both countries safer and more secure. Part of a jstreet ad campaign targeting michigan and four other states. A couple tweets on this issue. cspanwj is how you reach us. Heres one from richard, who tweets, do not confuse no bomb with no nuclear plants. Geez. Also, from t. J. , who says, first mistake that obama made on iran deal, he should have demanded the four americans be set free before talks ever began. Back to calls. We go to florida on the republican line is ned. Welcome. Caller good morning. Hi there. Caller im against the iran deal for several reasons. Number one, this has really got a lot to do with the sunni and the shias. All of your jordan, your egypt, your saudi arabia, theyre not going to have theyre not going to be content to let iran have a bomb when they dont. So this is going to be a rush to get to start the nuclear thing. Weve got our four prisoners that were never discussed. We werent dealing from a position of power. We all know that iran is one of the biggest state sponsors of terror and that theyve killed thousands of our troops while in iraq. The other thing is no inspectors from america are allowed on their soil. They also want to take their own soil samples, and they got 24 days to get ready for that. Its a bad deal. Its going to cause a Nuclear Explosion as far as everyone trying to get their own bombs in the middle east. And how do you trust the iranians . I think a lot of people that call in today dont remember about the 444 days of captivity that they kept our people in back in the 70s. Its just not a good deal. And the president , hes gotten right up on the tv and lied to us over and over. You know, your doctors, your insurance, all this stuff. Looked right in the camera and lied about the illegals. Hes lied. So how do we trust him on this . How did we trust him hes telling us the truth . Ned, appreciate your comments. We talked about that congressional delegation trip, the freshmen members in israel, democratic and republican. Also, Majority Leader Kevin Mccarthy there and the minority whip steny hoyer. Some tweets from that. Just some photos and such. Brad ashford tweeting, productive meetings in israel and palestine with each of their renowned leaders. Great to hear both perspectives. He also tweeted the delegation met with israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former palestinian authority. A couple more here from seth moulton who says idf former head of Intelligence Major nadeen speaking on the iranian threat. He said president ruvi of israel can do more to advance the alliance. A previous caller was talking about that. And elizabeth esty, freshman democrat, tweets, meeting with israel president reuven and learning about issues critical to the relationship. Lets hear from albert next whos on the line in robbins, illinois. Good morning. Good. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I believe that the president s making the best case for the deal because his argument has been well thought out, whereas the oppositions argument hasnt been thought out, as usual. For instance, theyre talking about the four americans should have been a part of negotiations. Why would you want to tie the fate of four americans to a deal that could fall through . Then you have no more Bargaining Power for their release. Why would you want to tie their release to the interests of the other p5 nations that were part of this negotiation . The media for some reason is making the mistake, and theyre being allowed to do so, that this is the president s deal. No, this deal was negotiated with the United States and six other nations. So they dont have a wellthoughtout argument. There are those who are in opposition to this deal just because it is the president s hes involved in it. Then there are those who are opposed because they want to see once again war in the middle east. Thats my comment. Thank you. News this morning about illinoiss republican senator mark kirk. Its the lead item in the chick tribune. Front page. This front page courtesy of the nuseum. Actions by senator raise questions on use of donations. They write that senator mark kirk, whos needed help with every day tasks such as preparing meals and physically getting around since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2012, put his livein caregiver on his campaign payroll, according to records and interviews. The caregiver twice came under criminal investigation, convicted in one case, while the other is still pending in court. The tribune writes kirks replacement of his caregiver, who had no prior campaign experience, raises questions about whether kirk used political donations to pay for personal expenses. Campaign finance records show that kirk for senate had paid his caregiver a salary totaling more than 43,000 from august 2013 through the ends of 2014. Back to calls on the Iran Nuclear Deal and whos making the best case so far. This is paul, whos in miridian, connecticut. Independent caller. Caller yes, i am an american. Im not a jew. And my main concern is with the United States and the people of the United States. I cant imagine a worse recipe for our country than to get involved in trying to establish a jewish state in the middle of 2 billion islams and approximately 25 islamic states in the middle east and trying to establish a jewish state when the people that were representing have an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth attitude. Theyre arrogant. Theyve shown and demonstrated as they did prior to world war i and world war ii that they cant get along with their neighbors. For the United States to squander our treasure and to risk a Nuclear Conflict over establishment of a jewish state when were reminded by jews here at home we are not a christian country. They love to rub our nose in it, remind us that this country has no right to establish anything resembling so you know, christmas time. Theyre against Christmas Carols. They go into Public Schools who are you saying paul, who are you saying are against that . Caller im sorry . Who do you say are against that . Caller well, jewish organizations across the country have been organizing in this country for half a century to try to get references to christianity out of our School Systems and to continuously remind us that we are a secular country. Its foolhardy for us to get in on this. Its just stupid. And its dangerous and extreme. If you study the history before world war i and world war ii, youll find, for example, that jewish communists were agitators throughout europe and were constantly fomenting. Now theyre trying to get us into a third world war that will be a catastrophe. So im just fed up with the whole thing. Im sick of hearing it. And let the jews worship and be who they are privately, quietly, just as most christians are expected to do. Were asking you this morning whos making the best case for the Iran Nuclear Deal. Also looking more broadly at u. S. Foreign policy. Front page this morning of the wall street journal reporting on the comments of jeb bush. Bush and clinton look past party rivals and trade barbs. Theyre talking in particular about comments made by jeb bush last night. He spoke at the Ronald Reagan president ial library in simi valley, california, with sharp criticism on the Obama Administration and thensecretary of state Hillary Clinton on the rise of isis. Heres what he had to say. Iran, its ally assad, its terrorist proxy hezbollah, and the sectarian militias it sponsors have fueled the rise to isis. Yet, the president s deal with iran confronts none of these problems and least of all does it prevent iran from acquiring Nuclear Weapons capability. In fact, the deal prepares the way for that capability. With the lifting of sanctions, the deal frees up more than 100 billion for irans Security Services to use as they wish. In effect, the primary investors in a violent, radical middle east have just received a new round of funding courtesy of the United States of america and the united nations. And this is president obamas idea of a diplomatic triumph. Wow. It is a deal unwise in the extreme with a regime that is untrustworthy in the extreme. It should be rejected by the congress of the United States of america. [ applause ] if the congress does not reject this deal, then the damage must be done undone by the next president , and it will be my intention to begin that process immediately. [ applause ] knowing what has gone wrong, however, is not the same as knowing how to set it right. Jeb bush last night in simi valley, california, at the reagan library. All of that speech later on our program. Its also at cspan. Org. Were harkening back to the mention we made earlier of the congressional delegation in israel meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. Among the leaders there is kevin mccarthy, who tweets about his experience there, saying each day Congress Continues to review the iran deal, we discover more information and reasons why we cant accept it. More from members who are there. Mimi walters tweeting a morning run and selfie in the hills of jerusalem. Also from tom macarthur, day three, photo of the congressional delegation. Back to your calls on whos making the best case for the Iran Nuclear Deal. In the nations capital, edward on our democrats line. Caller good morning. Im calling concerning the iranian deal. Yes. Caller im suggesting that the democrats support president obama on this deal. President obama doesnt have to run for reelection in 2016, but africanamerican voters will remember those who support president obama on an important Foreign Policy deal. So i suggest that the democrats remember that netanyahu cannot deliver africanamerican voters but president obama can. In the case of an earlier caller who was talking about president obama having a shortterm memory about the iranians Holding American hostages, i guess president reagan had a shortterm memory because of the iran contra deal, about the iranians Holding Hostages or the iranbacked hezbollah responsible for the marines being killed. So i guess reagan had a shortterm memory too. So thats all i have to say on that matter. Lets go to south plainfield, new jersey. Independent caller. Go ahead. Caller yes, i have what i cannot understand is the shortsightedness of those people who are against this deal. If iran is such an enemy of the United States and the problem is not their facilities, that they have a facility on the ground. And if you have a socalled enemy and you have an opportunity to be in the house of that enemy, to have a seat in the house of that enemy and thats what this deal is about, you need to take that seat, and you need to observe what iran is doing. And you are going to understand after a period of time, you are going to understand them, see their mannerisms. Keeping the sanctions in place, the sanctions does not hurt the head of government. They have a very good life. It hurts people. And when you hurt people, they get angry. And when they get angry, they are dangerous. And thats why so many iranians are joining isis. And so are all the people. The more we make people suffer, the more isis is going to become stronger. We need to isolate them. And what i feel is as long as we are in the house of iran, we are going to be able to slow down the process of making a bomb. And that is the bottom line, not all the craziness about israel trying to tell america what to do. Our caller in new jersey mentioned iranians joining isis. Heres a story you may have heard about, about a couple of americans allegedly trying to join isis. Headline about two arrested for trying to join isis. They write that a man and a woman detained at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in columbus saturday appeared in federal court on monday, charged with trying to provide assistance and materials to a foreign terrorist group. Officials tell the ledger that the two were attempting to join isis. They allegedly had a plan to get married in turkey and cross over into syria. Jerry is up next. Hes in new orleans. Hes on our democrats line. What do you think, jerry . Whos making the case for or against the Iran Nuclear Deal . Caller good morning. Good morning. Caller im on obamas side to a certain extent. I think he did the best he could with what he had to work with. The republicans, they alwaysrep always criticize him, but they dont have a plan of their own. If you want to criticize, come up with your own plan. I think he is open for a better plan if you got one, and if you dont have one, shut up and get out of the way. And towards the whole nuclear thing, stopping people from getting a weapon, and what about the way the United States deal wz those that does have Nuclear Weapons, thats a problem. What about north korea, a big threat, got weapons already, bigger threat, and what about the v8, and republicans trying to make another war, and look how they are treating our veterans, and they are dying waiting on service and they are trying to make more wounded veterans. Thats ridiculous. If you are so quick to go to war, who is going to take care of them when they come back all brokendown. And who is making the case for the Iran Nuclear Deal. From North Carolina, gary on the democrats line. Welcome. Caller good morning. Morning. Caller i remember a long time ago, you know, the kids were playing around, and somebody talking about they are going to go upside their head and stuff like this, and we would say what am i supposed to be doing all this time . They have 15 years, and what are we supposed to be doing all this time that they are going to bomb us, just going to sit back . They bombed pearl harbor one time and we nuked them in 3 1 2 years gary, do you trust the verification processes reported . Caller yes, 100 . The man told the truth when they said you cant hide this. These scientists know more than people that are not a scientists when it comes to everything else, and then all of a sudden they are nuclear physicist, and we are the United States of america, and if we cant get a deed by iran, and they are isolated and we are the United States of america, and we are completely surrounded, and, you know, if they do get a bomb well probably make it inoperable, you know. We are listening to them right now. Comments on twitter. Here is a tweet from dedi, saying did he say, i think in mentioning me, did he say j street its michigan and four other states. Why being targeted . Cant tell you that. It was a 5 million ad by j street. How can we agree or disagree with a deal we are not allowed to see . I believe on cspan. Org we have a link to the outline of the deal that was released by the white house a couple weeks ago. Back to calls. Here is georgia in florida thats not george, and that should be george in florida. Caller i would like to say that this reminds me of chamberlin talking to hitler. This has to be the dumbest man on earth or a traitor, because you cant talk to these people they are hacking off heads and killing children by wholesale and cutting off their heads. These people are unbelievable. And this man is negotiating with them . I just cant believe it. The second thing is this, they talk about their islamic leaders and how nice they are, and if theres a billion people and only a few terrorists i wish they would police them and lock them up, because they dont have any kind of concern about their socalled few terrorists, so the billion of them must be compliant or both. We played an ad for the deal, and here is a video for an ad against the deal. I am retired Sergeant Bartlett and i was blown up by an iranian bomb, and it took my gunners legs off, total devastation. That is imprinted in my brain forever. They kidnap little kids from neighboring villages and put bullets in their heads and they said we are going to run our bombs out of here, thats who we are making a deal with. Every politician involved in this, they will be held accountable and have blood on their hands. A vote for this deal means more money for terrorism. What do you think they will do with that money . Call your senator and say no vote for a deal with iran. If you dont call them, who will . And the paper rights when the group decided mobilize opposition against the nuclear deal with tehran, gary seymour knew he could never operate as his president , and he concluded the accord was in the United States interests, and i think president obamas strategy succeeded, and the times rights as soon as he left the Group Announced a new barrier with a decidedly different message, and lieberman i will show you the reporting on his advance to lead that group, this is from former senator lieberman to lead group against Iran Nuclear Deal. A couple more minutes of calls and your thoughts on the iran deal and who is making the case. Good morning to eugene from new jersey. Caller i am for the deal. I think the president is making the best case. I think the republicans have no case other than military action. And i would like to know what great debt does the United States owes israel . Thats my question to the public . What great debt does the United States owes israel . Thank you. Caller good morning. If the u. N. Approves the deal then it must be bad for america. Thank you. Paul in maryland, also on the republican line. Your thoughts, paul, on who is making the best case here . I am wondering why you allow for antisemites. There was a caller that said senator schumer should move to israel, and then you had another caller talking about jews being communist why dont you cut them off . Paul, we do try to give everybody a chance to say their mind. There are people that make difficult comments and i challenged the caller on the one who talked about Christmas Carols and such, but its difficult when people venture into the arena of criticizing a person or group based on their religion, you are right, sometimes its a fine line. We try to give people as much say as possible and sometimes it will offend viewers. Caller well, if i were to Say Something like that black guy should move back to africa, like he said about Chuck Schumer should move to israel, you would cut me off, and rightfully so thank you. Appreciate it. Dan, go ahead. Caller good morning. Good morning. Caller yeah, the best comment i have heard so far is from john who said we should hold out for a better deal and when we get the better deal we should hold out for the best deal. This is typical gold post moving that netanyahu has been engaged in with the palestinians and with the Iran Nuclear Deal. This is the best and most comprehensive arms control deal, not just between the United States but between the p5 plus one. The only danger is israel believing they are going to have it and they preemptively strike iran. Thats the big danger. And as far as Chuck Schumer, i am highly disappointed. I am not an antisemite, and the same with joel lieberman, these Jewish Americans in congress are jewish first and americans second, and sorry if that offends somebody. We showed the headline bush alerts a clinton role in iraq decline, and new political risks, the former Florida Governor issued a blistering attack tuesday on the Obamas Administration handling of iran, an