Transcripts For CSPAN3 U.S. Northern Southern Command Operations 20180215

Cspan. Org landmark cases. Earlier today u. S. Northern commander general Lori Robinson and Southern Commander testified on their operations including how they handled the threat of Ballistic Missile attacks and whats being continue to combat the opioid drug crisis. Speaking before the Senate Arms Services committee this is an hour and 50 minutes. We will call the meeting to order. Were going to receive testimony from two of my favorite people, general Lori Robinson. I have to say i taught her everything she knows from when she was Wing Commander at Tinker Air Force base in oklahoma, and from kurt ted, commander for the u. S. Southern command. I think there is a lot of overlap. Weve talked all three of us have talked about this between the north and the south command, and i think thats one reason senator mccain would want to have these meetings together. The new National Defense strategy and the nds identifies in protecting the homeland sustaining american advantages in the western hemisphere as key priorities even as the dod focuses on the rising challenge of great power competitors. As we have seen from increasing economic and military efforts by china and by russia to gain a foothold in the americas and the boundaries between Great Power Competition and unconventional threats are increasingly blurred. I think thats one reason why general dunford made the observation that we have that were using our qualitative and quantitative edge on china and russia. General robinson, you are tasked with addressing the missile and Nuclear Threats that we face and while im encouraged by recent efforts to bolster our homeland Missile Defense system, more needs to be done to address the ballistic and Cruise Missile threats. Particularly recently weve observed others gaining at that timents that we were not convinced that we had in southcom, you are on the front lines and networks and smuggling drugs and weapons and mono destabilized every koibtcountryg the way and we face involvement with external actors that present unique challenges and lack sufficient resources. I think that we have a lot in common and for that reason were having these together and we look forward to your testimony and appreciate the time that each one of you spent in our office talking about the challenges you guys have. Senator reed . Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Let me join in welcoming our witnesses general robinson and admiral tet. Thank you for your service to the nation and please con vaveyr thanks to the men and women in your command. General robinson, your mission is to defend the homeland and to deter attacks on the United States and mitigate the attacks and natural disasters. We saw this demonstrated in dods states and the territories affected by hurricanes, wildfires and floods in this past year. We thank you for that. You also do have as commander of the north American Aerospace defense, norad, partnering opportunities with canada to deter and defend against threats to our nation. You are also responsible for the operation of the homeland Ballistic Missile Defense System. We look forward to hearing your priorities to the ground Missile Defense system and this is particularly in light of the growing threat from north korea. Lastly, your relationship with the leadership in mexico, along with your collaboration with admiral ted and its crucial with the problems at the border with the southcom operations and efforts to address the governments require a whole of government approach and you are on the front lines of the significant threat facing our nation, and the Opioid Crisis. In 2016, we saw 64,000 deaths from drug overdoses and an increase of 52,000 in 2015. What has made the crisis worse is that more and more americans addicting to opioids are addicted to other drugs flowing through the borders from south america and asia. The flow of heroin and cocaine and other drugs like fentanyl is exacerbating the crisis. Cocaine production in colombia is up as we spoke in our office and its destabilizing the countries as it works its way to our border and destroys lives here. I wassen couraged to hear that southcom held a Conference Last Week which brought the government stakeholders together to work on this problem. Because its important, while the military has an Important Role to play in this country, we will only win against this threat with adequate resources for domestic agencies such as the food and drug administration, and the Drug Enforcement administration and the health and Human Services and well look forward to hearing from you about the outcome of the conference and southcoms effort to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. Committing millions of dollars of investment and partnering with latin american militaries. Admiral ted as you noted in your written Statement China has pledged 500 billion in trade with latin american countries and 250 billion in chinese direct investment over the next ten years. Increased Economic Cooperation and the the continued provision of financing and loans that appeared to have no string attached and provide ample opportunity for china to expand its influence of key regional partners and promote unfair Business Practices and labor practices. I am concerned because we are not doing everything we can to position ourselves as a partner of choice for our neighbors in the region and mr. Ted, i would like to hear from you on how russia and china are posing a National Threat to United States. We would like your perspectives on how much longer the regime can survive and how the crisis can affect neighboring countries. Colombia is struggling to implement the disarmament and is illequipped to deal with the longterm rescue problem in the border region. General robinson and general ted, thank you for your service. Thank you, senator reed. Well go ahead and hear Opening Statements by both of our witnesses and try to confine them to five minutes, if you can and your entire statement will be made part of the record. Well start with you, general robinson. I just found out that your husband was best friends and a fellow f16 pilot with my best friend charles sublet and i was not aware of this. Well, sir, you know, when you bring them to the witness table he has to tell the truth and nothing, but the truth, you know. Im sure that was chanrles. Please do. First, i would really like to say, too, that we know that hes a figure here to senator mccain and his family and that i know all of our thoughts and prayers are with him and i wanted to extend that. I think thats incredibly important and senator inhofe, senator reed, all of the distinguished members of the committee, i am honored to join you today. David and i are honored to join you today to testify alongside my friend, my shipmate and more importantly my wingman kurt ted. He and i do things arm in arm. 2017 was a challenging year. Northcom and norad addressed proactive actions by our adversaries while simultaneously providing defense support to civil authorities during an historic series of natural disasters that required significant military capabilities and military manpower. However, i will say that those challenges were definitely handled by a team of absolute professionals, and i can tell you, sir, how much im proud to represent all of them here today. In my 21 months as the commander of norad and u. S. Northern command, i have been so impressed by the dedication and vigilance shown by the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, civilians and americans and canadians who stand ready to defend our nations and our fellow citizens, looking forward. I see no reason to believe that the threats to our homeland will decrease. Our adversaries continue to extend their operational reach and are developing new capabilities to range targets in north america and in canada. Our preparations for these threats relies on a dependable budget. We appreciate all that this committee has done to help reach the twoyear budget agreement. In 2018 National Defense strategy recognizes a return to Great Power Competition and lays out a longterm strategy for addressing provocative behavior by china and russia and norad and u. S. Northern command, we understand the urgency of keeping pace with the evolving threats. We also recognize that north korea represents the most immediate threat to our homeland and therefore remains northcoms highest priority. In the past year, kim jongun has demonstrated several successful icbm threats. We continue to watch their developments closely and are prepared to defend the United States, and i want to assure this committee today that i am confident that i can defend the United States. While i am confident that we can defeat this threat today, it is critical that we continue to improve the Ballistic Missile defense enterprise with emphasis on the development of improved Center Networks combined with an interceptor capability and capacity and reliability. We continue to work with the Missile Defense agency. The Intelligence Community and other combat and commands to ensure our collaborative effort in outpacing the threat. Russia continues to modernize its longrange bombers and its submarines and has developed new Cruise Missiles with the capability to hold targets at risk at ranges that we havent seen before. To defend against advanced Cruise Missiles its important that we continue to make prudent and savvy investments and dwa advance weapons and these advancements in fleets to demonstrate our capability to threaten our homelands for the years to come. The threats mentioned are the most serious, however, we remain vigilant against the adapting threat of terrorism as well as unpredictable, natural disasters. As we review the 2017 hurricane response and prepare for the 2018 season, we are working with our Mission Partners to include the active, guard, reserve, forces to incorporate the Lessons Learned to ensure that we provide our best support to lead federal agencies. With respect to canada, we are building interoperability across domains with the tricommand framework thats comprised of north com, norad and Canadian Joint operations command. This arrangement allows planning integration while planning to conduct unilateral missions with respect to mexico. Our military to military relationship with the mexican secretariat of National Defense sedena is unbelievably strong. We focus on illuminating the pathways used to transit illicit goods with my partner here, admiral ted with the interagency partners socom, it is essential, part of strengthening a continental defense and builds relationships essential for future cooperation, and by the way, this year we have the 60th anniversary of norad, throughout this long history this binational demand has seen several evolutions and we are proud of that. The men and women of the United States Northern Command and norad stand united in a common purpose ready to face the threats of the United States and canada today, and we are evolving to face the threats of tomorrow. I need all of you to know that we have the watch. But i also need you to know that while senator, today, youre going to ask about me and about our capabilities and the things that we need, i want you to know that we couldnt do it without our families. If it wasnt for our families and our steadfast things that keep us grounded we wouldnt be able to be where we are today so i want to say thank you to my husband who is here today representing all the families of the United States norad and Northern Command because without them we wouldnt have this standard. So, senator, back to you. You havthank you, general ro. Admiral ted . Thank you for the opportunity to address you today and i join my colleague and partner, general robinson in extending our warmest wishes to senator mccain and his family and hes in our thoughts and prayers today. Also in our thoughts and prayers are the victims and family members of yesterdays tragedy in parkland, florida. As you probably know, some of our Southern Command teammates have children who were present during the incident, but were, fortunately, unharmed. We greatly appreciate the First Responders, the faculty members and other students whose actions, no doubt, saved lives. Now, as i said, im here with my good friend and my teammate general Lori Robinson. We are products of the intentions of the nichols legislation which led to an emphasis on jointness. This is not the first time that we have appeared together and in fact our Partnership Goes back a decade. I would like to say that it is very much appropriate and fitting that we have the opportunity to you today about the western hemisphere security challenges. I look forward to discussing how our two commands Work Together and to ensure that there is an absolutely seamless defense of our homeland. Over the past year, southcom has focused on building Regional Security network of principled, inclusive partnerships and partners throughout latin america and the caribbean are working with each other and with us on a range of shared challenges. These challenges manifest themselves in our hemisphere in several concerning ways. Criminal and extremist networks continue to threaten regional stability and our National Security. We know of specific cases of individuals who were involved in plots to attack our homeland or our partners. Fortunately, they were stopped, but this remains a significant, persistent concern. Competitors like china and russia seek to exploit the perception that we are disengaging from the americas, and as they succeed in their efforts comes an increased ability for them to interfere with relationships and to hold our interests at risk. These challenges are less overt and sometimes more insidious than in other theaters. They are manageable with modest investment, sufficient attention and early engagement. For southcom that involves tools that strengthen relationships and build capacity. We are not talking about brigade combat teams or aircraft carriers in our theater. Were talking about small teams of general purpose and special Operations Forces to maintain critical training engagements. Were talking about medium endurance ships with embarked helicopters and particularly those that are interoperable with our partners and with enough awareness to buy down risk against problems early and stop threats at their source before they become more costly. We appreciate the attention of congress to this region and thank this committee to their support for the men and women of southcom and to our families. I look forward to answering your questions. Okay, admiral, thank you very much. Appreciate it. You just said in your Opening Statement general robinson that, i can defend the United States today and i know thats true, you and i talked about this, but at what level of risk . When general millie said and i quote, before this Committee Said the most important of many challenges we face is consistent, sustained predictable funding over time and we corrected that a little bit with our 18 budget. So its kind of predictable between now until the year 2000, but then it becomes unpredictable again and i would like to ahave both of you very briefly tell us what level of risk are we able to do have to do today to tie the unpredictability of the budget . So, sir. Ill start and then ill turn it over to the admiral. Predictability is everything, right . As the consumer of readiness is the one that has to use the things that Service Chiefs has to organize, train and equip for. For me whats important is to understand what it got out there for capability. So im telling you today i can defend the United States of america when it comes to Ballistic Missile defense, given what we did and what we have done from a funding perspective, but as importantly what we did with the atr and adding capability and capacity in alaska and what we continue to do with discriminating radars. So all of those things im comfortable for, but we have to allow the services to be able to plan because theyre the ones that provide us that readiness. Okay. Sir, as you and i have discussed, anything that challenges the Services Ability to provide the forces that we request to be able to effectively secure the southern approaches to the United States is a challenge, budget unpredicibility has been the single greatest impact on their ability to provide those forces. The challenge that we have when it comes to awareness of what is going on in the environment. Weve already discussed that isr or isr requirement. We receive about 8 of what we have asked for. I am very appreciative of the fact that half of that has been provided as a direct result of creative contract and isr capabilities that the congress has so generously funded, but that still is an enormous challenge. Not just for you, but for all commands. We hear that all the time, and thats one that we really need to be direct. Senator reed brought up china, and i noticed i actually read your statement. You didnt cover it in your abbreviated message this morning, but you made a statement in there that caught my eye. You said that china in particular is increasing aggressive and courting imet students from the region to attend their military school. Ive never heard that before. I know in africa, the imet program is singularly one of the great programs we have. Once we get them there, they are there for life and we see evidence of this all of the time. I was not aware that china is trying to move into that. Could you kind of share that . The imet program is probably our single greatest longterm investment value for the dollar that we put into it, and i would just highlight that it is an investment that sometimes may take two decades or more to pay off and when it pays off it pays off with relationships with Strategic Partners that are absolutely critical. It creates the personal contacts that many of the military leaders that i work with on a daytoday basis participated and gone to our service schools. China watches that very closely. Theyve recognized the value of that strategic investment and so they basically have taken a leaf out of our book and they are lavishly funding to bring senior military officers from a variety of Key Countries around our region to china for lavishly expensed, allexpense paid trips for them, for their families and to be able to live a very high lifestyle in the countries and is there still a recognition from our partners that the greatest value comes from studying in the United States, we believe our country sells itself and when people come here they get to know who we are and who our country really is and the values who we truly represent. We think thats very important. Weve always said, once we get them over here weve got them forever and thats our experience in africa because they are there. So it was disturbing to me that the statement and the observation that you made that they are actually going after the same individuals that we already had and that is disturbing and its giving us something new to address and i appreciate that very much. Senator reed . Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, it is absolutely critical and in a way, i have personal connections, they later went on to become in thailand and theyve been staunch defenders of their countries, but also our relationship and in, and at least one of them. That program was funded by the state department, correct . Yes, senator, that is correct. And its another example and both of your commands with the whole of government without funding state there is no imet. When we see these proposed cuts to state it will play out in pure opportunities for students to go to american war college, and the American Military academies. Is that accurate . I would agree completely. In fact, both of you represent and in such critical ways in need, the department of state, Homeland Security, coast guard cutters and part of the intercept plan for narcotics if theyre not there. In fact, what percentage of sort of the destination and cargos that you knew were enroute can you intercept. Senator, the challenge we face right now is 25 of vessels that we know have that are transporting illicit materials we have about 25 . So a quarter. If we can invest more in coast guard, we could sell more than 25 of the ships and we are almost at senator, i believe. Security in our theater is a team sport. It requires the efforts of many departments and agencies. I think they both illustrate dramatically how we have to get Adequate Funding for the component whether theyre inside the Defense Department or outside the Defense Department. General robinson. When you say you can defend the nation against a missile attack you are referring to a limited missile attack to a country like north korea, correct . Yes, sir. Youre not making a generalized statement . No, sir. Ill defer all of that to general heighten. Right. In that issue and you raised in your testimony there is the constant tension between capacity and capability. Yes. We are investing lots of dollars in increased capacity. Thats going to take a while, five, six, seven years to get these fields up, but at the immediate moment we have real issues of capability, whether we can effectively take down through centers and through shock doctrine to kill vehicle and anything coming at us and particularly, unfortunately, the offense in this game seems to have an advantage if they can deploy decoys or do multiplestage rockets. So can you comment on this issue of where we should be focusing and how we should do it . Sir, i have to tell you i am completely comfortable where we are. The fact that in the above threshold reprogramming that we added capacity and then the redesign kill vehicles, and i think its 2022 when well have those, but at the same time were looking at discriminating radar. So in 2019 were going to add the longrange discriminating radars to alaska. Were going to add radars to hawaii and were going to do a study on what we need that we look at covert income coming down. Thank you to the committee for funding cover dane until we figure this out. I am very comfortable where we are. I think as we look at the discrimination of radars, we look at the capacity of the fields in alaska, i think were in a really good place because when sit back and look at what kim jongun has done, hes looking at capability and you and i talked about this, but he hasnt built up capacity yet. So right now our capacity is very good where we are and as we continue to move forward. Are you satisfied with the frequency and the testing of the system . Im very comfortable. One of the things i say about kim jongun is hes not afraid to fail in public. You learn as much from philly or as you do from success and i am very comfortable where we are with our testing and where were going in the future and i rely very much on general griefs and where mda is going and he and i talk all of the time. Thank you very much. Thank you both for yours very. Admiral, thank you both for your testimony and your service, but admiral our strategy now is Great Power Competition first and foremost suspect senator inhofe asked you to drill down on china. So let me ask you to turn to russia which you discussed extensively in your written testimony. You mention cuba, nicaragua and venezuela and what are they trying to do there and where else do we need to be concerned . Those are the countries in which previously the soviet union had a longstanding relationship and they continue to engage in a direct competition for influence with some of our key partners around the region. Our challenge is to be able to disprove the false narrative that russia peddles in the region that the United States is withdrawing and we are not engaged advocating that were the great standard of the military being in leadership and to what extenta on. And the countries differ slightly. My observations and my conversations, genuinely reflect that they recognize and are the characteristic [ no audio ] the recent response [ no audio ] i think that it would be contrary very good. They recognize the significant importance to the region and it is just a matter of Strategic Priorities and availability of forces and we run out of mission and we run out of forces before we run out of mission and the coast guard cutters that have been participating are irreplaceable. The National Security cutters are terrific when we get them, but the real workhouse and the cop on the beat vessels and the medium endurance cutters, many of which are past 30 years in age, some were built in the 1960s and the recapitalization with the cutters with the optional patrol cutters i view as extremely important to u. S. South coms ability to provide an adequate maritime presence in the region. Unmapped . Unmanned vessels and aerial unmanned aerial vehicles, are there are some challenges procedure rally and we are exploring efforts to be able to do that. Thank you. Thank you, and to the witnesses, thank you for your service to court runty and and thank you for being here today. I am happy to hear that you have great confidence in our missile capabilities and i to know how you think we can strengthen the capability ands we have the site in california as well as alaska and there is talk about having an east coast site that would provide additional capabilities, particularly given the potential threat from iran at some point in the future. If you could talk a little bit about what the advantages would be to add a groundbased interceptor capacity in addition to the two we have. Sir, thanks for that. So i tell everybody that i watch north korea with a half eyeball and a half eyeball to iran. As i continue to watch them work on their space launch vehicles, you know, i know that they can maybe quickly transfer that to an intercom intercontinental Missile Defense capability. Right now theyre regional and staying within the cekpoa. As i work with Missile Defense Agency Understanding what we can do from alaska and california, i ensure i have the space to defend from the coast coast. The agency is working their way through what does it look like for an east coast site. I ensure that my words and the battle space that i need are there to defend the United States. Thank you, general. Yes, sir. You mentioned in earlier testimony that the situation in venezuela and one that youre concerned about, could you elaborate as to how concerned you are to what you were saying in venezuela . Senator, i think the fact that it is a matter of significant concern to the nations that neighbor venezuela is probably the most important piece to point out as we have seen the impact on venezuelans who are fleeing the abominable conditions in the country puts strain on the school system, the medical systems and the social support infrastructure, with 500,000 venezuelans have now entered colombia. It is putting an increasingly growing strain on brazil where weve seen tens of thousands that have come across and it also places a significant burden on ghana and countries like curacao and aruba, as well as trinidad and tobago and it is having a Significant Impact and theyll have to deal with this humanitarian crisis. It is certainly very destabilizing to many of our allies and friends in that area and id like you to comment, if you would, on the involvement of cuba in venezuela. Things that i have read and their commentators that believe there are hundreds to perhaps thousands of cuban troops in venezuela. Some have said that this is right out of the old castro playbook. What is your assessment of cuban influence in venezuela and how is that contributing to the instability that were seeing. Senator, i think weve read some of the same documents both open source and other. I think and when i talk with my counterparts in the region, they have been quick to shareco in the region, they have been quick to share that we see significant presence of cuban advisers to the Security Forces that continue to prop up the ray gen regime, so i think its a matter of kconcern. Thank. You, appreciate your testimony. Senator . Thank you, mr. Chairman. General robinson, admiral tidd, thank you very much for your service to our country. Id like to, admiral tidd, id like to go back a little bit to what senator ricker was discussing with you, basically in recent years china, russia, and iran, have all increased their activities in the western hemisphere from economic investments to military sales and engagement. Which of these competitors concerns you the most in your areas of responsibility, what are you doing to maintain and expand our position as a partner of choice to latin american and caribbean nations . I understand the desire and as you said earlier, you recognize youll do what is necessary. Wondering if you can give us some specific areas you either intend to move forward with or that you would need additional assistance with. Well, senator, without parsing, i think the new National Security strategy, and our National Defense strategy has clearly articulated russia and china are significant concerns, they are Global Concerns and so they are of concern because theyre very present and aggressive in the u. S. South com theater. Iran also is present. Particularly worrisome is their proxy, hezbollah, which is an area that weve been watching for many, many years. And is an item of concern. When it comes specifically to russia and china, the very best thing we can do is be the best partners with countries. To be able to work with them and facilitate the kinds of information sharing that is critical to to having an effective common defense for the challenges we face. Im really curious about such things as Foreign Military sales or Foreign Military financing. For those military sales. International military education training, impacts and so forth, can you talk a little bit about those specific ones, with regard to our ability to not only provide them with resources, but also the training as well . And where are we at right now with those same partners . Is that working or not working . Do we have the resources allocated there that we need . Well, senator, i dont know a theater commander who says hes got as many resources as he or she would like to have, i would say that particularly with regard to the programs as you mentioned, fms, and the imet program, it is a small pie to begin with. The south com allocation of that pie is smaller, still, based on global priorities and so our challenge is to make that small slice of the pie go as far as it possibly can. Now, sometimes programs that we offer, its expensive for our partners to be able to come and live in the United States and bring their families with them and spend the time here. So thats where we really try to maximize both the number who are able to come, and the, i guess the quality and the quantity, if you will, and finding that balance point can be a real challenge, but i think in the as far as the particularly the imet program, if there was one one program that i would say is is a longterm strategic investment and like financial investments, sometimes they take a while to pay off, but when they pay off, they are absolutely priceless. Okay. Thank you. General robinson, our 114th fighter wing in sioux falls has been flying Alert Missions out of the march air base in california since 2012. Weve had jets constantly deployed there and crews on a 24 hour alert flying basis but are part of the critical defense team for the nation. Norad recently requested 72 upgrade radars for a joint operational needs request and theyve been funded to include for the aircraft of the 114th. The problem is there are over 300 Air National Guard f16s and were only going to modify 72 of them with this radar. Our worry is well put heavy wear and tear on specific modified aircrafts and only modify a handful of the aircraft, thus, really wearing out that particular group. The cost to upgrade these jets is approximately 2. 1 million per jet. Compared to the additional capability gained, its probably a pretty good buy. Can you talk a little bit about your perspectives on whether or not we should upgrade the remaining f16s in the Air National Guard alert squadron so were not focusing just on those 72 with that capability . Yes, sir. Im working very closely with the air force on this, so first of all, im grateful to be able to modify those jets because, you know, thats happened recently. So that, i think, is a really good deal. But i continue to work with the air force on what does it look like as we not just modify airplanes but what does the transition to f35s look like . And so i will look closely and ensure that not only do we not rely heavily on just those, but what does the longterm transition plan look like . Very good. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you, both, for your service and your testimony today. General robinson, i especially appreciate your comments about the supports that everyone in the military receives and at norad from your families and i no e that sentiment is shared by everyone on this committee. So, thank you both. Admiral tidd, i want to go back to senator reeds question, i thinks about the 25 , did you characterize that as 25 of the missions you could do, youre able to do, and because of the lack of resources, not able to do more than that . Senator, i think the way we describe it, and to clarify, is we have pretty good Situational Awareness on an awful lot of the traffic trafficking that is occurring and thats based on the very Close Partnership with a variety of countries in the region. Most notably, with colombia. Of the known tracks that we are aware of, and we think we got a pretty good handle, were only able to intercept about 25 , about onequarter. Is well, im sure youre both aware of the challenges that we face with the opioid and heroin and drug epidemic in this country. It hit New Hampshire particularly hard. And what can you estimate, if you had the resources that you could use to do all of the missions that you would like for all of the interdiction efforts that youre aware of, what difference would that make in terms of the amount of drugs youre able to interdict . Senator, you raise an excellent question and the challenge that we have, particularly with regard to opioids, and that said, thats the reason we hosted the Conference Last Week was because we recognized that what we knew and the procedures that we had in place did not seem to be having the kind of impact. That is because the supply chain of that particular illicit substance does not travel in the same way that the supply chain for, if you roll the clock back, marijuana originally, and then cocaine, where we well understood and identified source zones, transit zones, arrival zones and were able to lay across those various pathways a variety of primary Law Enforcement but also Intelligence Community and military resources to have an impact on that. The opioid problem is a fundamentally different problem. We have we understand its different. I would say the value of last weeks conference was bringing together many, many many, many many of the agencies that touched that problem, at least on the interdiction side, and recognized we got to do business differently. Im prepared to tell you we have an answer to it yet but recognize the scope of the problem, the seriousness of the problem and our commitment to Work Together to put in place a more effective mechanism than what were doing today. Thank you. General robinson, are you seeing similar, own the northern border with canada, are you seeing similar traces of drug run runners coming across . No, maam. Not like what admiral tidd would talk about. The one thing i would like to add and give admiral tidd a lot of credit for is last month we had a meeting with he and i and admiral duran from colombia and the admiral frommexico, as we watch things go from landbased transs transit to oceanbased transit, how do we decide how were going to combat this together . So, you know, in, under his leadership, you know, we had colombia present a plan, we had mexico present a plan, we had the u. S. Present a plan. Now the three of us are going to sit down and go whats the best way to do this from an openocean perspective to try to get after that . So, i mean, this is not a single dimension conversation. This is a multidimension conversation. And its a multi combat and command conversation, whats really important, the fact he and i stand side by side doing this. Thank you. I think its very important as you all know. I hope we can provide resources to make sure youre successful. I want to pick up another issue senator reed raised with respect to funding the state department. You both talked about the importance of working across dod and state in terms of what youre trying to accomplish and we have seen a proposed budget that would cut the department of state by 30 . Can you quantify what that would mean in terms of your operations and your efforts to work with state, if they saw that kind of a cut . So i dont know if i can give you a number that would mean anything, but heres what i do know. Every single day we talk about anything secretary mattis says diplomacy leads. So the fact of the matter he says diplomacy leads, my role in responsibility is to support diplomacy. So i cant say is that 10 , 20 , 25 . I can tell you i know i follow diplomacy. I would just add, again, i cant put a number, but so many of the programs that are critical to building effective partners across the region actually, they come out of the state budget, we implement them but we could not do it if theyre underfunded. Thank you, both. I think thats a very strong statement in terms of funding as we think about increasing funding for the military, and the department of defense. I know were all on board for that. But we should also be on board for funding for the state department and our diplomatic efforts. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, both, for being here today. General robinson, your Opening Statement discusses the increasing capabilities of russian Cruise Missiles. To hold targets in the home lla at risk. Specifically you state, quote, the systems present an increasing threat to north america due to long range, low radar Cross Section and limited indications and warnings likely to be seen prior to a combat launch. End quote. Can you elaborate and characterize this threat in further detail and how much does it concern you . So, maam, heres what i would say. I tell everybody we should often look at the map from the north pole down. I know senator sullivan does every single day. And we should look at the fact that russia looks different if you look at it that way. Then every single day i would tell you i get an operations and intelligence briefing that talks to me about where bombers are, where submarines are and, you know, what theyre doing and what their activity is. And i Pay Attention to that every single day. So when i sit back and look at that, i look at their capability, what theyre capable of. I look at their capacity as they continue to train both their bomber pilots and their submarine pilots. I look at intent in the air domain as the commander of norad, i know from an intent perspective, you know, their intentions, i dont see that. But that doesnt mean from a strategic longterm perspective as we talk about in the National Defense strategy, you know, what russia is out there doing. But i have to tell you, i have to tell you, so one of the things that were doing is a northern approachs surveillance analysis of alternatives with canada to understand whats coming across the northern approaches. Both canada and alaska. Because i look across the entire part as the commander of norad and in what ive said to everybody is i want to be able to detect, i. D. , track, and engage, if necessary, at ranges to defend our home lavland. So those are the things i think about when i think about russia. Is at the your final comments there about being able to detect early and then engage, if necessary, do you think we have enough of that capability right now. In the fy 2017, the air force is that going to be sufficient . Because isnt that really our last line of defense at that point . Yes, so, maam, what i would say is thats part of our Homeland Defense design phase one, and phase two. It allows us to use our fighters and tactics, techniques and procedures to move out further than before. We appreciate the committees support on that. This is now the longerrange part. If i look at the northern approaches, specifically, to be able to do that. I happen to believe our Missile Defense system provides really an immense capability, and the expansion of that system is going to help us to continue to defend the homeland as this threat increases. Yet over the weekend, general, the New York Times Editorial Board published a column titled the dangerous illusion of Missile Defense. If in it they described our homeland Defense System as riddled with flaws and repeated what i consider an old tired claim that tests were not conducted under realistic conditions. So to be clear, you have confidence in the ability of the gmd system to defend the United States from a north korean Ballistic Missile attack today . Maam, im 100 confident in my ability to defend the United States of america. And do you believe the actions taken by congress and this administration to expand the systems capacity and improve discrimination will enhance north coms ability to defend the homeland from Ballistic Missile attack in the future . So, maam, i would tell you i appreciate the abovethreshold reprogramming for the capacity that we gave and i think thats helpful as we look at adding on to that the redesign kill vehicle in addition to continued work which we need to do with the discriminating radars. Between all of those three things, i think we continue to outpace everybody and it gives me more and more confidence, continued confidence, of our ability to defend the United States. Thank you, general, for presenting valuable information and very clear answers. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank both the witnesses. Thank you for meeting this week as well. I want to talk to you about what we talked about in my office, which is the Opioid Crisis. Last week, the center for Disease Control reported Overdose Deaths in indiana increased by 28 from july 15th to july 2016. Over 1,700 hoosiers died from opioid overdoses. Only six states had larger percentage increases. This is a national epidemic. Its getting worse. Not better. And your commands are on the very front lines of this battle. How would you prioritize the Opioid Crisis in your command priorities right now . General robinson, then admiral tidd. Yes, sir, i take this Opioid Crisis as a personal issue. You know, when you sit back and you talked about it and its about families and its about people, its incredibly important. I sit down every month and i talk to the secretary of dhs, i work very closely with my subordinate commanders who work very closely with mexico on all of this. So this crisis is not something that i set aside. Its something that i take very personally. And so whats important to me is that i understand the support role that i can give to dhs and the support role that i can information that i can give mexico which then translates to the things that i can give to admiral tidd, because the ucp line on the map doesnt exist for admiral tidd and i so its a very personal thing. Admiral tidd . Senator, i share general robinson, this is a crisis that has come to touch us all personally, so the challenges we face is how do can you handle it, how do you deal with it . What became clear at our Conference Last Week was United States department of defense cant solve this problem on its own. The department of Homeland Security cant solve this problem on its own. Health and Human Services cant solve it on its own. It will only be through all of us working together in a collaborative manner. Thats why our approach at u. S. South com is to apply a threat networkbased approach and we see thats our numberone priority is Threat Networks. I apologize because i have limited time, but as we talked about, these drugs are coming across from mexico. Not through unguarded areas or anything but through checkpoints in the back of trucks. And so were in a position of seeing the very checkpoints we have in our country allowing trucks in, many of these trucks loaded with drugs. Theres two questions. Number one, detection systems. We in regards to fentanyl, tracker dogs die because of the effects of fentanyl on their mucous systems and other things. Where are we in finding new deted detede detection systems so we can determine if these are in the trucks . Are we in a position, we need to say, look, your refrigerator isnt coming in today, its coming in in a month and a half, were checking every box in every truck because its more important a young person in logansport, indiana, r be able to stay alive as a posed to having your refrigerator come in on time . First is detection systems. Second, should we change the way we do business at the border and check every single box that comes in . Sir, ill tell you the support role we do for dhs, we have the opportunity to provide them some biometric detection capabili capability. We have the opportunity to provide marinecentered platoons at the border, capability. As you know, as you and i talked about yesterday, its very much in a support role and the things we can do from a technology capability. Last year in front of this committee, as you and i touted about yesterday, senator mccain asked us to talk about what are some of the technologies . Well come talk to you about some of the things were doing to provide and to support dhs. Admiral . Sir, all i can say is there is no single Silver Bullet thats going to solve this problem. This is going to take the very best efforts across the entire National Security team to be able to Work Together effectively. Is there a discussion about changing the way we handle crossings at the border . Because thats where its coming through. Not that you know of course. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, both, for being here. Ive got a question about the nds. Three quick questions. Before i get to the two on the nnd, admiral, to finish up on what senator shaheen was talking about, and before i do that, i would be remiss as a member of the senate not to apologize to both of you Combatant Commanders on behalf of the United States senate. Today were officially sitting in a continuing resolution, again, and you have my personal commitment and resolve that before i leave the United States senate, were going to do everything we can to get away from this budget process that puts us in this detrimental highrisk situation. Were doing more to arm the security of our country than any of these people are talking about today outside. Sorry. Admiral, real quick, you talked general kelly talked about this, too, but you talked about what there is an asset that you can use in your aor to actually interdict more. We dont know what percentage we can get to. I understand that. You can close that gap without spending a lot of money. Is that true . I think there are some platforms thought there that would be anonymously helpful to us, yes, sir. What would one look like . A combat ship would perfectly into the Mission Space that we are rotary capability as well . Absolutely. Its a package. Its a vessel thats capable of operating in the eastern pacific with rotary wing, with intercepter boats as a package coupled with Maritime Patrol aircraft. In latin america, russia today is supplying 40 of the arms sales. China is the second largest trading partner in latin america. Iran is in there through hezbollah. The question i have, the nds is pivoting toward nearpeer competitors. Heretofore, our mission in the last 15, 17 years, was mainly about und underfunded in south com. Today the battle looks like its getting closer and closer to home. Are you being resourced in order to support the nds and is the nds focusing enough on greater power threat, pure power threats in our own hemisphere . Not yet. The nds recognizes these challenging nations and i think we apply we must move beyond applying resources to the home zip code of where those specific countries are and apply the resources to be able to deal with them wherever theyre found across the globe. General, thank you for being here again and thank you for being on the wall. The arctic, china just last month issued a statement. Russia has been actively building resources in the arctic. We see sorties or whatever in the arctic region increasing at an exponential rate. Yet we i think admiral, im sure you can, too, but i dont know how many ice breakers we technically have. I dont think we have very many. Chi china or russia have multiple. What is russia and chinas strategy . You told us last year about your strategic estimate. Can you give us an update on that strategic estimate in the arctic . Absolutely, sir. So i did a strategic estimate. Out of that strategic estimate, i have directed by twostar plan tore provide a mission analysis. As ive said to people, weve had our toes in the sand. Its time to put our feet in the snow and time to understand more and more whats going on up there. So out of that mission analysis, were going to do a couple of exercises. We did a vigilant shield last fall. Were going to do an arctic edge and well be able to understand certain tasks out of that. At the same time, we know we need to look at the infrastructure, the communications, and the domain awareness to understand whats happening. Both of you very quickly, i have limited time, our strength against these nearpeer competitors is our network of allies. And i know secretary of state tillerson has talked about that, secretary mattis has talked about that actively. In your aors, what are we doing with our allies to help leverage our military expenses and capabilities . Admiral, you want to press that . Quickly. Were working together to help train them. Were building their capabilities in the areas they are most interested in and were showing by our actions that we trust them. And so, and if i can tell you, earlier this year, secreta secretary mattis held a north American Defense ministerial with canada, the United States and mexico to talk about how do we, the three of us Work Together to show we have the longest borders in the world and were a shining beacon of trust and cooperation . Thank you, both. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. General robinson, i know you said that you are confident in h our Homeland Defense and i was glad to see that the most recent test of our homeland Missile Defense system in may of 2017 was successful. It brings our record to 9 out of 18 which is 50 . Testing is important. Whether tests succeed or fail, we gather a great deal of information. It helps us. As the missile threat from north korea increases and we invest additional intercepters to meet the threat, it seems to me that its more important than ever that we accurately assess the reliability of this system. Physical tests are expensive and they cost hundreds of millions of dollars each. Predictive modeling is one costeffective way to increase our data. But in his 2017 annual report, general baylor, the director of operational tests and evaluation, criticized, im going to quote him, the lack of independent adre dreaccreditati modeling and simulation for assessment of our Ballistic Missile Defense System. He recommended Missile Defense agency prioritize investment in many modeling and simulation, so general robinson, as north com commander, youre the primary customer for our homeland Missile Defense system. Do you agree with general baylors recommendation . Would increased modeling and simulation improve your confidence in groundbased Missile Defense system . So, maam, its good to see you again. Good to see you. Thank you for that. I would fell you two things. You know, modeling and simulation, as good as what you put in is what you get out, right . So i think its very important that we do modeling and simulation. I also think that the importance that Missile Defense agency does with its live testing helps answer into all of that. So when you take both the live part and you can input into the modeling and simulation, that helps you with the overall understanding. But i want to say to you, again, im confident today in our ability to defend the United States. And so i think its important not just the live testing but the modeling and simulation, and put all of that together to make us understand where were going. So, thank you, general. You know, weve spent over 40 billion on homeland Missile Defense system. So i dont think its asking too much to expect it to work 100 of the time and if thats not possible, to rethink our overall approach. Has been making the same recommendation that we invest in modeling since 2010. Thats eight years ago. And i think its time to take that recommendation seriously. Not a substitute, but as a both and. If i can, let me ask you one oather question, and that is, general robinson, your responsibilities include coordinating defense support civil authorities in the event of a natural disaster. And in 2017, hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria and nate and ophelia. Thats right. Strained our federal response nearly to the breaking point. I recently visited puerto rico along with the massachusetts congressional delegation. And we were able to see the damage firsthand. One sector that was particularly hard hit was health care. We previously talked about your decision to send the hospital ship, comfort, for about seven weeks but i visited a hospital and a Community Health center that were still struggling without clean water, without reliable power, months after the storm. And more than a month after the comfort had departed. Now even though they havent recovered from last years storms, theyre also starting to prepare for the next round of Hurricane Season. So im about out of time, but general robinson, can you very briefly list, say, your top three Lessons Learned from maria, and whether theres more that dod can do to support the Health Care Sector specifically . So, maam, i would tell you, we just finished, very quickly, we just finished an internal north com Lessons Learned conference. Were going to go out to osd. The conversation that we had is is there a difference between texas, florida, and puerto rico . So youve got state, state, and island. So what can we learn out of that . And can we think about that differently . So that, i would tell you that would probably be the first thing that i would say back to you. Once we finish through inside the department, id be happy to have me and my staff come talk to you about the things that we learned, and interagency, quite frankly, because as you know better than i do, were very much in a support role to fema and the governor, and so wed be happy to come talk to you. Good. I appreciate that. Yes, maam. I appreciate that you responded to my letter. Yes, maam. With a lot of detailed information about the comfort and its use in puerto rico. And, mr. Chairman, with your permission, id like to submit the record from the general for the record. Just to say, puerto rico still has not recovered. Yes, maam. Health care has been a particularly hardhit area. Dod can move resources much faster than anyone else and i think we need to think much harder about the role that dod plays in future hurricanes because we know theyre coming. Yes, maam. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, general robinson, admiral tidd, for your appearance and your service. Admiral tidd, the president announced at the state of the Union Address we would once again be moving detainees where appropriate to quguantanamo bay. Falls under your authority. Can you tell us a little bit more about that plan and what you have in store for the facilities there . As has been the case, our responsibility is to ensure the safe, secure, legal, detention of all of our detainees. Im highly confident weve been doing that and will continue to do that. We you know we have 41 detainees there right now, prepared to receive more should they be directed to us. As of today, we have not been given a warning order that new detainees might be heading in our direction but our responsibility will be to integrate them effectively into that mission. And what about the facilities there and your personnel rotation plans . Thanks to the generosity, obviously, of congress and spearheaded by this committee, we appreciate the support for barracks that are capable of withstanding the environmental conditions of the caribbean region, especially during storm season. We look forward once the that the money is in hand to be able to Start Construction on those barracks. I can anticipate, although i dont have a plan for you today, there are a variety of buildings that were temporary in nature when they were put up that have deteriorated beyond their useful life. We will be taking a hard look and prioritizing those buildings that will need to be replaced with facilities capable of withstanding the environmental conditions in guantanamo bay. Thank you. Lets turn our attention to the south. Youve already spoken with a couple senators about the situation in venezuela, which is rapidly deteriorating under the brutal maduro dictatorship. Talk to me about the implications it has for Colombian Security and especially the impact it could have in the colombian elections coming up. Yes, senator. Thanks. Because of the significant number of venezuelans, over 500,000, and continuing te inin, venezuelans who have come across the border into colombia, overwhelming their social support infrastructure, colombia has a, i think, grave concern. They are also beginning to see and this is based on conversations with my colombian partners, theyre very concerned that there are a large number of venezuelans being pushed across the border that are being encouraged to vote in elections. They have dual citizenship as colombian, venezuela, theres some concern that may skew the elections that will be very critical taking place this spring and summer in colombia. Its a security concern for colombia. Those security concerns i think are largely shared by brazil. Numbers are not as great yet. Its beginning to overwhelm the states that are directly across the border from venezuela. And were seeing it in other countries across the region so the humanitarian disaster is in progress, and our partners are very concerned about it. Thank you, admiral tidd. General robinson, i want to ask you about a story that was in the news recently. The you spy service members, smart exercise devices. For instance, fitbits or sma smartwatches, particularly overseas, but obviously underneath your authorities have a lot of sensitive sites here in the United States. Can you tell us what steps, if any, north com has started to take to address this Security Risk . So, sir, senator, thanks for that. I would tell you as i watch and i work through the Service Chiefs and to see what theyre doing, while i worry about force protection in all of the instillati instillations, i work it through the Service Chiefs so im paying attention to the steps that theyre taking to make sure i understand to ensure i can implement anything they need me to do. You feel comfortable at this point with what the services are pursuing . Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, both, for your testimony, for your service. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Admiral tidd, since weve been talking here this morning, four people in this country have died of overdoses. Just in the last hour. As many people have died in the last month as were killed on september 11th including one today in my state of maine. I cant believe were having the same conversation today that i remember having with general kelly two or three years ago in getting this figure of 8 of isr resources and 25 of known drug shipments interdicted, 75 get through. I think youve identified the problem. If we give you a mission, you will deal with it. The problem is, nobody has this mission. And i hope you will go back and talk to this Interagency Group and talk to the white house. It is inexcusable to be sitting here three or four years later and still only being able to interdict 25 of the drug shipments that we know about. And we would know about more if we had adequate isr. This is simply a question of allocation of resources and this is the most Serious Public Health problem this country faces. Four people have died in the last hour. And were still talking about, and youre giving me the same figures that admiral that general kelly gave three or four years ago. Can you commit to me that you will move this to the highest level of priority and kick some behinds and take some names in this interagency cooperation . Please dont come back here again next year with the same testimony. Senator, i can commit to you that not only will i, but i have continued to communicate the challenges that we face. I will observe the service, the Biggest Challenges they have to being able to provide Additional Resources which they recognize very clearly are required, are challenged by the inability to have budget predictability to be able to produce more forces to make them available. This is a team sport. This is a team effort. We have to Work Together as constructively and collaboratively as possible. My commitment to you is i will do everything within my power to do my part. Hopefully weve just passed a twoyear budget authorization, well hopefully again have the final numbers within the next two or three weeks and then we will be able to move forward, but please make this the highest priority. And im not im not attacking you, im attacking the failure of our structure to adequately get at a problem when we have it right no front of us. It would be one thing if we didnt know, but when we have it right in front of us. General robinson, lets move north. First question. We all know that theres a russian buildup along the northern border, along the arctic ocean. What are they whats their purpose . What can you discern, what is their restrategic reason for dog this, defensive, offensive, looking to get closer to be able to attack us or simply protecting their shore . So, sir, i would say, i think what you just said at the last is great. Protecting their shore. You know, as you and i chatted about the other day, the opportunity for them to move their infrastructure around to their different bases is incredibly important. Just like i do. You know, i move capability from anchorage to isleson, from isleson to inuvik. So we move things around. Its to make sure they can put things in the places they want to at the time and place of their choosing. You made an important point earlier. Two elements of national strategy, one is capability, the other is intent. Yes, sir. And the problem is right now, they may have a benign intent or lack of malicious intent, i put it that way. Yes, sir. But theyre building up the capability which requires that we have to be alert. Are there assets you need in the north that you dont have, for example, an icebreaker . So, sir, you know, ill defer to my colleagues in the coast guard, but what i will tell you for the ice breakers, what i will tell you is i very much get isr capability in global hawk and other things that i share with ucom and paycom to understand whats happening in the region. And, so but i will tell you that im very good at advocating for meeting other capabilities such as, as an example, if you want ice breakers, i talk with my coast Guard Brothers often about this because i think about it in the summer when crystaler is sy goes through. Were going to see more of that. Yes, sir. Final last question, if you had to choose, if you had one priority in order to improve our Missile Defense system, what would it be . I want to thank the congress for the capacity that we just got, but we have got to keep our eye on discriminating radars. Thats what i thought you would answer. I think thats got to a very high priority. Yes, sir. Thaurnk you. Thank you, both. Thank you, mr. Chair. General robinson, admiral tidd, thank you very much, major, nice to have you here as well. Thank you very much for joining us. General robinson, yesterday we had the opportunity to talk about the counter weapons of mass destruction activities we have going on here in the homeland. So com now has the responsibility of countering weapons of mass destruction but it is something once it approaches the homeland we need to figure out how to respond to that. You have a great role in that as well as a number of other combat and commands departments and agencies. And one thing i want to point out is we tend to focus a lot about north korea and the threat that their Nuclear Program might have on the United States. But we have to remember there are other things involved with weapons of mass destruction. Chemical, biological, and radiological agents as well. And we know that north korea does have the potential to develop some of those other threatening means to the United States. So can you talk a little bit about how north com works with all of these other cocoms, various federal agencies, how are we protecting the homeland not just from the Nuclear Threat but some of the other threats as well . Yes, maam, thanks. First of all, i think one of the things i really enjoy is my opportunity and privilege to work with dhs, fema, and all the other intelligence agencies here in the homeland. I have joint Task Force Civil support in virginia. An amazing guard unit that works very focused on the chemical and biological reaction. But i have other task forces in the guard that help respond. One of them is yours. And so for me, that whole relationship with governors and with the tags to bring the voices to bear when we need them to be there independent of the nearby capability that jtf civil support provides to me from virginia, but in addition, all the forces that other guard units provide are amazing and so its its understanding whats going to happen here. You heard me talk about earlier about our exercise ardent century and heard me talk about understanding what the Nuclear Capability can do. So its understanding now the forces that we would need to support and defend governors and states. Thank you. And we mentioned yesterday, too, those civil support teams and others that work behind the scenes. They truly are those quooiet yes, maam, theyre the quiet professionals, yes, maam. Thank you very much for that. Admiral tidd, thank you, also, for sitting down with me and going through a number of really concerning issues. And youve heard a lot of past speeches from our senators today. I think we are all very concerned about the elicit trade that goes on and terrorism throughout the region. We know that theres a trade of drugs, tobacco, weapons, elicit, sometimes in cases, human trafficking. And sometimes they are generating revenue for terrorist organizations like hezbollah. Can you explain how you are trying to tighten down on that nexus and can you specifically address our wonderful partners throughout the region, some of the countries that have helped step up and combat some of these problems . Senator, thanks for your question. I think the way that we have reordered the way we do business and our main effort being countering Threat Networks is p specifically intended to maximize the tools that we within the department of defense bring to bear into this interagency and International Partnership to be able to counter these Threat Networks. Regardless of what commodity they are moving. Partners like colombia have been absolutely irreplaceable. Their willingness to work with us, to share information with us, to be partners not just within colombia, but also working side by side with Central American neighbors to help them build their capacity to be able to deal with, track down, apply pressure on and disrupt these Threat Networks. I would highlight the terrific work that has been going on that general robinson and all of her work with the armed forces of mexico, mexico is now exerting, i think, a Significant Interest in helping to improve security in central america, and so we Work Together in partnership, north com and south com, together to facilitate that particular type of activity. Many other partners throughout the region, weve got capable partners, i would highlight a few and just working around the continent, brazil, argentina has now come on strong and played a critical role. Chile has for many years been one of the premier Security Partners in the region. Peru is now a very significant partner and, again, i come to colombia as probably our single most significant Strategic Partner in the region. Thank you very much. I think its important that we realize we do have solid partners in the region. Its not all on our shoulders. We cant do it without them. Far from it. So i appreciate your service. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you, senator. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, both, for serving and thank you for being here today. Im not going to plow ground that has already been gone over as it relates to opioids but i want to echo the threat of black market fentanyl to the safety and security of americans probably tops just about anything else were facing right now. And i do think its an allhandsondeck moment for every part of our National Security opeapparatus. I want to specifically ask about seaburn, for people that might be watching this that arent yet used or maybe dont want to get used to all the acronyms, obviously thats chemical, biological, radiological, and Nuclear Schools we have in the military. As we look at north korea, what theyre doing, clearly, theres an issue about readiness as it relates to the training that we need to have in terms of dirty bombs and biological weapons and, obviously, the potential that there could possibly be a Nuclear Threat to our country. What i wanted to ask general robinson, dont you think it might be wise if we started using our military schools on a spaceavailable basis, or training programs, to start to begin to put some civilian First Responders into that training that could really be a force multipliers . Because if we are actually in an Armed Conflict with north korea, we are really going to be stretched because theres still going to be trouble spots throughout the world and it just seems to me if weve got Space Available and weve got the infrastructure that it would be a really good idea that we would begin opening those doors more widely to to Police Departments and Fire Departments and other First Responders in our country to get this really important response training to that kind of attack from our enemy. So, maam, when i first took over command at north com and norad, i think it was about a week i was there and we had this exerci exercise and it was about i5 corridor, earthquake, you know, all those things happening. And when i walked into the room, there were 200 people, 300 people in this room. And i looked at my one of my predecessors, general jacoby, and i go, who are all these people . And what i discovered in this exercise was the fact that it was local, state, and tags and folks from Emergency Managers from all the states that would be involved in that. Last year, we had the same exercise and it had to do with a 10 Kiloton Nuclear event in new york city. And so the same thing, we had local, state Emergency Responders and all of that. When secretary kelly took over, he said, lori, i want to talk about, lets think about how were going to do this should something happen with north korea, and then just recently, secretary nielsen. So, maam, were all doing this together saying what does it look like, how do we go forward with this to understand that . Id like to consider with the chairmans hopefully support and bipartisan support consider something in the ndaa that would open up training slots in our military seaburn schools to First Responders on a spaceavailable basis. Maam, you know, id be happy to work with the committee. That would be, i think, terrific. I know we have a great one at ft. Leonardwood and, but there is there are times that the infrastructure thats there is is not being fully utilized. It seems to me this would be a handinglove fit for the threat we face. Come talk to me. Ill have my staff talk to yours. Id be happy to work with the committee. Thank you very much, general. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thanks to the witnesses. General robinson, sometimes at these hearings i ask questions to get information, sometimes to make a point and sometimes to educate the public about something that i think i already know but i think the public should know. My question is going to be in that category, try and educate the public about something important. Within the last month, about a month or so ago, we had two news reports on successive days that caused some real along among citizens. In hawaii, there was an Emergency Alert sent out suggesting there was an incoming missile attack. It took 38 minutes nar s for th improper Emergency Alert to be, i guess, retrieved. A couple days later that was at the japanese news agency, nhk, put out a warning about an incoming missile attack from north korea that i think was corrected within a few minutes, but in each event, these things caused a whole lot of public concern. I was in a classified hearing recently where i had a chance to ask, i think this is actually not classified material, i hope you can i hope so. I hope you can get there. I was able to ask the question of our military leadership, when these false warnings went out, did our military immediately realize how quickly did the military realize that these were not attacks . I think thats the kind of thing that gives comfort to people that there might be a false warning, but our military understands it pretty quickly which reduces the risk then of an accidental provocation, accidental military action. From your perspective as north com commander with norad under your jurisdiction, can you talk a little bit about those two incidents and how quickly we were able to confirm that these, in fact, were not missile attacks . Sir, in this unclassified hearing, i can tell you very comfortably and confidently we were quickly to confirm that nothing had happened. Thats, i think, an important thing for the public to know. I do want to just say at the first indications of a missile launch, norad and north com commandcenters will initiate a conference call. And to process the event and make an attack assessment and fema op center and their alternate op center is a part of that call. So, you know, id like to add that into the right. So theres a lot of folks yes, sir. Who are reaching this same conclusion. Yes, sir. That is is comforting, i think, for people to know. Let me ask you, admiral ti it, tidd, you talked to senator p perdues question about the training we do with south com partners. Its the case nations and your area are purchasing more from russia, activity by russia, iran, by china. Talk more about the training side. I had a chance to see some the training in action and im very, very impressed with the kind of training we do. The degree to which these nations want us to be their partner. The relationships you bill. Somebody youre training might be the defense minister in ten years or the president in 20 years. But talk about some of the nations and the training exercises currently under way between the u. S. And nations in your command. Senator, there is no doubt in my mind that the countries that we work with unanimously prefer working with United States. Because we Work Together as equal partners. Because we Work Together defending the same interests, the same values, the same piece of the hemisphere together. And so we try to find ways to make it as easy as we possibly can. We could not do that without the enormous support of, for instance, our state Partner Program National Guard units that are active in vichblgrtual every country throughout the region. Provide the longterm contact, personal relationships many times with these countries that is valuable and helps build their capability and capacity. I mentioned previously that the enormous importance of our very, very small but capable special Operations Forces that come down and work with partner nations, they are highly respected both for their professional ability but also for their ability to Work Together and to understand how to meet the needs of particular countries. I have told general tony thomas he is oftentimes my most important force provider and special Operations Forces over and over again are my major maneuver force. Small, small numbers, but critically important throughout this region. Also other reserve forces, the regionally aligned force that the army provides could not do a lot of the training we do in central america. And last but absolutely not least, our Marine Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force that six months out of the year during the Hurricane Season come down, work with partner nations, build their capacity, build their resilience to deal with Disaster Response, and then when the need arises if a disaster occurs, for the last to years theyve been directly employed in Disaster Response operations throughout our theater. Ive had the opportunity to witness some of these in honduras, deployment of remote of medical clinics. Mobile medical clinics to remote areas which have a humanitarian purpose but also help train our own folks to do deployment of medical clinics in combat if we need to. Ive watched training in colombia where ive watched not only training on military tactics, but respect for the rule of law and, you know, proper respect for human rights during the time when the war was going on against the farc so ive seen the value of these trainings. I also know sometimes its these kind of training exercises that get really squeezed in budget pressures. Thats one of my hopes with the budget that we recently announced that youll have the opportunity to continue to build those relationships which i think put is in a much stronger position. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thanks, mr. Chairman. General robinson, ive been to puerto rico twice and ive been impressed by the complete inadequacy of the federal response to fellow americans there as we speak. I think a third of the islands population lacks electricity. The economy is struggling, in fact, its on the brink of bankruptcy. If not there. The army corps of engineers and fema have worked hard. People on the ground are devoting themselves valiantly, but my sense is that theres a lack of resources from the federal government. I recognize that north com is in a support mission there. I wonder, and i know senator warrens asked about it, you said youre conducting a review, whether you have any preliminary insights or observations for this committee about what could or should have been done differently. So, sir, you know, one of the things i talk about all the time is every hurricane has its own characteristics. And so one of the characteristics of this Hurricane Season was there were five hurricanes. People forget about nate and we forget that ophelia was out there. But the fact of the matter is puerto ricos an island and thats different than texas and thats different than florida. Thats different than other things that we have seen. So one of the things that diffe and thats different from florida and other things that we have seen. So one of the things we are going to go look at and we did an internal review inside my command, well do inside of the department is how do we think about that differently, do we have structures set up appropriately. Do we have the things we need. Because at the end of the day, sir, as you know we support the governor. And we support fema. And we provide niche unique capabilities that at that lays place as an example the guard may not have and positioned at a place when its necessary. Do you think that fema and other federal agencies made full use of the resources that you could offer . Sir, i would say it this way, secretary mattis told me i could have whatever i needed whenever i needed it. So whenever it was asked for it was there. But my question is did they make sufficient use of the resources . Sir, we havent ht ability to have an interagency top down conversation about that. I think thats a different conversation. I this i whats important is the fact that secretary mattis said i could have what i needed when i needed it. And he said to this committee that he would make available. Yes, sir. Whatever was necessary. Yes, sir. When it was needed. I have no doubt about the ability and your readiness and willingness. Im asking about resources that were unused because they were unasked for. So, since we havent had a Lessons Learned across the inner agency i would not want to answer that conversation. Admiral tidd, my understanding is hezbollah is very active in a number of south american countries, particularly in money laundering, drug trading. Is that your observation as well . Yes, senator, it is. What actions are being taken against hezbollah . Senator, weve been watching hezbollah for a number of years now. They engage in criminal activities. They are the a team that has been mentioned from time to time. So we are watching and working with our partners in the intelligence agencies. Should we be more engaged in the middle east . Senator, they have the best sources available. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Yeah, this may fall into the category of senator canes educating the public, but i would hosay that weve had varyg experiences with puerto rico. I can remember one that was not pleasant and that is we personally lost the area. And searching worldwide we are not able to replace that. And we did not get the koom cooperation we could have gotten and a and adverse effects. Following up on comments by admiral. I was very critical of president obama when he was trying to close gitmo, one of the things was to put them incarceration in the United States, one such place that was suggested by that administration was fort sill in oklahoma. Obviously, you cant put these are not prisoners. They are not criminals. They are enemy combatants. You cant put them with prison population. Their job is to teach other people to terrorists. So im really concerned as we followthrough with this, i was happy when the president in his state of the Union Message talked about expanding, keeping open that great resource that we have there. But im very anxious for that to happen. So what id like to have you do, admiral, is kind of monitor that, let us know why we are not using it more already. Because i know that there have been some placements that have taken place. If you could let me and followthrough with that. Ill, senator. One more comment. Why dont you go ahead senator raed. No, cyst. No, sir. This would go to the gentleman behind you. Sublet had ha lot of missions in vietnam, i think about 300 of them. When he got out, they changed the 570, you are aware of this, from the f16 mission, to a refueling mission. And when that happened he took retirement from the reserves. And i was his speaker at the retirement. And he wanted to keep flying and im still a flight instructor. So what i had to do, i say to you david i took the awesome responsibility, you know, anyone can fly fast. I had to teach how to fly slow. So i had to Say Something you were not aware of, and thats it. Any further comments . I cant top that, mr. Speaker. All right. Anything more . All right. Well, we are adjourned and i appreciate very much your willingness and straightforward answers to the questions. You both did a great job. Thanks so much. Live coverage of the savannah book festival starts saturday 9 00 a. M. And includes robert latiff, future war, robert shapiro, how a radical plan for the war. And watch live coverage of the savannah book festival beginning 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan become tv. The Ranking Member on the house armed