Transcripts For CSPAN3 Defense Sec. Esper Joint Chiefs Milley On Presidents 2021 Pentagon... 20240713

The Committee Meets a diversity of testimony in the department of defense here, 2021. The budget request, we welcome our witnesses and thank you for their service in both doctor mark esper, and general mark. We have a pair of marks, this morning. This Committee Top priority is ensuring the effectiveness towards the National Defense strategy which is both what we have been adhering to for the long period of time now, but three years. Unfortunately in the last administration we asked irma terry to do more with less. That got us into trouble between 2012, 2017, we lost 150 billion to seek frustration. Our Defense Budget in the readiness of our forces were devastating. I think we all understand, that as a result, when President Trump came to office, he inherited American Military in crisis, thankfully, he delivered on his promise to begin rebuilding the u. S. Armed forces. Last, year President Trump and negotiated the highest level of defense spending ever. A down payment towards getting our military back to where it needs to be. But, that is not enough. We face a more dangerous world today than we did and anticipated we would since then there is been invasions, assad in syria, mercenaries to libya and violated the inf treaty, china became building islands in the south china sea, harassing its neighbors for frequently and accelerating its military in Nuclear Modernization. The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission report said that if we are going to adequately fund the National Defense strategy and take on these threats, it is going to have a three to 5 that increase above inflation each year, now we are not doing that. That is what we committed to, we had a meeting here, everyone adheres to the logic of the contract that we agreed to, but we are not carrying through with it, that should mean about your request, if we had it here to, at 700 to 790 billion this, year instead of a budget agreement that provides 744. 5 billion billion for all that we have got to do for our military defense. That is not your fault, not you guys, but the Congress Needs to do more, be more realistic about what it is going to take to maintain a force capable of deterring and if needed, defeating our enemies. We are trying to do more, and the math just isnt that way. That is why you have seen so many stories about how we cant buy necessary equipment that is why we cant do the training that we need to do, that is why we cant give our troops the tools that they need to keep the peace. It is all in the nds. We can pay them now, or we pay them later, and leave one hour children leave the debt to her grandchildren to pay, and they will be doing it so in the more dangerous world, if we dont face the budget tragedy that we are facing right now. I know they have tried to do the best you can within limits of what you have been giving, and ive appreciated that you have done and found a lot of savings at our to be applauded for the. That is hard to do with the decreasing budget which we have today. On that note, i look forward to getting to work with you to make sure that our troops have the resources they need to fight in. Thank you very much mister chairman, i witnessed a day, thank you their service or nation, and look for their testimony. We consider the details of the budget request, i would like to address some broader concerns i half of the department. The National Defense Strategy Commission report released in november of 2018, expressing vacant wrist concerned about the balance of power between civilian and military leadership and the department of defense. The Commission Report stated, civilian voices have been relatively muted on issues at the center of the u. S. Defines a national policy, undermining the concept of fleeting control. Unfortunately, situations only gotten worse since the commission issued its report the offices of secretary of defense without getting conformation and its most important positions, policy office of the seven positions required senate confirmation, there are only two confirmed individuals and one of these is now serving as the acting undersecretary. We have received a nomination for with sector personnel rated after a two year vacancy. On monday ministration withdrew the nomination of al ain moscow, the departments control. These vacancies continue to challenge the departments responsibility to respond to National Security challenges, undermines billion inputs into the decisionmaking process. With political point the department is now being done by career Civil Servants and they too are belated. Congress shares the blame and adding to civilian workforce with quarter quiets. Higher pay freezes, other freezes, exam from collective bargaining and having Civil Servants carry out political surgeons is likely calling it a workforce whose experience and expertise we desperately need. Furthermore, october 23rd of last year, i should say, not last year this year, our counterparts are senate, mister secretary, a letter expressing concern of the departments failure to properly in power and staff the office of the assistant secretary of defense and successful operations, in order to fully access or size its advocacy and special operations. This position headed acting position, and it is unacceptable that we have not received response to our letter more than four months later. Returning to the budget request before us, 2020 budget for the department of defense six 600 billion dollars to the base budget, and 69 billion budgets overseas contingency funds. Which 16 billion is requested four based requirements, its base budget requests, it highlights resources target for the marginalization of a more lethal force that has been prepared for a highend fight against near competitors and to operationalize the National Defense strategy. Including investments, space and cyber demands, the recapitalization of our nuclear territory, and the largest ever Research Development for arched official intelligence, direct energy, and hypersonic pins. The base budget requests also forts the quality of life for our Service Members by sustaining Family Support initiatives, and by authorizing a 3 pay raise. However, it is clear the base budget requests will not cover all of the Defense Department requirements. So, once again, we have been presented with an overly generous use of the oak will count. I have acknowledge that both congress and other administrations have given funding to account, but overlooking the request with 1 16 billion dollars back to that truly belongs in the face budget, its truly difficult to justify. I will also highlight this budget will reflect the outcome of the secretary fences wider view. The departments their report to congress in january, stated in an era flattening budget, it is more important than ever that we find creative ways to fund and the estimate activities. Their view identified more than five billion dollars of savings in defense white programs that were deemed a lower priority or inconsistent with the priorities in the nds. In the sector, let me commend you for taking this review on. It is a tough job, and you did it thoroughly. You did it with quite a bit of energy. Now, these savings will be taking, however, from among other things, health affairs, beauty schools, uncooperative deduction programs. Im interesting hearing about the programs in which these resources reinvested. Scrutinizing programs to determine which are the departments priorities, and what should be eliminated, is inappropriate and unnecessary. It is somewhat disingenuous to argue that the Defense Budgets are forced to departments to read biased funds to implement and is making an affirmative decision for nds priorities, such as the department recently approved the transfer of 3. 8 billion dollars from National Guard, additional combat air craft, acids, and other ships, in order to play for the president s court of war. The budget requests for force proposes cuts to initiatives such as the European Defense initiative, this is after funding for several military constructive projects the edi has taken out for the war. Our close bonds our european allies and partners, one of our greatest strategic advantages in key to countering nearest competitor competition of russia, however the cut edi sends the wrong message. It is responsible of this committee to ensure the minimum we send it to harm his way have the resources necessary to keep the missionary turn home safely. I am proud of this committee and the chairmans leadership has always worked in a bipartisan fashion during this process, and i look forward to working with all of the Committee Matters to come to reasonable agreement again this year. Thank you. Thank you senator. Opening statements from secretary esper, and general milley. Your entire state will be made a part of the record, and you are recognized. Thank you mister chairman. And chairman in, have read, distinguished managers of this committee. In support of the president s budget request in support of 2021, i am joined today by the chairman of joint chiefs of staff, general mark a. Milley. The 2018 National Defense strategy provides a clear roadmap for the department of defense to address the reemergence of long term strategic competition from near pierre competitors, china, then russia. Throughout the pentagon and across the joint forces the ngos guides our decisions and actions as we head down to the force to simultaneously contempt of the threats of today, all preparing for the challenges of tomorrow. We do this by increasing the readiness and lethality of our war fighter, strengthening our alliances in partnership, and reforming the way the department as business. Additionally, we have replaced renewed emphasis on taking care of our Service Members and their families. The department is grateful for the strong support provided in the 20 nda and the appropriations, such a lot of smoke vital investments in our militarys modernization. Enable the creation of the space for, us and provide our Service Members with the largest pay increase in a decade. Our continued success is continued about predictable, adequate, a sustained, and timely funding. I encourage congress to pass a full Year Spending package for all, fy 21 on time to avoid the g billeting effects of another continue resolution. The departments request is 705 point billion dollars, liz represents a minor increase from f i20 and an active amount of 704. 6 billion dollars, but does not keep pace with inflation. Given this find funding level we required to make many decisions to ensure our parties were funded. Two naval our decision, regularly conducted a comprehensive defense wider view and at reallocating to sources from programs that activities that offered low return on investment, the goals and objectives of the nds. Over four month period of conducting 20 abuse actions, examining almost 100 billion dollars in programs, agencies, and activities that make up the fourth of state. Theres a huge entered 5. 7 billion dollars, and fy 21 savings that were reinvested back into readiness and lethality efforts each of the military services is also instituting a similar review process across the budgets to achieve the same outcome of realign resources, and finding savings that could be reinvested into higher priorities. Additionally, i have initiated the process of conducting for abuse of all combatant commands to properly aligned our Global Military process to the nds. This effort will enable the government to have a higher priority engagement, and allow us to return troops home to build right in. This thus far, we have ongoing abuse of african southcom, and we will expand other demands over the next coming months. An army of security force, this is super great, two units to place the combat team to show how this is each combat command. The budget request reflects the same disciplined hearing to the nds to reserve our overmatched, we have made significant investments into over several technologies that will benefit the battlefield. It prioritizes hypersonics, microeconomics, 5g communications, atomic systems and Artificial Intelligence. We are moving forward with a long overdue recapitalization of the Nations Nuclear triad, with key investments in the ground based critiqued iterant, the be 21 stealth bomber, the columbia class submarine, and improve Nuclear Command control and Communications Systems to name a few. We are also enhancing our Missile Defense capabilities to grow against the growing threat. This budget requests expand our capacity to defend our interest in space as we consolidate much of our space and a price on the space horse. It also bounces the Department Cyber capabilities, allowing us to dip and our Digital Infrastructure will distracting covert activity. This includes defending the integrity of our democracy by assisting in the security of our elections. Finally, in the Traditional Air land and sea demands, we are focused on modernizing our investments by investing from platforms that are no longer suited for the strategic environment. The department appreciates the committees advocacy of National Defense strategy and we Value Congress is got as a reform, i now ask for your support, so it may fully implement our decisions move forward with the investments needed to ensure americas military contains our competitive advantage, confused her war and continues our nations security. Thank you. Thank you secretary esther. General milley. Chairman james m. Inhofe, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to join esper here today. It is my distinct honor and privilege to represent the almost 3 million soldiers, and others and civilians of the armed forces, the best trained, best equipped, and best led military force in the world, that would not be possible without your continued support. This budget is a strategy driven budget it, is driven by the nds what you are fully aware of. I fully support it. We stand ready and capable to deter war, defend our homeland from attack, support our allies, and if it turns fails, we are fully capable today to fight and win our nations wars against any potential adversary, anywhere on the earth surface, at any time. Our competitive advantage has eroded, and no one should have any doubt about that. And china and russia increasing military capabilities, to outmatched estates and its allies in order to exert their global influence. In chinas objectives to do that by mid century. North korea, iran, and violent extremist organizations feel regional instability imposed direct threats to partner nations and u. S. Citizens. While the nature of war is constant, advanced technologies have stressed our industrial aids capabilities, concepts, and processes. In the changing character war, is happening in a very fundamental way. Additionally, we are recovering from readiness, shortfalls, and modernization deferments from 20 years and continuous warfare, and a decade of fiscal instability. This years budget builds on previous readiness and modernization gains and i believe the fy 21 budget submission is the best allocation of resources in a balanced way to support a National Defense strategy. It builds a more lethal force it strengthens allies and partners and reforms the department for greater performances affordability it also prior charges as secretary said, and a person region to ensure access to commitments in order to preserve, free, and open international systems. From which my parents fought for in the second world war. It continues in europe to counter russian aggression, it will continue to allow the United States military in concept with our allies in partnerships to deter provocative north korea, iran, from aggressive action. In the regions. All the while, it provides money, continue our separations in various parts of the world. In short, fy21 it sure is ready and joint forces that complete deterrent and win across all the rage today, and in the future. It target specific investments in readiness modernization, and developments towards our people and their families. It invested our readiness recovery, built over the last three years, with this Committee Supports and all services are scheduled to meet their readiness recovery goals in this fight. It funds modernization, for a great power in competition across all war fighting the mains, it also improve safety, security, and reliability of our very Critical Nuclear enterprise. It invests and stands up to space force. It increases resiliency, deterrence, capability, and war fighting options in both space and cyberspace. It funds joint across all the services. And with our allies. And, it invests in the advanced technologies that the secretary mentioned to address a more complex threat at a faster pace as a character war changes. This budget also invest in our most valuable asset, the most valuable possible United States military is our people. It also funds the facilities, infrastructures, Family Support, and equality like programs at a balanced way. Invest in educations, talent management, and our to develop our junior leaders with the values and intellectual agility to fight, win future confidence. They will be the generals and admiral of tomorrow. Ultimately, our military needs of stained pretty timely funding to maintain its advantage in this era of great competition. We understand we must be good stewards of the resources interest to us by the American People, and by congress. I want to thank this committee for you continued support to all of our military, and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you general milley. Because of his scheduling, a problem, we will begin our questions with secretary cotton. Thank you mister chairman, i appreciate your consideration. I have to preside over the senate, in ten minutes. Presiding officer duty, which lieutenant esper and really can relate to staff duty. Back in their days. Its a duty, not an honor, and much in your personal beautiful. The secretary esper, i want to commend your remarks at the Munich Security Conference about the threat that huawei poses to the United States and our nato allies. Unfortunately, it does not save all of our nato allies got the message argue with it. Could you talk about the threat that huaweis presence in europe specially and in nations or they threaten our security and nato security . Senator, since my first nato ministerial defense in june of last, year i have been to three or four now, i have had a common message, one of many, and this is the threat that Huawei Technology imposes on our networks. The message has been that if countries, if our nato allies in corporate Huawei Technology, it may, very well, have a severe impact on our ability to share information, to share intelligence, to share operational plants, and for the alliance to conduct itself as an alliance. The fact of the matter is some countries get, it many more dont, it is a continued process we are trying to work and i think we also need to work together, some countries on alternatives to huawei because otherwise we will find the alliance compromised in due course. Should some of our allies in europe before with huawei and their networks while we have to at least consider our force posture in these countries given what it means for the security and privacy of our troops and their families . I think senator, depending on how they move forward, were gonna obvious as what they have done and how they have done it. And make an assessment for each country and then from there, deciding from what we are going to regarded those things that i mentioned, like sharing intelligence and so forth. Last month, there are media reports that the department of defense had reservations about deregulation regulated relived all way. Congress has proposed regulation asked me for those objections, could you just make clear for us and maybe all of the people that work for you directly what secretaries position is on huawei . I am very concerned about huawei, in other chinese technologies. I think we need to get very careful eye on our export controls and Chinese Technology in general. Huawei specifically, and i think we need to be very conscious of Chinese Technology in our system. At the same poke, a ballast equation to make sure we understand our own technology, companies, and ensuring that we have access to that as well. Overall, i am very concerned about Chinese Technology, espionage, cybertheft, you name. And it is ongoing, it has been for many years in our country. Thank you. On the topic of espionage, lets turn to russia and specifically the open skies treaty, and how they use that and how they cheat on it in their own country, specifically allowing us to do fly open skies over lemongrass, there are strategically in europe and around and near georgia. Other witnesses in the passing for this Community Like general dunford, general milley, vince stewart, foreigner sheeting on the open skies treaty, that we dont get much benefit out of as long as they are cheating, you and called it a relic of the past. Do you think the open skies treaty still serves the United States interest given the fact that russia continually cheats on that . Treaty senator, theyve been treating for many years. I raise the defense minister last month, with all of our nato partners that we need to speak out more clearly about russian noncompliance. You mentioned georgia, those are good examples we have also been denied access to. Military exercise over flights, there are some other issues that we could not discuss in the section, which we should come and talk to you about, but i have a lot of concern about the treaty as it stands. Now so, i noted the president s budget did not include money to recapitalize the open skies treaty aircrafts, mostly 1 35, but i also heard that there may be as early new contract to modernize aircraft. What can you tell us what that use of funds . At this point of time, until we did make a final decision on that path forward, i am not prepared to recapitalize aircraft, i want to make sure that we understand deduction is. I would know that many of our allies are in open skies treaty, and i have talked to them a lot, this important neighbor nato allies, they have the means to can talk to the overflights. We still have the means to protect overflights, i was that the air force base and i had the chance to walk on one of the flights and talk to the crew and look at the aircraft. At this point in time, we are holding until we get a better direction. Good. Thank you. Thank you very much mister chairman, again. Thank you gentlemen for being here today. Secretary, let me return to some of my comments in the Opening Statement. About the vacancies in the department. There are two significant issues, one is being a controlled immaterial, she civilians to do that. And also institutional vastly. People who have been on the job, have been, and have their credibility and legitimacy have been confirmed in our non acting. So, can you tell us why we have so many Unfilled Positions and acting personnel . Speaking for the chairman, i think youve done a remarkable job of getting people through only get up here. Could you comment . Let me first give iran down on the numbers. 60 confirmed slots, it was 58 until the nda was passed. We had two new space positions. 58, 39 a currently filled. We have two nominees waiting on the floor for a vote, we have four nominees it community, we have to intense denominate, we have four more right behind them and we have five more in the process. So the balance, i think, six in the balance, or identify positions for now as you know, many of us have been here a long, time it becomes more challenging as you get into the fourth year of the first term in terms of finding people, and that is a challenge. We have also have challenges moving people through the process, these are long processes. Which are gradually, i dont see the situation is as dire as some may think, we are very capable of putting people in positions, i have gotten a chance to work with them both in my current role in previous role in the army, we are very capable d. O. T. Civilians, korean civilians who will also help out. In no time, if i had any concerns about civilian control in the military, to be frank, i know that is part of the anti asked review, when i came in my first week or two on the job, i instituted a number of changes where the uniform will work together, is it together and weekly meetings. We, together, reviewed our National Defense strategy and implementation. We together reviewed a plant implementation or development and we have had a much better integration today between civilians and military, then we did i think, nine months ago. In regards to the nominations that are coming up to us, i dont think i am surprised when her nomination was withdrawn from everything that i have, heard she is very capable, and experienced individual, in fact that is why she was not in the first place. To your knowledge, can you tell us why her nomination was withdrawn . Elaine is a very capable and dedicated public servant, but the president has a right to choose his members of who you will nominate. So, it was the president ial decision . Not a recommendation by you or anyone else in the defense . It was a ppo decision at this point, i dont have any more fidelity at this juncture. One of the concerns we have, to go back to, your role as secretary of defense, you should have a critical voice on all of these nominations. That goes to the territory. You should have it. If you do not have it in this case, i think that is a problem. Which i hope you can address. The other area i spoke, and in my opening remarks, the position and you realize over several years through several ndas, we have tried to build up the capacity of that position to be a secretary like individual. Again, we have someone who is in an acting position thats been since last june, secretary west, retired. Can you promptly provide a committee with a plan of implementing, not just getting a person in place, but making that person act like a Service Secretary . Yes thanks again, i think you brought us of a month ago we sat down together, and i was not tracking it, that is on me. I have a high regard for it, blue dot i worked as a reservist so many years ago. Since then we have taken a number of actions, so we are pushing forward on the nominee. We are looking at consolidating it back into the pentagon. I have to ask the solar to provide a number of recommendations on section nine, regarding fomentation. We get frequent meetings between the department and myself or the deputy on a routine basis. Also, we are committed to creating entertaining more talent on site. We are taking a number of steps to integrate that and toinchief what was in love what you talked about. I look forward to updating you on this as we go. Forward thank. You are just a different topic. Did exceptional staff work on both the majority and minority side, we discovered that about two years ago, many of our allies were not paying for fuel. It was about a 300 Million Dollar bill, the emerati is one karate they are still paying. But they have released a report indicating the department has failed to secure a reimbursement for more than one billion dollars worth of support towards the nations. I have no time left, but can you briefly, very briefly, comment and also indicate what you want to do to collect the money . Sir, i have to track the number down. I cant find a billion dollar number. I am tracking that with regard to payments, they are caught up at this time. We have reimbursed as for proxy 113 million, there are still approximately 38 million outstanding in flying costs, but i just want to pull the threat a bit more on the billion dollar number to make sure that i am not missing something and that report is helpful. Senator. Fischer thank you mr. Fischer, theres been a lot of reporting for the virginia class submarine collection to the budget increase. Critics of Nuclear Modernization are equating concern for the Navy Shipbuilding plan, with opposition defunding the nsa, and are using some recent comments made by acting secretary model, ian also you, general milley a, to access the d. O. D. Does not support the current budget request for an essay . I share the concern for the Navy Shipbuilding budget. Congress will have an opportunity to look at that, but i know that you are both very strong supporters of Nuclear Modernization. Also, admiral richard was before this committee when he was here several weeks ago, testifying that there was no access margin in the nnsa budget, so just to be clear on this. Do you both support to request a level of funding for Nuclear Modernization at the nnsa . Senator, i do, and i dont mind i will give an explanation. It is widely critical every couple hours our nuclear triad, that is why we placed at number one defense priority in terms of funding, that means lunches platforms, the be 21, the ground based return. Nuclear command control and look at the long range strike. You also have to have the packages, the warheads, the pieces to go that is critical that those be funded and move quickly forest we can have them paired up in time to recapitalize and ensure that the Strategic Deterrent is monitored by 2030. There is no room for pausing there is no room for margin. I have been working with our folks and admiral return to try and build margin into our Current Fleet snow we have some room, but it is crisp but we need that timeline general milley . I support fully funding. Then the nuclear enterprise. It is kept the peace, world peace, actually from great power of war going on seven and a half decades. I absolutely support that, i think what we are talking about is a testimony from last week. I was not involved in the decision to move the money from the ss and, but i fully support our nuclearize. Thank you, i think it is important to the record reflect that. Mister secretary, section 10 39 of the 2013 ndaa requires the council to certify the budget to assure its adequacy to meet requirements, clearly stated in the accompanying reported their expectation that through this provision, the Nuclear Weapons council quote take an active role in shaping and reviewing the nnsa budget as it is prepared for submission to congress, and negotiated with the office of management and budget during the Budget Review process. And quote. This year, the Certification Letter submitted pursuit to this provision read, quote, nnsa is able to provide a detailed budget information to support certification and advance of the budget release of the president s fiscal year, 2021 budget request by the office of management and budget. The nwc cannot produce a budget suffocation letter without this information and quote. I think it is obvious that the process is not working. But what is your view of the situation how can we resolve this to ensure the intent of the provision is being met . Senator, i completely agree. I think we need to let the Nuclear Weapons council work, and that looking a bunch of things to begin very very early. Arguably in the late summer of the year before. I would like to have a look at that as well, i want to make sure that we are part or ties in the right things, that we have a capable Strategic Deterrent. I think, if that were the, case then we wouldve been in a much different situation. We have already gotten agreement from the nnsa and agreements from other organizations to support us on the, and i think it is very important and we intend to implement that Going Forward. Thank you. As you stated earlier, this has to work together, has to be on time in order to meet our number one priority of the nds. Mister secretary, in the time since the budget released, weve heard complaints, including many here in congress, about things that either werent included, or were perceived to be underfunded in this budget. Ships, Aerial Refueling tankers, stars and stripes, rumors about a withdrawal from africa, the European Deterrence Initiative the list goes on and on, youve heard those. What is forgotten, sometimes, is that it is congress that sets the funding level, not the administration. Mister secretary, is it fair to say that these tradeoffs are the results of the lower top line that has been approved by congress . The are, senator. I would still scrub my budget really hard to every year regardless because it is necessary to do defense winder views, but as the chairman mentioned of front we have to get back on the trajectory of 45 annual regrowth if we are going to modernize the force and implement the nds. I wish on a number of few days ago that if you could go back to the budget control, act i think was august 2011, and the amount of funding we wouldve had if we had not gone that, course is somewhere between 450 to 550 billion dollars lost. That we couldve put into modernization. So, that is the catcher we have to look at this point in time. Thank you. Senator jeanne shaeen. Thank you chairman, thank you both for being here and for your service. Secretary esper, i appreciate all of the comments that you have made about your efforts to find additional funding within your budget. Given the additional constraints are, looking at if you are, where the department realign 6. 1 billion dollars for budget towards constructing a border wall along the u. S. Southern border with mexico. More recently, the administration is going to divert another 3. 8 billion from the pentagon towards the border wall, taking that from a number of programs as senator reed outlined in his Opening Statement including the creepers which we heard from general walters, our very important list i. S. Are along the Eastern European border. Explain to me, how well, we can feel comfortable through rating the Defense Budget at a time when you are telling us that you have needs and are expecting to shortfall a flatter budget for 2021 . Why should we is soon if you can divert that kind of money for the border wall that we should give you additional funding to address other areas of need . Senator, as you know the, southwest border was declared a National Emergency by the president based on what is happening down there. As im sure you know, Congress Actually voted that we do not agree with that designation and in fact so as the president vetoed it didnt change and i think there is a real question about whether taking money that has been appropriated by the congress signed into law for another use is actually legal in constitution. Senator, i understand. With the declaration of the National Emergency, we were asked the support of department of Homeland Security, Border Security is National Security, with that, and it is our understanding under the law that as directed, we were able to transfer that money to support that much like we do with many other things whether its fighting wildfires are flooded every wavy but i think the larger issues with modernizing the force we are talking about you know making some Big Investments that are going to require a posture of things that we have done in the past in order to invest in the things that we need in the future. I think, the demands pale in comparison to what is being used to support dhs on the wall. We had the acting secretary of dhs before the appropriations subcommittee last week, and he showed us numbers that indicated there are significant dollars there for additional construction on a border wall that they are not likely to use. In the next year. It is hard for me to understand how we can justify taking money that we need from our military to construct a wall along the southern border, and im not gonna ask you to respond to that, because im good to be running out of time, but i think it is a very real question and i certainly hope that we wont see past this year any further effort to take money from our military and, i hope you commit to that. Senator, at this time, we dont foresee the need. At this time to drop on the sources next year. I will follow up the secretary to find this out because we want to support them, but not over support them if that makes any sense. Thank you. I want to commend you on the day that you were sworn in, appointing a commission to deal with contamination and it is an issue for us new hampshire. As you are aware, as it is in some of the other states. And im sure you know that the fy21 ndaa condition to phase out firefighting for military use by 2024, can you give us an update on where the military is in finding an alternative . Yes maam, we are working that issue hard it is to replace the age herbal f it is an acronym. Things that we are focusing on is the replacement for that. Number two making sure we taken care of our people, and then the communities that they live in or near. Then, number three making sure we understand the Health Effects on humans from these. The task force has been working very hard since i launch them, integrating wealth epa northern parts of the government i hope to have a report come up here in a week or two to touch on that in the progress that we are making and i know we have some hard marks to make in terms of replacing the current foam with a new mechanism. We have been putting a lot of dollars to researching that, and i just wanna say that we are from 139 million last year to 200 million this year requested to task coal those issues. Thank, you i appreciate your continued commitment and i think it is something that we need to work on. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you mister chairman, let me begin by thanking you and your families for your decades of service. It is not unnoticed and we most often appreciate you have done. General milley, i like to begin with you, part of the discussion senator shaking has to have this discussion in regards to the resources that we have in the needs for those resources i like to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about a modernization and also i want to talk to you about readiness today. On a profits that sharing over the last number of years this committee has received reports about the challenges we have and readiness of our armed forces today. The fact that over a period of years, and the fact that as you have both alluded to, we have had or have been at war for over 20 years, and that takes its toll. When it comes to the equipment that our young men and women use i am just going to lift him out and i like to have you, if you could, give us an update. May of last year we had six of them that were actually operational f18s that were all open a little over a year ago that reported less than 40 . A 15 we were looted to about two jeez in terms and regular aviation. You have got approximately on f 20 twos perhaps about 125 remaining that might be operational at a time, a percentage of those. With regard to your nuclear submarines, youre attack submarines, you have got four of them right now that are at dock. I believe they may be in dry dock, now but nonetheless, clearly, we have got a shortfall there of Nuclear Attack submarines that are waiting for their half life to begin. Along with that right, now i think you have some around 31 of those in the army. I would like to know, i think, at one point we had a few as less then single digits, the numbers that were ready to fight tonight. General milley, are we making progress . And can you give us an update just on these particular ones with regards to where we may have improved on those numbers in the last couple of years . Thanks senator for the opportunity. What i would like to do, if i could, is get you the specific numbers and i want to start with this. Actual readiness data by type weapon system, with numbers that you are talking about, are classified information. We dont want our country to know all of that. On one and, on the other and i can tell you it hasnt proved. I would put in about a third or throw is a look at these numbers, about a third improve of the numbers you saw anywhere between 12 and 24 months ago. So, there is to step forward, one stuff is back in some of the stuff in terms of readiness, and we monitor very closely every month. It is as improved and i can get you the exact auto, if you allow me to do that in a classified way. That, scientists are. We dont make clear, the numbers that i gave you i received in a non classified session. As a matter of fact, in an open session just like this. But, the reason for my point, is not to be critical but rather to point out how important it is that we have the Resources Available to you to continue to make those improvements. Readiness is our number one in terms of the amount of money we are putting towards this budget and in past budgets. We are trying to radically improve the readiness of our force. The fight tonight sort of thing. At the same time, we have to have balance for modernization and a change of character war. Against those investments but the secretary talked about earlier. I think the fact that we are modernizing our Nuclear Weapons system is probably absolutely, it is absolutely critical because right now based upon our non military capabilities, they fear our military because of our Nuclear Capabilities as much as anything else. There is no question about it. Its not up about a Bumper Sticker the ideas of deterrence, you have to have the capability and the will to use it and your enemies have to know you have the capability and the. Well show the capability is important, and that goes right into the readiness peace and we just want to make sure that our enemies now that we are ready at my Opening Statement i said that we are ready, i dont expect you to take it on faith, i would like to report out in a classified way exactly how ready by type system if i could. Thank you senator. If i may, what you are looking at is a tradeoff between current readiness and future readiness. Senator fischer draws this out, talk with the 400 5550 dollars of loss funding, it is really important here trying to recapitalize whether it is the army navy or the air force, or marine corps, tickly big Capital Projects like shipbuilding, if you dont have that funding if it is not steady for the Industrial Base you just cant build what you saw what youre doing, is like driving a car, you can reach the paris putting so much maintenance the old car, you have to buy the new one or else it is a losing. Battle and youre making the point that i think we want to have made, which is you cannot do it without continued resources on an expected basis year to year. I think you are making progress, i was hoping to be able to share that progress but giving the appropriate resources we are making improvements and will continue to do it i have agree, its readiness versus modernization. Its tough to handle once in a while. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you miss chairman. We are monitoring the coronavirus closely, and i appreciate the Department Taking this seriously working to keep our Service Department family safe. While we do not have any confirmed course cases we are gateway from travelers from china south korea, japan, so we must be exceptionally vigilant and coordinated. Will you commit to me that the d. O. D. Will act quickly on requests made by the state of hawaii with response in the event that it is needed, i know theres some factors we have to meet to the National Response framework deal would be three zero to 5. 18 . Yes maam under title ten would be required by the governor first. So mister secretary youre seeing your posture statement, that the pacific remains d. O. D. Number one spread had a series of questions about the threat in this region i only have four minutes left i really appreciate your answers to be very brief and yes or no would be great. And your statement you say north korea is seeking to build legitimacy through the development of a Variety Nuclear conditional and unconditional weapons and by growing its Ballistic Missile capability. Is the threat of north koreas missile ballistic becoming dangerous . As they seek to modernize the full range Missile Systems. Are you saying the wreck to towards achieving, and i quote irreversible, implementation of nds and quote. Which includes enhancing Missile Defense capabilities pursuant till the 2019 defensive Missile Defense review correct isnt . Yes were putting additional Missile Defense. . Which of course includes hawaii . Yes if our intelligence is correct they would. You also state your budget request could increase this Missile Defense capability and capacity to keep pace with adversary Missile Systems while investing in a layered defensive the homeland mister secretary, in spite of four years of authorizations and three years of appropriations from congress, and your own 2019 Missile Defense review, you have zeroed out that hd are hawaii, which is radar for hawaii, which is part of a system that provides their defense of the homeland. Its this decision zero off the funding for hd our age a decision to not build this radar at all in hawaii . Not necessarily senator as you know for many years weve had a problem with state and local authorities, giving us permission to get on to that side into what we need to do. I recall correctly and its seen the latest report in the budget is we probably wouldnt see any resolution for another year or two or three. Does that mean that we can expect you, im very familiar with certain delays with regards to the citing. Does this mean we can expect a request of money for the hd our age and fist goal year 22 . I think will see the light at the end of the tunnel for getting a clearance to build, yes maam. Good to know. Because otherwise the decision for our de hrh reap prioritizing the funds from d. O. D. s number one priority region as you say for another purpose as you say does not make sense. Id also like to have a commitment from you now that you will not seek to repurpose f 20 funding for this raise radar that is still being used to continue the hd are each hawaii contract. Senator notch reckon make that commitment because im not sure i fully understand what youre asking but what we are trying to do is in the air of tight budgets as we dont put money against something that has no possibility of being affected in the near term. And what you mean by the year term because, this radar is part of the system, and it was supposed to be pretty much operational by 2023, which means that aside from the delays that i understand that has occurred, we are supposed to be on track, because that is with the National Defense strategy calls. For so in 2020 there was 188 Million Dollars. This is being expended even as we speak, so i would like to know that you are not going to repurpose this funding that is already there. Senator if i recall the issue properly, its developing of the system is one thing, but if i develop a system and i cannot put it somewhere, it has no effect it is wasted money. You know this contract as far as i know, is already building this radar there is already a contract for. Them this thing was supposed to be operational in 2023. If we dont go ahead with this i think that you are going to have contractual things to deal with, but what im hearing from you is, aside from the delays that were caused by the siding, mainly of this radar, that you have a commitment to pursue the radar and have it built in hawaii this part of our system as our defense. System and make a commitment to that we have course intend to defend all of 50 of the United States and territories with radars and effect juries as necessary, but i need to come back to is a better understanding of where things. Lie its one thing to build radar but a fine vest hundreds of Million Dollars in a radar, and cannot place it, somewhere than it is wasted many. Of course i realize that. Thank you. Senator fischer is presenting. Thank you mister chair, and thank you gentlemen very much for being with us this afternoon. There are a few things that im very interested in as the chair of emerging threats and capabilities and, of course one of those is hypersonics and secretary esper if i can focus on that for a moment. A key component of our nds is assessing and recalibrating our posture with regards to of course, the right power competition. China has a leg up. We cannot dispute that. In developing technologies like hypersonic aircraft and missiles. The technology could give users the technical longrange capability to hit targets yet with such defending against them is very very difficult. Great concern to all of us. How is the d. O. D. Investing in the Conflicting Research priorities across the services . We have a lot of Research Going out that out there to limit the duplicative spending on hypersonics. Thank you senator. First of all you are correct, hypersonics is one of our Top Priorities in terms of developing capability in that field, we are doing very innovative work and i will tell you its more innovative than what you would see coming out of russia or china i can assure you that. Good. We have maximized every dealer in this year 3. 2 billion dollars to make sure that we get inventory out as soon as possible at each of the services has a variety of programs darpa has programs as well, and through either collaboration between the services or toward through an army shot through doctor griffin, we are working hard to make sure there is not duplications but more importantly sharing, we see a lot of sharing between the services so im very confident that in the next few years will be deploying Hypersonic Weapons as the commanders in the Pacific Theater in the particular. Just to be clear is that its 3. 2 billion over its 3. 2 billion this year. You feel that that is sufficient. I asked multiple times to make sure, is that every single dollar we can put and effectively use, in other words theres one more extra dollar would be a waste the dollar. I was assured multiple times that was the max we could put in. There thank you secretary, how does this fit into our Nuclear Modernization efforts . It certainly gives us, were talking about conventional systems here. It gives us incredible strike capability beneath the Nuclear Threshold which is important to reach a longrange to strike somebody would precision at speeds of 5 10 five times the speed of sound the great capability and its going to give us reach which is what we will need in the conflict against and your peer. Absolutely. Thank you, and mister secretary, i know that we are embracing innovation and every level possible, and i appreciate that was in the d. O. D. , and we are modernizing to give our war fighters are Tactical Advantage over our adversaries and of course, another area im interested in is quantum Information Systems, technology, again one of mr. Carsons areas. But, we are exploring options for quantum interaction and a variety of areas, however, we hear from various industry that d. O. D. Requirements are too broad for the current scope of research. And what the Industry Leaders are recommending, is that the d. O. D. Refined their requirements and this can help drive unified efforts to advance rapidly, first in a narrow area instead of slowly across a very large spectrum, can you speak a little bit to some of the advances we are seeing in quantum Information Systems . Yes maam quantum is a top priority. Probably a top tier if you will doctor griffin is very passionate about this. I have to go back and get you an answer. Typically what we asked industry though is, they ask us not to give them requirements per se, and they ask us to tell them the solution were looking for telling the problem were trying to solve let them help us develop a solution, so this is a little bit different than what i typically hear so i like to run this down and come back to you we love to, partner. On that wed love to partner on that it is critical that in some of these areas that weve seen emerging threats and capabilities, a lot of the discussions that we have we are very focused on advancing technology, and working with industry partners, Small Businesses and so forth in that area, but i do appreciate you both, gentlemen very much for being here today look forward to working further with you. Senator jones. Thank you both for being here, for your service, i really appreciate your opportunity to come here. Secretary esper, it would come as no surprise to the folks here that i have been advocating Red Stone Arsenal Space Command you and i talked about that. A good bit. In may of 2019, before you were even the acting secretary, the list, there was a series of visits, extensive process, it was window down to a few socks red start white stone arsenal was part of those. Space command was supposed to be announced in the fall, it wasnt. We are still now we are in march and it is still not. Yesterday, Lieutenant General thompson, testified before the house of Armed Services committee that the air force had been directed and i emphasize the word directed, to go back in open this up. He said open up the aperture and look at all of them including some non traditional locations, and that they would establish the criteria which had already been established months, if not a couple of years ago, and that the list that Red Stone Arsenal in todays world would think that there is some political electoral politics coming into this, and to play into this. Congress has wanted to do this and we have been supportive, but now were going to get delay to get in opening this process. Up so i have a series of question. This comes from the white house does it come from the. White house who . If it did was their pushback if not did come from you or others . Tell me how the process came up to open this up again . A lot of folks have been looking at this for a long time. Yes i am the responsible party during my talks on the hill prior to my nomination more particularly after my hearing here, i visited the house and i heard from members on both sides that they felt the process that had been run was unfair not transparent and there were a number of complaints, so i directed at that time that if we pause in place, i took a briefing on along with deputy secured secretary norquist, we did not feel it was transparent enough, enough states, members, its veteran had opportunity to participate. So we directed to be revisited a different approach be taken where they outlined a criteria, the screening criteria about which place would meet as a qualifying material, that we would go out to our members and offer them to nominate locations if you will. We would screen from their, but two very iterative transparent thing, where members can also comment on the criteria. We would update at various points in time, and then keep narrowing down much like we did on futures comment, till you get to the final site. Everybody had confidence that it was fair, and there were no politics involved in that. It was the best sight for the mission at hand. Can we get to say that process began late, i had another revisit with them about a month ago which is what probably prompted the testimony, but im the one that did it, it was my initiative, simply to make sure that there was transparency and buy and and consent from members how long will the process take now . Its going to take several months i think, i dont see anything being announced. If it helps assure you, i dont see anything being announced before the election. In fact, regardless, i think its best to keep it out of elections for the reasons that you cited. Let me ask you about some concerns that have been raised by a couple of folks here. That is the transfer of funds to build the border wall. Taken out of that was that 261 Million Dollars out of mobile adam alabama, which is i think is an important ship, and it was one and part of this transition also as you know is the only shipbuilder that is delivering ships and on budget and on time. It was any consideration given to how that might impact folks down in mobile when these decisions were made. First part of the question is i want to make sure i understood the reasons. The reasons for this part of the money is strictly for trying to close off drug smuggling. It has nothing to do with immigration, the truck smuggling is that correct . 20 4 30 is directed at counter drug narco trafficking routes if you will, in support of vhs. That is the provisional law under which had false. Talk to me about hostile. What we try to do in this process is to make sure that we can find as best as possible, a way to look at the problem to look objective, a political, and that we could stand behind and the staff came up with, as they looked at it, is a fact that the items that were either not requested in the f white 20 budget so either accessed need or early to meet was a very clean cut line did not take politics or anything like that into account. He was very objective and that was the standard by which we went. I consulted with my service secretaries, the chairman consulted with the chiefs of staff, the joint chiefs. That was the basis upon which we made the decision. Recognizing fully that there are a lot of different players and equipment and things caught up in that, but that was the way we approached. It i will have some questions for the record, including maybe a little bit more of an explanation on the Space Command and also a report with current Current Conditions of the facilities used by the Senior Reserve officer training portman already serving institution rotc Pilot Program Scholarship Program that we are doing. Great program by the. Way thank you. Also reviewing the department of defense. Thank you madam chairman thank you madam chairman secretary general for your service and your appearance today. Special thank you mister secretary for your recent trip. Please thank lia as well. It was an exceptional day for the airman i hope you took something away from it as well, and since we are on the topic. I went there in the winter. The fact that you came in february does as to your credit without a doubt, but you ought to see them at their best in the toughest conditions. Working with some very old equipment, as you notice. No doubt some very old airplanes, flown and maintained by some very young airman and some very old missiles. And their young missile ears. So we appreciate the priority of modernization obviously. With regard to the missiles, specifically, ever since did you deeds diaz been on the Planning Board i pressed hard on the timeline and particularly of course the lack of competitive rpf added to that. If you could just given update on cbs the and the progress and what you see if any, challenges that might be and what risks we run if there is a delay . Thank you senator. Yes, we continue to move forward on gst. It is vitally important as dylan leg base of the tribe. What concerns me most is the same thing i discuss with senator fisher, is we have no margin left with regard to the timeline. It is utterly important that we move up quickly. Im sure your concerns about lack of competition, so were going to have to be very clever, working out a number of ways by which we keep the pressure on the contractor to stick to stick to cost, stick to performance and timeline in the schedule associated with that. Because there is no margin with regard we tend to have this recapitalization problem coming together at around the same time, but that said im also looking for ways to build margin in that leg there are Different Things we can do to extend it, and then as you know, i have personal concern after speaking to folks here, is to make sure we maintain the health and vitality and greatness of the Missile Force itself. It is a very Important Mission in a very tough mission when you have to get a chance to get down with one of those saddles and experience what theyre going through. With regard to secretary refer to the best of to invest in the things of the future, we hear a lot lately, in this budget about the risks associated get from getting from here to there, and some of those legacy systems. One of the things that comes up off of courses, the i. S. Our demands in the theater, i think pretty much every commander ive talked to said its woefully short, and some of the legacy systems, theyre being targeted for retirement, make room for modernization, include some very important assets. Id be interested in your take on that. If youre comfortable with for example global hawk, future into nine, whether the risk is worth it or what the risk might even be . Depends on what adversary or enemy or talking about. Many they are saar systems we have to their very high demand and useful against terrorists insurgents, against fix sites and a set era. They have clear penetration capability when there is no significant air defense threat or other types of threats. Youre talking about Great Power Competition which is what this indias talks about in this budget talks about, that is a different type of i. S. Are. Were trying to best ourself with the ice are that is not particularly useful against russia or china or their defenses stems over an iran or north korea and invest in the ice are systems that have fewer penetration capabilities. Thats why you see some divest in order to invest. Theres no need, it makes no sense to me to continue to my stuff that is not in alignment with the nds. Its a defense question, with respect to the quantity your capacity relative to the cocounsel, youll never find a Combatant Commander who has enough i. S. Are. Its just not going to happen. We have been, every single year, youre in the euro, for 20 years, always been short of i guess our. We continue to build it, youre never going to buy your way out of the problem, because it has to do with information and knowledge and decisionmaking. We will always be chronically short of i. S. Are, but the key though for divest and invest is it depends on who we are going against. We need to invest in the capabilities that are worthwhile against china or russia. Thank you both of you. Thank you chairman. Thank you all for your service, i appreciate being here today. Secretary i support the wall. I always supported the wall. I really have a problem with the funding, which i think you all know our position should be appropriated by and its our job. So 3. 8 billion dollars appropriated for the support, at the border wall and the reason the troubles me is because 1. 3 billion has taken on National Guard and the reserve equipment. National guard everyone of us have an affinity with the National Guards. How do we justify the cuts to the guards despite the vital and aspects of National Security annual about Homeland Security that the guards are frontline defensive Homeland Security. Thank you i appreciate that and i think with regard to first remark we would agree, our preference would be that this be funded through dhs. Thats it, we are what we are. And the d. O. D. Will support dhs in this regard, and as i was saying to senator jones when we try to find a clear line, an objective line by which to draw the sources, we came up with early need or access to need as things popped out it became obvious that the impact would be on the National Guard. Its no pleasure for me to have to make that decision as a former guardsman myself. We try to not play also, secretary, you said that your Night Court Program has been very successful at freeing up money. Did nothing be freed up there . I spent 22 sessions over four months and we found 5. 7 billion dollars out of 99 to free up, but weve started again this year, so i did fine 5. 7 to put into our indias priority. Another thing i would just say, since the tags in the government are so intertwined, any forewarning of this whatsoever . No sir the only four warnings went out when the consultations i had with the secretaries and the chairman had with general landale in the service chiefs. Another question. Ive just been briefed on the afghan fighting thats going on the attacks today Going Forward i just got briefed on the. Maybe you can bring me up to where we are in afghanistan with the taliban, right now. Also, the peace agreement. Do you think it might hold . Because it hasnt held very long, and what direction, what do i tell west virginias and people that have been upset about promising releasing 5000 enemy fighters and that did not go over well in the state of west virginia. Search two minutes and 12 trek in two minutes and 12 seconds im tracking, a at a safe time for the chairman to speak, but my view is the best if not only pathways to political agreement. We have a historic opportunity here. We signed on saturday, in qatar, i was in campbell at the same time this agreement that lays out a framework by which we could proceed toward an eventual intra afghan ago she action at this point which is supposed to happen five days from now. The results are far been mixed im pleased to see at least we support and defended the afghan fighters, we didnt just sleep. Them it is the commitment i made to the afghans when i was there on saturday. We will continue to defend the afghans and support them. The talibans, theyre honoring their peace agreements in terms of not attacking u. S. And coalition forces, but not in terms of sustaining reduction of violence. Our special envoys are over there now pulling the parties back together, the critical thing in the next five days, few days, well be getting the conditions set for them to sit down you see any it or will we see any retreat whatsoever once we had the taliban today . Chairman and i spoke with general miller earlier. Do you want to comment . Yes senator, bottom line were variety of attacks over the last 24 to 48 hours. Theyve all been beaten back. The red small little outposts. We did use u. S. Support as part of our afghan eyelashes. It is important for the agreement, this was smaller level attacks out and checkpoints, etc. But the taliban have signed up to, a whole series of conditions which i believe the media and all members of congress have all the documents associated with this agreement, you can go through all of it. No attacks in 24 provincial capitals no attacks in kabul, no suicide bombers, no vehicle borne suicides, nor attacks against u. S. , forces or coalition. Theres a whole laundry list of these things that are not happening. Yes there were significant small attacks, theyve all been beaten back and we will continue weve seen that they have been able to control their field fighters, right . Over the seven days weve seen that where they were able to go to and 127 attacks to 15 a day. Thats correct. What can cause . This keeping that group of people on board is a challenge. Theyve got their range of hardliners and soft liners. They are wrestling with that too, i think. Yes sir. Thank you chairman. Thank you both for being here. Gentleman, i want to dress a both of you. You mentioned i sarin i agree 100 . One of those perfect examples will lead into my question, jay starters going to a be a mess and jay d. C. To development, this is a lot of moving forward very rapidly and im shocked that the progress weve made in the last year. I know were not in classify or environment but im not gonna go. There i want to know, secretary if you dont mind, yeah location resources, after we take about 14 or 15 for overhead in the d. O. D. , whats remaining after that, we allocate almost a third, a third, a third. Is that consistent with the nds refocus on the maritime that your man has talked about in 17 relative to our standing up to our major competitor china . First of all its not clearly a, third third, third. Normally navy has the highest army usually has the lowest, air force in between and there are a lot of Different Things im sorry correct but, the 21 budget army and navy are almost equal. No sir, theyre quite different. Well take that off land but i like to see that cause the numbers i have are different. Navies are 207 billion, army one 77. Okay go ahead. That said, that is where it is. And the chairman ive talked about this we talk to chain of command. What we need to, do i think is first of all update our war plan. It hasnt been updated. Have off plants that are relevant in the post nds environment number one. Number two chairman is working on this we need a new joint war fighting concept. That takes into account all demands of warfare. Joint staff is working on that right now. I think once we have updated war plans, and we have a new war fighting concept in a good sense of what Future Systems will look like, i i think we could look at that reallocation but to kind of scramble it up right now would be premature. That is a great characterization characterization i except that. I respect you i dont question your authority at all. I know this is a moving target. The shipbuilding plan though was do with the budget. I know it is on your desk and i think i understand all the reasons why, its a tough decision. Youve got the comfy class requirement and and wouldnt argue that at all. Its going to be about 25 , and some years as much as 35 for the total budget. I want to highlight some numbers that are just shocking today. I mean today china has about 345 tell meet these numbers are correct. To two 95 over the next 15 years, theyre planning right now based on what we are seeing publicly as theyre taking into 4 35, and we have a 3 55 comes from 60. Its 3 55 consistent with the nds, secondarily is that being looked that seriously in the shipbuilding plan that were going to see when it comes out of your office . On the plan i think the navy will brief me sometime in the next few days on their proposal is with the with regard to the. Plan with regard to the number would like to know what this cnn said. See you know since 3 55 is a number but we need to look at the effects and capabilities. If you want to stick to a number, my gut feeling is winning more than 3 55. Not just deliver facts but we need presence. Is that functional lethality as well . Were not hamstrung by and few war and what ranges and you capabilities i think ive laid out my plan, my thinking, were going to run some intra war wargames, some think tanks have done some good works. I think some Core Principles we worked around as we have to have more ships but smaller. We need to have more attack submarines, we need to do more quickly to an unmanned, we need to have distributed sensors and shooters, the ability to be survival born in this environment. A number of other things but i was speaking with the cnn acting secretary on. This we agree, lethality is critical that range, but for the navy its also a presence. You have to have enough surface combatants available at any one time to have a presence to show u. S. Assurance, deterrence etc. My instinct is we need more than 3 55. We have many more combatant other than indo pacific that we are responsible for. Yes many responsibilities maintaining freedom of season all that. We have the Worlds Greatest Navy and we need to keep it that way. Going to win other thing. Were talking about you railed about this and so has the secretary. Youve got 23 seconds tell us exactly, 12 of the last 13 years weve had a Strong Military with a continued resolution but at least the First Quarter of the fiscal year, we are in the six month of our fiscal year and we havent even started this process. Yet we are facing down another senior this year this will be the 13th and 14th year, so we are estimating, now your Service Director surface commanders have told us roughly its about five billion dollars per quarter. Per quarter. Tell us how it really affects our readiness and our recapitalization. 50 billion dollars, that takes care of these long term shipbuildings issues that were talking. About im already overtime and i havent even. Started will just tell you its very ineffective an efficient way of managing tax payers money. The industry cannot rely on a steady extreme predictability in the industry, and we in terms of programming and acquisition, etc. Our Program Managers cannot rely on state city build doing as well. Were budgeting basically nine out of 12 months or six out of 12 months of the year and that is no way to run a railroad station it is not a good way to do it. Yes sir. A quick followup, one thing the duty is going to come up with this a legislative provision, other departments of the federal government have. It would seek legislative authority to transfer any expired navy funds, which otherwise would go back to treasury, back into the sec and account, our conservative estimate is that we would free up another billion dollars a year that we could put back in the ship building, otherwise it goes back into the treasury, and it would be money already appropriated unauthorized to us for this purpose. And one last comment. I think there are opportunities in there that will give you some freedom and our appropriators to give you some freedom within the current rules that theyve never envisioned before because they never realized how expensive it, is to give you some latitude that when you are in the scenery are not as hamstrung as your but i agree with joe millionths extremely important. Thank you. I appreciate each of your service. The testimony has been about the budget directed toward the Defense Strategy about this why would i purchase something out of line with the National Defense strategy, and weve also heard it in the arab type budget. Were in the national National Defense senators Homeland Security is a National Defense strategy. But is there a mention of a border wall on the southern border . I dont believe so, but mention of dealing with floods and putting out wildfires i just read the nds. This is a budget that is focused on the nds. The National Defense strategy has a 14 page synopsis, the border wall on the southern border is not mention. The southern border of the United States is not mentioned. There is one mention of the border on the 14 page public synopsis and its. This russia has violated borders of other nations. So, when you come and tell me that this is focused on the nds, i have a real problem with it because i know its maybe above decisions or other peoples decisions but, six billion dollars came out of the pentagons budget last year. Three and a half four nil con and three and a half into the Counter Drug Fund and then into the border wall. Youve done a reprogram of 3. 9 there been earlier questions about that, 3. 8 into this Counter Drug Fund. There is also been a report in the Washington Post that there is another shooter drop in about 3. 7 billion is likely to be taken out of milcon. Is that accurate . That is not an accurate number, but there is a possibility that that can happen yes or. So the number may not be accurate, but is it likely that we are going to see another tranche taken out of milcon. We could i dont to put an estimate on it at this point in time. I mean, its just them, i cannot imagine a scenario in which this committee nikki, i will say bluntly would allow democratic president s take money out of the defense i cannot imagine it. I appreciate for the response tos senator mention that the preferred way would be to have a tough appropriations appropriate money for the border wall and spend the money appropriated for the d. O. D. Within d. O. D. Accounts. I think that makes perfect sense, but its hard for you to look us in the eye and say this is very focused on the nds when i cannot find mention of the border wall over the border in the nds. When earlier witnesses have testified that this being an emergency, its not a military emergency. Let me dig into another issue. Youre using the 3. 8 figure. You do that transfer within the d. O. D. Into the Counter Drug Fund, then use that for the wall. Is that transfer subject to the transfer authority that we give you, where there is a general transfer authority in the appropriations act where you can transfer up to four billion dollars a year with and d. O. D. Accounts with notice to congress but without approval. Is that 3. 8 transfer within that four billion dollar transfer authority . I think so senator but i would want to come back with you on that. I would love that that my belief it is to. You have four billion dollars of transfer were a few months into the fiscal, year it is often the case that transfer thirties are mostly at the end of the fiscal year and you have used 3. 8 billion of the transfer 30 by the beginning of march. When we have a whole lot of months left in the fiscal year. For example, how much in the president s budget for d. O. D. Is corona virus response if we need to maintain people and place on south korean bases and on bases in italy, germany, other places around the world. Our troops and our families. It is probably not in the pd. But that would be the kind of thing for which we give you transfer thorny, but you have no almost bumped up against the limit of your transfer 30 out of that four billion to build money at the wall and we still have eight months left in the fiscal year isnt that right . Your assessment is correct sir. Would it make your job easier if we eliminated your transfer 30 and said and a transfer authority would have to come to us for permission . The four billion you would have to get our permission if we came in and said you cannot do any transfers without congress position, with that actually help you because it would enable us to say you gotta get it through appropriations. If you want something for the wall, you want to fight Climate Change, gun violence, youve got to get through procreation. Because if you had to come back to us to ask for authority to do that four billion dollar transfer, then we could actually keep the money in the budget that is directed toward the National Defense strategy. Senator, there is no head of any organization that once his or her hands tied by narrowing the options. You always want to expand your options so no not necessarily. In an odd way arent your hands kind of tied in this way . If money can take can be taken out of your button budget to battle, Climate Change or gun violence that can be taken out of your, hands that is sort of tying your hands of putting together a budget that would promote National Defense strategy, isnt it . I recognize what you are saying. The president has declared a National Emergency. Weve been tasked support vhs, if it is legally available we intend to support dhs. I appreciate thank you madam chair. Thank you madam chair. Good to see you again secretary esper and john milley. Its been about two months, i agree with that important decision to take out that terrorist leader. He has a lot of american blood on his hands. Despite the ridiculous politicizing that we saw at the time, people almost sharing that we were about to go to war with iran, unfortunately it has not been a unifying issue. Can you share at all, was that a body blow we heard from you for others that it was a body blow and the impact that its having on irans terrorist activities in the threats to us in israel . I think senator, that as you well know, soleimani was a terrorist leader of a terrorist organization who killed many Many Americans. He wounded thousands more, killed his own people, people throughout the region, very capable adversary, but i think it is clear that taking him off the battlefield has set back the irgc in the iranian government with regard to spreading their malign activity throughout the region. I think by the same action, we have restored deterrence to a degree. So, for all those things, i still believe it was the right call made by the commander in chief. As do i thank you. General milley anything to add to that . I would add a i think it was the right go. Secondly i second the idea that we reestablished deterrence and we can talk about that in a class so fight form as to why believe that, but i do believe its been reestablished. Thanks. Staying on iran, the reports of the reports of the corona coronavirus theyre the way theyre going to handle it, theres been reports that 23 members of parliament 10 of the Party Parliament adviser to the Supreme Leader all contracted the virus have you seen anything related to the impact especially with the rack didnt put pressure on the regime both internally as theyre failing to deal with this . I think that senator becomes a factor as we see this unfold. Authoritarian countries are having a problem with transparency being forthright with their folks. Quite honestly my attention has been focused on three priorities. I have been out lying internally to my command meanders. Protection to the families, safeguarding our mission capability, number three supporting the inner agency. Great thank you. I want to change topics or on military Sexual Assault. Last year, i worked with your predecessors and i championed reforms that made it into the nda a, specifically focused on including investigative process in the support Going Forward after a report has been made. When i went to yuma in arizona, i heard that there were no specials Victims Councils their fulltime. Oftentimes victims were waiting significant amounts of time before they get to meet within his pc which they often wanted before their first meeting with investigators. I put in a bell that they needed to have an spca available within 72 hours for every single victim. We now have a fulltime one at yuma for example, but were seeing this all over the country now. Victims are able to get special Victims Council quicker and have more immediate response. Were also hearing other reports of increases to and see i. S. And how that is having a positive impact. Given the successes we still need to prioritize implementation of those provisions. Can you report back to me on anything else youre seeing in the field on implementation . First of all your efforts in assistance in establishing Sexual Assault accountability are directly helping Service Members we have a great that it service so far. The department has approved all 22 recommendations in the critical full focus areas. They are all now policy which im pleased to report. Or in the process of implementation across the board, in the task force continues to meet the track of limitations. A lot of this is moving on us critical to reducing timelines for cases and ensuring the best evidence for cases a let my team update you, but it seems to me the room moving in the right direction generally, and it is having an impact. Great thanks. The next thing we want to focus on this prevention. Stopping these crimes from happening in the first. Place weve talked about this i dont know juror general milley if you want to pipe in. How we get to the front and to preventing these crimes from happening in the age groups with which is happening. We know exactly what we need to get after, but what weve been doing for training and prevention is just not working. Again i want to thank you for your the key here is the chain of command and commanders. Non commissioned officers starting at the senior levels but also going all the way down to Team Sergeants for slain supervisors. Everyone in the army used to say, not my squat, sort of thing. Not my battalion. But this takes ownership and you have to embrace it completely. It is a function of good order and discipline in the force. For which commanders and commanders alone should be held accountable for the good order and discipline of their force, regardless whether its Sexual Assault, drugs, crimes of violence, or whatever it is. The key here to success is commanders. Thank you i look forward to continue working with you on this issue. Thank you both for your service and for being here today. I sent a letter last month along with senator murphy to express my frustration that the navy budget included funded for only one virginia class submarine. And reports that you signed off on this decision to shift 1. 6 billion in funding from virginia class submarine construction to the National Nuclear security administration. I am not here to ask any questions about it because i hope that you continue to believe that youll express, the last time you were there mister secretary, the undersea warfare superiority of the United States cannot and should not be compromised. We need to meet the goals for submarine production. Hopefully to virginia class submarines for f why 21 will be accomplished. Im concerned also about the delay of delivering for Structural Assessment and 30 years shipbuilding plan. Apparently it is still on your desk or somewhere in the pentagon for approval. I expect that both will be delivered to congress and the navy as eunice possible. Both in a classified and unclassified version. I hope that is true. Can you confirm that it . Is senator i have been briefed a week ago the integrated Naval Force Structure assessment i have yet to be briefed on the 30year shipbuilding plan. They cover different timelines in horizons. What i want to do a step back and look not just one view in terms of future fleet, but i want to taken a range of views. I regret that it is late i dont have a good reason why. I want to give you a full good assessment of what i think the future is. I will give you a quick note on this. Im a big believer in the tax subs, it is a distinct advantage we need to grow both in terms of capability and capacity. I was very impressed by the trip i had to grant and the numbers they see for tax subs i think the number needs to be higher. What i want to do is take a broad look at this in light of an approved op plan and other ideas out there and make sure before i sign a out on this i want to make sure i want to get it right or than uncomfortable with it because i do think we need a bigger fleet, and i think we need to put more emphasis on the tax submarines. You could not find more enthusiastic and passionate supporters of a bigger submarine fleet. I hope we have an opportunity to discuss that. Before our markup in may on this committee, i want to shift slightly now to a point that has been raised by at least one of my colleagues the coronavirus. The impact on our service men and women in their families, grave and important as it is, but also for example, f35 production. Today the supply flying in japan was completely shut down. That is just one example of our defenses industrial that could be greatly impaired by coronavirus. I would like, from you and the chairman, and assessment of what the impact is likely to be, what you are doing about it, and what your plans are to be more specific. And by the way, i was disappointed by a report that i saw. Im not vouching for its accuracy, that you indicated American Military commanders were warned overseas quote, not to surprise President Trump on the coronavirus end quote. Maybe you can respond . Yes sir first of all i was disappointed by that story as well. It is completely wrong and bad reporting it its worse. Ive been clear with my commanders, both privately and publicly. I said this at a press conference on monday. Our three priorities are protection of our Service Members and their families, number to safeguard in safeguarding or missions which could include production, number three, support the inner agency. The commanders have all the authority they need and im providing them with resources to make decisions. Theyve meet any number of decisions i dont think ive had to make. One my when rick quest of them if youre going to make a big decision or highprofile decision, give me a heads up, because i want to make sure that were in a creative cross interagency, each assessed knows, the state knows, the white house knows, and the congress knows. Thats what i gotta do. I dont make sure integrative cross. That was a bad report, completely false and chairman if you want to add anything on that. Senator thanks. Two things, one all the secretaries said it was general abrams, all he said was if youre going to make a decision of opposing this urgency coloration that he has authority to do give me a heads up so i can make sure our d. C. Which it was inform. That wasnt trying to sculpt people. That was a mischaracterization. I read the article and it struck me is very odd. More importantly, is the impact of the military. The uniform military, we have a democratic thats different than the society at large. Young, healthy fit,. To date the reporting of got as of 24 hours ago, we have one uniform member that has come down with it. A couple of family members were screening lots of people. So in terms of the number relative to the hole very small impact. Secondly is on exercises. There are exercises mostly in the endo pacific were taking a hard look at. At the request of the rock chairman was canceled over on the peninsula. There are some other exercises that are being scaled down reports postponed. There might be some impact on exercises, but broadly speaking right now, the impact on uniformed military is very minimal. Break. We are also preparing to help whatever the nation needs. Weve got all kinds of plans and we are able to support other agencies as necessary as required by the president s and congress. Medical research are all hands in terms of supporting this effort to find solutions. My time is expired i want to thank you and suggest respectfully that telling American People more about those plans to use your word, wed be reassuring. The enemy here, really, it seems stronger. Lack of information lights a panic. These are not classified plans and all that kind of stuff. Its stuff that we could easily. We can easily let people know. Thank you. inaudible gentlemen i want to thank you for the Exceptional Service thank you for meeting yesterday i think both of you are doing an excellent job for our nation. Joe milley, i want to get a little bit more you have stated, publicly stated are classified hearing on the soleimani strike which i thought was not only unconstitutional but in the nations interest. You mentioned about your duty about how you saw that strike and read the intel, as we all know soleimani was was not in iraq on vacation. He was theyre targeting to killing more american Service Members which he has a long history of doing. Almost half the Service Members and iraq at the town where alaskan based forces, so this was something that was particularly of interest to me. Can you succinctly say what you said otherwise i think its very important to hear from you with over 35 years military experience, what you thought your duty was after reading the intel . What i had said publicly and i reiterated it and classified sessions was, read reiterated in more detail was i believe the intelligence was compelling. I believe it was imminent, and not only with so did soleimani have a long track record and being involved in bombings, more importantly his commanding control role in what he was about to do. I believe that i secretary a spur in the president and many others wouldve been considered negligent had we not taken the actions that we did or met Many Americans wouldve died as a result. I believe it was the right thing to do, i still believe that and i believe we can contributed to reestablishing deterrence. I think reestablishing deterrence and anywhere in any theater is very hard to do. You have been able to do it so far, and i appreciate that. Mister secretary we had a good discussion on the issue of deep er eye. I would like to get your views. There was language in the nda a a, had the two of you focusing on the dippy our eye on the issue of the National Defense strategy is warmly and strongly received here in the senate in a bipartisan way. But if you look at the force posture particularly in the Asian Pacific specifically after world war ii, how are you thinking about that and how should we be thinking about that here in the senate . Thank you senator i do think we need to take a fresh look at our force posture in the pacific. I think we need to take a look at our force posture everywhere. I think thats why were doing those cool calm reviews. To look at just these things, by the way were finding some things already that just dont make sense. With regard to we have to think about if we have to face off against china in 2035 or 2040, nine deep er i is one example of something that was developed many years ago and i know its a little bit tricky. There is a lot of diplomacy involved in this but i think it is something we should take a look at to make sure we are well postured, particularly our marine force capabilities. To not just be able to respond flexibly, but also be able to train and sustain our forces in the region for an extended period. Can i dig into that a little bit with you . The issue of training, i think is a very important one, whether its san juan or other places okinawa for example. We dont have opportunities to do a lot of training in those places sustainable deployments but also keeping our forceish sharp when you good training areas do you agree with . That absolutely training is the lifeblood of the units effectiveness. The ability to Train Maintain and equipped their. Fourth we look forward to working with both of you on that continued important reassessment that you are doing. The other issue that i have been raising quite a long time mister secretary might remember your confirmation hearing. You mentioned that if the air force and its upcoming will cohens decision where to place the next squadrons of casey 40 sixes. Did it in an area that was colocated with over a 105th generation fighters, that it would provide the United States with extreme strategic reach, and it would show that to our potential adversaries. The trans calm commander testified last week that, one of the most stress capable aspects and their number one readiness concern was the air refueling fleet. My question to him and to you and the secretary of the air force yesterday having a deployment of casey 40 sixes in new york onus in an area that can reach multiple coal calms like a place like alaska with the hundred fighters what message does that additionally send to our adversaries . You already talked about the issue of extreme strategic reach when i asked that question. Earlier i think two critical needs for our forces right now are to have that strategic lift, refuelling and sea lift by the way. But the location of alaska gives a great reach in terms of where would you go across the pole into russia or toward china, when you couple it up with amalgamation of forces, it does put the enemy in a different posture. You have adversaries earn a different posture because now you have that reach and ready to do it my need to do when called upon. Thank you very much. Senator if i might, i dont want any adversary to walk away thinking that the United States of america cannot project power because of the stress on tanker fleets. We can in the should have no doubt about. It yes we have given up ten casey, tens and 13 cases 1 35s, but we still have almost 500. We can get there and no one should doubt. That certainly one of the best ways to release relieve the stress system to have more tankers. We can get there. Senator king. Thank you mister acting chairman. I know youre going im going first, i want to thank you personally for the participation of the department and the National Cyber solarium of process. Over a year we have worked very hard with kenora up auto request may made significant contributions and criticism and thought thoughtfulness and i want to thank you for your authorization for that participation was very meaningful. Thank you im very encouraged by all that to. There is a lot of good coming out of. It we will be releasing our report next wednesday as a matter of fact, and i think it is a good piece of work. Indeed, theres been a whole session here and we hit really havent talked about cyber, and essential, thats not the right word, a very real domain of warfare today. That is what will be talking about extensively next week so i want to thank. You were in cyber competition if not conflict every day. Exactly we are at war today. General milley, i guess this is a question for both of you. Im very concerned about a gap in the fence and Hypersonic Weapons both of our principal adversaries, china and russia have developed these weapons that have act and theyve actually deployed them. This puts at risk particularly our naval resources. Talk to me about what we are doing to counter that threat. Senator, as part of a hypersonics research, we are putting money into defensive defensive systems, the things we know we need the money is going directly into is a low earth orbit missile tracking system if you will, that will be able to track hypersonic systems moving through the atmosphere. Because one of the problems with hypersonics is they do not leave radar. They create a plasma shield, but we need to track them. We have determined it should be a leo low tracking system to be able to do. It that is one of our priorities and efforts to do that. Of course you have to figure out the effect years by which you would not were exploring a variety of things. It is critical to have that defense, the maneuverability, the speed, the effectiveness of the systems is remarkable. Two things senator king. On the defense, if it can be seen, it can be hit. There is no defense against hypersonic it goes back to ten times the speed of sound he cant go against. It we have to do is been visible. There are all kinds of techniques and procedures we are working on in order to make our forces very difficult to see from an acquisition standpoint. That is on the defense, on the other part youre not gonna shoot the arrow. Those things are going so fast you wont get it. Should the archer. Go deep, downtown, and get on the offensive. You want to defeat hypersonics you got to go to the source, the launch bags launch pads thats right. And if youre launching hypersonics to the youre going at war with the United States, and firepower i thought you made an important point in the hearing at the ice are weve height we had a vacation on ius are, because weve been acting against enemies that dont have that capacity. Its a whole different ball game when we are talking about peter stick competitors. And you want to invest where you can penetrate the airspace. Its also well as ive laid out the ship building principles, if you will and the navy and the navy agrees with this is move away from larger platforms to smaller platforms and more distributed force. Complicate the enemies plans especially with hypersonics. You race shipbuilding. We talk about the indopacific being the most important region. We talk about the National Different Defense Strategy and, yet the budget talks about knocking off four destroyers and one amp fib in the future plan. How is that decision made . How firm is it . Can we revisit it . I want to get a little bit of thoughts on. That by the way, the other thought is, we are doing this recapitalization in any other organization you would have a Capital Budget and your building 40 year an asset submarines were building them out of cash flow and stead of some kind of longrange attributed to the cost over the life of the objects. To get back, talk to me about the shipbuilding. I think i dont focus as much on the number but the number 3 55 is out there. We have to have a larger fleet than 350. Five my gut tells me, that i am convinced of. That the chart this morning at the Sea Power Committee it shows what chinas doing. You would feel vindicated. Yes sir, but we do have quality and capability capability over them, but nonetheless its not just capability it is presence. You have to have a presence. I do think we need to get on the path, there are a number of things we need to. Do i support with the senior. Did they decided to reallocate four billion out of as cnn and put it o m to get ready to ready to step. We have its no good if its in the dock. Yes sir, i think the gao said last year in 2019 due to maintenance challenges the equivalent of 19 ships did not go to see. We have to fix this challenge and put money into shipbuilding if we can get the legislative approval change, secretary maltese is digging deep and doing with the army an air force that define 40 billion dollars, thatll free up a good chunk they think they need. We have to get this higher top line moving in the right direction. What worries me about what youre talking about, im sorry we dont have a lot of time but im worried, you cant turn Industrial Base often on with a switch. If we drive it down and you have a loss of personnel, lost lots of welders, lots of skills, shipbuilders, bat main basket gulen wisconsin, you cannot turn them back. Completely in that so i think we have to look particularly with Capital Investments like ships, multi year, i think the navy we discuss yesterdays can you multiyour oh and am. Your maintenance cycle, you cannot afford to go take a ship, out of maintenance, and then have a month or two month gap. I know they are struggling with this with with the maintenance up there you have to figure out a way to smooth that out so workers will be incident sit scented five to stay in the trade. Thank you gentlemen. Senator halle. Thank you mister chair chairman. Mr. Secretary let me start with you in your confirmation testimony last summer. You wrote that we needed a distributed and resilient for his posture in the indopacific. I am concerned about the concentration of our forces currently is japan and south korea to compete it effectively and shine and given that concentration. Those forces, are there for a variety of reasons. Senator sullivan mentioned it. We have a presence ill are julie reflects what weve done for many years. I we think we need to step back and look at that i know admiral davidson is looking at that, to make sure we have more distribution. I travel to the pay calm two or three times to visit nontraditional partners from mongolia to vietnam. Ill be going to indonesia. I think there is much more ground we can cover and build more relationships with more countries. You anticipate my next question which is whether we can disperse u. S. Forces to other locations in the specific to improve zero survive ability. Improve survive the billet ian also grow more partners in terms of standing up and telling the chinese that they have to obey the International Rules of order and abide by that. That will take a lot of investment. What investment do we need to be able to disperse our forces along those lines . We need to think creatively if you think through the war plans how it might fight in the future, where we need to be is that does it require milcon. The chair and i are big believers and i met. Get more countries in the endo pacific. Growing that relationship there are number of things we should be doing that by the way d. O. D. Are doing sticking with the question on investment. Your confirmation hearing, you said you are open to principles using Something Like edi to accelerate investment in and opaque and i dont see that in your budget ways . That the more i think about that and we discussed this a lot. If you bucket a certain amount of money for certain region, it can be both limiting in other words you put so much money there and they say that said thats all you need, or you get trump trapped by that fund. I appreciate the flexibility of putting more or less and depending on how circumstances change. Clearly i think, and were talking to the commander out there about what are your investment plants, focusing more in terms of future president s. Idiot has been so successful in that and foreign needs there i continue to believe that Something Like that mechanism. The only thing its a senator sometimes it takes the pressure off of countries to invest their own dollars into supporting us and providing lucent support. They see that find out there and they go after that instead of going to their parliaments and saying how could we support the u. S. President s . I just want to make sure that we are getting the resources we need to what is our priority i believe under the nds in a timely fashion if were going to be postured successfully. Were behind the curve right. Think i am impatient. I think we can and should do more, that is what im trying to do this for a money and man power to invest more into that future fight. I applaud your cool calm reviews by the way. Lets talk for about african. General townsend recently testified that he thought our european allies could send more forces to west africa and take over some of the missions currently of being done by our forces errol errol aerial refuelling. Ive talked to the allies about this weve talked a few times about aerial refuelling. We provide that to the french for free fuel. That is one of the areas where i talk to the french and i said im having a problem with every fuel ors right now. If someone else can pick up that mission, that helps us all. Thats part of looking at how we how do we do the same mission to doing it differently . Seems to me like a clear situation where we can and should expect our allies to do more and again i applaud your qualcomm. Im switching topics. If iran resumes provocations in the coming months, what is your assessment of how many troops we can send to that the eater without risking our situation, without undermining deterrence . I dont think i can answer that in an open session. I would rather come back in a classified session point. 1. 2 just to be clear the, there is a significant amount of force in the endo pacific. 300,000 troops. Seven aircraft carriers there is a lot of force in the pacific. In Central Command were looking at about 70,000 troops currently right now. There is an adequate amount of force and Central Command to maintain deterrence of deterrence breaks down with an ally situation and do whatever is required to achieve whatever National Security objectives are necessary relative to iran. I would rather get back to you in classified sessions on exactly what that would be. I will pursue that with you in a classified setting. Last question your comments about the broken balance between sitcom and pay calm, iss it youre feeling that its little bit slack in and opaque calm. . It depends, if you think that youre close to a war win with korea or china probably not. So it depends on what the situation is and in the pay calm at the moment in time. We will do whatever is required to achieve u. S. National security interest a matter where it sat in the world. And if something were to happen, very significantly more than what is current in the middle east, decisions would be made by the president secretary of defense to deploy the right amount of forces to achieve our goal. I recognize senator peters. Thank you gentlemen thank you for your testimony here today in your service. Secretary a spur briefly would like to discuss Prescription Drug prices under the try care. This is an issue that senator rounds and i have been working along with some of the members of the committee. Here this committee previously the rice a Pilot Program that were lower the cost of Prescription Drugs for beneficiaries including service, members families and military retirees. I know that the department has become the profits of preparing for this prescription, drug parity Pilot Program, but it still has not begun. My question is, can you commit to working to with us on action to lower the cost of Prescription Drugs for our Service Members and their try care expanding their importunities to purchase these drugs . Yes sir, without having too much detail and proven quality and access. Last week senator cotton and i sent a letter urging you to establish a u. S. Israel Operations Technology working group. This group would coordinate and catalyze military research and Development Efforts between the United States and israel, focusing on the shared threats that our countries face and capitalizing on clearly the worlds leading National Security and Innovation Base and both countries u. S. And israel. This is both what is your view on enhancing the Security Cooperation with israel . Particularly in the areas of technology, research and development. How can we strengthen that between our two countries . I havent seen your letter yet but i would say that we have a very good innovative base. They have a good innovative base. I think the more we can cooperate together as allies and partners to come up with Common Solutions the better. We do a lot of work with them now on a number of things, certainly at the industrial level, they compete too against and with american companies. I think if there are ways to improve that we should pursue it. As you know we were closely with israel. Specifically in our indian us and combat developments for example, we have the active protective system on our armored vehicles. Weve looked at the arrow for ballistic Missile Defense systems and a wide variety of defenses systems. There is an exchange of ideas and Knowledge Research and elements on a regular basis with israel. On february 24th of this, year the d. O. D. Officially adopted a series of Ethical Principles for the military use of Artificial Intelligence. Principles were designed to complement existing, ethical frameworks we structured the ethical framework around five specific areas for military use of ai. Responsible, equitable traceable reliable and governable. Ive had one standing concerns about the consequences of the United States and our allies adopting ethical standards without similar and equitable standards adopted by our competitors not bursaries that operate under different framework than we do. My question is, is the u. S. Place that a competitive disadvantage in tactical and operational level by adopting ai ethical standards not shared by our adversaries and if so, how do we compensate for that . First of all its a look good work done by the Defense Industrial board with a lot of outreach to wide range of persons in organization to develop these. I was briefed on them. Had a number of years of discussions with a lot of leaders about them, but i think this is a narrative where we lead and i think the principles from what ive read and studied and learned, i think they put us in a leadership position so i think we are establishing the standard if you will i think it will make us better. The more we can get other countries to get on board and align itself to those the better. In the past the u. S. Has successfully used International Agreements unarmed controls treaties to provide some stability, particularly with emerging technologies, and the attempt to minimize potential catastrophic mistakes that can occur. In terms of ai, we are at a stage where a requires the equivalent of an arms control treaty to ensure the current rules based of International Order . If so how would that look . It its a good question senator, i have to think about that and get back to you have to consult with people i just dont know. Its not something i would take off the table but it is a fair question. I think we want to develop some common standards. We tried to set the bar those ai Ethical Principles and set a high bar from the beginning. Urge those to come on board. Any thoughts . I think Artificial Intelligence as ive testified before is the mother of all technologies out there. It is extraordinarily powerful there is no doubt in my mind that is going to be used for purposes in the not too distant future there is a right variety of ethical concerns with the. To the right mechanism or not. But all countries, not just the United States will have to come to grips with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence for the use of military operations. It is powerful and it will have to be dealt. With thank you. On behalf of the chairman thank you mister chairman. I would like to thank both the witnesses to appear before the committee today. Id like to follow up what mr. Hawley touched on with which is indopacific strategy. I feel very strongly that this is a part of the world that we need to spend more attention on. I have heard from both of you the emphasis on and go pack common on rolls in the roles there. While i applaud the departments messaging about prioritizing great in this region over other activities, i do remained concerned that we have not matched a rhetoric with our actions. How are we able to divert some seven billion to border wall construction, and yet we are not we say Pacific Region is our main effort. I agree with you it is certainly very important. I recently met with general who is the tie army leader, and he talked very fondly about all the time he spent that u. S. Training facilities, and in fact he said it was his joint experience training at the u. S. Facilities is that a general a dhaka fringe indonesia that led to form a friendship based on their experience in the u. S. That led to this recent agreement they just signed a few months ago on information sharing. I think you need to put some milcon on this. I think you need to look at staffing, resources, and increasing. Id love to hear from both of you as to when we are going to see more of a plus up in this region beyond just talking about how great this is. Senator i think first of all i agree with the importance of indo pay calm and it because it is number one in our strategy to say the least. If you look at the simple of this of forces, in new pay calm has five times as many forces in any other theater. Over 350,000. The next closest theater 70,000. If you had a period of theater, and opaque on which still be twice as big as all of them combined, so we have a lot of forces and the theater. I think the challenges is putting not putting more forces in the making sure we look at or disposition on the ground and think, how do we use more effectively integral partners and allies and how do we exercise with them etc etc . Thats my quick assessment. I dont disagree with you that its not just about a number of truth that are on the ground. Its about resourcing and opaque arms and they could go out and we need to be focused and you already talking about this. I was very impressed with what was done in south korea when we did not have enough ammunition and you guys took that out of hide and plus them up. The reason you have more troops, because its a larger geographic region then say sitcom is. Maybe african more geographic area, but the geography is different. Youre accurate, the geography is completely. Different the politics are different. International politics. The threats are different, the allies are different. All of that is different. You have to factor all that. In in terms of main effort versus supporting efforts, in the and yes, the Central Command area african, and southcom are all designated as economy a force and youre familiar with that term from your militaries experience. And you comes a supporting effort and pay calm as the main effort its all part of the global effort with all of the resources. With respect to pay calm 350,000. Hes also got 200 push ships, hes got 1600 High Performance aircrafts. This is a high resorts highly resourced the tour. Its not so much the numbers of the ships planes trains and automobiles sort of thing. Its how we use, it where we put it and what our broader strategy is in what respect we think is going to be the most significant adversary in the next hundred years which we know is china. How does the nation deal with the rise of china. A much broader strategy that we have to come to grips with. I do think they comments or resource from a departmental standpoint in terms of military capability right now comes to basing issues in order to ensure freedom of navigate navigation i want to shift slightly there is a bit. Which is logistics im deeply concerned about our ability to transport and sustain our forces overseas especially late places. I believe we need to pay for more attention to the tanker fleets sea lift replacement it really worries me. Secretary esper can you tell me how this, use the days are going to be able to send ships full of what we need without having enemies attack us behind. Us senator youre right i know if you here earlier but i mention this. Im concerned that two important things that up and get overlooked because they are not sexy are things like airlift, or aerial refuelling or strategic sea lift. We have invested into ships this year. We need to do more and we need to do more soon. That is why we have talked a few times with the shipbuilding plan, the shipbuilding plan doesnt incorporate is the seal. If i send letters to the committee and i said i think we should factor in strategic sea lift, because it also competes for budget dollars. Its a critical factor, so between im very concerned about the delays in the kc 46. Of had a chance but a week or two weeks ago look at the problems. What we have to look at, restoring maybe some tens and 1 35, so we keep the 179 aircrafts going. But its a very capable airplane. Those are critical things particularly when you see the distances from potus, or alaska all the way into theater into end opaque on theater. And then for base here right its not just about its about the tanker fleet as you were mentioning but its also fueling. We gotta have forward fueling capability. We cant just keep shipping our fuel there for everything that sucks gas. Right . Thats right. Or out of time so i could get you the records but you are absolutely right to be concerned about the maritime sea lift. We have given that up as a nation for the most part over the last many many years. The tanker fleet in the air live fleet. I just want to be clear again we have almost 500 tankers. In this budget, ten casey tens and 13 casey when 30 fives yesterday stress on the force. No question. Look at the same time i dont want people who are watching this, especially in certain countries to think that the United States of america cannot project power overseas when needed. We can and we will if required. Thank you. Thank you gentlemen