Transcripts For CSPAN Joint 20240704

Let me call the hearing to order. Good morning. The Committee Meets today to consider the nomination of general c. Q. Brown. General, congratulations and thank you for stepping forward to lead at this critical time. I would like to welcome your wife and thank your son sean and ross. I would like to thank the current chairman milley. He has served this nation honorably and led the joint chiefs with skill and vision. We are grateful for his service and congratulate. You are well qualified to serve as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. You have led this service as it goes through a rapid Global Security environment. You bring a record of successful leadership and command experience at all levels of our military. This expertise will serve you well. If confirmed, you will serve as the principal military advisor to the president , secretary of defense and congress. You will be expected to be an effective strategist, adviser and manager and counsel will be relied upon them as we go through multitude of issues before us. We face significant challenges. First and foremost as the National Defense strategy makes clear. China is our major competitor and has the intent and capability to challenge the interests of the United States and allies and partners. Iminterested to know how you develop joint capabilities to make sure we are the preliminary mere fighting force. And we need to equipment sailors, soldiers, marines and guardians. You will be responsible for identifying capabilities to ensure services are procuring the right capabilities needed for the joint force. The chairman must look across this total force which can conflict with the priorities of individual services. The committee will be interested to learn how to manage this dynamic if confirmed. The National Defense strategy, National Military strategy and risker assessment are vital documents this committee relies upon to perform its oversight functions. I would like your assessment of the implementation of the National Defense strategy and National Military strategy and whether you recommend any changes or updates to those strategic documents. Further, it is imperative they be submitted to congress on time. I look forward to work with you to ensure these statutory guidelines are met. The joint force is about people as the senior most military officer, it will be your responsibility to understand the needs of americas servicemembers and be their greatest advocate. Our military is facing most difficult recruiting environment. Fewer and fewer Young Americans are eligible for or interested in service. And issues such as discrimination and harassment too often push current members out. While recruiting is one of the primary duties of the military service if confirmed, you will be responsible to advising the secretary on comprehensive joint readiness which includes assessing the affect of manpower shortfalls. Therefore, i would like to know your thoughts on the current recruiting and impact it may have on the readiness of the joint forces. You will be the most visible military officer in the nation and will be critical to represent the force with total professionalism and trustworthiness. I am concerned about the nation political and Civil Military relationships. More and more the military is being dragged into public fights and trust is being eroded. This is a sacred duty that must be carried out responsibly and not exploited. How will you improve relationships. General brown, if confirmed, you will lead the joint force at a momentous time i am thankful for your willingness to meet this challenge. Let me recognize senator wicker. Senator wicker general brown, welcome to this committee. I welcome your nomination to serve as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Its great to see you are accompanied by your wife and the chair has also acknowledged your sons who are supporting their daddy throughout the confirmation process. As you testified before us and prepared to assume the seniormost position in the u. S. Military, you are continuing with a profound concept that dates back to the founding of our republic. Dates back to before our constitution, to the days of George Washington where we established and maintained the proposition that the military and our country is andsable to the civilian elected leadership of our country. You have been nominated by our commander in chief for the seniormost position and i believe you are exceptionally qualified for this position. And we certainly need, mr. Chairman, an exceptionally qualified officer during this perilous national moment. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, multiple senior National Defense leaders have told us this committee were in the most dangerous Global Security environment since world war ii. I agree. During that time, our country faced two great political powers across different oceans with the capability and intent to threaten domestic American Security directly. We see a similar dual threat today, which the chair has alluded to. The Chinese Communist party is conducting the most Rapid Military development surpassing our own military in many places. It is a military built for a single purpose to undermine independentopacific and American Security and prosperity by expanding the communist party totalitarian influence through the entire globe. In europe, the kremlins brutal war in ukraine is the most dangerous crisis we have faced in half a century and selfdefeating war of agetion has brought china, north korea and iran all closer together. This dangerous moment demands an exceptionally competent set of uniformed leaders. There is less confidence in our Senior Leadership which had been very high. We may debate the reasons, i believe that the lack of accountability for failures among military leadership, being thrust in the spotlight of politically divisive issues like Critical Race Theory and abortion have contributed to this decline and trust. General brown speaks of accelerating and recognizes the difficulty in an entrenched bureaucracy and open about how he has learned in his job and improved his approach, that candor should serve him well in this new role including as to other officers. I am hopeful general browns focus on innovation and culture change will bring new thinking and action to the massive problems of our joint force faces. I hope general brown will focus on restoring a culture built on merit in the u. S. Military that continuously fosters new approaches to readiness in war fighting. The next few years will be critical to National Security. As general brown has stated we cannot wait for a crisis to drive change for our joint force. Years of lackluster budgeting for our National Defense has put us far behind where we need to be. We have a bureaucracy and Industrial Base that is clunky. And military Promotion System geared toward risk averse. It will take risk and threat assessments from our senior uniformed leaders to empower lowerlevel personnel to fix the many problems we face. I expect general brown will offer his most frank military judgment both to the president and to congress if confirmed. During a similarly decisive moment for our National Defense in 1980, then candidate reagan spoke of the need for a renaissance in American Military superiority. American military superiority to avoid war with the soviets. Reagan said our best hope of persuading them to live in peace is to convince they cannot win at war. We avoided war then only because we had leaders that were bold enough to pursue wisdom of p peace through strength. That advice applies today and i am hopeful that our nominee agrees. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to take a few moments to acknowledge my family. Joining me is my wife of 34 years. She has been committed to our family and my journey and advocated for the families of us. And proud of our two sons sean and ross. Outstanding young men. I would not be here today if not for the sacrifice love and support. My father retired as a United States colonel. And grime grateful to stephanie and younger brother kevin had on me and our family before his passing. I want to express gratitude to this committee and the congress for your continued support to our men and uniform, d. O. D. Civilians and their families. Thanks to your advocacy that we remain the most Capable Military force in the world. I come before you today having served the last few years as a service and joint chief. 11 years prior, i served in seven assignments across four combatant commands. I held leadership positions, china, russia, north korea, iran. I arrive you having spent as a officer and more time with our forces, allies and partners either in conflict or preparing for conflict. Having led the war fighters abroad shapes my thinking. As a result, i am mindful of the security challenges and need to accelerate to stay ahead of the growing threat. The department of defense must implement the National Defense strategy and prepare a joint force that can win the next war if called upon. Today and in the future to maintain peace. If confirmed, i commit to provide the president and the secretary of defense my military advice informed by the joint chiefs and our military leaders. Throughout i will collaborate with the civilian leadership, agency and with our allies and partners. And if confirmed, i will have open communication to this committee and the congress and work closely to invest in our National Defense and strengthen our National Security. I commit myself to sustain faith and confidences with our soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardians and d. O. D. Civilians and their families and work to sustain faith with the American People and elected officials. I will dedicate myself to this proposition that the american should understand and know their military and its servicemembers solely unwavering are defenders of the constitution and our nation and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and i look forward to your questions. Senator reed thank you very much. There are a series of questions that are addressed to nominees. You can respond. Have you adhered to the laws and regulations regarding conflicts of interest . I have. Senator reed have you taken any actions mr. Brown this committee and subcommittee receive testimony briefings, reports and records and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis. Do you agree if confirmed to appear appear and testify before this committee when requested. Mr. Brown i do. Senator reed do you agree to give your personal views even if your views differ from the administration . Mr. Brown i do. Geed screed provide documents and records in a timely manner when requested by this committee, subcommittees and consult with the request to provide any such records . Mr. Brown i do. Senator reed will you ensure that your staff will provide documents and records including timely answers. Mr. Brown i will. Senator reed will you provide requests. Will those witnesses and briefings be protected for reappliesals . Mr. Brown they will. Senator reed we are facing a challenging environment and one of the aspects is the challenge of recruiting with fewer and fewer americans eligible because of many factors including health and other aspects but also what actions will you take to make sure it becomes successful and enhances readiness . General brown i have had the opportunity to think deeply about this and number of opportunities to engage with my fellow Service Chiefs on how fast we move forward. As the chairman if confirmed, one of the key areas i think about is ensuring that the yeung people understand the opportunity to serve and great opportunities provided by serving in the military and just based on my own experience being a role model to show the young people there are many great Career Opportunities within the military and many have gone to be successful whether they stayed for one tour. Young people aspire to see or know about and hard for them to be part of an organization or go down a career path that they didnt understand or appreciate. We have a responsibility to talk about the opportunities and all of us interested in National Defense and National Security how we share the stories of what inspired us to join. I joined because of my at that times and his recommendation and because of the opportunities i had in rotc. And i had a chance to become exposed to be able to fly and there are a number of things we can do and those are the things i will do if confirmed as chairman. Senator reed another topic, the development of joint capabilities, services are principally responsible for developing equipment and operational techniques, but you will be the point of ultimate decision in many of these proposals. And historically, this has interfered with true jointness. What actions will you take to inhitter parochialism and encourage operability and get us the best trained people . General brown i appreciate the question and one of the things started by a couple of vice chairmen before is we worked with the oversight counsel, we are a bit more directive to ensure we have the direct capabilities. We need to do it based on analysis to show you this is part of the joint force and there has to be give and take and hard calls that need to be made. That is the responsibility not just with me but the Service Chiefs and joint chiefs and think about what is best for the joint force. Senator reed we are engaged in supporting the ukranian people on a critical battle because my view if they lose, we lose also. Are there any immediate lessons that is taken away from the conflict in ukraine . General brown one of the things i think about is how the value of information how the campaign started before the conflict started and and not only bring nato closer and pri together our allies and partners and how we collaborate and build relationships and help use the information we have availability to help their Decision Makers make those decisions and move forward. I think the other thing is the logistics and i think the russians if you dont Pay Attention to logistics, it is hard to win and move forward. We have learned that the timeline for military operations in the conflict sometimes take longer than you might expect and that is also a challenge. I think the other piece is the will of the fight and one thing about determination and the will of the ukranian people and their leadership, thats something that is hard to measure before a conflict but plays a huge dividend. And for my own perspective the value of air power and having watched what either side has been able to do or not pa do and how it has been helpful to the ukranians. Senator reed senator wicker. Senator wicker thank you, general brown. Let me first mention, statutory requirement you and i have discussed 10u. S. C. 153 that requires the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to complete a c. R. A. Of the National Military strategy each year. Now we have had a problem with this in the past and frustration from congress in not receiving this c. R. A. Even the National Military strategy itself last time was unseptemberbly late. If confirmed, i need your commitment to carrying out the statutes governing the relationship between the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and congress including submitting the chairmans Risk Assessment on time. Can i get your assurance that you will do this, general brown . General brown i will do my best to make sure to get those documents on time because it is to allow you to do the things you require to provide the budget for us and the laws. Will being bilk this was signed into law by the president of the United States some years ago. If you and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff need Additional Resources or something within your jurisdiction that keeps you from doing this, will you let us know so we can be on time with this very important c. R. A. . General brown yes, sir. I will communicate with you if there are any challenges. Senator wicker general brown, congress lets talk about the pacific. Congress provided the administration with the authority to provide 1 billion in transfers of u. S. Equipment authority to help taiwan. Is it your best military judgment that the usage of this Drawdown Authority and training would improve taiwans ability to defend itself . General brown yes, sir. It will and help them to procure exaibts to defend their nation. Senator wicker i hope we can move forward with that. I described in my opening statement, i described our defense capacity and our striel base as clunky. You and i also discussed this in our conversation. Do you agree with my assessment that the bureaucracy and the Industrial Base are clunky based on the speed with which technology has evolved and changes as compared to how we are able to access that as a military . General brown we can all improve upon. We have Great Innovation within our nation and make sure we are putting that into the hands of our war fighters as quickly as possible and there is process that there are so many things that are Software Based today and knock down any barriers, im all for it. Senator wicker do you have any specific plans based on your experience in the various theaters you mentioned . General brown what i have been able to do is how i build those relationships and done as air force chief of staff and commander of the pacific air forcees is to be engaged and figure out hose barriers that prevents us to move as fast as we need to. Senator wicker lets talk about the european theater and nato. The department of defense leadership regularly states the department is following the normal process or requirements generated by the european command. Can we agree, general, that the threats against nato countries today is far different than it was three years ago before the russians invaded ukraine and depleted much of their ammunition and capability in this unjust and illegal war . General brown the threat and security environment are both different. Senator wicker on a bipartisan basis, senators and members of the house have repeatedly asked joint leadership staff to lead a dynamic requirements review of the european theater that accounts for this reality. In other words, we were prepared to defend nato nations against the threat which russia is simply incapable of doing at this point. Are we able to be flexible enough to admit that and to direct more of our help toward our ally, ukraine . General brown one of the things i want to do is actively assess. Doing assessments and analysis is how i think about things and something we need to do not just for europe but all of our major security challenges. Senator wicker thank you. Senator reed senator gillibrand. Senator gillibrand thank you for being here. I just returned from a codel surveying our operations in europe to prepare ukranians to fight, to preposition equipment and do training with our nato allies and to giving the ukranians the ability to win the war against russia and you mentioned how important logistics are and the world to fight is. And we have a growing threat from china from the xi regime with regard to taiwan and i would like to hear your assessments on the challenges of that theater versus the ease with which we were able to do the work with our nato allies in europe since we have allies that facilitate our training and exercise in preparation. Can you talk about the challenges with regard to that other theater and what preparation you think would be essential. General brown there are a couple of factors that play in, geography and infrastructure and dpee og gray if i of europe, and infrastructure, roads, railroads and air fields are close together. In indopacific, you dont have that. More maritime space, islands and you do have air fields. It will be more challenging and the size of the region is much larger than it is in europe. So the distances are pretty massive. So from that perspective, one of the things i thought about going back to my time as commander of the independento pacific air force, you have to preposition capability and work with allies in place so you can put the capability into place and that is what we are focused on as a joint force. Right now we are in the process of a large exercise how quickly we can move by other means to get capability into the theater and take that and learn from that. We just did for the air force, a table top exercise focused on the indopacific. We cannot use the same approach in both theaters. We will focus as chairman if confirmed. Senator gillibrand with regard to asia there are cyber, space, air force, and one of the challenges that we have is Critical Infrastructure thats necessary to deploy, to stage, to prepare and we recently held or heard reporting on chinas cyberthreat with regard to guam. I would like to know your thoughts on how cyberthreats inform your thinking regarding these logistics plans and what collaboration exists to ensure whole government alignment event of such a conflict. General brown not just for guam but the aspect of back in the United States and aspect of get it deployed. We do depend on supports and rail yards and air fields to get ourselves deployed. We have to protect that critical Cyber Infrastructure and if not it will challenge us. We have to work inside the department of defense and as you highlighted the department ofhomeland security and others to look at the critical modes we have to protect. We are going to contest that we need to be paying attention and seen that in past examples and working closely together across the entire government and our allies and partners that we are protecting ourselves in the cyber domain. Senator gillibrand with regard to cyber, services that are establishing cyber personnel which leads to variations across services and Service Requirements and length of tours. As chairman how would you help the Service Chiefs into better alignment with the needs of Cyber Command . General brown meet the needs of cyber comans but align our policies. If we have a similar approach it helps us to bring in all talent from across the nation and retain that talent within the services as well. Senator reed senator fisher, please. Mrs. Fischbach thank you, general brown. I took note of the opening comments having led war fighters abrofd has shaped my thinking. As you know i am deeply concerned about our munitions Production Capacity and in the wall street journal a couple days ago, they had another editorial that it is running out of ammo then why not do something about it. I heard the president make a passing comment on that a couple of days ago and i was struck by it because its the first time i had heard from the administration concern about munitions for our security and our defense here in this country. So frankly after years of underinvesting in munitions production, we find ourselves in a precarious position. While this committee has provided excess transmissions from our stockpiles, we have clear expectation that the administration will work with us to produce more munitions as many as we can and as fast as we can to backfill our stockpiles and increase our support and support our allies and partners. Do you agree . General brown i do. One of the areas i would highlight for all the services we asked for multi year procurement and designed to help our stock and help provide brel difficult built to the supply chains and to the work force. This congress has led congress in giving more tools to the department to address the shortages and that includes providing multi year procurement authority, modifying older and unnecessary contracting requirements to get Contracting Officers to move faster. We need them to move faster. I understand the department is reviewing its total meun michiganons requierpts. As new stockpile levels are determined especially for guided munitions, will you work to identify any emerging gaps in our stockpiles . General brown yes, i will. Do you believe that the tools that we have given the department, contracts, multi year, is that going to continue to help you meet those requirements as well . General brown i think it will. And how we incentivize our contractors, Contracting Officers and build those contracts to make sure they are moving in the right direction to change the culture of how we did things in the past. To be clear there is much more that can be done in fiscal year 2024 to address the munitions production challenges than what was in the president s budget request. 67 million, the army could expand the capacity of the gimmers, 120 per year to 1,000 per year by 2025. This could be relevant in multiple theaters and what can we do to help taiwan help themselves . Around 70 more million, we could expand the harpoon Production Capacity such that we ac sell the final deliveries from 2029 to 2027. And that 2027 is an important date that we hear from xi as a goal he hopes to reach to be able to invade taiwan. But its not in the fiscal year 2024 budget request. We could have 150 million more dollars. That buys us another patriot launcher. These are some of the examples of what we could be doing and what we should be doing, but we arent doing it because of budget constraints. They have all been confirmed by industry and the department that it can happen and i hope that you will be an advocate to be able to help us push for what we need to address threats that we face as a country and as a world in any amazing package or supplemental that comes up. Would you be willing to put yourself forward . We talk about this all the time, you and i. I say if we hear about the threats that we have, we will see tremendous support for our military and for the needs we need to be met for the resources that we must have to defend this country . General brown i would be willing to work with you and make the tough calls if confirmed as the chairman. Senator reed senator hirono, please. Senator hirono congratulations on you your nomination and thank you for your service to our country. The fitness of all nominees on which i sit, i ask the nominees the following two initial questions, one, since you became a legal adult have you made unwanted requests or sexual favors or committed assault . General brown i have not. Senator hirono have you entered into a discipline rae rankment . General brown i have not. And i thank you and no matter where they are stationed around the world, and face recruitment challenges, support for servicemembers is critical and for almost four decades you have built inclusive diverse i have ready teams in the air force and i assume you will support such teams throughout the d. O. D. When we have a chance to chat you gave me an example of how important the programs refer to diversity and programs. You talked about your own experience. Can you share with this committee what you shared with me yesterday . General brown i think about for my own career and our members all they want is a fair opportunity to perform. And by dont want to be advantaged or disadvantaged or discounted based on their background. They want to have the opportunity but want to be qualified. When i came in and flying f16s, i didnt want to be the africanamerican pilot but the best f16 pilot. When i was an instructor at the Weapons School and every position i had throughout my career, i wanted because i was the best and qualified and didnt want a promotion based on my background but the quality of my work and thats the aspect that all of our servicemembers look for and want a fair opportunity but want to be rewarded for their performance. Senator hirono and when we had this discussion, able to have experiences that they may otherwise not have access to and that is important in my view with the attention being paid to the importance of diversity in our services, the fairness that diversity provides. If confirmed you will be the highest ranking officer in the u. S. Military which gives you unique perspective. I have repeatedly asked for leadership accountability and structural changes from the d. O. D. In the wake of high profile sailors in hawaii, for example. And the disaster that the publics mistrust in the military in hawaii. How do you view the burden of command and the ultimate responsibility entrusted in military commanders. General brown there are two factors and commandership at any level. You have the responsibility to get the mission but responsible for their mission as well. If it doesnt go well, you should be held accountable and most of the areas that i focus on to ensure we maintain the standard across the military but maintain the Public Confidence from the American People that we do support. Senator hirono i think if we dont hold our commanders responsible, that it does continue to shake the faith that communities have and the leadership of the military and chief of the joint chiefs, you are going to have major responsibility to make sure that the burden of command as i have expressed it is carried through. I just visited with the deputy secretary of the d. O. D. , our shipyards. And i just want to make sure that you will continue to support the modernization of our shipyards because even as we make decisions to build new ships, i. E. Assets, that we have to make sure that we have the capability to repair and maintain the ships that we already have. And that means that that the shipyard improvement commitment has to continue. This is a multiyear commitment. Id like to have your commitment that, that we will continue to fund this very critical part of our military readiness. General brown senator, you have my commitment. Senator hirono thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator reed thank you, senator hirono. Senator rounds, please. Senator rounds thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General brown, first of all, i want to thank you for your years of service. I also want to thank your family, specifically shereen, who is with you here today and, and your children, but when we deploy someone and youve been deployed multiple times, its not just you that gets deployed, its the entire family that feels that deployment. And i thank all of you for your service to our country. General, earlier this year at the air force posture hearing, you and i discussed the impact of auctioning off portions of the spectrum and what that would do to our defense capabilities. Those same concerns were echoed by all of the other Service Chiefs and the Combatant Commanders, all of them based on what weve discussed before if this report, which is due in september, demonstrates that auctioning off the 3. 1 to 3. 45 gigahertz portion of the spectrum will adversely impact our National Security, what would be your advice to the president and to the congress . And how would you proceed . General brown senator, i would echo exactly what you just highlighted. The impact to our National Security because that part of the spectrum is where we have many of our capabilities across the joint force. And if we had to vacate that wed lose that capability and wed have to figure out how now to regain that capability and that will take time and cost money and now is not the time to drop our National Security. And so my recommendation is we should not vacate and realizing we have to still get through the study before we make any decisions. But there will be an impact and if confirmed, ill bring with the services, you know, detailed information on the challenges and how it might impact the joint force. Senator rounds thank you, sir. Let me just ask you with regard to your professional military opinion. Do you think theres a possibility that our adversaries are actually attempting to influence the debate and to convince us that its appropriate to sell portions of the spectrum that are vital to our National Security . General brown well, senator, i cant speak positively on that topic, but i would not be surprised if our adversaries were always trying to do something to decrease our advantage and complicate our decisionmaking and its something we need to be paying attention to as Senior Leaders. Senator rounds thank you, sir. Ive gone on record many times regarding my concerns about the d. O. D. s approach to providing spacebased ground moving target indication capabilities to d. O. D. Users. Following the development of the j platform. Theres an ongoing conversation within the interagency as to how the funding, responsibility, and priority of gmti, the ground moving target indication capabilities will be handled. And im not confident, i am not confident the war fighters will get this vital capability that they need to close the kill chain in the future. As chairman, will you use your position to make certain that our men and women on the front lines have full and priority use of the platforms conducting gmti missions in the future . General brown senator, i will. Senator rounds thank you, sir. General, this is something i never thought i would be sitting here in the United States senate asking questions about, and yet, its one that has been brought to my attention by our south dakota adjunct general. General brown, you will take the seat in the midst of the largest recruiting crisis in the history of d. O. D. s five 50year allvolunteer force. While the service has struggled to meet recruiting numbers, there has been an increased emphasis on immutable characteristics like race and sex. And the department has increasingly focused on new policies and plans in areas like equity, extremism, gender ideology, abortion and change sex change operations. Theres even a growing bureaucracy that focuses on these specific issues. Im aware of a situation that was just brought to my attention where a young woman in the south Dakota National guard experienced a situation at basic training where she was sleeping in open bay and showering with biological males who had not had gender reassignment surgery but were documented as females because they had begun the drug therapy process. This 18yearold girl was uncomfortable with her situation but had limited options on how to deal with it. If she raised her hand, she feared shed be targeted for retaliation. She could have recycled, which would have delayed her Freshman College start and would not have provided a guarantee of a different situation. She could request to leave the guard for religious purposes and not be able to pursue her dream of serving our country. General brown, this is a challenging situation. If confirmed as the chairman. If confirmed as the chairman, how do you propose to handle situations like this which i truly believe may be impacting recruitment and morale by placing a disproportionate emphasis on gender related ideology . General brown senator, one of the things ive thought about throughout my career, as youre being inclusive, you also dont want to make other individuals uncomfortable. And so theres areas of as we look at our policies and approaches and get feedback like this. We have to take a look to see if we can improve on our how we approach situations like this. And as ive done as the service chief, as ive done throughout my career, if confirmed, i will continue to do so. Senator rounds thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator reed thank you, senator. Senator kaine. Senator kaine general, congratulations to you and your family for the nomination. Youre eminently qualified for the position. Just situational awareness. The announcement by the Biden Administration working together with the nato secretary general and the governments of sweden and turkey that turkey would support accession of sweden to nato. It was followed up immediately by an announcement from hungary that they would also support accession of sweden to nato with nato. With just in the last few years, people were questioning whether nato had value, whether the u. S. Should continue in nato. We have demonstrated through american leadership, the strength of alliances that democracies in the world can link arms. And when we do our alliances enable us to defend ukraine and promote democracy throughout the world. And i think its important to recognize that the u. S. And the cause of global democracy is stronger today because of this decision announced yesterday that sweden would now be green lit for nato membership. That event that happened yesterday was the retirement of general david berger. It was not bad that he retired. He had a distinguished career and served very ably as we all know. But for the first time after that retirement in 164 years, the United States marine corps does not have a commandant confirmed by the senate of the United States. Im the father of a United States marine. Im unaware of anything that the marines have done that would warrant being punished in this way. Im unaware of anything that the marines have done that would warrant being disrespected in this way. Having their leadership hobbled in this way. One of my colleagues is exercising a prerogative to place a hold on 250 generals and flag officers. Im unaware of anything that they have done that would warrant them being disrespected or punished or delayed in their careers just because a prerogative can be exercised, doesnt mean that it should be exercised. We marked up the National Defense authorizing act in this committee two weeks ago and there were some things that i wanted in the act that i did not get in. I was disappointed. There were some things that got added to the act that i opposed. I was disappointed, but im not taking my disappointment out on people who have volunteered to wear the uniform of this country and even risk their lives in doing so. I would urge all of my colleagues to turn away from the path that were on where we are disrespecting and punishing people because were unhappy with policies in the military that these individuals had nothing to do with. If im not able to convince my colleagues in a committee of a position, thats on me. Ill have to try to do a better job next time and maybe try to convince more the support to support the position that ive taken. But if im unable to do that, i would never even contemplate taking out my disappointment and punishing people who have volunteered to wear the uniform of this country. People who volunteered to serve in the military do so knowing that their lives could be at risk. But if they think not only will my life be at risk, but do i want to run the risk that a member of the senate being unhappy with the policy i had nothing to do with, may choose to block my career, that might be a risk that people might choose not to undertake. That might be the kind of thing that might make them decide if my article 1 branch is not going to respect the service that i have given this country including deployments overseas. Maybe i should look for a line of work where i will be respected. General brown, i would to ask you a question about aukus. I think this committee and other committees have been following the agreement very closely. Im particularly focused on it as the chairman of the sea power subcommittee. And also because some of the work on the virginia class submarines that are part of pillar one will be done in virginia. Much of the focus on a right now is about pillar one, the ability to transfer virginia class submarines and related technology to australia. Pillar two refers to a suite of cooperative activities in areas such as advanced capabilities. Quantum a. I. Cyber hyper sonic. If confirmed, what role do you see for yourself in advancing integrated defense in integrated deterrence initiatives in the indopacific such as aucus. General brown the thing i do think about when you look at this, it was more of a the the Nuclear Power submarines but all these other factors that we can bring together to break down barriers to work with allies and partners, not just with australia and the uk in this case, but really across the indo pacific. One of the benefits that ive had is having served as the commander of Pacific Air Forces is the number of air chiefs and chief of defense. And in some cases, ministers of defense that ive known personally had a chance to engage with that dialogue. To me is hugely important to determine how best we can move forward and break down barriers and identify areas that we can Work Together on as not as a military, not only as a military but also between our nations as well. And thats where my focus will be to continue that dialogue to ensure we can Work Together and then highlight some where the challenges may be and then work with the right entities to be able to move forward to ensure that we are able to win the next war of call to want to do so. But definitely deter us to avoid war. Insofar senator kaine i thank you for that answer. I yield back, mr. Chair. Senator reed thank you, senator kaine. Senator ernst, please. Senator ernst thank you, mr. Chair. And thank you very much, general brown, for being here today and i wanna thank your wife shereen as well for being here. We appreciate your, your support through the many, many years. Um general brown, youve had a very distinguished career and have held many commands and, and i want to distinguish between some of my colleagues. I know the burden of command was referenced, but i would state having served as a low level commander in, in our Armed Services that its not a burden to be a commander. It is a great honor and distinction and i want to thank you for your, your service to our country. You are moving into a different position, ill assume your confirmation and i support your confirmation. I think youre the right person at the right time. If confirmed, you will be chairman at a time when threats to the nation are mounting while our resources are actually shrinking, we will be operating our department of defense under a constrained environment and under those constrained budgets, we have to put our defense dollars towards smarter investments. And you as chief of the air force have focused on modernizing our air force. I assume that youll continue the modernization process through the rest of our service branches. So general, youll inform investments across what we talked about the Iron Triangle of modernization for structure and readiness. And so i am assuming there will have to be hard choices made and some tradeoffs. So if you could, could you talk a little bit about your vision of modernizing our force . General brown senator, i appreciate the question. And to your question, ive done kind of the same thing as a service chief and if confirmed as a chairman, i will take that same approach. Ive often talked about how we have to balance risk over time and look at capability and capacity because we cant just try to modernize completely at the risk of todays operations. At the same time, we cant maintain all capability for todays operations and not have the capabilities because of the threats we see forthcoming. And so between that, as you look at Iron Triangle, its the balance between those. And i really, again, really believe on analysis that we have to do, we can work emotion but emotion doesnt work. Its really the analysis that we have to go through to be able to determine how we make those tough calls. And then we have a responsibility. I have a responsibility confirmed as chairman to articulate what that risk might be or whatever choice we make. And then weve determined as a nation, how we accept that risk or how we mitigate that risk. And again, this is where i think allies and partners play a key role in some of these areas and how we ensure and think about all the capabilities that we have available and how we might use those to best make the best decisions based on the resources that are provided. Senator ernst no, thank you. I was going to ask about that about mitigating the risk and youre talking about that using allies, partners, but spreading out the risk over time. So i do appreciate that. During the office call, you also mentioned the constant demand signal that weve got from our global Combatant Commanders. And how would you strike that right balance between our nearterm readiness and those future modernizations including and accepting prudent risk . General brown ive served on both sides of the coin serving as a Deputy Commander in the United States central command, but then also as a service chief and the way ive always thought about this is is we got to put all of the cards and all the details on the table and then have a conversation that is not tied to a particular position and figure out whats best to do for the joint force, whats the best to do for all the combatant commands because theres gonna be some give and take as we do this. And thats the word, those dialogue to me are very important um in the, its really about dialogue. Theres many things we can agree on and those are the things we need to move forward on and continue to debate the things that we dont necessarily see, eye to eye on. But at some point, you have to make a decision. And i think my role if confirmed as the chairman is to provide my best advice to the secretary of defense and the president on what, how we make those decisions and again, articulate where i see the risk of you know, whatever decision or whatever path or options we, we do lay out. Senator ernst thank you. I appreciate it. And in just my last few moments, i do want to talk about my concern that the military is being dragged into politics. And if confirmed, how would you keep the military out of the political limelight and focused on the mission of our department of defense . General brown well, the first thing i do is set a personal example that i will stay nonpartisan, nonpolitical in how i approach the position of chairman if confirmed. And i set that same expectation throughout the force. That we need to stay out of politics and stay nonpartisan nonpolitical. And at the same time advocate that our civilians leadership does not bring us in, into political situations. Part of that is the dialogue that we have to have and we have to maintain a standard as part of the force. And thats what expected of the nation for us as military members to support the constitution of the United States and state out stay out of politics. Senator ernst thank you very much, sir. I look forward to supporting you. Thank you. Senator reed thank you, senator. Senator manchin, please. Senator manchin thank you, mr. Chairman and general brown. First of all, let me thank you for your service. I want to thank your, your wife and your children and your family for their service and supporting you for your service. Its a team effort. I know that we had a nice conversation. I appreciate that very much. And im gonna ask the question, follow up on this, on the Financial Stability of what were dealing with and the demand in the, in the department of defense and defending our country. The bottom line is weve been talking about if we do our job on time and we as congress get our budget done by september 30. What does that mean to you all as far as in having that on timelines as far as financial to you, how much money would that save you by not going into the continuing resolutions or an omnibus bill and how weve been doing it for far too long . General brown i dont have a figure. I have to come back to you, senator, with a figure. We can get that for you. But what i can tell you is its the aspect of senator manchin let me throw out one for you. The American Institute Enterprise Institute threw out a rough estimate of 200 million per day under the latest continuing resolution that covered the start of fiscal 2023. Thats a total of 18 billion. Just that ive been told by retired generals who werent on the spot, you know, that basically have said that they could save overall 5 . Minimum 5 . And 5 across the board of 880 billion is 44 billion. And weve been talking about more appropriated funds for our military with all the challenges we have. This, the money is right there, the spending power of us doing our job and were gonna need someone like you whos going to take the financial concerns and basically let us know how we should be able to help by just doing our job too. We asked you to do yours, general brown senator, id agree. You know, the key area that i would highlight that and challenges is we lose buying power. As you describe, at the same time, we lose predictability, not only for the force but also for our Industrial Base to be able to produce the capabilities that are required for our joint team. Senator manchin heres one other fact, too. The department of defense control noted that from fiscal year 1991 to 2010, the average delay for defense appropriations was 29 days. The average delay for the preparations for defense was 29 days. Thats a tremendous amount of money over the period of time that weve talked about. I just i would hope that you would work with us in trying to make sure that we are keeping our feet to the fire to make sure you have the resources to do the job that we need you to do. Thats my commitment to you. So going to another topic, fiscal responsibility and peg ive been extremely concerned the lack of progress in the business modernization, auditing, commercial cost comparison, independent evaluations of programs, how its run. The department of defense is the only department in the federal government that we dont have an audit. Myself and senator john the late john mccain, our dear friend, worked with me on that. And we tried our darndest, and we got a few of them done, but not many. So if you could commit to getting the department audited and making sure they do it in a timely fashion. It would be very helpful for us to do our job here to make sure that were appropriating the funds that are needed. General brown i commit to work with you on that. Senator manchin the other thing is, the concerns have been validated year after year with the abolishment of the chief management office. They abolished the chief management officer position within the department in 2020. And most recently with the abolishment of the cost assessment and program evaluation, not only do, they dont want to audit, they dont want anyone being held accountable to oversee, to make sure they would audit. So thankfully, i had an amendment in the ndaa this year to reinstate the chief management officer, the c. M. O. , that was adopted into the senate and to ensure the department has leadership position. So based on your 40 years of military service and your nomination to become the most Senior Member of our military in the service, do you believe that a confirmed and chartered chief management officer is a position that the department and you if confirmed would benefit from and will basically support . General brown senator, i agree that having that position filled or having someone fill that position to help us go through the audit process like you described to make sure were doing our aspects of fiscal responsibility is important. Senator manchin the problem we had before, it never had support from the top. And you know yourself, if the leaders dont support it its not going to happen. And thats why they said, well, it was meaning it was meaningless. It wasnt doing the job. They had no charter to do it. There was no direction for them to do it, but i guarantee you it needs to be done and no business with their any type of value to it whatsoever would ever operate without an assessment value, an officer that can do the management, the whole process. So its there. Its coming back for you, sir. So we hope you take advantage of it. Thank you. Senator reed thank you, senator manchin. Senator kramer, please. Kraim kraim senator kramer, thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, general brown, your entire family. Thank you for your service. Congratulations on the nomination. Let me just follow up with senator manchins point about the chief management officer. I just had to turn around and ask myself why did we get rid of it again . I remember when it happened. I remember the person in the position we did it to quote cut bureaucracy and what we did is cut our throats and im with you, joe. I hope we get it back and then we have to as members insist, regardless of whos at the top, that we have some fiscal responsibility at the at the department. Thank you for firing me up just before my question, joe. It will not surprise you, general brown, that over my nearly five years on this committee, ive asked almost every single Combatant Commander if they get enough i. S. R. From the air, and itll also not surprise you that every one of them says, no, no, thats a little bit like asking a billionaire if he has enough money. And you know, the answer is always no, he can always use more. That said that said, you had a wonderful discussion in response to in response to chairman reeds question about interoperability, the changing role, as well as with senator ernst. But as air force chief, you were making tough calls and asked for some some cuts to airborne i. S. M. Sometimes with the, you know, the hope or promise of replacing with with space capabilities. But now in this role that i, like senator ernst, i suspect you will be soon confirmed. How do you plan to bridge that gap again . Its a more specific question to the broader question that joni asked. But as you view the needs of the Combatant Commanders as they state versus the needs that the Services Want to provide specifically in this case, the air force with the eyes in the sky. How do you see that moving forward in your decisionmaking . General brown well, senator, in has been, as you highlight, this has been an ongoing debate between the services and the combatant commands at large. Having set as as a joint chief as the past three years, ive really started to think through how we approach this. And theres aspects of when you look at, not just the i. R. S. , what are you trying to get from the i. R. , its the information thats being provided from the i. R. And so theres one aspect of the platform but how youre getting the information back to command headquarters so they can make decisions. And so for me is with the stamp of the space force and access to space. Space i. S. R. , its a combination of the two and its going to drive us to have to change some processes about how we provide information and how we work with the commands. And this is a conversation that weve been having. Ive had this conversation with general salman, the chief of Space Operations of how we lay out a different approach in some areas to be able to get to all of the information thats available and not just whats reliable on an airplane, airborne i. R. May not be there 24 7 365. And thats what the focus has to be of how do we maybe in some cases, do things a bit differently and provide not only the capability of it today but even greater capability in the future. Senator kramer senator cramer i appreciate that. I wanna piggy back a little bit on questioning. Hes become very consistent as i have on, on what matters the most and, and i have Great Respect for his questions about relief relieving the spectrum prior, particularly prior to the, to the study that youve talked about. So without prejudging that study, and maybe even piggy backing a little bit on what you said earlier about specifically our Defense Industry base but im going to talk more about the private sector in general, what we often what i dont think we talk about enough on the committee is the role that Technology Companies or telecommunications industry, particularly 5g, all important back to some of the other discussions were having and youve been noted to be an innovator and you have been and appreciate that. What role has the private sector played in the advancement of the technological tools that are at your disposal, both in the air force and now perhaps hopefully as the joint force . General brown well, they play a pretty big role. And ill just tell you from my own personal experience, the opportunity to go out to Silicon Valley a couple of times and talk to those who have an interest in National Security. Thats a conversation that we need to continue to have. And so that we understand the aspect of all the capabilities we have within our nation and how they all in some form or fashion contribute to our National Security. Even when we have these discussions about spectrum, theres an economic aspect that supports our Economic Security but theres National Security and we got to have the same conversation in the same room because it has an impact in some form of fashion. And thats why its important that we build those relationships and we have those dialogue that, that dialogue to ensure were doing whats right for the nation um as we make decisions, appreciate that attitude. Senator reed thank you, senator. Senator kelly, please. Senator kelly thank you, mr. Chairman. General brown, thank you for your decades of service and welcome today. I want to talk to you a little bit about our militarys Close Air Support capability. Weve discussed this issue at length a number of times and you know how important this is to me and you know that, that our Ground Troops and special operators depend on this capability and its often a life or death matter for them. And you and i have talked through some of the current planning that the air force is doing to transition to a future cast capability. And in my view, the design of our Close Air Support needs to stay centered on the guys on the ground. So general, how will you achieve the same level of protection for those troops with future Cast Solutions and how are we going to avoid any kind of a gap . General brown well, senator, i appreciate the question. And as we talked in your office a couple months ago, its the aspect of not only the platforms that we operate, its the technology that we use and still be able to use the the basic tactics, techniques and procedures we use. Since we started doing Close Air Support, its the aspect of providing that capability and the dialogue and how well be able to move information electronically to be more responsive at the same time, have weapons that are highly precise to support our Service Members on the ground. Senator kelly and one of my concerns here is you know, f35s, you know, multimission, you know, a lot of capability in the airplane. I just ask that you continue to focus on this as a Important Mission for future fighters, including the f35. And then im also concerned about the personnel that support our Cast Community as we transition to these new platforms. Are there any plans to transition some of the skill sets that reside in our Tactical Air Control and j Community Today . General brown they are. And were using their capability to help us in our command and control. As well as making sure those, you know, the procedures that we already have, we do not let atrophy and continue to work that. And one thing i would highlight you on the f35 is many of our a 10 pilots. They have a lot of cast background are flying and going to the f35. As a matter of fact, i just met a captain here this past week whos just converted from the a10 into the f35. And those are the kinds of things we got to continue to do to ensure we do not let the skill sets that we had atrophy. Senator kelly thats a positive thing now. But when we look at a decade from now, youre not gonna have that same kind of transition. So i encourage you to continue to focus on this and make sure we retain the unique expertise of these other groups, not just the pilots but the Tactical Air Controllers. And j techs. I want to talk about another issue. Im the only graduate of the u. S. Merchant Marine Academy in congress as far as i know. So i pay special attention to our nations maritime strength. We talked a little bit about that when senator gillibrand asked her questions and im concerned that the u. S. Investment is falling dramatically behind what the Chinese Government has invested in terms of the size and modernization of each of our respective merchant fleets. Since the 1980s, there have been a series of policy decisions that have brought us down to a rather startling figure of just 80 u. S. Flagged merchant vessels operating in International Trade and 60 of those consists of marad, Maritime Security program that allows them to contract us flag vessels during times of war. So we have 80 ships. The chinese have over 5,500, and theyre the worlds top shipbuilder and they control ports that handle 67 of the worlds shipping shipping containers. As you know well, this impacts our ability to supply our own troops in conflict. You talked about how much different the western pacific is from europe, you know, islands, mobility and logistical challenges. It also impacts trade and Global Supply chains and peace time. And its critical, i mean, this is the kind of capability that cant be turned on and off overnight. We need to invest. Now if we want to rely on it tomorrow, i know in your new role, its a chance that youre going to need this capability. We also see some similar underinvestment in the u. S. Merchant Marine Academy which is under the department of transportations purview, but it trains a lot of military officers and the mariners that will man those ships. Our nations National Security leaders cannot turn a blind eye to these capabilities simply because they lie outside of the militaries and your immediate jurisdiction. And i think we really need to increase our focus here. So if confirmed, can i have your commitment to keep this concern . Concern top of mind as you enter into this new role as chairman . General brown senator, if confirmed, you do have my commitment. Senator kelly thank you. Senator reed thank you, senator kelly. Senator tuberville, please. Senator tuberville thank you, mr. Chairman. Good morning, general. General brown good morning. Senator tuberville thanks for being here. Thank you for your service and just talking to you yesterday, you moved over 20 times in your career. I dont think a lot of people understand, you know, the complexity of that with the family. So thank you for your service general, i think most of us up here agree that other than foreign countries, 32 trillion in debt is one of our biggest threats to National Security. Were broke. In the past youve criticize the department of defense complex bureaucracy and have expressed a desire to improve its inefficiencies. By law, the joint staff has capped at around 2,300 personnel with some exceptions. Can you clarify at this time, how big is our staff as we speak . Do you have a number on that . General brown senator, i dont have an exact number. I think its somewhere around 2,000. Senator tuberville thank you. Id appreciate that. You know, the house ndaa includes a study to look at reducing the size of the office. Do you have any suggestions on where we could look to cut staff or budget to help and not cut back efficiency . General brown not at the moment. As i go into this position. If confirmed, it would be one of the things i do take a look at when i look across the joint staff. And id also say, as we look across the aspects of our military departments that theres things we can do to increase our efficiency and our capability and capacity. Those are things i focus on. Senator tuberville you know, the f. Y. 2023 budget for the joint staff was around 1. 2 billion and the budget request for f. Y. 2024 is close to 1. 3 billion. I guess youre familiar with that, right . General brown not the level of details of the joint staff budget because i been focused on the air force budget. Senator tuberville ok. Thank you. Thats pretty high. But id like, you know, to give us kind of a rundown the next time we see you in term in a hearing in terms of where were at with that. Is it too much . Not enough . You know, we do not want to cut back our military. It is so important, but we also want to be efficient in what we use. So id appreciate anything that you could do for us in terms of giving us giving us an update on what youre gonna set your team up as because youre gonna be the new leader. So i would hope youd keep an eye on that because that is a lot of money. I got an article yesterday that says air force delays some moves, bonuses as inflation cuts into personal budget. Could you explain that . That came from the stars and stripes. General brown as we built our budget a couple of years ago and you know, based on the factors, we had the economic factors as well as the force mix factors based on different career fields and different rank structure. We typically will come back and ask for reprogramming. Were working through the process of reprogramming. So we dont go through an anti deficiency act and not spend money we dont have. And so part of this is for us to be able to work with congress to get the reform in place. So we can actually all the problems and impacts were outlined in that article that we communicated to the force here recently. We can, you know, reverse and minimize the impact to their families throughout this, the rest of this fiscal year. Senator tuberville yeah. And we all know how important it is. And i think most of us have talked about it every day recruiting you and i talked about that yesterday. Our recruiting is in a tailspin in most areas, unfortunately. And with an allvolunteer military, were gonna have to do better. We got to do better with salaries, incentives, all those things to get our young men and women involved in interest in our military. I think its so important we can have all the, all the Upper Echelon we can get. But unless we have the people that actually does the job on the ground and in the planes, on the sea, were gonna have huge problems because we live in a dangerous world. So thank you for taking this on. Its gonna be a hard job and any way we can help you, were any way we can help, were here to help. Senator reed thank you. Senator warren, please. Senator warren thank you, mr. Chairman. Good to see you again, general brown and congratulations on your nomination. Mrs. Brown. Welcome here today. So the department of defense is full of talented patriotic leaders who are working hard to keep us safe even so the pentagon remains too cozy with powerful Defense Companies that are reaping huge profits from hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts. When our top leaders leave Government Service and head straight to big paydays on the boards of the department of defenses largest contractors or as Defense Industry lobbyists, it sends the message that the pentagon is for sale. Now, during his confirmation hearing before this committee, secretary austin publicly committed not to go to work as a lobbyist for defense contractors after he leaves his current job and i appreciate the commitment and i believe that the American People do as well. If confirmed, general brown, you will be the president s top military advisor and your actions will set the tone for the entire armed forces. So id like to hear you make those same commitments. General brown, if confirmed, will you commit to not going to work as a lobbyist for a defense contractor for four years after you leave Government Service . General brown you know, senator, im sensitive to the perceptions of a conflict of interest that we discussed in your office and i dont intend to pursue opportunities in the Defense Sector or a lobbyist upon retirement from military service. You know, my passion is in leadership and in mentoring. Senator warren good. General brown and thats where i want to focus my efforts after military service of building the next generation of leaders. Senator warren i appreciate that and i will take that as a yes. Lets do the second part even though i think you got the answer in there. Lobbying isnt the only way that former officials cash in on their Government Service. Giant defense contractors frequently hire former top pentagon officials in nonlobbying roles and add them to their corporate boards. The former pentagon official gets paid handsomely and the defense contractor touts their name in order to get more contracts. General dunford, the former chairman of the joint chiefs joined the board of Lockheed Martin d. O. D. s Top Contractor less than five months after leaving Government Service. And so far hes received nearly a Million Dollars in compensation in that role. By contrast, secretary austin pledged not to join the board of one of these companies when he left government. So general brown, if confirmed, do you commit to not receive compensation from a defense contractor for four years including compensation for being a board member . General brown i do the same answer. I just highlight senator warren ok. Ill take that as a yes. Then you know, its really important. Im gonna take you at your word on this and the American People and i will hold you to it. This is a matter of personal integrity, something that i know is very important to you. I want to close and use our remaining time by asking about the impact of the holds on the promotions and assignments of senior military officers that the senator from alabama has imposed. The families of these Service Members are held at a standstill. Theyre unsure about where to enroll their kids in school or whether they need to arrange a move across country or even somewhere else around the world. General brown, can you just spend a minute here and talk to us about the impact that these holes are having on our military families . General brown there are several factors that i think about as were going through this and how were working to mitigate the challenges associated with the holes. Theres aspects of radius and the transition and leadership and for our young Service Members to know who is in the position of leadership that has, thats qualified, has the experience to be there and not in some cases, we have, you know, strong deputies, but at the same time, they dont have the same level of experience, going forward. In addition to the senior officers, theres a whole chain of events that go down to our more Junior Officers and that has an impact. It has an impact on their progression in their career field potentially, because if one doesnt get promoted or move on, then theyre blocking a spot for someone else. At the same time, we have several members who have served honorably and ready to retire, but theyre going to, in some cases, stay with us to help us mitigate through that challenge. The area that hits us that i think we do need to think about is how it impacts our families. Because it has an impact, not just for the senior officer, but you know, all their staff and all those below them. It has an impact, and as you said, whether its schools, whether its employment or the fact that theyve already sold their home because they thought they were going to move and now they are living in temporary quarters that creates a challenge. The last thing i highlight on that is my concern is future retention. Because we have more Junior Officers who now will look up and say if thats the challenge that we have to deal with in the future, i may not want im going to balance between my family and serving in a senior position and we will lose talent because of those challenges and the Spouse Network is alive and well and the spouses will compare notes and, you know, the member may want to serve but the spouses and the families get a huge vote while we continue to serve. And i thank my family for that opportunity to senator broin brown senator warren i see mrs. Brown nodding her head on this as well. You know, if the senator from alabama continues his reckless action, he will soon be holding 650 leaders who have served their country, honorable hostage. And as you rightly point out that has effects on many more of the best and brightest who have volunteered to serve our nation. I heard the senator say as he concluded his questions that if there was anything he could do to help you in your actions and help the service that he would be glad to do it, what he could do to help is lift this stay before it does more damage to our country. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator reed thank you, senator warren. Senator budd, please. Senator budd thank you, chairman. Good morning, general brown, and congrats on your nomination. I enjoyed our meeting last month, just a few weeks ago in my office. In that discussion, we talked about the importance of securing the right capabilities to deter our nations adversaries. And last week, my office received a longawaited report on divestment of f15 aircraft including at Seymour Johnson air force base in my home state of North Carolina. The report bears your signature and it states that the air force plans to divest the remaining 149 f15cs and ds in the inventory and 119 f15es leaving fewer than 100 e models while procuring 24 only 24 f15 es in each of the next two years. So im concerned about the development of a very capable fighter aircraft, particularly f15s with upgraded radars and Electronic Warfare suites. These are the most advanced fourth Generation Fighters in the world with years of service left. Its particularly concerning given the current threat window and the fighter capacity gap that i believe youve talked about repeatedly. So the report states that these cuts will be used to modernize the force. My question is this, what combat capable platforms are ready and available today, and i emphasize today that can be procured now, not in the 2030s or the 2040s . General brown senator, i understand your concern in the aspect of as we look, this goes back to the comment i made a little bit earlier about how we balance capability and capacity. And as we do this, its not just the platforms themselves, its the other aspects of our command and control in terms of bringing some reconnaissance capabilities that we will continue to invest in to bring those forward to make each of the platforms we have more capable. Not just for the air force, but id say the same thing across the joint force and it also has to do with the munitions as well. Because of our procurement cycles for each one of these, its typically from the time we get a budget and if we get it on time, which is why thats so important, it takes us about a year to two in some cases, most times and not two years to get that capability. And so not only on the fighter piece, but its also the capabilities to make those fighters more relevant and combat capable as we go forward. And thats how were trying to balance between the two and make sure we have the analysis, the research and development to make sure were staying ahead of the threat, which actually adds to that as well in bringing in advanced technologies into some of these some of the platforms and capabilityings capabilities were procuring not just again for the air force but really for the joint forces as well. Senator brud budd thank you, general, in your advanced policy questions regarding the role of special Operations Forces in implementing the National Defense strategy you state. And i quote, soft remains ideally suited to identify a competitors coercive capabilities in the gray zone and counter them with deliberate credible actions while managing escalation. Given that end quote. Given that soft is ideally suited and provides expanded low cost and credible options for Combatant Commanders and the president across strategic competition counterterrorism and crisis response, would it be in your best military advice would you give the advice to this committee to cut special Operations Force structure . General brown well, that is something that i had id, if confirmed, do a bit more analysis on. But id also highlight the fact that our special Operations Forces over the course of the past 20 years of conflict grew a fair amount. And as we rebalance the force and think about all the National Security challenges that we have to outline our defense strategy, how can we balance that soft capability, what it does today and what it will do in the future . Because the aspect of soft, i think will be a bit different from what weve done, particularly in the middle east for the past 20 years. Senator budd i understand that. I just have tremendous concerns without seeing the president s budget. But let me ask an ongoing question on the same topic. Do you agree that soft play a Critical Role particularly as it relates to broader efforts to gain influence, advantage, and leverage as part of strategic competition . General brown i do. Senator budd thank you. Changing topics. Military recruiting shortfalls continue to be a grave concern as we consider how the recruiting crisis impacts our nations military readiness. In our discussions in my office, we talked about diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that in my view deter rather than encourage young people to serve. Ive heard from many young and qualified individuals from North Carolina who are hesitant to join a force they see as extremely political and defined by d. E. I. Policies. In august, 2022, you signed a memorandum along with the secretary and undersecretary of the air force, directing air education and Training Command in the air force academy to achieve diversity and inclusion goals broken down by percentages of both race and sex. We talked about this. It was a good discussion. But i wanna give you an opportunity to respond in an open session. Whats the purpose of this memo . Theonone from august, 2022. And how do such policies improve recruiting . I think that we should be suspect or suspect of any policies that give advantage to some groups at the expense of others. But ill give you opportunity. General brown senator, the goal is to tap into all the talent across our nation. And that memo outlined applicant goals. And the goal there was to actually outreach the broader aspects across the nation and show them the opportunities to join the force. What the memo also says is, theres a goal to allow those young people to understand what the opportunities are, but to get selected and to come into the academy, rotc, or any other program, its meritbased and they have to be qualified and meet the standard to join. Weve got to make sure we, you know, provide the opportunity weve talked about. Ive talked personally about recruiting the aspect, you know, people only aspire to be what they know about. And if you dont, they dont know anything about the military and we dont outreach to them, we may miss some tremendous talent, but theyve got to be qualified because were a national organization. And thats the way weve operated for an extended period of time and thats the way we will continue to operate as a military force. Senator budd thank you, general. Senator reed thank you, senator budd. Senator peters, please. Senator peters thank you, mr. Chairman. General brown, good to see you again. Congratulations on your nomination and thank you for your years of service. General brown, as we discussed, for the u. S. To be able to successfully defend against all the threats that we face in the 21st century, its going to be absolutely vital that we are as efficient as possible when it comes to our force structure, as well as understanding our limited manpower, resources. And as you know, very well, our National Guard comprises a significant portion of both our air and Ground Combat capabilities. And oftentimes these units actually have a higher level of experience than their active duty counterparts and are more easily able to meet recruiting as well as retention goals. The National Guard is a critical part of our domestic Cyber Response and Mission Assurance duties and plays a key role i think or i know between the department of state and local officials. In a time when innovation is absolutely critical, National Guard installations are able to easily host private sector partners who are conducting testing and evaluation of emerging technologies. And every year, thousands of National Guardsmen build closer ties and increase interoperability with partners and allies across the globe. Through the state Partnership Program. Camp grayling in my home state in Northern Michigan is a place where thousands of us troops train alongside nato and indo paycom partners every summer during exercise northern strike. And i think its just one example of the tremendous capabilities our National Guard brings to the total force. Simply put, the United States cannot compete with peer competitors, combat long term insurgencies, implement the National Defense strategy or overcome recruiting and retention challenges without an adequately resourced and empowered National Guard. So my question for you, sir, is, what investments does the department need to make in the National Guard to build and to maintain a force able to meet the challenges that our nation will face for the rest of this century . General brown well, senator, i have tremendous value working with the air National Guard throughout my career and having had them under my command and combat operations as well as serving as the air force chief of staff. I think the key with a couple of things that we have to think through as a joint force, and if confirmed as the chairman, is to ensure that our guard members have the capabilities with the resources and equipment that is modernized. So they can be a front line institution to be ready to go whenever the nation is called. And then at the same time, its some of the personnel programs that we have to ensure that were taking care of those members and their families, particularly knowing that they change status as they go on and on active duty or get deployed back and forth. The better we can smooth those processes that helps us out. And then the last thing id kind of highlight is, that the work we do on the active side and how we ensure that the process to retain that talent and bring it over into the guard or the reserve component. And theres areas that sometimes we make it a little more difficult than it has to be. We may lose an opportunity with a Great Service member who decides to go do something else. But the value that our guard provides whether its because of their, their dual status of the civilian career and their military career. Ive been a great proponent of the state Partnership Program that has done tremendous work for our allies and partners. And so the guard, both the air and the army guard are great assets to our joint force. Its good to hear that. General brown, when you assume the position of air force chief of staff, you issued a directive for airmen to accelerate change or lose. You describe this concept as a necessity for the air force to be able to dominate in a very dynamic, rapidly changing security environment. As chairman, if confirmed, you would have great influence on bringing this type of attitude to what is perhaps the most risk adverse Bureaucratic Organization in the world. So my question for you, sir, is, what are the Biggest Challenges that you can identify to having the department embrace this culture, which i think is essential, of accelerating change . General brown one of the areas that ive found is i try to do this is as i have made some progress and ive been happy with some of the progress ive made in certain areas as the air force chief. But at the same time, theres some areas that im not as happy about the challenge. There is having all of our Service Members understand the big picture and why this is so important, why we need to modernize and whats at stake and from that perspective, then you step away from your own parochial interest and then we do whats best not just for your part of the organization, but whats best for the entire organization. Thats how ive approached it as air force chief of staff. If confirmed, thats exactly the way ill approach it as chairman of the joint chiefs and having served as a joint chief, ive had to be able to do the same. We got to be able to do that a bit more across the force and you put whats best out front for the force to ensure were doing the right things to protect the nation in our national interest. Senator peters thank you, general. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator reed thank you, senator peters. Senator mullin, please. Senator mullin thank you, chairman. And going kind of on the same lane that mr. Peters was but not necessarily the same question but talking about the accelerating change or lose. When you had originally drafted that as the air force chief of staff, you outlined the urgent need for Technology Advancement in your accelerator or change or lose comment. An important factor in our bill to outpace our competitors, the health of our Defense Industry, are you are we able to actually leverage them in an accurate way to build a have the same mentality to as you said, accelerate change or lose with the in Industrial Base in the current state that its in . General brown i do think we can. And heres the thing i found as service chief for the past two years, its not a flip of a switch. Its a bit of a bit of a culture change. It takes a bit of time to get it brought to the force and start to move. And so what i have seen is aspects of the defense, Industrial Base, aspects of the Defense Industry to start to shift. Weve been able to do it in certain programs. A couple of programs for the air force, the b21 program is a good example. Sentinel is a good example. Next Generation Air dominance are good examples where weve taken a different approach to drive ourselves in a different direction. I would say the same thing with the app works where weve been able to build relationships with Smaller Companies and smaller technologies and have them play in the competitive space because thats what happens outside of the department of defense. And so weve been able to make some advancements in those areas, but youre still going to have the major defense acquisition programs that are a big broader bit broader, but we are making progress and thats something we got to continue to do and have confirmed the same energy i put in as the air force chief of staff on accelerating change is the same thing you expect from me as a chairman, i couldnt if confirmed. Senator mullin i couldnt agree more. I mean, in the private sector in any sector, we have to accelerate change or you do fall behind. So i agree with what youre saying, but how do you keep the Industrial Base nimble without sacrificing legacy systems and knowledge at the same time . General brown well, i think part of this is the aspect of how we write our contracts, how we incentivize and set the business model, realizing our Defense Companies have excuse me have stakeholders and they have to report to. But at the same time, weve got to make sure we provide the combat capability our joint force. And so its important for us to come together. And so were not talking past each other or debating, you know, on different sides of the aisle on this or different sides of the perspective. Its really how do we come together and figure out how we the way i operate is basically on a diagram. There are things we agree about, lets skip those. And the things we disagree about, how then do we break down those barriers and help improve . Part of that is building relationships with industry. So they understand where were going and what theyre trying to achieve and we can Work Together to ensure were doing whats right for the nation. Switching gears a little bit. Everyone talks about the challenges with recruiting. There have been comments about changing our posture a little bit because our lack to build actually mans some of the systems that year trying to move forward with or some of the areas were trying to grow in. But at the same time during covid, we had let 8,000 capable service men and women go for not wanting to get the vaccine. Sen. Mullin as more technologies come out, we think they probably had the right to do so. How do we bring those individuals back into the fold now that the pandemic is, quote, over . And get them back plugged in and reinstate them to where they should be, if they choose to come back . Gen. Brown each of the services has a process to allow those members who want to return, wed review them coming back into the service. Sen. Mullin do you support bringing them back . Gen. Brown on a case by case basis. Sen. Mullin what would be the case by case . What are the red flags for you . Gen. Brown in some cases there were other factors beyond the Covid Vaccination that may prevent them. Sen. Mullin if it was based just specific on the refusal, if a covid vaccine, you support bringing them back in . Gen. Brown id be supportive but i defer to those going through the cases. Sen. Mullin being the chairman youre going to have a big sway in it. If you say, hey, lets bring these guys back in, if this is the only thing on their mark, and you say, lets bring them back in, i think most people probably follow that leadership. Gen. Brown im not of command chain. There are commanders who make those decisions but i will provide my advice on how best to approach moving forward. Sen. Mullin thank you for your service. Ms. Brown, thank you for your service too and support him along the way. We really appreciate you and the sacrifice you made in raising a family while he was serving the country. And all the 20 moves and making the house a true home for him to come to and feel comfortable. So thank you for that. Sir, appreciate your service and appreciate the conversation we had in my office. Look forward to working with you. Thank you, senator mullin. Senator rosen i echo senator mullin on that boxing of 20 homes. It cant be easy. I want to make a quick comment before my questions. I do want to say, start off by saying that i am deeply concerned by the fact that your swift confirmation is being held up along with hundreds of others, of senior military promotions, including those in my state of nevada. That wouldnt be acceptable for any reason, but its even more outrageous that these homes are to get rid of a policy that protects our Service Members reproductive rights. And so this extreme antichoice agenda, its jeopardizing our National Security in order to impose restrictions on our Service Members reproductive freedoms and enough is enough. We need to fill these Critical Roles and i would like to see you have a quick confirmation. So im going to move on to that, general. As my colleagues have been talking about maintaining our technological edge because we know theres global competition for skilled work force, declining investments in r d and d. O. D. Contracting challenges and the stem work force gap, they are all impediments to our to eroding our defense technological edge with our adversaries. Meanwhile, we also know that china is investing heavily in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing we talk about, accelerate change or lose and thats why this congress i introduced Bipartisan Legislation with senator blackburn to establish a Pilot Program to accelerate the scaling, production and acquisition of advanced capabilities for National Security through a Publicprivate Partnership that is going to incentivize American Investment in small business, that is working on Innovative Defense Technologies this. Legislation in both the house and Senate Versions of the ndaa for fiscal year 2024. If confirmed, how might the Publicprivate Partnership that catalyzes investment in advanced capabilities really enhance our competitiveness with china . Gen. Brown if confirmed, what it does for us is actually being able to tap into all the technical capabilities within our nation. Thats why the aspect of these Publicprivate Partnerships are so important. Because there are certain things that happen outside the department of defense that provides great capability, that will solve some of the operational problems that we are faced with that, will help us better defend the nation. And that partnership to me is so important and its the aspect of how do we come together and build these relationships, create the dialogue and solve problems together that benefit both the private sector, but also the Public Sector and particularly the department of defense. Senator rosen thank you. I want to move on to combating iranian aggression. Last week Iranian Naval vessels attempted to seize two tankers right in international waters. Notably, this incident involved an iranian navy warship, not an Iranian Revolutionary guard corps vessel, which is a troubling escalation. So to address irans growing naval aggression, i introduced with senator ernst the maritime act which is Bipartisan Legislation that would require the department of defense to develop a strategy with our partners and allies in the middle east to counter these maritime threats posed by iran. So, general brown, if confirmed, how would you confront iranian aggression in all forms and how would you leverage the regional partnerships fostered by the Abraham Accords to deter irans malign actions . Gen. Brown its building on the my vast experience particularly in the middle east. You mentioned the Abraham Accords. What i do see is greater cooperation between the nations within the middle east. Its something we have to continue to help support. Part of that is ensuring that as we do this were providing them the capabilities to be able to support efforts to push back against iranian aggression in all forms. Weve been able to do that in the past but as you highlighted, the threat has gotten more complicated and so we cannot rest on our laurels. We have to continue work hard with our partners in the region and get them the capabilities and also working with them as well because we have to be part of the solution as part of the United States in our military force as well. Senator rosen thank you. I want to talk a little bit again on our capacity to really meet the challenges going tpaorbd. And we forward. And we know that skyward challenges are huge. We know in the private sector, really huge, to get that employment, get the skilled technologists and we know that in the military as well. As ive noted before this committee numerous times, our nation does face these unprecedented cyber attacks, consistent shortage of talent, cyber talent, they pose a significant threat to our security. I have a bill to find solutions such as my civilian Cyber Security reserve act. It was included this year in ndaa for fiscal year 2024, to provide the d. O. D. With qualified civilian personnel to support the departments cyberpace operations and ensure we have the talent we need to defeat, deter and respond to malicious cyber activity. So i know my time is just about up, but if you could answer quickly, how might nontraditional Cyber Reserve models be a possible pathway to recruit personnel who might not otherwise choose to serve fulltime, but possess those valuable cyber skills . Gen. Brown it allows us to tap into the great talent and capability across our nation and allows us to address National Security needs and building those relationships i think are going to be important as a nation as we go forward. Senator rosen thank you. Thank you. Sen. Cotton general brown. Welcome and congratulations on your nomination and thank you for your decades of service to our nation and, ms. Brown, thank you for your decades of service as well. Theres been a lot of conversation this morning about munitions. I want to continue that conversation because i view it as one of the most vital challenges the Department Faces today. Obviously this is the context of our support for ukraine and its defense of its own territory, russias unprovoked war of aggression. General brown, has the ukraine war caused the challenge to our munitions and defense Industrial Base or has it exposed some of the fragility and cracks in the defense Industrial Base . Gen. Brown senator, i would say it has exposed. The reason i say that, ill just based on experience. When i was a commander for the United States central command, we had some similar conversations. Back in 2017ish time frame when north korea was very active, we did some reviews and did highlight it then. Now its highlighting it even more so. And its the aspect of why its important for us to not only invest in the platforms, but invest in the phaou missions to have enough munitions to have enough stockpile, the advanced munitions that are most effective. Those are the things we need to continue to do. Not only from the department but also as we work with congress to highlight those needs. Sen. Cotton i agree with that. The war in ukraine has exposed those cracks and the fragility in our Industrial Defense base. Those concerns are part of the broader context of china and the threat that it poses to taiwan and our ability to deter communist china from going for the jug lar in taiwan. One important question here is to think about the kinds of munitions weve been providing to ukraine and the kinds of munitions we provide taiwan or that we might provide or use ourselves newton. Speak ourselves in the future. Speaking broadly, are the munitions used in ukraine versus those used in taiwan, are those completely the same . Totally different . Or somewhere in the middle but closer to one pole or the other . Gen. Brown id say theyre swhra different just based on the environment theyre operating in. But there are some that are similar. I think the key part for us is to ensure, this is one reason why we, in this years budget submission, we had a multiyear procurement. It was to actually make sure that we not only had the munitions were going to buy but also facilities as well as the work force. And the supply chain. And thats the value of having these multi particularly for the Industrial Base so its not an up or down budget cycle and that will help us better help them better plan and ensure we have the capability not only for ourselves but as we also think about our allies and partners as well. Sen. Cotton im glad you raised multiyear procurement because thats something i think could help address this problem. To be clear, multiyear procurement, though, isnt necessarily about saving money for the department, but about giving predictability and certainty to the Companies Across america that assemble or make components for these munitions, is that correct . Gen. Brown thats correct. Its about building capacity and buying down risk in the future. You cant not put a price tag on risk. Ideally you do want to save money but in the big scheme of things you have to get some of these built first, thats capital investment. Then when you start to produce, thats when you may get some of the saves in the future. Sen. Cotton if youre sitting at the head not of the United States military as you all have confirm but rather say at the head of a major defense contractor like lockheed or even one ofs that i subcontractors who one of their subcontractors who make parts for their rocket motors or the explosives or the steel, those are major capital intensive investments if youre going to expand the line or add a new line. Obviously youd be concerned if you cant have multiyear certainty that that line is going to be at full capacity. Is that right . Gen. Brown not only the line of capacity, its also the work force. To ensure and subcontractors to support the major aspects that you need to pull together. Sen. Cotton i think you and the department have convinced the authorizers on this point. I think maybe the appropriators still need some convincing to do. Im confident our chairman who also sits on the Appropriations Committee can carry your points to the Appropriations Committee. One final question i want to raise since its been in the news is whats sometimes been called as one by five over the last few days. 155 millimeter artillery shell, one of the most basic shells we use or that our western partners use. Weve spent about 1. 5 billion on production of 155 shells over the last six months. Ive looked at the inventory numbers which in combination with donations from other partners and allies dont appear to be approaching concerning levels yet. Weve also heard from several leaders that these production rates are sustainable. Do you think that we are currently low on 155 millimeter artillery shells . Gen. Brown i have not looked at it that closely. Id have to come back to you with maybe a question for the record. Sen. Cotton ok. Could you do that, please . And if confirmed, also, if you conclude that we are not in fact low, could you perhaps share the news with the president because i think he may have misspoke somewhat in an interview recently . Thank you, general brown. Senator schmitt general, do we have too many whys officers in the air force . White officers in the air force . Gen. Brown what i look at is the quality of all the officers we have. We look at the aspect of everyone who is qualified, meets the qualifications is, promoted. Sen. Schmitt in your august 9 memo you said there should be a reduction of 9 of the white officers. Thats 5 400, we have 5400 too many white officers. And this is the real impact, i think, of this desire of the administration, im saddened to see this in this memo, of this obsession with sort of racebased politics being interjected into our military. How did you come up with the percentage of 67. 5 of the officers should be white . And how did you come up with 13 should be black . And how did you come up with 10 should be asian . And how did you come up with 1. 5 should be american indie and and native alaskan . How did you come up with 1 being native hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and how did you come up with 15 of our officers should be hispanic and latino . Gen. Brown senator, that is based on the that memo is on application goals. Not the actual makeup of the force. And those numbers are based on the demographics in the nation. Sen. Schmitt ok, well, all right. 10 of our countrys Asian American . Is that where you came up with it . Just a percentage of the population . Gen. Brown see length i essentially. Sen. Schmitt because right now the actual percentage there is where this is a ridiculous conversation, to be perfectly honest. Why didnt you come up with or are you going to come up with the percentage of the Overall Force . Did you contemplate that . Of how many, you know, black americans should be in the air force or how many Asian Americans should be in the air force . Did you contemplate the total force percentages . Gen. Brown senator, what we looked at was the aspect of providing opportunities for anybody who wants to serve. Sen. Schmitt listen, if that tt were the case if that was in the memo, i wouldnt be asking you these questions. But we have in a memo signed by you that you think right now there are too many white officers. This is a blanket statement. So i could go down the line of questioning of which of the 5400 white officers we have too many should be fired. Because that is the actual impact of all this. I agree with you. Your story about wanting to be the best pilot in the air force regardless of race, that is what the militarys supposed to be. Its this great measure tock are asy. Its why theres uniforms and hair cuts and ive heard so many of my colleagues talk about infusing abortion politics into this. That is exactly whats wrong. This administration has infused abortion politics into our military, covid politics into our military, d. E. I. Politics into our military. And it is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world. Those men and Women Deserve better than this. This idea that they have to go through these struggle sessions with d. E. I. Training because trust me, i believe that we ought to have the broadest pool of applicants and get the best and the brightest and we ought to be recruiting in various areas to make sure we have the best and the brightest from every community, regardless of your race or your gender or your ethnicity. But thats not what d. E. I. Is. D. E. I. Is an ideology based in cultural marxism and somehow, some way, we ended up in a place where a general in the air force is advocating for racial quotas, whether it be by applicants or the number of officers or maybe the total unit and i just think thats wrong. I think thats the wrong approach. You have had a distinguished career and i thank you for your service. I just dont now how we can continue to have leadership that advocates for thisdy vicive policy divisive policy. Ill ask you also there have been 5800 military men and women fired because they chose not to get a vaccine. If confirmed, what would you do to go out not just say they can reapply and theres a process, to go out and recruit these folks back . What would you do to do that . What would you do to accomplish that . Gen. Brown if confirmed id provide them the opportunity to reapply. Sen. Schmitt i dont think thats good enough. I heard that from secretary austin. I just dont think thats good enough. We did a great disservice to this country by firing people because they made that decision. I think they ought to be reinstated with rank and back pay. I have not heard that from anybody thats come before this committee. And im saddened by that. Im out of time, mr. Chairman. Sen. Duckworth thank you, mr. Chairman. General brown, welcome to you and your family and congratulations on your nomination. I really enjoyed our discussion last month. I look forward to continuing to work with you on our militarys readiness, if you are confirmed. Each of the military services faces challenges in meeting recruiting goals. And that pool continues to shrink. Thats why im introducing the enlist act. To begin to remedy this issue. My legislation enables the department of defense to expand its recruiting pool to include longtime residents of this country. This could include many people who love this country and are dedicated to service like Daca Recipients or people who originally came on a work or educational visa and have applied to stay permanently, but cant receive an immigrant visa due to caps in the system. The enlist act will aid recruitment efforts by allowing highly skilled and motivated individuals to succeed in the military while still maintaining the security democratics and high en departments and high enlistment standards. You described traveling to bases and meeting new american eager to serve in the air National Guard. Id like to know if you think the enlist act and its expansion of the pool of possible recruits benefits the military recruitment efforts and id also like to hear your perspective on the value that highly qualified immigrants bring to the military. Gen. Brown as we talked about in your office, you think about those who, as you mentioned, love the country, want to serve, want to raise their right hand and take an oath of office or oath of enlistment and the aspect of the opportunity for them to become citizens of the United States. It provides an opportunity because in many cases they want opportunities that the enlist act would help us with recruiting. Again, talent that resides in this nation, that wants to serve. If they want to serve and meet the qualifications, i think they should all be provided the opportunity. Sen. Duckworth thank you. I cant think of a better way to show love of this country. You want to be an american, put on our colors, stand shoulder to shoulder and help defend her. Id like to thank my colleagues on this committee and the staff for their work on this years ndaa which supports a strong and ready total force. Im particularly proud of my ndaa provision expanding tricare coverage of Reproductive Technology for current Service Members. Service members have higher rates of infertility compared to the general population which is only complicated by an overly restrictive d. O. D. Policy and Service Members deployment schedules. Expanding assistant Reproductive Technology services to female and male members of the Uniformed Services and their dependents without regard to coital conception helps members start the families theyve always dreamed of. Do you think this is a positive recruiting and retention tool . Gen. Brown what i believe about, we as Senior Leaders in the military responsibly, the right health care for all members. When i think about providing health care, i dont try to determine aspects of what type of health care, but health care at large. Weve done that in the past. We need to continue to support our military members and their families with the health care to ensure theyre healthy and, again, continue to serve and be part of the greatest fighting force in the world. Sen. Duckworth thank you, general. Earlier this year i led an indo pacific codel that reinforced to me how important our alliances and partnerships are in the region. Im going back there again in august. Philippines, indonesia, thailand. I think that these partnerships are incredibly important and ive asked these same questions of every service chief who has come before this committee because i think we can be doing so much more to better these key relationships. General brown, you have deep experience in interacting with allies and partners in the middle east, in europe and in the indo pacific. Can you speak about your personal relationships with air chiefs from other nations and how that may benefit your role as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, if you are confirmed . Gen. Brown its all about relationships. In some cases their chief is retiring and a new chief comes in. I have relationships in the Retirement Community as well. But its also providing opportunities to meet with various chiefs of defense. As ive gone and traveledded around the world, to include the indo pacific. If confirmed as chairman, ill have an opportunity to deepen those relationships with other chiefs of defense and thats, again, the value of these relationships will open the door. If i dont know that chief of defense, having the relationship with their chief helps to open the door and continues to build a new relationship with the chief of defense who i dont already know if confirmed. Sen. Duckworth thank you. Mr. Chairman, i just one very quick second. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. I came in late. I apologize for that. But i only heard half of my colleagues questioning to you. He seemed to say that he thought that you were advocating for quotas, racial based quotas in recruiting. I didnt think that was the case. My understanding is that you want to broaden the recruiting and allow anybody who wants to serve or qualifies to serve in making sure that people have access to service, or are you actually implementing racial quotas and saying only a certain number of asians or blacks or whites can be recruited . Prime minister morrison we do not have quotas. Thats against policy gen. Brown we dont have quotas. Thats against policy. Sen. Duckworth thank you for clarifying that. Sen. Scott thank you for your service. I want to thank your wife for her service. And thank you for you have a stellar background. I just got back from the middle east. I went to i was in israel when they had to go in and kill terrorists thargt targeting that were targeting israeli citizens. All they talked about were the problems with iran. Went to bahrain and they were concerned about the menace of iran. I went to e. O. E. , same thing. Everybodys concerned about iran. While i was over there, the u. S. Navy was able, to you really have to admire, i think its fifth fleet, what they did. They stopped two ships from being taken over by iranian forces. And did a great job. So heres my question. As far as i understand, most of these tankers that are going through the states are of hormuz are not straits of hormuz are not owned by american companies. Can you talk about whats the value of the u. S. Military, u. S. Navy being there . Two, thats number one. Number two is, are allies doing their part . Or should we be doing less and let our allies deal with it . Gen. Brown the role of the u. S. Navy in that region, along with the other services, is to help provide security within the region. Which actually may have a global impact. And so the role that i navy plays to help the free flow of commerce that impacts not just the United States, but more broadly other those chris in the region, but countries in the region, but many of our allies and partners and that plays a key role in our participation there. I think weve got to stay involved with our allies and partners and as you highlighted, many of the countries in the region have started to talk more about iran. And i think thats one of the areas that i, having served there several times, weve been focused on counterterrorism. You now think about the aspect of iran in National Security documents, National Security strategy, National Defense strategy, the coalescing of all the nations, brought us an opportunity to work more closely together, in our collective efforts to deter the activities by iran within the streit of hormuz states are of hormuz streit of hormuz strait of hormuz. Sen. Scott a lot of people were concerned about the deal with iran. Once i get back i hear that the f. B. I. Is investigating rob who recently served as president bidens special envoy to iran. Because his security clearance was suspended based on mishandling of classified information. Does this concern you or are you concerned, youre going to have an obligation to try to defend the transit and help israel, things like that . And then youve got, over here youve got the Biden Administration trying to negotiate some deal that is going to possibly give iran more resources . Gen. Brown the thing i do think about is the role of how all parts of government play in our overall dedeterrence. Its not just what the military does, its what we do in the diplomatic space, what we do in the Information Space and economically. All those things, if confirmed, i think i have a responsibility not only to provide i need to provide the military but i need to put it in the context and understanding the other factors that are in play as well. Sen. Scott thank you. Can you talk about the importance of continuing to find a mission for Homestead Air air force stpwhaeus can you tell me the importance of homestead . Gen. Brown having spent four years there and thats where my wife and i, our first assignment after we got married, we have fond memories of being there. But to your question, the capability we have down in southern florida, that reserve unit and having flown with that unit when i was stationary active duty is still having capability. Thats something were working, to ensure homestead still has a mission and we still have a platform to operate there. Continuing dialogue that well have and well have with you as well anded air force will and the air force will have with you as well when we look at homestead. Sen. Scott thank you. And thanks for your service. Congratulations on your success. When i joined the navy, it was a melting pot. It was a great melting pot. It gave you an opportunity to meet people you probably would never meet. I dont believe in quotas and i dont think anybody should, but i do believe its a great melting pot and i think if we can recruit more people from different backgrounds, we ought to be doing that. Dont ever impact somebodys ability to get ahead because they might have a different skin color or background than somebody else. Sounds like you completely agree with that. Gen. Brown i do. Sen. Scott thank you. Thank you very much, senator scott. General brown, thank you, too. I just want to raise an issue or discussion about this august, 2022, memorandum. It was designed to increase the pool of applicants, essentially to search more more talent. It was not designed to set the composition, is that accurate . Gen. Brown thats correct. It was only application goals. It was not designed to elimination opportunities for anyone. It was looking to open opportunities for as many as we could. Sen. Reed and this was signed by the secretary of the air force, the undersecretary of the air force, base operations chief and also, i believe thats it. So a combined effort by the leadership. Gen. Brown yes, it was. Sen. Reed id like to quote from the memorandum. These goals are as operational are aspirational. Aligning resources to invest in our longterm objectives and will not be used in any manner that undermines our meritbased processes. So the memorandum clearly declares that merit is the one standard by which you merit acceptance to the air force and promotion to the air force. Gen. Brown yes, sir. As a matter of fact, that kind of statement was not included, i would have never signed that letter. Sen. Reed i completely concur and i know your character, would you not have signed the letter. General brown, thank you. I look forward to your confirmation. I think youll lead with distinction. And set an example of professionalism, skill that is continuing the example set by your predecessor. With that, ill adjourn the hearing. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] llll. Thank you