General brown i do i do smoke turkey. Well take your word for t i want to start with where you started. Your first message to the joint force on october 2. Trust is the foundation of our profession. One of the things thats Reagan NationalDefense Survey looked into, ask people how they trust and how much confidence they have in the military. 46 say great deal. Some said 32 . Those are good numbers. Especially when you look at the rest of the list like congress. People dont feel the same way they do about the military. You want to build that trust and confidence. What are your goals and hopes for that . General brown when i think about trust being the foundation of our profession, it starts with our members. Its what we do to support our members in uniform and their families. That trust brings them in as recruits, also retains those military families. The other part of it is what we do for the nation. And how we engage with all parts of america. How we engage with our elected leadership. So they can look at our United States military and have that trust that we will do what the nation asked us to do. At the same time, as we build that trust and confidence, i also know we are the most respected military in the world. Many militaries around the world want to be like us. The key part is to maintain that trust. To build that trust. And thats where my focus is as the chairman. And i personally think its i have a personal responsibility, and thats what i try to do throughout myer career. Shannon you talked about building a bond of trust between civilandand military leader shfplt how would you assess where thattance right now . General brown pretty good. And part of that is its how i try to operate personally. One of the key words was the word collaboration. Thats the way i operate throughout my career. Thats how i continue to operate today. One way to build trust is sit across the table from somebody and have a conversation. Even if you disagree. I do believe there are many times there are things we do agree on. Thats where the conversation should start before we talk about where we disagree. We can move and make progress together on areas we agree as we work through the details where we may have a difference of opinion. Shannon one of the places we do see agreement on capitol hill, which is rare these days, is in wanting to take care of our military. Current members, veterans as well, how we get there has sometimes gotten caught up in some of these battles over funding. The secretary touched on this as well. What does it do not only to operations but morale for our service men and women in uniform when we kind of lurch from fend spending crisis, to spending crisis. You have the ndaa to get done by the end of the year. Whats the impact . General brown when i travel and meet with our Service Members they are not focused on some of those issues. They are focused on what the nation asked them to do. We have very smart young members who ask very hard questions when you go out and engage with them. They are focused on making sure they have capability. I think the response i have with the Service Chiefs responsibility i have with the Service Chiefs is highlight why this is important. Why get the National Defense authorization act is so important. Why getting an ontime budget and not having a continuing resolution that provides and ensure that we fight from an advantage and that we can put the capabilities into the hands of our war fighters much more quickly than we do today. As i said, my acceleration, focus on acceleration has not favored. Anything we can do to provide capabilities for our Service Members. Shannon do you feel like you have been able to communicate that with folks on the hill, the urgency of that, or all of those reasons and goals you mentioned . General brown i think so. I told my staff, this is when i was air force chief, when i go over and testify, members of congress are repeating back, we are starting to see the saoeupl site. The fact we talk to members of congress and we do classified briefings and Start Talking about the threat and we have the same sight agree, there are things we need to do that will help our National Security but also security of our allies and partners, it starts to resonate. That has to continue over and over again. There is always someone there may be a handful that havent seen it yet, havent had that intel to understand why all this is important. Shannon the secretary talked about so many of those places around the world, why its so important right now that you all are sphreu funded for fully funded for all of the challenges we are facing. Talk about some of those because they showed up in the Reagan National defense sur have i that came out. 51 of americans now say they see china as the greatest foreign threat. It was surprising to me 74 said they feel we could be in a war with china within five years. What would you say to the American People out there responding to this survey who now view china with increased worry and concern . General brown first thing i would tell them is they ought to be proud of their military. We are ready. For whatever comes our way. At the same time, we want to be so ready that we dont have a conflict. We are hearing peace through strength. Our strength we demonstrate as a military, we are hoping for peace. The better we understand the threat environment and the fact that the American People start to recognize where the p. R. C. Is as a challenge, helps us all so we are moving the same way. This is not just what the military does, but what we do diplomatically. What we do economically. To be able to compete where we need to but also cooperate where we there may be opportunities. Shannon one of the wins the Biden Administration took away from the meeting was the reopening of the military to military communications. Can you tell us an update on how thats going and why thats critical to avoiding the things people are worried about in the survey . General brown im standing by. The opportunity to have dialogue, whether with our partners or adversaries are really important. I think with our adversaries its to prevent miscalculation. Ill use my own personal experience. I was in the isis campaign when the russians came into syria. We started with an unclassified phone line and g mail account. That was a way to communicate with the russians. It was helpful to help prevent miscalculation. It was more a deconflicts. To talk to our adversaries, to understand what we are doing and prevent that miscalculation. At the same time the dialogue have with allies and partners is important. I have been in the job for two months. I probably had about 40plus engagements. About half of them are my counterparts. Some multiple times. Those are important. Because they provide me a perspective. As i was introduced, i do listen. When i talk to my counterparts, they are sharing things with me that they have an appreciation because for their part of the world they grew up there. They have probably a deeper sense of whats going on than i do. Which helps me in my job as the chairman when i provide advice. Shannon stay with china, because this issue of competition versus conflict, the president says we are going for the former not the latter. There is a lot of iteration in the survey how we doing on that front. The majority of americans think the next 10 years according to the numbers and survey, china will outpace the u. S. Both military power and economic strength. Whats your outlook on that . General brown my real role and job is to make sure on the military side that doesnt occur. Which is why im focused on accelerating change. Why im focused on the slab budget reconciliation we do, particularly having out here the past couple years, not only here at reagan, but the Silicon Valley and how we Work Together on our National Defense and how it helps us economically. Combination of those two continue to make us a very strong nation and as secretary austin highlighted, our leadership is important around the world. Both from a military standpoint and economic standpoint. Shannon one of those ways is really on the stage, world stage, is this issue of china and taiwan, which was covered in the survey. 73 of the people responded to the survey this year they why somewhat worried about the possibility of china invading taiwan. You said in the past you dont think it will be a physical operation to take taiwan, logistically very difficult to do that. There are other way that is china will pressure taiwan. How do you see that playing out . General brown think about what happened in hong kong. We also should be worried whether it should happen for not. Why deterrence is so important so conflict does not occur. If you look what happened to hong kong, and so things the p. R. C. Is doing today is putting pressure on taiwan. Putting pressure on countries in the indopacific and whether its economically or militarily that we have seen. Continued pressure to where in this case taiwan down or others down to their own gain. We got to Pay Attention to that. Which is why i go back to the the course of the five years, i was commander of the pacific air force, i became chief of staff of the air force, watching how many nations in the region end, the survey, the American Public starts to see the p. R. C. As a challenge, we are able to tie them together. Shannon a lot survey focused on ukraine and russia. Who is currently winning the war was the question asked in the survey, russia, 31 . Ukraine, 34 . And neither, 23 . The battle lines have not changed significantly in the last few months. Where do you see this ultimately resolving . Is it a matter of ukraine retaking everything that they like to get back . Is it a matter of some other kind of negotiated truce with putin . General brown i would just tell you, with any military conflict you dont solve it completely by military means. It ends up with a diplomatic solution. I cant predict the future how it will end. I think we can help shape it. The way we can help shape it is the work we do in support of ukraine, providing them capability. In the time i have been in this position we have had a chance to participate in the Ukraine DefenseContact Group a couple times. The number of nations that are contributing to ukraines support is important. I talked to the general on a fairly regular basis. I talked to him earlier this week. The approach they are taking. The secretary was in kyiv before thanksgiving. Our continuing engagement with ukraine and continued support are important. Because russia is one of our challenges. Its laid out in the National Security, National Defense strategies. And the work we have to do there is important to get to a better place in the long run. Shannon 70 of the survey also said they have real concerns the conflict will spill over into a nato country, then directly forcing the u. S. Into this battle. Do you think thats more or less likely now almost two years into this . General brown when i see right now, if you think about what putin intended to do from the very start, the territory gained and territory lost in ukraine, things have not gone according to his plan. One key area, because of what happened in ukraine, nato is stronger than its ever been. Its larger now with finland and sweden soon to follow. And because of that strength and the dialogue with many of our nato partners, we are all committed to ensure that this does not expand into nato and go broader. Shannon against the backdrop of the middle east which is front and center. Talk about iran. There have been more than 70 attacks on u. S. Troops in the region. Believed to come from iranian proxies. What do you say we havent had a forceful response to that . General brown we have been focused and striking at a time and place of our choosing. We have done things to increase the force protection for our forces at the far ends of the region. And one of the key goals, after 7 october, was to not let the conflict expand. We have been very thoughtful about the approach we take. I do that, when i provide my advice. How best to respond, but also not to broaden the conflict. Shannon with all these multiple challenges out there, there are questions in the survey as well about how we manage all of these different things. One of the questions asked, regarding the war in ukraine, how worried are you about u. S. Military aid to ukraine causing the u. S. To deplete its weapons stockpile . And now israel and other areas as well. Some 63 say they worry about the depletion of our assets, military assets. Can you address that . General brown we have gone through as we have support both ukraine and israel we go through our own house. What we require in order to execute our operational plans. We go through that level of analysis as we make decisions of the Security System we provide for both nations. At the same time, there is opportunity with that supplemental that secretary austin highlighted, it goes back into our Defense Industrial base, to build our capability not only for allies and partners but for us. That to me is important because it helps us to continue down the path of modernization and to bring in capability. Defense industrial base, supply chain, all those are important to our defense. The last thing i say on that, our allies and partners like u. S. Equipment and capability. So to be able to get the funding and the supplementals in place to continue to provide support for both ukraine and israel also supports us in our Defense Industrial base as well. Shannon thats the physical. You are always looking forward to the future of fighting and technology as well. Talk about artificial intelligence. Also shows up in the survey. When we asked if the military, or reagan asked if the military should integrate more use of a. I. , about half of americans said its too soon, they dont want to comment. Or assess whether that would be good. Those who did weigh in more than half said, in the survey, they think its a bad idea for the military to use a. I. How do you address those concerns . General brown first thing i think about is a. I. Has opportunities and capability. The way i think about using a. I. Is first of all, we have operational problems we have to solve as a military. And a. I. Is not the panacea thats going to solve all those problems. Or you cant sprinkle a. I. Dust on everything and it will make life better. What we have to do is look where a. I. Has a Practical Application based on what we are trying to achieve. You can think about it, a. I. Is going to help us make decisions faster to do things faster. We still have one of our Service Members estimate the final decision. It will help us with speed. Agility. And i think theres some real value there. I would also highlight we have already gone down a path of autonomy in certain areas, whether its capability that provides us greater ability to do things without putting our Service Members at risk. Or autonomy in some of our Weapons Systems. I flew out of here in one of our c137s. Has a lot of autonomy, helps make decisions so the pilot can monitor andexecute the mission. Ai has some value but we cant say it will solve all of our problems. It does provide some capability. There is a lot to learn with ai moving forward. Shannon i thought it was interesting that although there seemed to be hesitant for the military to use ai but there was the worry that china would outpace us when it comes to things like ai. General brown not only do want to look at the technology, wen yu to watch how adverse we need to watch our adversaries may use that technology. Whether it be ai, cyberspace, outlining the norms of behavior how that may be used like we do in the other domains of air. Shannon you mentioned cyber. Also in the survey it asked how concerned are you about the threat of cyberattacks in the five years . Extreme the or somewhat got up to 86 . Extremely or somewhat got up to 86 . General brown from a cyber standpoint it is something we have to worry about across the nation. There are aspects of what we do at the department of defense to protect our Weapons Systems what we think about our National Critical infrastructure that needs to be protected. We need to work closely with other parts of the inner agencies on how we attack that from cyberattacks. We have seen that with the Colonial Pipeline and other cases of Ransomware Attacks done by either state or nonstate actors. For all of us it is something we need to Pay Attention to. Shannon we talked about ai. The survey respondents were worried about outpacing on that. We asked about Cyber Capabilities and whether your superior u. S. Or china is superior on that front. The large group think that china is superior to us when it comes to cyberattacks. How are we addressing that . General brown we will always work to improve ourselves. I realize its a survey but as i read our intel i feel confident in our capabilities across not only cyber but ai technology. We cant rest on laurels. We have to continue to look and analyze where we sit and associate with these various technologies and the things were doing to move forward. Shannon as we sit in the middle of these challenges there is some recruiting goals that have been missed by some of the branches. The Defense Survey asks does a close if a close friend or Family Member thought about joining the military, would you encourage or discourage . What is your message to being open to joining, to wearing the uniform and more broadly to be excited or encouraged about being a part of this . General brown i highlight the great opportunity. The fact that we as a nation talk about the value of service. Whether it is in uniform or working as a civilian and the department of defense or some part of our government or community how important it is. I think about the opportunities. The things young people will have the opportunity to do if they were to join the military. We have to talk about that. The reason i say that is because i believe young people always aspired to be what they see or know about. If you dont know about the opportunities for serving in the military you may never pursue that career. I would say from my own experience this was my dads idea. [laughter] supported by my mom. Four years of the military will not hurt you. Shannon several decades later. General brown my degree is in engineering. I was going to be an air force engineer for four years and got out and get out. I had a ride in a t037. I think i want to do that. I became an f 16 pilot and i still get to fly today. It is those kind of opportunities you dont know until you have a chance to experience it. Unless you stay for a handful of years or a handful of decades, there are great opportunities serving in our military. Shannon being a pilot, is it hard for you to sit there will someone elses flying the plane . General brown oh yeah. It is. You always wonder what they are giving up there. Its like being in the backseat when your spouse is driving. [laughter] shannon what is going on up there . General brown we have all been there. I can tell by the laughter. [laughter] shannon i would feel like we are in good hands. In your first message to the joint force you said honing our war fighting skill is in all we do. The survey asked if there was any part of the respondent who thought we are too focused on social issues and the military at the extensive war fighting. A quarter of people said that thought that was a problem. What do you say to them . General brown honing our war fighting skill is primarily in every thing we do that is why we exist. To fight and when this nations wars. We can be good at what we do. We do that because we bring our nations best from all backgrounds. Im surely proud of our Service Members, every single one of them. Right before we started lunch today and we had the honor guard i talked to the young sailors. I started asking questions about how long they served and where you have been. She said to me thank you for your service. I said thank you for your service. We are in this together. And we are. I am so amazed by the young people that come into our military. When i go out and talk to them they are focused on war fighting. They are focused on getting the mission done. They are amazing young people. I am proud to be able to work with them. Shannon you touched on this little bit. Do you think art young people not signing up is i dont know about the opportunities . What are some of the lowest levels in recent history where people knowing our having a Family Member or somebody who is actually serving . General brown if you go back to the end of the cold war and as we started getting smaller and fewer bases in our communities and young people having fewer connections to somebody, whether it is a relative or neighbor that they know served in the military. One of the goals we have to do is as a nation to talk about our military and the opportunities. I try to do that when i travel. You dont know what you dont know. My dad pushed me into this. I stuck around. Im so having fun doing what i do. Shannon we can tell. I like to save my first controversial question for last. Now that you are warmed up. Next saturday, army or navy . [laughter] i feel like as a neutral air force guy you can waken. Weigh in. General brown i had a chance to go to the Navy Air Force game and the army game. I get asked the same question. Next saturday, i just look for a good game. [laughter] seriously. If you can get it down to the Fourth Quarter and its down to the last play, thats the kind of game you want to have. You dont want to blowout or taking it into overtime. Make it interesting. Im a huge football fan. I like an interesting game versus a blowout. One of the things when our Service Academies get on the field, great competition, great rivalry. The thing i enjoy most is when they come into our services and they can talk about the rivalry but it is what we do day in and day out as a team to protect our nation. I could not be prouder of them. I look forward to shaking hands with the midshipman and cadets when theyre out there and watching the good game. Shannon for your patriot war fighter and diplomat. Thank you. [applause] this concludes our fireside chat