Transcripts For CSPAN2 Senate Hearing On U.S. European Command U.S. Transportation Command... 20240713

We have quite a few more. This is the time of year, and we have general todd walters, and i appreciate very much the time we spent together last week. And general stephen lyons, so i appreciate you two, the years of service that you have donated and given to your country. As stated many times before, the Armed Services committees top priority is to ensure the effective implementation of the National Defense strategy. We have that. Yeah. We have it pretty much surprised me, senator, how we have really stuck with the from the very beginning. With that from the very beginning. It means that we must ensure that in this era of great power and competition with russia and china, that our military services are resourcing commands to address the challenge of strategic competition. This is especially true of our two combatant commands that are here today, ucom is focused on deterring vladimir putin, who has repeatedly shown his willingness to use force to achieve his political objectives, and then there is transcom, focused on fullspectrum mobility operations. Both of which face capability shortfalls. I just returned from the security conference with several others here at this table. It was a great reminder of the importance of allies and partners as we deal with the challenges from china and russia. There are great opportunities to work with our european friends, especially in africa, and i hope we will continue to do that. Americas commitment to nato remains bipartisan and unwavering. We are matching our words with action, especially through the posture investments in the European Deterrence Initiative in the upcoming exercise called defend 2020, which will be the Largest Movement of u. S. Troops to europe since the end of the cold war, we are talking about in addition to the 10,000 already there, an additional 20,000. That is a large one. It is a record setter. General walters, i look forward to hearing about your priorities Going Forward, especially in the maritime domain, where russias increasing activity, advancing submarines and air and Missile Defense as russia continues to threaten u. S. And allied forces with its missile arsenal. General lyons, you recently stated that the aero refueling fleet is the most stressed in the u. S. Transportation commands arsenal. We look forward to getting your thoughts on how we can address the shortfall, much of which is due to the problems we have had with the kc 46. Im particularly sensitive to that, because i was due to come back from all the way to Washington State to come back to the air force base in the kc 46. I dont think there was any problem with it. Obviously, there is. And before we turn to senator reed, we will have a classified closed, informal briefing at 2 30. That is going to conflict with some of the votes. i want to join you in welcoming our witnesses this morning. Firstgeneral walters time here in his position. General lyons, i welcome your return. Let me thank both of you for the many decades of military service and please extend our appreciation to the dedicated men and women serving our command. The transatlantic relationship remains absolutely critical to u. S. National security. Our close bond with european allies is one of our most strategic and benefits. Congress reaffirmed the unbreakable u. S. Commitment to nato. Cuts to theed that Deterrence Initiative proposed in the president s fiscal year budget request may send the wrong signature to our allies regarding our support for the transatlantic relationship. Ucom faces a wide range of security challenges, including the reemergence of russia, seeking to reassert a claim to break power status. Russia is actively undermining the rules. Its militaryloaded aggressively to undermine neighbors sovereignty. Ucom is developing the operational concepts, plants, and programs necessary for the strategic competition with a militaryto ensure deterrence against russia. The committee will be very interested in whether you have posture in europe to meet this challenge. Additionally, russia is engaged in a campaign of hybrid warfare to advance its strategic interest. Havet news reports highlighted russia is once again inducting Information Warfare operations to influence the upcoming u. S. President ial election to advance preferred candidates, so division, and undermine public faith in our democratic process. I will be interested in how ucom is working with cybercom to counter the threat. And what progress of any we have nade to defend against russia maligned influence. The exercise is a largest employment of troops in the last 25 years. There are some that still remember. 30,000 u. S. Nato forces will participate in the offender. Defender. The men and women of transcom protect our nation security. Such, theyetitive ag provide the of the with unique capabilities that we have come to expect and perhaps to frequently take for granted. Without them, the u. S. Would be at a significant disadvantage almost everywhere in the world. Of readiness by the maritime administration. It is aging and will need to be modernized over the next decade. Three years ago, the committee of the rest a program to capitalize a reserve force. This authorized purchase up to two vessels on the navy designed for a number of uses, including recapitalizing the reserve force. Two years ago, congress authorized to buy five more. Essels a plan we have yet to receive. I am interested in the status of fy rrf recapitalization and 2021. General lyons, i am interested in your views on what needs to be done to ensure readiness. Global transportation capability has been one of our asymmetric advantages for many years now. However we cannot assume that potential adversaries will allow free reign in this area in the future. Lester, we received report of the analysis of wartime transportation need in the mobility requirements study. The committeeo the department needed to continue the analytical effort to identify requirements because the study presented last year did not reflect implementation of the National Defense strategy. General lyons, perhaps you can give us an update on where trams com stance. Transcom stands. General lyons, i would like to get an update from you on where it stands on its effort to improve Cyber Security posture. Let me thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee today. I look forward to your testimony. Chairman inhofe we will now hear Opening Statements. Will start with general walters and general alliance. Your statements should be around five minutes. General walters. General reid,s this thing with members of the committee, it is an honor to appear before you. We thank each and every one of you for your support. As all of you will know, it is an absolute privilege to serve alongside the patriots that represent the u. S. Of america the United States of america. In europe, political uncertainty, competition, and diffusion of Destructive Technology are stressing the established western order. Seek toand challenges take advantage of these conditions through aggressive action using all instruments of National Power and are backed by increasingly Capable Military forces. The national with Defense Strategy implementation efforts, we confront these challenges by adapting our approach to most effectively employ our means. Together with likeminded allies and partners, we defend freedom around the clock. Thanks to their efforts in the authorities and resources you ucom is you posture to compete, deter, and thectively respond with full weight of the transatlantic alliance. In 2000 19, nato took significant military strikes with improvements in commanding control indications and warnings mission command, and by approving a new nato tarehensive defense answered response. Nato continues to adapt its structure with the establishment of two additional nato headquarters. Joint forces command, focused on maintaining Transatlantic Lines of communications, and one focused on a logistics ordination. These headquarters increased our ability to command and control enabled appointment and sustain nato forces in crisis through conflict. The european union, nato, and ucom may progress in transit procedures to facilitate Rapid Movement of forces across the euro atlantic. We will facilitate the portman of a division size force as mentioned by the chairman during the u. S. Let exercise defender. An exercise that showcases u. S. And allied commitment to collective security of the euro atlantic. In United States position europe is an invaluable cornerstone and National Security. Today, u. S. Service members in europe continued to generate peace alongside our allies and partners. We are grateful for sustained congressional interest and support through authorities and funding. Together, with the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guard men, and civilians, your support the mistreats our nations continued commitment to defend the homeland forward and preserve peace for the citizens in the euro atlantic. Thank you. Chairman inhofe general lyons. General lyons thank you, theman, senator reed committee. It is my honor to represent the men and women of the United States transportation command. Who are at this very moment employed, in operations. Ranscom isn at t enduring, sustaining the force ranscom is enduring, sustaining the force globally at our time and place of choosing, thereby representing multiple options for National Leadership and multiple dilemmas for potential adversaries. With 85 of the stations in United States, it is transcoms job to advance strategic priorities. The National Defense strategy underscores the importance of advancing our National Security interests, deterring potential adversaries, and if a deterrence fails, responding with overwhelming force to win. Our projection is a distinct u. S. Comparative advantage, that we are not alone in this effort. Our vast Logistics Networks are underpinned by allies and likeminded partners facilitate critical access in overflight activities. Today, i am confident in our ability to successfully execute our mission. This past year, with a no notice alert, we most the first brigade of the 82nd division in less than 5. 5 days. In total, we moved over 42 army brigades, refueled multiple Bomber Task Force and fighter movements, delivered 1. 9 million passengers, over 6000 patients, over 100,000 containers, and over 26 million square feet of cargo. Much of this activity largely went unnoticed. This is good news and a sign of sustained success across dods mobility enterprise. However, as the chairman pointed out, the world is changing. That internal Defense Strategy describes a future in which trans, stable to project a joint force under all persistent attack. With knowledge our success today does not guarantee success for tomorrow. We are actively preparing to meet tomorrows challenges, working through environment were games, enhancing cyber defenses and resiliency, and improving the integration of a sustainment were fighting function across a joint operation. To maintain readiness today, our area refueling forces require attention so they can continue to meet current and future challenges. Before i close, i want to have a departments ongoing work to improve the personal Property Program, an area of great interest for congress. As directed, we have submitted a Business Case analysis to work closer with the gao on their report. Both reports underscore the need for change. The department can no longer afford to operate a disparate confederation of government activity supervising is similarly disparate collection of hundreds of transportation providers. We are on track to restructure ,ur relationship with industry moving dod families ahead of the 2021 season. My message for dod families, we heard your call for accountability, transparency, quality capacity, and we are committed to deliver. My message for industry providers, if you provide Quality Service for military members, you have a place in the future program. We need every Quality Service to include our Small Businesses and appreciate all that you do. It is an exciting time to be the commander of u. S. Transcom. I cannot be more proud of the team of professionals that form the joint distribution enterprise. Looking forward for your questions. Thank you,hofe general lyons. I appreciate you bringing up that issue. We spent a lot of time on that, addressing that. You are carrying it out exactly as we had intended you to. Wolters,ioned, general we appreciate everything that we got in germany. You covered something i think might be worth repeating here. In october of 2019, the news report suggested that russia to put as many as 10 submarines, some of the largest fleet since world war ii fleet maneuvers since world war ii. Can you describe as you did this last week how the pace and scope of russias maritime activity has changed in recent years and what that application has toured ucom . General wolter we took note of the activity in 2018 and compared it to what russia executed in the summer of 2019. What we size a 50 increase in the number of resources that russia committed to out of of area submarine patrol operations. What we also witnessed was an good order discipline on behalf of russian sailors. This observation is one more reflection about how important it is to continue to improve our Competitive Edge to make sure that we can operate with freedom. Chairman inhofe on that same trip, we went through spain when they were talking about adding the two u. S. Destroyers to the four that are already there. Is that something you support . Where does that fall into your level of request that you have for Additional Forces in ucom . General wolter it is precisely in line for a request for two additional destroyers. I am also proud to report we have been in a position to where we have been able to improve and mature the infrastructure of roda. If you ask me to accept a more destroyers tomorrow, we possess the infrastructure to be able to house those additional destroyers. Chairman inhofe they made that very clear. Commented in, we my Opening Statement about the kc 46, going from washington to seattle to the air force base. And i remember at that time, we there andecretary deborah james, and i recall making an observation. 1959, twoas that in things happened, number one, i got married, and number two, the were actually delivered to Altus Air Force base. At that time, we did not know that there was any problem, at least i did not know. And anybody else did either. The fact that it lasted 60 years, and looks like that is going to enhance the prosperity of the air force base for the next 60 years. That was something that really aware of. Not i have a problem, and the problem of course is what to do to fill that function. And i know that you have given a lot of thought to what. Let us know where you are right now. We have been doing this for years, getting rid of old things before we get anyones online and ready to perform. The new ones online and ready to perform. Tell us where we are. What is that going to do with the preparations we already made for the kc 135s and casey 10 kc 10s to be downgraded . General lyons as you mentioned, area refueling is the most stressed element in the portfolio, both for daytoday operations as well as and i will defer to the air force on the particular technical aspects of the kc 46 as it comes online. We will be having the air force hearing to talk about that. Yes, sir. What i can describe, as we bring the kc 46 on, we convert more crews, when that capability is not usable and that is not presentable to the joint force for some technical deficiencies, that means a dip in operational capabilities. Continue to retire the kc 135 and the kc 10 at the rate that was proposed by the air force. We are working closely with the air force and the department to retain a level of levels exceeding legacy capability. You are attaining some. You had not planned on retaining any. We are working with the air force now. There were some number of planes that were retired, programmed for retirement. We believe they must be retained. 135s and casey tends we believe must be retained s. Ey kc 10 european command strategy document states meeting the challenge of counseling crime and kremlin sponsored campaigns requires a solution. Do you assess that we have a unified man to address malign influence directed to the 2020 election. As you are familiar with, we establish two years ago the russia Integration Group that bears the responsibility to combine ustranscom with many nato nations for government activity and activities below the level of conflict to ensure we have better control of the information domain. We expect to do better and that is a big place military leaders to be. I have the opportunity to visit with many us entities and National Entities the represent whole of government and hold of nation activity to provide more influence in the information domain and i am pleased with the progress. Can you give me your assessment of the current state of alliance . I would assume the military level, the alignment i see with the United States and nato with the north atlantic extension is strong as i ever witnessed and i had the opportunity to serve in nato since 1983 and i am pleased to report at the political level as a result of recent documents that were approved at nato in the political level we are seeing greater cohesion as well. The first time in six decades we at nato approved the first nato military strategy, a document that is classified and codifies the threat and activities we need to embrace to more competently defend. All 29 nations agreed to the nato military strategy and that is at the military level of improving cohesion. We talk about the shipbuilding program. Where do we have to go . As you know, we care about 90 of our Cargo Capacity in the wartime scenario. It is below where we need it to be. You indicated it is at the end of its useful life. We are working with the navy, you mentioned authorization for 7 used vessels, we will purchase the first two in 21 and my view is we should have the first vessel in the first 1 45 thousand 21. We are below what we would need for that . It is correct. We need a much longer plan. The chairman touched upon in the office. You are in position where you not only have to have a military organization, keep ahead of the curve but literally hundreds of companies, some large some small, can you tell me about the challenges you are facing or the vulnerability there . The way i characterize the cyber vulnerability is most consequential. We spent a lot of time on this issue looking at resiliency, looking at a number of other issues with regard to the commercial carriers which we included contract language in all our contract, we check compliance, we believe that there level of cyber hygiene significantly increase from this level of effort. I would not come here and say you can have a persistent threat actor. We have sufficient resiliency in our contracts as well. Do you have the ability to check, send in teams, no notice and inspection this because the old line, the unit only does what the commander checks, you have nothing. We dont have the authority you are describing. There are second and third implications on those kinds of activities. Can you get back to us . I can. It is an outstanding operation. Thank you for your Great Service to the United States. The 2021 budget requests 700 billion for dod. This represents 3 tents of one over the current fiscal year. In other words the proposed budget buys us less resources than the current year considering inflation. Am i correct . Yes, senator. Let me ask you this. Do we need less Security Resources in the european command less than we did this year . We need more. In addition to that, the secretary of defense, the joint chiefs of staff and National Defense Strategy Commission have all endorsed 3. 5 real growth. Is that your opinion, general walters . Yes. General lyons, is that your opinion . Yes. I appreciate the distinguished chairman mentioning earlier on in his questioning, i am glad he and his team visited there, bipartisan delegation visited there just the other day. The workhorse of the navy, general walters, in european command, how does a mere 3 tents of one increase occur over affect what we do over there . Those will allow us the opportunity to continue to improve to get indications and potential battle space. To better command and control and because of the flexibility of those resources they can comprehensively defend in all geographical areas in support of europe. The stories are critical, the campaign to deliver peace particularly in areas of indications and warning and command and control. Thank you for that. We will try to help you up and down the dais on a bipartisan basis. On the resources that we need to defend america and americans. The leader of you come ucomm would mention russia and china. Could you enlighten us about where you are seeing increased problems with china and increased influence in the european theater from china . Two areas. The first is seaport equities and the second is 5g huawei. What we have seen in several critical nations on the periphery there is an economic majority on behalf of China Investment in critical nations like belgium, italy, france and greece. That is a large concern to all the nato nations and when you do the collective mass, china has access, those are daunting figures, cannot continue to be vigilant with respect to seaport equities on the economic side. I am firmly aware of several european nations have a tendency to lead toward huawei and 5g. Without the appropriate mention theres technical data and personal data with the discipline of our nato soldiers and us soldiers. A number of us are involved in a member to member basis, in the parliamentary assembly, we have a great ambassador to the osc, ambassador jim gilmore. To what extent is it important to providing information that you need . It builds incredible trust, your hearings that you held in dance class last year were a boosted trust not only between the us and poland but throughout all of nato. Senator blumenthal. Many of my colleagues and i, as recently as this morning from other departments and agencies in the administration about coordinated response to the coronavirus. Im concerned about the department of defense response to protect servicemembers and Family Members stationed, the rapid spread of this virus as well as the diagnoses. And stationed in south korea. I am focused on ensuring that the department is reevaluating, updating procedures and actions necessary to keep our servicemembers and their families safe. Your command manages the servicemembers in and out of areas that have been impacted by coronavirus making be uniquely positioned to address these issues. What actions has your command taken to mitigate the spread of cover 19 and ensure servicemembers and our families, you need additional resources, and what more do you think should be done . I agree with your concern is, the coronavirus us Northern Command in support of health and Human Services on a daily basis. We are watching closely for global mobility. What specific actions have you taken . Inside the transportation enterprise, potential folks coming out of the theater. We are not taking Health Protection measures, in the broad sense, in support of health and Human Services. Do you feel you have been given the necessary resources and other tools to affect service men and women . Yes, senator and we have also been given the appropriate authorities as we speak. We have 300 cases in the nation that is most concerning, italy with 6 reported deaths. We have restricted travel to certain zones like midair arrival school heights to be screened for the virus. Are you taking any additional steps to constrain travel by service men and women for their families on leave and so forth . What we feel are the affected areas two states inside of italy. Do you have strict travel in any other states . We anticipate the need may arise in germany but that is still to be determined. General walters, american servicemembers in joint military Training Group, you know that they serve with ukrainian forces. Can you expand on important efforts . The joint military Training Group initiative, military training activity on a rotational basis starting in 2016. They began six months later, in the special operations category. There are several phases of the longrange plan and 3 years later in phase 3 put those military training teams that represent the joint military Training Group, canada and the uk are the participants. Those teams are in with Ukrainian Armed forces and congressional force on that side of the with Ukrainian Armed forces. The greater alignment where we need to head. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your service, thank you to those who serve under you. It is implemented in the emphasis in prioritizing strategic competition with russia. As i mentioned earlier on questions from your colleagues for the first time in many decades, the nato military strategy looks very similar to the United States National Defense strategy. It was willingness on behalf of nato to lean forward with respect to what we do across the spectrum of competition which is where we call for in the mbs. What was the biggest challenge you have in fulfilling the bells of the mbs . Do what we can to cure the malign influence on behalf of russia. That requires more concentrated effort in the production phase. What we heard throughout many questions today, the activities we embrace in 21stcentury military below the actual activities of conflict and what we are doing with Rapid Improvement in those areas. In order to improve, you need to Work Together more in your training . Yes. You feel you are coming together with other nato partners in facing what the threats are . We are. The approval of nato military strategy that codifies those threats and agreement on behalf of the 29 nations to identify those threats. We discussed the growing recognition that there is among the nato partners with nuclear deterrent, they all understand our deterrent, the triad is the bedrock of this country. Can you tell us a little bit about what you are hearing from our nato partners when it comes to the deterrent in private conversations if you can share that but also in public the support that you see. Theres a greater degree of awareness of the importance of deterrence. As we look at the success nato had for 7 decades that deliver peace, one of the elements has to be the triad that exists from the United States with representations of Agreement Terms on the european continent. It has been very effective and the nations understand more about that with each passing day as a result of embracing deterrence to a greater degree than we have in the past. Would you say our partners in embracing this deterrence are becoming better messengers in their own countries about not just a strong nato but having that Strong Nuclear deterrence, that umbrella in their freedom as well. It has to do with responsibility we feel to nato to generate peace not just inside the boundaries of europe but on the periphery and as we embrace operation support in afghanistan, to proliferate deterrence to the maximum extent possible to achieve greater peace. A no first first use policy would that strengthen deterrence . It is a first use policy. Developing ground launch conventionally armed intermediate range weapons will enhance your ability to deter russia . It compliments an enemys task. Thank you, mister chairman, appreciate the opportunity to visit you before the hearing today. I want to ask you a question. A back and forth with senator reid, you talk about increased russian sub activity in the atlantic. The president s budget proposes to cut the virginia class subprogram 50 , one of the two in the black by. They used general transfer authority to move 3. 28 billion pentagon money to the general drug account on the southern border and part of those funds was reduction of 180 million, that airplane is a modified boeing 737, it usually operates from iceland or elsewhere to work with fast attack subs like the virginia class going from greenland, iceland, uk gap. Talk about the virginia class and p8 poseidon encountering russian sub activity. They are vital capabilities. What they contribute to Maritime Patrol activity that has proven over time to be very successful, we are lucky to the part of nato. We lean on our brothers and sisters from a National Perspective to ask him to take a look at the resources they can contribute when we are in situations with respect to detriments in the Maritime Patrol area. Norway has been a contributor on the ph side of the house and we see the effectiveness of the system that they are vital resources needed to improve our overall deterrence posture. The virginia class and poseidon. Yes. I want to ask on pages 5 and 6 of your written testimony you talk about military sealift issues and senator reid asked about it. There was an ig report about Military Sealift Command and readiness reporting and one of the areas they focused on was the readiness reporting was coming from ship captains and they were reporting on readiness. These are our assets but the operation was contracted and the question about whether there was incentive for the captain to accurately report, what is there incentive to say we are not ready. What are you guys doing . You talk about the current readiness measurement but what do you do to make sure the reporting of readiness from the ship level appears as accurate as it can be . A great question. I concur with that assessment. A lot of improvements but what we see today, part of that is why we see lowrent rates in the Ready Reserve fleet. In september, back about three years ago in 2017, the sealift commander started to take this seriously, a comprehensive plan, the dod ig reflected his findings in the report youre referring to and a lot of work to be done. To your written testimony there is a goal of 85 readiness but the measure is at 59 and condition and h. R. Primary factors, those continue to degrade readiness. You have additional testimony, 1 to 2 million square feet of capacity of ships reach the end a useful life. In the remaining minute, what are the plans to restore that readiness near the 85 goal . It is a significant issue. The top priority we are working with the navy on this and we have a fleet that is 43 years old on average. Compare that to the civilian industry, from 1525, it is now secret when you retain a large facility like one of our platforms it becomes more expensive the older it gets. In terms of service life extension, returning the investment we thought it would. A strong advocate of the required strategy, the authorization to do that we 7, we need to execute what you give us the ability to do and with a longrange plan, for 15 to 20 years. Thank you for your appearance and service. Talk about coronaviruss impact in the european theater. From the stars and stripes report on sunday, theres a temporary closing, with fitness centers, is that report accurate . Are there any updates from that report on sunday on Stars Stripes . Those facilities remain closed and travel to two states, still prohibited in italy. Do you expect those facilities will reopen thursday or do you think the closure might be extended . I would give it a 5050 right now potentially expending the closure. Any troops we have . Roughly speaking . Im sure we have 6 or 7000. How many have accompanied spouses or children . 70 percent80 . Maybe about 4000 or 4500 husband and wifes . Absolutely. Over 35,000 us military members in italy. They are mostly sitting at home. Theres a fair amount. Coronavirus has been present in germany as well. That was one of the first european nations in which it appeared and in the last few days. Has their been any such closure at our military bases in germany. Not yet but we are anticipating an increase in the number of cases reported in germany and we are prepared to execute. A troubling situation. What you have spoken up briefly as well, the Chinese Telecom company. You state in your written testimony that 5g networks by huawei place intellectual property, Sensitive Technology and private personal information at heightened risk of acquisition and exploitation by the Chinese Government and this ongoing initiative coupled with chinas going interest in infrastructure complicates steadystate contingency operations. Sound like you consider the use of huawei and 5g networks as a threat to National Security. Certainly a threat to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The troopers that you lead. Some european nations are moving forward with Huawei Technologies with nato allies in the United Kingdom and germany. What are we to do about that and how can we guarantee the security of our troopers and our nato command and control systems . It is vigilance, education and going back to the basics with respect to Network Protection on the technical side of the house and the personal side of the house, soldiers, sermon, marines, all of our nato forces. Do your military counterparts understand the threat that huawei poses . Yes, senator. The problem may be at the Political Leadership level. A statement, not a question. Finally, i want to conclude on a somewhat related matter. We discussed this yesterday in our meeting. I want to bring your attention to an alarming poll by the pew research center, among 16 nato countries. Happily it shows natos favorability rating is pretty strong. 5327 of the people of the 16 countries have a favorable impression of nato, not surprisingly nato scored pretty low in russia. Somewhat disappointingly when asked who should fight russia if there were a conflict between a nato ally and russia, 38 of people said my nation should fight russia were 50 said the United States should fight russia. And biggest nato allies it was even more alarming, italy, 25 said we will fight them, 70 you americans go fight, germany 34. 63. Not too much. General walters, can europeans expect americans to care more about their security and kids than they care about their security . My consultations with chiefs of defense and ministers defense i see a desire and willingness to fight the russians and those nations i continually communicate with show that desire to protect themselves. I hear the same thing when i consult with European Defense leaders, men and women who have dedicated themselves, dedicated their lives to the service of their country and defense of their country. It is a political problem at the level of Political Leadership in europe both in the leaders and leadership they showed the people to demonstrate that they have to be willing to fight as hard for their future and their security as they expect americans to fight for them. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you for your service. I would like to focus on the baltics. In 2017 i visited latvia and lithuania to observe u. S. Armys europe Operations Cyber strike exercise. The Michigan National guard participate in these exercises as latvias counterpart in the National Guard state Partnership Program. Latvia and forces participate in the National Guards Northern Strike exercise which is a joint multinational exercise in michigan. The latvian military particularly benefits from this training in michigan because it offers an opportunity for them to certify as j tax. As a result of this program latvia is one of eight allied countries that are certified to call in the United States Close Air Support in combat. Part of the reason the Michigan National guard and latvian military have a strong relationship is the latvian military is based on integrating reserve and regular forces as a major component of their National Defense strategy. Could you discuss how they partner to support the Baltic States reliance on these reserve forces and specifically the state partnership with our National Guard and how integral this is to all of this. First of all for the baltics rat large the insertion of the battalionsized bed groups into list only a, latvia, lithuania and poland in 2016 has improved all domain security, with the participation of michigan or National Guardsmen who have been in trouble in the integration peace, the lead nation happens to be canada and we have many elements that are intermixed among other nations. The day in and day out of those battle groups key the battle space to defend their sovereign territory is palpable and they are doing so in all domains and functions. Our next step is to make sure they are generating peace with all the activities in the southeastern sector of europe. I am pleased with the airline integration improving in the last two years. My next question is related to the next generation combat vehicle, with cross functional team. With bradley fighting vehicle the army recently restarted the program. It is focused on the tradeoff between armor and mobility and how readily it is in a crisis zone. It is equally programmatic through european and civilian infrastructure the you seem to address this issue in your written statement. In consultation with nato, with military dual use. They address the core issue. With the next generation of combat vehicles left to accommodate infrastructure limits particularly in poland and the baltics or is the solution to reinforce transportation infrastructure throughout Eastern Europe . I hate to give you this answer but it is a little bit of both. His expert are taking a peek at that. If he steps up one more level and get into a discussion about armor versus mobility from a global perspective there are tradeoffs and from a regional perspective there are tradeoffss and it has to do with a demonstrated capability of the nations of europe as well as other regions. We are taking a serious look at that. Followup question, how do western european allies accommodate limitations in civilian infrastructure particularly in poland and the baltics . A greater degree of education from abridging perspective in Eastern Europe versus western europe and it was an issue that all of europe was aware of in the mideighties and theyre getting reacquainted with it and they understand the imperative of making sure we have bridging programs in the regions of the northeast and southeast of europe to ensure that we can communicate fast. Thank you so much, appreciate it. Thank you very much. General lyons, we have discussed the case, i wont dive into that. Just for note, our iowa air National Guard has the 180 fifth air refueling wing, certainly we want to make sure this unit is able to sustain operations on boeing. Something to discuss with the air force, general walters, im going to pick up where my colleague, senator peters left off, you have been talking about the state Partnership Program with those baltic state members while iowa has a partnership in cursive oh. Im excited about that and have relationships and carried on for a decade of time the iowa army National Guard has been involved with those partners. Is the only force because of on serbians trust, how can they best posture to make sure that there is enduring stability between the two sides, kos of o and serbia . Thanks. I cant thank you enough for the contributions of your state and as we sit today, they are engaged more so than they were one year ago today as a result of continued involvement of Us Operations activities and investments in kos of o and serbia and nato investments. We typically rotated military training teams but when they land at those locations, to have a forced landing with the Partnership Program, the opportunity to reintegrate at a faster pace. We are concerned about the security disposition in the balkans and are pleased with the efforts of k 4 which is more capable today as a result of learning from the experiences of the state Partnership Program like yours as they reveal themselves in kos of oh. A number of us support those state Partnership Programs, what is natos role for peacekeeping as the chaos of transition into a pool army . Will it be able to guarantee kos of ohs territorial integrity . Do you see that in their future . That is the goal. It is by, with and through in a very tough neighborhood and as you know better than i, there are 2 serious tendencies between serbia and kosovo that we are seeing improve. They are aggressive in getting the Security Apparatus to communicate with each other. We hope for continued good news in that area with respect to the cause of oh serbia relationship and taxation. I think there is undue pressure from russia in that region as well. If we could talk a little bit about Autonomous Vehicles and how that impacts logistics and delivery. I chaired the subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities so we have talked extensively about Autonomous Systems and how that can help our operators. I have wonderful Truck Drivers on the roads. How it would reduce their risk. Can you describe how you are leveraging and integrating these technologies into modernization efforts . I agree there is enormous potential here for a combination of manned or unmanned, each of the services are working on different initiatives. You mentioned one that there is enormous potential to expand what we are doing in the air domain and even potentially in the future. Absolutely. What is the best way to speed delivery of those types of systems into operations . We often see large defense contractors, very slow moving but it is a great emerging technology. How can we deliver that . Great question. Each of the services are were coming in a programmatic sense. I cant specifically to the timelines. If you come up to the answer to that let us know. We need to be more nimble on delivering technologies to our men and women in uniform. Thank you very much. Thank you for your service. We appreciate you being here today. We have taken the first steps to begin the 2020 exercise, largest in 25 years, so what are the Biggest Challenges and key take aways you hope to see that coming out of the exercise . On the logistics side, the environment has to be mature enough to absorb 20,000 soldiers and get those soldiers to the right locations to be able to grab the appropriate year that they are supposed to get to their foxhole and to be able to execute. What we want to do is count every second that it takes to get the soldier from the first deck of entry to her foxhole to be successful to adequate we defend. We anticipate there will be some snags. I want to applaud this committee the two years ago we couldnt exercise defend europe 2020. We werent mature enough with regard to the preposition stockpiles to have soldiers show up at location x and grab resources. Today we could do that. We know the fitness of the resources and can examine the speed at which they get to the foxhole and able to execute. Is turkey participating . They are as observers and in certain areas with respect to activity on the periphery of georgia. To follow up real quick. What if any response or reaction i you seeing from russia or do you expect from the russians or any of our other adversaries . We have seen fair response from russia, not pleased with defend are 2020. We are concerned about the readiness of our forces and we are doing that in accordance with International Law in the sovereign space, sovereign season sovereign land. General lyons, we have a wing in alabama, 117 and in your remarks to the Atlantic Council you were quoted as saying the Aerial Refueling force is the most stressed and the one that is pushing the red line or exceeding the red line. Were you speaking about the number of available aircraft or also the demands or need for more crew . It is a combination of both and i spoke earlier about legacy tales through the conversion before the k see 36 becomes available but also comment across all components the high tempo of our airmen running these missions. I would say we come very close in some cases, penetrate as well in that particular force element and the contributions the air force reserve makes in daytoday competition is extraordinary between volunteerism that still exists in centcom and the pilots we have flying every day. I take it you could use more crew . Is that fair . Crew is a friction point, no question. What can we do to get more crew to air refueling or the guard or rare for it may be . We are doing that today. The air force is working, it is a combination it is a function of what we must retain. And the associated output of the force. I yield the remainder. General lyons, i want to start with you, it is not in your lane but i have history with military housing and trying to fix that, and put the family at the tip of the sphere in terms of our focus. I like that you are moving forward, the program should reduce cost and improve service. We did it for a while. How will it execute, in the upcoming pcs sees. How is that Family Member who is coordinating the move that the spouse, to what extent will have power over assessing the completeness and satisfaction of the move . All great questions. You brought up the housing issue and what got us through was lack of clear accountability with the private sector and appropriate governing structure to manage the large contract and that is what is driving us here to restructure our relationship so that we define levels of accountability, that is the design of the contract. It is not designed, to gain accountability inside the department and through a long range, longer range relationship with industry incentivize the growth capacity to meet the big season. For Family Members we owe them that. We wont see this come to fruition. We intend to award in 2020 and prepare for the 2020 and a rather long transition to grow this capacity over time for accountability and transparency. We went to a lot of housing, i heard some grumblings about less than satisfactory experience with the status quo. I appreciate you taking the lead in trying to get it right and have a consistent experience across the globe. Im interested. We will do with the meeting in my office if i could get with some of the people who are working on the contracting. I like to see how they are going against Customer Satisfaction and those sort of things. We are trying to retrofit that into the housing program. Thank you for your work. Tell me a little bit about how your area of responsibility, your partners are closing the gap on cyber capabilities, how well we are actually coordinating and your assessment, if you take a look at russia they are over the place. When i travel to that part of the world you are talking about russia information campaigns and their malign activities. Give me some hope on how we are creating a gap or filling holes the we have right now . We are improving Strategic Alignment in the fiber domain. I would say over the course of the last two years the nato nations have done a much better job understanding the challenges they face on the defensive side of the house from hygiene perspective. Once they get their backyard in order they are in position to understand where they start with respect to Network Protection and that has truly come about as a result of our us cyber,s willingness to lead from the front. As you move into that answer i would like you to talk about huawei and whether or not we have gotten to a good place where clearly they will allow that infrastructure to be present. Are we getting to a good place . That is a great point and that is where i was headed. The hygiene peace, the defense of cyber peace has to be applied with respect to what is about to become an issue in europe with respect to proliferation of 5g activity and huawei. Network protection is going to be jumped on so we are back to basics and as you know from your time, we have seen a marked improvement in manning the defense of cyber ops on the us side and an increase in manning on the defense of cyber ops side of the house. Ive got a lot of questions but we will be in touch so i can get more insight into the direction of hhg, thank you for your time. Thank you, mister chairman. General lyons, weve touched on the transition of the kc 46 and i want to put a finer point on it. You say this is your number one shortfall. You go on to say it is a critical and deepening task for the next 5 to 7 years. You do good job outlining the problem but at the end of your prepared remarks you say we recommend reevaluating Aerial Refueling force structure plans annually. That doesnt reassure me. I want to know what is the plan . You have identified a serious problem. We can predict force if we cant refuel those airplanes. You identified a 5 to 7 year, you characterize it as a deepening gap. What do we do . You dont need to give me full answer but for the record i would like to see an action plan, not just reevaluation. We will be happy to work with the air force and come back to you on that with a joint plan. In the nearterm we with the air force, to retain 20 legacy aircraft to mitigate the conversion to a kc 46. The kc 46, as the air force receives that aircraft, will take some time to work through the technical deficiencies as well as convert crews. There is going to be tension between crews which in some scenarios are limited and in some are crew limited. This accommodation, very complex program for the air force to work through, pushing as hard as they can. If you could give the committee a Detailed Analysis of what you identify as the gap, how many crews and what the solution is. If we have a crisis and need that capacity, it was a complicated problem, isnt going to cut it. I agree. The issue isnt it is in daytoday competition. Just to be clear, todays daytoday competition is where we take the reduction. We are stressed right now. We are stressed today, that is where the 10 or 13 in the current fy 21 reduction with the air force and the department to clean those back. Look forward to working with you on that. General walters, quick question. Do we have sufficient visibility of russian submarines in the atlantic . Do we know where they are . We do but not 100 of the time. Whatever the missing percentage is, i dont want to be off the coast of maine. I agree. Or new york, not to be too parochial about it. What is the risk i think it is unlikely, i hope im right that russian tanks will across the border into the baltics but what a Strategic Thinking about a hybrid activity involving russian language . A kind of crimea model . Is that a concern . Do we have a Strategic Response . It is very much a concern and it has to do with the posture of our forces as we sit today in competition and attempt to deter. We are improving our ability to do so and we have to do so to a point where we can tell any potential enemy to not take those first steps against us and nato agreed, the nato military strategy, to also recognize a whole of government, whole of nation approach and that will allow us to dramatically improve our posture so we can better see the battle space and warnings and better be able to more proactively deploy. And be prepared for not a traditional tanks rolling over the border invasion. Im sure you are, a lot of study on crimea and how they played out and what the response could have been or might have been. Yes, senator. Final question. The attacks on the saudi tanker field and the Iranian Missile in iraq after soleimanis death to be raised concerns about our ability to defend against, dont know what you want to call them, Cruise Missiles, lowlevel missiles, intermediate range, the Iranian Missile was and icbm. What is our capability to defend against those attacks . It didnt work in iraq and didnt work in saudi arabia. It is improving but has to get better and we have a plan the first integrated or Missile Defense the comprehensively takes into account what happens that long ranges and lower also today and it has to be nested together from indications and warning standpoint. You agree this is a significant gap in our defense that we need to work on in a hurry . We need to continue to work on it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. With nato members that are now picking up, spending the money they were supposed to spend in the past, there is any opportunity to reduce our Troop Deployment in europe. I could in the future. Does it concern you that countries like germany dont want to pay their fair share and does it impact our ability to defend . Does it give us the need to think about where else we should have troops or shouldnt have troops and should we be in poland more than we are in germany . All of those are a concern and in my consultations with german counterparts they are just as concerned about meeting the 2 , as we are. There is no action we need to be taking . The vigilance we continue to show with respect to requirements of defense spending needs to continue. We have observed is an actual increase across nato of an additional 130 billion of funds for defense. That is positive and we need to continue on that track. Combining the s 400, close enough to moscow, doesnt impact your ability to rely on them as a partner . It hasnt at this point. Turkey remains a reliable nato ally. With huawei, have you had to make changes on the information you are willing to share as a result of knowing these countries are going to continue to use huawei, 5g, even in their existing infrastructure . We havent at this point because of the current posture with respect to 5g and huawei but my guess would be in the near future we have to be more vigilant with respect to Network Protection with huawei and 5g. The investment communist china is making in europe and around the world is that impacting our ability to be not just the United States but other members, to be able to defend against russian invasion, even what china is doing . Not an impact today but it could be in the future if we continue to see that Economic Equity increase with respect to seaports on behalf of china and europe. For them it is mostly the seaports. Today that is the biggest issue. How about the supply chains and china as a member of the supply chain. Is that a concern . I havent seen those reflections yet in europe but i anticipate that we could. Thank you for your service and testimony, at the outset. With the military it was very powerful. Please tell the whole trends, civilian military members we respect and appreciate all you are doing. I am glad you mentioned the personal Property Program in your Opening Statement. I am going to have a number of questions for the record that if you and your team can get back to me on relatively soon, i would appreciate that a lot. You know, you talk about also stressed capability and number one concern is on the Aerial Refueling fleet and thinkers tankers. So i mentioned this a number of times in this committee mr. Mitchell when he was testifying on this committee in the 1930s, the father of the u. S. Air force mention alaska was0 o strategic place in the world because of our location to asia, to europe, and other places. Secretary esper when he was testifying here several months ago said that whenever over 100 fifthgeneration fighters located in alaska starting in april with f35s. To go locate kc46 is with the 105th generation fighters. The secretary of defense that would provide a warning to our adversaries come particularly china and russia that we have a extreme strategic reach. Right now the air force is looking at their decision on where to put the kc46 fleet. Almost everything is focused on pacom except for alaska which could be pacom, eucom, anyone because where weep are on the tp of the world. Can you give me or sits on that . To me this seems like a nobrainer but i think it would help you with your most stress capability, number one redness concern. If you put tankers in a place that can service eucom, stratcom, northcom versus guam which is kind of a conventional wisdom but from ivy doesnt make any sense. Senator, thanks. Theres a question about the strategic significance location in alaska. As you and i discussed before the air force does have basing methodology, basing plan for the kc46 as comes online. Ill defer to them on those particular discussions. Im not telling you to can you give a view on that . Doesnt help to have come to call the most stress capability Aerial Refueling, does it help to have capability and a place that can help transcomm reach others . I got to look at the analytics. As he looked i think the answer is yes, but maybe you i can get back toe on that. Seems to me pretty damn clear. Ill come back to. We want to help you with your most stress capability. Dirty way to do that which to me seems like a nobrainer. General wolters, let me mention, i appreciated your reference on arctic issues in your testimony, even though thats not necessarily alaska. Were kind of in the seams. We have cake, forced. With them threat from russia with pacom forces. Stratcom, everybody. Let me mention this committee has been very focused on arctic issues that the chairman mention Great Power Competition. Theres an important arctic focus. The pentagon has been pretty slow to address some of these challenges and b recognize it. We have two icebreakers right now. One is broken. Thats the american capability. Russia has 54. This article, for the record, they just recently announced they have a Nuclear Icebreaker launchessian shipyard a Cruise Missile capable icebreaker. Can you talk to the challenges of the arctic with regard to russia and how you are addressing it . Gen. Wolters senator, it is of great concern. As we crafted the nato military strategy, its title is comprehensive defense and shared response. One of the realizations is the fact that we need to be as focused in the arctic as we are in the baltics, black sea, mediterranean, central portion of the atlantic. The arctic needs to ensure that it gets the appropriate scrutiny and appropriate resources. We are excited about the fact of northcom serving as the executive agent for Capability Development in the arctic. We are also pleased that in the summer of 19, dod delivered the arctic strategy. That,w you have driven senator, and we appreciate that. Onsee a lot of activity behalf of russia and the arctic. We think most of that in the arctic. It is of great concern. Whyarctic is a big reason we have to make sure that we maintain our vigilance. Thank you, mr. Chairman and generals. Thanks again for your service. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you to both of you, general wolters, and general lyons. I want to begin with a continuation of the discussion we had yesterday. I appreciate you taking time to meet with me. Theier this month, president informed congress that he would divert another 3. 8 billion from the pentagon for the barter wall border wall. This is on top of the money he took from military Construction Projects last year. Eliminateograms would the military weapons systems. I know senator kaine referred to one of those. 9 reapers. Es 8 mq my recollection of previous conversations is that isr assets are at a premium within the european theater and other areas. Can you discuss how the elimination of these weapon systems and projects are going to affect your Campaign Momentum . I would like to address the fact that we had 44 thatcts that were related were deferred because we could not get those projects on contract by september of 2019. The total value of the 44 projects was approximately 1. 3 billion. They came in two buckets. One was a set of projects, 25 that were European Deterrence Initiative projects. The other projects were baseline mil 19. Base was about 550 million. When you take a look at all 44 of those different projects, which we hope will reappear one day, what you see is three major areas of reduction of Campaign Momentum. Withirst has to do advanced airfield infrastructure on some of the nato airfields in the far eastern side of europe. The second has to do with that supports prepositioned stockpiles for fuel and ammunition. The final area of impact for Campaign Momentum is the modernization of infrastructure that supports a couple of military headquarters in schools. All of those are important to Campaign Momentum. It slows the Campaign Momentum. Senator, weof that, still maintain positive Campaign Momentum in the critical areas of indications and warnings, as you alluded to isr, command and control, and mission command. It just slows down the progress. You read the National Defense strategy. What is a bigger threat to our National Security, a threat from russia and china and the Great Power Competition or a threat from immigrants coming across our southern border . Gen. Wolters senator, both are threats. I will tell you that i am most concerned with that was a very diplomatic answer and thank you. I should have not put you in that position but i think it is an important point to make. The threat you are dealing with is one that has a significant implications for future when we look at russian aggression and its potential to impact the United States. I want to go back, general lyons, to, i know there have been a number of questions around the kc46 and delays in the aircraft and what that challenge means for us. It is an issue for national wing, 157th air refueling which lost its last kc135 because we thought the 46 aircraft would be arriving this year. Last month, the general sent a letter to boeing asking them to review the remote vision system, which is probably the most prominent problem at this point. To give a Design Review by march of 2020 and flight demonstration by 2020. Can you tell us whether we have heard from boeing at this point and what they have said with respect to that review of the system . Gen. Wolters senator, i really appreciate the chiefs focus on this particular area and i have relayed that to him as well. There has been many contacts between boeing and the air force. There is some design issues that they are working through. I do not have a complete answer yet and i will defer to the air force on the particulars of the program. Do we expect an answer from boeing by the end of march . Gen. Wolters yes, maam. I believe the chief expects an answer. I believe that will come to fruition. Thank you. I want to go back to nato. Senator tillis and i chaired the senate nato observer group, an effort to try and make sure that the senate is aware of what is happening with nato and what we need to do. I wonder if you can give us an update on the new Cyber Operations center that nato is planning to be fully functional by 2023 . Gen. Wolters we are very pleased. It all originated in estonia. It started with the involvement of the u. S. And the declaration by the United States u. S. Cybercom to have one u. S. A single military commander responsible in the military for the domain of cyber. Nato headquarters on the political side is also very excited. And so i am out of time, but i would do a followup question for the record on this. Bit aboutalk a little the European Deterrence Initiative. I assume you would characterize this as a success. Is that fair to say . Gen. Wolters yes, i would. Can you give us specific examples of things you would not have been able to do without gen. Wolters we have started defender europe 20, an exercise that brings over division size force. We could not do that one year ago, two years ago. We could do this exercise as a result of the funds. Why would you have struggled to do some of these things without edi . What specific obstacles has edi help to overcome . Gen. Wolters it has funded the teams that go to poland. That teaches them how to lift and shift larger quantities of forces across the atlantic without any harm. That is very important. Beenve also through edi able to fund our Army Preposition stockpiles, emergency contingency air operation sets for the air force and deployable airbased systems for the air force. We have also been able to dramatically improve the airfield infrastructure and reception infrastructure in the eastern part of europe to where it is equipped today to safely receive those resources and effectively get those resources where they need to go for soldiers and sailors and airmen and costars and marines to be effective. Impressive record of success and thats one of the reasons i think that we need something similar. You, my home state of missouri, proud home of the b2 and proud future home of the b 21. Can you speak to the roles you see them playing in deterring russia . Gen. Wolters senator, those airframes are part of the critical triad airplanes are part of the critical triad. Deterrence that sits over europe as part of the Great Success we have had to be able to generate. Piece i am excited about the 21, because i b think it will do more of the same with even greater impact. , in your written testimony you say chinas efforts to build 5g networks and its growing investment in infrastructure complicates city, state operations. Can you say more about that . How specifically do these chinese activities complicate operations . Gen. Wolters the equities they have on the shipping cap has the dutch capacity inside and outside of europe is very alarming the equities they have on the shipping capacity inside and outside of europe is very alarming. You have a large impact on what actually exists on consonant with respect to its ability to effectively generate peace and security. Thats the concern. How do our european allies respond when you raise these concerns with them, as im sure you do . Gen. Wolters with vigilance. In some cases, they are surprised to the degree of equities that china has it with respect to seaports. In most cases, very concerned. Vigilance increases once we get past the education stage. You are seeing encouraging signs from european nations as they become increasingly weary to the Strings Attached to chinese capital. Gen. Wolters several nations not willing to accept 5g, huawei. Inhave had reports of that other nations being a lot more stingy and scratchy with respect to their willingness to engage in the liberations on port equities. Let me ask you for a second about our allys contribution to nato, which has come up in number of times already. I think the progress towards a 2 mark is very important but only just a first step. The division of labor within nato has to fundamentally change , i think as this committee has been saying now for some time. What is your assessment about what would need to happen for european allies to get to the point where they are able to assume primary responsibility for their security in your theater . Gen. Wolters senator, i think we need to continue on the Current Campaign that we are on. 20162020, inrom the cash portion of contributions for burden sharing, we have had a net increase of 130 billion. There is also the examination of contributions and capabilities. In nato, we have been very vigilant with respect to our focus on improving our readiness, the ability of elements to be more resilient, more responsive, and more lethal. That is all part of the equation with respect to european contributions to adequately defend and we are improving. Thank you very much. Look forward to seeing you both this afternoon. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for making the time earlier this month to talk about com. S Ranking Member reed asked about that in his question line. I want to go further into this. Know, you saidou our current readiness is lower than where we need to be, but you are working to recapitalize on capability. How do you ensure that this plan continues to be prioritized with the navy and dod leadership when they are always balancing other higher cost programs and initiatives . I feel like this is the plain sister and needs a little bit more attention. How do you make sure that priority also plays on your particular plan . Gen. Wolters first, let me just publicly thank you for your leadership and leading our logistics efforts across the department. I think this is a hard decision for the navy. They have a lot of competing requirements. Sealift is one of many. My own view on this, if you go back to the original recapitalization of sealift, we had something which we have use. , but we dont i think the way that we are going to move in a positive direction is we are going to have to have an appropriation of the fund that allows us the xibility to take capitalize on opportunities in the open market to continue the acquired use strategy. I think thats what we need to do over a long period of time, over the next 15 plus years where we have 46 vessels aging out. Thank you. Isther concern that i have based around view. We have talked fuel. We have talked about alleviating stress on the airports tanker fleet. I want to talk about fuel capacity and distribution and storage. How would you work with the Services Logistics arms to properly identify each of their needs and how to meet those needs as they come around and reframe to face. Petitors under the nds face competitors under the nds . What do you need to do to push it out forward into theater . Gen. Wolters yes, maam. You are alluding to something that is very important across the department. That is, fuel is liquid gold essentially. We require it for every thing that we do in every single domain. So we are actually looking to, you know, we have a study directed by congress that we will complete this year in terms of assessing our ability to access maritime tankers, for example, in a value chain. Two look also at the nodes. The way we look at it to look also at the nodes. We need to see if thats the applicable way to go. And assess where we need to go for the future for Global Posture and maritime transportation, as was air refuel that we talked about. I feel like at this sort of reflects the struggle we had a just a couple of years ago when i was in the house about ammunition. We were not talking to each other well enough before we did an audit. I feel like we are getting the same issue with fuel. You cant fight and win without class three in class five, right and class five, right . Am i correct in this sense, that we have to do better with communicating within the services . Gen. Wolters senator, i think youre absolutely correct. Need a global view of the end to end liquid supply chain to make sure that we have sufficient not just supply and posture, but resiliency to continue to operate under a contested environment. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I would like to bring into the discussion, you have been hearing a lot about europe. I am looking forward to hearing about the successes, but the challenges that it helps identify as well. How would you classify your level of concern going into defender your . Defender europe . How are you going to leverage that Going Forward . Gen. Wolters great question. I would like to extend a personal thanks to you for your support and logistics area. As we speak, there are soldiers downloading for defender europe 20 at this very moment. I am concerned about the bandwidth to be able to accept this large force. I am also concerned about road and rail from the Center Portion of germany to the east, all the way to the eastern border. Because we have the appropriate resources, we now possess it capability to examine our speed of move from east to west correction, from west to east. We have enough individuals to assess how safely we can stuff the and into the next point stuff through and into the next point. Bandwidth is my greatest concern. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I know you are so happy to see me because i am the last one. You will get to finish up and head off. I want to go back, general. You told senator reid that the chinese control 10 of the shipping rights in and out of europe. I would like for you to expand on that just a little bit, talk about, do you think it is pretty much going to stay at that level. If its going to increase, the rate of increase. A little bit more insight into what you think this means. Gen. Wolters the Chinese Investment covers 10 of european shipping capacity. A wholecontend that is of government, whole of nation concern to make sure that europe has the appropriate equities with respect to shipping capacity. You see that as a floor or ceiling . Gen. Wolters i see that as the conditions that exist on the ground today. I think the nations need to understand what that means with respect to their ability to effectively ship what their nation needs for the National Interest. Educationation an process needs to follow fast. For think we see the need that education process, not only when it comes to infrastructure, but the belt and rode initiative initiative, the implications that might have as we look at 5g and the rollout there. The implications that it has, so what is nato going to do to address this . Itause it does not matter if is shipping and that infrastructure or building roads and connectors, or 5g with that infrastructure. There is an issue. Being able to communicate with networkes over a huawei is a very difficult thing to do. What is give me kind of a timeline and the steps that you all are taking to implement an education process. The natoers in political paradigm, there is a growing realization that this is an issue. There will have to be a common understanding at the political level at nato that this is an issue that nato should embrace. That is the start of success, to ensure that the National Interest of the 29 nations in nato are protected with respect to china proliferation. We are at that phase. As a military member supporting nato, it is my job to report the facts, and that is what we are doing. Ok, so who is receptive to this message . The first part of solving a problem is defining a problem. So you say there is awareness in defining this problem, correct . Gen. Wolters correct. The first task is to ensure of the 29 nations, which ones have concern, and which ones still need more of a dialogue done. Out of those 29 nations, who is receptive to this and who are you getting pushback from . Are you at a 5050 on this . What is the standing there . Gen. Wolters senator, i can only speak at the mill to mill level, not the political level for the 29 nations. I would say the majority of the nations are incredibly concerned about china proliferation. I hope we can talk a little bit more about this this afternoon, if that would be ok. General lyons, let me move to a couple of things. India and cyber and space. Have they been identified as contested were fighting domain war fighting domain . Isk to me about how transcom working with private sector partners to improve cybersecurity, their ability to defend. A senator asked you about Autonomous Vehicles. As we look at building out Space Command and Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Vehicles, we know there is that the Cyber Component is going to be more relevant in those discussions. Talk with me for just a couple of seconds about that. Gen. Wolters yes, maam general lyons yes, men. Cyber is yes, maam. Cyber is a very high priority. You asked specifically about our commercial providers. We have worked to instill contract language that i would characterize as at least brings our commercial providers up to a basic level minimum cyber hygiene. I think we have been successful in that. I think we have been successful in getting the attention and focus of the c suite. This is an issue they have to contend with, whether it is for National Defense or private equities. We are making progress. I would also say that when confronted with an advanced persistent threat actor, i dont think any of our commercial providers necessarily are in a position to protect themselves in that particular scenario. We very intentionally have multiple providers in each of the conventional areas so if we lose when we can provide others. Are you increasing the standards of compliance for them . Gen. Wolters yes, senator, we are. You may have seen the departments cyber Maturity Model that they just rolled out. Igo back i yields back i yield back. [indiscernible] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] there are really a lot of ways to follow this highly competitive election season on the cspan networks but probably the fastest and easiest is on the web at cspan. Org. We have among other things are campaign 2020 interactive calendar with the result maps of all the upcoming primaries and caucasus including super tuesday. There is the event tracker, a tool for for quick and easy search of the 2020 candidates. Our coverage based on the candidates, topics, events and and locations on the campaign trail. The statebystate results broken down by the candidate, the county and the districts not only for the president ial candidates but also the upcoming senate, house and governor races. Its free, easily accessible, its all there at cspan. Org. We are live now on capitol hill. Secretary of state mike pompeo is testifying about u. S. Policies regarding iran, iraq and the use of force. Secretary pompeo is also expected to get questions from members of the House Foreign Affairs committee about the spread of the coronavirus. The committee is chaired by eliot engel of new york. This is live coverage on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible