Talked about u. S. Military strength in a discussion at the Heritage Foundation. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Heritage Foundation. Welcome all of you here in the auditorium and everyone online, as well. Its a great pleasure for us to be back in the building of the Heritage Foundation. Weve been away for some type teleworking. But this is my first day back for a while. Im very pleased to be back here today for this very important hl Heritage Foundation. Weve been away for sometime teleworking but this is my first day back for a while but im very pleased to be back here today for this very important event. Of launching the Heritage Foundations 2021 index of military strength. Now this is the seventh addition of the index. And the index has become one of Heritage Foundations flagship publications. Our goal is unchanged from the very first issue. Its to provide both the leaders of this country, and also the American Public a premier open source and authoritative assessment of Americas Armed forces and their ability to protect the nation. On i think that weve not only achieved that ball but we have continued with this effort this years addition is the best ever. In addition to its usual breadth of subjects our index always incorporates new National Security concerns one of these is the emerging concern of space, and the work of the new space source. We have a chapter on space this year and we look forward to hearing more from dakota, would the editor of the index Office Material in his presentation later. On today as part of our index launch we warmly welcome our speaker with decades of experience and events matters, representative Mac Thornberry. A native texan, he was first elected into congress in 1984. And has supported a Strong National defense since. He is currently the Ranking Member of the house on Services Committee and he has served as the Committee Chairmen into thousand 15 and 2019. He has sponsored or cosponsored a number of bills to make the department of defense not only more effective, but also more innovative and its work. He has consistently endeavor to ensure our Armed Services receive the funding the need to mend the nation. Congressman thornberry has made it his mission to help educate the American Public about his military. An end to that, and he has written extensively about the importance of our military and its status. There is quite simply no other member of congress who is more respected on respected or thoughtful on defense matters. It therefore comes or should come as no surprise that this years National Defense authorization act is actually named after him. On mr. Thornberry is retiring from congress this year. So we are grateful to have the opportunity to hear his thoughts about how he sees the military in years to come. Its now my great pleasure to welcome congressman Mac Thornberry to the stage. Thank you doctor holmes. I appreciate that very kind introduction. And i would also like to congratulate the defense team here at heritage for producing the 2021 index of military strength. It is always quite an undertaking, and an accomplishment that gives all of us a better understanding of where we are and what we face. I think the 2021 snapshot is important in its own right but its particularly helpful because its the seventh one and it helps us all see trends and where we are not making up ground perhaps the way we should. They make the point that in the National Security equation what we can control is us and our capabilities. We should not hide from a candid objective analysis of exactly where we are. To me, the fundamental point here is we are not where we should be. Or to put it another way. The federal government is not fulfilling its first responsibility to the American People, and to future generations to provide for the comment defense. Now of course, that doesnt mean that the story is all negative as the report shows. We have definitely made up some ground recently on readiness, but there are still some significant gaps. We have accelerated our development of essential technologies and applications of them. But were not yet outpacing our adversaries the way we should. Well congress has given the Department New tools and authorities, and in some instances they are being used to greater effect, there is still too much resistance to change. Both in the department and within congress. So with this impressive body of work before us my mind naturally goes to okay what we do about it. So i thought i might offer a way out of public life as dr. Combs mentioned. That i might offer a suggested to do list, for congress, for the executive legislative branch, and for the National Security team at large. Ive had to narrow it down to the top ten. Obviously, im just going to be able to give some headlines. But these are to me, the ten things that we should work on to try to improve our situation. Item number one is key people first. The demographics, the skills we need, the importance of families in career decisions. The training and professional educational card. The standards for training all of that is changing. And yet if we get the people, wrong none of the rest of it is going to matter much. Number one i have to say keep people first. Number two is to provide stable, reliable funding that grows at three to 5 above inflation. I think the National DefenseStrategy Commission had it exactly right. Thats what it takes to defend the country, and if we choose to do less than that than on has to shoulder the blame for the consequences. And just because we are in one again, i have to say no crs regardless of the amount at the continuing resolution, it does damage every time. And i can give you a laundry list of ways this cr will do damage if it goes past number two, provide greater flexibility of funding. The days of reading hundreds of days of requirements, going on a bid on who can build that precise thing. Having protests and then buying thousands of them over years, those things are vastly going by the wayside. Congress. Especially the appropriators have to get more comfortable with a kind of money being available for a particular purpose, and then full transparency on how those funds are used. Flexibility is the key to help attract more suppliers to do business with the department of defense, to overcome that infamous valley of death, to enable more prototypeing and experimentation, and to get technology in the field faster. Sticking to traditional approaches makes all of those things much harder. Item number four is be relentless in changing whatever needs to be changed to get the best technology that our country can produce into the hands of the war fighters faster. That means the whole resources of the nation have to be brought to bear. Private industry and academia, as well as a government. Private capital as well as government funding. We have made progress, and hopefully we will make a little more progress in this years nnda that were negotiating in cunning nontraditional suppliers to help, getting small and mid sized Companies Bring their innovation to the table. And help all of that move at a greater rate of speed, but there still a lot more that needs to be done. And i have to say, updating our approaches to things has to go beyond d. O. D. For example, a story in the wall street journal last week says that china is no longer leading the u. S. When it comes to 5g, its running away with the game. And just a few weeks ago, d. O. D. Proposed to gather ideas on other ways we can deploy 5g, and utilize spectrum and you would think that the sky was about to fallen. National security is no longer about planes and tanks and ships, being able to pursue other issues is going to make a huge difference in our countrys ability to defend itself. Now we are down to number five. That is have a lot of public discussion about new technologies, and their applications for defense. In 2011, the then speaker had a test for us on cybersecurity where we had representatives from nine different communities. We were able to come together with a pretty good set of recommendations but just as were releasing the recommendations we had snow leaks, we had wikileaks, and everybody decided that the government was reading your emails to grandma. That made it politically impossible to consider any cyber related legislation in congress for many years. We, the adversaries, dont have any concerns, but we can paralyze ourselves by misinformation or lack of understanding when it comes to artificial intelligence, robotics, Human Performance advancement. So i believe that its important to have a little inoculation with hearings, with think tank seminars, with papers, agreed are public discussion about these technologies. About what they mean and what they dont mean to help prevent this sort of process from setting in. Number six, sure up the Industrial Base. I think we are making significant progress because of covid in understanding how suppliers and components of the various Defense Systems come from, and the vulnerability of some of those things. But its complicated. And we havent gotten our arms around the problem completely. I think our Defense Industrial base has to include trusted companies, and allied partnered nations as well. We need to understand it and it may require some targeted government actions to ensure that it will be available to us. Number seven is nurture our alliances and partnerships. Theres some repair that needs to occur in those relationships. We should be candid about our differences and our expectations when it comes to allies and partners, but a lot of that candid talk can better be handled behind closed doors rather than out in the public. Item number eight on my list is dont neglect the nukes. Im glad to see in this years index that heritage has set aside our Nuclear Deterrent as a category in and of itself. Hes the me be somewhat were terrible in the evaluation of where we are that i would be, because on both the weapons and the Delivery Systems theres absolutely no margin for error. And to be fair, the index notes that. We have allowed everything to age out at once. Im going to say im particularly concerned about where the chinese are headed with their size and capability of their nuclear program. Like a lot of things related to the chinese, we have probably been too complacent when we look at that issue. But all of our other defense efforts for the country rests upon a foundation of a safe, reliable, effective Nuclear Deterrent. And this is another one. If we get this wrong, then probably the rest of these things isnt going to matter much. Item number nine is make every effort to keep defense on partisan. Look, theres always good to be differences on particular issues, but somehow, even through all of this differences, over the Years Congress is and publishes of both party have been able to come together and enact a Defense Authorization bill for 59 straight years. Good lord willing, we will have another 60 years before too long. But that fact in and of itself is important for allies, and adversaries, and especially the men and women who are risking their lives for us. They need to know that the country stands together behind them, in support of their mission. To do that sometimes youve got to bite your tongue. Sometimes have to accept the things that you disagree with sometimes you have to compromise. But we should never forget that the top goal and of russia and other adversaries is to divide, us to sow division. I dont worry about our ability to overcome any outside adversary. The only thing that keeps me up at night are the decisions we make for ourselves. The only ones who can defeat the United States are americans, ourselves. With item number ten, every one of us must make a concerted effort to educate and remind each other the reasons that a Strong Defense is important. By any measure, the last 70 years has been a time of unmatched human progress. Life expectancy, living standards, poverty rate, the number of people to say in the government. The number of people who have been killed in war. Any metric you use highlights the last 70 years has been special. I believe all of that progress was made possible by two basic decisions headed states made after world war ii, to keep a Strong Defense and state engaged in the world. And yet today, both of these decisions are under attack in both political parties. Im afraid that too many of us have lost sight of what it takes to keep this unparalleled eight prosperity and security. Too many people dont realize its not just our safety, its our jobs, our quality of life, our whole society the depends on the security that is provided by the u. S. Military. Ronald reagan said that all great change in america begins around the dinner table. So if i could weave a magic wand and get only one of the ten items that im suggesting for my to do list it would be to have a conversation around every dinner table in america but what we achieved over the last 70 years. But it took to achieve it. The sacrifice that has been made. And the dangers of letting it all slip away. If we are negligent, im afraid that our children and maybe ourselves, are going to inhabit a world that is less prosperous, more dangerous, and that we could even see civilization step backward as has happened before in history. The United States of america is the greatest force for good in the history of the world. We are the indispensable nation because americans decided we have to be. The alternative was too terrible now we have to decide whether to continue, or to abandon those two crucial decisions that have guided us, with both parties for the last 70 years, and has done so much, not just for ourselves, but for all of mankind. As i depart congress, i hope and i pray that we choose wisely. Thank you. Congressman thornberry, thank you very much for that passionate reminder of how important National Defense is to really get our american way of life. I mean it touches everything about our experience as americans, our history, and unfortunately our future. We were talking of course before we came on here shortly about 2001, and i remember on september 13th i think it was, 2001, downstairs in a auditorium before this auditorium was built i had to bring the Heritage Foundation staff together but two days before the attack, the smoke was still rising from the pentagon at the time. There were people crying. It was a shock. It was a similar situation where we had taken a vacation from the world for about a decade in this so called peace dividend of the 19 nineties. We thought that we could kind of come home and go back to normal, and of course the normal is as precisely as you described it, we have to remain engaged, we have to remain strong. Thats normal and thats what has given us peace for over 70 years and i thank you very, very much for that statement. Now we get to turn to a very special event. On behalf of the Heritage Foundation, our president , it is my pleasure to integrate a new Heritage Foundation award. An award that we call the guardian of the gate award. The Heritage Foundations guardian of the gate award will recognize careers in the Public Service with emphasize on supporters for our armed forces. If you think about it, again it is a twoway thing. Obviously, the things that are bad must be stopped getting past the gate. But joseph to let the good in as well. You have to be able to commit freely. In some cases, even be welcomed. A guardian is constantly vigilant in meeting this challenge by guarding the gate of our nations interest. Support and honor those who have carried this heavy responsibility throughout their careers, and who have distinguished themselves and their charge of the guardian of the public trust. We can think of no better honor than to be the first recipient of the Heritage Foundations guardian award. Representative thornberry, many years of service to our country and congress, and youre unaware foring support to this nations military makes this award a unique and fitting tribute to your accomplishments. America is safer in the world because of you, and because of your efforts. And we thank you for your dedication and your leadership over the course of your very long career. You have been a inspiration to the Heritage Foundations work you see here from the military index which was very much inspired by the collaboration with the over the years. But we also look forward to your continued impact on defense issues even after you leave congress. You have been a true guardian of the gate. Will you please join me in picking up your award . [applause] [inaudible] were going to shift onto the part of the program here where we talk about index. What a honor it has been to have congressman thornbury with us especially at the beginning of his stellar career, continued interaction not only with the Heritage Foundation but the American People on the important topic