Transcripts For CSPAN3 Military Leaders Say Budget Instability Harms Readiness 20170414

Eastern on cspan2s book tv. Next, the army, navy, air force, and marine corps chiefs testify before the House Armed Services committee about their budgets. They also discuss the impact of repeated continuing resolutions instead of longterm appropriations for the military branches. Committee will come to order. After having explored the next steps of defense reform in yesterdays hearing, we now turn to what is needed to repair and rebuild our military, and im grateful to each of the distinguished Service Chiefs for being with us today. Theres widespread agreement that funding cuts under the budget control act, plus a series of continuing resolutions, coupled with a pace of required deployment have damaged the u. S. Military. I believe that damage has gone far deeper than most of us realize, requiring more time and more money to repair than is generally expected. Theres plenty of responsibility to go around for the current state of affairs, with both congress and the obama administration, with both republicans and democrats, with both military and civilian leadership. Among other problems, defense funding has gotten caught up in partisan back and forth on other issues and has even been held hostage to other priorities. We need to get back to evaluating defense needs on their own, without regard to any agreement or disagreement we may have on other issues. The men and women who serve deserve at least that. Most important thing now is to repair the damage. We have the chance to begin doing so by passing a full appropriation bill for this year, acting favorably upon the supplemental request, and then enacting adequate authorization and appropriations for fiscal year 2018. Immediate issue before us is the expiration of the current continuing resolution on april 28th. We in the house passed a full appropriation bill for fy17 on march 8th by a vote of 37148. The senate has not yet acted on it. As ive said before, i will not vote for a defense continuing resolution for the rest of fiscal year 17. It would simply do too much harm. Fundamental to fixing a problem is to expose it and understand it. I understand that we have to be cautious about exposing our vulnerabilities, but in order to do better for the military and for the country, we must have the best professional military judgment our Witnesses Today can offer on the current state of our military forces and on what a cr on inadequate funding would mean for them. To get on a better track, we all have to be clear and candid with the American People, and thats exactly the purpose of todays hearing. Mr. Smith . Thank you, mr. Chairman, and i agree with much of what the chairman had to say. Certainly, over the course of the last sixplus years, you know, the uncertainty that has accompanied the Defense Budget has made it very, very difficult to operate. Weve had one government shutdown, countless threatened government shutdowns, and numerous crs, and i think most people dont appreciate what a cr means. Oh, youre just continuing the budget. It basically means you cant start new programs, you cant end programs that need to be ended, and as importantly, a lot of times youre not sure what qualifies as which. All of you have to go through a very difficult task when we dont have a regular appropriations bill of figuring out exactly what you can and cannot spend money on, and that is a colossal waste of your time and also very expensive. We should give you a clear budget every year, clear appropriations, to give you the freedom to implement that as is necessary. We have not done that. I agree with the chairman, theres plenty of blame to go around on that front, but the lack of budget clarity has caused no end to problems. I also agree the force is unquestionably been stressed over the course of the last 15 years. Certainly, with two major wars, in afghanistan and iraq, and the ongoing struggle against the extremism all across the world. Our military has been given a large number of assignments and couple that with the inadequate unpredictable number of resources, and you have a problem. I think theres a larger thing we need to get at, and i agree we need an appropriations bill and we need to fund the military to meet the mission. I dont agree that we can somehow pull defense out of the entire rest of the federal government, look at it totally separately as if all the other money that we spend in the government doesnt matter, because, unfortunately, we do have other priorities than Just National security. Some of which are really rather important. In fact, some of them have to do with security. The intelligence budget, the department of homeland security, but also our infrastructure, which is crumbling at an alarming rate. And regrettably is a tradeoff, and i think the budget that President Trump sent up this year makes that absolutely clear. He plussed up defense by 54 billion and he took that 54 billion out of everything else, including a 31 cut in the state department. And as the second of defense, general mattis said, if youre going to cut the state department and development aid, then you better give me five more divisions, because im going to have a lot of wars to fight. It is all of a piece, as much as i would love to be able to pull defense out and say we can ignore everything else, we arent just members of the defense committee, we are members of congress, and were responsible for all of that. Towards that end, ill make one final point. As we look at how we put together a Defense Budget, i agree with the chairman, we should not give the men and women who serve in the military tasks and assignments that we do not equip and train them to do. That is where we are at right now. That is completely and totally unacceptable. I do not, however, agree that the answer is to simply continue to expand what those tasks and responsibilities should be and kind of hope that we somehow come up with more money to meet it, because the tasks and responsibilities that have been described by the president and what he says he wants the military to do, he sent up a 603 billion budget. That doesnt even come close to meeting those tasks and responsibilities that are outlined. Even the 640 billion that the chairman here and chairman of the senate Armed Services committee talked about doesnt come close to meeting that either. So what we also need to do, in addition to rightly pointing out the lack of resources and the unpredictability, is come up with a set of tasks and missions for the department of defense, for the men and women who serve in the Armed Services, that we can actually fund. We cannot continue to say, well, you got to do this, got to do this, we dont have the money, dont have the money, should have the money, dont have the money, should have the money. We know where our budget is at. We know were 20 trillion in debt, running a nexus deficit of 600 billion, and there are other needs in our budget, so i think we also have to be really smart about how we spend the money in defense and about what missions we decide our men and women should be ready, trained, and equipped to serve. So i hope thats part of the discussion, as well, this morning. I look forward to your testimony, and i thank you all for your service. Were pleased it to welcome this morning the general mark milley, chief of staff of the army, admiral john richardson, david goldfein, and robert neller, commandant of the marine corps. Your full statements will be made part of the record, and let me say again how much i appreciate all of you being here. I know you have a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders. I know, for example, the commandant came back a day early from an overseas trip, but i believe the opportunity to get funding for the military on a better track deserves all of our careful attention and discussion. Again, thats the purpose of todays hearing. Thank you all for being here. General milley, wed be pleased to turn to you for any oral statement youd like to make. Thanks to chairman thornberry and Ranking Member smith and all the distinguished members of the committee for the opportunity before you today. I appreciate that, and i know we all do. The world is becoming a more dangerous place. With simultaneous challenges to the United States interests and from russia, china, iran, rapidly growing threat from north korea, and an ongoing series of wars against terrorists. This is no time in my professional view to increase risks to our National Security. A yearlong cr or a return to the bca funding will do just that. It will increase risk to the nation, and it will ultimately result in dead americans on a future battlefield. To execute current operations, sustain readiness, while making progress toward a more capable and lethal future, the United States army requires, most importantly, predictable and consistent funding. The lack of fiscal year 2017 appropriations and no supplemental increase in funding will significantly and negatively impact readiness and increase risk to our force. Additionally, a return to budget caps due to bca sequestration in fiscal year 18 forces the army to reverse our efforts to improve readiness and will lead to a hollow army. In the last two years, we have made steady progress in our core of war fighting skills across multiple types of units, but we have much work to do to achieve full Spectrum Readiness necessary to meet the demands of our National Military strategy and the defense planning guidance. Advances by our adversaries are real, and the cumulative effect of persistent budget instability for eight consecutive years is increasing risk, not only to the army, but to the nation, and will result in unnecessary u. S. Causalities. Readiness to prevent, or if necessary, fight and win wars, is a very, very expensive proposition. But the cost of preparation is always far less than the cost, the pain, the blood, and the sacrifice of regret. Readiness is the armys number one priority. Our current readiness funding requirement is submitted in the amendment to the fy17 president s budget is 3 billion above 2016 maintenance levels. Our planning levels request for additional appropriations on filling critical gaps in readiness, specifically in armor, air defense, field artillery, and aviation. If forced to operate under a yearlong cr, this will not happen. Army current readiness and efforts to close critical gaps will be severely impacted. Funding under cr for a year will result in a dramatic decrease in training, starting next month in may, and by 15th of july, all Army Training will cease except those units deploying to afghanistan or iraq. Our ctc, collective training exercises, at ntc, jrtc, will be significantly degraded and all efforts to increase Army Strength as mandated in the fy17 National Defense authorization act by you for the regular army, the National Guard, and the army reserve, will also cease. The cumulative effect of training shortfalls, combined with personnel constraints, will result in an army that is less ready to meet not only current requirements of commanders, but limit our ability to ensure our allies, deter our adder haversa now and in the future. Also procurement efforts currently on hold will remain on hold, preventing the army from immediately addressing known shortfalls in gaps and combat systems and importantly munitions. Electronic warfare, cyber programs, air and missile defense, long range fires, protection, and mobility programs, along with several other modernization initiatives. We will lose our current overmatch. The current battlefield is already very lethal, but on future battlefields will likely prove far more lethal than anything we have reasonably experienced. Our adversaries have studied us and are rapidly leveraging available technology, while the army has yet to fully recover from the effects of the shutdown in 2013. Time is not our ally. A return to the bca caps will damage the armys ability to build and maintain readiness at appropriate levels and result in multiple years of negative impacts on the future of our army. While we cannot forecast precisely when and where the next contingency will arise, it is very likely to require a significant commitment of u. S. Army ground forces, sustaining the high levels of performance that your army has demonstrated in the face of increasing challenges requires consistent, longterm, balanced, and predictable funding. A yearlong continuing resolution or return to bca funding caps absolutely will result in a u. S. Army that is outranged, outgunned, and outdated against potential adversaries. With your support, however, in passing the fy17 budget and the supplemental, the army will Fund Readiness at sufficient levels to meet current demand, build readiness for contingencies, and invest in the future force. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and i look forward to your questions. Admiral richardson . Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member smith, and distinguished members of the committee, for the opportunity to discuss the impacts that another continuing resolution, in fact, does to leverage general milleys statement, continuing uncertain and inadequate funding levels would do to the navy. And two points i just want to clarify and clearly convey right off the top, is that, mr. Chairman, we need that fy17 bill and the supplemental in order to keep Navy Programs and key investments moving forward, to recover readiness this year, prevent digging the readiness hole deeper, and to sustain it into the near future. Theres a growing gap between the missions we are asking our navy to do and the unreliability and shortage of the resources provided to do those missions, as Ranking Member smith highlighted. We got to where we are today because of 15 years of operating at wartime pace. Eisenhowers strike group was deployed five times in the last seven years. Contrast that level of effort with eight years of continuing resolutions and five years of budget restrictions imposed by the budget control act and budget balance gap. This gap creates years of stress, over and above stress of operations, and the navy team, joint service team, the joint force team, sailors, civilians, and their families, have been absorbing that stress. And so in the simplest possible terms, as i speak to you today, if we dont get the funding just described, lots of our aviators will not fly, and they cant train. We wont have the spares to fix their planes, we wont have the gas to fly them. We may not have the pay to keep our pilots in the services, and we wont have ready aircraft for tomorrows pilots. Lots of sailors will not go to sea. Cant afford the maintenance to fix their ships. Cant afford the gas to steam them. Ships remain tied up to the pier. In many ways this is irreversible. You cant get lost training time back. We will be less proficient when we do go to sea, when we do fly. Our pilots will be less experienced, which is a daunting fact when you consider what were asking them in wartime. Our sailors will have less time at sea to practice together, to train together, to achieve the intricate teamwork needed to win in modern warfare. And the stress doesnt stop when they return to home port. Current funding without the 17 bill and the supplemental will only allow for one months notice before they move their families, placing a huge burden on their families, especially those with children. Well continue to ask our people to work in sub standard conditions in over 6,000 buildings, in dismal condition, awaiting repair, replacement, or demolition. At the unit level, well have to shut down air wings in the shortterm, and in the longterm, shortage of airplanes will get worse. Well delay important upgrades that help us keep pace with the threat these delays or cancellations will put sailors at greater risk from cyberattacks with a growing threat of antiship missiles in the areas that they routinely operate. Submarines will lose their certification to dive. Ships will be at the pier instead of under way. Failing to maintain our equipment has the same net effect as cutting force structure. Whether we leave a ship tied up to the pier because its not repaired, or we decide not to build a new ship, both mean one less ship at sea. Not being able to fly an existing aircraft or not buying a new aircraft, both mean one less plane in the air. As the general said, this is not a theoretical debate. While we talk about whether or not to keep ships in port and aircraft on the ground, our competitors are making steady progress and gaining on us. Americas risks are getting worse, as other nations grow their fleet and operate them in the pacific, atlantic, indian, and arctic oceans. As they extend their influence over trade routes that are the life blood of the international economy, including ours. I just got back from spain where i saw our sailors in action. Visited the uss ross, now in the increasingly contested waters of the eastern mediterranean. Those sailors know clearly that they are sailing into harms way. But they took an oath to support and defend the constitution, and they live up to that commitment every day, undaunted by the competition i just described. And their teammates do this every day all around the world. They are tough, dedicated, proud of what they do. Back here at home, theres less evidence that we get it. There is tangible lack of urgency. Were not doing what we should to help them win. In fact, we are here today to discuss plans, potential plans, that would make their lives harder, that will further shrink their advantage. Mr. Chairman, i urge congress to pass the fy17 bill and give favorable consideration to the supplemental. It will make us more ready, more competitive, and relieve a lot of stress that is on our people. Together, we can find ways to maintain our edge. There is so much at stake. Thank you for the chance to testify, and i look forward to your questions. General goldfein . Thank you, chairman thornberry, Ranking Member smith, distinguished members of the committee, for hosting this critically important and timely hearing. Its a privilege to be here with my fellow joint chiefs. Your air force is globally engaged, both here in the homeland and deployed, to capture and control the high ground, as we provide global vigilance, global reach, and global power for america and our allies. As the service with the most diverse portfolio of missions, operating from the outer reaches of space, to 100 feet below the surface, and everywhere in between, we are involved in some way in every mission the joint force performs. Put simply, your air force is always there. Our responsibility begins in the nuclear enterprise, as we ensure the bomber and missile legs of the triad remain safe, secure, and reliable. And on our worst day as a nation, we ensure the commander in chief is where he needs to be, when he needs to be there, and that he remains connected to our air force and Naval Nuclear forces who stand watch for america and our allies. In space your airmen fly and maintain 12 constellations that provide critical intelligence, protected communications, Nuclear Command and control, and gps for the joint team and for the globe. When china launched its antisatellite missile in 2007, creating a debris field over 300,000 particles, space became both a contested and a congested place. And its the responsibility of your air force to organize, train, equip, and present the preponderance of ready space forces to fight should a war either start or extend into space. In the cyber domain, airmen join their fellow soldiers, sailors, marines, to develop tactics, techniques, and procedures to produce Strategic Effects in this new and critical war fighting domain. Just 16 years ago we had a single remotely piloted aircraft and test. Today your air force delivers 60 lines of armed reconnaissance, along with High Altitude capabilities, that provide an unblinking eye on our adversaries. If you heard jet noise this morning driving to the capitol, it was likely the f16s from the 113th International Guard wing at andrews, who send an alert to defend this city, just as we do across the nation to defend our homeland from attack. And i learned just walking in this morning that we lost an f16 from that wing this morning, and im proud to say at least the news reports are telling us the pilot got out and hes okay. These are just some of the missions we perform here. Simultaneously, airmen are operating in over 175 location to assure allies and partners, deter adversaries, shape the environment, and respond to crises. Job one for our deployed force is to maintain air superiority, which we define as freedom from attack and freedom to maneuver. When a soldier, alsailor, marin or coast guardsman hears jet noise, i dont ever want them to look up. I want them to know its me. This is sacred duty for an airman. Once we establish air superiority, your air force provides unmatched global reach, with an aircraft taking off or landing every three minutes, delivering critical personnel or supplies where and when they are needed, and we sometimes operate out of locations in insecure areas, and its our special forces, air commandos, who are trained to secure airfields when and where we need them, in places like iraq. And when it comes to Global Precision strike, i call your attention to the january raid, where a pair of b2 bombers departed their home base in missouri for a 32hour roundtrip sor to libya. These delivered 85 bombs over two terrorist camps, delivering precise lethal effects within ten seconds, and i repeat, 32hour mission, within ten seconds of their designated time over target. And in the counterisis fight, lieutenant general, the air Component Commander, leads a coalition of 16 nations in the fight to defeat violent extremism in the middle east. In the current fight against isis, Coalition Partners have dropped over 40,000 munitions on our enemy, with the vast majority coming from the United States air force. For our enemy, always there has a different meaning. General happenarnold stated during the worst days of the daylight bombing campaign, the problem with air power is we make it look too easy. The truth is anything but. Todays air force is the smallest, oldest, and least ready in its history. We have and will continue to fly, fight, and win, but at a cost to our airmen and their families who remain globally engaged. Chairman, its fitting that were having this hearing on gold star spouse day. As a reminder of how vital our families are to our mission. For 26 years of continuous conflict, starting with operation desert storm, through operations northern and southern watch, deliberate and allied force in the balkans, libya, and the current fights in afghanistan, iraq, and syria, they have remained faithful to our cause. So its unfortunate that we are now discussing the potential of yet another extended continuing resolution, which has already been said is the equivalent of a mini sequestration round, which we have already been through before. You see in the air force, we still havent recovered from round one. Failing to pass an appropriations bill will cost the air force 2. 8 billion in the remaining five months of 2017. Here are just two of the direct impacts to our most important resource, our airmen and their families of failing to pass a budget. Well stop flying in late june. When the money runs out, so only squadrons in the fight or preparing to go to the fight will train. By the end of the year well be short 1,000 fighter pilots. Chairman, it takes approximately ten years and 10 million to train a fighter pilot. 1,000 short equates to 10 billion of Capital Investment that walked out the door. And it will take us ten years to replace that experience. Of all the things that we can do to retain pilots, the most important is to get them airborne. Pilots who dont fly, maintainers who dont maintain, air Traffic Controllers who dont control, leave. And while well never buy our way out of this shortage, an extended cr will also negate the pilot bonuses congress authorized, which will break faith with the force. In addition, over 2,000 young men and women have signed up to serve in the long blue line, who will not be allowed to enter the service until we get an appropriation. They represent the greatest treasure in our nations arsenal. They come from each of your districts. They have given up jobs. Left home. Made plans. All to be told they will have to be have to wait now for months to pursue their dream. How many of these talented young men and women wont wait and will choose an alternative path, when we desperately need to grow our force in fy17 . As a service chief, i have many obligations, but one remains paramount. Every airman we send into harms way must be properly organized, trained, and equipped and led to succeed in their mission. And we must take care of their families while they are gone. This is our moral obligation. A yearlong cr makes meeting this obligation extremely difficult. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, distinguished members of this committee, the demand for air and space superiority has never been higher. With it we win. Without it, we lose. We look forward to working with you in the weeks ahead to pass a budget and thank you again for holding this critically important hearing and look forward to your questions. General neller . General thornberry, Ranking Member smith, members of the committee, ill be brief so we can get to your questions. First, let me fully endorse the comments of my fellow chiefs, and second, i think its important to remember the readiness of our Respective Services are inexplicitly linked. Marines dont sail, we dont go to sea. Air force cant fly, we cant move around the world. So none of us can do anything by ourselves. So our readiness of our respective forces are part of that of the joint force. Marines have a unique perspective on readiness based on the direction of the congress as the nations force and readiness, being ready is central to our identity. So the bottom line is this, operating under a full year of continuing resolution through the remainder of this fy will seriously degrade readiness across the force and have adverse effects on future readiness. Specifically, we will cease Flight Operations in late july, early august, with the exception of those squadrons getting ready to deploy. Lack of funding will slow, halt, or potentially reverse hard earned Recovery Efforts across the force. It will slow the acquisition of Critical Systems and delay the construction of muchneeded amphibious warships. The scope and scale of our training will be significantly reduced. Impacting Service Level predeployment training such as integrated training exercise, our key event for certification before deployment. Other events, large multilateral and multinational exercises such as bold alligator at camp lejeune or cold response will also be degraded and well be challenged to recover from these training gaps, because once you lose the training, you cant get it back. Its another unit in the queue ready to go, and if you miss it, youre not going to get another turn. As representative smith mentioned, the Global Security requirements zerm our operational commitments. Your marines were as busy now as they were in the height of operations in iraq and afghanistan. Just this morning i returned from visiting marines. I assure you that the four deployed force is engaged around the globe and support of all Combatant Commanders and is ready to go. Our current operational tempo, the instability of these crs and the lasting impacts of sequestration, continue to make us make hard choices that prioritize support to the Operational Forces above many other resource requirements. The priority has and will continue to go to deploy and the next to deploy units, but that results in readiness shortfalls and aviation facilities, sustainment, modernization, and the depth and readiness of our ready bench. Working with our congress and our chiefs and the department of defense and the chairman and the secretary, i assure you the marine corps will make the most of those resources we are providing and marines will meet the high standards of the congress and the American People regardless. I look forward to your questions. Let me ask each of you to address a relatively simple question. Why is it different now . As admiral richardson and mr. Smith mentioned, weve had eight years of crs, five years of the budget control act. To most people they look and say, well, were still bombing isis. Were getting by. Were doing what needs to be done. And yet each of you has painted a pretty dire picture of where we are and especially where we would be under a cr or without a supplement call. So, again, i guess my basic question is, why is it different now . General milley . Its maybe its the cumulative effect. Weve been doing crs now for eight years, shut down in 13, its the cumulative effect on personnel. Weve reduced the army by 80,000 or 90,000 soldiers in the last eight years. Weve taken out 17 Brigade Combat Teams. We still have 180,000 soldiers today deployed in 140 countries around the world. Were still actively engaged in terms of off tempo and combat operations in afghanistan, iraq, syria, yemen, libya, central africa, west africa, and several other places. Roughly speak, i just got back from the middle east last week, 80 of those forces you see on the ground in those countries are army forces. Its the cumulative effect of all of these years and, oh, by the way, its not just fighting in iraq and afghanistan, there are other potential contingencies on the horizon. We saw that yesterday morning with the launching of a Nuclear Missile not a Nuclear Missile, but a missile, from north korea that landed in the sea of japan. I have no idea, does anybody in this room, where all that leads . We must be ready. Its the cumulative effect. Chairman, if i was to draw an analogy, it would be like smoking cigarettes. One cigarettes not going to kill you, but to do that eight, ten, 20 years, 30 years, youre eventually going to die of lung cancer. Its the cumulative effect over time that is really devastating, and the seesaw effect of money in, money out. Industry has to have predictable funding and we cant do that. Not only is it negative on immediate readiness, its devastating on future modernization because we cant get out in front of it and its much more expensive when you cant do multiyear contracts. Its very expensive. Its inefficient, ineffective way of doing the budget. Admiral . Mr. Chairman, i would pile on top of everything that general milley said. It is the cumulative effect of this triple whammy of the operational pace against fighting violent extremism, contrast it against the uncertainty of the budget and the budgetary levels. We always, all of us, strive to send our forces forward fully ready into those fights, so that they are fully prepared for any contingency that comes their way, but that has come at the cost of readiness back home and those reenforcement forces, those surge forces, that would flow into the fight if we had a major contingency as the general highlighted. I would also say that one thing in my mind that is characterized the discussion is it is very internally focused and its not just us thats been operating in the world in the last ten years, so if we had this conversation eight years ago, in the intervening eight years, china has completely modernized their fleet and they are operating not just around their shores, but around the world now. Russia was actually considered an ally at that time. We were exercising with russia, and now its a much different picture. The general mentioned north korea and iran. These competitors have also grown in these last intervening eight years, and so the relative balance has shifted. So its a combination of our internal effects, the stress of ten years of combat operations, 15 years, contrasted against the funding instability and levels, but it is also our competitors that have been making significant gains during those eight years. General goldfein . Sir, thats really, you know let me build on admiral richardsons comments, because the reality is, the world changed in 2014. If you go back prior to 2014 and look at our posture and the collective assumptions we were making, we were out of iraq, we were coming down in afghanistan, and in a single year the world changed for us. Russia went into crimea and got active in ukraine. China started militarizing islands in the south china sea. We had isis and we went back into iraq, and you may remember we had this thing called ebola, and while we may look back on that as not big of a deal. As we were going through it, you might recall we didnt know if we were facing the plague of the 21st century, so the world changed, and the assumptions that we made in terms of strategic trades that we make, because as Service Chiefs, you know, what we do is look at balancing capability, capacity, and readiness, and we make strategic trades based on assumptions of the Global Security environment, so to your question of whats different now, the worlds different now. Thank you. Commandant . Chairman, on 9 11 there were 172,500 marines and we deployed at a rate of 31. We were home for 18 months and were gone for six. And the gear we had was the gear we had from the 1980s build up. It was only 16, 15, 12 years old. You go to camp lejeune, Camp Pendleton today, you drive around, thats the same stuff. Were driving today. Its been modified and reengineered, its been through the depot, still flying the same f18s, we got one squadron, f35s. Were flying the same 53s, starting to get at replacing the hueys and cobras. The force now deploys at a rate of 21. I mean, we have to recapitalize this force. We fought a fight against an insurgent, and as my fellow chief said, the game has changed. We werent talking about four plus one even five, six years ago. And all their stuff is new. And we need to have our stuff modernized, and we have to change our training, and we can do all that. We can do all that. And were in the process of doing that. But we need to have the stability of a known funding stream so that we can get the best price for modern gear, that we can plan our training, that we know were going to go, that we know were going to get a ride either in an airplane or ship, and our allies know were going to show up and were going to be there to train with them. And this potentially puts all that at risk. Mr. Smith . Thank you, mr. Chair. I actually have no questions, have the opportunity to speak with these gentlemen on a number of occasions, so ill let ms. Davis take the first questions. Ms. Davis . Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you all very much for your service and for being here today. You know, you make a very good case, and i think were all with you in understanding the difficulties, the challenges, that you face, but im also wondering. Here we are, its april, we havent passed last years budget yet, in many ways, as you say, were dealing with a continuing cr, which in many ways is almost the norm. And so what is it that we should be looking at, doing, are there different metrics when it comes to readiness and setting priorities that suggest that we actually have to adapt to this kind of situation and still accomplish the mission . What do you think needs to be done differently and at all if this is the new normal . I dont im not suggesting i like the new normal i dont accept it as a new normal, congresswoman. Candiddy, failure to pass a budget in my view as both an American City and chief of staff of the United States army constitutes as malpractice. I dont think we should accept it as a new normal. I think we should pass it and pass the supplemental with it and get on with it. The world is a dangerous place and becoming more dangerous by the day. Pass the budget. Maam, heres what this new normal would mean. It would mean trying to run a mile race and giving the competition a lap head start. You got to run very fast if youre going to win that race, and were just not fast, so i mean, thats what you buy into, if you accept this as a new normal. I couldnt agree with the chief more. Maam, ill just use this as an opportunity to just remind us in terms of what i think you expect from us as joint chiefs, and that is i think you need from us our best military advice on what we think we need to be able to perform the missions that were being given. And until those missions change, what we will continue to tell you is what the force requires. So the resistance youre getting from us, relative to setting some kind of a new normal, is the missions havent changed. So what you wont hear from us is anything but heres what is required to do those missions, which we have been given, to defend this nation and to do those missions that are required both here in the homeland and abroad. I think we have adapted. Otherwise we wouldnt be able to do the things that we do every day. That doesnt mean we like it. I mean, were not perfect. We make mistakes, but i think were adaptable because of the men and women that serve in our services are really smart and they are Mission Oriented and figure out a way to get it done. And everybodys, you know, hedging or whatever they are doing, but the bill is in the back end, and the people were contesting right now, they dont have armored forces. They dont have electronic warfare, they dont have an air force, they dont have longrange artillery. They dont have the ability to jam space and deny our networks. Thats whos out there potentially in the wings. And thats what were trying to get at. And, you know, the force, were a volunteer force. Maybe more accurately were an all recruited force. And its expensive. And thats in order to continue to recruit, you have to have the capability that they think they have to have the opportunity to be successful against these other threats, and we can assume that it may or may not happen, thats not my job. My job is to manage risk and provide best military advice. So, we need stability. We need to be able to plan. We need to know whatever the number is, whatever the number is, and then well go forward. But the force has to have confidence that they are going to have a continued resource stream for the capabilities they need to train and to be operational, and for their families and for all those things that you have to have with an all volunteer force. Thank you. Right now we actually have a hiring freeze, a federal hiring freeze, and is that contributing to degraded readiness . I would say in what way . Weve had pretty good luck because of the parameters and the guidance that was given as far as we could get a waiver for those jobs on the civilian side that were directly affected, affecting readiness, maintainers, people that are involved in certain things. Its not perfect, and it has caused some problems, particularly on the nonappropriated side, and sadly the people that were mostly hurt by that were a lot of family members who worked in those organizations where we couldnt get a waver. But weve worked through it and got good reaction from secretary mattis and the department to fill those jobs. But it was just another thing, because as you know, you know, maam, it takes time to fill those jobs, particularly if they involve a security clearance. If others of you have comments, if youd submit them in writing, too. Well try to keep as close as we can to the fiveminute rule because of the number of members. Mr. Wilson . Thank you, chairman thornberry, for your coordinating this important hearing today on urgent issues to american families. I appreciate each of you for your extraordinary dedicated service to our nation. I would prefer that we met under better circumstances, but unfortunately budget certainty is an issue. Your clarity today is very much appreciated. In South Carolina i represent over 48,000 enlisted soldiers who annually graduate and are stationed at fort jackson, along with the nearby base at fort gordon, and the nearby air force base, the marines at paris island, buford naval hospital, buford Marine Corps Air station, and the guard members at mcintyre joint air baste. South carolina knows and loves our military. Opportunities for meaningful and fulfilling lives while protecting american families. Additionally as a veteran, son of a veteran, im grateful to have four sons that served overseas in the military, along with a nephew in the air force thats served in iraq. Its for this reason im concerned about the negative impacts on military families, such as deferred reenlistment bonuses, delayed family moves to the school year, reprogram military equipment upgrades with limited training. How would each of you describe the real life consequences to military families that impact that continuing resolution poses on our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines . How would this affect Service Member morale, recruitment, and retention, and additionally could each of you provide one specific impact that stands apart from the rest . General milley . Thanks, congressman. Appreciate the comment. And in South Carolina, as you mentioned, we got fort jackson. At fort jackson alone on an annual basis we train, we recruit and bring into basic combat training the equivalent of the british army. Every year. At fort bragg, north carolina, or fort hood, texas, if you combine both those bases, its equivalent of the australian and canadian armies put together. What will happen in your state, in South Carolina, and many other states that have basic training, missouri and georgia and elsewhere, that basic training is going to stop in july. Were going to run out of money next month, and then over the following 60 days were not going to have the gasoline, the fuel, the ammunition, et cetera. And basic training is going to stop. And what that will mean is we cant take those basic training that are already there or onward deploy them, or pcs them, to operational units. Well have to keep them right there at the fort. They wont be doing anything. They wont be training. They wont be doing anything of substantiative value, and we wont be able to recruit and bring in more trainees. So if we dont get this budget passed, if we dont get the supplemental passed, fort jackson and many other forces for all intents and purposes will be coming to a screeching halt. The impact on families will be significant. Were already cut back on several services throughout the army, and we will continue to have to cut back on more services for families, family members. Youre going to have to stop pcs moves, cancel bonuses, and bottom line is significantly and adequately increase stress on the force that admiral richardson talked about. Thats going to be through all the services. Thats going to be very dramatic, very significant, and something that should and must be avoided, in my view. Admiral . Sir, before i begin, i also have to thank you for hosting our Nuclear Power school down there in South Carolina. Thats a bit out of the region. I was just trying to include ones nearby. All right. Its not too far. I would have included air force base, too, but i was trying just to stay within the immediate reason. Rodger, sir. I only highlight that because of the areas that are some of our most skilled operators, our Nuclear Trainers, our combat aviators. Those are the folks that will be you know, they will be the first to leave. We talk about competition. Competitions everywhere i look. Competition is, certainly, in the security environment around the world, but ill tell ya, im competing every day for people. Im competing with the public sector, and the pool of qualified people to do those skills is small to start with and gets smaller every time somebody gets hired by another place. And when we talk about one month notice to move your family and children from norfolk to guam in the middle of the school year, that is a huge detractor, and that talent will leave, and i will lose that fight for people. The highest skilled, smartest, those folks will leave first. Thank you very much, and the rest can respond in writing. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, i want to thank you all for your testimony, especially for your service to the nation. So, like all of you, im very concerned about the impact of a cr across the board, but especially when it comes to cyber. So, can you discuss the potential impacts upon cyber programs, particularly those that might be a new start this year, such as the persistent training environment . General milley, im going to start with you, as an army program, but then id ask the other services to add their thoughts. Next, for all of our witnesses all, i remain also concerned about recruiting and retaining highly trained cyber warriors, especially as you as cyber commanders provided personnel from each of the services, rather than raising their own forces, so the Critical Role of cyber comes against Cyber Attacks and providing support to military operations is imperative that we, obviously, cannot afford to lose. And how will a cr and other budget gimmickry hamper your ability to recruit and obtain the best of the best . Thanks, congressman. As you rightly point out, cyber is a relatively new domain of war, as we refer to it. And its critically important and significant damage can be done to adversaries through the use of cyber. So, its really important that we as a military and the armys role develop both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. For the most part, for the for operational units, they focus on protection of the networks and defensive cyber capabilities. The impact of the continuing resolution mean that is we are not going to be able to finish the facilities at fort gordon, the Cyber School Center of excellence, means that the National Guard will not be able to field their Cyber Protection teams, defense teams for the National Guard and we will not be able to continue the level of training we need to do for the teams that are already formed in the regular army. In addition to that, the cr will likely have a greatly or likely have a negative effect on the recruitment of the best talent we can get out there to become cyber warriors. Its a new branch in the army. Thus far we have had great success. We need to continue that momentum. A continuing resolution or return to bca funding will stop it right in its tracks. Thank you, general. Admiral . Sir, ill just again pile on. Weve been organizing for cyber for sometime now and that Organization Includes people, the talented people that general milley referred to. And so, we are we have a requirement for 40 Cyber Mission teams that constitute a Cyber Mission force throughout the joint force and then there is the engineering. We need to do the work to engineer our systems to make them more resilient against a cyber attack. Our latest development in that is to stand up the Digital Warfare Office this year on my staff that will work with the fleets to enhance our agility in the information domain across the board. Its a very comprehensive program. I would love to come and talk to you about it in more detail that will stop without this funding. And also, many of those upgrades, those modernizations that i talked about are to enhance our resilience against cyber attack which, those as the chief said, critical vulnerabilities. The first shots in the war going on right now is in the cyber domain. The war is on there. We need to keep that funding in place. Thank you, admiral. General . Sir ill just add to offer you some thoughts on what this is doing to admiral rogers as the combat come bant ant with the mission of defending the networks and ensuring that we have the talent to be able to do his mission. All of us contribute to the Cyber Mission teams and while we cant go into operational details, this tended cr will have an impact on all of our ability to be able to put those teams in place and allow him to accomplish the mission that hes been given at that very national level. Sir, i was up at fort meade talking to marines and sergeant stuck his hand up and he goes, commandant, how will you afford to keep me . I said, i dont know if i can afford to keep you. Whats it going to cost me . I dont know if i dont know if theres enough money out there. We got people up there getting offered triple or six figures plus to leave and go work in the civilian side. So weve already made the weve closed down. We will have to treat cyber like special operations. Once youre in, youre in. Because the investment is too high to get them trained. They have to stay. But then i have to figure out how to get them to stay and long enough contract for a return. Obviously, if were at a cr level, any money for bonuses or anything like that, theres a tradeoff for something else. Youll find the money but what are you going to take it away from . There are no good choices. Thank you all. Mr. Lobiondo . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here and thank you for your very candid and sobering explanation of what were facing. Been on this committee for a while and i can remember years passed when witnesses came in and just danced around the edges about what the consequences would be if we didnt do our responsibility the right way and, unfortunately, we are seeing the results of it now but understanding and clear and Uncertain Terms of what it means to each of the branches and to the country overall i think is the sobering information we need. With that in mind, i want to tuck about the potential strains on the military and tie in with what you have been saying to highlight what i think are most important resource, our men and women, so we need the Weapon Systems, we need the modernization, but without the men and women as you have been saying, we have a real problem. Specifically, the 117th fighter wing in my district had a drop of 7 in 2017 compared to 2016. It was cutting paychecks this year. While the f y 17 supplements a pay raise for troops as authorized in the 17 ndaa and by law d. O. D. Must provide this pay raise, unless the supplemental is passed, d. O. D. Will likely have to realign funds from military personnel accounts. First for general goldfein, what is the affect on Service Members pay in fy 17 if supplemental is not passed . Exacerbating the strains they have already experienced with such a cola cuts . How could this affect service me believes morale, recruitment and retention . I know its not good but i want to hear it in your words. And what concerns you if were stuck in a yearlong cr . Thanks, sir. When it comes to meeting our obligations to our airmen coming to pay, were going to meet those obligations. The issue is, were going to have to go somewhere in the military personnel account to find the money. Its the tradeoffs that will be the issue. For example, under a continuing resolution we have talked about pcs moves, right . Moves, change of station. For the air force for five months of a cr theres 13,000 families that will have to be delayed in the moves. Of those families, that now that have children in school, think of the issues to go on to delay all of those moves into the fall cycle after theyve started school. That puts a stress on our families that actually cant be quantified. When it comes to the your last part of your question which is what are my biggest concerns relative to a long cr, quite frankly, its breaking faith with our airmen and families. They have been at this for 26 years now. Theyll stay with us if they believe they can count on us to ensure that we take care of them and their families as they deploy. They will stay with us if they believe theyre given the resources to be the very best they can be and so i go back to my point. Air Traffic Controllers that dont control dont stay with us. Thats why youre hearing us talk about readiness as a top priority and fund them to get them in the air is a key priority for the United States air force. We only have little more than a minute but, general milley, you want to comment on that, as well . Thanks, congressman. Just very briefly, i concur and endorse everything that finger said, general goldfein said. By law, we are supposed to do a 2. 4 pay raise, ecis to keep pace with inflation. 2. 1 is built into it. If the if we go to a cr or bca funding, that will kill any pay raise. Right now our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, we want you to consider in world war ii only 10 of the United States military was married. Today 60 of us are married and on average theres two children so talking about families of four here so an e5 or e4 sergeant or a specialist corporate with a family of four earns just slightly above the poverty level. There are thousands today that still use food stamps. That should really get peoples attention. And if we dont pass the budget with the supplemental, it hurts their pay, going to hurt other forms of benefits, Hurt Services and its going to crush morale. It will be very devastating to morale so, again, i cant highlight enough yellow ink here to get the bugtd and the supplemental passed because to do otherwise will have negative significant impact. Thank you. I yield back. Mr. Courtney . Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses. We have five days to get this done so obviously the urgency of your message is, you know, very important and, again, we appreciate it. Admiral richardson, i wanted to drill down on the cr but i would just like to clarify a point that was raised yesterday when general heighten of Strategic Command testified over in the senate regarding the knife edge time line the navy faces to sustain the fleet. As he correctly stated, ohio sspns coming offline starting 2026 at a rate of one per year and in order to avoid dipping below ten while the new columbia class comes into service, last december cr we included a yearlong 773 million anomaly to keep columbia moving forward with Detailed Design and production this year. Just again, for clarifications sake, is that 773 million plusup we, again, made as a yearlong anomaly adequate this year . Sir, i appreciate you highlighting the force marks to get the submarine on patrol in 2031. This is a program with zero margin. And so we need every dollar of that for the year to keep that on track. Theres good news there. The team up at electric boat regained tracks so our designs are on pace but ill tell you theres no margin in that and even the fact down to ten that requires, you know, pretty much error free operation to maintain requirements at that so that will be adequate for this year but stable, continuous funding to keep that on track. Great. Thank you. Appreciate that. Admiral ma loi over here earlier this year stated that a yearlong cr to drive the navy to cancel 14 or more ship availabilities. Youre dealing with a phenomenon of carrier gaps. Obviously, that would kind of spread into other areas of the fleet. And in terms of performance gaps. I was wondering, again, if you could highlight that, that little yes, sir. Critical point. We dont fix the ships just to fix them. We maintain and upgrade those ships so they go forward and do the nations business and we need to send them forward fully ready, maintained, just like your car would be. You wouldnt drive your car without doing the maintenance on it without the gas and so this will translate downstream. The maintenance thing writ large, you know, when you cant fly an air wing because of the aircraft arent maintained, that just will result in were not sending them forward untrained. Were not going to send them forward unable to defend themselves because of poor maintenance. And so, this will result in a smaller navy around the world. Longer tethers, less presence, gaps if you will. And so, its you know, its a domino effect. As well, when those maintenance availabilities get canceled, well, all of our particularly the private shipyards have to adapt to that, as well. The workforce has to be cut and those people necessarily do not come back. Theyll find new jobs and so it just you can see this downward spiral that results. And just to follow up the chairmans question of whats different this time, again, admiral malloy seemed to suggest it will happy pretty much immediately if the cr is the final outcome. Sir, our fleet commanders and maintainers are hanging on with the fingernails now. They wanted to take action before because theyre at risk. Right . Theres laws in place here in terms of spending more money than you have and if we dont pass this, this will come to a it will be abrupt. Theyve extended this as long as they can. Thank you. Yield back, mr. Chairman. Mr. Turner . Thank you, mr. Chairman. General milley, thank you for your incredible answer to susan davis concerning the prospects of crs is important and everyone in Congress Needs to hear it. We know certainly that members of this committee not only understand but advocates to the rest of congress. Lastcr came forward, many of you are aware that our members of this committee refused to vote for the cr unless receiving a promise from the speaker that d. O. D. Aappropriations would move from the house. It did. Theres no reason as we look forward to the prospects of a cr that d. O. D. Funding should be an exception. No reason it should not be a xapgs. We have passed the ndaa. They should absolutely be stapled to whatever is moving forward for funding and we are certainly add voluntary katding it does. I want to drill down on what the affects of sequestration and possible cr would be, general milley, specifically on the army. Chris gibson and i introduced the prosper act. Most importantly implemented a strategic pause in the obama administrations proposed reductions to land force end strength levels given future and current threats. Began the process of reversal the affects of down sizing. Under chairman thornberrys leadership, we made them part of the ndaa fiscal year 2017 with full funding for manning, training and equipping for the increases. These end strength authorizations associated with the fiscal year 17 ndaa will allow the army to begin the process of mitigating some of the strategic risks imposed by the budget control act. However, we recently heard testimony from the vice chief of staff of the army and he stated that at todays end strength the army risks consuming readiness as fast as we build it. This leads me to believe that we need to continue to look at ways to reasonably continue to grow the army, to minimize the risks associated with current and future operational demands. So a few questions in that regard. First, we now know that the president has proposed a spending level of 603 for fiscal year 18. As you know, the chairman has proposed 640. Could you please tell me what the affects of a 603 funding level and the aggregate would be on rebuilding the military and what is the impact of a cr as we have continued to try to rebuild what would the affect of the cr be . So those two questions. There will be lots of impacts. Probably the most significant, we have been authorized and moved out for the regular army to reverse the downward trend in end strength and to move out to 476 by 1 october of this year. For the National Guard, we want to stabilize that force and bring them to 343. 343,000. By 1 october. And for the u. S. Army reserve, wed like to bring them back to about 197 or 197,000 by 1 october. Yearlong cr will stop all of that. It will stop the recruiting, it will stop the basic training and well essentially resume downward trend. What does that mean . Operationally, it mean that is unit wills go to the field at less than optimal strength for training. We have units in the field for training in the 60 to 70 versus whats required of 90 to 95 present for training. Thats a significant deagree dags in capability over time. Were going to end up having to if the yearlong cr, well end up having to stop the National Training Center Rotations in california and canceling jrtc rotations. We will also end up canceling significant training for home station training for all of the active yue knits. And for the guard, they will have to cancel four of their what we call xcts or training events. Training across the board beginning shortly after we run out of money in may looking at june or july, training will be reduced to individual squad training. Individuals and squads and army does not make. You have to train at the company, the battalion, the brigades for an effective force against the type of enemies that are possible out there. So it will be very significant across the board, congressman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Garamendi. Gentlemen, thank you for your impassioned plea for money. You know where its coming from. Its coming from all of the other things that the American Public would like us to do and, frankly, we need to do. Our Ranking Member spoke to the 30 decrease in the state department and what that means. The 5 billion decrease in the National Institute of health, Research Programs for everything from cancer to alzheimers and the like. So, were going to make some choices here. Youve been told to develop a war plan for isis. Where is that plan . General my li, where is the war plan for isis . You were supposed to have it done in 30 days. Yeah, congressman. Appreciate that. Im not going to discuss classified operational matters in tell me, general. Where is the plan . Not what it is. Its been submitted and its been looked at and reviewed by this committee. I dont know that we submit it to the committee. We submit it to the chain of command you have 5 billion in your supplemental for a war plan thats never been submitted to us. You expect us to approve something you have not submitted to us . Congressman, im not going to get into a discussion of no, just, the question was very direct, sir. Do you expect us to give you 5 billion in a war plan you have not submitted to us . I would ask that you refer that to the secretary of the defense or president. We work through the chain of command on war plans. Thats not an answer to my question but i guess the answer is you expect us to approve a plan thats not been submitted. How it would be spent, where it would be spent. Okay. Fair enough. Thats 5 billion of the 30 billion supplemental. Youve said in this testimony that pay will be reduced. Unless you have the supplemental. But yet in the base bill, theres a 2. 1 pay increase. How does that work . General gold feigfein, apparentu would like to answer. Yes, sir. We have said well pay the pay increase but well have to make trades to do that. No i think the budget, if i might, sir, the budget we put out, the 2017 appropriation had 2. 1 built into it for the forces that presumably you have. All of you have. Are you suggesting that that is not the way we no, sir. We are not suggesting that at all. The appropriations that came from this body had a growth, for example, of 3,000 ma renals in a 2. 1 pay. What we were brought here today to talk about is a continuing resolution through the whole ye year. And you spent a good deal of your time talking about the supplemental. I believe we we are debating the word good time. Good deal of your time. Lets not get into too much detail of how much time you spent on the supplemental but each one of you advocated for the supplemental and we, at least i have never seen how you would suspect how you would want that supplemental to be spent in certain key areas. Thats not to say it may not be necessary. But we are going to have to make some tough choices and we are going to need some detail in order to make those choices. General goldfein, you and i have spent time talking about do we really need to replace all of our ground base strategic missiles. In the near term. You know, that is about 50 billion. Do we need to do it right now . Or, can that be delayed and we can do some of these other things that you would like to have us do . Sir, i would submit to you that all three legs of the try ad, the missile leg, the bomber leg and the submarine leg, the three legs of the triad were all built to build in to a specific attribute we were looking for. The missile leg gives us the most responsive leg of the triad. The bomber leg gives us the most flexible leg and submarine is most survivable leg of the triad and we need all three of those legs to be able to do the mission that we have been asked to do. I got ten seconds. Im not debating whether or not we need it. When do we need it . Sir when we have to make some tough choices. Absolutely. In making those tough choices some things may get delayed. I yield back. Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Let me just try to clarify one thing here. I dont think theres anything in any legislation where a plan has to be devised and given to this committee. I think your responsibility is to the secretary of defense. His responsibility is to the president and some point we are interested in what that plan is but i dont think thats written in stone that we have we have to be given that plan at point x. [ inaudible ] okay. Well, thank you for that clarification. General milley, i do want to ask you about a readiness and modernization issue. Currently fort carson which is in my district has a Brigade Combat Team deployed to europe to deter russian aggression. To get ready to deploy, they require reliable, modern equipment and training. My twopart question is, if we had a cr, will the next bre gad combat team out of fort carson be able to deploy with Reliable Equipment and necessary training . And secondly, would the next striker brigade out of fort carson be able to go to the National Training center to get critical training before deploying . Congressman, the striker brigade youre referring to, thats a rotation that would be canceled. So if theres a yearlong cr, that unit rotation would likely be canceled. For the deployment to europe, we plan on fully funding and resourcing units that are deploying into iraq, afghanistan and other areas of combat. However, the unit that goes to europe, for example, on a rotational basis youre referring to, they would not get their full suite of home station training prior to deploying because of the personnel strength issue that was previously discussed. They would likely not deploy at full operational standards that we would like them to deploy at so there would be a negative effect on that particular bring grade deploying. Thank you. Thats very sobering and to me has National Implications and certainly Community Implications back in colorado springs. General goldfein, i would like to ask you a question about space. In your written statement, you say that the jixboc renamed the National Space Defense Center will face delays and delays in the new gps ground infrastructure and gps3. So my question is this. With so many military and civilian systems reliant on assured access to space, and even just gps is critical for navigation, for financial transactions, 2 billion out of the 7 billion people use gps every day one way or another on the surface of the earth. Whats this mean for security in space and access to our spacebased resources . Yes, sir. You know, we have been stewards of space since 1954 and we continue to take that priority seriously. As we look at the gps constellation, moving forward with gps3 with the ground based stations and with all of the integration that needs to occur is a priority and managing that very theyre very closely. The part that we actually havent discussed here, i think general milley may have referred to it earlier, thats the impact on the Industrial Base if we dont have a resolution. This is an incredibly sophisticated work force that you keep on the books if youre industry to be able to do the business of space. And so, as we jockey the throttle between a cr, a budget, no budget, an annual appropriation or not, these industries that we rely on to be able to bring that kind of sophisticated workforce have got to figure out what to do with them when we teld them we are hoping the year after that. So it has incredible impact on the Industrial Base for ceos out there trying to manage their businesses and ill tell you as the service thats working the preponderance of space thats a significant impact. Okay. I want to thank you all for your service, and mr. Chairman, i yield back. Ms. Hanabusa. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you, gentlemen, for being here. I thank you for your service, a special shout out to admiral richardson for time in pearl and uss honolulu. Thank you very much. We know paycom is the largest aor. Among all of you. You all know that. And of course, the concerns like this morning with north korea and protests maybe of whats going on in maralago. They shot off missiles and we saw this mornings news as to whats going on in syria. Having said all of that, we understand and i in particular are very emphathetic to the fact that you are on a cr but the fact remains the admiral richardson, you particular pointed out in your written statement that we are six months into the cr and irrespective of what happens between now and five days from now, chances are we are it may not be anything that you want to see. The house i think has done as chairman says its job. It sent over the basically the Defense Budget. But having or defense approps but we are in a situation of you will be faced historically and you have been faced with it. General, i agree with you. It may border on malpractice if we were in a civilian situation but the fact remains that is what happens. Yesterday where admiral richardson sits we had undersecretary flournoy and former undersecretary made a statement one of the things she thought was necessary was a flexibility in your individual abilities, defenses abilities, to move funds. So my question to each and every one of you is we can all agree. We dont like it. We dont like the situation youre in but the fact is you are in that situation. Id like to understand what you all do to make things work. I mean, im envisioning someone in the back room with a Little Pencil saying, its another month, admiral. Another month, general. So we will have to move money here and there to do x. I assume you have the ability to do that. And if you dont have the ability to do that, id like to know what will make it better so that you can compensate for that. And like i said, we all can see. Cr is not good. But were six months into it. And even if you were to get what you want, you still have six months that you had to have done something and made it work. So with that, whoever wants to take a stab. Maam, ill lead off. The first part of the deal was that everything that we have requested particularly in the supplemental would be executable in the remaining time so its you know, the sixmonth period of time is that. And as i mentioned earlier, we have been doing all of that adjustments that revisit and rerevisit to a tremendous waste of time and energy by our leadership as we navigate through the shol waters of just continuing budget unpredibltability, instability and insufficient levels. But for this year, we are out of creative space. Our Commander Leaders in pearl harbor, as well, running the fleet at paycom, he and his colleague admiral davidson at norfolk, theyre out of options. They have stretched it to the breaking point on the faith that we will be able to do something to be able to fund the rest of the year. And so, i share that faith that they have. This is not a fate comply. We have do the right thing. Get your military out so we can defend the nation, can provide the flexibility and protection for all of the other things to happen. I just am not ready to concede that this is the new normal. Maam, if i could add that so heres the sand box for service chief. Capability, capacity, readiness. We make strategic trades and i mentioned earlier part of 2014 the world was different. And so as we were making trades i can tell you in the air force we actually traded capacity and readiness to get capability, to modernize for the future. Then the world changed and we have to relook at that balance and make different kind of trades. When were then limited or restricted congressionally or legislatively to be able to work within that box to be able to make those trades it makes our job harder. What we owe you is the best to give you for the money were given. And so, thats what happens. Ill give you one quick example. So we got additional acquisition authorities. We have used those acquisition authorities to be able to look at Weapon System that we can procure a faster rate. We get in a cr, anything in the new start will be stopped so modernization is future readiness and so thats one example of getting legislative restrictions of the ability to move within that sand box its hurtful. Mr. Chair, im out of time. Could we ask it to be submitted for the record . Thank you. If the other witnesses have comments, absolutely. Mr. Whitman . Thank you for your lap. Its unfortunate were in the situation of a familiar refrain. The uncertainty of resources coming forward and what you all have done to accommodate that leaves you at a place where you have no flexibility to do the job we ask you to do. Were now stretched to the limit. We are there at this point i think that begs the question, what is the collective impact of this line of crs or the sequesters . I have talked earlier about time is now one of our adversaries because we lose time with these things. When we have a cr and things we cant do and we redirect s as you should to training and takes away money from programs trying to modernize, trying to keep up with the adversaries and then there are additional costs so when you try to catch up later, you never catch up timewise and its more expensive to do that later. Admiral richardson, give me your perspective on the impacts of this roller coaster ride of uncertainty and where it leaves you in whether its postpone ship availabilities or lack of training for pilots. Where does that leave you . And whats the overall longterm impact both of time that we lose and of additional costs to regenerate that in the future . Sir, if i could, how about if i phrase my answer in the positive . And talk about what could be done. Yeah. If we pass this budget with its supplemental. Ill draw down a fairly extensive list. First, keep the uss ponci in the middle east. Retain five cruisers. Repair ships, ship spares, fill those coffers. Well fund the 14 availabilities for submarines and surface ships we talked about earlier. Well fund 14,000 flying hours for tactical squadrons and fund 27,000 flying hours for student pilots. Our Aviation Spares which have been a big contributor to the reduced readiness of aviation will be funded. Well upgrade the float and ashore networks for cyber security. Add 15,000 moves in and increase the lead time for those moves to two months or more, to four months. Three hangars, xhuns center and other facilities. Well do security improvements, physical security improvements to our bases. Well buy more missiles, more rolling airframe missiles. Well complete the fy16 ddg. Kell keep on track the aircraft carriers. The laox program. Well complete a destroyer and four lscs, lpd and other expeditionary ships. The list goads on and on. This is what we can do if we pass that budget with its supplemental. What a list that is. And this is just the navy. The joint force, each of my comrades here, my colleagues, has a list just like that. And so, you flip that coin on its other side and all of those things will not get done and that divot felt for decades in the United States navy. Very good. Let me make general milley, yes. Brief comment. Our country has got a long cyclic history of unreadiness for the next conflict. When they fired the first shot at lexington, they had no idea of an eight or nineyear war with the greatest power of the day. Lincoln thought it was a 90day conflict to put down a local rebellion. We sent guys off with wool uniforms to the tropics. World war i, the 100th anniversary right now, that Army Fighting the Mexican Border two years after it started and center it 1917 to take the soldiers over there. Think near a state of unreadiness to get there and train them in france before committing them to ground combat. World war ii is wellknown. 1942, go look at the history of 1942. Look at the naval battles in the south pacific. My father fought in the central pacific. 1942 was a disaster for the United States military in the pacific and disaster in north africa. Look at june 1950. Korea, yet again. Where we were completely in a state of unreadiness. Task force smith with two squads. Maintenance and equipment that didnt work. Soldiers not trained. The ultimate impact of all of this stuff is cumulative and results in failed battles, lost battles and dead soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines on the battlefield. Thats what ultimately results in. Very good. Thank you, general. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Mr. Brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank general goldfein. Glad to hear that no life threatening injuries the pilot. No reported injuries on the ground. Obviously, it is early. Investigation will reveal the cause. But im confident that with greater resources we do reduce the number of aircraft incidents that are related to human error training or maintenance so this is yet just another example of the need to continue to invest in readiness, modernization and in the men and women that do the difficult work that we do. We ask them to do. Look. I was on the uss nimitz last weekend and i looked at those sailors. Average age is 23. We ask them to do things that few americans want to do today. Its dangerous, important. Theyre excited about it. Big majority of those sailors, first deployment. And the first time that they were working with one another but theyre confident theyre going to be able to do the job we ask them to do and i said to them, and i wanted to reassure them that congress recognizes that we are a great nation because of the work that they do. We are the most prosperous nation in the world. Not just economically. Culturally. Our democracy. Our religious tolerance. Because of the work that men and women in uniform do. We owe it to them to invest in the work that they do. But we also owe it to the country to ensure that we are continuing to be prosperous investing. There was no debate on that. Admiral burn doing a great job on the uss nimitz and that strike group gets that, as well. So you are doing a great job. I appreciate what youre doing. Here hes my question. It has to do with brac. Because as were looking, you know, for all the different ways to resource what we need to do, to find the resources, the assets, the equity, the funding, heres my question. The acting assistant secretary or energy and environment testified about a few years ago that a future base realignment and closure round costs about 6 billion and then 2 billion per year. The army and air force in particular arguing that maintaining excess base and capacity diverts resources from readiness and Mission Capability to maintain an unneeded infrastructure. If a new round were to be authorized how would you reduce infrastructure and balance the force and given the potentially significant upfront cost to initiate a brac round what other ways to dispose of excess capacity at a potentially lower cost . For the army, we have excessive capacity to the tune of half a billion to a billion dollars we would gladly try to shed if we could. Same time, we are failed and failing infrastructure out there. About 22 , 33,000 facilities. Across the entire army. Throughout the world. That are in really bad shape that need work. Continuing resolution or a return to bca funding is going to stop the progress we are trying to make against that 22 of our facilities that are in bad shape and obviously prevent any sort of brac which we would encourage so we can get rid of the half a billion to about a 1 billion unneeded infrastructure we have. Sir, ill just add that when we talk brac, we tend to focus on the c and not enough on the r. The c be closure. The r being realignment. For the air force as important to there v the flexibility to realign as it is to talk about closure. And quite frankly, to general milleys point, when i look to this lens, i look more at the infrastructure i have right now and ensuring that we have a budget that allows us the dollars to be able to improve that we need, not only to bring on new mission but to fix dorms, you know, that are world war ii era to get the facilities that we need to be able to demolish those things we dont need and bring the footprint in and not having to spend these precious dollars on keeping large installations open, you know, not only open but keeping all of those buildings continually be run, right . When i dont need them given the size of the force. So, for us, you know, this starts with why were here which is to talk about first and foremost getting a budget so we can get into our military Construction Projects and our modernization that we need and restoration we need. That to me is far more important than a discussion about a future brac. Mr. Scott . Thank you, mr. Chairman. General goldfein, good to see you again. Most americans would be surprised to learn that the average age of an aircraft in the air force today is 27 years old and that some flooets like the jstars are nearly 50 years old. How would a yearlong continuing resolution affect the air forces ability to recapitalize the 50yearold jstar aircraft . Thank you, sir. You are right. Almost 50, about 48 years average theyre being used and as the air Component Commander deployed forwarded working in centcom we talk about what we do with the aircraft relative to the ground fight but ill tell you theyre as equally important to the maritime domain and what we do nor admiral richardson and his forces, as well. Fivemonth continuing resolution would delay the contract vehicle that were working on under the Risk Reduction on the radar to move that forward and not a linear. We dont pick it up again because back to industry. Going back to industry, they will have to manage that workforce and may walk and picking it up again, theres no telling that the longterm impact of delaying our ability to be able to recapitalize that critical weapons system. Im concerned about the loss of the Weapon System when they go in for i mean, they will be overdue for major overhauls and not in the air flying and certainly seems to me better to put that money into new aircraft with new technology than to rebuild 50yearold planes. Sir, thiss what were trying to do, and you made a point about the maintenance. Civilian workforce who are the ones yes, sir. Tend to at our detos keeping the much older aircraft flying are the ones that are impacted the most personnelwise from a cr and so you lose literally hundreds of man hours of getting the deto maintenance to keep them airborne. Yes, sir. I hope you maintain the position you dont want a cr. General milley, congratulations on the pistol. Long overdue. You state in your thats the first time i have seen you laugh. You state in your testimony that over 80 of the u. S. Military oerss in afghanistan, syria and afghanistan are u. S. Army soldiers. Building on what general goldfein stated about the impact of the continuing resolution on the air force, how would the constraint on heavy left and combat support aircraft impact your piece of the fight against isis . Well, frankly, the armys dependent and were all dependent on each other as general miller said earlier. With respect to heavy lift, i mean, the army cant get to the fight without the navy or the air force. Ant get there. Our people and equipment doesnt arrive at the point of decision without the transport capabilities of the navy and the air force so it will be significant if the air force doesnt have that kind of capability so were big advocate. Were in the army huge advocate for the navy, the air force and the marines who are on the ground with us. Its a joint fight. And i as a soldier, i want the most unbelievable air force, the world has ever known. And because the soldiers best friend is when a fixed Wing Air Force pilot is showing up in his aircraft when were in contact. And thats the first call we all make is to the United States air force or navy or marines, whatsoever aircraft is flying around there or an Army Attack Helicopter to make sure its an uneven fight on the ground so i want the best navy, the best air force, the best marine corps as the chief of staff of the army. Its a single joint fight. Could you reiterate the impact, if we dont get the 5 billion for the urgent Operational Requirements for iraq, syria and afghanistan, to counter isis and the additional Intelligence Surveillance and reconnaissance, could you reiterate your points of the forces in those areas and our Operational Mission if the supplemental is not passed . Candidly, congressman, i would like to do, but id like to do that in a classified session to talk about specific operational impacts, what i would say here is it would be and negative and unhelpful to the ongoing efforts. Gentlemen, i want to thank you all for your service and i hope that you will continue to maintain the position of no cr, that this has gone on way too long. Thank you and god bless you. I yield back. Ms. Rosen. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ranking member, smith and i thank you all all of you for your testimony today and being here and we know how detrimental the continuing resolution is to everyones ability to plan, prepare and do longrange strategic planning, not just in our military but in every area of our nation that affects all of us in the country worldwide. But i want to ask general goldfein a question. Of course, i represent nevadas 3rd district. Air force base is a few miles outside my district and of course it is one of the main combat training exercises red flag. Right there. Very important to us. Very important to you. And so, were designed to provide our pilots with their first ten combat Missions Prior to actually flying in combat there. So is red flag included in the stand down under a continuing resolution this time . Yes, maam. I think what you have already heard from us is one of the first things that will go is we look at where we have to go for the money like for the air force. Where do i find 2. 8 billion . One of the first places i have to go is cancel exercises. I have airmen scheduled to deploy that are scheduled to come to nulles to do the first ten combat missions in that unmatched training environment that will not go to that training. They will deploy. We dont stop the deployment. Thats what the nation calls on us to do. We just go less ready. We all will cancel rotations at National Training center, fallon, at camp lejeune and clearly at nulles. You would say the impact is impact human lives, lives of soldiers and families because we are not able to pass a budget . Maam, ill share a very personal story. So, you know, captain goldfein day one desert storm. Never in combat. One guy in vietnam and we all went across the line. I remember the first time i heardaaa, antiaircraft. We all looked and i remember hearing the sa2 and we all the first surface to air missile and then in the formation a mig 29 to hit the ground and i remember that moment in my cockpit and i remember the confidence that came over my cockpit because i realized ive seen this before. Ive heard these radio calls. I have actually seen smoky sam simulators of aaa and surface to air missiles. Never seen a plane hit the ground before but i have heard this ive been in this environment before. You cant imagine the confidence that came over my cockpit and all of those flying that day that said we have been here. We can do this mission an we went in and crucialed it. So what nulles provides is confidence in the air and confidence under fire. And so it concerns me that we are not going do give the training to the young men and women. I think we know that everything we do. The more training you have, the more muscle memory you have, the better able you are to execute your job no matter what it is. Maam, if i could just pile on. Theres a great responsibility we have to do things different and better, as well. We cant just keep doing the same things for the same cost and expect to be effective. Right. And nulles and fallon and training ranges, thats where that development is done, experiment, learn the new ways to fight, more effective ways to fight. More efficient ways to fight and so its not just, you know, going out and sets and reps. This is learning how to fight in the future. Its extremely important. Well, i thank you for your service and i for one dont want to send one more Service Member in to battle unprepared. Thank you. Dr. Win strop. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen, for being with us today. You know, budgeting decisions we dont get to decide here ourselves in this committee. It is beyond us. I dont know how many of our me believes 1078 times really dwell on or understand the details and the difficulty that goes into running an efficient and effective military. And when were in this discussion today, its probably the most grave ive heard since ive been here. And rightfully so. And i know that each of you look at your troops as part of your family. And thats what makes this even tougher. To think the environment that youre being asked to be put in and your family me believes being asked to be put in. We have touched a little bit about what happens to those next to deploy. They may deploy but theyre not going to be as ready as they should be. And im also would like to hear from you if we could on the consequences of those that are currently deployed in iraq, syria, afghanistan and whats going through your mind if we find ourselves in the situation that may happen. Ch we do not want. Ill start with you, general neller. As we have all said, well make trades. I mean, i think were pretty flexible. Were all in learning organizations and as much as we dont like the fiscal situation we have been in, you know, we are Mission Oriented and we figured it out but i think at this point what you are seeing is those that are Forward Deployed have got the best gear, the best part support, the best training we can give them. The next ones out the door then and it goes down from there. But because of the security environment that we see, the folks that just came back, if you would, the people on deck are actually in the hole, in the dugout getting ready to run on the field, those are the one that is get the shorter end of the stick. I mean, theres a normal level and rhythm of a force and how you train it. But if we have to make cuts, for example, if we had a cr as opposed to the budget that you have all passed, thats 800 million delta for the marine corps. 500 on the ground. 300 on the air side. Those in the dugout, in the hole, if you will, theyre the ones to take the hit and then when they get on deck, you will be chasing yourself to try to catch up to get the reps and the seths you need and the time is not there. We just dont have the time that we used to have. So, thats the risk. Thats the risk. And thats just in todays fight. If you go to a one of the other adversaries we have all talked about and we continue to maintain the current ops, those are the ones to go there or shift the force. So thats the risk that we have all talked about. Sir, ill just add that we have all had a lot of time deployed forward and a lot of time deployed together. And when we would do our battlefield circulation and talk to our soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines, what are we doing here . We could all give that speech. The hardest question to answer was why isnt anybody talking about it back home. Why are we all completely focused about it here forward but nobodys focused on it back home . That was the hardest question to answer as a commander in the field. So my concern in terms of those who are deployed forward right now and for their families is theyre going to ask the question, are we serious about this or not . Is there risk Going Forward worth it or not . And im not sure if we dont even pass a budget we can look them in the eye and tell them that we should that what theyre doing forward is on the minds of this congress. I appreciate that, general. Admiral . Sir, ill just add one word is munitions. Thats how the forward force will be affected. Theyre coming ban fumes with munitions. This is the good stuff if you will, the precision munitions, the one that is we are using for very good reason and so i know that general milley feels that same shortage and thats an absolutely critical part of this recovery is to restock our magazines with the munitions we need to prevail. Thank you. Congressman, for those that are deploying we try to ensure that they get the maximum equipment and training. Its really the bench as general neller said and then as admiral richardson said about munitions, we are critically short and im not going to go into it publicly and happy to do it in classified sessions but a discussion of munitions is important and for the army, we actually i didnt realize this before becoming the chief but we make the bombs for the aircraft that the navy, air force and marines fly. They add all the precision stuff. We make the basic bombs at the joint munitions facility for which were responsible for. In next month were not going to be able to ship those bombs to the Sister Services for training. Operational things will be taken care of. But at nulles, at the different red flag zones, they wont have bombs to drop, they wont have the practice that fingers talked about, that general goldfein talked about. The shipping of the training munitions will cease here in the next month or two. And the other thing we talk about is leader development. Missed training, missed opportunities, say we miss six months of training, thats an entire generation of lieutenants and captain that is will miss training thats never made up. Sergeants and so on. The other piece is like this summer. We are not going to be able to run rotc summer camp. At west point. Well have 74 of Second Lieutenants in the United States army wont get commissioned in fy18 because they wont be qualified because the summer camp is missed this summer. Theres enormous amount of consequence in all kinds of areas if we go with a continuing resolution or return to bca and we dont get the budget and supplemental passed and quickly. Thank you, general. Mr. Carbajal. Thank you all for coming and addressing us today and thank you for your service. Even with the budget control act repeal, we would not have a blank check and must prioritize as intelligently as possible. While some estimates put costs at an additional 1. 2 billion per 10,000 uniform personnel, how do you 1. 2 billion personnels. For the army, theyre inter linked. The force decides capacity of the force. Obviously, what we want for this budget for 17, we want to fill holes. There are already holes existing in the forces, not increasing the force structure. It is to make the units that do exist whole. To make them capable of doing advocate level of training. Training a unit at 65 of strengths is inadequate. Maybe 15 , you are going to be combatting in effective unit. We are training it is an important piece and we are not increasiing bergades, we are jut filling holes of the unit. Can i ask that, it is exact same thing at the force. I will also tell you that you need the forces the to kay chac the training and to be able to build the time you need and enforcing the training that you need. Here is how sometimes this gets masked. When i was a younger pilot, i would meet with the crew chief and we walk around the airplane and i taxi in the runway and a different crew would be there to meet me. I go to a destination and a third crew would be able to meet me. Here is what often happens when you get to the shortfalls that you are seeing right now. The same crew chief has got to the end of the runway and you have that guy has to go to the same team. This is about filling holes. We have different capabilities that we think we need for future fights. If the pun money is not there, s going to come out of that 182,000 base. 3,000 marines that are doing something today are going to do something different. St thats going to reduce our overall capabilities in those particular areas. We got to grow those capabilities. The others are filling of shortfalls and maintenance of other places. Ours is different. We got to build the force thats ready to fight that we think we are going to face in 2025. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you to our witnesses for your leadership and service. My district of the new yorks 21st democratic, i represent two of our military installations of the home division. My first question is general milley regarding armys aviation readyne readiness. I have concerns that the cr can limit can you describe how the cr would impact the aviation readiness and on top of that of the shortage that the army is experiencing. Thank you for that. We are trying to make that up. If we dont get the budget passed, we are not going to make it up and thats going to increase several hundreds more and thats across the entire total army of the u. S. Army reserve. For the National Guards specifically, there is about 1300 pilot Seats Available in a given year for or that wont be available in the following year. As a result of a continuing resolution, those will be National Guards reserve seats. Another a thousand feet thats not available for regular army. We are going to try to reserve and fence the flying of our program with those already qualified pilots that are in units. I must mention that the standard is about 14 hours or 15 hours a month. We reduce that over the last eight years so the new no rmal s around something 13 or 20 hours. Well make sure they have the appropriate level of training. The last is upgrading the fleet, of the continuing resolutio resolution or bca is going to prevent that. Inside the castle roockpits and and most importantly well not going to be able to buy additional patches that we need to fill the holes for regular army or the National Guard. It will be a significant infect for our army. My second question, i understand the second training ship requires new start for funding this year for operators, what is the current status of the second mts and how would a cr create challenges for the navy if it is not funded or allowed to start in fy 17. Maam, great question, thank you for your support of whatever they do up there. There is been a fair amount of talk about a balance approach and everything has to do with National Health and National Security does not all resides. Castle ring is a great example of that where all of the sites is a supportive of energy. It is critical that we understand those relationship. If we are not training operators or developing new technologies out there. Right now we are using ships that are built in the 60s to do that. They are the oldest operating operating power plant in the country. It is time to recapitalize those. This is a new start. There is been a lot of start about funding flexibilities and the continue resolution is the opposite of funding flexib flexibiliti flexibilities. One of the things i would like to start is the second war training ship but i cannot do it with a cr. Thank you, i yield back. Thank you mr. Chairman. First, let me say i am very sob sobered and humbled by the responsibility that we have in listening to your testimony and how dedicated you are of this mission that you have. I am new at the job. I am formally a mayor of the 2. 8 billion budget. I am a freshman in minority and dont have as much influence as i would like to have. I know there is an Important Mission that congress has. I want to do the best that i can to communicate that we are dealing with peoples lives here. The people that work for you, and what we do has a tremendous aim pa impact on their lives. Thats a big number for onm. So i just it is going to be different years services. But, you are all spending 40 of onm. I want to ask you from a big picture perspective, does that make sense that we are spending as much as we are on onm on operations of maintenance or something overtime that we should try to change so go ahead. Well, we are a little bit different. Our people accounts about 65 of our budget. Our onm is about 15 . Our acquisition and facility make up the rest. A lot of your equipment are in the navy . Our aviation, all of our ground equipment is we own our ground equipment. Okay. So we are a small percentage of the overall force. Most of our cost is moepeople. I take your point. If ef we have to increase our c or the pay raise is vote upon, those bills, we have to make those trades and the trades are in those areas and of maintenance and procurement and facilities. You start to build up a deficit in those areas. Those are the puts and tanks that goes onto manage the budget. We are not a good example of what you are looking at for a large amount of onm. Thank you. Older aircraft are more expensive to fly, period. What happens with us is you get an average aircraft of 27 years. When i go out, once in a while i will find somebody driving a 27 years old car, not many. When we find someone like that, they know that company stop building parts for that car 11 years after that. When you are 27 years old, there was a fox news special that maybe you saw that had one main ta tainers, thats what it takes to keep our older parts. Thats a direct result of old craft age. So we try to procure and trying to get that aircraft age going down. What comes along with that is a different bill of procurement cost. It is the sustainment cost of the cycle of the system. We drive that down as much as we possibly can. Admiral. I think the general captured it very well. Newer things dont require. The renewal of the force at the end of the day less operating of maintenance cost. For the two of you as a general rule is a longterm. You know if you can have the conference work with you effectively and get away along overtime. Would you like to see your onm to to be a lower budget. I think both for operations and for procurement. Stable and adequate funding. Thats the way i want to partner with congress the most. For the army. We command a little bit less than 50 for personnel cost. Which is no surprise, the cost of labor and economic 101 is going to be your expense factor productive. For us onm, just under 40 so what is operational maintenance for the army. It is ammunition. It is fuel or products for the vehicles and flight hours for aviation and parts. So our onm costs have gone up of the last couple of years. Why, we are trying to intensify our levels of readiness and training. We have been fighting for r 16 consecutive years against terrorists in ids and iks and desert rain in the middle east. We dont know or no one knows when the next conflict will occur. We dont want to be preparing the last war for the next one. We dont know, we have to keep all the cards on the table for the u. S. Military to be able to fight a wide range of threats. We have reemphasize and combined arms and hiring combat unless you are specifically deployment. That training is having a positive effect of the last couple of years about 24 or 36 months or so. Bca funding, that level of training is going to come to a halt and that readiness improvement. For procurement in the armys case for what we have done. We buy current readiness. We are really mortgaging the future in terms of procurement. You want to put 20 of our money in research and development. We need to improve that. I saw that. Thank you very much gentlemen. I know that our mission is to do our jobs to try to help you do your jobs. Thank you. Mr. Russell. Thank you mr. Chairman and thanks to all of you for being here today. This body historically has wrestled with these issues since. A find mindful of the committee, the congressional investigations of the sinking of the uss maine and how did we let it happen. The joint committee of the areal attack on pearl harbor and what went wrong were the ones on the communist attack on south korea and how did we get so surprised. The story is familiar. Service chiefs and given shifting and declining budgets that make the dollar less flexible and less valuable. End less questions by people like me and preservious lives wondering whatever saving that has been realized by this unpreparedness, it is more horrifically compensated for. I dont know mr. Chairman what the next committee will be named but i already know what its recommendations will be. Mr. Chairman, i dont want to waste any more of these warriors time, we need to give them what they ask for. I yield back. Thank you, i thank you all for being here. I had six years of this committee, i think this is the grimmest that we are getting. Clearly we are not addressing this issue. I am going to put a little bit of change of the direction of questioning. I understand that we are following behind on equipment and etcetera, i am looking out at the world now as we look on us, and i think i agree with you, when you are talking about, you are wondering or are they talking a it at home. I dont think we are talking about it enough right here. What happens is committees are like silo and everybody is incredibly busy. We have to address this. I recognize the urgency and i thank you. What i am looking at right now is what about the rest of the world. Is the conversation going around, you know, around your profession, are friends worried that we are not going to be keeping our commitment or like the will to keep our commitments and our enemies are hopeful that well get so bogged down in this in our budget issue that we are not properly fund. I will go first. And in order to do that, we have to be able to show up for exercises and working our abilities and doing things with them and have them procure equipment thats ino operal wit us. We need to make it easier for partners and Foreign Military sales and acquisitions. I think they looked to us since the end of world war ii. And, whether it would be nato or a aseon. They look to the United States. It is important that we go out there in the professions of arms and not department of state or ministry of foreign affairs, we maintain these relationships and we can, we have to be able to go to our partners to say that well be there for you and they can pass that onto political leaders because we occupy interesting space out there in the international world. Thank you. Manning of Technology Changes overtime. Fundamentals of deterrence, i would argue have not changed. It is capability times will. The times are important. If you decide it equals zero, it equals zero. So i will tell you that, we have the luxury, not only as joint chiefs but throughout our career of having developed relationships of trust and confidence with our counter parts around the world and i cannot tell you how important those relationships are. We call them military to military. I think i will give you examples of sometimes diplomatically, we may not have had agreements with country and country but our relationships with our fellow marines are vital. We keep those long and often to what general neller is talking about. Our commitment is to the relationship that we build. You know this is one of those questions where if being appropriate to do a big broad brush over general concerns because the reality is, it is a bit mixed bag as you go around the world but i can tell you that we are committed to making sure that we keep those relationships alive and well. Thank you for a great question. I would say that and i appreciate you looking around the world and directing your attention there as well. The short term, we are in an unstable environment right now. There is a lot of governments coming into place. The world is shifting in many way and our administration as they settle in. We settle in. There are the opportunity for a great miscalculation and even more important in my mind that during these times of uncertainty, we minimize that possibility of misce missed calculations and this strengths of our allies that well certainly be there and it will also deter our enemies and through a period of transition, theyll wake up every morning and say, not today. Not today to start something. In the near term and i would say a longterm and we can have a different conversation through the 2020s, we got to ensure that we operate from a position of strengths of deterrence. This committee knows our responsibilities and we are ac active and speaking the answers and recognizing we have got to fund if we want to do what we need you to do. Thank you. I would echo my teammates here. Assuring allies are critical and we do that for present exercises and capability overall with our allies. United states have great allies and partners around world. I believe it is still strong. We have to continue to make it strong and virtual presence is actual absence. We need to be there with them in the air and on the sea and on the ground. And, thatll help reassure and stabilize various situations around the world. With respect to adversary, its capabilities plus real. The capability has to be real and seen and demonstrated and sensed. And your opponent needs to know that you have to will to use it. If you do that, you will definitely deter any rational actor on the other side thank you, thank you chairman milley. I yeel back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here. As vitally critical of our schools and infrastructure on the position as important as all those are, i think we are all smart enough to understand that we make no difference that we dont have a country of National Security. Certainly, we want to i want to give you what you ask to protect our country. General milley, when you reminded tharemin reminded us that our men and women in uniform has have to re on food stamps to feed their families. Thats the tragedy that makes everyone angry. We need to fix that problem. General, i want to thank you for the civil air patrol, air force, i fly for the Green Flag Program which you had to for sight to start. It is a successful and giving training to our men d women ando the ground. And the intellectual and the knowledge that these pilots, you said it takes at least ten years to train of the great with this cr and retaining that pilot of what the airliners are offering on the civilian side o of almost an impossible task. My question is what other areas of the dod do any of you see where we are losing the intellectual it is a National Challenge that we all have got to face. Chairman, this is something that i think we need to work together. Here is the basics. We and the United States air force produce about 1200 pilots per year. The airlines based on projecti n projections need 4500 every year. We are not going to buy our way out of it. This is a mismatch nationally to be able to produce the pilots that we need to serve us the commercial and business and private and military aviation needs of the nation. So, first and for most, we have to have a National Approach to this that looks at what are the incentives that we can put in place to increase the supply going up for the pilots that we need to service all these bins. What we need to do across our military approaching it from a quality of life and service. Quality of life we tend to focus on which is the financial piece and taking that financial burden off of the family and thats important. I would argue that the quality of service is equally and not more important. We got to ensure that our pilots are maintaining and getting the resources and being competitive as best as they can be and part of a unit and better than something thats better than themselves. They know that they are in about organization that they are valued and we take care of their families. All of the cultural things that go along with these uniforms are important and anything that we do financially. This is something that we have to wo, togethrk together becausa national crisis. Admiral. Other areas thats under stress of competition, or cyber forces are under stress and Nuclear Train sailors are under stress and they are also under stress. None of this we cannot compete in money. They did not join for money. We need to give them adequate resources to live. I think with this bill and supplement, well be needing that responsibility. These folks they join to sail and fly and operate at the high end and the most lethal force of the earth to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Thats all we have to do. Keep that covenant with them and theyll keep coming. Thank you, i yield back mr. Chairman. Mr. Banks. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you gentlemen for being here and your service. I am rather unique on the committee, i dont serve the district as an active duty military base. However, of any district, we are the proud home of indiana National Guards. The men and women serving our country and often going to harms way and service to our nation just as our active duty troops do as well. I am concerned of the prospect of a cr will have a greater impact on our reserve forces than the active component. General goldfein of another cr, could we have some sort of commitment from you or what kind of commitment can you make on behalf of your branch that a continuing resolution will not have a disportiroportion impact our National Guard. I will tell you this you go into a cockpit of the c 17 today and ask a crew thats in the front of the cockpit. Okay, whos active and reserve. I cannot tell you the number of times that i have flown in c17 and all three hands go up. You cannot tell us apart. We cannot do the mission without the International Guards. My commitment to you is that this is one air force and i am che their chief. I am going to make sure that the National Guards have everything of its needs. I appreciate that strong statement and commitment. Another concern keeping our related to the suppliers that are no longer in the business. Can you speak of the impact of the supply chain specifically . It will have more of an impact in terms of our ability to take those a tens and put those in depo maintenance. It will stop of the hiring freeze and a combination of other things. We have to figure out how to pay the bill. The air force of 2. 8 billion. To find 2. 8 billion and it is not linear. At the end o f that time frame, well get appropriations. All workers have left, we have not been able to hire their backfield and they lost their qualifications. There will be a spin up time at the end to get those lines backup and running. What you have is a number of aircraft and by the way, the aircraft had been flying on the flight and coming due from their maintenance. It continues that back law and what you end up doing is grinding aircraft. While i can buy all the parts in the world if i chose to be able to do that with my flexibility. Those parts will sit on the shelves because i dont have the work force and i. Toad put those parts on the airplanes. I appreciate the insight, i yield back. Miss mcsally. I appreciate it. I want to start off with what thats troubling me about 100 pilots that are refusing to fly. To get to the point where you dont trust your equipment and you think your life and students life is endanger is pretty severe. Some of that is because of resource implications thats discussed today. It sounds like some of it is a leadership issue. Can you comment on what the navy is doing thats going to impacting our moral and the lives of men and women. Thank you for the question. As it is been said before. This is a top priority safety for naval aviation. This is not a resource of training things. This is an area where we are applying every bit of resource and cost is not an issue as we approach this problem. It is directly related to safety and got the full attention of all let me continue my answer. So addre i am going to take a little time to step through it because it is complicated. That team will stay on the technical standpoint until it is fixed. As i said, it is a complex problem and it requires a multi dimensional solution. First and for most is communication. When we heard of the concerns of our instructor pie lolots in ou training wings, to make sure that we fully understood our concerns and they fully understood what we are doing. I think we have more than anything else of a break down of communication and things of those teams are onsite now and theyre working on each of the training wings and they ar are theyre resolving their differences in perspectives and communications. So, in addition, from the human perspective, the crew and awareness is the most important thing towards minimizing risks here. We have improved training to make sure they recognize training to make sure they recognize symptoms and related effec effects. We have improving their training on emergency procedures. That includes simulators where they feel those effects and going through those procedures. We are making sure that they are listening and they feel that they can be talking to leadership so we understand of their anxiety and concerns. Great, i would like to follow up more after the hearing and i would like to stay in touch on the impact on this. I will make sure we do that. Thank you, i appreciate it. General goldfein. You expressed the challenges of the cr and saying that squads will be grounded in june. I dont know if everybody was listening and fully understand it. So the bulldogs and commanders are over with the bad guys right now and when they come home in the summer, theyll be grounded like no flying and upgrades or training, theyre done, right . So maam, what i will tell you is that, if you dont have a unit on your base thats preparing to go in to conflict, you will have an equivalent of nofly zone. This is unprecedented and they need to be ready to go anywhere in the world on 24hour notice. Similarly with the ez 130. Theyre the only capabilities in the world and cross decking and training and everything, same thing, right . Theyre done. Congress gave us acquisition authorities and toll d us authorities to speed it up. Electronic warfare asset and high demand and it is going to be a central asset in any fight. We took those authorities and we look at how we can rapidly take the exact same equipment thats on the current ec 130. But with the cr. It stops. That contract Going Forward stops. We are talking about air w e warriors and training there will be no i hear you. Thats just in time of training but the effect of missing out training throughout the year. Absolutely. We got a thousand pilots short and you are grounding pilots and you are expecting them to stay, thats insane. Do you agree . Yes, maam. Thank you, i yield back. Mr. Hunter. Thank you mr. Chairman gentleman and great to see you. Let me ask my first question is. How do you mitigate the reuses of not fighting and let me give you an example. Having had a naval battle in a long time, i mean the ships, shooting with cannons, right . We have not had air combat in quite a long time. We know how to set up and life support and military since the romans. It is amazing what all of you do and our services. How do you mitigate the risk of atrophy when it comes to facing peer competitive countries . I am looking for one word. Training. All right, it is all about training. So it is training. Miss mcsally, it is not just airplanes that are shutting down. The entire Army Training is shutting down and the same thing in the navy and the marines as well. Training is the answer and thats how you mitigate it. How does it get slandered by the cr . It stops. What happens is the off tempo, the gas and the parts and the ammunitions, that seizes, people still get paid and there is no training going on. What ends up happening is if called upon and this is for the bench now. If called upon for some unknown contingency that no one can predicts at this moment, if that happens, people are going to be out the door with equipment less optimally maintained and unit that is are not trained are going to be putting young men and women in harms way that are not ready for that level of combat. Thats whats going to happen with a lack of training. There is a lot of that containing of the supplemental. It is a combination of both that we need attention to. A lot of training and operating money of that supplemental. Mr. Chairman, i want to thank you for your leadership on this. You came out publicly and you are not going to vote for a defense for a cr thats for defense. I want to say thank you for your leadership on this. We are behind you. Thank you gentlemen, i yield back. Mr. Miss cheney. Thank you gentlemen. I will not support the cr either in terms of the damage it will do to the defense department. We are engaged as you know in a whole range of crucial issues here on the hill. Issues that affects the nation domestically, healthcare and tax reform. I would argue that none of those is as important as what we face today. If we get those wrong, none of those mattered either. You all laid out in this hearing that we got to make sure that not only we fill the gaps that we begin to rebuild our superiority. That regard, general key the, testified last year that we are running the risk of circumstances. I would like to ask you to detail and the context of o our and we have seen capabilities declined and our adversaries increasing and advancing. So whether we are talking about isis or north korea or china or russia and iran. If you can talk about the extent of our declining capabilities which created a gap in terms of where our adversaries are. General neller, i will start with you. We have all watched this over the last five or six years as we continue to grind of terrorism flights. We have seen the growth of the capabilities of the chinese, russians, iranians, the north koreans. On counter to that of our tempo staying high because of whats going on and our ability to modern siize and start the traig to face that type of the threat and developing our capabilities and equipment and training and leverage technology. We made a move. We start to do that and it is not like we have been sitting here and ignoring it but to get to that point, while at the same time doing what we do on a daily basis of the equivalent of rebuilding the airplane and the vehicle as you are driving down the road. Ru tryi you are trying to rebuild the things in motion which is difficult enough. If you dont have the resource to do that and fifth generations stuff its expensive. It is. And, we all want to drive down the cost. We want to get it faster but to do that, we need to have adequate resourcing and its got to be stable. We are not going to get a good price point of any of these stuff if we cannot tell the vendors, okay, we are in three or four or six years. We know that we canby five for the price of 3. 5 or whatever it is if we can get the money to get the longterm contracts. Thats the dilemma we face. It would be great if we can stop to get a time out and people talking about the war period. I dont see there is being an inner war period which makes it difficult and making it necessary that the resources are there and if we are ready and have the capability and the probability that will come will go down. We cannot assume that it wont. Thank you. Can you also talk i know we are focused on the cr but the budget control act and se que. One thing you heard from us here is that when called to go let no one question for a second that when the United States military is called upon, we go. When you take the combined military mic and although none of us as joint chiefs are happy with our current level of readiness, for those that are listening have no questions on their mind that if they take us on, theyll lose. I will give you one example, if mr. Vladimir putin makes a bad choice, he will face of the 20 nations of the most powerful alliance that he will ever been apart of and that spells his loss. Well work with you on ensuring that we can manage this the best of our ability. We have been through sequestration before and i think that we would all tell you that we still have not recovered from that. One of the things, the worse thing we did during the entire period is we broke face and our young civilian work force that dont have the luxury to pay in the bank that can cover them while ir otheyre out of work. We have young civilian workers that left the Government Service because they could not pay the bills or those who did not pay the bills. One of the things we look at are Financial Reports and they left Government Service, talented young men and women and never came back. We cannot go through that again. My time has expired, thank you very much, i yield back. Thank you all gentlemen. This reminds me that tomorrow, april 6th is the 100th anniversary of our entry of world war i. We tend to think about world war ii and patents across europe and those incredible battles. The thing about world war i is nobody ever thought it would happen. They all traded with each other and the rulers were related to one another. They thought they can out bluff each other and there maybe a squirm iss squirmish and the whole generation of european men were wiped out in world war i. I think it should be a sober reminder to all of us about the stakes of what we are talking about here. They are incredibly high. And i appreciate yalls testimonies as you heard many times. It is sobering. The bottom line is we have to do better than that the, than cr. We have to do better than that. The hearing stands adjourned. This weekend on American History tv on cspan 3 on lectures and history of Jeffery Johnson on the 1916 bombings of San Francisco preparedness parade of the worst terrorism in San Francisco city. What happens next after half an hour of the parade of one of the most pathetic results of the ex ploeplosion on the parade. At 10 00, the 1915 film of the firing lines on the germans. Thats what i think hes doing, loading filmis on his camera. I watched the guy got hit. Sunday, we visit the portrait gallery of the second bank of the United States in philadelphia. Inside what we have is a fine arts exhibit where we include portraits of the 18th and 19th century to tell a story of the world those people knew and the world that the revolution built. And then at 8 00 on the presidency, historians discuss the relationships between Alexander Hamilton and george washington. Washington is a who whisper, he has a certain, he himself is a person of volcanic that he learns later onto control himself and selfmastery and he is is this horse whisper that comes very fast, Alexander Hamilton. When washington is not around, he gets himself in a lot of trouble. For our complete schedule, go to cspan. Org. Tonight on cspan, Justice Sonia sotomayor. Here is a preview. I start always and i think it is where all of my colleagues start which is with respect for the passion and good intentions of each other. I respect everyone of my colleagues. I know they are just as passionate as i am about the law, the constitution and our system of government. We all work really, really equally hard to g et the answers right. We disagree not in frequently of how to do it. It is not from an intent it is always from a good intent believing fearlessly that the right answer is what the country needs. And if you can start from there, you accept the logical answer that if it is a person of good will talking to you, there is something in what they are saying to you about their views, their needs and what is worry