Test. And the white houses 2018 budget request. He was also asked about north Koreas Nuclear program at this House Armed Services subcommittee hearing chaired by congressman mike rogers. Good afternoon. I want to welcome everybody to the hearing today. Fiscal year 2018 Missile Defense programs and activities. We have an esteemed group of witnesses with us today. Mr. Todd harvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for strategy plans and capabilities. Vice admiral james syring, commander James Dickinson for integrated Missile Defense and Commander ArmyStrategic Forces command. And mr. Barry pike who has the best accent on the panel. And before i get started, i want to take the chairmans prerogative for a minute. For almost 37 years vice admiral syring has served his country in uniform. Many are familiar with him as director of Missile Defense agency which he has led since november of 2012. I remember the problems with the prior leadership of mda and the devastating impact in 2012. That has changed under admiral syrings leadership. I think theres no better testament than the recent Midcourse Defense System test against an icbm class target. With everything going on in the world, this success sends a powerful message to allies and adversaries we will defend ourself from the threat of attack. We thank you for your service and very much hope its not complete yet. With that, because we were called for votes, were on a shorter timeline. Im going to dispense with my Opening Statement and yield to my friend and colleague from tennessee for any Opening Statement he may have. Thank you. I would like to add my praise for admiral syring. We hope it continues. I also want to ask to put my statement into the records that we could get on with the hearing. Without objection so ordered. What i would ask so well have time for questions and also time to go into the classified section is ask each witness to try to summarize their statement in three or four minutes, if they could. The full statement will be admitted to the record without objection. First well start with mr. Todd harvey. Youre recognized for summary of your testimony. Thank you, sir. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper, members of the subcommittee, thank you for opportunity to testify in the defense departments sefrts to sustain our capability so we remain ahead of the threat while providing effective inoperable regional Missile Defense capability. The u. S. Homeland is currently protected by the ground base Midcourse Defense System. Improving the capacity effective to the system is one of our highest priorities. The president s Budget Proposal would fund the long range discrimination radar, help lay the groundwork for new radar. Advance technology and space based kill assessment programs. We remain on track to complete the deployment to bring the total to 44. To bolster our defenses. From a regional standpoint, the president s fy2018 budget request also continues the deployment of Missile Defenses tailored to threats in europe, middle east, asia pacific region. In europe were continuing to implement the european phase and working in close collaboration with our nato allies of sensors and intercepters. President s budget request also supports the system that will be deployed in poland in the 2018 time frame. Nato allies have committed to spend more than a billion dollars on Missile Defense command and control. And many are improving their national bmd capabilitiecapabil. Our forced posture includes bmd capable ships and the recent deployment of thaad to south korea. We also maintain robust Missile Defense presence in the middle east including land and sea based assets deployed in the defense and located forces for those of allies and partners. This is in addition to build capacity for the counterparts that contribute to the ability to defend themselves. We must continue to look ahead. Which means assuring there are strategies that address the most dangerous threats we confront while emerging threats over the next decade. On january 27th of this year, the president directed the secretary of defense to initiate a new ballistic Missile Defense review to identify Missile Defense capabilities in the face of rapidly growing missile threats. It will be informed by the administration determination to develop state of the art system, defense the homeland, and the regional interest. We expect to complete it this fall. It will complement the report mandated by the fy2017 ndaa. The department continues to field Missile Defense systems, we intend to stay ahead of the Cruise Missile developments, sea capabilities, and defeat emerging ballistic and Cruise Missile threats. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Look forward to your questions. I thank you. The chair now recognizes admiral syring. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today. Ill submit my written statement for the record. I request permission to play the video from the test last week. We would love to see that. I will narrate as this goes since its unnarrated. Give the committee an idea of what was accomplished last week. Test was conducted on the 30th of may out in the pacific. Heres a blue water chart that depicts the test construct. It was fired from Brandenburg Air Force base. And the sbx and the northwest pacific. Giving the solution to intercept a quadrant in the Marshall Islands. The red indicates the target flyout and the green indicates the gbi from vandenberg. Heres a picture of the target lifting off in the Marshall Islands. 5,000 miles away from the coast of california. This is the longest range target that weve ever flown. The highest altitude and the highest closing velocity for an intercept. This was done with countermeasures. Next youll see a picture of the intercepter launched from va Vandenberg Air force base. Completely representative of the silos there. This is what we test out of. The gbi is production representative of the block ones that will be fielded to fill out the 44 gbis by the end of this calendar year. What youll see next is the sensor zone and what the kill vehicle saw in space. This is actual live data from the test. What you see in red is the warhead from the target. And what you see in green is its tank thats flying alongside because in space everything flies at the same velocity. You see the kill vehicle focused on the red warhead and eventually dropping out the other debris in the scene. What you see next is the kill vehicle in acquisition and terminal. Thats an actual picture of the reentry vehicle that was destructed beyond recognition. What youll see here is another infrared booster and the target warhead with the booster of the gbi flying by literally a second before the kill vehicle killed the target warhead. We had four or five different sensors strewn across the pacific to validate what you just saw. That was live data played back from the test. With that, sir, i stand ready for your questions. Outstanding. Thank you very much. Lieutenant general dickinson, youre recognized. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper, and other distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for your continued support of our soldiers, civilians, and their families. This is my initial appearance before this subcommittee and it is indeed an honor to testify before you today to discuss the importance of Missile Defense to our nation and the need to maintain these capabilities in the face of a threat as we all know that continues to grow in both capacity and capability. Today i want to briefly summarize the missions of the organizations i represent. First, space and Missile Defense command or smdc, Army Forces Strategic command rstrat. Our six lines of effort are to number one, protect the homeland. Provide combatready space and Missile Defense professionals, plans that integrate global operations. Produce or adopt leap ahead combinations and technologies. And promote and foster a positive command climate. Our six lines of effort apply not only to the Missile Defense but also to army space. The army has more than 4,000 military and civilian space support to the war fighter from 22 different locations and 11 different time zones around the world. Within smdcrstrat, concepts requirements and doctrine provide training to the army space cadray and executes space and Missile Defense development. I also represent the joint force Component Command for integrated Missile Defense. Which supports strategic demand in our global Missile Defense operations. For example, today we have approximately 300 fulltime National Guard soldiers located in colorado springs, colorado, alaska, and Vandenberg Air force base, california, who operate the ground Missile Defense system. It represents the nations only defense on Intercontinental Missile attack. These professionals execute a strategically Important Mission 365 days a year. They refer to themselves as 3 00 soldiers protecting the 300 million. Additionally in support of u. S. Stratcon, synchronizing National Level planning, supporting ongoing operations, integrating training exercises, test activities globally, low density high demand Missile Defense resources and abdicating for future responsibilities. As reported the missile threat continues to grow both in terms of numbers and sophistication. We as a nation must maintain our current Readiness Posture and continue to increase our capabilities to address future threats. Finally id like to highlight the challenges we face today cannot be addressed without the dedication of our greatest asset. Our people. Service members, civilians, contractors and their families those stationed at home as well as those deployed provide support to the army every day. We remain committed to providing to pursue enhancements for the nation. This Missile Defense operations and the men and women who develop and deploy our systems is essential. Again, i appreciate the opportunity to discuss our capabilities and i look forward to addressing your questions. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pike, youre recognized. Thank you, sir. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member coop cooper, and distinguished members im here to testify before you and thank you for continued support of our people. Support to our war fighters and their readiness remains our number one priority. I lead the Material Development production fielding and sustainment support for assigned missile and Space Systems for the army. This includes the centralized management of army air and Missile Defense, long range precision fires, close combat, and aviation Missile Systems as well as designated space programs. In todays complex dynamic volatile security environment, army air and Missile Defense is a key strategic enabler. As such, our focus continues or on providing war fighting Solutions Across the operational spectrum. We accomplish this by working with other military departments, the Missile Defense agency, the defense command, to support joint integrated air and Missile Defense capabilities. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member cooper, i look forward to addressing your questions. I thank all the witnesses for their statements. Ill recognize myself first for questions. Admiral, syring we have seen at least 60 of these are to be successed. It appears he has had success with solid fuel Ballistic Mission ls including those from submarines and on the ground. He recently showed he can build a reentry vehicle. I have to ask, does this budget request allow us to remain paced ahead of the threat and second, if we fully fund your request and it remains at the same funding of which increasing amounts or procurement not research and development will we continue to stay ahead of the threat or is it moving faster than we are . Sir, with the work of this committee and others and the support of congress, i would not say we are comfortably ahead of the threat. I would say we are addressing the threat that we know today. And the advancements in the last six months have caused great concern to me and others in the advancement of and demonstration of technology, Ballistic Missiles from north korea. It is incumbent upon us to assume that north korea today can range the United States with an icbm carrying a nuclear warhead. Everything that we are doing plans for that contingency. And in addition to looking ahead to what might be developed what is possible over the next five to ten years. In an open setting to the extent that you can, would you characterize what north korea has been doing for the last six months . They have been not only testing at an alarming rate in violation of international law, but demonstrating technology that feeds development of longer range missiles and more capable missiles as well. Can you discuss your timeline for developing and deploying the lrdr . How long will the mda take to do that and from acquirement finalization to deployment . From the specific requirement of when lrdr was developed, it was back in 2014 and we were under contract in late 2015 if i get the timeline correct. And we will ioc it to the war fighter in late 2020. Okay. With that i will yield to the Ranking Member for his opening questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. In view of the lateness of the hearing and large number of committees here, i defer my questions for the classified portion of the hearing. Chair now recognizes gentleman from arizona mr. Franks for five minutes. Thanks, mr. Chairman. And admiral syring, everybody said it but i hope you know my name is on the list that honors your commitment to the country. Admiral syring, has mda completed the objective for both the sm31b and the 2a . So there is not a stated inventory objective. But i know what the navy is thinking it should be. And we are not close to that. When do you think this objective or this when do you think we could achieve that objective . At the production rate of ill just mr. Franks, ill plan for 48 to 50 a year. Itll be within the next four to five years. You know, sometimes its important for us to understand how much oversight mda receives in executive branch and legislative branches. Sometimes its an enormous burden on you but id like to ask you to detail how many meetings, rfis, and paperwork is involved at mda for these oversight processes. Request i give a qualitative answer . Yes, sir. A lot. We are under a tremendous amount of oversight. On the development of Missile Defense technology and capability. Well, given that its a lot, for all of this work, how many recommendations did gao have in his fy16 report . There were three or four. Four for the record. And how many of those were validated by d. O. D. . We didnt agree with three of the four. Three of the four. So how about the fy15 report . Im not going to pursue this much longer. I dont recall any specific recommendations from that report. So how much oversight would mba have if we made the bmds report and gao mandate biannual and alternate it when they were submitted and how could we how could the agency better focus on the mission if we did that . I want to start by saying that we given the oversight responsibility, we have a constructive relationship with gao. I dont want to impugn them in any way. We work closely with them. To answer your question directly, i think a biannual report would be more than sufficient in terms of their oversight responsibility. Let me shift gears on you here. How long do you think it will be before the gmd system has operational spares to maintain 44 gbis at all times. Itll be post2020 when we have a redesign kill vehicle available for procurement. And i know you need to pull gbis from the ground for the rkv recapitalization of the one intercepters. Is that correct . Thats correct, sir. How can we ensure we dont fall below that 44 gbis in placed the calendar year in fy18 . They made a down payment on solving that problem with 150 million to go towards silos and six boosters. Two silos additionally up in ft. Greeley. And therell be a tale to that in fy19 and out to complete that work. But the departments taken steps to address that shortfall where if that were funded and supported by congress this year and when the Department Funds the tail, plans will be in place to not dip below 44 for any leng