| Speaker | Time | Text |
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Committee Focus: Contracts and Fraud
00:06:37
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unidentified
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Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. | |
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| In the back of our minds. | ||
| Here on C-SPAN, we take you live now to Capitol Hill, where Air Force and U.S. Space Force leaders are testifying on military readiness, appearing before the House Armed Services Committee. | ||
| We join the hearing in progress. | ||
| Interesting ways to really put dilemmas in the minds of the enemy. | ||
| So that the program of record right now is 10, and understand those ACC puts a requirement as higher. | ||
| This is a matter of resources. | ||
| Is it this or munitions? | ||
| Is it this or tankers? | ||
| Is it this or other things? | ||
| All of the things we need. | ||
| But I will tell you, we are understanding how we can squeeze every ounce of capability out of every platform that we get, and they all go into the big prioritization. | ||
| General Saltzman, what are the one or two things you think you need to do first to posture the space for the Golden Dome? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, I think as we look across the portfolio of things that we already bring to bear, whether it's sensors, whether it's the data networks that have to move the data quickly, the software that enables rapid decision-making, even before we get to the effectors that actually can mitigate the threats, that all has to be stitched together. | |
| So we're doing the mission analysis, and I think that's the first thing that has to be done. | ||
| Which systems are required to put together so we can move data to the right places and most effectively orchestrate a very complex mission set. | ||
| So we've got to do the mission planning first. | ||
| Thank you for that. | ||
| I got one second left. | ||
| I'll give it back to the chairman. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from New Hampshire, Ms. Goodlander. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. | ||
| I really appreciate it. | ||
| I appreciate your testimony at the outset about the importance of an audit. | ||
| It's something I care about deeply. | ||
| It's something that's important to my constituents and their public trust in our military. | ||
| And I wanted to ask you, Mr. Secretary, if you could tell us more about the concrete steps you're taking to ensure that the Department of the Air Force passes a clean audit this fiscal year. | ||
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unidentified
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Thanks, Congresswoman. | |
| Yeah, we spend quite a bit of money in the military. | ||
| I want to make sure we are good stewards to the taxpayer and how we do that. | ||
| My previous job, the organization I worked in, we had 16 clean consecutive audits. | ||
| So I do understand the kind of the steps and the things that are required to do that. | ||
| Obviously, this is much larger scale. | ||
| So I'm in the process of actually assessing where we have our deficiencies and then laying in a plan to go after those. | ||
| I just signed out a note to put the undersecretary as one of his primary jobs is to ensure that that gets accomplished. | ||
| But the fundamental thing is. | ||
| What's the timeline, Mr. Secretary, for identifying those deficiencies? | ||
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unidentified
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So those deficiencies, you know, with the past audits have been, many of them have been identified. | |
| I think the question is, what do you do? | ||
| What's the straight, as you probably know, Congressman, Congresswoman, what do you do to address those deficiencies? | ||
| Some of them can be very challenging. | ||
| Some of them is just tying together all the systems that manage the data, manage the finances. | ||
| Those can be really challenging steps. | ||
| And so identifying those deficiencies, budgeting to fix those things and get them right is what we're going to be focused on. | ||
| Well, would appreciate the chance to hear from you in real time how your progress is going and what this committee can do to support you in that effort. | ||
| We've got the National Defense Authorization Act, which is one of the reasons I came to this committee. | ||
| It is knocking on wood, 63 years in running a bill. | ||
| And we would very much like to work with you to be sure that you can join our colleagues from the Marine Corps in passing a clean audit as soon as possible. | ||
| I wanted to also ask you about another issue that matters a lot to my constituents, the right to repair. | ||
| Could you tell us a bit about your understanding of what the right to repair means? | ||
| To me, the notion that our military cannot repair our own equipment and weapon systems and aircraft is an outrage. | ||
| It is costing us billions and billions of dollars to the taxpayer. | ||
| It is delaying our military readiness. | ||
| It is a driver of waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| And we are all very committed to cutting down on waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| So I wanted to ask you, we heard from Secretary Driscoll yesterday about his commitment to ensure that going forward, any contracts and the way that the right to repair is undermined is really through highly obscure and technical provisions in our contracts, that going forward that doesn't continue and working retroactively. | ||
| So can you tell us about your efforts on this front? | ||
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unidentified
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So first off, as with Secretary Driscoll, I give you my commitment that this will be something that we will ensure contracts going forward, that we have full flexibility. | |
| And as you alluded to, there is a whole spectrum. | ||
| It can be all the way from the contractor has the full right and authority to do that to even if they don't, the government doesn't actually have enough of the technical specs to actually do it, so we are still relying upon the contractor. | ||
| So one of the things I have been doing, and there isn't a one-size-fits-all because it varies across the different contracts we have within the Department, looking into the conditions are different, and we are going to have to go in and address every one of those conditions in a little bit different way. | ||
| But in the end, and we have already made some progress, but in the end, I think we have to get there. | ||
| There is no question about it. | ||
| I don't know, General, if you have any other comments on that? | ||
| I just totally associate with what the Secretary said. | ||
| It's that some of the contractual pieces that we entered into, the more we can get relief from that, the more flexibility we are all about that. | ||
| Well, I appreciate that, and we want to support you. | ||
| We have bipartisan support for provisions in the Sears NDAA, and we would love to work with you on that. | ||
| General Saltzman, thank you for being here. | ||
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Drones and Civilian Protection
00:04:06
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| My home state of New Hampshire is home to the New Boston Space Force Station in Hillsborough County. | ||
| And I had a chance to visit New Boston. | ||
| They are providing critical around-the-clock satellite command and control capabilities for our country. | ||
| I wanted to ask you, I only have 10 seconds left, so maybe we can follow up offline, but I am eager to talk to you about how we can ensure that our infrastructure installations like the New Boston State Space Force Station are protected from the wide range of vulnerabilities that are out there. | ||
| Very quickly, we have a lot of time has expired. | ||
| Chair and I recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Jimenez. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Last weekend, I think we saw a pivotal moment in warfare when the Ukrainian Army launched an unbelievable attack on the Russian Air Force. | ||
| But it also, for me, underlined a vulnerability for us. | ||
| For a long time, we thought distance was a great equalizer, but now with the onset of drones, et cetera, you could have malign actors here in the United States take out a lot of our assets in a very short period of time. | ||
| What are we doing to protect against drones, this kind of activity to protect our assets here on the homeland? | ||
| General Albin? | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Congressman. | |
| And to the conversation we had earlier, it is really a joint force problem, and it is one of those that is multifaceted. | ||
| It is different in characterization than what happened with Russia and Ukraine, but it certainly shows the consequences if we don't pay attention to it. | ||
| This is one of those where we have to have an understanding of the current restrictions that we have in place with respect to rules of engagements with the local, county, state, federal. | ||
| Well, forget that. | ||
| My concern is the capability of us being able to defend against AI drones. | ||
| We may have the capability to defend against piloted drones, but I have always been afraid of AI drones that are unpiloted and that you basically have to knock them out of the sky. | ||
| You just can't say, okay, you can't pilot anymore and they fall to the ground. | ||
| That is not the case anymore. | ||
| I am worried about our capabilities there, all right? | ||
| And that is all I am going to say. | ||
| And also, not only for our military, but also on our civilians and our civilian transportation infrastructure. | ||
| Because if some kind of an attack happens on a civilian aircraft, then basically air travel grinds to a halt. | ||
| Nobody is going to take a plane. | ||
| And so I would hope, Secretary, that we are on this, and not only just for protecting our military assets, but also our entire transportation network. | ||
| So that is all I am going to say. | ||
| I really don't want to get into what you are doing, but maybe in a classified setting we would find out what it is we are doing to protect against this threat. | ||
| I have been really worried about this threat for a really long time. | ||
| And what happened last weekend just puts an exclamation point on my worry about what could happen here. | ||
| Just for the sake, how much does a B-2 bomber cost? | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah, I think it is probably I don't know what the replacement cost is. | |
| It is a billion. | ||
| I think originally it filled multiple billion. | ||
| Are they all clustered around the same place? | ||
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unidentified
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A lot of them are at one point. | |
| Okay, so one of the things maybe we should be looking at is maybe dispersing our assets in the near term until we figure out how we can deal with this. | ||
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Risks Of Overreliance On Space
00:02:20
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| On space, and I think that we do need to enhance our capabilities, but I also think that eventually we are also going to need to develop redundancy to a lack of space. | ||
| If somebody knocks our space assets out, are we too reliant on space? | ||
| Do we have redundancy so that we can continue to operate without the space platform? | ||
| General Saltzman? | ||
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unidentified
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No, I think there are missions we are doing from space that we can't easily just redundantly cover if we were to lose space. | |
| Well, I think if we are too overly reliant on space and we don't have redundancy, we are asking for trouble, because everything that we can put up can be taken down. | ||
| And you have to, you know, I kind of believe in Murphy's law, which doesn't mean that everything that it means that everything that bad can't happen will. | ||
| It just means that anything that can happen will. | ||
| And so let's not rely too much on space. | ||
| I am not saying invest in space, absolutely, okay, and try to defend it as much as we can, but just in case it does get taken out, we can't be helpless as a nation. | ||
| And so, Secretary Minsk, I am asking, again, do we have redundancy? | ||
| Are we developing redundancy to space? | ||
| Again, that is another question for another time. | ||
| Are we investing in directed energy? | ||
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unidentified
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I think at this level we can say yes, we are investing in direct energy. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| And I guess I have 15 seconds left, and I guess my time is up, and I yield back to the chairman. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I would follow up, let the gentleman from Florida know that we have been for many years developing directed energy capabilities and it is maturing at a nice clip. | ||
| What you just saw happen in Israel with Iron Beam is part of our investments, but yes, and a lot of it. | ||
| I'd be happy if you learn more in a skiff. | ||
| But I'm very proud of that technology, and it's got great potential in the future. | ||
| With that, the chair and I recognize the gentlelady from Maryland, Ms. Elforth. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
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Commitment To Faster Transition
00:04:56
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| Gentlemen, thank you for being here and good morning. | ||
| I echo the chairs and the concerns you heard from both sides of the aisle of this committee around the lateness of the budget and particularly Mr. Courtney's concerns around having an open, honest, and transparent conversation about the future of Air Force One. | ||
| I'm going to start with a local issue and then expand to a national issue. | ||
| We've talked about A-10s quite a bit. | ||
| I know that you all talk about the future of A-10s quite a bit in every one of our states. | ||
| But as you well know, Maryland's National Guard, our 175th wing, is unique. | ||
| It comprises both the flight component and the cyber component, which I'm very grateful for, the expansion of that cyber component. | ||
| But with the divestment of the A-10s, we'll lose that flight mission, but the cyber component has not yet shut up. | ||
| And so there's going to be a bit of a gap in our mission. | ||
| And I would just love some greater clarity, I guess, General Alvin, about Cyberwing's expansion. | ||
| When do you expect the full operational capacity? | ||
| What's our planning to manage this transition period? | ||
| I'm giving you all this at once. | ||
| And then how are we coordinating with CyberCom in particular to properly integrate this expanded wing? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, thank you very much. | |
| And it truly is a key mission going forward in a growth industry in the Cyberwing. | ||
| So we want to go as fast as we possibly can. | ||
| So it really is not going to be a gap of sorts. | ||
| It will be a gap from full capability to full capability, but we expect the sundowning of the A-10 mission by the end of fiscal year 25, so in about five months. | ||
| But in October is when we start building, and we expect within 36 months of that, we will have an initial operation capability. | ||
| But in between times, we will slowly be gaining mission. | ||
| So there will be things we're already doing, just robusting up in both capacity and sophistication. | ||
| And then having Fort Meade right up the street is one of those where we're going to be able to leverage that capability to bring that on as fast as possible. | ||
| One of the advantages is the greatest asset that we have in a cyber wing are the personnel. | ||
| And so being able to attract that talent in that area is one of the big advantages there. | ||
| And it also reduces the ability for potential extra MILCON that would go with another platform coming in. | ||
| So we are going to be aggressively standing up between 1 October 2025, beginning of 26, 36 months later, we are looking to get IOC and we'd like to get it sooner. | ||
| I share I would like to get it sooner as well. | ||
| And Mr. Secretary, just following up on that, our air wing in Maryland, we have seen eight combat deployments since 2001, just over 23 years. | ||
| My governor, Governor Westmore, recently sent you a letter, I believe it was last week, asking for a meeting. | ||
| I appreciate you've been on the job two and a half weeks. | ||
| But to expand in detail on what the general just shared, can I ask for a commitment right now, you and your staff, to meet with my governor and the Maryland delegation to walk through this so we have that seamless transition? | ||
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unidentified
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I'd be happy to. | |
| Okay. | ||
| My staff will follow up with your staff literally as we walk out the door. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Okay, moving, thank you for that. | ||
| Moving on to General Saltzman. | ||
| Well, actually, to everybody at the panel, I bring this up. | ||
| I'm a broken record, but I'm really proud that my first CODEL at being a member of Congress, 153 days so far, was actually to Vandenberg, and I greatly enjoyed that experience. | ||
| It also kind of opened my eyes to physically seeing you have a solar field. | ||
| You're generating energy at Vandenberg, which is very exciting. | ||
| Talk about energy resilience and capability, particularly as we're overly relying on 50 states for energy generation and delivery. | ||
| So you have a solar generating farm, but you have no storage. | ||
| So it gives me great pause to think about abilities both just from a grid system, but also our vulnerability from foes. | ||
| Very easy to disrupt readiness capabilities when we don't have energy to and from. | ||
| So if you could speak specifically to Vandenberg, General, and then Mr. Secretary, your plans to, obviously the low-hanging fruit is a Vandenberg, but I would love to hear your plans on how we're going to make sure our installations, our energy, as energy-independent and resilient as possible from a readiness perspective. | ||
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unidentified
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Well, thank you for that, and appreciate you coming out to Vanderburg and taking a look at all the great people and mission they're doing out there. | |
| I couldn't agree more that energy resiliency is operational readiness, and especially in the Space Force, where we do most of our missions from our in-base locations. | ||
| We don't have to deploy to do space operations or launch operations. | ||
| And so we take it very seriously. | ||
| We do mission continuity exercises on a routine basis to uncover where the particular shortfalls or vulnerabilities are. | ||
| We flow those back up to try to make sure we're as resilient as possible. | ||
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Increasing Hypersonic Production
00:15:25
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unidentified
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The other initiative that we've taken on is a weapon system infrastructure accounting drill, making sure that when we talk about power generation, it's a part of our readiness account. | |
| We haven't traditionally done that. | ||
| That's not something that other forces have to do to the same degree we do. | ||
| So we're redesigning how we have transparency of our readiness in that kind of infrastructure. | ||
| And I think that'll generally these times expire. | ||
| Chair and I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. LaTrelle. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Gentlemen, thank you for coming to see us today, and thank you all for your service. | ||
| Ms. Elfrith and Mr. Wilson actually started this conversation about the A-10s. | ||
| I think I got lost in space when I was talking to, I'm not talking to you when I say that, that the A-10s shelf life is gone and then we're going to create the next asset. | ||
| I think that's a horrible idea. | ||
| I think the A-10 is probably one of the best creations we have. | ||
| And I've been in the theater of war calling that plane in and it has saved my life countless times. | ||
| And there's nothing more terrifying than that flying bathtub with bombs and that gun hanging off the front of it. | ||
| And I think we're in a bad spot. | ||
| If we clack off somewhere and we put boots on the ground, that's going to be the asset that we're going to be flying overhead. | ||
| And I'm not taking anything away from everything else that we have, but I just felt like I needed to say that because, again, that plane has saved my life and my teammates' lives more times than I can possibly count. | ||
| I'm going to shift gears. | ||
| I'm going to talk hypersonics. | ||
| Mr. Secretary and Mr. General, you guys can kind of pick which one's going to answer this. | ||
| I have a list of the weapon assets and the weapon systems that China and Russia have right here. | ||
| And General, you said rapid modernization, evolving, kind of evolution of technology in the PLA. | ||
| I think they're there. | ||
| I mean, I think we're kind of looking at them as that's kind of the bar that's been set. | ||
| Very focused in on hypersonics. | ||
| Can you give me a current briefing on where we are and when that capability and that asset will be able to be employed? | ||
| I can give you the broadbush at this classification level. | ||
| Yeah, absolutely. | ||
| Yes, Your Honor. | ||
| It's a broad brush. | ||
| And it's interesting because when you juxtapose the rapid advance in technology and going to hypersonics and you compare it to what we all love, which is the A-10, the second question is sort of the answer to the first. | ||
| Those sort of things are making that awesome A-10 less and less survivable. | ||
| The most important thing for us to ensure we had hypersonics that worked. | ||
| I would say it is not only hypersonics, it is the other advanced capabilities are going to be more survivable for our boots on the ground in the future, given the enemy capabilities than the A-10, which we all love. | ||
| In the element of hypersonics, at this level, I will tell you that we are looking, we are developing and have, you will see in the budget submission, assuming it is what we had put forward, two different programs. | ||
| One is a larger form factor that is sort of more strategic long range that we have already tested several times. | ||
| It is called Arrow, and the other one is Hackam. | ||
| We will just leave it at there. | ||
| But there are two systems that are now continuing to develop and moving beyond the RDT and getting into the procurement range in the very near future. | ||
| And I will be happy to go to a higher classification level, the specifics of both of those. | ||
| But we are accelerating in our development not only of the technology but of the procurement of the capabilities that it will create. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, are you having conversations about increasing funding for hypersonic capabilities in the Air Force? | ||
| Yeah, fielding those weapon systems. | ||
| Two sides of that coin. | ||
| First is we really need to, as we've matured the technology, we focused on maturing the technology. | ||
| Now we need to focus on lowering the costs and getting into production. | ||
| It's got to be affordable. | ||
| We've got to be able to buy more than 10 of these things, right? | ||
| So that's a big focus right now is lowering the production costs, well, ramping up the production and lowering those costs so we can get enough of that kit to actually make a difference. | ||
| But yes, on the other side of the House, making sure that once we do kind of get more efficient in production, that we properly fund those programs to deliver that capability. | ||
| And it's really across the force, not just in the Air Force, but the entire Department is looking at these systems. | ||
| And there is no question the Chinese moved really fast on these capabilities. | ||
| General Saltzman, as far as AI capabilities in Space Force, when the current budget plan comes out that we get to see, how are those numbers looking? | ||
| Are we comfortable in where we sit at this classification level? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| A lot of it is early ST work that is being done. | ||
| I'm focusing heavily on decision support kinds of AI. | ||
| Take a lot of data and turn it into decision quality as fast as possible. | ||
| There's some good returns in the S T environment, and it's fully funded in support of those efforts. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And I'll close with this. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, you and the general answer this, and I know General Ulmo would say the same thing, but your most cherished asset is your people and their health and well-being is everything. | ||
| And I would ask that you take a, even if you are in R, take a very hard look currently and as they transition out, because once they transition out, we get lost in space. | ||
| And Mr. Secretary, you most likely probably already know that, but the generals, mark my words, okay? | ||
| So health and welfare of our service members as they transition out, current and transitioning out, please. | ||
| General's time has expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes gentleman from California, Mr. Whitesides. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Thank you all for being here today. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, congratulations on your confirmation. | ||
| It's good to have someone with your depth of relevant experience leading a military department. | ||
| I had the opportunity to work with Director Scales back at NASA, so welcome. | ||
| I represent the northern side of Los Angeles County, and I want to begin by just thanking your teams for their crucial role in fighting the Los Angeles firestorm in January. | ||
| Between the FireGuard data program, firefighting aircraft, and other aspects, we are deeply grateful to your teams. | ||
| I want to support those efforts going forward as much as I can. | ||
| I'm also enthusiastic about the possibility of using autonomy and aerial platforms and advanced remote sensing to enable us to more quickly suppress fires that threaten critical installations like the Vandenberg Space Force Base and our home communities. | ||
| I'd love to work with your teams to continue to think about that. | ||
| As you know, I am proud to represent Plant 42, the home of the B-21 Raider. | ||
| To me, that program is really a gold standard. | ||
| It is delivering tremendous capability with an efficient development and manufacturing program. | ||
| With that said, I want to follow up on a question that Senator Fisher asked this group during the SAS posture hearing late last month. | ||
| As Senator Fisher noted, General Cotton has recommended that the Air Force procure at least 145 B-21s. | ||
| Couldn't agree with him more, especially when increasing our total could decrease costs and move the production timeline to the left. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, you noted to Senator Fisher that you were going to meet with General Cotton and discuss his B-21 requirements. | ||
| I was just wondering: has that discussion happened? | ||
| Are there any updates that you might be able to share at this time? | ||
| I have not, but I expect to have an opportunity to talk to him next week. | ||
| Next Tuesday, right? | ||
| Just checking. | ||
| I have not had that detailed conversation with him, but I will soon. | ||
| And we are looking very closely at how we increase production just to get to the 100, right? | ||
| We want to increase the production rate. | ||
| The program is executing very well. | ||
| That is really the challenge we have right now is getting the production rate up to deliver the numbers that we would like, which then gives us the opportunity to increase numbers if we can. | ||
| Thanks for that, Mr. Secretary. | ||
| The committee has had multiple discussions over the past few months about the importance of developing robust space domain awareness, something that I strongly support. | ||
| Most of my career, I have been focused on securing U.S. leadership in space, both from an economic and national security perspective. | ||
| Remote sensing is central to the fight of the future, and space-based capabilities are critical. | ||
| That said, as I recently raised with General Guillaugh and as Representative Yemen has discussed, space-based capabilities cannot be the basket in which we put all of our eggs. | ||
| We need redundancies across domains. | ||
| That is underscored by the insatiable appetite for remote sensing information from forward operators. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, I know you have spent much of your incredible career around space assets. | ||
| Can you give us some reassurance that you will support an appropriate balance between space, air, and terrestrial based systems when it comes to remote sensing capabilities? | ||
| Yes, Congressman, I can. | ||
| You can never allow yourself to be put into a single point failure situation to where if you lose a system, you have totally lost that capability. | ||
| So, both on space, redundancy in space is going to be critical. | ||
| General Saltzman talked a little bit about that earlier. | ||
| So, that is going to be important, but also a mix between the different domains is going to be critical going forward, and that is something we intend to continue. | ||
| It is always a balance, right? | ||
| You are never going to be able to afford everything. | ||
| As was mentioned, we have a lot of modernization going on simultaneously across the Department. | ||
| It is never going to bill necessarily afford everything you would like, but it is important to make sure that you are not a single-point failure on these critical capabilities. | ||
| Thanks so much. | ||
| Last week, I had a great visit to Edwards Air Force Base, which is just north of my district in the 412 test wing. | ||
| Just on the point that Representative, by the way, you have an incredible team out there. | ||
| They are doing incredible work. | ||
| And General Alvin, we are grateful for the great support you have made to them. | ||
| Just on the point, a minor point, but on the point that Representative Elfreth made about energy storage, they have a huge private solar installation on that base territory. | ||
| If you could just provide a little linkage in solar local storage, I think you could make Edwards ensure that it is keep operating through potential natural and manmade disruptions. | ||
| So, something to think about for the future. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Thanks so much. | ||
| The gentleman yields back to your not recognized gentleman from Guam, Mr. Morland. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to our distinguished witnesses. | ||
| Thank you for your leadership and joining us here today. | ||
| General Alvin, given the recent reports of unsafe and substandard conditions in unaccompanied housing on Guam, what steps is the Department taking in the FY26 budget to address these deficiencies and ensure habitability of our service members? | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Congressman. | |
| I appreciate the question, and it certainly is something that we take very seriously. | ||
| We always pride ourselves in really working hard for unaccompanied housing. | ||
| And when the Secretary of the Navy went out there, he happened to find our very worst through the Building Condition Index assessment, the very worst in our United States Air Force. | ||
| But even our very worst should not be that bad. | ||
| So with respect to specifically Palau Dorm and then Rhoda after that, we aren't waiting until FY26. | ||
| We had seen this coming, and it has been about 56 months since we took over all of those facilities from the Navy. | ||
| And we had tried to identify and ensure that we are moving forward with all of our unaccompanied housing across the way. | ||
| And then, of course, Malware didn't help at all. | ||
| But this year, we now expect to award $53 million for the improvement of Palau Dorm this year, and it should start within, we should award it within 90 days and should start within 60 days after that. | ||
| And so we are getting after that right now. | ||
| It is never enough. | ||
| And as you know, Guam is such an important place. | ||
| We need to make sure airmen are focused on mission rather than just their housing. | ||
| So between the Palau dorms and the Rota dorms and across the board, we have an aggressive schedule against that. | ||
| It is great to hear, General. | ||
| Thank you so much for that. | ||
| And as a follow-up, is the Department considering privatizing unaccompanied housing as a long-term solution? | ||
| And what oversight mechanisms will be in place to ensure quality and accountability? | ||
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Now, I would, of course, the Secretary says he has only been in for 2 and 1 half weeks. | |
| We certainly haven't had those conversations, and it isn't really of all the things we would consider privatizing, that really isn't on our list right now because of that criticality of the young airmen who are living in there sort of need sort of that oversight and leadership of the next level NCOs to be there. | ||
| So that is not currently in the plans for me to propose for the Secretary. | ||
| We want to remain that under government control. | ||
| I am looking forward to those great improvements. | ||
| Thank you, General. | ||
| Another question, General Alvin. | ||
| Your testimony highlights REFORPAC and the need to operate from austere airfields in contested environments. | ||
| How is the Air Force resourcing Guam to support agile combat employment, particularly in terms of dispersed logistics, airlift, and handling of infrastructure under real world contingency conditions? | ||
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Thank you for that question, Congressman. | |
| We are very excited about the REFOR PAC, Resolute Force-Pacific Exercises. | ||
| This will be one of the largest exercises that we have done since the Cold War, quite frankly, because as we do exercises by sort of piece parts, we get insights, but we really want to see where the true shortfalls are. | ||
| And we expect, and we have talked about this, Congressman, that we know logistics is going to be important. | ||
| It is not just logistics because of the tyranny of distance. | ||
| It is going to be logistics under attack and understanding those contested environments. | ||
| We are going to ring this out this summer. | ||
| We have already, in the past couple years, been putting forward requests in our budget for things like shelters and hardening and some non-kinetic capabilities to sense. | ||
| So we know we have work to do to make this very critical concept of agile combat employment work. | ||
| This summer, this exercise is going to help expose any more shortfalls that we haven't already identified. | ||
| In addition, we know having preposition of parts and forward storage to be able to accelerate the repair of the platforms when they break down, that is also another key performance that we have to have in the Indo-Pacific. | ||
| And that is why I put in my unfunded priority list about a $1.5 billion for spare parts to increase the health of the shelf so we can increase the combat generation under attack. | ||
| Excellent. | ||
| Thank you, General. | ||
| Secretary Meek. | ||
| On a Codell last Congress, I flew to Guam with my colleagues on an Air Force C-40. | ||
| The jet suffered a landing gear malfunction and was stranded on Guam, which doesn't mean it is bad to be stranded on Guam, but it was stranded there. | ||
| For several days while awaiting parts from CONAS, does our operational force encounter this type of issue? | ||
| And how can new force design concepts or prepositioning ensure airmen are not stranded while operating in the Pacific? | ||
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I know we don't have much time, so just real quickly, yes, that happens. | |
| I think the key thing, as you almost alluded to, is making sure you have enough spare parts and enough supplies to repair the aircraft across the forest, and that is a focus in our budget submissions. | ||
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And then prepositioning. | |
| We can't preposition everywhere because we just will never have, that would be terribly inefficient. | ||
| So those sort of conditions do happen, but those are the two things. | ||
| Make sure we have the right parts. | ||
| I would point out that all housing at Guam has fallen into an unacceptable state of disrepair, not just unaccompanied, and there is a lot of blame to go around up on the dais as well as at the witness table. | ||
| But we all need to be focused on correcting that. | ||
| And, General Allen, I am thrilled to hear about what you just described, but I would urge you and General Saltzman and the Secretary to let us know how we can help deal with all of it, because that is a critical area for our national security, and we need to start putting a lot of resources against its capabilities and what we need to do for our service members that are stationed there. | ||
| With that, I will recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Cisneros. | ||
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all our witnesses today for taking time. | |
| I know what are your busy schedules to be with here today. | ||
| General Alvin, I appreciate in your opening comments about the continuing resolution and really the effect that it is having on quality of life as well as recruiting. | ||
| You know, I wonder if you could go into more detail about how important it is to have a robust budget with recruiting in order to recruit individuals, because we are competing with corporations out there today that is vying for the same talent. | ||
| So please. | ||
| Thank you for that, Congressman. | ||
| It really is, because our recruiters are just the hardest working in the business right now. | ||
| And they work very hard to bring those Americans who want to raise their right hand and serve in the United States Air Force. | ||
| They work very hard to give them some sense of this is what you can expect, welcome to the team, this is when you are going to get here. | ||
| And if we don't have that funding to be able to follow through on that and to bring those in, not only to keep the Americans to want to come into our force, but to ensure that we are bringing the right talent at the right time without that predictability of funding, or in this case, the mark that when we had already intended to recruit 3,000 more, we had to back off of that because we didn't have the funding. | ||
| It is very disruptive, and that lack of reliability, it has ripple effects well into the future. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And so even though we are talking about a continuing resolution now, a possibility of maybe another one, I mean, how many years down the line could that have effects into your recruiting? | ||
| Well, actually, the fact that we have been under a continuing resolution about most of the time for the past decade plus, that is part of the challenge that we are seeing here today. | ||
| Well, thank you for that. | ||
| I appreciate your answer on that. | ||
| General Saltzman, former Secretary Kendall had written an article at the beginning of this year about the future of the Space Force and really about how it needs to really kind of transform. | ||
| I think the example you used was the Hughes Navy analogy of a merchant marine going into actual becoming a fighting force Navy. | ||
| Where are we on that timeline and really what is it going to take us to get there? | ||
| It's where we can see the Space Force becoming the fighting force that it should be. | ||
| Thank you for that, sir. | ||
| It's equipment, it's training, and it's the operational concepts. | ||
| I think we have done some pretty good work on the operational concepts. | ||
| We generally know what we want to do. | ||
| Acquisition of the equipment is a little longer to lead item, but I feel good about the protection assets that we put in place in terms of resiliency. | ||
| And now we have good plans in place to put together the counterspace capabilities that convert us to the Navy, not the Merchant Marine. | ||
| And then training, modeling and simulation, range assets, high-fidelity simulators to train our people to make sure that they practice the tactics that are going to be necessary. | ||
| All of those are coming together. | ||
| We'll have to grow a little bit as a force as we bring new capabilities on, new missions on, but I think we are well along our way to that evolution. | ||
| And as all the services still do space, they are still in the space game there. | ||
| But as the Space Force grows and becomes larger, is it taking over more of these roles to where now it will be Space Force will kind of be there, or will it be more of working together with the other services to kind of oversee their missions as well? | ||
| Well, thank you for that, because it came up a little earlier, too. | ||
| And I think General Alvin would agree with me. | ||
| When we think about our missions and how we are going to perform the missions, the last question we ask is which domain should we use? | ||
| First, it is about what are the threats, what are the capabilities, what is required of us to be survivable, to create the effects we want. | ||
| You can get to where should this platform be located? | ||
| Is it an airborne platform? | ||
| You can get to that, but that is not our starting point. | ||
| And so I see all of our challenges as all-domain challenges. | ||
| Some of those will play out in space. | ||
| Some of those, I rely on maritime capability to do the counterspace missions. | ||
| So it is an all-domain effort now in this networked environment. | ||
| The modern battlefield doesn't just restrict itself to one domain or another. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you for that. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, you commented earlier about the Qatari 747, about $250 million to retrofit it. | ||
| But in that estimate that you gave to kind of modernize it or bring it up to standards to meet the President's needs, did I also consider what it is going to take to go through that and make sure that that aircraft hasn't been compromised? | ||
| Because as soon as I heard about this in the news, if I was the CPC, I would be trying to get somebody on there bugging it, doing what they ever can. | ||
| So how are we going to make sure that the aircraft was not compromised? | ||
| Thanks, Congressman. | ||
| First off, I didn't say $250 million. | ||
| And we can talk more details in a different environment about what needs to go on there. | ||
| But part of upgrading it is essentially doing a deep sweep to make sure that there is no counterintelligence threats on the platform. | ||
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Jackson. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. | ||
| I have three real quick questions I am going to try to ask for General Alvin and for the Secretary, all related to Shepard Air Force Base. | ||
| But start with one of my early achievements as a member of Congress was back in 2021 when I was successful in getting the new child development center at Shepherd Air Force Base funded and authorized years ahead of its schedule. | ||
| Shortly after breaking ground in 2023, however, construction crews identified asbestos in the ground and the project has still yet to be completed. | ||
| I am concerned the Department of the Air Force has not been aggressive enough in resolving these types of issues. | ||
| Mr. Secretary and General Alvin, how are we addressing delays for projects like the CDC at Shepard? | ||
| Would both of you please commit to ensuring that this project can stay on track, if at all possible, and we can deliver this critical support that we need for our families at Shepard? | ||
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Absolutely. | |
| I can commit and I can commit to proposing to the Secretary that we put the right funding against it. | ||
| The remediation should be complete by October. | ||
| Get us back on track. | ||
| We understand this is one of those that discovery. | ||
| The last thing we want to do, though, is put a CDC where there is lead and harm to the children. | ||
| So we wanted to make sure that entire environment is fully cleaned up. | ||
| And so by October 25, we should be able to have the remediation get back on track. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| I understand that. | ||
| And I appreciate that, Mr. Secretary. | ||
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Yeah, I think we are expecting by the end of the year, get it cleaned up, get it going. | |
| I think we are looking at like 28 to have it complete. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| And if there is any opportunity to expedite things after that to make up for some of the lost time, I think we should do that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| Another question here. | ||
| Across the aircraft fleets in the U.S., Air Force inventory pilot training is foundational to our readiness. | ||
| As the service continues to struggle with the pilot shortage, I am also concerned about the delayed acquisition of the T-7, which is further constraining pilot training pipeline. | ||
| Despite announcements earlier this year that the program may achieve an accelerated initial operational capability, there has been limited information about whether this will translate into expedited deliveries. | ||
| General Alvin, or Alvin, sorry, would you provide an update on the T7 timeline and what these delays mean for the Air Force's ability to train our pilots? | ||
| What actions has the Department taken to expedite delivery of these platforms? | ||
| And when could we expect delivery at Shepherd Air Force Base in particular? | ||
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Congressman, we can give you the current understanding of the laydown of the order and the sequence and the timing. | |
| It still is for Shepard. | ||
| I will go to the last question first. | ||
| Right now, it is about seven years from now finally. | ||
| However, that can be accelerated. | ||
| Here is what we have done to accelerate that. | ||
| We have taken some of the articles that were going to be production articles and we put them into tests. | ||
| We have accelerated the number of T-7 platforms that are in test. | ||
| Now, we have completed 140 flights. | ||
| 67 of them were in all of last year. | ||
| Already this year, we have made up the other ground. | ||
| So we are accelerating the test. | ||
| And as a test pilot, I have been checking in with it quite often, and the airplane is performing phenomenally. | ||
| So we are trying to buy down the risk as fast as we can. | ||
| If, when we put the more platforms in, we can accelerate and move it to less by buying down the test risk, we are ready to do that. | ||
| Because you know, Congressman, the T-38s are operating great, but those J-85 engines and all those challenges are things we don't want to contend with into the next decade. | ||
| So we are stepping through and making sure that the MILCON is lined up associated with all the funding. | ||
| And with Shepard, of course, we have its crown jewel. | ||
| It has got the Euronato piece, and so which means they all get a say in when funding goes in to do the MILCON. | ||
| And so we want to make sure we don't get ahead of that, make promises that our international partners have to put money against that we have to renege on. | ||
| So we want to make sure we have confidence in that and buy down the test risk as we lay out the actual production and the delivery capability across. | ||
| It's a great platform. | ||
| We can't get it fast enough. | ||
| Well, thanks, sir. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| Yeah, I agree 100 percent. | ||
| And obviously, as important as that training program is to not only our pilots but our allied pilots, seven years is a long time. | ||
| So anything that I can do on my end, obviously, from where I sit, I'm anxious and willing to help expedite that. | ||
| It seems like that is a long ways out. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| With that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Sorensen. | ||
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Thank you, Door Chairman and Ranking Member. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Just about good afternoon. | ||
| And welcome to Secretary Menck, General Alvin, and General Saltzman. | ||
| Thank you for your many years of service and dedication to our nation. | ||
| I first have to say I'm really excited about where the Air Force is headed in terms of investing in new technology and new capabilities, while also making sure that we are equipping the Air National Guard. | ||