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Kenneth Wilsbach's Vision for the Air Force
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The latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | |
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| Up next, testimony from Air Force General Kenneth Wilsbach on his nomination to serve as Air Force Chief of Staff. | ||
| He was asked about his willingness to keep the Air Force up to date and prepared for necessary missions. | ||
| Senator Alyssis Lotkin also questions the general on his thoughts about the use of Air Force units potentially being used on U.S. protesters or for immigration raids. | ||
| The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing is about two hours. | ||
| It's today | ||
| to consider the nomination of General Kenneth Wilsbach to serve as the next Chief of Staff of the United States AIR Force. | ||
| We thank him and his family for their decades of service and their commitment to lead in this dangerous time. | ||
| The United States Air Force is a critical pillar of our joint force. | ||
| It is the most capable and lethal Air Force in history. | ||
| We saw their expertise on full display in this year's Operation Midnight Hammer. | ||
| This was a complex, high-risk strike package. | ||
| It was launched from long range, coordinated across multiple domains, and carried out with surgical precision. | ||
| With this operation, President Trump sent a clear message to our adversaries. | ||
| American air supremacy is unparalleled and it has a global reach. | ||
| Through his long career of service, General Wilsbach has supported that air supremacy. | ||
| The general brings deep operational experience and understands what it takes to lead in contested environments. | ||
| If confirmed, he must drive tough reforms and manage tight budgets. | ||
| He must speak plainly about the risks the force is resourcing and that it is inadequate. | ||
| I already mentioned Operation Midnight Hammer. | ||
| That operation demonstrated capability, but it was only a moment in time. | ||
| We need the Air Force Chief of Staff to make progress on our most challenging and enduring issues. | ||
| Among those are the ongoing pilot shortage, modernization of our aging nuclear systems, the sustainment of our current aircraft fleet, and the expansion of our fighter refueling and cargo fleets. | ||
| As to fleet sustainment, we must all acknowledge the ongoing problem of aircraft availability. | ||
| The F-35 remains the most advanced fighter in the world, but too many of them are sitting idle on ramps. | ||
| The readiness rates of our aircraft continue to fall short of Pentagon gulls. | ||
| This is known on this side of the ocean and around the world. | ||
| The force is plagued by persistent parts shortages, long repair times, and sustainment costs that strain operational budgets. | ||
| The Air Force cannot project power if its most advanced fighter cannot get off the ground. | ||
| I look forward to hearing how General Wilsbach intends to address this. | ||
| This committee also recognizes the Air Force push to retire legacy platforms to fund modernization. | ||
| We need a realistic plan to address the readiness gaps created in the interim. | ||
| We need aircraft that fly, bases that survive missile attacks, and logistics that support operations far from home. | ||
| That includes hardened infrastructure and pre-positioned supplies. | ||
| It means we must ensure airmen are trained and equipped for austere, contested environments. | ||
| Some of the gaps in these capabilities have been created by an ill-advised divest-to-invest strategy, and these gaps are unacceptable. | ||
| Lastly, this committee remains concerned by the slow pace of nuclear modernization. | ||
| China, Russia, and North Korea are rapidly expanding their arsenals, quickly eroding advantages we seek to retain. | ||
| Deterring nuclear aggression remains the Department's top mission, and the Air Force is the very tip of that spear. | ||
| I look forward to hearing how General Wilsbach intends to make these nuclear modernization programs a top priority. | ||
| And finally, none of this works without people. | ||
| Recruiting has begun to stabilize, but retention is the greater challenge. | ||
| The Air Force continues to face a consistent pilot shortage, driven by limited flying hours and readiness shortfalls that keep pilots from flying. | ||
| Retaining pilots, maintenance, and technical specialists requires sustained investment across the full life cycle of an airman. | ||
| Service in the Air Force must be a first-choice career, not a fallback. | ||
| So thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you for your willingness to serve. | ||
| General Wilsbach, and I turn to my friend and colleague, Ranking Member Reed. | ||
| Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, General Wilsbach. | ||
| Welcome and congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| I'd also like to welcome your wife, Cindy, here today and thank her for her many years of service at your side. | ||
| General, as you are exceptionally well qualified to serve as Chief of Staff of the Air Force. | ||
| During your tenure as the Air Combat Commander, you helped lead the services through a critical period of modernization, and you have expensive leadership experience at every level, from squadron to wing and across the globe, including in combat. | ||
| If confirmed, you will lead at a challenging time. | ||
| Air power remains central to our strategic competition with China and with other adversaries, and the entire joint force depends on the Air Force's capabilities every day. | ||
| The service must balance global operations with the need to modernize aircraft and systems to the future. | ||
| A key part of that modernization is how the Air Force manages and uses data to fight more effectively. | ||
| The service is developing advanced networks and command and control systems that will integrate information across domains and deliver it rapidly to the right operator. | ||
| These efforts will shape how we detect threats, process information, and act quickly on the battlefield. | ||
| I'd like to know how you plan to continue resourcing and evolving these technologies to maintain our edge. | ||
| The U.S. Air Force remains the most capable air power in the world. | ||
| However, recent consecutive budget requests have proposed retiring or realigning hundreds of aircraft across all missions. | ||
| Any such proposals deserve careful scrutiny. | ||
| We must consider whether these reductions are prudent in the near term and evaluate the impact on our industrial base to ensure we do not make short-sighted decisions that weaken our production and sustainment capabilities. | ||
| I would like to know how you would approach these proposed retirements and how you would manage force structure adjustments going forward. | ||
| I am encouraged by the Air Force's renewed focus on contested logistics and its work to make operations more agile and resilient, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. | ||
| The service has been developing a concept for dispersed operations from smaller airfields across the region called Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, which will be vital to ensuring survivability and operational reach in a future conflict. | ||
| I would appreciate your views on how to further develop this approach and strengthen logistics, which contested conditions will make very much more difficult. | ||
| Finally, General, I want to address the tense political environment in which you will lead if confirmed. | ||
| The military today faces an increasingly politicized and divisive climate. | ||
| Our service chiefs, combatant commanders, and senior officers must navigate contentious issues that can erode public trust and distract from mission. | ||
| Many have already been dismissed for reasons that are still difficult to understand. | ||
| It will be essential for you to stand firmly by your airmen and guardians, defend their professionalism, and provide your best, honest military advice to civilian leaders, regardless of political pressure. | ||
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Committee Testimony Expected
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| I hope you commit to do so today. | ||
| General, the challenges before you are complex and consequential. | ||
| Thank you for your continued service and willingness to lead at this critical moment. | ||
| I look forward to your testimony. | ||
| Again, thank you, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you very much, Senator Reed, for that statement. | ||
| General, I will now ask you a series of standard questions this committee poses to all military nominees. | ||
| Simply, a yes or no is asked for. | ||
| To exercise its legislative and oversight responsibilities, it is important that this committee and other appropriate committees of the Congress be able to receive testimony, briefings, and other communications of information. | ||
| Have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Do you agree when asked to give your personal views, even if those views differ from the administration in power? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Have you assumed any duties or undertaken any actions which would appear to presume the outcome of the confirmation process? | ||
| No, Chairman. | ||
| Will you ensure your staff complies with deadlines established for requested communications, including questions for the record and hearings? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Will you cooperate in providing witnesses and briefers in response to congressional requests? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Will those witnesses be protected from reprisal for their testimony or briefings? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear and testify upon request before this committee? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Do you agree to provide documents, including copies of electronic forms of communication, in a timely manner when requested by a duly constituted committee, or to consult with the committee regarding the basis for any good faith delay or denial in providing such documents? | ||
| Yes, Chairman. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And now you are recognized for your opening statement. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you and good morning, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Reid, and distinguished members of the committee. | ||
| It's an honor to appear before you today, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak to you. | ||
| I look forward to our discussions in the hours ahead. | ||
| More importantly, if confirmed, I look forward to working closely with each of you and with your colleagues in the Senate and the House to advance the strength and the readiness of the Air Force. | ||
| I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for the trust and confidence he has placed in me with this nomination to serve as the next Chief of Staff of the Air Force. | ||
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No-Fail Missions
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| I recognize the enormous responsibility that comes with this position, especially in the global security environment. | ||
| If confirmed, I pledge to give my all to successfully fulfill the duties of the office on behalf of the American people. | ||
| Our nation relies on the Air Force to deliver air superiority, nuclear and conventional global strike, rapid mobility, command and control, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. | ||
| These are no-fail missions. | ||
| They are critical to our national security, particularly in an increasingly dangerous world. | ||
| While peace is always our goal, it must be preserved through strength with a military so capable, lethal, and decisive that no adversary would choose to challenge us. | ||
| If confirmed, I see two priorities as central to ensuring that strength: readiness and modernization. | ||
| The most important thing we do as an Air Force is fly and fix airplanes, and we must field new capabilities as rapidly as possible. | ||
| And I believe empowering command teams to hold themselves and their airmen to the highest warrior standards are the keys to success. | ||
| I would like to share a little bit about myself and my family. | ||
| I've served in the Air Force for nearly 40 years since I graduated from college. | ||
| My wife, Cindy, who is seated behind me, has been my partner through every step of that journey, and she's been with me through my entire career. | ||
| She has always had a full-time job, but she's always made time for families of the service members that I have served with. | ||
| Her compassion, her leadership, and care have touched so many lives of airmen, spouses, and families. | ||
| I know I would not be here today if it wasn't for our shared faith and Cindy's selfless service and sacrifice. | ||
| In many ways, she has served the Air Force every much as I have. | ||
| Service runs deep in both of our families. | ||
| Cindy's dad was a Marine. | ||
| Her stepdad was a career National Guardsman from the state of Florida. | ||
| My grandfathers both fought in World War II. | ||
| One was a Marine and one was a submariner. | ||
| And my father was a career Navy pilot, and two of my uncles who graduated from West Point were career Army officers. | ||
| So when it came time for me to choose my service, I chose the Air Force to round out our joint family. | ||
| And in case you were wondering, we're still working on our draft pick for the Space Force. | ||
| I am really thankful for my family's legacy of service and more importantly for their love and support of me throughout my entire career. | ||
| I will close with this. | ||
| Cindy and I had planned to retire to our home state of Florida and begin the next chapter of our lives this year, but then I received a call to continue my service. | ||
| After much reflection and prayer, I said yes, because I love this country and I love the Air Force. | ||
| My greatest motivation remains the young airmen, especially those enlisted who are doing the hard work every day, like manning missile silos and guarding flight lines and turning wrenches, flying on the leading edge and carrying out the many duties that make our Air Force strong. | ||
| I'm humbled by the opportunity, and I just want to thank you for your time today and the consideration of my nomination. | ||
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Priorities For Readiness And Modernization
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| I look forward to your questions. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much, General. | ||
| So I'll begin with my five-minute period of questioning. | ||
| First of all, I'd ask this to almost every nominee this year. | ||
| Much of the funding in the Defense Reconciliation Bill is unspecific because of our rules and will technically be at the discretion of the Department of Defense, though we have provided recommendations for them. | ||
| General Wilsbach, a quick yes or no answer. | ||
| Will you carry out congressional intent for reconciliation funding in the One Big Beautiful bill? | ||
| Senator, I will carry out the funding in accordance with the law, and I will strive to do my best with the intent of Congress as well. | ||
| So that's not an explicit answer, is it? | ||
| No, but I definitely will follow the law, Senator. | ||
| Now, let me ask you about one of the things that I mentioned in my opening statement. | ||
| Over the past several years, Air Force has faced a persistent decline in overall aircraft mission-capable rates. | ||
| This includes the F-22, F-35, KC-135, and even the KC-46 falling well below readiness targets. | ||
| You are going to have a job ahead of you changing this, but it absolutely has got to be changed. | ||
| We have got to reverse this rate of declining mission capabilities. | ||
| How are you going to do that, sir? | ||
| The first thing, Senator, is, and we've got a head start on this with the budgets that we're employing right now and the ones that we expect here in the near future, but we need to fund the weapons system sustainment accounts at a much higher level than they're funded at this point. | ||
| What's happening as the aircraft are flying? | ||
| We have the people available to fix them, but they determine we need a part, and they turn around to the shelf to pull the part off the shelf, and it's not there. | ||
| And it's because we haven't funded those accounts to the degree where— That's completely a funding. | ||
| It's not completely a funding, but that's a large part of it. | ||
| The other aspect that I concentrated on when I was in my last job at Air Combat Command is having commanders and their senior enlisted leaders focus on their aircraft on a daily basis to look at what are the issues, and then the enterprise comes to help them. | ||
| So oftentimes a wing at a particular base will need a part, and that part is somewhere else, and they can reach out every single day to the enterprise and get that part moving. | ||
| But it's an emphasis on daily attention to the maintenance of the fleet. | ||
| This has been a problem for a while, and it hasn't been fixed. | ||
| So you'll be charged with making a quantum change. | ||
| Now, let me ask you this. | ||
| For the record, I think I know your answer. | ||
| I certainly hope I do. | ||
| The Air Force FY26 budget request proposes eliminating program funding of roughly $75 million for junior ROTC. | ||
| I think this is completely wrong-headed and foolish. | ||
| And I need your assurance that we are not going to zero out junior ROTC. | ||
| Senator, thank you for your concern about this. | ||
| I share that. | ||
| I think that junior ROTC is a fantastic program where we can expose young people to what it might be like to serve. | ||
| In this case, in the Air Force, there are junior ROTCs for the other services as well. | ||
| It also perhaps allows us to have a greater pool for recruiting because it exposes those young people to the core values of our service earlier on and perhaps may stave off things that could potentially disqualify them at a future point like drug use or crime, keep their physical fitness in check as well as their grades. | ||
| So I'm supportive of junior ROTC and I look forward to working with you further on this because I'd like to see it funded. | ||
| Thank you very much for that answer. | ||
| And you mentioned that you intend to enforce the law. | ||
| This committee and this Congress, through legislation signed by the President of the United States, have for years ordered that junior ROTC be expanded with specific numbers. | ||
| And this is not, in our judgment, advisory. | ||
| It is the law and we intend for it to be followed and abided by. | ||
| And so I appreciate that assurance and would join you in saying that not only is it a great recruiting tool for all of our branches of the service, but it's a citizenship builder and it represents a subset in almost every school of higher achievers and more advanced graduates. | ||
| So thank you for your answer there. | ||
| Senator Reed. | ||
| Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, General. | ||
| As I mentioned in my opening statement, congested logistics will be a critical factor in any future conflict. | ||
| And as I mentioned also, the Agile Combat Employment ACE system is being developed. | ||
| Can you talk about the capabilities and concepts that are shaping that new system and how you will provide logistics support and support yourself in that context? | ||
| Well, since we only have four minutes and 30 seconds left, I'll go very quickly here, Senator, because I could talk all day long about this. | ||
| But the first thing that's really important about contested logistics is pre-positioning. | ||
| So ahead of time, while there's no threat or very limited threat, we purchase equipment and supplies and we put them in places where we intend to operate from. | ||
| One of the most important things we can do to minimize especially the pressure on the system at the beginning of a conflict because the stuff that you need is going to be at the place where you're operating from at the beginning and you don't have to immediately start resupplying. | ||
| So pre-positioning, really important. | ||
| The other thing is camouflaging concealment. | ||
| So the things that you put there, you don't want it to be a sitting duck target. | ||
| You want to try to hide it away. | ||
| And then the last thing is multiple modes of travel, surface and air for those in the Pacific, in other places around the planet. | ||
| You can use roads and rails as well and taking advantage of all modes of travel to get it there. | ||
| And in some cases, you'll have to use, you only will be able to use military because of the threat level. | ||
| But if there's an opportunity to contract that in, that's another option as well. | ||
| And that's, as we discussed yesterday, that's the reason why the military should have the intellectual property for every system it employs going forward so that soldiers, airmen, sailors, space guardians can fix the equipment in the field. | ||
| I agree with that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You mentioned in your opening statement, General, that your priorities are readiness and modernization. | ||
| And readiness is tied to sustainment costs, which are very difficult to control. | ||
| The F-35 is the classic example. | ||
| I think it's about $39,000 an hour to sustain. | ||
| And that's one of the reasons why, as the Chairman indicated, we are not retaining pilots, because if you sit around in a simulator all day, that's not as much fun as flying. | ||
| What are we going to do to improve readiness, particularly with respect to sustainment? | ||
| We definitely have to invest in those accounts so that the parts are on the shelves when the aircraft flies. | ||
| Incidentally, just speaking of the F-35, when the aircraft begins its flight and takes off, and they are fixed. | ||
| They fly for extended number of sorties before they break the next time. | ||
| The problem with the F-35 is now they have to wait for the part to be shipped. | ||
| And so investing in those parts so that they are on the shelf so the airmen that work on the flight line can turn around to the shelf, grab the part, put it in the airplane, and now it's going to perhaps be several more days before that jet needs to be maintained again. | ||
| And all that time where it's sitting waiting for that part is downtime where we can't use the aircraft to train. | ||
| So that investment is really important to backfill the shelves with parts. | ||
| Now, changing the topic, the Air Force plans to reduce force structure a number of ISR platforms, AWACS, JSTARS, U-2, GlobalHawk. | ||
| Will that cause a significant and consequential decrement in the ability of other services to operate without these ISR platforms? | ||
| Right now we are in a transition and we get a lot. | ||
| We have in the past used the airborne platforms quite a bit. | ||
| You mentioned many of them. | ||
| And those have served us well. | ||
| And we are in a transition to moving much of our intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance into the space platform. | ||
| And there are a lot of advantages of that. | ||
| One is staying power and the ability to have access to it 24-7. | ||
| You don't have to turn sorties. | ||
| Satellites there, and it's collecting almost nonstop. | ||
| That being said, in that transition, we do get a lot of service out of some of our current platforms. | ||
| And there is an argument where, say, for example, an MQ-9, it's not survivable in a highly contested environment. | ||
| True statement, but there's a lot of environments where it's not contested, and that platform provides quite a bit of benefit to us. | ||
| And so I think we need to strike up a balance as we transition. | ||
| Thank you very much, sir. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Fisher. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Good morning, General, and welcome. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| General, we must ensure that the B-21 fleet is sized appropriately to ensure that the United States sustains the dominance in our air-based leg of our triad. | ||
| If confirmed, what factors will you consider in determining how many B-21s the Air Force should procure? | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
| Good to see you. | ||
| Thanks for time in your office earlier this week. | ||
| The B-21 is going to be an amazing platform, and it's coming off the production line as we speak. | ||
| As you know, we've received two test articles, and it's going very well from the standpoint of timeline, and I expect great things with it. | ||
| As we look at the global threat and the ability for our platforms that we have in the Air Force, not just the B-21, but all of our platforms to service the needs of the combatant commanders, not just one, but all of them, that allows you to do the very complicated math problem of how many we need. | ||
| As you know, the current program of record for the B-21 is 100 aircraft, and I look forward to working with you and determining if that is the correct number as we go forward. | ||
| You know, we spoke about this when we met earlier, and the STRATCOM commander has said that we should have at least 145 B-21 bombers. | ||
| At the time that we were visiting, you suggested that perhaps B-52s could also fill in there. | ||
| I tend to disagree with you on that. | ||
| I think it's important to be able to trust the judgment of our STRATCOM commander on what is needed with regard to the bombers, especially when we have to look at the congested area that they're going to be flying in, the dangerous environments that they're going to fly in. | ||
| So I hope that you'll work, the Secretary will work with our STRATCOM commander and work with this committee as well to make sure we take everything into consideration that needs to be considered on that front. | ||
| I absolutely will, Senator. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I know we'll have discussions. | ||
| Also, I appreciated your response to the committee's advanced policy questions that you, quote, unequivocally agree that maintaining a credible and effective nuclear deterrent is, in your assessment, the Department's highest priority mission. | ||
| And modernizing our nation's nuclear forces is a critical national security imperative, end quote. | ||
| I understand the department's continuing to find ways to accelerate and improve the Sentinel program as it moves towards a Milestone B decision. | ||
| And keeping this program on track should be the Air Force's top priority. | ||
| We also must ensure the Menetman 3 is sustained and remains credible as we complete that transition to the Sentinel. | ||
| And we also discuss that. | ||
| If confirmed, will you commit to using all available tools to support the Sentinel program and sustain the Menutem system as long as necessary? | ||
| Yes, Senator, I will. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| What do you think of proposals to restructure how the department manages high-profile programs like Sentinel by utilizing the direct reporting program managers? | ||
| Would having that senior leader solely focusing on improving and managing these programs be beneficial, in your opinion? | ||
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Posed China Threat
00:07:14
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| They would, Senator. | ||
| I'm supportive. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Last question on munitions. | ||
| I tend to focus on munitions, and obviously we talked a little bit about that as well. | ||
| How do you view working with companies so that we can really increase that munitions production capacity? | ||
| As we've learned over the last several years, modern conflicts expend munitions at a much faster pace than we've traditionally planned for. | ||
| So, how would you approach that? | ||
| We talk about it all the time. | ||
| We have for over three years, and I tend to worry about that. | ||
| Put my mind at ease. | ||
| There's two parts that I think we should concentrate on. | ||
| One is to hold the contractors and companies that are manufacturing the munitions to the contract that they signed and to pressure them to make sure they're meeting the contract. | ||
| On the government side, the most important thing we can do is provide predictable and stable demand signal. | ||
| When we adjust and vacillate, it scares the companies. | ||
| And then they underinvest, and then what happens is they slow down. | ||
| So it's both sides. | ||
| They need to meet the contract. | ||
| We need to be stable and predictable. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| And I appreciate your service and that of your family. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Fisher. | ||
| Senator Hirono. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Welcome, General, to you and your wife. | ||
| Thank you for your service, and of course, as former commander of Pacific Air Force. | ||
| I asked the following two initial questions of nominees on all of my committees to ensure the fitness to serve. | ||
| So I will ask you these questions. | ||
| Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature? | ||
| No, Senator. | ||
| Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct? | ||
| No, Senator. | ||
| General, successive administrations have identified China as a pacing threat to U.S. national security and the Indo-Pacific as the priority theater. | ||
| It is concerning that there are some rumors, recent reporting, that the draft national defense strategy deprioritizes the challenges posed by China. | ||
| General, as the former commander of Pacific Air Force, you are acutely aware of the threat posed by China to our interest in the Indo-Pacific AOR. | ||
| General, would you agree that China continues to be a significant or the most significant threat to U.S. national security? | ||
| Well, first of all, aloha. | ||
| Aloha. | ||
| Aloha. | ||
| And yes, I would agree. | ||
| So recent news reports, that's reassuring. | ||
| I don't think we can afford to take our eyes off the threats posed by China. | ||
| So the recent news reports have indicated senior military leaders, including Chairman Kane, have expressed serious concerns over the draft NDS's shift to the homeland and Western Hemisphere. | ||
| So if confirmed, will you commit to providing your best military advice to the Secretary of Defense regarding this matter, even if it's not what he wants to hear? | ||
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I will, Senator. | |
| General, our strong network of allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific is one of our greatest advantages, and we have a lot of military exercises with these partners. | ||
| And it's one of our greatest advantages over China and must remain a priority in the national defense strategy. | ||
| So recent exercises like Resolute Force Pacific play a critical role in testing the Air Force's ability to strengthen our capability, interoperability, and readiness with our regional partners. | ||
| And in fact, this exercise that I referred to involved over 25 partner nations. | ||
| Can you share some of the key lessons learned from REFER PAC, the exercise I referred to? | ||
| And if confirmed, will you commit to prioritize funding for future Air Force exercises and training in the Indo-Pacific, which are vital to enhancing our relationships with our allies and partners in the region? | ||
| The second part of your question first, yes, I will commit not only to the Pacific, but to allies and partners all over the world. | ||
| As far as the lessons learned goes, one that you mentioned straight away was the value of bringing the allies and partners together. | ||
| And what you realize from that is interoperability and in some cases interchangeability. | ||
| And when you get that, any adversary that watches that, they don't have to just worry about the United States. | ||
| They have to worry about the United States plus all of those partners that we have together. | ||
| It's an extremely valuable deterrence. | ||
| That's probably the biggest thing. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| With the ongoing retirement of the aging E-3 fleet, Pacific Air Force has identified an urgent need to field a replacement for early warning and control aircraft as soon as possible. | ||
| Unfortunately, the Air Force initially canceled funding in the F-26 budget for the E-7 wedgetail, which is set to replace the E-3, only reversing course after both the House and Senate move to restore funding. | ||
| General, given the importance of the E-7 to operations in the Indo-Pacific and the acknowledged delays in space-based alternatives, will you support this program in future budgets? | ||
| Senator, the requirement is for domain awareness, and I support programs that provide us that domain awareness. | ||
| And so as we go forward, I look forward to working with you and the other members of the committee to figure out what is the platform that provides the domain awareness, because I know that the combatant commanders of all of the geographic of magic commanders are going to need domain awareness. | ||
|
Pilots Under Pressure
00:10:16
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| This replacement aircraft has been a long time coming, and I think we need to stay the course. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Hirono. | ||
| Senator Cotton, you are recognized. | ||
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General Willis-Bach, congratulations on your nomination, and thank you for your lifetime of service to our nation. | |
| I want to return to the theme of the readiness crisis because it deeply concerns me. | ||
| We have pilots today taking on risks flying combat missions and jets that haven't been updated since the 1990s. | ||
| If fighter procurement stays where it is now, where are we taking the biggest risks over the next decade? | ||
| We've talked about the readiness of the aircraft, just the availability of the aircraft. | ||
| So, you know, half of the aircraft we have, say it's not the exact figure, but let's say half of the aircraft that we have are available on any given day. | ||
| That means that you can't fly your full fleet. | ||
| And so, what that means is the pilots and the crews aren't training. | ||
| And so, the first thing we do is sustain the weapon system sustainment account so we get that aircraft availability up. | ||
| Now, the pilots can train on a more regular basis. | ||
| You don't look at any professional sports person athlete that practices two times a week. | ||
| They practice almost every day. | ||
| Well, our pilots are flying about two to two and a half times a week in a fighter aircraft. | ||
| That is not enough. | ||
| That is why, in my last assignment, I made it a requirement for Air Combat Command fighter pilots to fly a minimum of three times a week. | ||
| When I was lieutenant, I flew almost four and a half times a week. | ||
| That will allow the proficiency that we can develop so that we are ready. | ||
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So, fair to say that today's young lieutenants and captains and our fighters are not getting the same level of training and preparation that Lieutenant Willisbach got back in the day? | |
| I believe that's true. | ||
| Now, they have an advantage that I didn't have, which is the simulators that we have today are highly capable and there's a lot of value in the simulators. | ||
| We didn't have that when I was a youngster, but we made up for it by flying more. | ||
| That's why I dictated three sorties a week versus more than that. | ||
| Can our current fifth-generation fighters execute our major combat operational plans without the fourth-generation fleet? | ||
| Doubtful. | ||
| The fourth generation brings a lot of capability. | ||
| For example, the F-15 is an incredible workhorse. | ||
| It's going to be able to fire some of the more long-range weapons that don't actually fit in the weapons bays of the fifth-generation aircraft. | ||
| And you can also use the fourth gen for missions that don't require penetrating into highly contested environments, like your defensive counterair that tends to be defending your bases, et cetera. | ||
| So, and then the fourth gen would obviously be doing homeland defense as well, which in the current environment, you can't just write off the fact that you won't be targeted because of the nature of the threat or global now. | ||
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I agree that it's doubtful at best, probably. | |
| Given all that, are we currently flying our legacy fleet at a significant risk level, and do you expect that risk to increase over the next decade? | ||
| I think the risk level is appropriate, and the commanders have authority to adjust that on a daily basis, and the crews know what that means in terms of execution. | ||
| I'm still concerned about the risk we're accepting as we wait for new capabilities to come online. | ||
| If confirmed, would you be willing to leverage additional fighter production to replace our oldest jets and strengthen our strike fighter fleet? | ||
| If Congress can find the funds and send them your way? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
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Good. | |
| Finally, General Wilsbach, you probably know that Fort Smith is the home now of the F-35 International Training Mission. | ||
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We have stood up this mission in record time thanks to all hands-on-deck cooperation from the Air Force, the Air National Guard, and state and local partners. | |
| Arkansas is already producing combat-ready F-35 pilots for our allies. | ||
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If confirmed, can I get your commitment to ensuring that Ebbing Air National Guard Base continues to receive the resources it needs to effectively train our allied pilots? | |
| I commit, Senator. | ||
|
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Thank you very much. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much, Senator Kane. | ||
|
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Thank you, Mr. Chair, and congratulations, General Wilsbach. | |
| I appreciated the opportunity we had to visit the other day. | ||
| Ukraine's Operation Spider's Web demonstrated how vulnerable Russian aircraft left out in the open would be to UAS attacks. | ||
| The Army has been designated the executive agent for managing the counter-UAS operation within the department, but the Air Force obviously has a very vested interest in timely and effective solutions to this challenge. | ||
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And I imagine you're particularly familiar with the challenge because of your assignment at Joy Base Langley-Houston. | |
| So tell the committee how you're thinking about the counter-UAS threat at home and abroad, and what coordination do you expect you'll have with the other stakeholders, including the Army, to deal with the threat. | ||
| Yes, thank you, Senator. | ||
| Great to see you again, and thanks for your time and office the other day. | ||
| So, first thing, there's offensive counter-UAS, and then the, or sorry, there's offensive UAS, which you addressed, and then there's counter-UAS on the defense side. | ||
| And they're both things that we have to take on and improve our capability. | ||
| Let's talk defense first. | ||
| And you mentioned Langley, which happened in December of 23. | ||
| The current defensive systems that we have are not adequate for the current threat. | ||
| So we actually need to acquire systems that work. | ||
| It's very complex in the U.S. because it's very easy to shoot these down with kinetic weapons, but you obviously wouldn't want to do that in a city like Hampton, Virginia, because the bullets drop on somebody's home. | ||
| So you have to do this non-kinetically. | ||
| And so the equipment that we purchase for the states has to work. | ||
| So that's the defensive side. | ||
| On the offensive side, it's very difficult, and we're seeing the success that Ukraine is having with these, and it's very difficult to defend against these. | ||
| And they're seeing success in their battle with the Russians by using these systems. | ||
| And they're very inexpensive. | ||
| They're on the right side of the cost curve, and we should invest in that capability. | ||
| The Secretary of War has recently stood up Joint Interagency Task Force 401 that is helping all of the services to understand what is the best equipment to buy. | ||
| Almost every company that I talk to has a deal they want to sell you a widget that will do this. | ||
| It's very difficult to cut through the wheat and the chaff and so find the wheat in the chaff. | ||
| And so that's what they're going to help us with, as well as the authorities. | ||
| That was another lesson learned that came up during December 23 at Langley is the complex rules of engagement and authorities that were available to us at the time didn't. | ||
| Yeah, local law enforcement, FAA, I mean the whole FBI, everybody. | ||
| So yes, so we've got to cut through that and make the rules of engagement and the understanding of the authorities much clearer. | ||
| So installation. | ||
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Do you have a sense how far down the road we are in that? | |
| Because we've been saying that, yeah, we need to do that. | ||
| We recognize after Langley, December 23, that we had this authorities problem, especially in domestic airspace, and we need to coordinate. | ||
| Do you have a sense of how the stakeholder process is going or how far down the road we are in figuring this out? | ||
| Well, even since before JATA 401 stood up, we had moved and there were additional authorities and we had a lot more clarity even before that stood up. | ||
| We still have some more work to do and I feel very confident it's an interagency process. | ||
| All the stakeholders are in the meeting and they're making good progress and I'm confident we're going to get to a good spot in the next couple of years. | ||
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So my takeaways is we're making progress, we still have more to do, but also we do not have the platforms that we need to successfully defend against this threat now. | |
| So that's something that the committee has to pay attention to as we are thinking about probably next year's NDAA and beyond. | ||
| You mentioned the word widgets, and I'm going to finish there. | ||
| You're familiar with the proverb that begins for want of a nail? | ||
| Yes. | ||
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So for want of a nail, the kingdom was lost, is the way it goes. | |
| It's attributed to the poet George Herbert or Benjamin Franklin or Shakespeare, but I think we all get what the proverb means. | ||
| You've talked about this maintenance issue, and one of the issues that you described in particular is parts. | ||
| If you don't have the right parts, then you can't fix the planes, you can't fix the planes, folks can't fly the number of missions my colleagues are talking to you about. | ||
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What do we need to do to fix this parts problem? | |
| Is it all a matter of private industry? | ||
| Are there things that the Air Force can do with additive manufacturing and other innovations to be its own parts producer? | ||
| So, yes, we do need to fund the parts. | ||
| It is generally more economical because the industry will make the parts in bulk than to make them one at a time. | ||
| That's very expensive. | ||
| Even if you are doing it yourself, it becomes very expensive. | ||
| But in crisis, you would like to be able to have that capability. | ||
| So, for example, if you are deployed to a small island in the Pacific and you are in a conflict, you don't have a week to wait. | ||
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Considering Spectrum Shifts
00:11:24
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| So, having that capability is something to look into. | ||
|
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Thank you. | |
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Senator Rounds. | ||
| Let me begin by thanking you and your family for your service already rendered to this country and appreciate your consideration coming back out and taking on a real challenging position at this time. | ||
| I shared with you while we were visiting in my office that there is one area in particular that I ask almost every single four-star that comes before us. | ||
| That has to do with regard to the concern over spectrum and the need to protect spectrum that is critical for the defense of our country, including those different bands for communication and radar. | ||
| So, I will begin by just simply saying that I think forcing the Department of Defense to vacate or share in a suboptimal manner the 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz and the 7.4 to 8.4 gigahertz bands of the spectrum would have a severely negative consequence for our warfighting capabilities, including homeland defense missions and force protection of our deployed forces. | ||
| General, how important is spectrum to the American military? | ||
| It's almost everything, Senator, because we use certain spectrums based on the physics that are characteristic of that spectrum, and we invent capability using that physics for our advantage. | ||
| And if we have to move out of that spectrum, we then have to invent nearly a new technology to be able to accomplish the mission that we have already spent countless dollars to be able to use that part of the spectrum for the purpose of military objectives. | ||
| So, moving out, one, you may not be able to invent the new technology if you are in a different spectrum. | ||
| And, two, if you do, it is going to take you a while and it is going to be very expensive. | ||
| The U.S. Navy, in terms of their discussion in front of this committee, indicated that the cost for them just for their destroyers, the radar that was on their destroyers, would have been about a quarter of a trillion dollars, $250 billion, and approximately 20 years to move to other parts of the spectrum. | ||
| And we were specifically talking about the 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz band. | ||
| Does that impact the Air Force's capabilities? | ||
| It does. | ||
| In today's world, the joint forces interconnect, and we count on one another for situational awareness, weapons employment, and many, many other things. | ||
| And if the Navy is not capable of providing situational awareness, then there might not be any in this case. | ||
| So we all rely on one another, and we do the same thing for them. | ||
| We provide them situational awareness at times because we link together. | ||
| Would it be fair to say that China would love to see us eliminate the use or the delivery of the spectrum in the 3.1 to 3.45 and the 7.4 to 8.4 gigahertz band? | ||
| They would love to see us send that over and restrict it to commercial use. | ||
| Not only would it be fair to say we know that they are lobbying us to move out of that spectrum, and yet at the same time, they are building their systems to use that same part of the spectrum. | ||
| It makes you wonder why. | ||
| Because it has got the best physics, doesn't it, for that particular pressure? | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I also have to share with you, in the past, uniformed officers have had to stand up to individuals with suits and ties, and they've had to make very clear that this is a significant threat to being able to defend our country. | ||
| Are you prepared to stand up to those individuals that don't wear a uniform but wear a suit and tie and to tell them specifically how critical this issue of spectrum management is? | ||
| I am, Senator. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Fisher did a very nice job of explaining how critical we believe the development and the deployment of the B-21 bomber is. | ||
| I fully support her belief that more than 100 are necessary. | ||
| And I understand that while you are not in that position and that you are going to have to work with a lot of people, it would be fair to say that as the analysis continue to come in, more than 100 may very well be required. | ||
| In that case, are you prepared to advocate for that higher number? | ||
| If confirmed, I will. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Let me ask you, you raised a really interesting thing when you talked about parts in the F-35. | ||
| And I think one question I have got for you, it's one that we may have a broken piece and it may take a couple of days to get it back in, and that's expensive. | ||
| At what point do we decide that if the piece breaks time and time again, how easy is it or what do we do about actually getting the piece to be modified so that it is not breaking once a week? | ||
| That's normal business for us, Senator. | ||
| So we analyze things like that. | ||
| So you have a particular part, say it's an electrical generator on an aircraft, and we realize that it's continuously breaking at a higher than predictable, predicted rate. | ||
| We go back to the manufacturer of that part and we say you need to redesign it and get it back out to us so that it is on the aircraft for a longer period of time. | ||
| That is normal business for us and we do it constantly. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Senator King. | ||
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| I never thought I would be at a hearing where the exciting and sexy topic of maintenance would be dominating the discussion. | ||
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But it is critically important for all the reasons you have mentioned, General, and I a couple of points that have been touched upon. | |
| We are in the world of 3D printing, and it can 3D print with metal. | ||
| So two points, and I think the ranking member mentioned this. | ||
| We should be buying the IP with every platform we buy. | ||
| We should have the intellectual property so we have the right to print parts. | ||
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I believe every hangar should have a 3D printer. | |
| They are not that expensive. | ||
| And it is sort of the right to repair idea. | ||
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That's one point. | |
| Second, I would hope, given this, what I believe you characterize as a serious problem, if not a crisis, that you would convene a high-level team to take a blank sheet of paper and say, what's the problem? | ||
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What are the bottlenecks? | |
| Is it parts? | ||
| Is it workforce? | ||
| What is slowing us down? | ||
| If Delta Airlines had an availability of 50 or 60 percent of their airplanes, they'd be out of business. | ||
| And these airplanes are expensive. | ||
| So I commend to you those two suggestions. | ||
| I hope that's something you might be considering. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| In fact, I actually did this in my last job, did exactly what you said, is get the team together, pad and a pencil, and what are the issues that are causing us the problems and what are the things we can do to fix it. | ||
| And if confirmed, I would like to expand that to the rest of the Air Force. | ||
| On the 3D printing, we do quite a bit of 3D printing already, and the innovation of our airmen to figure out how to do that is incredible. | ||
| And I take your suggestion that we could look at expanding that. | ||
| It would be valuable to us. | ||
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By the way, the Air Force isn't unique in this problem. | |
| The Navy is in exactly the same position with their availability of their ships and the length of time they're out of service in maintenance. | ||
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A question about drones. | |
| And to me, it underlines the cumbersomeness of our military procurement system. | ||
| AI tells me that Ukraine is now producing 200,000 drones a month at an average price of $500. | ||
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We don't have remotely that capacity here. | |
| And I believe we're missing, I think, the major lesson of Ukraine, which is the importance of drone warfare. | ||
| I would hope that this might be, again, a place of renewed, not renewed, of new emphasis, not only defensive, which you've mentioned, but also offensive. | ||
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I find it astounding what the Ukrainians have been able to do. | |
| Think of that, 200,000 drones produced a month, average costs $500. | ||
| We've got to have a major initiative in this area, in my view. | ||
| Do you agree? | ||
| I do, Senator. | ||
| And we have come to the same lessons learned that you have, that this is a tactic that would be useful for us, and it creates massive dilemmas for your adversary because they have to honor those 200,000 a month. | ||
| They don't know what they're up to. | ||
| They might have a weapon on them. | ||
| They might just be a decoy, but they have to honor them, and you end up overwhelming their defenses, and then you eventually get one to the target and you achieve objectives. | ||
| So we are learning that lesson. | ||
| And by the way, 3D printing, you can 3D print one-way attack drones at scale. | ||
| So we should invest in that, I believe. | ||
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Thank you. | |
| Final point. | ||
| An interesting change in the law was made with Goldwater Nichols in 1986. | ||
| Prior to that, the role, the principal advisor, military advisor to the President was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other chiefs were subsidiary, if you will. | ||
| In 1986, the law was changed in an interesting way, providing that you, that the individual chiefs, had the opportunity and, in fact, responsibility to provide their best advice to the President of the National Security Council. | ||
| It's very interesting that the committee report uses this language. | ||
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This subsection would create a very important mechanism that is designed to encourage diversity. | |
| We couldn't use that word today, I don't think. | ||
| But anyway, to encourage diversity in the military advice provided to senior civilian decision makers. | ||
| Although the views of the chairman as the principal military advisor should be clear and undiluted, the other members of the JCS would be free to submit dissenting or supplemental views. | ||
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I hope you'll take that responsibility seriously and provide your independent military advice when requested by civilian leaders. | |
|
Pass Sioux City Runway Audit
00:06:23
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| I take it very, very seriously, Senator, and I will absolutely give my best military advice at all times, even when it might not even be asked for. | ||
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That's exactly what I wanted to hear. | |
| But I also, and I think you said this earlier, you've had a 40-year career. | ||
| You're coming out of almost retirement to do this job. | ||
| You don't really need this job. | ||
| I sincerely hope that you'll provide that advice, even though it may not be what the policymaker wants to hear. | ||
| Yes, Senator, I will. | ||
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Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you, Senator King. | ||
| And I recognize Senator Ernst. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Kramer, and good morning, General. | ||
| It's great to have you here. | ||
| And thank you so much for taking the time to be in front of our committee. | ||
| And I also want to thank your wife for being here as well. | ||
| We know that you can't achieve great things without having wonderful people supporting you all along the way. | ||
| So thank you so much for being here. | ||
| You know what I'm going to start with. | ||
| We started with this in my office. | ||
| It's no surprise to the committee that I'll talk about this either. | ||
| But I really want to focus on an issue that's really important, not just to Iowa and to me, but also to our nation's readiness and our homeland defense, and that's the modernization of the Sioux City Air National Guard's runway. | ||
| And for years, the Air Force has acknowledged the critical role of the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City. | ||
| The unit flies our KC-135 strata tankers and it enables our joint allied aircraft to project their power globally. | ||
| They also stand ready to refuel NORAD aircraft and respond rapidly to Homeland Defense missions. | ||
| And their ability to launch and respond quickly is a key part of our layered deterrence posture here at home. | ||
| And yet, in spite of the Air Force's stated commitment, the runway repair and modernization funding has repeatedly slipped off of their radar. | ||
| But Congress has not forgotten about that commitment, and we do expect that it will be honored. | ||
| So, General, if confirmed, can you commit to ensuring that the Air Force fully funds and completes the Sioux City runway project on schedule and without further delay? | ||
| I will do my best, Senator. | ||
| I know that you know this. | ||
| I was very encouraged to learn that in August of 2025, so just a few weeks ago, we got the 100% design, which is something that we wish we would have done a while ago. | ||
| We finally got that done, so that was the next step so we can move forward now. | ||
| We've got the budget request in for FY26, and then we can go from there. | ||
| But I will do my best, I promise you. | ||
| For today, I will accept your soft answer, but I will keep pressing on this. | ||
| I do think it's very important that we honor that commitment to this incredible unit. | ||
| I look forward to working with you. | ||
| Thank you so much, sir. | ||
| How are you prioritizing infrastructure modernization for guard and reserve installations, like the project that we have in Sioux City? | ||
| My thoughts on the Guard and the Reserve and the active duty is that priority scheme should, especially for infrastructure, should be relatively flat. | ||
| So what I mean by that is don't privilege any one of those components. | ||
| We rely so much on our reserve component, both the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve. | ||
| And in many cases, the units are actually combined. | ||
| And what should encourage everyone is in those units, you go in there and you can't even tell who the guardsman is or the active duty or the reservist because everybody is so professional. | ||
| Everybody's a warrior and they're getting the mission done. | ||
| And so I don't believe that you should shortchange a guard unit or a reservist because they're a guard unit or a reservist. | ||
| We need the facilities to be up to par because our facilities for the Air Force are power projection platforms. | ||
| And thank you for that. | ||
| And just a little bit more on that because we are running short on time. | ||
| I just want to point out too that their mission is very critical. | ||
| It doesn't matter whether you are active, Air Guard, Air Force reserves, it just doesn't matter. | ||
| So when it comes to modernization, we need to make sure each one of those components gets a piece of that pie and that we're paying attention to it. | ||
| So I am going to jump to my last topic, which I discussed with you, but a clean audit. | ||
| I could go through a number of examples where we have lacked accountability, not just Air Force, but across the spectrum at our Department of War. | ||
| But if you would please detail how we will get to a clean audit within the Department of the Air Force. | ||
| We've been tasked by the Secretary of War to pass the audit. | ||
| We're going to pass the audit. | ||
| And the way that you get to that, because it's quite complex, as you know, there are many factors and facets of passing that, but we know what the test questions are. | ||
| And so we need to start working at it and taking time. | ||
| It's the adage that we talked about in your office. | ||
| How do you eat an elephant? | ||
| One bite at a time. | ||
| That's what we have to do at the audit. | ||
| But it's not a mystery how to pass the audit. | ||
| It's clear how to do it. | ||
| We just have to take our time, go to the sources, complete the work, and we'll be fine. | ||
| And I did this in my, I started this when I was in my last job with Air Combat Command. | ||
| And if confirmed, I like to expand that out to the entire Air Force. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your service. | ||
|
F-16s And Cruise Missiles
00:14:38
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| I look forward to supporting your confirmation. | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
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Senator Kelly's recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| General, congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| Thank you for your continued service to our country. | ||
| I recently visited Ukraine, also recently spoke with several of their F-16 pilots, well, in Tucson, in Ukraine, here in my office. | ||
| And these aviators are doing a fantastic job. | ||
| It was obviously a little rough going in the beginning, getting them up to speed on the platform. | ||
| These guys are flying multiple sorties a day, sometimes four or five in a single day, under constant threat, continuously being locked up by surfaced air missile systems and Russian aircraft. | ||
| They still managed to intercept thousands of enemy drones, cruise missiles. | ||
| Despite these successes, there remains clear opportunities for us to help them further. | ||
| They're struggling with The math on how much this costs. | ||
| A Shahed drone costs maybe $50,000. | ||
| As you know, an AMRAM, if they shoot an AMRAM at one, that could be up to $900,000, $1 million, maybe more in some cases. | ||
| AIM-9s are rather expensive as well, not as expensive, but this is becoming sort of a math problem. | ||
| And we have to get the cost down for them to intercept these cruise missiles and drones. | ||
| We also have problems with throughput of F-16 pilots. | ||
| They only get so many slots a year at Tucson International at the 162nd. | ||
| I would like to see that increased if we can find a way to do that. | ||
| I know we have our own training requirements for our own F-16 pilots, and we have got contracts with other countries for FMS programs that we have. | ||
| But, General, will you commit to working with me to identify some ways to try to expand and accelerate F-16 pilot training opportunities for Ukraine? | ||
| Yes, Senator, I will. | ||
| And then, second, you know, I talked about the air-to-air munitions. | ||
| They have been shooting Zuni rockets. | ||
| My understanding from my staff is I think we have sent the last Zunis that we have had, pretty cheap option to take out a cruise missile or a drone. | ||
| Still rather expensive. | ||
| They have gunned some of them. | ||
| That has worked. | ||
| I think we have a lot of AIM 9Ms still, some mics still in inventory that we don't use anymore. | ||
| That could be another option to try to give them more capability without risking having, we don't want to be shooting AIM 9Xs and AMRAMPs. | ||
| So, could you work with me to try to identify some further munition options to help them in this fight? | ||
| Yes, Senator, I would love to. | ||
| The other thing they need, and I don't know if we have given this any consideration here, is more help with an airborne EW system. | ||
| Something like the ALQ-167 pod, I think we are able to hang those on F-16s. | ||
| I flew something like that way back in 1991. | ||
| And I think that could go a long way to making a difference on the battlefield. | ||
| So that's the third thing. | ||
| Would you be willing to work with us to try to find some airborne EW system that can help assist the Ukrainians? | ||
| Yes, Senator. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And then, real quick, in my remaining minute, the NDS in 2018 identified China as the top national defense concern, national security concern for us. | ||
| Now, less than a decade later, it does seem that we are pivoting to the Western Hemisphere. | ||
| And as you know, the NDS does not only influence current defense posture, it also informs future spending. | ||
| And in my view, our biggest concern should still be the Western Pacific, Indo-PACOM, the threat from the People's Republic of China. | ||
| And these are two totally different problem sets, just as an example. | ||
| To penetrate the A280 bubble in the Western Pacific, I think the NGAD is one of the platforms we really need, and I am glad to see that moving forward. | ||
| If we do this pivot to the Western Pacific, this then becomes a big question. | ||
| So, if confirmed, will you Work with my office and this committee to ensure that the Air Force is resourced for any potential future fight, especially against our most significant adversaries. | ||
| Yes, Senator. | ||
|
unidentified
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All right. | |
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Senator Kelly. | |
| I recognize Senator Scott for his time. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| First off, congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| You're going to do a great job. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, first, can we talk about Homestead Air Force Base? | ||
|
unidentified
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So, unbelievable location, right? | |
| And you see the problems we're having in the Gulf of America now and with adversaries that have come into Central and South America. | ||
| So, can you talk about the importance of Homestead, the location, and talk about how we can make sure we have a flying mission there so we have something to ensure deterrence? | ||
| Yes, so the MACOs are stationed there, the Air Force Reserve F-16 Squadron, great squadron. | ||
| It's a great location, especially for homeland defense. | ||
| We can set up alert there. | ||
| Other agencies use that airfield as well, which is helpful. | ||
| And the Air Force Reserve is in the running as we look at strategic basing and fighter flow into the future. | ||
| That base is in consideration for a future F-35 base, and so we're still going through the competition there, but they're in the running for that. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay. | |
| If there's anything you think I need to be doing to make sure they aren't just in the running but they win, just let me know. | ||
| I will. | ||
|
unidentified
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Second, can we talk about China? | |
| So, China's closely decided to be our adversary, right? | ||
| We foolishly have become very dependent on China for a lot of things in our country, whether it's computers, TVs, drugs, all sorts of things. | ||
| I just had a hearing yesterday at the Special Committee on Aging: 80% of our generic drugs come from China and India. | ||
| 80% of the ingredients come from China. | ||
| If they do what they're doing with rare earth minerals, we've got weeks, maybe just a few months, of drugs in our country, and we'll be in trouble. | ||
| Our military is very dependent on Chinese drugs, which makes no sense to me. | ||
| We are still buying computers, we're still buying all sorts of systems from China, TV sets, all sorts of things. | ||
| So, what can you do in this role to make sure that stops? | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
| I appreciate you asking that question. | ||
| Some of what you just described is outside the lane of a potential future service chief. | ||
| But what I'll tell you is, I don't think the Air Force should be buying equipment from China. | ||
| It's very easy to attach a covert or clandestine tracking device/slash intelligence device, and then they've got their built-in intelligence equipment. | ||
| It's also very easy if they're inside of the supply chain to manufacture faulty equipment. | ||
| So, when we install it, it doesn't work, etc. | ||
| There's many things that they could be doing. | ||
| And just to avoid any of those threats, I would say buy American is a better choice. | ||
|
unidentified
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What about drugs? | |
| Y'all think our military ought to be dependent on China for generic drugs? | ||
| I would like to steer away from that when that's outside of my area of expertise. | ||
|
unidentified
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All right. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Senator Slatkin, you're recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Welcome, General, and welcome to your family. | ||
| If you're getting down to my end of the daisy, you're almost done, so it's almost over. | ||
| General Wilsbach, thank you for coming and meeting in my office. | ||
| We talked about there the great excitement that we had in Michigan when the President of the United States announced on April 29th that Selfridge Air Force Base in Macomb County was going to be getting a replacement fighter mission, a bunch of F-15s to replace our retiring A-10s. | ||
| The President came to Michigan, made this big announcement to great fanfare. | ||
| We're very excited about it. | ||
| This is something that our federal and state officials have been working on for a long time, about a decade. | ||
| So it was the culmination of a lot of that. | ||
| But we are hearing that the bureaucratics at the Pentagon are looking to push out the arrival of those F-15s, delay the arrivals, such that we'd have a gap. | ||
| We'd retire our A-10s, all our pilots, all our mechanics, all our logisticians would depart. | ||
| And then something like years later, we'd get this fighter mission and lose all that good training and manpower that we have. | ||
| The official documents that we saw were that these fighters were going to be arriving in FY28. | ||
| That makes sense to us because I'm assuming President Trump wants to be in office when those fighter jets arrive. | ||
| And that is the timeline we are looking for. | ||
| So if confirmed, can you tell me what you will do to ensure that we live up to the President, the Commander-in-Chief's timeline of getting those heel-to-toe fighter jets into Michigan? | ||
| Yes, thank you, Senator. | ||
| I appreciate you asking me the questions. | ||
| Well, first of all, I am super excited for Selfridge not only to get the F-15 squadron, but also a KC-46 squadron. | ||
| The associated infrastructure improvements that come along with those two platforms, I think are going to make Selfridge Air Force Base, Air National Guard Base, the best base in the country. | ||
| I mean, because you're going to have to have the most modern aircraft and facilities that go along, so we're excited. | ||
| And yes, you do have my commitment to work with you. | ||
| We, as you know, as we phase out the A-10 and move into the F-16, we have to train all the crews and all of the maintainers as well as the pilots. | ||
| So they can't step out of an A-10 one day and into an F-15 the next. | ||
| So usually there's about a year and a half, six months to a year and a half of training for those crews. | ||
| And so we'll have to work that timing. | ||
| But you're right, FY28 is when the F-15 should arrive. | ||
| Great. | ||
| Well, we look forward to working with you on that and holding to that. | ||
| On the refuelers, you know, we were very happy that the former Secretary of the Air Force announced 12 refuelers, also to replace our current refueler mission. | ||
| We're now hearing whispers again from the bureaucratics at the Pentagon that it may not be 12, that it could be a lesser number. | ||
| We went and looked around, did our homework, you know, in places like New Hampshire and New Jersey. | ||
| The package is 12. | ||
| So do I have your commitment that we will keep the 12 as announced by the Secretary of the Air Force? | ||
| Let me work with you on that. | ||
| I know what was said before. | ||
| I also know what the service is saying now and also what the state is feeding back to us as well. | ||
| So I'd like to work with you more on that. | ||
| Okay, we'd like to receive the commitment that we were presented with, but look forward to pushing and pulling on that with you in the future. | ||
| And then just lastly, I mean, on a totally different topic, I mean, it's hard to have a hearing like this and not let the news of the country come into the room. | ||
| We are watching National Guard be deployed into American cities. | ||
| We're watching, in some cases, active duty being sent into American cities. | ||
| And over the weekend, there was a leaked conversation about potentially sending in the 82nd Airborne, an active duty Army unit, not Air Force. | ||
| But that unit has Apache helicopters, it has Black Hawk helicopters, Chinooks. | ||
| Again, not Air Force assets, but air assets. | ||
| And I think the idea that air assets would ever be used in American cities really sends a shiver down the spine of most Americans. | ||
| So tell me what you would do if an active duty Air Force unit was called in to help participate in quelling protests or participating in immigration raids. | ||
| What would you do standing there holding the line, not knowing that the American people are scared that these assets could be used inside the United States? | ||
| So been a commander nine times. | ||
| I've gotten orders many, many times to include using force. | ||
| And every time I get one of those orders, what I do is I check the law and I don't take the word of anybody else. | ||
| I get in the room with my lawyer, chapter and verse. | ||
| What's the law? | ||
| If the order is legal, I'm permitted to execute that order. | ||
| And in the case of a senior commander, you have to make sure that everyone in your unit understands what the rules are with respect to using force, whether that's against an enemy or in the case of a domestic, the appropriate escalation. | ||
|
Alaska's Strategic Basing
00:15:41
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| So they have to know what those rules are. | ||
| If the order is not legal, you go back to the issuing authority and you discuss that with them and you say, boss, I don't see how you got to the legality on this one. | ||
| We can't do that or you have to give me a different order. | ||
| Well, we hold you to that. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Senator. | |
| Senator Sullivan's recognition. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| General, nice to see you and your wonderful wife. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| We are really thrilled about your nomination. | ||
| I look forward to strongly supporting it. | ||
| And like the chairman said, like the ranking member, Senator Reed said, you are very qualified. | ||
| And I'm really excited. | ||
| So congrats to you and your family. | ||
| I want to thank your family. | ||
| You guys, as you mentioned, your opening statement was great about how the families work so hard. | ||
| So it's not surprising to you, I'm going to talk a little bit about Alaska. | ||
| Now, the great news, one of the many attributes you have is you know a lot about Alaska, having been the ALCOM commander very recently. | ||
| But not to disappoint my colleagues here, I just want you to just remind everybody what Billy Mitchell said about Alaska when he was talking about Alaska. | ||
| Billy Mitchell said that Alaska was the most strategic place on earth and whoever controlled Alaska controlled the world. | ||
| Great. | ||
| And do you agree with the father of the U.S. Air Force? | ||
| I do believe that it is the most strategic spot on earth. | ||
| Great. | ||
| Well, that's great to hear. | ||
| So do our adversaries. | ||
| You and I talked about this yesterday. | ||
| Can you put the other one up? | ||
| We've had a lot of Russian and Chinese incursions into our AIDS, into our EEZ, joint Russian-Chinese incursions. | ||
| That makes no news down here in the lower 48, by the way. | ||
| We've had six, seven, if you include Putin's flight to Alaska, incursions into our airspace since August. | ||
| So, General, can you just talk briefly? | ||
| Because you know better than anybody. | ||
| Are those easy missions? | ||
| You know, people are like, oh, yeah, an incursion, no big deal. | ||
| Talk a little bit about our great Air Force, they fly a thousand miles. | ||
| They've got to get tanked three different times. | ||
| By the way, I love Michigan, but no offense, all these tankers going to Michigan, I think it strategically makes zero sense when my state has been begging for tankers. | ||
| Let me just ask, before you answer the other question, the KC-135s, I've been begging for four, four, for almost my entire time in the U.S. Senate. | ||
| Four. | ||
| Michigan's getting a gazillion. | ||
| No offense, but they're not, Billy Mitchell did not call Michigan a strategic place at all. | ||
| Every Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force in this hearing has said to me, Senator, we'll get you those four KC-135s. | ||
| I've been waiting 10, I was going to use an adjective, but I'll just be calm. | ||
| 10 years for that. | ||
| Can I get your commitment to fulfill the commitments of, I think, four chiefs of staff and secretaries of the Air Force to get at least four KC-135s? | ||
| My view, we should have at least a squadron of KC-46s, because every aircraft in the world, if they're going to surge to China for a war, are going to fly right over Alaska. | ||
| Can I get your commitment on those KC-135s? | ||
| You know the issue very well. | ||
| It's a real frustration of mine, and I can't figure it out. | ||
| 5,000 tankers to Michigan, zero to Alaska. | ||
| It makes zero sense. | ||
| I'll do my best, Senator. | ||
| I remember this issue when I was stationed in Alaska. | ||
| You and I talked about it back then, and I will strive to do my best to get them. | ||
| Incidentally, I'll just share with you the package to make that happen is currently at the joint staff, and so hopefully we're going to make some headway soon. | ||
| Good. | ||
| I would like just an update once you get confirmed on where we are. | ||
| And that's an enormous frustration of mine. | ||
| But other infrastructure that we're talking about, you know, talk about briefly, because I have a few more questions, on the intercept missions, right? | ||
| People think, oh, it's a piece of cake. | ||
| It's not a piece of cake. | ||
| Our airmen do it so well up in Alaska once a week almost. | ||
| Those are real-world missions with Russian bear bombers, MiG fighters, sometimes Chinese. | ||
| How tough are those missions and how much more infrastructure do we need to carry them out? | ||
| Pretty tough. | ||
| Like you said, sometimes the intercepts are 1,000 miles apart when they begin. | ||
| And that is not easy to do. | ||
| And the environment is a harsh environment, as you know. | ||
| It could be completely dark in the wintertime north of the Arctic Circle. | ||
| You know, tough, tough weather to deal with. | ||
| There's not a lot of infrastructure if you have an emergency to land at. | ||
| And so that's the point you're making, which I totally agree with. | ||
| You have to have some alternatives. | ||
| So the NORTHCOM commander and the Indo-PACOM commander has testified here about needing more infrastructure to address these Russian and Chinese incursions in our airspace and our waterways. | ||
| They've talked about Galena. | ||
| They've talked about Barrow. | ||
| They've talked about, not talked about, this committee said AIDAC is going to be reopened, right? | ||
| We have $115 million in the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| Can I get your commitment to work with us on those infrastructure needs, which your combatant commanders both testified here, say we need to protect our northern flank in America? | ||
| Yes, Senator. | ||
| Finally, you know, the PJs up in the 212th Rescue Squadron are outstanding, and they're very, very busy, not just real-world missions in war zones like Afghanistan. | ||
| They conduct real-world missions in Alaska all the time. | ||
| One weekend last year, they conducted five rescues, which is kind of unbelievable. | ||
| Parachuted into a part of Alaska where there was a plane crash. | ||
| They've always had a carve-out with regard to AVSOC With regard to their unit structure, but we're hearing that they're going to lose that carve-out. | ||
| Can I get a commitment from you to continue the existing policy for the 212th Rescue Squadron to ensure that the units in Alaska have the capacity, surge capability, personnel stability required to meet the unique demands and training? | ||
| Real world missions in Alaska also oversees that the SAR-CSAR operations of the 212th do in our state. | ||
| Again, you know this very well. | ||
| Know it very well. | ||
| I love the Guardsmen in Alaska that save lives every single week. | ||
| And you have my commitment. | ||
| I'll definitely look into it. | ||
| I wasn't tracking the carve-out, so let me look into that. | ||
| Okay, we'll put that in the record as a kefir. | ||
| Thank you, General. | ||
| Congratulations again. | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
|
unidentified
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Now I recognize Senator Peters to defend the honor of Michigan in his rebuttal. | |
| I love Michigan, but it's just Billy Mitchell never talked about missions. | ||
| Well, welcome, General. | ||
| Congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| I did listen with interest to my colleague from Air Alaska saying we're going to get 5,000 KC-46s. | ||
| Did I miss an announcement? | ||
| Are you ready to announce today that we're going to get more than I had anticipated? | ||
|
unidentified
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I am not prepared for that one. | |
| Well, it's great to see you here, General. | ||
| And as you know, recapitalizing military aircraft is absolutely vital for us to stay ready for the future fight. | ||
| But as you also know, new platforms require modern training for pilots, maintainers, communication personnel to be able to operate effectively. | ||
| And investing in the people who operate, fix and support these systems is just as critical as actually getting the airframes. | ||
| And without updated facilities like hangars and flight lines and airstrips, it's very difficult to accomplish that. | ||
| So my question for you, sir, is as Selfridge Air National Guard prepares for the divestment of our current aircraft and the arrival of our new KC-46 at a number much lower than the senator from Alaska put out, and F-15EX fighters, could you speak to how the DOD is prioritizing preparing the personnel at Selfridge specifically to include pilots, maintainers, and support folks for this transition? | ||
| What should we expect? | ||
| So first of all, the infrastructure, and there's quite a number of dollars. | ||
| I don't have the exact figure. | ||
| It's a fair amount of dollars just to either construct or renovate the current infrastructure to accommodate the F-15s and the KC-46s. | ||
| And so that's, like I mentioned before, it's going to be exciting for Selfridge to have maybe one of the most modern Air National Guard bases in the country. | ||
| And so the infrastructure to accommodate that, to do all the things you just talked about, maintenance, simulator training, making sure that the runways and taxiways and hangars that can support maintenance, all of that is in good shape to accommodate what's coming in. | ||
| And the personnel training? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| That's all encompassed in so the simulators as well as maintenance. | ||
| And they'll be trained likely before they get there, but they'll continue their training once they get there. | ||
|
unidentified
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Right. | |
| Great. | ||
| General, I have received several classified briefings about the Air Force's collaborative combat aircraft program. | ||
| And I certainly understand the critical importance of how CCAs are going to literally transform air dominance. | ||
| And as you well know, for folks listening, these are autonomous systems which will work in tandem with manned fighters, including the F-15EX. | ||
| And I've heard that even KC-46s are a potential platform as we think through how we operate these aircraft in the future. | ||
| And they're going to basically increase lethality and decrease risk to manned platforms. | ||
| I'm happy to learn that the CCA program remains on time and on budget. | ||
| I think it serves as a model for successful collaboration between the Air Force and industry. | ||
| But as this program continues to develop, I remain hopeful that this cutting-edge technology will also be concurrently fielded in the Air National Guard. | ||
| So, my question for you, sir, is: given the National Guard's evolution from just an important strategic reserve into an operational force, how is the Air Force planning for concurrent fielding of the CCA to include the National Guard? | ||
| And do you plan on fielding these systems with existing fighter squadrons, including perhaps an F-15EX squadron? | ||
| Is that something you're thinking about? | ||
| If you could give me some insight into where the thought process is. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So, we have a lot of learning to do with these platforms. | ||
| The first flight just occurred on one of the versions. | ||
| By the end of the year, we expect the second version will have its first flights. | ||
| We have a lot to learn on this. | ||
| We're thinking that they're not going to be embedded in current fighter squadrons, but rather they're going to be their own squadrons and they'll be dispersed. | ||
| And there'll be a strategic basing process with these. | ||
| And to my knowledge at this point, and I can come back to you with further, but I don't see why the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, and the active duty would not be considered. | ||
| Great. | ||
| Well, I'd love to have further conversations with you, if confirmed, and I'll look forward to having that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, General. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Senator Tuberville. | |
| Thank you very much, General. | ||
| Good to see you. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| Look forward to working with you on your important mission in front of you while we're on these KC-46s. | ||
| I don't think any of us know how far along that we've gone. | ||
| We've gone a long time trying to build these things. | ||
| Give us your evaluation. | ||
| Are they working now? | ||
| Do we have the right enough range in the Indo-Pacific? | ||
| Where do we stand with that? | ||
| Because you can't, we can do all these sorties we want and build all these planes. | ||
| You can't refuel them in the Indo-Pacific. | ||
| We got problems. | ||
| Exactly right. | ||
| So fuel in the air is the key to our success. | ||
| My experience with the KC-46 has been positive. | ||
| And I know that we have some issues that we have to take care of, specifically with the boom system that needs to be fixed at this point. | ||
| But overall, very happy with the platform. | ||
| And it does provide us with not just air refueling, but it does many other missions. | ||
| We can't talk about those in this setting. | ||
| We can come back in a closed session to talk about some of the other things that that gives us, which other tankers didn't give us in the past. | ||
| So it is a force multiplier there. | ||
| So I'm pretty pleased, and I think the progress that we're seeing with the fixes that are coming in are promising. | ||
| Yeah, thank you. | ||
| In your career, you've had probably a lot of experiences, you and your wife, family, of base facilities. | ||
| Recruiting is very important. | ||
| We are getting a lot of bad information. | ||
| Well, I can't say it's bad information, a lot of information from some of these bases that we're having problems with base housing facilities, and we haven't done enough. | ||
| I mean, if we don't take care of our families, we're not going to be able to recruit people to be in our military. | ||
| I don't care what leg of the military. | ||
| What's your thoughts on that? | ||
| So Cindy and I have traveled all over the Pacific and all over the continental United States visiting airmen and their families. | ||
| Cindy spent a lot of time with the families, and you're right, Senator, at almost every base. | ||
| She also meets with the first sergeants who talk a lot about living in the dorms. | ||
| That's what the Air Force calls the barracks. | ||
| And there's multiple complaints. | ||
| Many, many, many places there are complaints. | ||
| And you're exactly right. | ||
| We owe it to America's sons and daughters to have quality of life and quality of service. | ||
| And part of that quality of life is the place that they live. | ||
| And when they live on base in a facility, that facility should be safe, it should be clean, and it should be of high quality, just like their service. | ||
| And we have to put that a priority. | ||
| If we don't do that, they're not going to get any better. | ||
| And since I've been here, I've heard a lot of rhetoric about, hey, we're going to do this and that, but still, we have a lot of our bases that are sending back problems in terms of housing and schools and things where we educate our kids. | ||
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Commitment Sentinel
00:14:52
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| That is very, very important. | ||
| Agreed. | ||
| And I hope we continue to make that a priority. | ||
| You know, I'm on the personnel committee, and I'm also on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors. | ||
| And we've had problems there. | ||
| Are you aware of any of the problems? | ||
| And will you get personally involved in making sure that we train leaders to fight foreign adversaries instead of this woke nonsense that a lot of our academies have been in for a few years? | ||
| I will, Senator. | ||
| And if confirmed, I do want to get personally involved there. | ||
| So I share a passion that I know that you do of making warriors that are physically, mentally, and spiritually tough. | ||
| And I believe that you get there by doing hard things together and teaching, coaching, and mentoring after those sessions where maybe you didn't meet the standard, but next time you will. | ||
| And the Air Force Academy is a great place for that to happen. | ||
| And I just had a conversation with the superintendent yesterday, and the Academy today is starting one of those exercises with all of the cadets. | ||
| And they're going to get tougher in the next couple of days, which I love. | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
| Congratulations, and good luck to your Florida Gators, you and your wife. | ||
| She's wearing her Gator colors today. | ||
|
unidentified
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That's right. | |
| Great win last week, but they're all big. | ||
| So good luck to the Gators. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| And I recognize the physically, mentally, and spiritually tough Senator Budd. | ||
| That's a great intro. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| General, great to see you in the office this week. | ||
| Also, I think it was two years ago this week you hosted me at PACAF. | ||
| Thank you for that. | ||
| Very insightful and good to see you here. | ||
| You know, in your opening statement, you talked about one of your priorities being modernization. | ||
| You and I have had lots of conversations about that. | ||
| I agree with it. | ||
| But I'm concerned that the previous administrations signaled a lot of poor decision-making, particularly for the F-15E enterprise under the guise of modernization. | ||
| As you know, North Carolina is home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, which is the epicenter for the 15E fleet. | ||
| General, what do you see as the value and the future of the Strike Eagle community at Seymour, both from a training and a combat mission perspective? | ||
| So the F-15 is our workhorse, especially the F-15Es. | ||
| I mean, you see in recent operations, the F-15 is often there. | ||
| And they're doing a great job in their aircraft that we have, even though they're older, 4th gen, they still have a lot of life left in them. | ||
| And so the future for the F-15 is still bright. | ||
| And I see Seymour Johnson being at the center of that. | ||
| It's the training base for the F-15, and I see that remaining so. | ||
| And as we move around F-15s, when they are replaced by F-35s and other places, we'll obviously move around the newest and keep the newest ones, and then the oldest ones will eventually make it to the boneyard and retire those. | ||
| But the ones that still have life on them are going to, you know, a lot of them are going to still be at Seymour Johnson for the foreseeable future. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, if confirmed, and I believe you will be, we're going to continue to have that conversation. | |
| I'm going to hold you to that. | ||
| And, you know, the increased procurement of the 15EX, we've also talked about that. | ||
| It's been one of my priorities in the NDAA and also in defense approach bills. | ||
| I think the platform is critical for modernizing the F-15 fleet and increasing the total fighter aircraft we have in play for future conflict. | ||
| How do you view the 15EX procurement across the future years defense program, General? | ||
| Yes, thank you. | ||
| The F-15EX is a tremendous platform. | ||
| It has the capability to carry weapons that very few other platforms do. | ||
| These very, very long-range weapons, perhaps hypersonic weapons that don't fit in the internal weapons bay of our fifth and future sixth generation aircraft. | ||
| The F-15E also can do these things. | ||
| And so for that reason, I think we ought to keep a close eye on how many F-15EXs we want to do our Air Force business. | ||
| And certainly would love to have confirmed, continue to work with you and see what the right number is. | ||
| Right now, it's about 120, give or take, a couple. | ||
| I don't have that number exactly down, but it's about 120. | ||
| But happy to look at that number in the future and see if we might need more. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| And we talked earlier this week about pilot retention. | ||
| There's been a lot of in this room discussion about pilot retention. | ||
| It's obviously a readiness issue. | ||
| How are you thinking about the problem? | ||
| And can we solve it simply with this bonus incentive structure? | ||
| Are there additional things that you would also do? | ||
| So thank you to the Senate for approving the bonus because that means a lot to our air crew. | ||
| But that isn't the only thing that we can do. | ||
| And a few of the things that they complain about or feel like is a challenge are two things that comes up all the time. | ||
| One is I came in to be a pilot and you don't let me fly enough. | ||
| And that goes back to the comments that I made earlier of, hey, minimum of three times a week. | ||
| I mean, if you aren't flying and you came in to be a pilot, there's a likely chance that you're going to go somewhere else where you can fly. | ||
| And so that's one reason why people are getting out because there are other opportunities to fly and that's what they want to do. | ||
| So sorties matter. | ||
| The second one that we hear often is I'm PCSing too often. | ||
| So I'm getting ready to perhaps, if I get confirmed, have my 24th move in 40 years. | ||
| Do the math. | ||
| That's often. | ||
| But if you could stretch that out so that families can stay in one location for a longer period of time, their kids can get settled in school. | ||
| Their spouses can get employment and keep it for longer periods of time. | ||
| They can build equity in a home. | ||
| Those sorts of things are valuable to our folks. | ||
| And so reducing the number of permanent changes of station moves is the third part of what I think we should be doing to help retain folks. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you very much. | |
| I look forward to your confirmation and continuing to work together. | ||
| Thank you, Senator. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Senator Budd. | |
| I will recognize myself while I stall for other members that might be on their way. | ||
| First of all, thank you for being here, General, but thank you most of all for answering the phone. | ||
| And thank you, Cindy, for letting him say yes to the request. | ||
| I have to say, I can't imagine a person better prepared and equipped than you are for this job. | ||
| So I'm really grateful you said yes, and I'm really grateful you got the call. | ||
| I also, having spent time with you and Cindy in Grand Forks, saw firsthand what you describe in Cindy. | ||
| Because Cindy, you, not just with your words and not just out of obligation, but your heart, you clearly care about the airmen. | ||
| And thank you for that. | ||
| It means the world to all of us and to all of them. | ||
| A couple of things. | ||
| I just want to say thank you for your commitment to Sentinel program as asked by Senator Fisher and others. | ||
| It's really important to us, of course, in mind at having two of the three legs, but to know that Sentinel is, we're going to see it all the way through. | ||
| We're not going to stop two-thirds of the way. | ||
| And so it's really important that, in fact, I maintain that if you're going to stop anywhere along the way of developing Sentinel and putting those new missiles in the ground, you shouldn't start. | ||
| They're most capable with all of them. | ||
| So I really appreciate your commitment to Sentinel. | ||
| With regard to others, I want to talk a little bit more, get a little more definition on the ISR references and commitments. | ||
| Because you used the word balance as you talked about the potential gap and as we get to space and whether or not space alone will ever fulfill all the needs, I'm not sure, but clearly you're right. | ||
| There are capabilities that space provides and will provide. | ||
| But in the meantime, in Grand Forks, we're trying to keep together nine RQ-4s with some duct tape and bailing wire. | ||
| And at a time when they're in higher demand today than they were a number of years ago, with the MQ-9s in Fargo or flown out of Fargo, we're already well below the number that are in demand by the COCOMS and that the threat requires. | ||
| So what's your sensor? | ||
| Do you have a plan for how we either maintain or better yet acquire some airborne ISR while space catches up to the demand? | ||
| Well, caveating, I'm not in the seat yet, and I have to say if confirmed, but you're exactly right. | ||
| The RQ-4, the MQ-9, both are really important to us, especially prior to the conflict. | ||
| Admittedly, if they go into a high-threat environment, they could be shot down. | ||
| But if it's not a high-threat environment, we can get great value out of those platforms to do missions that if we didn't have them and you didn't have that capability on space, you would have to go without. | ||
| So as we go forward into the future, we need to balance that. | ||
| Frankly, it's a simple math problem, right? | ||
| You take the entirety of the collection that you wish to have and you determine what you're actually collecting. | ||
| And if you have a big gap, then you can easily make decisions, resource decisions, on what you want to keep and what you can afford to get rid of because you have that capability to collect elsewhere. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| I would add to that. | ||
| We have a number of airmen that aren't really sure what they're going to fly in a couple of years or whether there'll be a mission for them. | ||
| And some community is wondering the same thing. | ||
| So, you know, I'm not, I don't need 5,000 KC-46s or a gazillion 135s, but as you're moving F-15s around, to use your terminology, there might be a place for them in North Dakota. | ||
| But we'll talk more about that. | ||
| Not if, but when you're confirmed, I look forward to helping that happen. | ||
| And with that, I recognize Senator Banks. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| General, earlier this year, President Trump came to the Midwest, to Michigan and highlighted his continued support for the Air National Guard. | ||
| He said, quote, the previous administration was willing to surrender Air National Guard fighter units across the country by retiring aircraft that were not being replaced. | ||
| Under the Trump administration, we're correcting that injustice. | ||
| Do you believe, General, that President Trump's directive to the Air Force was very clear that we need to invest more in the Air National Guard fighter fleet? | ||
| Well, I don't want to speak for President Trump, so if you wouldn't mind, I'll just tell you what my opinion is on the Guard, and that is that we have the active duty, we have the Air National Guard, and we have the Air Force Reserve, and all three of those, well, two components, one split in half between the reserve component, but you have the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, but they're critical to our capability to generate air power. | ||
| We do almost nothing without a Guardsman or an Air Force Reserve in the mix, and that's every single day. | ||
| And in times of crisis where we could mobilize those forces even better. | ||
| So as we look at the Air Force writ large, the team consists of active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve. | ||
| And frankly, I try to avoid differentiating. | ||
| Good. | ||
| The 122nd Fighter Wing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is one of those Air National Guard units where the Air Force hasn't provided a plan to modernize or replace its aircraft. | ||
| We've now transitioned from A-10s to F-16s, but our pilots haven't been given the enablers that they need to make the transition a success, such as the simulators and the arresting gear. | ||
| How is the Air Force implementing President Trump's agenda on the Air National Guard fighter fleets like the 122nd? | ||
| So I know you're familiar. | ||
| They're just getting their latest Block 40 jets there. | ||
| And so we're going to continue to build that out. | ||
| And certainly things like simulators and arresting gear for normal operations should be looked at. | ||
| And if confirmed, I'll take a peek at that and see if we can get those things. | ||
| Look forward to working with you further on that after you're confirmed. | ||
| General, in the previous administration, the Air Force leadership tried to force DEI literally into every aspect of military life. | ||
| One of the worst examples of this was Air Force leadership signing off on a racial and gender quotas for different applicant pools. | ||
| They openly stated that their goal was to decrease the number of white males joining the Air Force as officers from 52 percent to 43 percent. | ||
| Do you support Secretary Hegseth's push to only select and promote airmen based on the merit on their merit and achievement? | ||
| I do. | ||
| I appreciate that commitment. | ||
| I believe Secretary Hekseth and President Trump have done so much to get DEI and all of the woke politics out of our military and get our military back focused on what it's supposed to be focused on. | ||
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C-SPAN Moment
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| And I know that you're going to be a big part of that. | ||
| I look forward to supporting your nomination and working with you for a long time to come. | ||
| With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
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unidentified
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All right. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, this concludes today's hearing, and I want to thank our witness. | ||
| A general, thank you again for answering the call. | ||
| For the information of members, questions for the record will be due to the committee within two business days of the conclusion of the hearing, which is right now. | ||
| We are adjourned. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | ||
| Coming up this morning, we'll talk about the latest on the Gaza ceasefire and phase one of the Trump administration's peace plan with Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. | ||
| And Sarah Homan, Government Affairs Director at the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, discusses the impact of the government shutdown. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea, it's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| this is c-span giving you your democracy unfiltered so you interviewed the other night I watched it about two o'clock in the morning. | ||
| There was a little thing called C-SPAN, which I don't know how many people were watching. | ||
| Don't worry, you were in prime time too, but they happened to have a little rerun. | ||
| Do you really think that we don't remember what just happened last week? | ||
| Thank goodness for C-SPAN, and we all should review the tape. | ||
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Everyone wonders when they're watching C-SPAN what the conversations are on the floor. | |
| I'm about to read to you something that was published by C-SPAN. | ||
| There's a lot of things that Congress fights about, that they disagree on. | ||
| We can all watch that on C-SPAN. | ||
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Millions of people across the country tuned into C-SPAN. | |
| Thank you! | ||
| That was a make-for-C-SPAN moment. | ||
| If you watch on C-SPAN, you're going to see me physically across the aisle every day, just trying to build relationships and try to understand their perspective and find common ground. | ||
| And welcome forward to everybody watching at home. | ||
| We know C-SPAN covers this live as well. | ||
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unidentified
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We appreciate that. | |
| And one can only hope that he's able to watch C-SPAN on a black and white television set in his prison cell. | ||
| This is being carried live by C-SPAN. | ||
|
Melania's Reunification Efforts
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It's being watched not only in this country, but it's being watched around the world right now. | |
| Mike said before I happened to listen to him, he was on C-SPAN 1. | ||
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That's a big upgrade, right? | |
| Next, First Lady Melania Trump announces that she's been working with Russian President Vladimir Putin to reunite Ukrainian children with the families who have been impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war. | ||