U.S. European Command and U.S. Transportation Command leaders speak before the Senate Armed Services Committee during the committee’s review of the Defense authorization request for fiscal year 2022 and the Future Years Defense Program, April 13, 2021.

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Transcript

frame allied commander, Europe and General Lyons commanded the United States Transportation Command Transcom. Thank you both for the many decades of military service and please extend our appreciation to the men and women serving under your command and General Alliance. This is likely your last hearing before the committee and on behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank you and your family for a lifetime of dedication and service to the nation, which continues with your son, who is now a cadet at West Point. So tradition goes forward. Thank you. The security challenges in the Yukon area responsibility grow more complex. Each year Russia continues to subvert the rules based international order, including usually military force to intimidate and coerce its neighbors and to undermine their sovereignty. Russia is also engaged in an ongoing hybrid warfare campaign just below the threshold of conflict that would provoke a military response, including disinformation campaigns targeting democratic processes and for many discourse extensive cyber espionage efforts and the continued use of proxy groups to further Russian interest in numerous countries around the world. Combating the Russian hybrid threat requires a whole of government effect. And general Walters will be interested to hear your views on the military means required as part of that whole of government effort ellis what as well as what support we can provide our allies and partners as they seek to counter Russian malign influence last week, um raised its watch condition level in Ukraine from possible crisis to potential imminent crisis in response to significant Russian military activity in Ukraine. And of course your the committee will benefit from your assessment of the current security situation and an update on UConn’s engagements with partners and allies in response to the Ukrainian situation consistent with the 2018 National Defense Strategy um continues to refine the operational concepts, plans and programmes necessary to counter Russia and the strategic competition that defines his theater. The US must ensure a combat credible military deterrent against Russia’s ambitions to threaten the sovereignty of our allies and partners general Walters. The committee would like to hear your views on the posture and investments necessary to attain and maintain deterrence, turning to Transcom. The men and women of Transcom performed duties that sustain the whole of the Department of Defense in protecting our nation’s security with a competitive edge and its ability to deploy and sustain America’s armed forces. Transcom provides duty with unique capabilities that we have come to expect and perhaps too frequently take for granted. Transcom forces are busy supporting all of the combat commanders every day and without them, the United States would be at a significant disadvantage almost everywhere in the world. General lines last year you were adamant about retaining air fueling capability because you felt that France com was at the minimum acceptable levels for meeting piece on demand for tanker capacity This year, I understand that the air mobility command believes that trance come can rely on some contribution of the KC 46 tankers. Even though the KC 46 is not able to conduct unrestricted operations, I would be interested in any information you could share on this situation. Our global transportation capability, owned or managed by Transcom has one been one of our asymmetric advantages for many years now. However, we cannot assume that potential adversaries will allow us free rein in this area in the future. Two years ago, the committee decided that the department needed to continue the analytical effort to identify requirements because the study presented at that time did not reflect implementation of the National Defense Strategy General Lions Perhaps you could give us an update on where Transcom stands in updating this analysis. General Alliance, you have initiated a program to contract out management of the defense personal property program, DP three that handles the movement of household goods for D. O. D. Under this plan, a contractor team would be responsible for issuing contracts, the individual movers and carriers rather than the U. S. Government. After a competition. Last year transcriptome Transcom awarded the contract. But the losing bidders protested the award and G. A. O. Upheld the protest. General Lyons, I would be interested in hearing about the status of this program. Finally, Transcom also faces a unique set of cyber threats because of the commands extensive work with private sector entities and the Transportation and Shipping Industries General Alliance. The committee would appreciate an update on transcripts effort to improve its cyber cyber security posture. Again, thank you both for being here this morning. And I look forward to your testimony. Uh and before I turn it over to send in what I would just note from my colleagues that there will be uh an informal classified briefing immediately following this session in the Senate security building office in the capital senator. And hopefully thank you mr Chairman and I just would acknowledge both of our witnesses as very good friends. And I would say to General Lyons is not too late to change your mind. Has stated many times before this committee is top priority is to ensure the effective implementation of the NDS national Defense Strategy, which focuses on china and Russia is a primary threats to our national security. It means we’ve got to it’s sure that our combatant commands have what they need to address the challenge of this strategic competition. And we’re gonna be talking about that with both of our witnesses and you’ve got to be real and I’m sure you will be very straightforward and with some of the reductions that as I see them are not going to be desirable. I want to highlight that Russia’s recent activities regarding Ukraine are very concerning. At the same time, Russia and chinese threats are converging in europe with an ever more aggressive china seeking influence and threatening security through the economic coercion. These growing threats, there are three that highlight the highlight the value of our of our 2000 and 18 NDS. And uh secondly, they illustrate why we should not be reducing defense spending. And thirdly demonstrate the critical need for more advanced capabilities like the F 35 to deter Russia, particularly since there has been some controversy over that from some of the leadership of this administration. Transcom is focused on full spectrum mobility operations to meet requirements needed to combat both Russia and china as well as supporting other global engagements, from training to force projection to forward deployed forces. I’m encouraged to hear the administration’s voice, strong support for NATO. But you know, the rhetoric is easy. We want to make sure we have the resources to support that. Those statements that are being made general Walters. I look forward to hearing about the priorities for the european, the current initiative and where else we need to boast our defenses to address threats. You see growing everyday journal lines, I would like to know the status of our refueling capability that the chairman has already addressed as well as he has addressed the global household goods contacts. We have some specific questions about that. And finally whether this morning or in our classified session, I would like to hear from both of you as to how this contested environment impact, mobility operations. General Lyons. It’s uh you’ve been a friend for a long time and as I said, it’s not too late. Mr. Chairman thank you very much then. And off now let me recognize general Walters through opening statement. Mhm German read ranking member Inhofe, Distinguished members of the committee on behalf of the men, women and families who serve the nation in the atlantic. We want to thank you one more time for your steadfast support. It remains a privilege to serve alongside these patriots and our like minded allies and partners. It’s great to be line abreast with our distinguished US Transcom commander, General steve Lyons. He has led with distinction for the last 2.5 years in his capacity and over the last year he’s been pivotal in not allowing the pandemic to transform into a security crisis. And we thank him for his blood, sweat and tears to the nation. We’d also like to pass our condolences to those impacted by COVID-19. The battle against the virus continues and we must remain vigilant. We’re fully aligned with Secretary Austin’s priorities to defend the nation, take care of our people and succeed through teamwork via NATO. We work closely with our allies and partners to address the evolving challenges posed by our adversaries to secure peace and protect our interests abroad. NATO remains the strategic center of gravity and the foundation of deterrence and assurance in europe. Everything we do is about generating peace. We compete to win, we deter and if deterrence fails, were prepared to respond to aggression with the full weight of the transatlantic alliance, the United States relationships with european allies and partners remains a key strategic advantage and we must defend it. We live in an increasingly complex and contested world political uncertainty, energy competition and diffusion of disruptive technology are stressing the established rules based international order, threats and challenges seek to take advantage of these conditions through aggressive action using all instruments of national power and they’re backed by increasingly capable military forces, adversaries amplify these malign activities and foster instability with this information. Success in 21st century warfare demands that we embrace competition and all of its associated activities below the level of armed conflict. This is actually as critical as our preparation for crisis or conflict themselves. We’re in an era of strategic competition and winning in this era is all about ensuring that strategic competition does not morph in to a global conflict. One notable example of operations activities and investments, contributing to competition and deterrence is our robust exercise program this summer when we execute our defender series exercise is composed of us. You calms defender europe at NATO’s steadfast defender 30,000 U. S. Service members, Allies and partners from all warfare domains will demonstrate their ability to lift and shift massive forces over large swaths of territory at speed and at scale from the atlantic to the eastern periphery of the european continent. And once our troopers are on station, they’ll sharpen their responsiveness, resiliency and lethality. Our current security posture is strong yet challenged as evidenced by actions in the vicinity of Ukraine. We possess combat credible capability across all domains, air, land, sea, space and cyber. We will maintain and work to home this capability to deter adversaries and defensive partners and our interest the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardians, coast guardsmen and civilians of us eucom appreciate your support to defend the homeland forward and preserve peace for the one billion citizens living in the Euro atlantic Chairman Read ranking member Imhoff, Thank you again for this opportunity and I look forward to fielding your questions. Thank you very much walt. Has not let me recognize an alliance. Chairman. Can you hear me okay. Great. Yes sir. Chairman Read. Ranking member Inhofe and distinguished members of the committee. It is my distinct pleasure once again to represent the members of the United States Transportation Command that are operating around the globe Every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Uh I have the privilege today to be joined by our new senior listed leader, Fleet Master Sergeant Mirek and it’s great to have him on board. Let me just say again. That are enduring purpose of Transcom is to project and sustain military forces globally at a time and place of choosing, providing our national leadership with the strategic comparative advantage in a wide range of options to enable the advancement of us national interest, assure allies and partners and if necessary, respond with a decisive force to win. Given the unprecedented challenges amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, I could not be more proud of the men and women of Transcom who have continued their impressive support to the joint force and support the whole of government efforts to help american citizens at home. I’d particularly like to highlight our air components rapid fielding of capability to move highly infectious payment patients, which was nation prior to the pandemic. I appreciate the committees continued support on important global mobility issues including Sheila, free capitalization, aerial refueling, defense, personal property, As well as your acknowledgement of the future challenges. Religious six operations under all domain persistent attack today I’m absolutely honored to join General Todd Walters and pleased to play a supporting role in his wide ranging european defence initiatives. Thank you for your leadership and support for impressive Transcom teammates. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. General Lions. And before we begin the questioning, let me just remind my colleagues due to the nature of the hybrid format we’re using today. We will handle the order of questions by seniority, alternating sides until we’re going through everyone. Uh And if there’s anyone we missed, we’ll go back and we will use the standard five minute rounds and I ask my colleagues to keep watching the clock. And finally, if you’re not engaged, please keep your microphone commuted. Thank you very very much. Uh General Walters Today. Uh it was reported that Secretary of Austin announced an additional 500 troops going into Europe, which seems to be a reversal of the trump administration’s proposals to reduce forces in europe. Can you comment on this increase in forces? I can Chairman. We’re very excited. They’re part of the previous traunch of forces that were nested underneath DP two decision program to and its focus is to deliver a multi domain task force in a joint theaters fired organization To the spot in Germany. And that will be approximately 500 soldiers. And that will approve our ability in all domains uh to bring fires from the surface to surface dimension uh to increase our ability to deter uh from your uh first review of the proposed budget. Do you feel you will have adequate resources to meet all your obligations? We we do chairman. But as you will know, we’re always interested in working to increase our competitive advantage. But we do have the adequate resources. Thank you very much, General Lyons. Uh, as I indicated my opening remarks, we’ve asked the mobility requirements study. It’s still in the works. Yeah. When will we see that report? And can you give us some initial reactions uh, to date as to what you’re Prognostication is about the report? Yeah, Chairman. Let me first say thank you for your continued advocacy and support as you’ve directed multiple mobility capabilities requirements study and the 2020 study is due to be delivered in june mid june. I can tell you, you know, as a task for the study, it was to assess the program force we’re looking at in the context of our of our current demands in terms of war plans, but also in future concepts. As we look at that there are some areas which we see will require some work in, some in some areas elevated risk. I would just ask for your continued support, for example, for sealift modernization, which this committee has been very supportive of our efforts to do so such far and so without getting too far ahead of the analysis because I want the analysis to drive the conclusions that report is due to you soon, Sir. Thank you, sir. One of the issues uh and represents the transition from benign areas of operation, particularly for logistics to contested operations, is the problem of potential attrition during wartime. And you feel that will be adequately addressed in the study, Senator, the uh we certainly are looking at contested environments. Uh There’s no question that we can assume that we can deploy when we want, how we want, where we want perhaps as we’ve been able to do uh in the last several decades. But as we look to a attrition per se in terms of force sizing as a departmental policy, we don’t uh we don’t include nutrition in the force sizing construct but we do understand the implications for contested environments on our ability to support a particular cocom or the or the department’s priorities. Uh And so we will see that an elevated risk I would just offer though that often is the case. Uh the solution may not be in more capacity and mobility capacity but may come and better integration of our warfighting functions like protection, fires, intelligence, sustainment, etcetera. So as we look to the future, we know we have to move in that direction and I’m very pleased to see the chairman of the department, you know, identifying that as a major line of effort in our joint warfighting concepts. Well, thank you gentlemen, General Walters and also generalize this goes to a point of our effective connectivity that that every part of the operation can talk uninterruptedly and hopefully encrypted. Is that something that you and Jenna neck a Sony are working on with others? General Walters. We are chairman. One of our key pillars and our overall campaign to effectively win in competition is to continually improve our command and control and communications and to do so in all domains. And we’re really pleased to report that with General naka Sony being the sole military commander in U. S. Military cyber domain, the direction and guidance has been much clear over the course of the last 24 months and we’ve been able to make improvements in europe with respect to our ability to command and control. Thank you. And general lines, quick comments please. Yes sir. I would just reinforce cyber resiliency continues to make the top priority for the command. Shona Gussoni, the NSA cyber comma has been extraordinarily supportive, in fact, were his testbed for zero trust principles and we’ve taken many other initiatives to buy down cyber risk. Thank you very much for your son Ryan Hall. Please. Thank you Mr Chairman in walter’s. I just like to ask, I have three questions I’m going to try to get around in this short period of time uh in the book and we’ve all been talking about this now ever since 2018 when this came out The recommendations that it’s going to take 3-5 real annual defense spending growth to implement the NDS and I really believe that is true now the current budget doesn’t even keep even keep up with inflation. Now this is kind of an if question general voters, if the defense budget shrinks and the the european deterrence initiative gets cut, what would be the impact to your efforts in europe? Just of the job? If that happens, senator, it would it would slow down our campaign momentum that we’ve been able to sustain for the last four years in improving our indications and warnings are command and control and our readiness. Okay, thank you very much. General Walters. I also mentioned You and I talked about this in my office. It’s unfortunate, but a lot of people in this administration are talking about the F 35 and some don’t think it’s worth the the resources that is detracting from other areas and I am so Thankful that I have the memory of what happened back. I actually started out when I was in the House of Representatives on the House Armed Services Committee on the F 22. They have 22, they have 35 of the only two vehicles out there in the fifth generation. So the F 22 was the first one We started out with, the goal was 700 copies where you were going to come and they started whittling down. This happened, It started actually when I was still in the house side and it went down to from 700 to incrementally reduced to uh ultimately it got down to what was it? Uh, one 1 87 F 20 twos and we knew that was a mistake at that time. And the reason I bring that up is that right now, we have Russia and china pursuing their own fifth generation programs like the J 20 and the and the S U 57. How concerned are you about our great power competitors? Fifth generation capabilities? And how important is F 35 uh, to deter these threats In europe. The center of the F 35 is very important. As I mentioned in my opening comments are disposition from a military perspective, is strong, get challenged and part of that challenges the the evolution of the SU 37 5th generation aircraft on behalf of the Russians. And and we in the US need F 30 fives in europe, which will begin to show up in the fall of 21 to ensure that we have the competitive advantage necessary to protect our sovereign territory. All right, that’s that’s good. And during the last year’s posture hearing in General, Lyons testified that the Air Force’s divestment of the KC 1 35 in the KC 10 would put transfer from below its minimum Requirements. And that’s in light of the fact that the KC 46 didn’t come out with the way we wanted it to and and yet it took action from the The. n d a from 2021 to reverse the number of those divestments to ensure that Transcom has the necessary refueling capacity to meet the requirements. Now, I would have to say, and you may want to elaborate on this, uh, maybe uh, for the record. But I look at this and say what’s wrong with our requirements A process when Congress has to step in to ensure they have enough tanker aircraft to stay the mission ready. I mean, you did. Your observation was right but it took us action to make sure that happens in our fiscal year 21 n. d. A. Anything come to mind as in terms of the why it’s necessary for us to do this and why this couldn’t have been done before that our action was necessary. Well senator first, I want to thank you for your support on the uh on the issue of aerial refuel, which is such a critical force element and basically the lifeblood for the Joint Force. In terms of our weapons systems. Last year, you asked the question, what was the implications operationally to the delay of the Boeing KC 46 delivery and based on the retirement profile, there were implications in the active duty component to respond to day to day crisis. I’m happy and pleased to report to you this year that we’re in a much better position. We have very good alignment between the Department between Air Force and Transcom Air forces step forward within term capability with the KC 46 years to get a long way to go. But I am very, very comfortable with where we are with the Air Force and Air Force has really stepped in. Do you think that that has been corrected? I do, sir. It has. Thank you very much. Thank you very much centred and off center Shaheen, please thank you and thank you to both have you general Walters and General Lions for your service and for being here this morning. General Walters. I especially appreciated our conversation yesterday. And one of the things you mentioned in your opening remarks that we discussed briefly is the build up of Russian forces on the border of Ukraine. Do you have any um view about what Russia is doing? Are they preparing for a potential offensive? Is this consistent with past Russian posturing? What are they doing? Uh Senator. We’ve we’ve categorized their actions into four separate categories and I would enjoy the opportunity in a different security environment to be able to address that. But what I can say is is number one that there’s been an inject of a of a very sizable ground domain force on behalf of the Russians, a notable uh air Force injection and a notable maritime force injection. And it is of the size and scale and scope that is of great concern and it mirrors the size and scope and scale of the infiltration of forces that occurred back in 2014. So we are we are remaining very, very vigilant, keeping as many options open as possible and obviously very concerned. Thank you. I look forward to hearing your comments and classified session as the administration considers the best way forward in Afghanistan. Can you tell us what you think would be the most significant impact of the withdrawal of american troops by May 1st or shortly thereafter? How would that influence both NATO’s role and what we might expect on the ground in Afghanistan Senator. Our number one concern at us, EUCOM and my number one concern with my NATO had his Sakhir is the force protection considerations for all of our U. S. Service members and all of our NATO service members in whatever transaction that we engage in. Thank you. I would again urge um NATO and everyone who’s part of our mission to include women at the negotiating table because we know that has a positive impact on um the stability of negotiations. General Lions last spring. This is really to follow up on Senator Inhofe’s comments about the KC 46 because last spring you express real concerns about the retirement of legacy refueling tankers um due to the delays with the KC 46. And you had a brief exchange just now about that, but it sounds like You may begin to assign KC 46 aircrews to operational missions as early as this summer. So what has changed and why do you feel like we should begin doing that as early as this summer? Um, A couple things have changed since we talked about this last year. The first and probably most important is that Boeing acknowledged and agreed that they have the responsibility to fix the cat one deficiencies on the jet on the weapons system. And so in that context, the Air Force has gone to work to deliver interim capability. It may not be, it won’t be fully operational, but it can certainly conduct missions and they presented that capability uh over time. So that’s, that’s important. Uh Plus with an additional plus up of Reserve guard augmentation and a slight adjustment in the in the in the retirement profile against the KC 10, I am comfortable that we’re in a good position based on the work the Air Force has done to support day to day in crisis operations today. Well, I think that’s very good news. That’s obviously welcome news to all of the KC 46 crews including those at the fees National Guard Base where we were the first recipients of the KC 46. But I want to ask you because I understand there’s an issue that I had not heard about with the respect to the trans transportable gallery lavatory system, essentially the bathrooms that make missions problematic. Is this a new problem or have we known about this and what’s the prospect to fix it? Man, my nose kind of issues. I don’t want to get in front of the Air Force. I’ll defer the program manager there. There is a range of category deficiencies that are being worked by both the Air Force and Boeing. I don’t want to have to comment on that particular issue. Will it impact our ability to fly missions with the KC 46 as early as this summer as you’re hoping? I’m not aware of any impact on initial capability release, but that doesn’t mean a wide range of deficiencies that still need to be remedied. Uh, you know, by bowing before the jet is fully operational capable. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Senator jean. Senator Wicker, please. Thank you very much. MR Chairman, General Walters. In a question uh, from Senator Shaheen about Russia, you mentioned they were increasing their ground air and maritime efforts. Um, in in light of that, you continue to support the additional two destroyers based in row to I do senator. And as you will know, for the last 12 months, the activity of of the four destroyers that we’ve had access to have been pivotal in securing deterrence. Uh we also see increased maritime activity in the arctic, in the Barents, uh, to the central portion of the Atlantic Ocean. And the need for two additional structures in the area of indications and warnings and command and control as well as the lethality that they bring is is what we need to continue to work for to have that competitive edge to ensure that we can continue to to to effectively let’s expand on the arctic. Um, but china is an issue for us. There, is it not? And could you elaborate on that? They are senator. Their investments in ports is significant. Do we have the capabilities we need to deter Russia and china and the arctic. Presently we do, and they’re adequate but our growth isn’t matching. There’s, I heard you say adequate in response to Senator Inhofe’s question also. And uh and you mentioned that the, an answer to a question that the recent budget numbers would slow down readiness. Uh Let me just emphasize that we have in front of us the leading expert in this area of the world. And uh and that sort of uh merely adequate um response and slowdown readiness is of concern. I think two members on both sides of uh of the diocese here. One more thing, uh uh general Walters uh with regard to the Coast Guard. They have they have a statutory mission but also their very vital uh in assisting you with our national defense requirements. Is that correct? It is Senator. And as you know, the Coast Guard actually recently produced an arctic strategy and I will tell you, is the commander of U. S. You come, there were many identifications in that strategy that were very, very helpful for future security in the arctic region. Uh, Thank you very much. And uh then then let me less than shift General Lions to uh military sealift. And let you elaborate on an answer that you gave to Senator read um the G. E. O. Reported last year that quote the U. S. Flag fleet shipyards and workforce have been in decline in the industry as a whole faces significant economic sustainability challenges, unquote. Um do you uh do you agree with this assessment? And can you discuss how a diminished maritime industry impacts see left during both peacetime and conflict? Senator, thanks for the question. And more importantly, thanks for being a strong advocate for the left modernization and the acknowledgement of how important sealift is to deliver a decisive force. Um, I think, you know that 33 of 50 of our roll on roll off ships will reach into life over the next 10 years. Uh, industrial base is absolutely critical, important. Critic of critical importance. And uh, you know, we have advocated for acquired use strategy largely based on cost, the significant difference in cost differential, but there’s also work required in conversion. So we work closely with the Navy. I think the navy has got the best pulse on the industrial base with regard to see lift. How helpful in your judgment are the maritime security programs, die pens and cargo preference laws in supporting the maritime industry? Senator, I think they’re critically important. We must maintain a U. S. Flag that’s reliable and accessible to support the Defense Department needs. So those are critical programs. Thank you gentlemen. And Mr Chair, I yield back 23 7. Thank you very much. Senator worker. Uh, it will put that on your account. Uh, and now via Webex, Senator Gillibrand, um those extra seconds um for general Walters, um I want to just continue along the questions that Senator Wicker and Senator Shaheen asked about Ukraine. Um the us began providing lethal aid to Ukraine based on a 2014 authorization, support for sovereignty, integrity, democracy, economic stability of Ukraine Act of 2014. Do you believe that this lethal aid has helped Ukraine to deter Russia aggression? And what changes would you make to our current lethal and non lethal assistance to Ukraine to help further deterrence Senator? I think those contributions have been very helpful. The other very notable change that’s occurred in the environment was the establishment of the multinational Joint Commission uh which provided us an architecture to be able to take a all domain whole of government approach to some of the challenge sets that occurred in the Ukraine. And from that we were able to establish the joint military training group Ukraine that has afforded that the nations that are signatures to the multinational joint Commission and many NATO allies and partners to contribute military training teams to episodically enter Ukraine and and helped train some of their forces uh to better defend their sovereign soil. Thank you. In the um domain and in many other places we’ve seen over the last decade an increase in the strength and engagement with a liberal political forces, including the rise of totalitarian ISM authoritarians, increasing popularity of far right political groups and leaders. And we’ve seen significant democratic backsliding um how do you see these forces Effecting our efforts to effectively deter Russia, strengthen our allies and protect the values we’ve shared with our european allies for decades. They are an impact senator and I think we have to take a whole of government, whole of alliance, whole of nation approach. And I think inside of NATO we’ve we’ve done a better job with that. Number one. We’re responsible, given our support to democratic values to tell the truth and and we continue to profess the truth and the information environment. And we are gaining campaign momentum with nations that want to be part of the alliance of NATO. For example, precisely what is going on today in the Ukraine with President Smolinski’s uh open comments with respect to his desire to look westward and assess towards NATO. Thank you. Um General Lions. Um, I want to ask a question about Covid uh, in the early stages of the pandemic. Some of the early problems that we faced were supply chain issues, um including getting PPE distribution early stage vaccine distribution based off your testimony. Transcom has been instrumental in ensuring vaccine distribution was able to ramp up through a functioning supply chain as we continue vaccine distribution. What are some lessons learned that we can apply to improve our success to prepare for another pandemic or other world emergency, ma’am. Thanks for the question. I have to say. Uh large portion of the credit goes to general Purna and the lead at warp speed and the federal government effort. They worked through most of those issues. We were supporting effort where they needed additional support. I think there’s a task force now looking from a national security perspective at supply chain and implications too, National security and national defense. And I think that’s a worthy effort just to understand the source of many of the critical manufacturing and supplies and where they come from and where that supply chain might be vulnerable. Thank you Another question on supply chain Transcom is the largest user of oil for the federal government and President Biden’s interim national security strategic guidance lists the climate crisis as one of our primary national security threats from increased major weather events to migration crises due to climate change, fossil fuels should be at the front of our minds for strategic planning. What is Transcom doing to mitigate these massive expenditures of fossil fuels? Well, ma’am, I first say that to your point, I think the department clearly understands we all understand that climate is a driver of instability and where there’s instability, there’s there’s potential implications for the Department of Defense and for for Transcom. The secretary has been clear, uh, he’s focused on the climate as a priority. And as I stood stood up a lead in that area, I think most of the efforts to date, you know, you can appreciate the level at the installation base level. I think in the operational energy realm, the sheer consumption of liquid energy is going to be a challenge for us. But it’s something we have to take a look at. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator Gillibrand. Now let me recognize Senator Fisher via Webex. Thank you. MR. Chairman. And thank you gentlemen for being here today. General Walter Is, as you know, the 55th Wing is headquartered in my state and 1 35 and their crews provide a valuable contribution to um s mission from their base in Mendenhall. These planes provide a unique capability, but I’m concerned that our overall demand for S. R. is greater than the capability that we currently possess. For that reason, I believe it is essential that we not only continue investing in new I. S. R. Networks, but also that we maintain and modernize the high end capabilities that we currently have in the R. C. 1 35 fleet. In light of that, how does the R 1 31 35 fit into your current need for I. S. R. And if you could tell me overall what the percentage of UConn CSR requirements are currently being met. Senator, the R. C. 1 35 is pivotal in our campaign with respect to indications and warnings and what it does from an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance standpoint to see the environment. And as you pointed out, uh and we discussed yesterday, I think the that the concern we all have is when legacy systems go out and new systems come on board, it has the potential to create a vacuum that that the enemy can exploit and we have to be rock solid and that transition to ensure that we have the requisite I. S. Are to be successful at us. You come we’ve we’ve been very very pleased over the course of the last several years with the improvement of the percentage of bizarre that we’ve received and a lot of that is due to this committee And the support through the EU. I. Right now we’re hovering at about 33-35 of our requirements being supported and compared to my my brothers and sisters and other geographical co comes. We’re in good shape. Thank you. General Lions. In prior testimony, you said quote, we expect power projection will be contested in all domains. End quote. Your mission is uniquely challenging to perform in contested spaces. Given that fact, what steps are you taking to make Transcom more resilient to these threats? Senator? Thanks for the question. We fully acknowledge that the way we deployed in the past isn’t the way that will deploy and sustain the force in the future and that we must be prepared to operate under all domain persisted attack in that realm. We looked at a wide range, uh, as we look at the global mobility enterprise and look at our potential vulnerabilities and how to buy down that risk. One such area of course is cyber but there’s a full range of areas and to my point earlier about the integration of protection and fires and intelligence with the sustainment warfighting function will be critical. As we, you know, understand that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary. I’ve been very, very pleased with the joint staff work on the joint warfighting concepts that includes an entire line of effort to elevate the importance of joint contested a joint concept on contested logistics. You think it’s vital that we start to rethink or continue to rethink some of the fundamentals that are out there on how we operate, logistic support. And really, and if I if you could continue on with that train on um examining the existing platforms and methods that we that we’re currently using and looking at what’s needed in the future. Yes, ma’am, I think what’s critical as we look to the joint warfighting concepts, so the character of warfare as it changes as we continue to evolve, will drive changes in the character of logistics in the way that we are able to deploy and sustain the force on a global scale. And so we’ve got to continuously adapt um as we look at that and we understand those implications, we may find ourselves changing the way we fight. Uh and I think, you know, in an all domain set, we we will and that will change the character logistics. But we must be able to as an imperative be able to project and sustain the force over global distances as strategic comparative advantage. Thank you. Uh general Walters. Um One of one aspect of the previous administrations realignment plan announced last year was an increase in forces around the Black Sea. I know the broader plan is currently under review. But can you talk about the importance of the Black Sea region and the rationale for increasing our presence there? Yes, senator. We we produced a NATO military strategy that stress comprehensive defense and shared response in all geographical regions in all domains and seeking assistance from a whole of government, whole of nation and in europe. What we discovered is we we’ve, over the course of the last three years had had had placed appropriate interest in the vicinity of the Baltics. And we needed to make sure that we were giving the same do interest in the vicinity of the Black Sea because we had to shore up in all geographical areas. So that has been our approach. It’s been successful and will continue to comprehensively defend with shared response. Thank you sir. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you Senator Fisher. And let me recognize Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for your service. Uh, and thank you for being here today. Uh, let me ask first on the topic of vaccines. I want to follow up on uh, couple of the questions that have been asked most recently, Senator Gilbert, you know how many of the men and women under your man general have been vaccinated? I do senator. Uh, we we have a tier one vaccination plan for for for tier one constitutes those in military uniform. Uh, we’re at about 46% of that force being completely vaccinated, Those that needed two shots And were forecast based on the arrival of future vaccines to have the entire tier one force those in military and Europe vaccinated by the middle of July. Thank you. Um and have you encountered resistance or residency? I’m sorry Senator. I didn’t I didn’t get catch all your question. Uh, have you, have you encountered resistance or hesitancy among the men and women in your math to being vaccinated? We have not. We’ve we’ve got the traditional deferral rate that we’ve seen across all of D. O. D. But our percentages are within the norms and actually slightly less. Uh let me ask both of you, um as you well know the Secretary of Defense uh order that there be a review internally of white supremacists and extremist ideology, Could you give us your assessment of whether there is evidence of bad impact or influence or adherence among the men and women under your command, Senator? I’ll take that. Um, and I appreciate the question because I think this is a critically important issue, um, not not just for today, but into the future. Anything I think right that the grades or violates our oath to the constitution is incompatible with good order and discipline and military service. I think these first steps that the secretary has taken regarding to stand out. It may represent a small, a very small percentage and I guarantee it is a very small percentage, but it’s something that we must contend with. And I think the leadership of the department’s uh concerted and focus to deal with it, uh long term we’re taking early steps now, but I think we’ll continue to persist on this issue. How widespread do you think it is? You say it’s a small percentage. What’s your evidence, Sen? My uh, my evidence is just 38 years in uniform. Uh, no, in the force. I am not at all dismissive of the problem and I acknowledge the does exist, but I would not characterize it as prevalent. We’ve got an incredibly talented force of volunteers. The best America has to offer. And so, but even with a small percentage is worthy of our leader effort to eliminate it from the force. What steps do you think should be taken? Well, senator, as I mentioned, to stand down, I think is the first step. But out of that, I know the secretary briefed just this past week on some of the insights from the services. I think there’s other activities in terms of how we do selection and recruitment, how we transition military members out of the military so they’re not susceptible to being recruited. I think there’s a wide range of activities like that that will develop over time as concerted lines of effort. Do you think recruits or in lucy should be uh taken if they are members of organizations that espouse views associated with white supremacy or violent extremism? Uh, Senator, I would say, you know, when you get into some of the finer policy issues, there’s a lot there, there’s a lot packed in and I’ll defer to the to the policy experts on that. Well, I do know clearly though, as you know, a commander in the force, it is not consistent. Extremist behavior, activity is not consistent with the values of the good order and discipline of what we need is a war fighting organization. I agree that it may be a small percentage Under 10%, but that’s a large percentage in terms of its potential impact on the readiness and capability of our military and public support for our military. And I welcome your focus on it and your characterization of it as a very important issue of policy. So thank you for being here today and thank you for you’re continuing work on this issue as well as so many others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sidney Blumenthal set of rounds, please. Thank. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen. Let me begin by thanking both of you for your service to our country as well as your family sacrifices. You dedicate your time to our country. I’d like to begin by just talking a little bit about the challenge that we see right now or the possible challenges with regard to regional conflicts that could occur. And and let me begin by just pointing out that most recently we’ve seen some very aggressive posturing by both china, their incursions within Taiwan’s airspace with larger and larger air groups and second of all, within the european theater and Russia’s aggression that we’ve been talking about here earlier in the in the committee meeting. Can you describe briefly the impact on the ability of your command in your professional military judgment to execute its missions if the United States became engaged in to conflicts and was forced to defend friends and allies in the pacific and in europe simultaneously, general Walters, I can senator and it it starts with the appropriate approach and we’ve been very aggressive in europe in making sure that we understand the importance of allies and partners in the process and the importance of a comprehensive approach to regions and and the importance of of not getting myopic in one region, in forgetting what is happening in another region and today, when you ask most military members in europe, if they have a concern, for example, about Russia, it will take at least five seconds to where the follow on question is. Do you have a concern about china? So in the military and in our nation’s we have to continue to think big and we have to take a whole of government, whole of nation hold of alliance approach to the security challenges that we face. And we have to be willing to look up and out of each one of our areas of responsibility. General Lyons. Sure, right. I think there should be uh no question to our commitment as general Walters mentioned to our longstanding values based international order, whether that’s in the east or the west. From a transparent perspective, we we assess continuously a full range of plans and contingencies that we might have to respond to. We look within the construct of the planning guidance and the plans themselves. I’ll be happy to discuss any of those kinds of questions in a closed hearing. If he likes her, both of you would agree that prior planning for the appropriate uh concerns or the different situations is critical. Fair enough. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Let’s talk a little bit about what happens if we actually do have conflicts with either Russia or china, they would almost certainly attack the ports and the airfields where we would load and unload troops and equipment. General Lyons. What are the implications of a contested environment on bulk fuel, capacity, distribution and storage as well as traditional lines of communication? Are we effectively working contested logistics in our planning, uh uh taking into account the attrition into our war games. Yet, senator, we we have begun that journey uh, and I appreciate the support of this committee on that effort. Um, Again, I’m pleased with the joint staffs work particularly as a concept of joint concept for contestant logistics, that that’s under development to address these kinds of issues that will then subsequently, uh, you know, shape force design and force capability work down the road. We know that we must be able to sustain and project a force under all domain persistent attack that’s fundamentally different than the way we have operated integrated logistics in the past. Generally the way that you answered my question. And I appreciate the the way that you position your answer saying that we have begun to look at it. I presume that would suggest there is a concern about the way that we have either done it in the past or that we are improving on our planning for that type of a contested environment, Senator I think that’s accurate I think, and you know, as the character of warfare changes. So should the character of logistics and we have to adapt to be able to continue to be successful. And what made us successful previously won’t necessarily make uh successful in the future. So we have work to do. Thank you. My time has expired. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much centered around let me recognize Senator King via Webex general Walters within the last hour. Since this hearing has been going on a a story broke about a leading spokesperson for the Russians who is also known as an advisor to Putin saying that war in Ukraine is inevitable, that it will start with a major cyberattack that could extend to this country of and that they have overwhelming conventional forces and that there is no way they could be repelled from taking over the don bus, if not, if not the entire country. Um, I view this situation is extremely concerning. And I guess my first question is, what’s your reaction to the assertion that a a Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine would be unstoppable? Do the Ukrainians have the, the weapons, the manpower, the training, the where with all to stop such a, such an attempted annexation? Uh, I got to say, I’m I’m mightily reminded of 1938 and the Sudan land and the German claims of liberating the german speaking people and very similar things. We’re hearing from Russia. Um talk to me about the preparation and the readiness of the Ukrainians and our readiness to assist them? Senator. As we discussed yesterday in our in our phone conversation, we are very concerned and in Ukraine and their partners in the region are doing all that they can to improve their posture with each and every second as we go forward. So if in fact, uh, an incursion does occur, their their best position for success, not not only within their forces but within their partners within the region. And you, but I do believe they could repel an invasion that started next week. I certainly do over time, Senator. Well, I I think the uh, let me let me follow up a moment about the political situation in in eastern Ukraine. There are many Russian speaking people there. What’s the what’s the political mood in terms of loyalty to the country of Ukraine versus loyalty to Russia? Senator, I would categorize it as high, loyal, high loyalty to the country of Ukraine. So the the claim that Russia would be liberating these people from Ukrainian control would not would not resonate in that in that region. I agree. Center. And have we communicated to the Russians the fact that this is an invasion of this type would be met with a with a response that would be would serve as a deterrent. It seems to me the only thing we have right now is deterrence senator. I know that our senior civilian leadership have had conversations with their colleagues in Ukraine and and at the senior level with Russia and I’m not privy to all of the words that were exchanged. But I know that our senior leaders expressed deep concern about the robust activities in the Donbas and Crimea. Thank you. Let me uh let me turn for a moment. We mentioned china and Russia numerous times in this hearing. Do you see evidence in your A. O. R. Of increasing relationship cooperation if you will between Russia and china. Traditionally at least in the recent past, they’ve been uh adversaries or at least um suspicious of one another. Do you see a developing cooperation which would be inimical to our interests, Senator? I I see cooperation that’s superficial at best. I I think it’s higher at the tactical level soldier to soldier and I think it’s uh pretty close to phony at the strategic level. Well that’s that’s reassuring. I hope that’s that’s correct. General Lyons, you and I had an exchange last year about the potential gap in coverage for refueling. You’ve testified this morning that you feel that that that’s resolved. I just wanted to sort of nail that down that if called upon whether it’s in the next two years or the next 5-7 years, which is where as I recall, the potential gap identified was identified that we will have sufficient refueling resources to project power. Senator I uh I am comfortable and aligned with the Air Force’s position on this. I think that uh we have to be clear that Boeing has a long way to go to deliver full operational capable weapon system. But in the interim I am confident with the capability that exists to be day to day competition in crisis. I’m just about out of time. But does Boeing have do we have a date for final delivery and deployment of the K. c 46? Senator Anatomy of the for the Air Force from a programmatic perspective? Uh The the latest estimate was an anticipation of at least a remedy for the remote visual system. Uh Next which is a two dato sometime in the 23 time frame. At the earliest. It would take some time to feel the feel the capability after that. Thank you gentlemen, both for your testimony. You’re back. Mr. Chairman, thank you Senator King. Let me recognize. Senator arched. Thank you Mr. Chair and gentlemen, thank you very much for being here today. We certainly appreciate appreciate your commitment not only to the men and women within your commands but to the furtherance of our objectives. So um I’ll start with you. General Walters. Thank you very much. Um let’s talk a little bit more about our force posture in europe and Senator King had just mentioned Russia and the conventional forces that they have available. Um but beyond just their human resources, they have other capabilities. They continue to modernize their military. They have a number of advanced capabilities like ballistic and cruise missiles, um certainly sophisticated air defenses as we know, um anti satellite weapons, electromagnetic and cyber attacks. I could go on and on and on in this area. But these capabilities do pose a challenge to the United States as well as our allies in that region and certainly our our partners in the U. K. U. M. A. R. They also continue with their operations short of open conflict so they’re operating in that gray zone area. So how are we adapting our forces to those capabilities to those challenges to push back on Russia and what they might be able to do in the future? Thanks senator, we’re maximizing our focus to win in the competition face. And we’re doing it through a very deliberate fashion to continue to improve our ability to see the environment with indications and warnings. Our ability to respond with solid command and control in our mission command, which characterizes the readiness of our forces forward being able to conduct all domain operations that that take into account the desired effect at the appropriate time and place of our choosing. To ensure that we can be most effective and and and that approach affords us the opportunity to counter many of the issues that you just mentioned. And we’re also in accordance with the National Defense Strategy, working very hard, very, very diligently to increase our competitive edge in the areas of indications and warnings, command and control in mission command. And so with that deliberative approach, you are working with our allied forces as well. Make sure that we are nested and each able to lean on one another. Our strengths and and through weaknesses to provide pushback. Absolutely. Senator, the strategic alignment that’s required is also outside of the military dimension. So from a whole of government, whole of nation approach whole of ally approach. We’re doing the same great And one thing of course, being a National Guard member and being, of course very aware and supportive of our state partnership program, you’ve mentioned uh the Baltics, but I was heavily involved in the Balkans um with our state partnership program with Kosovo. And so I would just like to hear about how this program has been beneficial uh through your area of responsibility and how we can maybe further strengthen those partnership programs. Senator, we’re very proud of the state partnership program, especially yours in Kosovo. And as you will know, the 632 members of the United States that we rotate into K for many come from from your state. It is a success area uh in NATO, the NATO secretary general is very, very fond to ensure that the laser focus On the Balkans that the biggest challenge we face and one that we have achieved success with is to make sure that the lanes in the road are perfectly understood between K4 and the evolving Kosovo security force. And the existence of our Kosovo force has been instrumental in ensuring that we each understand our lanes. Yes, very good. And just very briefly and thank you sir, General Lyons, I’m gonna push on the KC 46 is as well, I was able to go out on a flight yesterday in a K. C 46 with a number of others um in a delegation and it was a great opportunity to really see this aircraft in motion in work. We? Re fueled some F fifteens, got some great boom operators that are our training, a lot of really wonderful airman out there. Um, This is very important to the Iowa National Guard as well. We still have the KC 1 30 fives were anxious to move into the K C 46 as soon as Boeing does a little more work. Um, how important are you’re, you’re planning moves, Um, involving the National Guard. Are you considering the rotation for the reserves, the national guards, their deployments and so forth as we move those 46 is into those areas, ma’am. First of all, thanks for taking time out of andrews yesterday on the ramp there really, it just acknowledges what an important capability aerial refueling is. I I would just say it’s largely misunderstood or under appreciated how much the guard and reserve, but especially the Air Guard contributes every single day to the output of the aerial refueling force element, whether that be overseas or here in the United States on the, on short on short strip alert day in and day out. I think my own opinion is that the Air Force does this best in terms of Total force integration completely integrated today. It’s absolutely seamless to me when I see units out there in the field, I can’t tell the difference which component they belong to. Fantastic Gentlemen. Again, I appreciate it very much. And mr Kerry a yield beck. Thank you. Thank you Senator. Let me recognize the via webex. Senator Manchin. Thank you. Thank you Chairman. And to thank both of you for your service and your family’s commitment and service To allow you to have the opportunities you have to serve our country. General walter is the european union and Russia to build a strategic partnership in trade, energy, climate change, Research, Education, culture and security. The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea increased sanctions from both the US and EU for various violations, but they seem to have limiting effects. So my question would be understanding that the EU is Russia’s biggest trading partner, and Russia is the EU’s fourth largest our sanctions in their current forms of viable solution to shaping Russia’s actions, Senator, I certainly agree that they contribute in shaping Russia’s actions. I will also say living in europe, that there is a high degree of convergence at the strategic level between what the EU does and what NATO does and for a military member in charge of military operations, I will tell you that the EU contributions in the area of transportation are a significant boost and our ability to effectively deter a threat. I’ve been especially concerned with continuing development of the North Stream pipelines. Uh not only do they create a further dependence in europe on Russia gas and oil, but they also by bypass transit countries like Ukraine or former soviet NATO members which could hold them hostage. And your thoughts on that? I I share your concerns, senator. It’s uh It’s disconcerting uh to see what happens with the North Stream two pipeline and to the countries that it reaches out to. And the fact that several of those countries are are going to potentially be put in a position to where their reliance on Russian fuel is is far higher than it should be. It is of great concern to me. Do you have any thoughts on how you would see a potential armed conflict playing out with our allies, whose whose economies are closely tied to Russia? Well, I would promote those nations to do what we do in the United States, which is to to store fuel appropriately. And we do with other nations within europe to ensure that we have the resources within to be able to execute whatever it is we need to do to effectively deter and defend. You are you are coordinating with them on that. We are senator. Thank you general lines, the level of coordination, fleet readiness and response to combat commanders. In light of the covid pandemic that Transcom provided is nothing short of amazing, of an unbelievable job. The global threat from rational, irrational states and actors is ongoing and the rise of humanitarian support and cries of crisis mitigation is enduring. Uh huh What are your concerns have called today to support an armed conflict force projection, sustainment and redeployment in a contested environment while also potentially call to support humanitarian missions on opposite sides of the world. Senator, thanks thanks for the question. Um we know that the security environment is changing quite rapidly. We know that the character war is changing quite rapidly and so should the character of logistics. So our ability to project the force and sustain the force over global distances uh is a key strategic comparative advantage that we all understand we must maintain and as we look at that ability and we look at it from the lens of a potential adversary and where there might be vulnerabilities, uh particularly vulnerabilities of consequence, we are in fact addressing those and buying down the risk associated with those. I am confident in our ability today to continue to project the force and support the force at our time and place of choosing. But I do acknowledge that we have work to do to an anticipation of a of a more sophisticated adversary. Let me follow up on my final question. General lines, you spoke about the success of the D. O. D. S. Power projection capabilities being contingent on three critical elements global mobility posture, Global transport capacity and global command and control integration. So what allied shortfalls currently exist to support these critical requirements if called to surge forces in support of the EU senator. I have to say I’m very pleased with the enormous constellation of like minded allies and partners that support the United States security interests abroad. We could not operate the global mobility enterprise successfully without the access basing and overflight that they provide and the extension of our broad and far reaching logistics network. So I’m very pleased with our allies and partners and very grateful for their continued support. And I know you spoke about Russia is moving on Ukraine and Crimea again and everything and we wish all of our allies and under your leadership the most success because that would be severely critical for all of us that they continue to do what they are doing right now. But again, thank you both for your service. Thank you sir. Thank you. Senator mentioned now, let me recognize Senator Sullivan. Thank you. Mr Chairman gentlemen. Welcome. Thanks for your service. I wasn’t planning on raising this question, but since it came up from Senator Blumenthal, you know, I just got back from a week of Marine Corps Reserve training. It’s uh, great to serve with such fine men and women. But this notion of extremism and the military, which is thrown about as if We know numbers Senator Blumenthal 10%. Uh, I think that’s irresponsible. I’ve asked from the military data, I want data before we besmirch the entire military. The Under secretary nominee came before this hearing said he was going to quote stamp out systemic racism within the ranks of the military, asked him, have you ever served in the ranks? No, sir, We need to be careful with this. I’m just going to ask you two generals served your whole career. Do you think that we have this giant group of extremists in the military? I think it’s one of the most best group of americans who aren’t Racists. You got knuckleheads in every organization in the world, including the Congress, the United States, by the way. But there’s just narrative now that We got all these extremists in the military. I think it’s ridiculous and we need to see data before we start throwing out issues like 10%. How the hell does he know? It’s 10%. What do you think, gentlemen? Do you think you serve in the military with a bunch of extremists? Senator? I concur with you. I don’t see a giant portion of the population. Really makes me mad. The Washington post U. S. Senators. The smooching the whole force irresponsibly general. What’s your experience we have? We have bad people. Of course idiots in any organization. But this is getting ridiculous when a US. senators saying 10%. Where the hell did you get that number one in 10? Is that your experience? General senator. Let me be perfectly clear. I think we have the finest military. Our world has known me too. I believe that and I served with him. I just got done serving with him And sir I appreciate that we have the best America has to offer. There is no question in my mind after 38 years of service. I believe that in my heart. I know it to be true. Uh a very small very small and 10%. You think it’s 10 center? I don’t think it’s 10%. Not even close is it a matter of fact, I don’t think there’s been any data on the topic. I can just tell you from experience. It’s extremely small. And even though it’s extremely small and it may be less than 1%. I don’t want to be dismissive. Of course the degradation in Iraq’s But but it should not characterized the joint for do you think it’s enormously powerful and professional joint? Thank you. Gen. Do you think it’s 10 general. anything in your experience and your 30 40 plus years as a general officer in the military senator? I certainly agree that number is too high. Yeah. So here’s what I think the Secretary of defense needs to enough of this. We need data. We need data. Okay. In besmirching the whole force reserve or active duty whether it’s a U. S. Senator. The Washington post which writes historian is once a day with no data or the undersecretary who wants to be undersecretary. I hope he’s not going to be under secretary for the pentagon. We need to start using data and not this B. S. That’s shameful Because I don’t even think it’s close to 10 and you know we’re going to do this is gonna make people not want to join the military. So anyways I was not going to even go on this topic but when I hear us senator throughout 10 it’s ridiculous, ridiculous really pissing me off. Sorry. Mr Chairman I’ve had enough of this. Uh General. Can I talk about the Russian arctic build up and what we need to be doing about it? You know we have this strange seems of co coms the actions in the arctic which is kind of you come but Pay com owns a lot of the forces. Stratcom has a big responsibility in the arctic as well with missile defense. What’s happening there? It’s even more than has happened recently. And what should we be doing about it and how to think about it, senator. I think the campaign momentum’s traversing in the correct direction with with your great work over the course of the last several years, all of the services U S D O. D. And the NATO military strategy and the NATO concept for deterrence and defense of the atlantic specifically points to the fact that we must have an arctic strategy and nations militaries are constructing strategies that must include considerations for activities in the arctic. So the focus in the architecture, improving the resources are growing as you will know, through your initiatives, we were able to house ph and f 30 fives at keflavik for the first time and most of what they did was contribute to I N. W in the vicinity of the arctic. Getting the NATO nations not not just the ones that are about the arctic, but all involved in the process is occurring through the good work of the secretary General. So I believe that our campaign momentum is going in the correct direction from strategy all the way down to requirements. Great, thank you. Thank you. Mr Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator. Sullivan, let me recognize via Webex center Rosen. Okay, thank you. Mr Chairman, appreciate this hearing and thank you gentlemen for your service to lifetime of service to this nation. We really appreciate everything that you do every day and to all the service men and women that are under your command. Um I’d like to speak a little bit today about cybersecurity. Our NATO allies of course are essential to ensuring us cybersecurity. We rely on our allies to harden our collective defences against frequent and sophisticated cyber threats. Cybersecurity has increasingly become an area of focus for NATO, from hosting the largest cyber exercise in the world, to operating a cyber base cyberspace operations center in Belgium. And so general Walters, one of the most significant cyber threats that the NATO alliance is facing. And can you specifically describe to us the cyber threat our european allies are facing from Russia. Thanks thanks for the question senator. It’s it’s a great topic. I will tell you that I’m excited about the fact that from a US perspective, our force presentation by selecting one military commander to lead military cyber as General Nicholson has allowed us to deliver clear direction and guidance to the nations that assist us in the cyber arena are manning is much better for all of the organizations and the organizations have continued to perpetuate the nation’s the importance of improving the nation’s cyber hygiene in the network. As you will know, we still have a long ways to go in that area, but but nations have to make sure that they understand what it takes and how to defend their networks and then they can start to get into other areas of of of of cyber deliverance of forces. And I’m very, very pleased to report that the manning across the NATO nations with respect to cyber activity has improved and the focus on improving our cyber hygiene has improved across the european nations. Um That’s terrific because that was one of my next question is what are you doing to prevent mitigate and recover from the cyber attacks? But how how can we help you? How should we be coordinating or what do you think you need to coordinate better with our allies in this, in this realm In Europe, we’ve had the opportunity to lead from the front with respect to the US two and cyber uh we we’ve had the opportunity with with the assistance of other European nations to educate the masses on the appropriate steps forward in the cyber domain. And and and we are getting great support from all nations who want to protect their networks. And I think what we have to do is just continue the campaign momentum that we’re currently on and continue the advocacy from NATO and the EU in the cyber domain. Thank you. And General Lyons. I want to kind of continue on this and talk a little bit about cloud migration. Transcom was of course the first Jihadi organization to move its cyber capabilities and command and control applications to a commercial cloud environment. So General Lions, can you provide us with an update on the migration to the services to the cloud? Are you experiencing the benefits? Um and what are you feeling about this? What are your best practices again? What do you, what do you think you need going forward as you move everything to the cloud and begin to work there? Well, Senator, thanks for the question and I appreciate the topic here because I think we all acknowledge that sybers warfighting domain and the adversary does get a vote, particularly across the global mobility enterprise. We know we have a very large and sometimes vulnerable attack surface and so we’re working very diligently for that. One of the areas as you mentioned, senator is our digital modernization effort and part of that is moving to the cloud. We’ve been able to move Uh well over 20 systems into the cloud. Uh we’re still working on virtualization in some of these areas, but we are making progress and I think the cloud does offer uh some capability and some security uh that we don’t have today. And so I’m, I’m pleased with the progress we’ve started, but we still have a ways to go. Um, thank you. I appreciate that. And I’d actually like to move on and talk a little bit about Transcom Covid 19 operations. And so General Lions, can you describe the short term and long term impacts that Covid 19 has had on Transcom operations as you’re moving forward? And uh um How have you supported diodes mission to respond to COVID-19. Thanks Senator. I have to say. I couldn’t be more proud of the entire transparent team the way they’ve been continue to operate throughout the entire past year despite Covid while taking the appropriate mitigation measures. You know, early on, we really didn’t know what we didn’t know. But I’m so proud that the folks were able to continue operations. We were able to continue to support the force. Things like defender europe continued to a lesser degree and supported general Walters. We were able to support the whole of government effort. We were able to conduct uh, aerosol testing for commercial aircraft, for example, to determine that the probability for viral spread aboard a commercial airliner with HEPA filtration and the high velocity air exchange is extraordinarily low. So we’ve been able to work a wide range of things to include creating capability to move highly infectious patients. So I really, I am incredibly grateful for the team to be able to face that level adversity and just continue to drive on. Thank you. I look back. Thank you Senator Rosen, Senator Cramer, thank you. Thank you Senator. Thank you generals both for being here for your service of course. And right up front. Let me just associate myself with the statements and the questions from Senator Sullivan and appreciate your direct responses. It is time for members of this committee and leaders throughout our government as well as well. We can’t expect much from our media but to start being accurate and representing that you represent the best of us, not the worst of us, the absolute best of us. And that’s my observation with the vast, vast majority of the military men and women that I encounter. So thank you for your service. Um I’ll pass on asking you general Walters about. I’m sorry, I appreciate your previous response uh to that. I have some concern about the gap being created between legacy and new programs. I want to be a part of the solution. So I appreciate your balanced answer. I will ask you about our outstanding nuclear deterrent and its role currently and as well as going forward, we know that um there are credible deterrent is our triad and it’s the backstop for most of our operational plans around the world. And so my question for you is if the United States didn’t have this credible nuclear umbrella, would that change europe’s conventional and its conventional and nuclear posture? Yes, senator. I think that it would. And what could be the ramifications of them not feeling safe under our umbrella? I think that’s the precise issue. What we’re not certain to the degree that we would be compromising safety and security. And if that happens, would we could we see as they change their posture? The the the you know, build out among our allies. Of course, I guess that’s possible. Center right then I’m going to shift gears to question of energy And ask you specifically, what do you believe that completion of North Stream two would affect the leverage that Russia has over our allies into europe. Yes, senator. Because one of the one of the other peripheral issues that we sometimes get into around here besides um our military and posture and lethal itty uh and readiness is climate and and these are important issues. I don’t want to make the case that they are, but I want to give you just one example that concerns me a little bit and I’ve asked many of your peers about the monitoring, for example, of Iran’s um tankers and the movement of energy, fossil energy uh, in an unsafe parts of the world. But in europe and we know the situation a few months ago where Angry power in France had made a large contract for a liquid natural gas from the United States. The french government intervened in that and uh french government used to be a wholly owned uh the sole owner of Andy Power. And now they’re just like a 49% owner. Um but they intervened and said, uh no, we want to continue buying natural gas from Vladimir Putin, and I’m not sure that a lot of people around here grasp the magnitude of a decision like that. Now, your issue, of course, is national security, as is our committees. But for those people who want to sort of transfer their climate guilt to other parts of the world, they should know that Vladimir Putin’s natural gas sent by pipeline to places like France and other european countries and allies of ours Emits about 40 more greenhouse gases than liquid natural gas produced and shipped from the United States of America. So, um, I guess I what I would just request and you give very good direct answers to questions. But um, we need to help our public better understand the ramifications of climate change globally and the ramifications of of hurting America’s domestic production of fossil fuels that are in high demand around the world. And not let our allies much less adversaries be um dependent more on not as clean and certainly not as as secure energy resources as uh as the alternatives. American clean, good energy is. So with that I thank you. Gilbert. Thank you. Senator Crane. Let me recognize via webex center kurono. Thank you. Mr Chairman generalize. I have a series of questions for you regarding sealift recapitalization. In your statement to the committee, you point out that 33 of our 50 roll on roll off, see live ships are scheduled for retirement in the next 10 years and last year’s NBA. Congress took steps to bolster the government’s ability to purchase additional used foreign vessels currently on the market to augment the ready Reserve force. First question, how do you assist the progress of recapitalizing R. C. Lift flint senator. Thanks for that question. We spent a lot of time on this issue with the Secretary of Defense over the last year and in fact, the Cape Issue team was formed around this specific issue. I think we’re headed in the right direction. We’ve got good alignment on the strategy. We have good support here on the hill with the authorizations, we’ve got some money in the program by the Navy. Um, we are quite frankly about a year behind where I wanted to be. What I wanted to be is uh, at the, at the end of last fy to be able to buy the first two authorised ships. Those ships that were authorized by the N. B. A couple years ago, so do due to some uh, J. O. Protest issues with the Maritime administration that’s been delayed a little bit, but they are on track for the end of this year to deliver those first two ships, same question general, do the currency live recapitalization plan sufficiently address the potential for attrition during a conflict with a near pure competitor like china or Russia senator as we, as we work through the mobility capabilities and requirements study as directed by Congress. One of the things we’re doing is we’re considering the future joint concepts as well as the contested environments that we know in the future that will face. And uh, we, we were able to assess and do assess some level of elevated risk uh in terms of our ability to deliver the force on the timelines that the combatant commanders desire. And so we are we are evaluating that now by policy, we don’t force size based on attrition, but we do acknowledge the significant implications of attrition uh in any environment and the and the need to uh to mitigate that largely through the integration of or warfighting effects. Therefore, is your answer that the assessments that you’re doing currently address the nutrition issue? That I asked you, senator? We do we we we address losses. Uh We do thank you. The last question for this series. Section 35 11 35 11 of last year’s NBA provided authority to establish a tanker security program subject to the results of the mobility requirements study. Do you have sufficient results from the study to determine whether the tanker security program needs to be implemented? Ma’am? We do. We’ve looked at this as again, a congressional directed study in concert with some other uh agencies we do support uh and I appreciate the Congressional Interest initiative here to create a tanker security program. We think there’s value in that we think it’s important that we have assured access to U. S. Flagged tanker capacity uh In the event we have to surge the mobility enterprise and the liquid energy enterprise. Again, generalized, I have a question relating to um the fact that Transcom is working closely with industry partners like SpaceX on the viability of using space based vehicles to rapidly deliver time sensitive logistics anywhere in the world. And this technology is a potential game changer, especially in the indo pacific or where commanders are confronted with the tyranny of distance and time when moving people in parts from one location to another. Generalist. Can you provide me with a general overview of the progress being made in space, mobility and what additional authorities you need from Congress to help you accelerate this technology. Thank you, ma’am for for highlighting this. We are working closely with a couple industry partners to include SpaceX as well as the Air Force in the Space Force on this particular issue. If you think about the possibility and it’s a real possibility To be able to take AC-17 load, let’s say 80 short tons And lift it off and deliver it anywhere on the face of the globe in less than 60 minutes. That is a real possibility in the near term. Well, we can’t scale that to the entire requirement of mobility enterprise. To your point senator. It offers us great uh flexibility and I think it creates a powerful dilemma for potential adversaries to move very, very rapidly. You will let us know if you need further support or authorization to move us on this use of this development of this technology. I will, ma’am. We do not at this time, But thank you for that. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator. Let me to recognize Senator scott. Please. Thank you. Chairman. Read um, your lions and joe Walters. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your willingness to defend the integrity of the men and women. Uh, they put on the uniform and defend the freedoms of this country, john Walters. Well, my primary concerns our military’s readiness to deal with the threat of communist china. I remain of course concerned about Russia’s attempt to destabilize NATO harmer allies, harm the US through cyberattacks and catch up to us on advanced weaponry like hypersonic weapons. I’m also aware of the potential for communist china and Russia to cooperate to try and harm us. How ready do you believe your command is to deal with these threats? And do you have all that you need? And are you concerned as I am about a potential cut to the defense budget under President Biden Senator? We’re concerned about all those threats. I I certainly agree with every one of the categories that you pointed out and and as a traditional commander, I will tell you that I have a force that’s getting faster every day and it’s better postured every day. But I’m never satisfied with our speed and posture. So in that light, our our current resourcing is adequate to continue the campaign momentum, to improve our indications and warnings or command and control and our readiness, uh, with the reduction in in in those resources from a monetary perspective, there would be a corresponding degradation In our capabilities in those areas. But as we speak, it is adequate and my suspicion going forward is we will have adequate resources to effectively when in competition have called upon to do so. But we must continue to improve our competitive advantage in all the areas that you point out. And I pointed out from an INWNC two perspective. So if you saw a cut in the defense budget, where would you, what could you cut if you had to cut things? Well, what would you what would you reduce? I would have to take an incremental reduction in in S. R. That supports I and W and an incremental reduction in see to that report that supports our ability to respond and I would make sure that we’re adequate resourced in the mission command slash readiness area. How long would you be able to do that? And before you have to say to yourself, I have to say to us that you’re not ready. It just depends upon the magnitude of reduction and and I don’t have the specifics on what the budget looks like, but based off the evidence I have today, I think from an adequacy standpoint, we’re in good shape for the near term between now and the next five years. Thank you, john Walters. It’s clear that Turkey under President, Erdogan is not our ally and not a helpful member of NATO. I met with Erdogan during the trump administration along with some of my Republican colleagues to question him about Turkey’s ongoing relationship with Russia. I also introduced legislation calling for sanctions against Turkey for purchasing the S 400 air and missile defense system for the Russian federation and question their membership in NATO. Uh, it seems like only Erdogan’s gotten worse. So what are your thoughts about the value of our relationship? Do we? Is there any value today in our relationship with Turkey? And where do you see it going? There is senator and I must tell you they remain a vital NATO partner and I will tell you from the military military perspective, Turkey being the second largest military and NATO. Uh they do assist greatly in the area of of deterrence and competition. One of the reasons we have such Such trust mil to Mil is the fact that the 2300. U.S. military members that live and work each day on Turkish soil are appointed And given tremendous force protection consideration on behalf on behalf of the Turkish military. And that trust, from a mil to mil perspective remains very, very high. But as you said, they are no longer part of the F 35 program with the United States. We understand the decisions that they made with respect to the S 400. We understand that sanctions are working, we will continue to work with our military counterparts. But as we move forward, mil to mil, they remain a very vital NATO military partner. Did you ever understand why they did the S 400? Does it make any sense to you, Senator? It doesn’t unless it was for the purpose of an easy way out with respect to money. Thank you. Are you back? Thank you. Senator scott. Senator Peters please. Hey you Mr chairman and thank you to both of you for your, for your service to our country. General Motors. I’d like to begin with Nagorno Karabakh and what’s happened there. Uh in your opening statement, you alluded to the conflict only in the context of Russia’s role in broking brokering a ceasefire agreement in november. But I appreciate your thoughts as the Supreme allied commander in europe, on some of the broader implications for for regional stability. Foremost on my mind is the fact that Azerbaijan is still reportedly holding an estimated 200 Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives. Now I understand that’s a diplomatic endeavour outside of your area. But as uh as someone who is in charge of watching that area very closely, I would like your view on this unresolved issue, Nagorno Karabakh has remained a frozen conflict. Obviously, the activities over the course of the last 90 days were concerning to all. One of the things that I will mention senator, that that I was proud to report on was uh the active involvement of many NATO nations on the periphery to assist in calling for reconciliation in calming of tensions and when it was all said and done, I think most of us believe that this was curtailed sooner rather than later as a result of the interest of nations in the region to be part of the solution in in rectifying the situation, that there still is an unfortunate set of circumstances that remain with result to the territorial disputes. That there is goodness in the fact that observation posts have been created jointly. Uh my nations in the region and our ability to see the environment is greater than it was in the past. And we still have a lot of work in front of us to make sure that from an observation perspective, nations agree to the contracts they signed up to so that we can achieve more productive campaign momentum with respect to achieving peace in the NK. Thank you. From a military perspective, Azerbaijan’s drone fleet certainly highlighted the vulnerabilities of sophisticated weapons systems, tanks, radar surface to air missiles that did not have specific drone defenses. Has that affected how you prioritize counter US capabilities uh in your area of responsibility and what more do we need to do? I would tell you senator, I wasn’t surprised with any of the actions that took place in the vicinity of Nagorno Karabakh with respect to small us and as you know, based off of many of your good efforts in the past, we’ve we’ve we’ve got a dedicated D. O. D. Lead with respect to countering small us. And I think the campaign momentum with respect to comprehensive missile defenses improving so that we can counter that kind of capability against us so we’re traversing in a productive direction with respect to countering small us. Well, I I had an opportunity to see some of that just recently down at Huma proving ground where I know you’re testing those defenses and opening up a process from the Department of Army at large. But clearly you’re weighing in heavily in the need for for that type of technology to be developed. And I appreciate that General Lyons, you’re up in the opening statement, reported a partnership with cyber command to implement zero trust on your network environment. But Transcom relies heavily on commercial shipping. In fact, if I look at the numbers 95 for steady state sealift operations, 90 for ground, steady state and contingency operations in 90 for air passenger. So my question to you is how do you ensure that your network environments uh, for your commercial partners are secure? Yes, Senator. It’s a it’s a great question. We spend a lot of time both on the Dodon and off the Dodon non didn’t activities that were aligned upon to understand the the full spectrum and potential vulnerabilities uh mobility enterprise. We work closely with our industry partners. We’ve got consistent cyber hygiene language and all of our contractual relationships. But more importantly, we’re talking to the senior leadership of all these companies. Uh They submit self assessments on their own cyber scorecard. We provide insights on best practices. We’re developing a proof of principle. It’s for a third party verification. Basically, this will be a new adventure for the department to be able to confirm or deny cyber compliance. So a lot of work going on in that area, the the industry partners are are coming along. Uh but I don’t want to mislead anybody to think that we have some magic ability to protect commercial partners from an advanced persistent threat. I would say though that it’s bigger than cyber, so resiliency is bigger than just the networks piece. It’s also the physical redundancy that we have to ensure that we have many readiness providers and I am confident with our approach in that. And I realize you facilitate annual self assessments based on this guidelines. Uh Where do those assessments lead? And is there more work that we need to do? Senator? There’s always more work to do. Uh They come in at an executive level. We we share those assessments. Uh You know for example, one of one of the concerns might be multifactor authentication from a cyber hygiene perspective. So we have those conversations and I find that the inside the boardrooms today they are very cyber savvy and committed and want to improve their cyber posture. So so it’s we’re pushing on an open door. Right thank you. Yes sir, thank you very much. Senator Peterson now via Webex. Senator Blackburn please. Thank you. MR. Chairman into each of you. I say thank you for your service. We are greatly appreciative of the work that you do every single day. Um General Lyons let me stay with you there on the cyber security issue. Um trends come does have a high volume of strategic mobility mobility missions on a daily basis. Um There are varying levels of detail and so as we move personnel and equipment in and out of the different theaters, how much of that information is communicated across classified versus unclassified networks? Senator I I think you’re aware that a great deal of our information is moved across unclassified networks both inside the Dodon and of course outside the Dodon. Uh that unto itself isn’t the risk. As long as we take the proper procedures and we take the proper measures of defense and encryption. But a large volume of our information does move across unclassified networks. Yes, I think it would be helpful if we had a percentage and kind of a threshold at which we need to classify some information for force protection purposes, but not others for communicating pertinent details. Two uncleared Personnel. And that is an area that in my opinion would deserve a little bit of a deeper dive and a bit more attention. General Walters. Um, the NATO 2030 report identifies China as a full spectrum systemic rival. And that is something that I agree with. Uh, it is not only china is not only a security threat, a national security threat. They are an economic threat. The way they are pushing the belt and road initiative. The way they are pushing debt diplomacy is something that should give us pause because it all feeds in to the civil military fusion that they practice and live every single day. So, um, and since the last time you were before us at this committee and we discussed this issue, what has, And I’m quoting now your comment, expanding the competitive space meant to um, specifically for competition with china. And how does this affect the work we do? The mobility, that interoperability with our NATO allies. It has a large effect, senator. And I think it’s an imperative as a result of the way that china conducts activities for us to take a whole of government, whole of nation, whole of military, all domain approach with the activities of china as they bear on the european continent. And we’re obviously very concerned with respect the wall way five G. We’re obviously very concerned with respect to the proliferation of their involvement with seaports and aerial ports. And we’re paying very, very close attention to all those areas and in the information environment as as a nation who supports democratic values, being part of an alliance that supports democratic values. We’ve told the truth about some of the sacrifices that nations would make if they continue to endeavour in five G. And we’ve actually seen a little bit of the turning of the tide with respect to china china and five G. Huawei uh, nations electing to go in different directions. And as you well know, senator China, the United Kingdom made that call recently and rent a position on the, on the european continent where several other nations are doing the same. So vigilance remains sky high and there must be an all domain approach and a whole of government, whole of nation approach to this challenge. Well, I agree with you on that. And I I fully believe if we look at china as a problem set that we need to solve that we’re going to have to have our allies working with us as we look at this as a problem set. So talk with me for just a couple of minutes if you will about any physical roadblocks that maybe there are any regulatory roadblocks that are, that would prohibit uh movement of our forces within your A. O. R. Or participation with NATO allies or they’re working with us on the china issue. No roadblocks at this time. But but what we’re anticipating is uh an increase in our demand uh, to share across uh secret information lines. And and as you know, senator, we’re working very very hard to make sure that we can open up the aperture from a policy perspective with our NATO allies and partners to be able to share certain classified information. We we are achieving success in that area with the assistance of this committee. And I would ask for your continued endorsement in that area to make sure that we can adequately share information so that we can make headway against malign influence on behalf of China. Well, I agree with you on that issue. And that goes back to the first question for General Lyons about the amount of information that we’re communicating over classified and secure versus unclassified and secure networks and the danger that that may put our men and women who are currently deployed in various areas. That that may open them too. Again, I we will continue to work with you all on these issues. I’ve got a couple of other questions that we will submit um for the record, but I see Senator Duck Worth is there waiting so I will heal back my time and allow her to get her questions. And also thank you Senator Barbara and let me recognize via webex. Senator Duck Worth. Thank you Mr Chairman and thank you to my good friend from Tennessee. Um I have discussed the importance of our supply chain and logistics enterprise with the department’s civilian leadership like Secretary Austin dep sec of defense, Kathy Hicks and former Under Secretary of Defense Ellen Lord, I’ve discussed it with service chiefs like the commandant of the Marine corps and we combatant commanders like Admiral Davidson. I’ve discussed advancement that we need to make in our logistics capabilities in order to face the unique challenges of the indo pacific geography and the threat of real great power competitors. I’ve been dogging in my insistence that we will not be able to be able to combat credible deterrence if we do not have the logistics capability and capacity to realistically support our complex military operation. No plans. And my takeaway from all of my conversations with these many senior defense leaders is that they do recognize the problem and they do agree with me. And yet it still doesn’t seem to me like we are adequately investing in transportation command and our strategic logistics capabilities. General Lyons. It’s it’s good to see you today, um, in this setting, as far as much as you can in this unclassified setting, um, what are your biggest capability and capacity um, challenges shortfalls and how can Congress best resource Transportation command to provide the power projection and sustainment necessary for our operational plans? Senator, let me just say thank you for your strong, unwavering advocacy and understanding the combat credible deterrence assurance and really be able to respond to win that’s so critical in our logistics enterprise. So I really do appreciate that. I I know you’re aware of uh of several ongoing initiatives that we’re getting support from the hill on to include sealift recapitalisation that we talked about. We’ve alluded uh just from work inside the department on the joint uh concept for contested logistics. I think this begins a very important journey for us across the joint forces, the department to fully integrate the logistics and sustainment warfighting function amongst all warfighting functions that will be critical as we move forward and evolved to support the both the changing character of warfare and adjusted character of logistics to support the changing character of warfare. So, uh a lot going on there to include some of the discussions you just heard on cyber. So we are in fact getting good support and good collaboration across the combatant commands across the services and inside the department on the things that I think are most important. And we’ll continue to push on these kinds of issues whether they be mobility or or liquid energy to ensure that we can continue to project and sustain the forest well into the future. Thank you. Um I want to also follow up on the discussion on cyber that you just had with my good friend from michigan senator Peters. Um I would like to take a little bit further and asked this transform currently have systems in place that will evaluate, that will evaluate compliance um uh with you know, the cyber requirements in terms of your civilian partners. And how do you enforce cyber security measures with commercial partners? Yes, ma’am, thank you for the commercial partners, which we have many and uh good partnerships that’s currently done through a self assessment and self reporting. Uh We are working a proof of principle uh for a third party to be able to validate compliance. That’s a relatively new initiative. We’ve got to work through the feasibility of that, but we are working in that regard, I would say though today we have a very transparent and good level of coordination with our industry partners. And as I mentioned, I think we’re pushing on an open door when it comes to cyber uh cyber risk and and cyber coaching. So we are getting good cooperation. And at the end of the day we ensure we don’t have any single points of failure inside of our industry networks. Thank you general. And by the way, I just want to congratulate you on your remarkable career and I happen to think that uh, leaving from from the Transcom is it’s a capstone. It’s it’s uh, my personal, uh, interest, my personal what I considered critical to our force. And I just want to thank you for how well you have done there and how well you’ve moved our capacity, both capacity and capability forward when it comes to logistics, um, for our, for our national security. And I just can’t thank you enough for your dedication. And I hope you have a wonderful early part of your retirement where you said you’re going to go underground and hide for a little while, enjoy that. But then I’m sure we’ll see you around again sometime soon. Thank you so much. And thank you for your various, uh, thank you Senator dot org now via web. Excellently recognize Senator Cotton. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you gentlemen for appearing in front of us general Walters. I want to ask you a couple more questions about Ukraine. Um an alumni of uh your organization, General Ben Hodges recently said in a television interview on Ukrainian television network that he believes Russia’s build up uh in the Donbas area is not specifically about Donbas for more about control of the Black Sea coast and in particular trying to take control of mary Oppel and maybe the sea of Azov uh to stage Russia for further incursions onto the Northern Black Sea coast. Have you seen that interview? And if so, what do you think about General Hodges comments, Senator. I haven’t seen the interview, but I too am concerned about the protection of sovereign activity in the vicinity of the Black Sea. This is a concern back in 2015, was it not after Ukraine first made its incursion uh into the Donbas um that they were going to try to establish a so called Land Bridge to Crimea. It was senator and that would be deeply harmful not only to Ukraine but also to american interests in the Black Sea region and europe more broadly concur center. Thank you. Um, and I know that you asked the question earlier about the Javelin missiles that we have provided Ukraine, but to be very exact, um, those are in possession of the Ukrainian armed forces and they are entitled to use those anywhere in their country in any manner that they need to defend their territory. That is correct, senator for defensive purposes to defend their sovereign territory. Javelin is by definition really a defensive weapon, wouldn’t you say? I would center, I’ll relay one story from the summer of 2015. Um, I was with the former chairman of the committee, Senator McCain uh, in eastern Ukraine about as close as they would let us get to the Donbas and we met with some troops from their uh then irregular militia forces that had rallied to come to Ukraine’s defense. One had been a former tank commander, is lieutenant in the Red Army and now he was a battalion commander of this new unit and he was pleading with us at the time to convince the Obama biden administration tried javelins, which they never did and he said to us Mr senators, uh we do not need 100 javelins to use against Russian tanks. We only need one javelin to use against Russian tank and then Russian tankers will think twice, Would you agree with that bit of folk wisdom from the Battlefield? General Walters, that one Javelin uh used in eastern Ukrainians to Russian tank would make a lot of Russian tankers think twice I would senator. And I think you’ve accurately characteristic that the spirit of the Ukrainian armed forces. All right, thank you. Let’s move on to another matter of making Russians think twice um, in the wake of Russia’s development of new intermediate range nuclear forces capabilities and also are long overdue departure from the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty. How should NATO posture our forces to adapt to Russia’s missile threat? Um, and what in particular should we do to focus on missile defense and long range strike capability in the european theater? Senators, we talked before, we have to continue to improve in indications and warnings and command and control so that we can see deeper into the environment and respond quicker. And if we’ll continue to improve those areas with respect to the integrated air and missile defense programs that we have uh in work today, we’ll keep the campaign momentum traversing in a productive direction our NATO partners comfortable with the development of those kind of long range strike capabilities that can hold at risk. Russian targets that previously would have been within the n. F prohibited range of missiles. Senator, I would characterize the environment as the nation’s are becoming more comfortable as they gain greater understanding of of the operational environment. Um and it seems to me like that’s a pretty strong asymmetric advantage in our favor, isn’t it? Unless we think that Russia is going to start putting intermediate range missiles in cuba or the Bahamas or Canada or Mexico since we can put them up against Russia’s border and they have a much harder time doing it on our border. I concur center, it seems to me like we should be a lot more of a man getting deployed to Thank you General thank you general Lines as well for your service. Thank you Senator Cotton. Let me now recognize Senator kelly. Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you General Walters and General Lyons. I want to talk a little bit about defender europe 20. Um, we we trained so we’re prepared prepared to fight and prepare to win. And you know, this exercise is one to, you know, test our power projection. And I want to hear, you know, directly from the two of you. What were the top lessons learned from defender Europe 20? And then how does that translate into changes in the exercise in? Well, coming up in this year, Senator, the number one lesson learned was the value of army preposition stockpiles and deployable air based systems. Uh, we’ve studied this issue for a long time and moving at speed with large formations across the atlantic and and getting to point ultimately to the appropriate foxhole with the ready force Member is a challenge. Having those preposition stockpiles in place was was very beneficial, more so than we could have possibly imagined. And defender Europe 20 verified that General alliance Senator thanks. Uh, it’s such a critical exercise. We got a lot out of it, I would say a couple things. It demonstrated clearly in my own view that we do as a nation to have the ability to move immediately if required and as well as follow it with a decisive force. And as I looked at that operation and I looked at what general Walters was trying to do and our ability to get the force to him, I felt very confident our ability to support his efforts and deliver the decisive force when needed. So the sealift capability was that tested. I know that uh, we had more Air force and Navy resources. I assume some MSC resources involved. Do you feel you have the sealift capability you need if this was not an exercise, But was if we wound up in a real fight, senator? I think you’re aware, I mean, we have a lot of work to do on sealift and see the recapitalisation. We’ve got an aging fleet, a fleet that’s got some readiness challenges. And we’ve got a plan to, you know, to remedy that over the next decade. But in this particular exercise with multiple vessels under way, uh, some commercials, some organic, uh, some frankly being integrated uh, in the handoff between second fleet and and six fleet in europe, it was a great test of our ability to coordinate the transatlantic crossing and I think very successfully. So. But to your point, we have work to do on the broader she left a capacity because in a surge environment, we’re making quite literally hundreds of turns as opposed to dozens of turns, as in this case general Walters in um further in eastern europe, we used to the infrastructure was designed for Warsaw pact nations, Russian tanks, vehicles, troops. That infrastructure was designed for things to be traveling east to west. Um do was did that come up in part of the, the exercise in transporting our equipment and troops uh to the east through infrastructure that was not designed for this. It did senator and and with the contributions of the european deterrence initiative. Over the course of the last three years, we’ve we’ve had the opportunity to specifically work on road and rail from west to east central Germany to the Baltics and down to Hungary Romania, Bulgaria. And we’ve made improvements in those areas, but it’s still a challenge and it’s something we’ll continue to work on. But we’re much faster then we have been in the past and then finally, how in the remaining minute, how would you like to see this exercise change to make sure we are as prepared as possible for, you know, real engagements. We’re in the process of executing defender Europe 21 and one of the changes that we’re making is a cyber red team and we want to improve our cyber defensive posture through the duration of the exercises involved with defender Europe 21. Thank you. And I yield back. Thank you. Senator kelly. Let me recognize Senator Hawley. Thank you. Mr. Chairman gentlemen, thank you for being here. Thanks for your service. General Walters. Let me start with you. Secretary Austin has reaffirmed the position of the prior administration. That china is our pacing threat. given that what’s your view on how you can, what you can do in um to free up military resources that the department can use at the pacing theater, Senator. My my first response is what what we do to effectively compete and deter against the nearest peer competitor in europe. Russia is effective in deterring china because of the connectivity between the two nations and the willingness of both nations to engage in malign influence against the United States and against NATO. So those activities that that allow us to continue to be successful in the competition phase against Russia are also helpful against China. Whether it’s uh pointing out the poor path that a nation could take with respect to while away 5G or whether it’s pointing out what china is doing with respect to equities and seaport scenario, ports, investment in europe. Let me ask you a little bit about NATO that there’s been a lot of talk about NATO’s role in helping confront china. Would it be helpful if our european allies did more to bear the burden of confronting Russia so that we can focus on what has been identified as our pacing threat, the pacing theater. No argument here, senator and I’m pleased report the nations are uh they’re very fixated on Russia. Uh there’s no hesitancy on their part. And I say that as a result of producing the first NATO military strategy and over six decades. Uh Finalizing the concept for deterrence and defense of the atlantic area. All of those codify the challenges that we face against the malign Russia. And the nations have been very willing to produce national plans they take into account Russia as a malign influencer in the region. Let me just ask you about our NATO allies spending in 2014. I think it was that NATO members agreed to spend 2% of their GDP respective G. D. P. S on defense by 2020. For now the world has changed a lot since 2014. And particularly with our again our our own assessment of what is now are pacing threat From a military standpoint and given the changed security environment, do you think that two is still the right target? I do senator. I will tell you that from 2016 to 2020 the 10 nations today that meet the 2% minimum, uh, all the nations involved have allowed us the opportunity to get her hands on 130 billion extra dollars. And that makes a big difference with our ability to effectively compete. Has you done any analysis as to that two number? Why you think that’s still the 2%? That’s that’s still the right number sir. Um has done analysis. OsD has done analysis and NATO has conducted analysis and and the feedback we get is the whales pledge of 2% is still viable with respect to our ability to build a competitive edge against near pier competition in europe. What would you be willing to share that analysis? General with the in the appropriate setting with this committee? Yes sir. Thank you very much. Let me just ask you before I moved to general lines about I. S. Are you mentioned in your opening statement that timely indications and warning would be key for deterring or blunting any Russian attack in the Baltics? Of course I. S. R. Is very scarce commodity. Our forces in the pacific also needed timely indications and warnings of possible chinese attacks there, particularly with regard to Taiwan. So my question is how do we minimize the amount of american I. S. R. That’s needed in your A. O. R. So that we can monitor Russian forces effectively but also continue to bolster our deterrent posture in Peckham, continue to communicate to our allies and partners that the criticality of VIAS are and what it contributes and indications and warnings and what it affords you the opportunity to do in the competition phase. Before you get the crisis or before you get to conflict and a NATO, we’re having success with that. Very good. Thank you. The general General Lions. In my remaining seconds here, let me ask you a logistics question. Admiral Davidson has recently warned that china might attempt to fate accompli with regard to Taiwan much sooner than we might otherwise previously have anticipated. Just from a logistics standpoint. what do we need to do? What do we need to have in place in the end of pacific in order to blunt such an offensive as quickly as possible in your view? Well, senator, I think uh, you know Apple Davidson’s done some great work out there. It’s uh still has to continue in terms of the posture, not just in the pacific but the global posture. So it’s so critical that we think of things globally and not just in the pacific in our global posture that offers us a physical, a temporal and a psychological advantage to be able to come when we’re told to come and I have a high degree of confidence we can do that. I know that there’s still work to be done as we evolve and look at the future character of warfare. But uh I think we’re on the right path to support Apple Davidson’s initiatives. Very good. My time has expired. I’ll have another question or two for you for the record. Thank you both for your service. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Hawley. Senator Tuberville, please. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman real quick. I know we’re running on time, but thanks for being here too, guys today and your service. Uh, just real quick Redstone arsenal. Uh, you know, we have quite a bit of things in redstone and done a great job for the american people, uh, looks like we’ve got a great chance to have the Space command general lines. How important is that? How important is us to move up in in uh, Space command? I know we’re on the infant ages of that. But what do you what do you think about Space command? Uh, Senator, I think, uh, I think space is clearly warfighting domain domain. I think the creation of space. Com as well as space force is critically important to the way we’re going to operate in the future and the, you know, the character of warfare as we see it. I I really can’t comment on the basing issue, whether it’s Huntsville or some other location. I will confirm just being an army officer and knowing what’s at Huntsville critical that installation is to army operations and other operations of the such thank you. General walter. Couldn’t agree more spaces of warfighting domain. It’s, it’s pretty large domain compared to all the others. And it’s important that we understand how to effectively compete and deter and defend in space. What do you think about laser warfare? I’ve seen some example of that in Huntsville and what we’re developing, uh, you see a future for that? I do, Senator. I think we need to continue down that path. It’s, it’s not cheap. But the return on investment due to accuracy and lethality is very powerful and very compelling. General lines senator. I would just say, you know, anything that provides us an opportunity to bring lethal effects on an adversary to compel them to our will and our national security aims has has to remain on the table. Yeah, thank you very much. And just a quick comment about earlier about some things were said in here. I was disturbed a little bit about using the word White Supremist. You know, I’m a football coach in trade and I built teams and that’s what you’re doing. You’re building a team. We got people in here. There’s never been on a team. They don’t understand. You recruit people and you make something out of them and you bring them together and you fight together. You live, you eat your breathe and they come from all economic backgrounds, every culture in the world. Some people don’t understand that. They don’t understand it. And and you will eliminate them as I did when when I was coaching. If you had somebody that wasn’t a team member, they were gone. You do the same thing in the military, we need to stay out of that. We need to leave it to the generals which are to me or the coaches, uh people that do it, get it done that No, these young men and women because listening to the to our uh people of the day that we were interviewing about a draft in the future which, you know, we want to draft women. We think they serve a great, great purpose and we’re gonna need it. This is a dangerous world, a dangerous world. And we can’t sit back and and try to tear a military down, uh, from people that really know, know nothing about it, about building a team. So I want to apologize for that. I mean, that was not a that was not a good selection of of questions. Uh, I don’t think for this committee because we’re here to help. We’re here to uh give advice if you want advice, but not give you advice, so you have to have to take that. You know, And I was just pointed in Secretary Austin, uh, you know, he’s an auburn guy. Uh, the first thing we do is we stand down, stay out of it personally. And in terms of publicly, you know, I know being a coach, there’s a lot of things you didn’t bring up publicly. You kept it within because you’ve got to build because you you divide if you start bringing it up publicly. So we need a killing machine and we’re gonna need one, just look at what’s coming. So thanks for your service and your building and hopefully we can keep people out of what y’all do and do great because you’re the defense of the world, not just the defense of this country. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Chairman picture. Thank you Senator Tuberville and thank you gentlemen for your testimony. It’s the intention now to adjourn the public uh hearing and quickly moved to SPc to 17 for classified session. Let me yield to Senator Inhofe. Well, let me just thank the coach for his comments, write on if there’s no further comments than on the hearing is a joint