Members of the Senate Subcommittee on Defense listen to testimony from Defense Department leaders regarding the National Guard and the services’ Reserve forces, May 18, 2021. Witnesses include: Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, National Guard Bureau chief; Lt. Gen. Jody J. Daniels, Army Reserve chief; Vice Adm. John B. Mustin, Navy Reserve chief; Lt. Gen. David G. Bellon, Marine Corps Reserve commander; and Lt. Gen. Richard W. Scobee, Air Force Reserve chief.

Transcript

I want to call this committee hearing to order. Um I want to thank our witnesses today. We have General David Bolland and the Marine Corps Reserve. We have Lieutenant General jodi Daniels of the Army Reserve. We have General Daniel Hawkinson of the National Guard Bureau. We have Admiral must in of the Navy Reserve and we have Lieutenant General Scobie chief of the Air Force Reserve. Thank you all for being here. Uh and we look forward to your testimony before I get started in my prepared statement. I want to say when you guys are up to bat, there’s five year. Try to hold it for five minutes. Your entire written statement will be a part of the record. Um I would just say this Americans over the National Guard and reserve a debt of gratitude for your response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 60,000 National Guard and Reserve Service members answered the call of duty. These were historic record breaking mobilizations and I want to personally say thank you to you and the dedicated men and women under your command as well as their families. The pandemic has impacted all americans. We all know how it has disrupted our families and our careers with so many jobs lost and questions about how to pay the bills. Nearly 800,000 members of the Garden Reserve have been through the same plus deployments both domestically and abroad. That place is further strain on families in civilian employment. Senators, a reminder of the sacrifices every day when we come to work because one of those deployments is right here in our nation’s capital. This subcommittee wants to make sure that we’re doing right by all americans that serve in uniform. That means supporting them with pay and benefits that they have earned, making sure they are properly trained for their missions, providing for their mental and physical health, and ensuring that they have the equipment that they need when they are mobilized. When the president’s 2022 budget arrives in the coming weeks, one of my first questions will be what it means for the well being of our reserve components on all those fronts and more. I look forward to continue our engagement with each one of the witnesses here today. After the budget is provided to Congress. We want to know how that budget will support your priorities for the coming year. But as for today, I look forward for your testimony on the state of each of the reserve components. What challenges you are facing and how this subcommittee can help with that. Alternative. Senator Shelby. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I want to welcome all of our witnesses today um our National Guard and Reserves performing vast and critical role in our national defense. They’re called to respond to their call to respond to national disasters. Homeland security threats and overseas contingencies are constant. Their unwavering commitment has been particularly evidence over the last year as thousands have been deployed at unprecedented rates to provide medical care and minister of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over half of my colleagues. I want to thank all of you and the men and women who carry these task out. I would also uh, at this point, uh, as near peer competitors as we realize we’re modernizing and developing their military capabilities at alarming rates. We want to ensure your departments receive the necessary resources to remain a ready and lethal force. I recognize that we will not receive the budget until May the 27. As a result, our conversations about specific funding items may be limited. But I also look forward to hearing from each of you about the ongoing efforts to sufficiently recruit to train and equip our reserve forces, especially in light of setbacks. Do dependent. MR. Chairman, thank you for calling this hearing today. Thank you Senator Shelby. And uh we will we will start with Lieutenant General David G. Bell in uh commander of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Chairman, tester, ranking member Shelby and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and testify on behalf of the commandant of the Marine Corps about your Marine Corps Reserve. I’m honored to appear with my fellow Reserve Component Service Chiefs and my senior enlisted advisors for Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz, who sits behind me and force Command Master Chief carry Wesser. The mission of the Marine Corps Reserves is to augment reinforce and sustain the active component. We have reserved forces forward, deployed alongside and integrated with their active counterparts, supporting numerous Combatant Commander requirements on a daily basis. Over the past year, more than 1000 Reserve Marines and sailors activated and deployed to support 20 operational requirements across six geographic combatant commands. Despite the ongoing global pandemic, the Marine Corps Reserve has continued to train equip and prepare for the next fight. I want to thank each of the members for your support to the Marine Course Force Design Initiative over the past year. Well, this has necessitated the closure of our reserve tank units and bridging companies. We could not have begun our transition to a more nimble and lethal force. Without your assistance, I want to thank my fellow service chiefs, particularly the National Guard for their support. They have been true partners by providing great options to our Reserve marines who elected to transition to the National Guard in lieu of continuing their service as a marine outside the immediate region. I would also like to acknowledge Admiral must in and the Navy Reserve for committing to explore new ways to integrate our Navy and Marine Corps Reserve team. To ensure we are best postured for the future fight. Despite the tremendous pressures and obstacles that COVID-19 is presented, I’m pleased to inform you that the morale and your Marine Corps Reserve remains high, As evidenced by the reserve component and strength of 99 of our total requirement. Not only are we attracting new marines, but they are also committing to service beyond their contractual obligations On any drill weekend. An average of 25 of the marines standing in formation are not contractually obligated to be there every month. These marines have a decision to make and they choose to continue to serve and lead their fellow marines and sailors. I’m always impressed by the professionalism, competence, dedication to duty and motivation of our reserve marines. The way they balance family responsibilities, civilian careers and school with their military service is nothing short of extraordinary. Like they’re active duty brothers and sisters. They serve selflessly to protect our great nation and they continue to answer their irrational call to serve. Yeah, as Secretary Austin highlighted are most critical asset is our people. The Marine Corps Reserve must promote and retain the very best marines and sailors, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or background. Through the diversity of thought and action, we can find more resourceful and innovative solutions to the increasingly complex problems presented from great power competition. We are actively developing new initiatives and strategies to help achieve a more diverse and ultimately, a more talented Marine Corps Reserve. We will need all marines and sailors to contribute to solving the issues we will face and to ultimately win the next fight. I want to thank this subcommittee for your continued support to the National Guard and Reserve equipment appropriation. As you may recall last year, I requested your support for my effort to use a degree of funds to remedy the deficiencies of individual combat clothing and equipment within the Marine Corps Reserve. As I see, it becomes more expensive in the future. A more flexible degree A is a key tool Congress can employ to help protect our war fighters. In closing, I want to extend my gratitude for your ongoing efforts to provide timely appropriations each year. This has a direct impact on your Reserve Marines and sailors and their limited number of training days. Your continued support will help to ensure the Marine Corps Reserve will have to predictable and uninterrupted training schedules to maximize personal material and training readiness. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you. General. And next step we have a general jodi j Daniels are observed. Mhm Uh huh. There we go. Chairman tester, ranking member Shelby, Distinguished members of the subcommittee On behalf of the 200,000 soldiers and civilian employees of the US. Army Reserve. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today and for your continued support for our soldiers, families and employers. In an era of great power competition, the army needs forces able to compete with adversaries, respond to crises, win in conflict and prepare for the future. That mission requires a dedicated Federal Reserve Force that is ready now and prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. That forces the United States Army Reserve At the cost of the six of the total army budget, the Army Reserve provides 20 of the total force, nearly half of the Army’s maneuver support, a quarter of its forced mobilization capability and a myriad of other unique capabilities. Over the last three years, the Army Reserve has focused on rebuilding collective readiness to win near pier large scale combat operations as we transform into a force capable of providing multi domain operations. However, last year, like the rest of the world, we encountered an unfortunate threat. But our rating has paid dividends in unexpected ways. Within 24 hours of the president invoking involuntary mobilization authority. In response to Covid 19, the Army Reserve aggregated critical medical capabilities and initiated one of the largest domestic mobilizations in our history. Within days, we assembled over 2800 soldiers, including 1200 healthcare professionals, and deploy them into critical crisis zones around the country. To date over 4500 Army Reserve soldiers have mobilized to support our nation’s COVID-19 response. The Army Reserve continues to support the COVID-19 response operations while prioritizing the redness and training of our soldiers and formations early in the pandemic, we focused on individual readiness and began using cloud based tools to conduct virtual battle assemblies. We also implemented control measures to decrease risk during in person gatherings despite an uncertain training environment, the Army Reserve continues to support combatant commanders. Since March 1 2020, we have mobilised almost 18,000 soldiers, 268 units to support operations around the globe. We have also developed a readiness concept known as the Army Reserve Mission Force, or Armed force to prepare our formations for the foresees competition, crisis conflict and change the armed force nests under the army’s regionally aligned readiness and modernization model or rearm and provides a common sense framework to align resources across the component and unit readiness cycles. This approach ensures that we have sufficient redness to support our combatant commands. Were responsibly investing in the modernization necessary for the future fight while maintaining readiness. Were also shaping tomorrow by bringing innovation and depth to army modernization efforts. We created the 75th Innovation Command to Act as technology scouts and we are leveraging the vast subject matter expertise gained through our civilian careers to assist Army futures command. However, all of this means nothing without our soldiers and our formations. We need ready and resilient soldier’s capable leaders, cohesive teams, strong families and supportive employers to ensure our success. To that end, we are aggressively addressing behaviors that destroy our squads, sexual assault, sexual harassment, extremism and racism run counter to our army values. We are embracing the philosophy of this is my squad to build a culture of dignity and respect and ensure all believe their lives are worth living sustaining critical operational capabilities requires adequate and predictable funding. We are grateful for the consistent appropriations that positively impact army readiness and modernization efforts meet the needs of the army and our combatant commands across the full stage of full range of military operations, including support of the National Guard and Reserve Equipping account. The future holds many challenges. But today’s Army Reserve is the best trained, best equipped and striving every day to be the most ready army reserve in our nation’s history. With your continued support, we will continue to build on our strong foundation to meet the needs of the nation and shape the Army reserve of tomorrow. Thank you. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you. General Daniels, General Hawkinson, uh Guard Bureau, europe Chairman, tester, Ranking member Shelby and distinguished members of the subcommittee. It’s an honor for our senior enlisted advisor, Tony Whitehead and I to join you today on behalf the soldiers and airmen of your National Guard. Earlier this month, we reached a key milestone, the 10 millionth person vaccinated against COVID-19 by members of our National Guard. This is not only a reason for hope and relief. It’s a testament to our abilities and a triumph of our partnerships as a primary combat reserve of the army and the Air Force where man trained and equipped to fight our nation’s wars. But in times of emergency are people training and equipment help us respond to our communities. Last june more National Guard troops were mobilized at at any time since world War two, Nearly 120,000 soldiers and airmen were deployed supporting the war fight overseas are involved in domestic operations here at home. And despite the covid environment, we continued our military training and met every overseas deployment requirement in january in response to the attack on the capital. We mobilized and deployed 26,000 national guardsmen to D. C. Within two weeks Using Organic National Guard air support and logistics soldiers and airmen from every state and territory arrived to help secure our 59th presidential inauguration this past year was an extraordinary one for our National Guard and the interest of time. I’d like to highlight just one weekend, Labour Day of 2020 That weekend, while many Americans were on holiday, more than 64,000 national guardsmen were on duty around the globe. Roughly 20,000 were deployed across 34 nations in support of our combatant commanders. During that same weekend, more than 18,000 were helping their communities fight COVID-19 from Manning testing sites to working in food banks. So our fellow Americans would not go hungry. More than 3500 were helping their communities recover from Hurricane Laura in Texas and Louisiana. More than 2600, we’re supporting customs and border patrol on the southwest border. More than 1500 were protecting the rights of peaceful protesters and safeguarding communities against violence in Georgia, Texas, Kentucky and Wisconsin. That same weekend in Alaska, a team of Guardian Angel airmen rescued two hikers, one who fell more than 100 ft off a cliff for their actions. They were awarded the Wilderness rescue of the year by the american red Cross of Alaska. And still on that same weekend, Especially modified C130s from the California and Nevada. Air National Guard along with helicopters and unmanned aircraft from multiple states or fighting record wildfires. This included the dramatic rescue of 240 people trapped by Wildfires in the Sierra National Forest, by the California National Guards, 40th Combat Aviation Brigade. The staring night rescue and heavy smoke was possible because our crews are equipped with modernized helicopters and the latest generation night vision goggles for their heroism and extraordinary achievement. The air crews were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This one weekend is just one of many weekends for the National Guard. Our country and our communities needed us, sore guardsmen left their families and their civilian jobs and proudly served as soldiers and airmen. Their selfless service is both important and inspiring and is reflected in our recruiting and retention. It’s no surprise the National Guard was ready for the challenges we face in 2020 and continue to face in 2021. This would not have been possible without your investments over the last 20 years that transformed the National Guard from a strategic reserve to today’s operational reserve. I’m grateful for the committee’s support in helping provide our soldiers and airmen the facilities, equipment and training resources. They need to be interoperable on the battlefield and responsive in our communities. Combined with our partnerships at every level, from local first responders to fema to our 82 international state partnerships were posturing for the future. However, there are still places we fall short. Our equipment must be deployable, sustainable and interoperable. Our facilities must be repaired or replaced if they’re no longer functional and our full time support must increase so we can better manage our resources and most importantly, our people, there are also distractions are soldiers and airmen face every day if they don’t have health care, what happens if they get hurt or injured after they come off orders? If they’re doing the same job as are active or reserve counterparts, why are they treated differently? If they’ve invested their career in the Space mission? Will there still be a home for them in the National Guard Every day? Our team is working to address these issues and there are solutions and I’m committed to working with the Army and the Air Force and you to find them. Among my most pressing concerns are premium pretty healthcare for guardsmen, the establishment of a Space National Guard and elevating six of our general officers commensurate to the levels of their responsibility. These are strategically important issues and they are the right thing to do. The National Guard is about 20 of our joint force and anything that impacts our readiness reduces our nation’s ability to deter and makes us less competitive, less capable and less lethal. Help us keep our promise to remain always ready, Always there. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. General Wilkinson. Next up we have Vice Admiral john must of the Navy Reserve Chairman tester ranking member Shelby. Distinguished members of the subcommittee probably need the mic. There we are. Chairman tester ranking member Shelby and Distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. It’s my distinct honor to report to you on the status and the vision of America’s Navy Reserve. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize my wife kim, whose steadfast support through my nearly three decade Navy career exemplifies the service and sacrifice is typical of our military spouses. I’d also like to express my gratitude to Navy Reserve Force Master chief chris Coates, my partner and confidant who tires tirelessly advocates for our enlisted Reserve sailors every day. This is also the perfect time to publicly thank my fellow Reserve Service cheese for their ongoing support, council, collaboration and partnership. Finally, I’d like to recognize the 109,000 sailors are nearly 500 dedicated civilians, the families who support them in the thousands of employers who value and enable the service of our citizens sailors worldwide. They are all equally critical stakeholders in the success of our Navy Reserve. Your Navy Reserve sailors are flexible and responsive this past year alone. To address the coronavirus 19 pandemic. The Navy reserve activated more than 7000 sailors in direct support of the nation’s emergency response. I remain humbled by their agility, capability and their sacrifices, as well as the enduring support their families and employers. Your Reserve Force is also a strategic asset aligned with the National Defense Strategy, the Tri Service, maritime Strategy and the Chief of Naval Operations navigation plan. The Navy Reserve is at an inflection point pivoting to develop essential strategic depth. This renewed maritime focus on integrated all domain naval power will address the provocative behavior we experienced daily from a rising china, a resurgent Russia and other ambitious authoritarian states who seek to disturb global norms and the rules based international order. To this end the singular priority. The Navy Reserve is simple warfighting readiness, modernization of our equipment, training systems and mobilization processes will generate efficiencies that enhance our contribution to the total force and an attractive resource informed cost to ensure our sailors are operating relevant modern equipment procurement of the Juliet variant to replace legacy C 1 30 aircraft. Is the Navy reserves number one equipment priority. With an average age approaching three decades and a mission capable rate of only 25%. The currency 1 30 tango fleet is challenged to meet sustained fleet logistics requirements with the mission capable rate of nearly 75%. The KC 1 30 Juliet, on the other hand, would provide an additional $200 million per year and transportation cost savings to the Navy. Similarly, modernization of Navy Reserve high end adversary aircraft is aligned with the Navy’s divestment of legacy F 18 hornets, increasing Navy reserve capability and capacity to support Navy adversary requirements will extend active component strike fighter service life while concurrently enabling the dedication of precious fleet aircraft in flight hours to the fleet specific operational missions they were purchased to perform. The totality of Navy Reserve modernization also includes enhancing the processes and systems employed to mobilize our sailors. For example, adaptive mobilization will increase current activation capacity 15 fold while reducing the mobilization timeline by over 80 effectively activating the entire force in 30 days. Integral to this process is the implementation of the Navy personnel and pay system MP to the single most important administrative enhancement in decades, which will become operational in January of 22. Your reserve sailors are one team central and vital to the generation of critical enduring advantage are our people. The Navy Reserve continues to forge a culture of excellence based on the Navy’s core values, honor courage and commitment and our four core attributes. We’re dedicated to fostering the diverse, inclusive culture that generates are decisive or fighting vantage. They are a winning team and they are ready that said, delivering surge and more fighting ready maritime forces to the total force would be impossible without your continued support specifically, We appreciate your support in the modernization efforts of the Reserve Maritime patrol and reconnaissance capability. The acquisition of P. H. Alpha aircraft ensures the Reserve Force continues to deliver necessary operational strategic value across the fourth, additional modernization efforts are supported by the National Guard and Reserve Equipment account, which is vital to ensuring the readiness and lethality of Reserve equipment And ultimately the timely delivery of a fiscal year 22 appropriations bill will provide predictability to our sailors, to their families, to their employers and most importantly, to our global combatant commanders. Chairman tester ranking member Shelby remain humbled every day by the commitment and contribution of our citizens. Sailors are dedicated civilians and the supporting families that collectively or your Navy Reserve. They all serve our nation with distinction every day in every theater around the globe. 24 73 65. They are the sentinels of our security. Their readiness is neither coincidental nor guaranteed. And yet our Navy and our nation are counting on them to be ready when called with your continued support. They will deliver proudly and capably. I thank you for your support and attention and I welcome your questions. Thank you. Admiral Winston. Uh Next we have Lieutenant General Richard Scobee, the Air Force Reserve. Well, microphone to work. I think it is. Thank you sir. Hello, Chairman tester, ranking member Shelby and distinguished members of the subcommittee. It’s an honor for me to be here today with my other service counterparts. And it’s also an honor for me to represent the Chairman of the Air Force Reserve. I would normally be joined today by my senior enlisted advisor, Chief Master Sergeant, tim White, but he is supporting the Chief Master Sergent, the Air Force and the Chief Master Sergent the Space Force at their quality of life hearing. With the House as a command team. The command chief and I are continually amazed at the accomplishments of our Air Force Reserve Citizen Airmen. Despite every challenge that has been put in front of them over the past year, the Air Force Reserve is a cost effective, accessible and ready force. We provide strategic depth with rapid surge capability across every Air Force core mission set. We do so cost effectively because we are predominantly a part time force and we are inaccessible force contributing globally to Joint Force operations every day. And finally we are already force. When the nation needed rapid pandemic response, we had medical personnel on the ground in New York City and New Jersey. Within 48 hours of being notified, We provide strategic depth for national defense. While operating on only three of the air force budget. We’re committed to attracting top talent and fostering a culture of inclusion where every airman is valued and can thrive with Congress is assistance. We preserve pre pre pandemic gains in both individual and unit level readiness. And through things like force innovations such as virtual training, we modernize key weapon systems and less than critical manpower shortfalls. We increased our increased our organizational effectiveness and enhanced our ability to provide excellent care for citizen airmen and their families through internal reforms and process improvements. The Air Force Reserve invests every congressional enacted dollar for maximum return. We are grateful for the $19.5 million Cares Act funding which allowed us to rapidly scale our tele work capability to protect our workforce during the pandemic. We are also grateful for continued direct higher authority for critical career fields. Last year, with this authority, we significantly increased our air reserve technician pilot manning from where it was at 75 the last time we talked to 97 today. Are requested fiscal year 22 budget will ensure the Air Force Reserve meets National Defense Strategy objectives and the multi domain force that we need. We are in step with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s vision to accelerate change or lose. We are able to compete with our nation’s adversaries across the spectrum of conflict and we’ll continue to do that by capitalizing on our readiness gains we made last year, we diligently request only those funds. We can execute the Reserve personnel, appropriations and operation and maintenance funds which drive our readiness. These accounts fund our training are flying hours, mobilization requirements, are equipment maintenance, and our salaries in particular are flying hour and civilian pay programs have taken considerable reductions in recent years, rightfully so due to insufficient justification and an overestimation of funds that we needed. We’ve made significant and internal strides and adjusting these accounts. I look forward to working with you to enhance readiness and reduce risk and our fiscal year 2022 budget. I also want to thank you for enabling access to Tricare reserve select. We are all on this panel in agreement that this major legislative accomplishment will offer affordable continuity of care for our members and their families. However, the legislation currently doesn’t take effect until 2030 to improve our Reserve forces quality of life and readiness. I request your support for accelerated implementation and funding of this health care access. One final area I would like to touch on his equipment parody. We accomplished this primarily through the National Guard and Reserve equipment appropriation Andrea enables us to modernize equipment, sustain our capability and replace obsolete, obsolete equipment to maintain parody with the active component. When recapitalization is not feasible, parody is critical to seamless total Force integration and we remain grateful for these appropriations and cannot overemphasize how vital they are to our readiness. I appreciate your support for Andrea now and in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to be here before you today and for your steadfast support as we ensure the Air Force Reserve remains prepared to defend our great nation and the american people. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. General Scobie and I want to thank each one of you for your testimony here today. I’m going to start with you. General Wilkinson. The Air Force has come under some scrutiny lately for its basing decision for the Air National Guard’s C 1 30 jays After Congress appropriated funds for more aircraft to modernize several units. There were discussions within the Air Force to redirect some of these aircraft To a C130 training base that was not included in the last basic decision. So the question is, will all four units, including the unit in Georgia, The fully converted to the modern C130 Jay’s provided in last year’s appropriation. Bill Chairman, my understanding and working with the Air Force is that all four of those squadrons will convert to the J model? Um, over the timeline. I’m not specific on the last one. It will depend on additional purchases, but the goal is to get all four converted to J models. Okay. Uh, and can you tell us because this directly relates to the answer you just gave, What is the timeline for redistributing the H aircraft? Yeah. Chairman, my understanding and working with the Air National Guard as soon as the J models are available, that they’ll start moving the other the H three models and 2.5 to the units with the oldest C one thirties so that we can retain the capability and capacity our nation needs. So, and if you don’t have it at your fingertips now, is it possible to get us that timeline? But you said you didn’t have chairman? Absolutely. We’ll take that for the record. Okay, thank you. Um, There have been discussions throughout the year, uh, mobility capabilities and requirements studies on this total and strength for the air, uh, air force is 130 fleet. Can you comment on the International Guard requirements? So chairman, we’re waiting. I know in July is when the mobility’s capabilities requirements study comes out and previously they have not included the domestic requirements here in the United States. And so we’re asking that they consider that because we think that that may influence the actual number of C130s at the Air Force would retain. All right. Um uh Okay. Yeah. And so what uh How many um C130 uh does the Air Force Reserve seeking to uh to upgrade uh Chairman right now in the in the Air Force Reserve, we are in good shape across the spectrum and our R. C. One thirties, what we have prioritized is one is upgrade of our H models in and making sure that they’re still viable going forward. And the other thing is in our special missions. And you’re very familiar with our firefighting capability, our aerial spray capability and our hurricane hunters. Hurricane hunters have already been upgraded to see 1 30 days. And right now we’re looking at between our firefighting Mobile Air mobile five airborne firefighting units and the aerial spray units to also upgrade those two C 1 30 jays. And we’re on the time timeframe to do that now with the sector of the Air Force. Thank you. This is a question for all of you. Uh horrific crime of sexual assault is finally getting the attention it needs from this administration and I commend Secretary Austin for calling for a 30 day Independent Review Commission. So to all of you, why is Sexual assault on the Rise and many of your components? Is there a difference between units or regions of the country or is it a command climate issue? Senator First want to start by acknowledging that the service takes sexual assault extremely seriously. We understand that our most solemn obligation is to the families and the citizens who give us the young marines and sailors who elect to serve and our and our moral obligation is to provide a safe environment for them to develop not only as marines and sailors, but also as citizens. So there is no course of action that Congress may suggest to increase the opportunity for safety and to increase the overall wellness of those marines and sailors that we would even begin to think adversely about. So we’re open to all koalas in order to get us to a better place. I do acknowledge that within the Marine Corps, the reporting has increased. There’s several different ways to look at that and one of that is that, you know, the first thing we had to do is establish credibility with the force that by reporting they could trust the institution to do something about that. And we believe that that’s part of the increase in reporting that by no way mitigates the actual crimes that are being committed. So, uh, the look on the, what we’re trying to do with overall health and wellness of the force, particularly with sexual assault is to continue to educate, continue to hold accountable those transgressors and to increase the overall safety at all bases and stations for our young people. General Daniels across the army reserve. We’re seeing our numbers declining. However, that does not make us a perfect organization as any of these numbers is just too many. So we’re still tackling the challenges. We’re working on our command climate. We’re working on using this is my squad philosophy to get after those conversations to have soldiers and their leaders have much greater interaction and knowledge of backgrounds to make sure that we’re treating everyone dignity, respect and they’re all brought in. We’ve done an extensive effort to retrain our lawyers and refresh their capabilities so that they have immediate conversations with all new commanders so that commanders know and understand their responsibilities. Should these allegations come forward? We’ve had a lot of retraining and reinvigorating of knowledge of dignity and respect across all of our formations and we will continue to do so. We’re taking a hard look at how should our programs be structured? Is there a difference between preventive measures and then response measures? Should these these programs be delivered in different methods? And so we’re taking a really hard look at all this to help our force uh turn out with a much better outcome. Thank you General Hawkins Chairman. Uh shortly after becoming the chief of the National Guard Bureau, we stood up a sexual assault task force because obviously what we’ve been doing in the past has not made a significant difference. And so we’re looking across all 54 states and territories in D. C. to look at those programs that seem to show promise and make sure that we invest in that. And I’m looking forward in June to see the readout from that group. Some of the things that we learned is obviously alcohol and bystanders or a factor. We need to address that immediately. Also, the training of our sexual assault response coordinators is making sure we get enough class states for them. So we have trained personnel in all of our organizations and frankly, Sir, is the father of a daughter that serves in the military. This is intolerable and is something we must address it. Every every venue. Thank you general. Not surprisingly and very consistently amongst all the Reserve Chiefs. The elimination of destructive behaviors of every kind is first and foremost on our minds. We also, as General Daniels mentioned, are seeing a reduction in the numbers of sexual assault. We peaked in 2019. We saw a slight decrease in 20 and our own glide slope. Now to continue that decrease, I agree that the increase in reporting is helpful. We we’ve determined now that the Culture of excellence umbrella concept is designed to demonstrate what right looks like. So the creation of a culture where in every sailor can serve in an environment where they are not only safe, but they’re encouraged to perform is the outcome we seek. And frankly, where while we see every, the elimination of course is paramount, but every single incidence is one too many. And so we are all driven together. And this is not a Navy Reserve Initiative, but a Navy initiative. So our culture of excellence is the umbrella concept. Our Task Force one Navy recently did a deep dive across multi constituent multi stakeholder leadership to determine what is it that we can inculcated at the lowest ranks, where we see the predominance of reporting and of incidents. Um so so we continue to look at that from the bottom up as well as from the top down, but I think you’ll find consistency amongst all of us in our approach and general Scobie. Chairman tester. Chairman tester is here. Uh huh. Okay. Chairman testers, you can hear from from my fellow witnesses. We are in lockstep on our way forward and in fact we meet on a regular basis to discuss issues just like this. Um this tears at the fabric of who we are as Department of Defense and while we continue to make strides and supporting are victims of this scourge. We also recognize that sexual assault is a persistent challenge that we will have to work with together and it’s not easily beaten by any stretch. One of the things we’re working with specifically in the Air Force Reserve Command is ensuring we have a climate that does not promote this type of behavior and we remove the opportunity at every chance we get the, the opportunity to do. The other thing is the currency we work in within the department of fences, trust and our airmen, especially if they’ve been victimized by this, have to trust that we as commanders will do the right thing for them and get them the help that they need and all these things were working together to ensure that we’re doing for our members. Thank you. I apologize to the committee members for running over, but this is an issue that has, has to be addressed has to be addressed ASAP as one of you have already pointed out. Even one incident is one too many senator. Show me. Thank you. Uh General Hutcherson, I’m concerned about the enduring cost of having National Guard and Reserve troops here on the capitol grounds. I have two questions. one, what is the impact of those calls to your budget? 2021 budget? And to at what point do you truly reach a budgetary breaking point if you do not receive resources to backfield those costs? Centre of the cost. Um since January six is about $521 million dollars to the National Guard. And we have cash flow that through our pain allowances and operations and maintenance funds, We will need that funding back in our accounts by one August. Otherwise it will impact our drill periods for both in August and September um in the area of redness and modernization. Uh Yeah, General Daniels and General Hobson. This question, can you tell us here more about the requirement behind this new model, how it will be resourced and what overall improvements it will provide for our guard and reserve components in the army. General Daniels, you start. So the, I’m sorry, the Rearm model is that? Yes sir. So um what that will do will allow us to do multiple different things. One is to have regional affiliations, habitual relationships with units. And it will also give us additional predictability in terms of how long we’re going to be spent during modernization, training and then mission. So allow us to get into a very predictable cycle for our units and that will help the employers and the families and the service members um know when they’re going to be going off and doing these missions. That’s her with the National Guard. The benefit there is, if you look at our state partnership, we’re already regionally aligned and particularly with the Army National Guard, we’ve uh taken our eight divisions and actually allocated the subordinate force structure. So they’re actually eight full divisions. So that will allow us to uh, to help deter and also be part of the Total Army so that we can align those units and develop long term training relationships and other with our state partners, but also in those regions, General hooks and what’s with the recent rise in cyber attacks against the US. What’s the National Guard’s role in defending the homeland from cyber attacks and how is it working with other federal agencies with similar responsibilities? And finally, does the Guard have the resources he needs for cyber defense, the personnel, everything. Yes. So if you look at our cyber forces, we have a five or 4000 cyber professionals within the National Guard. And that’s in 59 units in 40 states. We also have what’s called a defensive cyber element in each state. And we did a year long study under the sea map program which basically looked at a CST type. And what came out of that is we believe that establishing those existing units to be aligned with what cyber com would utilize and we would man train and equip them the same. They would provide that capability within each state. If you look over the past year and a half, we had two incidents both in Louisiana and texas where the governor’s activated their cyber professionals within the National Guard under state active duty to address a cyberattack, one to a school district and another one to a county. And the using Louisiana’s an example. Uh They were able to come in and mitigate the ransomware and save tens of thousands of I. T. Systems which as we all know is something a a school district could not absorb with their budget general. The CBO in the area of Space National Guard and Reserve That you mentioned earlier, the CBO has an estimated that an additional $100 million space national guard and reserve Area unit with a bill up to 490 million annually for larger space guard. Given the level of defense funding proposed by the current administration. How does the National Guard plan to prioritize resources for modernization while also standing up a new service component? So Senator without more resources Sort of the actual cost is about $200,000. And that’s just to change the name tapes on their uniform and the sign outside their buildings and the flags of the units. The units already exists. Already performing the mission today. We don’t need any additional milk on or any additional over structure. We basically just tape the folks that are doing the mission today. And instead of Air Force it says Space force on their name tags the next drill weekend. That’s good news. Best I’ve heard in a long time. Thank you sir. Senator. Thanks very much. Mr. Chairman. I want to focus for a minute on january 6th and ask General Wilkinson as follows, if we uh use some 26,000 national guardsmen and I think all of them, their families for their service to our country and sacrifice as well as others. Covid 19. But if we use some 26,000 to protect this capital After the insurrectionist mob overran the capital in on January six, conversations ongoing about what to do next. I’m afraid all the prospects are terrible in terms of the excess of the public to this building. But I wonder if you were in on those conversations and whether there’s a basic question asked as to whether we have to go beyond the National Guard and reserve and really think of a permanent military presence on Capitol Hill. Centreing uh with respect to that, I was basically in many cases just asked to provide force. And so I worked directly with the 54 to make sure that we got the personnel that required to get here. And when I did get a chance to read the Task Force 1-6 report, I’m looking back. Um I tend to agree with uh the number one requirement that there’s a lack of number of U. S. Capitol police officers which caused their reliance on other agencies. And so when I look at this as the guards, when I see this primarily as a law enforcement issue and I think it would be a law enforcement solution to that obviously until that capabilities there the guard is there to do whatever we’re asked to do. And currently sure the The 2300 that we have here today are scheduled to end their mission on 23 May. And we are not aware of any requirement beyond that. And so at that time our our folks will all go home. Well it really raises a basic practical question if the complement of law enforcement is not adequate to the challenge. For instance, the thousands have left the president’s rally and came marching up here too, crashed through the windows and doors and to assault the policeman in that uh there was a need for uh supplemental help for sure. And it took several hours, but they arrived and finally brought the capital back under control. I’m just asking whether or not that is something that is a naturally a National Guard function or should be a regular military function. So if we look at the are full time manning within the National Guard, they’re basically there to administer and train the part time force. We don’t really have any forces that are there full time with a dedicated mission set. Um, and so for us to that would it would cause some legislative changes for the National Guard to do that. Okay, let me ask a follow up question at the heart of uh, domestic terrorism in America, according to the FBI and the attorney general is white supremacy, racism, White nationalism. We’re seeing in those who were Arrested and charged with January six veterans of the military. And I think in one instance, at least one active military who were participating. So if the issue of sexual predation should be dominant in our thinking, so too, should the issue of racism and the ranks, what are we doing? What are you doing to deal with this issue and to make certain that it is not a challenge to the integrity of your unit? Yes, senator. So we follow very closely the training requirements of both the army and the Air Force. And frankly, there is no room for extremism of any sort with an organization. And so we rely on our lower level commanders and Adjutants General, um when they identify personnel that may be susceptible to this, that they either addressed it within the military chain of command or within local law enforcement, whichever is the appropriate means. So let me ask, uh General General Belen, would you like to comment on the same issue sir? At this time, were adequately resourced? We project forward as you know, the services in the middle of a force design and the common has made it very clear that we’re looking at reinventing ourselves within the resources we currently have. And uh, and so at this point in time, we’re not asking for additional research. I’m sorry. I didn’t sure. I’m sorry. I I was on the issue of race and discriminatory conduct. Such thanks for your comment on what’s being done? Yeah. I think as we talked about four sexual assault, the first part is acknowledging it. And uh, and I can report to Congress at every level of the Marine Corps. As I engaged from second lieutenants in Quantico all the way up to my peers, we are, we are actively acknowledging the problem and it is not a nice to have. It is not an additional burden for us to solve. It is a primary problem set within the culture of the service and by talking about that and by signaling at every level that this is the priority, then the natural culture of our service to align, follow orders and execute priorities kicks into effect. And from my experience, the level of candor that goes on and in the conversations right now, I’ve never seen anything like it on any issue. The acknowledgement that can or the sharing of the different underrepresented populations about what their life is like, uh, as a minority for example, or what they perceive on social media and how it contradicts our culture is exceptional. Is exceptional right now. And that’s the beginning. I thank you for that. And there have been programs, I won’t take any more time of the committee uh, this morning. But there have been programs which have suggested that Even though we nominally ended racism in the military in the 1940s under President Truman, the reality is much different and I think that can be set across America in many different venues. I think we have to take a very honest, forthright and open position on this. That if you’re a racist, you have no place in the military. If you’re guilty of sexual predation, you have no place in the military. I hope that that is clear. Uh, I’m going to ask each of the branches to respond as I don’t want to take any more time this morning. Thank you. Come on, thank you. Mr. Chairman General Hawkinson. As you indicated the year 2020 was unprecedented in terms of National Guard activations and deployments. The main guard, for example, has deployed service members to our Southern Porter to assist the overworked and overwhelmed uh border patrol to Africa to help with security missions. To Washington, D. C. To provide support for our capitol police all the while assisting the state of Maine with clinics and logistics and responding to the pandemic. During all of this activity, the Air Guard wing in Bangor Maine continues its extraordinary work refueling our tankers General. The average age of the main national guards, 10-K. C135 stationed in bank or is over 60 years old. The maniac says they’re often called are pressed into service to operate all over the world and bank or is a critical location for flights crossing the atlantic. Can you provide us with some insight on the road map that the Guard and the Air Force are using to recapitalize this aging tanker fleet and ensure that units like Bangor, which are in strategic geographic locations, are able to continue their vital mission long into the future. Yes. Center, so when we look at the uh, the recapitalisation with a K. C 46 fleet um, Mobile, the next announcement for six and 7 or seven and 8 apologize are coming out I believe in 23. And so they look very closely at each of the mission sets the locations and the units capability to to convert. But between now and then and actually long after that for the rest of our Casey 1 35 ft, it’s absolutely critical to our nation’s defense. Um, not only in, in terms of day to day requirements but also um, alert requirements as well. And so we’re working with the Air Force to make sure we’ve got a 25 year plan. Um, I think some of these aircraft may be approaching 100 years old. Um, but the recapitalization and and investment in those airframes is critical so that we can maintain that required capability and capacity for our nation. Well, I would welcome your coming to see the air refueling wing and would be delighted to host you for visit. I think you’d be very impressed. Yes, ma’am. I’d love to get there. Yeah. I’ve recently traveled to the southwest border and witnessed the ongoing crisis there. I very much appreciate the work of the main guardsmen and women who have been supporting the border patrol in Arizona. I happened to go to texas. I understand that the Department of Defense has received a request from the Department of Homeland Security to continue supporting these border deployments beyond the end of the fiscal year. What is the status of the planning to extend the guards presence into the new fiscal year? So senator, we received that request recently. I know it’s going to the Office of Secretary Defense right now to determine how that’s going to be resourced going forward um with the uh the rescinding of the Declaration of National Emergency, A title 10 option we’re looking at for the guardsmen to potentially fill that, but it may be active component, But they’re looking at all options right now, Ma’am. But we know the current units that are scheduled there to come home on 30 September uh so we’re making sure that we we do this as quickly as possible to notify those forces so that there’s no breaking coverage. Given the 20 year high in the number of migrants crossing the border, it is evident that the border patrol agents simply though they work so hard or overwhelmed and really need assistance. So I hope that will be approved or that Active Duty Forces will assist them. Thank you. Thanks very much. Mr. Chairman. My question is of you, General Hawkinson and I very much appreciate your highlighting the California National Guards, very heroic efforts battling wildfires. Last year alone, four million acres in California burned 10,000 structures were destroyed, 5000 of them homes, 31 people lost their lives. So I am very interested in what the guard can do uh to be helpful to us. Um do you have any suggestions that you might care to make? Yes, Senator, thank you for the question and thankfully there was a river between one of those fires in my parents house. Um but when we look at the way we fight forest fires, we’ve really kind of taken the approach that we’ve learned from hurricanes and this March was the first time we actually had a wild land firefighting symposium where we brought all the States together that fight forest fires along with the National Interagency Fire Center, to take really a different approach because it’s no longer a fire season. We we start to call it a fire year now. And what we’ve tried to do is identify particularly California Washington this year, where aviation units may be deploying and identifying states to make sure that they train their aircrews so they can fill that gap in case there is a need in California or any of the states, the fight wild Land firefighting. We’re also looking at the ability Um when we look at some of our title, 32 active and guard and reserve personnel, traditionally they are only on for 72 hours under immediate response authority. Um I’m working on a policy which I should have completed by the end of the month to give adjutants general the ability to retain some of those personnel in an emergency basis to help support firefighting because it’s absolutely critical our leaders are with them at all times. I note that first of all, thank you for that answer that some 14 of the guard members lack health insurance. It’s my understanding that while on active duty orders for more than 30 days, guardsmen are eligible for military medical coverage. However, once their orders end or if members are activated for less than a month, they have fewer options. Would this be something we might be able to do to be helpful and encourage people to remain in the guard and serve as your guard serves in California, which is really top of the ladder senator. That would be uh that’s my number one legislative priority is to get premium free health care for all of our guardsmen when we look at the past year and what we asked them to do, particularly, we did not know what a covid environment would be like. We always want the family members in the service member to know that no matter what we asked them to do, because we asked them to be ready at any time that they’re medically ready and if anything happens if they’re injured or sick before or after their duty, um that they know that they’re going to get the care they need to continue their civilian employment or their military employment. And one of the other things we’re concerned of is when you go from orders, sometimes you have to change medical care from your civilian provider to uh try care. And in some cases they have to find new medical providers. But by hanging being a standardized process and coverage, they could keep that same healthcare provider through all of it, which you think is really important. And lastly, man, one of the things we’ve looked at is when we look at the number of soldiers and airmen that don’t have health care coverage. Um, if they have access to mental health care or counseling, um, if that might benefit the number of suicides that we have in our organization. Well, thank you. I’d be very happy to work with you on that. And I would suspect other members would as well. Um, I’m a big fan of the guards and when these wildfires come to California, we really see with great appreciation their service. So I want you to know that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Seven. Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you all for for being here this morning and for your service. General Huggins and I’d like to start with you if I may. In recent conversations that I’ve had with Major General Sax. He’s the Alaska tag. We were discussing the search and rescue mission there in Alaska in 176th Wing located at J Bear. there are three rescue squadrons. You’re familiar with them, which utilized the uh Age 16 in their operations. Um we’re told That the HH 60s belonging to 176 have the highest operational tempo in the air force and the highest utilization rate. Um We know that the wing needs some additional and some upgraded age sixties to keep up with the mission demands and to support the growing focus. Um The D. O. D. Has placed on on the region, on the arctic region. Um The current plan to bed down additional aircraft in Alaska isn’t targeted until 2026. And so you’ve got kind of a misalignment there if you will with the growth in mission requirements, the operational requirements and the aging of the existing helicopters. So can you, can you update me? Um are there options that exist to allow for perhaps a re prioritization of these assets? And then also, is the utilization rate calculated into the decision making process? Yes, senator. And so obviously uh as a former rescue pilot, I follow 176 very closely and they do an incredible amount of rescues and make a huge impact every day. And I’m, we’ll be working with the Air Force. Um I’ll make sure number one that we have no gap in coverage in terms of the number of the aircraft there, but also asked that they take a look based on the operational tempo and their requirements, particularly unique to Alaska, especially as the architect tends to open more and there may be additional requirements for for them in that area. I know the future combat rescue helicopter once that’s online, our maintenance rates should go up on those. But between now and then I think it’s 26. I’ll continue to work with the air force to see if we can get re prioritization or additional aircraft to cover the gap. Well, I appreciate your eyes on that and and the fact that uh your background allows you to be intimately familiar with their mission. I appreciate that. But we are concerned about about any potential for gap because what they do and what they provide is extraordinarily unique and they truly are the best of the best there. I appreciate your response to to Senator Shelby here with regards to the the Space Force is you know, we currently have members of both the Guard and the reserve in Alaska that are working to to support the Space Force missions there in Alaska. I understand that you’ve given a little bit of background in terms of the CBO score and the cost but know that we’re certainly at the ready to um to do what we can to help with that very important mission. Another question to you um relating to to suicide and mental health issues. This is something that I have paid particular attention to within this subcommittee, making sure that our servicemen and women and their families are cared for. Um We all know that this past year has been tough on everybody and uh you couple the effects of the pandemic with with the challenges that you have in certain areas um uh particularly remote assignments like place um like like Alaska. But um I don’t know if you can speak to the statistics within the Guard whether we’ve seen an increase in suicides this past year and then what what more we can be doing to provide those levels of support for mental health and behavioral health issues that may exist within the National Guard. So then when we looked, we actually watch this very closely over the past year. And At the end of 2020, we were actually just one below our ten-year average, but frankly anyone is devastating not only to the to the family but also to the organization. And I actually stood up uh a suicide prevention task force to take a look at what we’re doing across the the entire National Guard. Um Coming into today we’re about five below where we were last year at this time, but once again, any single one of those is just devastating impact of the entire organization. One thing that we’ve done is we’ve looked at some additional programs and we have 27 pilots that were running pilot programs. We reached out to the 54 states and territories that they brought up as potential benefit to our, to our service members. And when I’d like to highlight is called Spring, it’s the Suicide Prevention Readiness Initiative for the National Guard. And what it does is it takes a existing data from every county in the United States and identifies potential risk factors and when they reach a certain level, the agenda is general and the commanders within that state can assess a region based on the things that are taking place within those counties and also hopefully preventively address that and provide additional training or counselors within that region, to make sure that our service members know that there’s opportunities for them to discuss any concerns they might have appreciate that. MR Chairman. I think that’s that’s an interesting approach, recognizing that oftentimes these factors are community based regionally based. So I look forward to knowing and understanding a little bit more. Thank you. Mhm. Thank you. I believe we have senator shots virtually. Thank you. Mr Chairman, thank you to all of our panelists. I want to continue the line of questioning from Senator Murkowski regarding mental health access and suicide prevention. Um, you know, I think there’s two issues. One is making sure that uh, guard members while being deployed don’t feel stigmatized uh from accessing mental health services. And the other is to the extent that we’re making progress in that area, in reducing stigma and encouraging everybody across our society to understand that mental health is just health and that every guard member ought to access those services. I worry a bit about the transition from from deployment to regular life, when they have access to all these great services and programs and initiatives that you’ve uh started up and then they’re back to their regular life and may need continuing mental health services and that transition can be challenging. So could you speak to both issues, the stigma issue and then how do we transition when someone’s coming out of their deployment? Yes, Senator. So when we look at the uh the day to day, the stigmatism related to that, um when folks come off deployment, they have the opportunity to meet with medical professionals on their way out um and they can request help and they can also be aware of the services available to them And that extends for about six months post deployment. Also they do a periodic health assessment which allows them to go online and fill out a lot of questions and having recently done it, they ask a lot of questions if they have any mental health concerns, if they’d like to see someone and they can do that really anonymously now with respect to the to the enduring concern. Uh this really goes back to my my number one priority legislatively and and that is to pursue uh tricare reserve select for all of our guardsmen um where they don’t pay for any uh any principle related to that. The key there is that way that’s always available to them because you never know when you’re gonna gonna need it because your life situation could change at any time but knowing that they can get mental health care or see a counselor I think is something that uh, that we don’t know the benefits of. But I believe it certainly will help. Thank you general and you certainly have my support for for that very important legislative initiative. Moving on to the Asia pacific region. You know, when I talked to end up a calm commanders or ambassadors in the region, everybody loves the state partnership program. So I’m wondering if you could just help us to understand how we can use the state partnership program to support in opaque um specific deterrence initiative. Yes, there. So when you look at the the National Guard, so we’re 20% of the entire joint force and specifically to the end up a calm region. We have 13 state partnerships. Um, in fact, as the attorney general of organized state partnerships with both Bangladesh and Vietnam and the great asset that it provides to the indo pak com commander is we’re fully integrated into their theater security cooperation plan. And he’s enduring relationships that we build with these countries also is an additional U. S. Presence but also gives us many times the opportunity to to counter some of the messaging that they received from china and other countries. So I think it’s absolutely critical. We continue that and we’re in close coordination with Indo Pay. Com um to help in any way we can with their pacific Defense initiative. One final question is uh you know, we lost some time obviously during Covid as everybody did um with partners and just wondering how we’re specifically focusing on relationships that were maybe um tenuous but being built. Um and then Covid interrupted that relationship building. Um in the in the context of the of the state partnership program, Are there particular countries that were sort of anxious to get uh moving again? Uh in terms of our partnerships with Yes Center and in fact, I would say we’re pretty anxious to get back with all of them as quickly as we can. The one thing that was nice is, I think on both of our parts are part and our state partners, we realized the limitations we had in terms of travel and so we were able to find virtual ways to connect with them continue. Our relationships were very much looking forward to the ability to travel to all of our state partners as soon as possible to continue to develop those relationships. Thank you. And uh on energy resilience, I just wanted to flag the president, as you know, issued an executive order establishing a federal clean Energy standard. This may not have immediately, you know, risen to to your desk, but I’m gonna submit a question for the record about the particular ways in which you’re going to have to change your procurement process in order to comply with the President’s Executive Order. I’ll submit that to you for a response for the record. Thank you. Thank you sir. The senior senator from Kansas Senator, Moran, Mr. Chairman, thank you for that recognition, assuming that it has nothing to do with age, appreciate it. General Wilkinson. Uh, there’s a pilot program that was authorized in India in the in the Fy 21 N. D. A that would allow the testing and development of National Guard partnerships across state lines in regard to cybersecurity. Uh, the opportunity was for the private sector to participate in one state that the National Guard in that state then be able to assist other national guards in another state in regard to training preparation response to a cyber security attack? Um I don’t think it’s necessary to say but something that’s hugely important in front and center for all of us. As you know, I think the Kansas National Guard is home to some of our nation’s best cyber security operators. And we also have a number of civilian stakeholders who are interested in assisting in that mission. So that pilot program has been authorized. My question is, if we provide you with proper funding, uh is the D. O. D. Prepared to pursue make the assessments, Tell us what, how that program might work. And do you foresee any roadblocks would prevent the mission that is contemplated by this pilot program from being accomplished? Yes sir. So I’m looking forward to seeing the the end results of that. Um But what we’ve done internally is take a look at that as well and I really look at cyber like in many ways, like a hurricane. So we asked we need additional truck companies come down there. Um, and the same with cyber, if we need additional cyber help through the imac process, we can move from state to state to provide that capability and in some cases they don’t even need to move, they can operate from their current location. Um, So that’s very important. But I think to your point, a lot of our relationships with the civilian providers or companies that have exquisite experience and many of our guardsmen work for them and they bring that to their, to their cyber jobs is absolutely critical. But when we look at the fact that we’re literally, you know, at war every day on the cyber battlefield, it’s important that our guardsmen are, are trained in up to date and they can respond wherever they’re needed within their communities. Um, and that’s where we look at the state active duty capabilities under the authority of the governors to address issues within their state or request from help from outside the state. Uh, general, in my words, I would say that you’re telling me telling the committee that this has value uh, in part may be accomplished regardless of the outcome of the pilot program with the active participation of you and those on your team to accomplish it. Is that a fair assessment of your, your response? Uh, and no, you know of no roadblocks that I need to be pursuing to to remove. It’s not at this time we’ll have to work specific to each of the states because some of them have different laws that have to be followed. But we work very closely with the 54 to look at overarching policies that we can put across the entire organization to facilitate the need to address any issues within our communities. Also thank you for recognizing the what really takes place in Wichita with our red team uh in the private sector who employs those guard members and then that gives them the capability to devote significant attention and expertise to national security matters. Appreciate you knowing that, let me ask all our witnesses, D D 2 14 reform. One of the things what we’re trying to overcome is the tremendous burden that members of the military and their families encounter when they leave the service. Uh and um my goal is to make it simple for National Guard and Reserve members to keep track of their records of deployment. And my question is, would you support, do you support providing a comprehensive document um of military service for the reserve component similar to the D 2 14? I’ll say. Absolutely yes sir. We would very much welcome that so that it’s easier for members once they’ve served to show that they have served. And it’s a universally accepted document. There’s general Daniels receive any criticism or disagreement from any of her colleagues. Let the record show that all are in agreement. Uh My final question in my last 46 seconds, the Moms Leave Act last year, a bill that I authored or authored authorized maternity leave for mothers in the reserve component. That bill was signed into law. Women in the Guard and Reserve across the United States are waiting for the department to implement this law so that they receive comparable support to their active duty counterparts. Does the department require any clarifying language? Is there any challenges in getting this implemented? So that those mothers mothers to be and mothers that are currently in that circumstance can receive the benefits of this legislation center? I would say we’re working very closely with OsD on implementation guidance and we think this is absolutely the right thing to do for our reserve is to be treated exactly like their active counterparts. And it’s an acknowledgement that we need to recognize their service and adjust accordingly. Could I anyone else have a response? Yeah, Senator Moran. It’s Richard Scobee here at the end of the table from the Air Force Reserve, we are in lockstep with what General Wilkinson just talked about. In fact, the Reserve Chiefs met last week to discuss this very issue. And so as the department determines how this is going to be flushed out across the board, uh that they are working hard with our elected officials to ensure that we get this act. Any barrier that we have to, anybody being able to serve within our commands is extremely important that we get through. And that’s what we’re working on. Thank you. General Daniel Daniel’s As stated, we did talk just like three days ago about this very matter. So this is high on our list of implementation actions. Thank you. It might be hypocritical for me to complain about the length of time it’s taking for implementation because it took a significant amount of time to get it passed through Congress. But it is important and timeliness does matter. Thank you all. Senator Shaheen, thank you very much. Mr Chairman and thank you to each of you for your service to this country and for your testimony this morning. General Hawkinson, I want to begin with you because and actually, I should say I should start by echoing the remarks of the chairman and so many of my colleagues with thanks to the Guard for all of their extraordinary efforts over the last year, as we have battled Covid in New Hampshire, we could not have done it without the National Guard And they have been on consistent deployment now for over 400 days. So I think it’s imperative for all of us to thank everyone for what they have done. It has made a huge difference. So thank you very much. I want to go back to Senator Collins um questions about the K. C 1 30 fives because as you’re aware, the 157th air refueling wing at peace was the first National Guard base to get the KC 46 is and we were so excited about that. We said goodbye to our last KC 1 35 with the anticipation that we would get those 46 is and they have come in and now we’re the first guard base to get all of our components of the tankers and we can’t use them And it’s really frustrating and I know you all share in that frustration but there were serious concerns voiced last year about the retirement of our legacy tankers because of the delays in getting the KC 46 is operational and in fact in the Fy 21. Nd a we restricted divestment Of the KC 10 and KC 135. Now I understand that the president’s budget has been released or at least the outline and it states that retiring legacy systems should be a priority for the defense budget this year. Do you agree with that position? And perhaps I should ask um general um Fasteners. So when I look at the, obviously we do need to modernize um but we also must retain the capability and capacity that our nation needs. So in some cases, although we have legacy systems until they’re modernized, I think it’s important that we continue to retain like the KC 135 to meet all the requirements of our nation. General Scobie. Do you agree with that? Senator Shane appreciate that question very much. Um it is vital that the Air Force is able to project power across the world. The KC 46 is the linchpin in that. As General Wilkinson said he’s exactly right. We’re trying to balance the new equipment bring in with modernizing the KC 1 35 and those two airframes are going to be what take us into the future. Um having had the opportunity to fly the KC 46 um two things I was able to take from that one is, I’m not as good as a pilot as I used to be. And the other thing is is that it’s an incredibly capable machine and I know that General Lenovo’s today, EMC is going to make sure that we get all the capabilities out of that we can and it is also feeling the Air Force reserve now, so my confidence is high. We are on the right path forward. Well thank you. I’ve had a chance to fly on it as well as a passenger and was very impressed with the potential and I guess that adds to the frustration around it. Now I understand that um the 46 is would be able to perform other missions and particularly aeromedical missions are are on that list and that makes our guard in new Hampshire very excited. But one of the challenges to actually doing those missions is a new problem that’s come up and we don’t talk about that as much as we do the remote vision systems, but the air transportable galle lavatories, basically the bathrooms, the A T. Gs are now a problem that I guess we’re going to have trouble flying some of those missions until that gets fixed. Do you have any sense? General Hawkinson when that’s going to happen and what I can tell the 157th in New Hampshire about when they might be able to fly those missions, Ma’am. I do not, but we can certainly get back to you on the exact dates until that’s resolved. Thank you. Also a question for Boeing as we see this come up when we didn’t realize we thought we had net, um nailed down the other issues with the tanker and this has become a new problem. So thank you. I would appreciate knowing more about that. And I have a final question for you, General Hawkinson because one of the challenges that and I guess General Davies, this is a concern for you as well. One of the challenges are guard has in new Hampshire is with the age of some of our facilities. They are decades old and replacing those has been costly. The state doesn’t have the funds to do that at this point. So can you talk about how important it is for us to replace some of those facilities so that our guard and reserve are prepared when they’re called up? Yes. Senator, if you look within the National Guard, 26% of our facilities over 60 years old. And I know I’ve worked with General Michael. It is on the, so the state not having to have a match, especially during the covid environment, but it’s absolutely critical. And this really goes back to the climate. If you look at How inefficient so many of our facilities are and everything that we build new or replace, we make sure it’s modernized and it’s more efficient. So it reduces the energy draw for those. But also if you look at the armory’s, these were built in the 50s and 60s and back then an infantry could infantrymen to put everything in a wall locker. And that’s not the case anymore. There’s significant equipment requirements and security requirements. Um, so any additional funding we can get, we always put to good use. Thank you. Do you want to add to that general? We’re in a very similar situation. Um, were funded at about 86 of our requirements. And we continue to do the best we can with the resources that we’ve got and we continue to look for modernization and efficiencies wherever possible. Thank you both. Mr Chairman. I know I’m out of time, but I would suggest that as we’re thinking about any infrastructure package, thinking about how we can support our guard around the country would be an important piece of that. Thank you all. Thank you. Mr Chairman uh and General Wilkinson, thank you for visiting with me earlier, appreciate it. Um, and I want to begin by talking about the MQ one C Gray Eagle. That’s an important uh part of the important equipment for active duty army. Matter of fact, the Gray Eagle, um, they operated across all of their combat aviation brigades. And so given that the Army National Guard is expected to deploy and fight alongside the active duty counterparts, it seems to be very important that you have that the Great Eagle as well uh, for your soldiers and uh that you are trained on it. And so I would uh ask your opinion, And do you support Fielding the MQ one C. Grey Eagle uh for the Army National Guard? Yes, sir. Uh when we look at the uh the Army National Guard Division, so there’s 10 active duty divisions and we’re now forming the eight National Guard divisions and that capability currently resides in the combat aviation brigades on active duty. And I want to make sure that our National Guard is equipped and looks just like the active component. So if they have Great Eagles in their combat aviation brigades, I would strongly advocate for the same capability within the National Guard so that our units are interoperable and we have the same capabilities in each of our divisions. So what steps need to be taken to accomplish that? Okay to believe the army would need to be resourced because as we brought, the eight additional Guard divisions on um those capabilities like Dave Ardis and other organizations are being stood up in the National Guard right now so that we have the same and look the same also. Uh I want to ask about the MQ nine uh Reaper. Our Air Guard flies that the happy hooligans in Fargo and they have they were one of very first guard units to get the uh that mission originally predator. Now Reaper and they’ve been flying it continuously ever since. Um We’re building a new operations facility, which is good, but we’re flying the block one uh MQ nine and we need to get to the Block five and so we work to fund uh to authorize and fund 16 of the new aircraft for this fiscal year will continue to work to do that. But I would like, you know, your assurances that for guard units like are, is that they will transition in a timely way from the block One to the block five. Yes sir. And I believe they’re scheduled to convert in 20 for about the same time as the facilities will be completed. And obviously, sir, if there’s any opportunity to speed that up, will work with the air force to do that. But I know currently the plan is in Fy 24 appreciate that. My next I guess question it relates to uh tuition assistance, huge uh tool for recruiting and retention for the guard and all reserve units is making sure that the educational benefit. Is there both the federal tuition assistance and the G. I. Bill educational benefit? And I put in legislation with Senator Pat Leahy to make sure that the guard and all reserve components can use both because you need it for recruitment to get. I mean, your business is a high tech business that calls for certainly capable people physically, but they have to be super sharp now in terms of using all the technology, you know, to stay ahead of our adversaries. So, um, our legislation would make sure that all Reserve Guard and all reserve components could use both. Now, good news is that the D. O. D. Has said yes, we’re going to do that. So tell me, where are we in getting that done and getting it out to our our soldiers, our men and women in uniform. Yes or so. Within the Army National Guard, we’ve, we’ve got it out and we’ve had that capability previously, uh, within the Air National Guard, we’ve had to fund that. And currently we have 14 states that are doing that. But based on the success of that program, were now funding within the National Air National Guard, eight Additional states every year until we get all 54. But as you mentioned, it’s an incredible benefit to our guardsmen. It really is and I would welcome comments from any of the others on that. And the Tricare Reserve select benefit is something that we have to have out there for garden reserve as well, starting with General Wilkinson and then uh general Scobie and anyone else who wants to be in on either of those that education or health care benefit? Yes sir. As I mentioned, that’s my number one legislative priority. It’s a benefit not only just to the medical readiness of the organization, um, but the family members and also it’s a benefit to the employer knowing that if they employ a guardsman, they have their own health care. And also we talked about potentially benefits when it comes to suicide prevention by having mental health readily available as as well as counseling, General Scobie senator haven. Uh Exactly right. General Wilkinson is, has explained it correctly from uh well really tell you from a reserve perspective, this is a new benefit that we have on the education piece and we’re very thankful that you started that. And then the Department of Defense has, has followed through with with what we wanted for our airmen. Uh Our airmen now are so so much better than they were in the past with as far as education, high tech and the things that we’ve been able to do over the last few decades, we really need these benefits because it attracts and retains the airmen that we need. And then as you talked about Tricare reserve select were extremely thankful for that benefit. Um right now it’s scheduled to take place in 2030. We’d like to move that up sooner if able. But the the ability for our airmen not to have lapses in coverage is exactly what we’ve been talking about up here as a group is to ensure that we have the all the all the medical benefits that that should be allowed for our members to use, especially when it comes to mental illness or anything that would happen to them and when they are activated. Thank you. Yeah, I know I’m over my time as chairman. Just any other thoughts that senator I’d offer? Just a slightly different perspective. I think all of these benefits welcome by all the service chiefs and their great use and utility to our force. Our future force. The problem becomes when if you look in the lens of future resourcing, our obligation is to train these young warriors to be prepared for the next fight. And if we push all of our resources into education and health benefits which are exceptional. Where we aggregating risk, if we’re cutting into the resources that we really have to use which is preparing them for war, there’s a fine balance here. If there’s one pie to slice from, we have to look at where we’re taking the slices from and then consider the actual risk to the human beings that were trusted to safeguard. Thank you appreciate that. Thank you. Mr Senator baldwin virtually. Thank you. Mr Chairman uh General Wilkinson. As we discussed recently, I wrote to the D. O. D. Inspector General late last year concerned that not all guard members were protected as whistleblowers due to the Inspector general’s interpretation of military whistleblower protection statutes. Uh The I. G. Wrote back last month saying that it would begin expanding whistleblower protections to guard members operating under Title 32 status. This is a welcome update, but I really believe that all members of the guard should be protected regardless of duty status. Further, I do not believe it was Congress’s intent in passing uh military whistleblower protections to have these protections be dependent on a specific duty status instead of simply tied to being a member of the Armed Forces in general in Wisconsin because of brave whistleblowers. The National Guard Bureau’s Office of Complex investigations uncovered a history of Reprisal retaliation and command initiated investigations that were out of line with D. O. D. Sexual assault prevention policy. Um We have to ensure that these types of whistle blowers are protected from reprisals. So can you discuss the importance of ensuring that whistleblower protections include all guard personnel? And do you support a change in definition of, quote, member of the armed forces that would ensure whistleblower protections for all members of the guard? Yes, Anderson, we look at the the intent of that policy are key is to work with the 54 accidents general in their states um to make sure that that they follow the intent of that policy unique to their state. And so we will look very closely with them and work with the Adjutants General um as those that would implement that to make sure that we have a policy that covers all of our guard members based on their service. Thank you. Um General Wilkinson, can you explain a little about how the Office of complex investigations works? For example, how our cases assigned. How are investigators trained and how does OC I decide which sexual assault cases it investigates. Yes, senator and thank you for the opportunity to talk about this. So when we look at our office of complex investigations, because 95 of what we do operates in the title 32 or in a state status, Um the majority of time we’re not under title 10. And so we rely on our local law enforcement and local prosecutors to address serious events specifically sexual assault and in cases where the local law enforcement may not take the case. We had created an administrative review under our Office of Complex investigation. In that case, the victim or the Adjutant General can ask for the OC. I to come into their state and conduct an investigation administrative and make recommendations to the chain of command. And so what that allows us to do is to take a look at some cases that may not be accepted or may not meet the criteria of local law enforcement. And it gives us an avenue to it to address those issues when we look at where we are today. Traditionally, we had about 18 to 24. Shortly after becoming the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, I reached out to the 54 we were able to get 32 trained investigators right now. We also separated it from our general counsel and is an independently and has now led by a general officer with legal background in his civilian career who general walker is doing some incredible work, making sure that we we look at all of the new cases, but also the backlogs. And the key is we’re trying to get the older ones done as quickly as possible so that we can get current and reduce the timeframe from when it’s reported until that agenda’s general receives a completed report. And does the Office of complex investigations have enough investigators to investigate every case sent to it, uh, from the States at the current staffing level. Senator, we could always use more resources for us. It’s finding qualified personnel across the organization that have the time to do this or could leave their civilian career to do this. So we could obviously always use more. But it’s a, it’s a fine line between that and those capable to do it that are volunteering to do it. Yeah. How many investigators would the Office of complex investigations need to keep current, um, and and what, what funding or other assistance from Congress, um, could help you get there? So, senator, I know we have 32 today and General Walker recently came on board. He’s doing a complete review of the entire organization. So if you don’t mind, I would prefer to get back to you directly from him because I know he’s looking at the case load and the number of folks he would need in the exact resources. I appreciate that. And we look forward to that information. Let me add on to that. What would the National Guard Bureau require in order to have the office of complex investigations do say top down reviews for each guard unit on a rotational basis or as a matter of routine in order to ensure that their sexual assault policies are in line with federal law. Yes. And a defer to General Walker and I’ll get his specifics there. But I know this is something that we work with are 54 adjutants general, um to make sure that they’re following the policies directed by each of the services and that they meet those requirements and that we, we review them to make sure that that they have the personnel assigned to the areas where they’re supposed to be, and also to make sure they’re trained. And one thing this has brought up is the availability of school seats. Also the unique environment the National Guardsmen operate in since 95 of our time is in the title 32 status. And so we’re actually right now exploring the potential of creating our own schoolhouse to really take the best of what the army and the Air Force does, but also trained to the unique environment the National Guard operates in. Thank you appreciate that. Thank you. Mr Chair. Thank you. Senator Bowman. Uh Senator Boozman. Thank you Mr Chairman and thank you all for being here. I also want to echo the great job that the Garden Reserve did during Covid. Just last week, the Arkansas National Guard concluded its 13-month mission to help distribute Roughly 56 million pieces of p. p. e. to our communities and medical facilities. I think that just illustrates what went on all over the country. So be sure and pat yourselves on the back and all of those that have worked so, so very hard. Lieutenant General Daniels, I enjoyed our recent conversation hearing about your efforts to recruit and retain soldiers. The Army Reserve contains a significant amount of the Army Medical Capabilities with many of your soldiers having civilian careers in various medical fields. Can you walk us through your efforts with the urban augmentation medical task forces and the role they are designed to play in combating COVID-19. Thank you senator. We took a paper that had been written and within 48 hours created these urban augmentation medical task force of 85 medical professionals and within two weeks were then putting them up into the northeast cities and places where those hospitals were under great stress to help provide some relief. We are very careful and cautious where we pulled these individuals from. So they were not hurting their local communities. But we’re in a place that they could go afford and provide assistance to others. We deployed 15 of those very early on. And then later during the COVID response, we put another three out to the West Coast. We had another four on standby. No, that’s a great story. And in normal times that 48 hours would take months and months and months, maybe years. So thank you for your leadership and and again, you know, making things happen. General Hawkinson and your written testimony, you spoke about providing the necessary forces to meet joint uh force mission. You mentioned several guard units that deploy overseas and the extensive training that is necessary for them to go locations such as Fort Chaffee in Arkansas have the capabilities to provide first class alternate locations for units to train to meet the growing demand of joint force. I guess the question is, can you comment on the current readiness of the National Guard and do you have the necessary capacity needed to train those forces? Yes. Center. So when we look at the current readiness, um, even despite the covid environment, met every single one of our overseas deployment requirements. And also we met every requirement from our governors. However, that did have an impact on us, particularly when you look at recruiting, the inability to to meet face to face like we previously had. This caused a lot of innovative ways to get a recruiting and retention and also a training you you train virtually. And now we’re to the point where, you know, with maintaining social distancing and all the other requirements were able to continue our training. And also, in fact, it was the National Guard’s first of the 34th armored Brigade combat Team was the first one to go through a combat training centre rotation in a covid environment. But aside from that, we look at fort Chaffee and a lot of our other training areas. It’s absolutely critical that we maintain those so that we have the ability to train our guardsmen within their states or nearby because the amount of training space that we have and ranges um, is continually getting encroached upon. So it’s important for us to retain every single one of those very good funeral. In your written testimony, you stated the National Guard is a lethal, cost effective dual role operational force that provides strategic depth to the Army, Air Force and Space Force And responds to crisis in her homeland. Some estimates put the cost effectiveness of the guard at 30 cents on the dollar, knowing that would you say that the Guard funding requests from the services have been adequate over the years and then also how critical is the National Guard and Reserve equipment account funding to the continued operations of the Guard, particularly in domestic missions supporting the homeland. So really to the last question with an agreed to the equipment account, it’s absolutely critical to the modernization of the National Guard and I think all of our reserve components, um, our services don’t always have enough funding to modernize the entire organization. And so that allows us to help supplement that. But also when we look at a lot of the critical dual use capabilities, um, like I’ll just use fire buckets as an example to fight forest fires. Um that allows us to do that to purchase that equipment and maintain it in case our communities ever needed. Very good. Thank you. Mr Chairman, thank you. Senator Bozeman. We appreciate all your testimony here today. Uh, Senators may submit additional written questions and we ask you if you receive those to respond to those in a reasonable period of time. The next defense subcommittee uh will reconvene on Wednesday May 26 at 10 a.m. For a closed hearing on Intelligence Committee on the housekeeping front. Uh the hearing after the next one because it will be uh in closed hearings. So this won’t apply, but we will ask, we will ask questions on this committee based on seniority and who is physically present after those questions have been asked and we’ll go off as seniority virtually. So it’s a little change in process, but we’ve got some direction from the CDC now that I think will help encourage folks to be here in person. So with that, thank you all very much in this committee is adjourned.