During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) spoke about the effect of Trump taking office on military capabilities.
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00:00Senator Scott.
00:02So my Democrat colleagues don't like CRs,
00:04but the prior majority leader, a Democrat,
00:08wouldn't even bring up a spending bill
00:10that we could have done last summer
00:12to make sure we didn't ever have to do a CR at all.
00:15After four years of the Biden administration
00:17appeasing our enemies and making our forces lethal,
00:19I'm glad President Trump's back
00:20and restoring peace through strength.
00:23He's been clear that he takes the threat
00:25posed by Communist China seriously,
00:28ensuring the United States is posed
00:29to combat these threats.
00:31I look forward to hearing how you're doing with that.
00:33But my first question for General Mingus
00:36and Admiral Kilby,
00:38since President Trump was elected,
00:40recruitment numbers are way up.
00:42So is that a result of President Trump's election?
00:48I think it's a combination of things, sir.
00:50I think it's the efforts,
00:51as I talked about in my opening statement,
00:53that have been put into place
00:55for the last 18 to 24 months.
00:57But we have seen a momentum
00:59over the last couple months
01:01that has been pretty remarkable.
01:04I agree with General Mingus.
01:06We really took a round turn on this last year.
01:09We had 373 more sailors
01:14than we predicted to get it last year.
01:15So we had an apparatus that was aligned
01:18to try to get after this.
01:20I'll take any win to get sailors in the Navy
01:23that want to serve our country.
01:24So I don't know that I can map that
01:26to the election or not.
01:28But I'm going to ride that wave
01:29as long as I can.
01:32So my background before I got into politics
01:34was I ran businesses.
01:35And the expectation was
01:37you had to beat your competition
01:38by improving every day.
01:41You had to get your costs better.
01:42You had to get your quality better.
01:45Everything you did, you had to get better.
01:47So General Mingus and Admiral Kilby,
01:49can you tell me in the last 12 months,
01:51what would you say for
01:53what you're responsible for?
01:54What would you say is the big improvements?
01:57So I would say at our transformation
02:00and contact effort,
02:01we've infused the latest
02:03and greatest technology
02:04when it comes to mobility, firepower,
02:06our network, our UAS,
02:09counter-UAS efforts
02:10into multiple formations,
02:12infused that technology at a rate
02:15faster than we typically would do
02:16in quantities that is greater
02:18than we would typically do
02:20because we want to learn from them
02:21bottom up to refine the decisions
02:24that we're going to make
02:25programmatically down the road.
02:27That's going to expand
02:28into more formations
02:29as part of TIC transformation
02:31and contact 2.0 this year and next year.
02:33But that's been,
02:34over the last 12 months,
02:35what I would say has been our biggest win.
02:38Two things.
02:39One, coming from the same type of thinking
02:41we're trying to build in the Navy,
02:43focused mindset, skill set, and tool set
02:46to get after that continuous improvement.
02:48There are some common themes here
02:49that we've applied across the board
02:51from aviation.
02:52So the recruiting is an improvement.
02:55And I'd say on-time completion
02:57of ship availabilities
02:59as well as some success
03:00in submarine availabilities.
03:02But we've got a long way to go there, sir,
03:04to apply that model consistently
03:06every single day.
03:08Thanks.
03:09Admiral Kivley, we've seen the Pentagon
03:10failing to recruit, pass, and audit
03:12or deliver ships, equipment, missiles,
03:14et cetera, on time and on budget.
03:16On top of that, while the Marine Corps
03:17and Air Force are 100% recapitalized
03:19on their C-130s,
03:20the Navy needs over 30 C-130s
03:23and is yet to program
03:24for this critical tactical airlift platform.
03:27Today, the Navy only has one on contract.
03:29So can you explain why that is?
03:33Sir, we try to balance our program
03:35across the board,
03:36all aircraft, all ships, all submarines.
03:39I'll take that question for the record
03:41and come back to you with specifics
03:42about C-130.
03:44But again, it's building
03:45the most lethal program we can afford.
03:49General Mahoney, what would you say
03:50as far as if you take the last 12 months,
03:53how are you in a better position
03:54and individuals you're responsible for
03:56in a better position
03:57than you were a year ago?
03:59Senator, two things.
04:00First is the second clean audit opinion
04:03two years in a row.
04:04And I think we're in the midst
04:05of having a hat trick.
04:06Why do I say that?
04:08One of the things, I call it
04:09the audit dividend.
04:10We know exactly what we own,
04:12exactly where it is,
04:13exactly who takes care of it
04:15and what it is worth.
04:16In that audit, we can tell the condition
04:20of those pieces of equipment.
04:22So we have an increased visibility
04:24into the operational readiness
04:26as a result of the audit.
04:27The second thing is our third
04:29Marine littoral regiment
04:31has just undergone a CERDEX.
04:33They have been delivered
04:34their long range precision fires,
04:35their air defense.
04:36So the concept of force design
04:38has gone forward,
04:39which we could accelerate it
04:41and deepen the magazine.
04:42But we've seen that success on time.
04:44Now we need to marry that capability up
04:46with organic littoral maneuver
04:48in the form of the light amphibious warship.
04:50But those are the two things.
04:51Force design and audit.
04:54Thank you, Chairman.