During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) questioned Military officials about DoD cuts.
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00:00I recognize Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Chairman Rogers and Ranking
00:03Member Smith. I have the honor of representing Joint Base Lewis-McChord,
00:07home to tens of thousands of active duty service members, including the first
00:12multi-domain task force and future elements of the third MDTF, Fifth
00:17Security Forces Assistant Brigade, First Special Forces Group, and America's
00:21First Corps. And it's great to see you, General Bunsen. Those stars look good on
00:25you. All of these things are regionally aligned toward the Indo-Pacific
00:28theater, and JBLM plays a central role in the U.S.'s ability to ensure a free and
00:33open Indo-Pacific. I'm going to talk about two issues. I will start with climate
00:38change and then the alliances and partnerships of AUKUS. Admiral Paparo, how
00:43are the U.S. military operations and plans being affected by factors like rising
00:48sea level, extreme heat, and displacement in heavily populated coastal areas? Some
00:55of our efforts align our Pacific partnership and our operations with the typhoon
01:01season within the Pacific so that we can be more ready to respond to humanitarian
01:08assistance disaster relief. Similarly, many of our expeditionary engineering
01:13capabilities work on key critical infrastructure, particularly through the
01:17Pacific Island countries. And so that ability to respond is front of mind.
01:23Thank you. Mr. Doe, under President Trump and Secretary Heggs' leadership, DOD is now
01:30canceling programs that do a few things. Extend rage and on-station time, mitigate
01:36contested logistic challenges, and make our forces more easier to detect by
01:41lowering thermal signatures. All because these programs also happen to have a climate
01:46benefit. In his approach, Secretary Heggs has said, quote, we do not do climate
01:51change crap. And this approach is actually curbing innovation and making us less
01:56ready. They don't make us more lethal, they don't protect our troops, and they
02:00don't help us confront a peer competitor. How can the department prepare for the
02:04realities of a conflict in Indopaycom, an environment of censorship where key
02:09decisions are being made because of a catchphrase instead of the actual
02:12benefits that protect our warfighters?
02:16Congresswoman, the focus of the department is and will remain on
02:23strengthening our posture and warfighting capabilities. And I believe the
02:28President's budget, which will be released soon, will reflect both the
02:32priorities of the President and the Secretary's priority of reestablishing
02:39deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Okay, so the three things I mentioned
02:42specifically, extending range and station time, mitigating contested logistics, and
02:47making our forces harder to find by lowering thermal signatures. Are those
02:51things actually going to happen even though the Secretary said that this was
02:54climate change crap? Congresswoman, that woman, that's a issue I'll have to take back
03:01and follow up with you on. Okay, so you don't know? I'm not sure. Okay, thank you. Now I want to switch over to
03:07AUKUS and we know that this particular partnership is incredibly important. It
03:12prevents Chinese malign influence and actually reduce costs for the US. So
03:17Admiral, can you talk about how this partnership has already benefited the US
03:22and what capabilities it's delivering to our Australian allies? Congresswoman, first
03:27is that it's benefited us in the contributions that Australia's made to the
03:31defense industrial base to the amount of three billion dollars in order to
03:35enhance the submarine industrial bases capability to deliver on on pillar one.
03:40Second, the working towards submarine rotational force, Sterling, would give the
03:47United States a Indian Ocean capability which is more responsive to the South
03:52China Sea and gives us the ability to operate with submarines with impunity
03:57without having to go through straits in the Indian Ocean and its approaches
04:01through the critical straits of Malacca, of Lombok, and of Sunda, among others. And
04:07then on pillar two, Australia hits way, way above its weight from a cyber standpoint. It does some
04:16critical things that really complement what we do. So AUKUS is a winner in every way
04:21for Indo-Pacific Command. Thank you. And then Mr. Ngo, are there any obstacles that you think the US faces in
04:27fully implementing AUKUS and specifically upholding our partnership, particularly in transferring three to
04:34five Virginia-class submarines?
04:37Congresswoman, I think our industrial capacity remains a limiting factor. We're
04:44able to produce 1.28 Virginia-class submarines a year. That number needs to be above two for us to both
04:52fulfill our own submarine requirements and to fulfill our obligations to Australia
04:57under pillar one. Thank you. And you may want to tell your boss that some of the
05:03trade decisions that are being made actually have time.