During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-FL) questioned Military officials about F-35 operations and integrations.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you so much to our panelists and for your years of service to
00:07our great nation. I have the privilege of representing Hampton Roads, which is home to
00:11the Atlantic Fleet, also home to East Coast ship repair and shipbuilding, and just thousands of
00:18military families and personnel, especially that are Navy members. So I want to focus on the Navy
00:24for a few minutes, but Admiral Paparo, we know that if conflict were to arise in Indo-PACOM area
00:30of responsibility, the men and women of Hampton Roads would be on the front lines of that fight,
00:34and I know that we are very focused on the Pacific and on the West and on the West Coast, but can you
00:40just speak to me about the importance of the Atlantic Fleet and your mission in the Indo-Pacific,
00:44because we know that when things arise in the Middle East, Israel is a perfect example, after
00:49October 7th, we sent the Ford and the Eisenhower to that region of the world, but the Indian Ocean
00:54and the Indo-Pacific is not too far away. So just speak to me about the important role of the
00:58Atlantic Fleet, and specifically the carrier air wings from Naval Air Station Oceana in my district,
01:05what that means to your mission.
01:06Congressman McClendon, thank you also for your service to the nation as a U.S. naval aviator,
01:12and those of the many members of your family that have served or are serving at this very time.
01:18You make a great point, and that point is that all of the joint force is designed that it must be
01:26responsive to any threat anywhere, that the rebalance to the Pacific has got to have the
01:33capability to have the total balance going to the Pacific within weeks. And so presently in our plans
01:42of record, the Atlantic Fleet is very well represented in the Indo-Pacific, and not just in the Indian Ocean,
01:51but in the Pacific itself. It would be key and critical and indispensable to combat success.
01:57And how important to your mission is investment in the upkeep of places like our East Coast Master
02:04Jet Brace that would provide those carrier air wings?
02:06There can be no difference across the force from a standardization standpoint about the readiness of
02:13the facilities to support training and operations. And that is precisely because every force has got
02:21to be ready to fight the pacing threat.
02:23And so we currently have F-18 squadrons, which are great and fulfilling the mission,
02:30but are also aging. And so I just want to ask you specifically, how would an F-35 integration help
02:35with your mission?
02:37F-35s are critical, and we cannot make that transition fast enough across the force. And F-35s
02:44must be a part of the Atlantic Fleet, in my humble opinion.
02:47Thank you for that answer. And now I want to move to shipbuilding. And we continue to decommission
02:52ships at a rate that far outpaces new construction, even as many of these platforms are still operational
02:57and actively deployed. In some cases, we're investing in maintenance and upgrades only to retire the ship
03:02as soon as it returns to port from deployment. Given our growing global commitments and the urgent need
03:07for naval presence, how does this approach make sense, Admiral Paparo, and why are we decommissioning
03:12ships when we are clearly short on capacity?
03:15I think if the ship, you know, given the fact that the ship is relevant and given that there's the proper balance
03:22of investment in the ship so that the return on investment is right, and getting absolutely the most relevance
03:30out of the most relevant ships until the capacity of the United States is built up so that they can be replaced,
03:38I think I'm not a proponent of divest to invest, I'm a proponent of make before break, and I prefer not to decommission
03:48combat relevant capabilities until its replacement is on board so its sailors and Marines can properly transfer
03:56to that platform and get into the fight.
03:59I agree. We need all the ships we can get, and even an old ship is better than no ship.
04:03And speaking again about shipbuilding, I know that when we had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor,
04:08you spoke about the fact that, I think it was only 17% of your high school graduates are attending
04:14colleges or universities, and the lines of the shipyard for those skilled trade jobs are so long.
04:19So what are you doing in Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, that is working, that we might apply to other shipbuilding
04:26and ship repair locations like Hampton Roads?
04:29Yes. And so, Hawaii is very unique, and that Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is an incredibly valued profession in Hawaii,
04:40which confers that there's a waiting list in order to get onto the roles as a shipyard worker.
04:45And as a result, because of the experience of the shipyard force, Pearl Harbor delivers its projects ahead of schedule and usually below budget.
04:59And that's a great model. And I think outreach in individual communities that similarly reflect and model that process where it's a highly valued profession.
05:11Making sure that we keep pace from a pay standpoint, that we're not out-competed for pay for shipyard workers,
05:18because 90% of any organization's hiring problems can be solved with pay.
05:26General Agent, time's expired.
05:27General Agent, time's expired.
05:32General Agent, time's poop.
05:35General Agent, time, time'server.
05:40General Agent, time's demise.
05:42General Agent is in total לא unions tensile bond and never commanding the draft.
05:54General Agent, time's fundraiser where there's noirs of security and��ами displementation,