During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned General Xavier T. Brunson, Commander of the United Nations Command/ Combined Forces Command/ United States Forces Korea, about how troops will be impacted by the current state of the U.S. aircraft fleet.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00myself. Admiral Paparo, it's great to see you. Always appreciate your testimonies, very clear-eyed
00:06to the point. So I've long been very concerned about the Chinese presence of the Panama Canal
00:15and what they might be able to do with that if, heaven forbid, something were to happen.
00:21Could you just elaborate a little bit on how the closure of that, let's just assume that
00:28would happen, the closure of that, or an interruption in its availability, how that would affect the flow
00:36of both combatants and support vessels to the region? Morning, Senator. I mean, inherently the
00:42geography, you know, the alternative being all the way south around the Horn, that's about a two-week
00:48transit. Think about how critical it is to get forces on front when the PRC's intention is a short,
00:57sharp war that provides a fait accompli to the international community. And so inherently anything
01:03that slows us down over time and distance is bad for us. Now consider that all of the shipbuilding
01:09in the United States of America is east of the Panama Canal, but the preponderance of the threat
01:16is in the Pacific. And that just shows the inherent logic of the requirement for the Panama Canal as
01:23ever. Yeah. And I think, yes, the concerns that we had when it was, I think, mistakenly sort of given
01:30away are even more concerning now as our orientation, I think, shifts to the Indo-Pacific in a more
01:37meaningful way. General Brunson, it's good to see you. I wanted to ask you, and I know that Admiral Paparo
01:43got a question somewhat related to this, but concerns about airlift capabilities. And we don't have enough
01:52aircraft, and many of our C-130s don't have the survivability in a contested environment. Could you speak
01:59a little bit to the current limitations we would have supporting forces in the Korean Peninsula, given our current inventory?
02:05It's just the amount of, as we look at tip-fit flows, sustainment, and those things that are required to prosecute. In the KTO, it's why we've begun to move, it's a recognition
02:21of that, it's why we've begun to move with a combined logistics command. It's why we've begun to look at how
02:26can we set the theater now, looking at the stores of munitions, some of which will expire soon. How do we get those
02:32replaced in a quick fashion, so that we don't provide drain for sustainment things in order to prosecute the campaign?
02:40I'm readily aware of the fact that I'm fighting until help comes. That's what we're expected to do there,
02:48myself and the Republic of Korean forces, as well as the forces apportioned to UN command.
02:53We're fighting until they get there. So a great many of the exercises that we do, Senator, are all aimed at
02:59understanding what magazine depth needs to be resident on the peninsula, so that we don't have
03:04to count on external support coming to, and so that we might not drain from the overall effort.
03:09But it's fair to say that a lot of those plans that are being drawn to account for that are meant to
03:15address the fact that we probably don't have the inventory that we need right now. Is that fair to say?
03:20That would be accurate. We're challenging those assumptions every day, Senator.
03:23Right, okay. Admiral Paparo, I wanted to go back to you. I think it's related as far as maintenance
03:32and availability and execution in the Indo-Pacific. There was recently, I think, a big win for the US
03:40and our allies with the tanker mission in South Korea, and then we're also seeing this, obviously,
03:47with submarine maintenance in Australia. What, to you, what's the next big step? Because you've
03:53articulated, I think rightly, that speed is going to matter, but the logistical hurdles in the vast
03:59expanse of the Pacific is, I think it's hard for people to really actually put their mind around it
04:04until you put a map up, you know, and you just, and you see just the expanse. So what's the next big step
04:10to, to address those logistical challenges for us? Senator, first, um, enrich the kinds of work that
04:17we're doing in our partnership yards. So beyond the standard voyage repairs is to do, uh, deeper,
04:24deeper repairs for our forward deployed naval force is one step. And then if we can get into the space of,
04:30uh, of production of that capability, of enhancing, uh, the Korean, uh, worldwide ship capacity, which is,
04:39uh, I think 23% of global total is, is built in Korea. Uh, Japan is 15% of global shipbuilding. The
04:47United States of America is 1% of shipbuilding. This confers immediately to speed. So more, uh,
04:55maintenance being executed at these, uh, at these partner yards where it makes sense. And then the
05:01next step, and, uh, and, uh, you know, I've heard a lot of talk about this from, uh, uh, from, you know,
05:07all throughout government, which is, uh, which is to avail ourselves of our partner's unique
05:14shipbuilding expertise. And then while we, we, while we regain our own shipbuilding expertise
05:22in the United States. Thank you. Um, Senator Peters.