During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) questioned Admiral Samuel J. Paparo Jr., Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, about the need for more submarines.
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00:00In a follow-up to Senator Blumenthal's line of questioning on submarines, we still need a lot more submarines, do we not?
00:10Strongly agree. We have to increase our production rates. We have to invest in the submarine industrial base.
00:16We have to increase the rates of the number of submarines, and we have got to increase the availability of our submarines.
00:24And you had a valuable exchange with Senator Banks about nuclear weapons, and I understood you to say they are useful to us every day because of their deterrent effect. Is that correct?
00:42Yes, sir.
00:42And also, just because we don't often hear about this, the doctrine of the United States for years has been not to rule out a first strike. Is that correct?
01:01I affirm that.
01:02Okay. Thank you very much.