Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing 20240704

Each of the 150 awardwinning camp online anytime at camp. Four. Join us of any aspiring young minds as they share their opinions onhe issue important to them. The commanders of northern ad testify on security challenges affecting the western hemisphere. From the Senate Armed Service commtee what this is just under two hours. [inaudible] good morning. Testimony from d commander north American Aerospace temp command and richardson. ■ i en evacuate nonessential personnel. This involves both of your commands to various degrees and resources in support to respond. National security as principalzc command. The first priorities outlined in the National Defense strategy is defending the, thats posed by the people china. As we see thrts from other competitors, unconfident the common defense evolved. The defense policy guidance this challenge and when asked for an update and how it will trarm dee urgency estimates over the past year with the chinese unidentified phenomena in this case. These events raise concerns they ave an awareness and it must be secured to protect citizens technologies to provide protection. Id be no caps and what additional tools and resources the u. S. Law enforcement for cartels engaged Human Trafficking success Security Cooperation and the harm he had supporting the home and security. Turning to southern there going challenges from china and russia in latin america. The political and economic instability present a situation adversaries are white. China in particular is the structure and 5g expanding network. Im interested in your assessment challenge with■9■m yr latin america. The outcomes supportn transnational they are contravening to Overdose Deaths each year. ■d the nations and other in these efforts and resources. You know security throughout his contribute to the flow of migrants. Economic instability among violence and corruption continuesoajor source and security in the region especially the northern triangle, guatemala and el lvador. Id like to know your views what can be done to help and prove the situation. Thank you to our witnesses and i look forward to your testimony and as a reminder, there will be a closed hearing. Thank you andak witnesses fos here. She clearly china and for these vulnerabilities at home and the western the 2022 National Defense strategy defense is a top priority half ago the Biden Administration has not matched that goal. Year after year the biden punch the request for the radars for proper air defense and they remain unable to protect against small drones. This a clear and significant vulnerability. Wargames to ignore resnc problems that arise in a potential conflict. The Biden Administration■o is to learn from its mistakes. Last year surveillance chinese blimp labs for last years defenses and a senior at Biden Administration officials responded congressional oversight oie informationweek. They declined to production vald so with this committee mandating it distinguished chair. The spy balloon was a failure of the most pressing, defense is the one of the southwest border. And supply texaco using chinese precursor chemicals ande crisis can only worsen. ■ carten trafficking operation across our open is lucrative charging thousands and it is thf terrorist infiltration. Cnn reported Human Smuggling Network with ties to isis helped more than a dozen individuals enter our country in october, two iranians on the Security Threat list were caughm mexico. ■d agens responsibility of the southwest border and the dod is one of them. Explain the contributions included. We have challenges concerns about the chinese america the ce communist party using this playbook that predatory threats to influence government simultaneously it enhances its military presence and limits access. Its happening right here and we cannot ignore it. Two quick examples two underscore making latin america dependent for Communications Technology something tried to do an hour entry incentives economic influence camping. Un i look forward to hearing how impact stability of the region the threat they pose during National Security. N . There other influences, maduro asserted provocative extraterritorial claim sovereignty over a large portion of the neighboring nation of iona. This is so close is struggling trou mismatch the requirements and resources received. We need to find ways to influence. For example, lets Strategic Capital i look forward general assessment of the most pressing resources and immediate to learn what congress can do to help. I note your name rhymesnn■ with cuba, is that right . We expect both of you to live up to these. Thank you. Distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. It is my honor to represent the me and women of the Aerospace Defense command. As we, Canadian Military and personnel are dependent, against events for multiple doctors and all domains. Only been inew we weeks, it is clear the United States and canada and network of partners based extraordinarily complex strategic environment. Editors advanced kinetic systemd military infrastructure in north america and threshold. Bly advand these capabilities targeting our infrastructure and networks. Threats present in all domains and they include the arctic region. He remains a challenge and modernizes and grows the modern submarine of hypersonicea for Homeland Defense. While capabilities are a capability, its an immediate nationstate concern. Significant capacity to strike inside north america with air and sea lost conventional weapons. Lost and forces in ukraine pressing in systems that can threaten the United States and advancedubmanes, hypersonic vehicles, icbms as well as cyber and undersea capabilities as well as development of systems for Nuclear Power cruise missile. Meanwhile north korea continues frederick while test launching longrange expanding ties with china and russia. ■ currently lack and capable district north america with longrange missiles investing in the capability and iran supports militant groups in the middle east and maintains Worldwide Network of operational surrogates. The most prevalent growing threats include cyber small Unmanned Aerial Systems employed until the u. S. And canada against military infrastructure in ways not possible a few years ago. defense well beyond north am both commands are working in congress to improve awareness to detect, track and defeat ranging small Unmanned Aerial Systems. North america is an endeavor that requires to campaign against threats and all domains among these approaches that reiref information conventional Operations Forces and Intelligence Community in interagency and international partners. The importance of this cannot be overstated and a support the departments work todvan joint command and control concepts as we seek to share information as quickly as and decisionmakers around the world. A 90 day assessment through the Department Joint force and congress to execute a task and commands could or should dore more. Look forward to sharing findings on how they will best s the the challenges are real but there should be no doubt about the result to deter aggression and if necessary, defeat threats to our citizens. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you morning and am happy to answer your questions. Of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. I dedicated men and women to discuss the challenges we share with our neighbors in the caribbean. National Security Strategy recognizes the link between this security and our own security. We are harnessing the power of partnership from team usa in support of democracy leveraging all instruments of national power. The clumsy, information, military and economics are challenges that impact ourng collective security. Our shared neighborhoodem crosss that are homeland. A call to action. In almost two and half years ive made it my priority to ared listen and understand what affects us all. Partners in the western hemisphere with whom we are bonded by trade and valued, democratic traditions and family coercion. Easingly im learned our presence matters. And democracy in the national secret, intellectual prt relateo agriculture and healthcare. The scope and scale is unprecedented. An initiative aimed at power and influence at the expense of the world democracies. The potential to fuel the world. Theyve already and is already extracting and exploiting. Predatory investment practices facilities and summer activities for a few of the activities that jeopardize the safet region. Russia remains an acute threat and bolsterines and cuba, nicaragua and venezuela. China, russia and iran increase their presence diplomatically and militarily in the region and these undermine democracies and challenge their credibility■ . China and russia exploit the presence of Transnational Criminal Organizations and amplify destabilizing gove the topic weapons, drugs and people and commodities counterfeit goods judy to the surge of functional related deaths here at home. The good news is working with partners leading to the defense all available levers to strengthen partnershiphe 28 likeminded democracies in the hemisphere to understand the power of working together to counter these shared threats. United states remains preferred most trusted Security Partner in the region. We trust investment and Security Cooperation programs to train partners in military security versus and joint exercise programs to build interoperability and Development Employment of emerging technology. We maximize resources allocated by the states internationalmilig programs for military financing and building interoperability and■■[ counterbalance military engagement and investment. The National Defense strategy states from a stable, peaceful and democratic western hemisphere and reduces Security Threats to the homeland. Adapt putting deterrence interaction everyday. Committed to working across allies and partners, combatant command, joint force and nonfederal agencies and u. S. His safety, security and prosperity in the western hemisphere. Part of team usa and Team Democracy and resourcing this team. D the power of our United States conference i look forward to your question. After all, in the record. [applause] let meay gaseous we have had unmanned vehicles, cost cod developed procedures commanders dealing with these . R the would penetrate the space. A system deal with t . Shortly after command, i realize the challenge of the large increase something that would drive in command because of a services do have authoritis but will remains to be done to ensure resrces equipped and standardized operating procedures to address the threats and what remains to bend safely without interfering with our airspace stur at this time there is not a designated role but at the end of the 90s0b■ . Will show ways that it could and should play that■u rol. That would involve other agencies such as the department of justice and fbi, Homeland Security. Level. They have authorities now and we would need to bring them together so we bring each capability together against these incursion threats. On march 10 we sent in the agency and there is the secretary of d 200 million for secit common, could you give us your sense of the implications the United States and the region . Thank you for the question he a lot of wide range or whatever is required for the department of defense so over the conducted commissions theyve been publicized the actions that would take place for disease across the in the situation has been deteriorating so the announcement will in the political initiations the past couple days so the political solution working and hopefully that positive path but if not, contingency plans are ready to respond. Pointed out mayo by china and russia, one of the leading edges of china economic■ and getting underway there willingness or eagerness to acquire more interest and iunded legislation to authorize United States to buy the shares the chinese speed is out, without be a problem . That would be a problem in the american prosperity of partnership for Economic Prosperity and where they hosted the heads of state and this would be and invest in Critical Infrastructure for the American Development bank and the finance corporation so to purchase those shares is been established in 1959 in the region. We dont move, the chinese will. Exactly right lets just say venezuelan president nicholas mindoro established control over the contested region■s■w in this lin and the region accounts for two thirds of the territory, how has region and the fact thatzuela . ■i . And activities that are taking against this democracy with an unjustified claim. And our support for guyana were shown that from the u. S. Government, and through all the instruments of national power, the diplomacy, the military and certainly do you have directions from the white house, from their superiors in the department as to what w should do . So as we work my engagements and what we do with security robust plan with guyana and we continued on that on ths been coordinated with our u. S. Government. Can you briefly describe the plant . It consists of visits by folks within my command, a engagements that we do, the exercises, the subject matter exchanges. We continue with all of those, not trying t situation but continued on path with our regular engagement that a been scheduled, and we have not that. Is the International Community assisting us in that regard . The International Community is very m and i was a our allies, part of a western hemisphere framework that we cited u. S. South, with a allies that work in the region,s and also france. So as a Work Together to coordinate our activity they also have activities and engagement they do in the region and are doing in guyana of those also coordinated. Thank you very much. Let me switch the general guillot. Deployment of National Guard tr o the border. I think maybe a lot of americans dont understand how often we do this. But its worsen considerably. The program is that the lead agency but it has deployed there previous 21 years. Theyre caedng to look like permanent. There is a difference in the way we do deploy notify these units, is there not, in the sense that if its a temporary deployment, thicket 180 days notice in advance. If its a regular employment it is a c year and half. So could you discuss that with us . Is my understanding correct . Unison is the primary difference that we see in Northern Command is we are in sport as you mentioned so, therefore, we wait for the request from the lead agency, in this case customs and border protecti, and request for assistance that is reviewed and then has boldly been approved by the department of defense at that point we can starttaff and the National Guard, the Quick Connect to support that based on the needs that are in that request for to would it be helpful if we treated it asnt deployment . Senator, i think more than treating it as af the requiremes dixons those changed that allows us to tailor the National Guard force to meet the changing requirements of the customer Border Protection. Where as if we had a permanent force we might have permanently the wrong type of unit to support. However, to your point, what we established and we must maintain is having a permanent commandandcontrol structure over there so we have continuity andy and how we present the forces and work with the customs and Border Protection. Do we need to give you different authority in that regard, or is it just a matter of the department . Senator, im sorry. Senator, with the authorities we need that we would most benefit from as you alluded to is time, time to pick and train and prepare the National Guard units ttrt the cbp. To both of you, tell us what you need, will try to get it for you. Thank you sir. Thank you very much, senator wicker. Senator king it. Thank you, mr. Chairman. In my notes since you been talking the word gap about five times some going to talk about gaps. General guillot, do you have a we learn more from fails and we do from successes. What did we learn from the balloon incursion about the adequacy of our norad . Senator, was learned a great deal. To the gaps, what we have we had some gaps in the lyric approach we wanted to build to detect with tomato winners from satellite data to tradional air. One of the problems is low altitude, is speedy thats right although it unto the serpee to f those on initiatives that were started by my predecessor, general vanherck by changing the sensitivity of the radars that we do have. And that has allowed us to have better domain awareness in that regime that you mentioned. However, there are s manifestine near future. Those are currently scheduled to be addressed by the over the horin radar, ivey hbts s s whh is a hypersonic and Ballistic Missile tracking base system. Those capabilities are essential to fill gaps that are growing because of the increase capability of the absurd. I would suggest that is an urgent need, given expense we ha but also given the incredible militarization of the arctic coast by russia. And theever create a significant risk i hope you can come to us with what you need because this somng we need to do in a hurry. We cant wait five years to develop this capacity. We also have anker gap in terms of our ability to operate in the arctic as he arctic ocome as images more militarized by the russians and a much more important body of water. Its like weve said he discovered the mediterrane talk to me about icebreakers. We only have one and half icebreakers, heavy icebreakers in the arctic. Thats correct, senator, and that is, we are severely outnumbered. We appreciatehe coa g say 421 i. Thats approximate number the russians have. And your arctic nation. I notice when the chinese to clothe themselves and your arctic nation, my position is that maine is a near caribbean state. [laughing] i share your view, sir. We do appreciate that the coast guard is procuring more icebreakers but even with those will be severely outnumbered, and that this limit our freedom of region. Its basically like not hitting the road to get to where you need to get. General richardson, lets talk about another gap, drugs. Since weve been sitting here about ten americans have died of Drug Overdose just since we begans meeting 45 minutes ago. One a day is one person a y is dying in my home state o■s maine. Do you have the capacity to interdict drug shipments coming in by sea that we know of . Ive asked this question every year for about the past ten years and am afraid i know the senator, so in u. S. Southcom we have detection Monitoring Mission and that is to gain the intelligence for speedy i shouldnt say you have the capacity. Do we, does a country. You have could traffic capacitya defecation. My concern is once we know about the dangers shipment, then do we have the capacity to interdict it . So we passed that intelligence over to Law Enforcement or partner nations added b o whose close enough to d t capacity we anticipate we are able to, know is out there, interdict about 10 of the known problem. . And with the resourcing and capabilities that we currently are given. Have emphasized that figure to our colleague we can 10 of what we know of. Thats inexcusable. I dont mean to say of the problems that strikes me is when everybody is in charge, nobody is in charge. You got yourself, dea, dhs, Intelligence Community. And the problem is americans are dying. In about every ten days weptemb. 3000 people people die in this country every ten days, and use the the word in your testimony, assault. Thats what it is. Its an assault over united oves a kind of domestic Law Enforcement problem when its an assault since most of it is cong from outside of our country. So i hope that you will work with your colleagues perhaps for mccaskey group to get after problem of interdiction. And if we dont have capacity, if we dont have enough coast guard cutters or do you just doesnt have the capacity, tell us. Because we cant solve a problem if we dont know what it is. We know the general shape of the probleutl us whats missing and what you can do in order to help protect this country. Senator, i would offer that we cant interdict our way out of this problem. Weve got to be able to go after the networks. Weve got to be able to go after the drug labs we got to be able to follow the money, and the Money Laundering which is fueling this a very rich that te Transnational Criminal Organization speedy i grieve your way to talk about the demand side. In treatment and prevention. I told agree with that but this is aisroblem that i think we do have some capacity to deal with. Final question. This isnt about a gap, whats your overall assessment of the chinese incursion into latin america . Specifically, they have been doing this for someim parts of the world. Theres some development of buyers remorse that the chinese have performed as they were expected, that the debt colonialism is becoming a problem. Is that occurring in latin america, in your view. Was absolutely senator, and my concern as a ctader for the 2 of 31 countries in the region have signed on to the belt and road initiative. But its all investment, a lot of investment in Critical Infrastructure where the bigmoney projects are. Thats deep water port, 5g space, safe city, smarts the technology to be able to spy on the populations. And so its with these Stateowned Enterprises from the prc, and my concern is being able to use those for military application if required and its ll of the Critical Infrastructure. Thank you. Senator fischer place. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank you both for being here today. General guillot, the pressure our discussion thats on the challenges of detecting, characterizing and tracking potential threats to our hod most americans are fully aware of of the incident with the chinese balloon, but northcom has other as well, especially with protecting the homeland from the more advanced threats that are out there which missiles. Why is having that improved domain awareness, which is the ability to detect and track the threats and also to provide a clear threat picture of whats outo discriminate what youre seeing . Why is that so important to defending our homeland . Sat time, time to inform leaders to make decisions and enact defeat mechanisms to defeat these threats that are coming in. You mentioned the discrimination capability as the threat becomes more advanced and they can put■v decoys. We could needlessly shoot interceptors at objects that not a threat, but having the discrimination where to make sure we can actually shoot and kill the warhead that would be a threat. And the other thing i would quickly say, is the capability are growing so much by the adversary that domain awareness you mention needs to push out further away from shores, detect earlier, characterizing earlier as you mention swing more time to employ the defense capabilities that we have. Are we moving quickly enough . Senator, right on, right on the edge. I think that we are moving quickly and appreciate all the support from this body and the services, but we cant pause at all because the adversaries and multiple adversaries, not just one, are growing very,■ very quickly and it really is at an alarming rate. I am concerned about what we are seeing in the president s fy 20205. Administration decreases spending for thelise interceptor program, and its stating its going to be delivered in 2035, yndaa of fy , that requires the Missile Defense agency initial Operational Capability of that program by december 31, 2029. How to respond to my concern . Senator, my response is that i view hypersonics as perhaps the most destabilizing threat that we have out there because of the fast speed, and more than that the maneuverability and unpredictability on what it will impact as opposed to a Ballistic Missile which is fairly ive worked very closely in my short time with ndaa. Please with some of the efforts they are doing to■v the glide phase and then also using existing systems such as the sm sex to adapt against that threat. And also very pleased with the ndaa is doing with the hbtss, the satellite capability to detect and track hypersonics. Just yesterday we from a Senior Analyst with the national air and space intelligence center. He told congress court, china now a world leading hypersonic arsenal. So given the pace we are seeing with russia and with china if they advance their Hypersonic Weapons programs, should the department accelerate the developmentho Defense Systems . Really when it is technically feasible to do so. Senator, i support moving all of our capabilities against the strategic threat you mentioned as far left as possible based on the growing and consistently going capabilities of her avaricious. Thank you. General richardson, thank you for all the work that you this country. When we talk about china and the belt and road initiatives, you answered senator kaine on that, but when youre looking at the longerterm strategies that hast they continue to do in your area of responsibility, how serious a threat is that . I look at it as a series threat because of the ability of the state owned, controlled by the government companies. If i just take the panama canal wned enterprise along either side of the panama canal, and thats a very important strategic line of communication. And so there are a lot of large implications there in terms of in all the critical infrastrucre, the water port, the 5g space, safe city, smart city technology. So very concerning. Thank you. And thank guillot, you made comments i think was yesterday before the house committee, or two days ago before the House Armed Services committee, about seeing the possibility of seeing in the very near future chinese aircraft homeland. I thank you for bringing that to our attention. Thank you, senator fischer. Senator hirono, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you both for being here. General guillot, i remn missiledefense posture, and that dods us not have a plan to address the current and future missiledefense needs of hawaii. Its an issue i have brought up with just about anybodys to tes. In in the 2024 ndaa directs a n or the Missile Defense of the wife which indopacom is leading. General, your predecessor tony last year that northcom is responsible for protecting hawaii againstthreats from nortf course, we also need to concern ourselves with the missile threats, cruise missiles and hypersonics. Have you been coordinating with indopacom regarding the development of the missiledefense plan . Senator, i have. We work very closely with indopacom on all defense of our entire homeland. I also agree with the characterization that general hcnherck did on our specific role in that. So i have some concerns that there are so many different commands involved in the missil of hawaii. Missiledefense in general. So we have you. We have, indopacom, space come, stratcom, missiledefense agency. You have some concerns about how all of your core needing and come up with the kind of plant that we need for missiledefense . Senator, i think that we communicate very well with each other. I think tha we all understand the priorities and so i havent seen any place where having multiple agencies responsible for a common presented femur challenge but im very acutely aware of the potential and i watch for that very closely to rex a plan from indopacom, so that plan is going to be presented to us i hope my next month, which is the timeframe for that plan. I assume that plan will reflect the coordinated input from all of you general richardson, china is building a deep water port in peru that is expected to open this the firm and will be the first south american port by ch. This is just one example of chinas growing influence in latin america through economic ties, controlling Critical Minerals and establishing port and space facilities. This presents a unique risk to u. S. National security and order. General, what changes are you seeing in the region as result of the growing influence of the prc and what steps are you taking to counter chinas influence in latin america . So thank you, senator, and we have double down with the increase of funding last you from the United States congress, us and southcom and africom received some defense funny the wa cooperations, programs and that also with flexible authorities come so that was extremely helpful. And it allows us to be very terg able to help our partner nations, to count for that. Our ability to be able to respond and be responsive, these heads state are general and the seat for one term for years so the working on a stopwatch, not a calendar and there cant show progress within mtys, really appreciate that resourcing. So you mentioned that we have provide additional resources. You think that we doing enough to counter . Because china is from my perspective it were at a specialist course in the indopacific area. We know what their influences are in with the Pacific Island nation, for example. Another in latin america. Are we doing enough to really address all of the kind of longterm focus that china has the route so, senator, through all of the instruments of power of team usa and bring you those together and synchronizing and integrating better, the chairman brought up the American Partnership for Economic Prosperity and the iddm in this program that through the initial program to invest in the western hemisphere is huge. And its just the start i would recommend that that is something very similar, this program come to the economic recovery act of 1948, which was so instrumental in terms of the economic recovery. And they see that the economic recovery for the the impacts of covid, what it did to the economys of the region, and know the Transnational Criminal Organizations taking advantage s a first start with this 11 heads of state from latin america that were here in washington in november of 23 for thisgrhat was holding out billions of dollars for Critical Infrastructure investment by the user government. So were on a very dashing u. S. Government. With our latin american leaders with this economic investment. I would say National Security on the economic security. We can do more and through this program if we can build this out we would be on a good path withd neighborhood so close to her homeland. Well, that aspect of working with our latin American Allies i think is really critical because thats what were doing in the area. If i could ask one more question related to some questions from senator king . Keep it short, illee that regat the interdiction of drugs, that it■kmw requi■res us to pay atten to some other aspects such as going after these criminal forces. Is there an intergovernmental taskor some sort that you are all working together, the weekly dod, doj, coast guard to we are working together. I would say that we need to, that needs to be more focused, more resourcing on this part g sets. And i would say from the moneylaundering to the drug labs and followinghe small semie that has, thats loaded with counternarcotics, but actually getting to where its produced in getti i there. So the work weve done in colombia has been very effective. But the amounts are only increasing, and so weve got to figure out, weve got to follow this money and we got to get after holistic, more filled out robust program. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Ir. Senator rounds has yielded to senator budd. Store but, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator rounds for yielding. General guillot thank you both for being here by the way its my understanding been a lot of incursions along our southern border. How many drone incursions have doing . Senator, the number of incursions with something that was alarmings i took command last month. I dont know the actual number. I dont think anybody does but its in the thousands. I have talked to customs and Border Protection who are responsible for the uasns, and r along with doj. And they put the number at thousands. Is that in the thousand . I would say probably over a month, we could probably have month. General, do they in your view represent a Homeland Defense threat . Senator, they alarme from being the person responsible for Homeland Defense. I havent seen any of the manifest in a threat to the love of National Defense but i see the potential only growing. General, continue on with a different topic. You consider the f1trik eagle to be capable aircraft . Are the particular characteristics for the f15 senator, i think the f15and strike eagle is a phenomenal aircraft. What makes it applibleur theater is the same thing that makes it applicable around the world is persistently. Its in many ways unmatched its on matched pair to her. It a phenomenal radar, allows it to pick out low, slow moving and also low radar crosssection such as a drone of the threats like cruise missiles. The strike eagle is a fantastic aircraft. Thank you. L year 25 budget the air force plans to divest 26 f15 strike eagle at the same time that is lected f35s, f15 and other fighters so scott be very concerned. Not just for Homeland Defense and the descriptions that you should moment ago, but including potential conflict with china. And also for respons commands. So if you would agree to keep your eye on that and share with us concerns as they arise related to the f15. I will, senator. Thank you. Changing topics, geral richardson and general guillot, both, you mention tcos just a minute ago, general richardson to like the mexican cartels often of lethal fentanyl, that they move people. So many of these activities proceed without interruption in both of your a responsibility. Section 1068 of the fiscal year 2024 ndaa requires the secretary plan for coordinating with defense partners in north and south america, and supporting an Agency Departments and agencies to counter human tra traffickiny these tcos. Even giving consulted on developing that plan . General richardson, start with you. Senator, rework migration every day in that United States southern command, and■ for this past year with the trilateral agreement that the United States government signed with panama and colombia. So we are very aware of the migration. If i i may, just be on genl awareness, secretary of defense is a card to submit a plan for chordate with the defense partners. Are you working on that plan . I am a specific to work on that plane for the department of defense, the osd and the jointk. Thank you. General guillot . The same answer. When not working correctly. We were in support of the department. You know, thats not you, but to the department of defense and the secretary, thats disappointing. So i like to followup with both of you and the department on this to make sure that that begins giving up limited so we can begin stopping the illegal other drugs and the tragicd trafficking of humans. You know, thats big business for the cartels and its continuingountries across our h. So what efforts beyond that plan since that is not yet been developed, what efforts are already underway with you or your parties to addss trafficking, general richardson . Thank you, senator and im not aware that the report is t could very well be, the well along its way. We are just not actively working on it from our levels. Staff and the osd will work those things to allow us to continue to execute our daily because i have the very end in my aor which is a huge Human Trafficking area. And youre exactly right in terms of the Transnational Criminal Organizations have only gotten more powerful. Over 300 billion annual revenue business. The traffic humans, drugs, gold, lithium, all kinds of counterfeit goods. So only gette powerful. And so the work that we do that Colombian Military and operations set to go the criminal networks that are doing these criminal activities as well as the Panama Center front and Border Forces that are going after in panama. In interest of time, general, i i will you but i would love to continue discussions perhaps offline about your efforts in regards to Human Trafficking in north. Thank you, thank you senator budd. Nk you. Great to see both of you. General richardson, yesterday we were talking a little bit aboute ground being chaotic, gangs running rampant in their capital. And this week the Prime Minister of haiti announced he would resign if and can you pause the agreement is in 1000 Police Officers a totally new government, government would be put into place. Southcom has successfully airlifted Embassy Staff out of the country, but a number of Americans Still remain in haiti and some may be l leave. Some are concerned that the u. S. Has not initiated a noncombatant evacuation order, and neo, to get americans out of haiti. General, have event has to operate an evacuation . So, senator, as part of the wide range of contingency plans that tenant has we are ready for a neil activation is■xr7 requir, and have other plans ready to go as we always do, and keep those so we are ready at time for anyb type of crisis. Any additional preparations in the event that this becomes a necessity . I think■ that two missions f increasing the security at the embassy and a little bit of my capability as well, exp that, is the platform that we would use if we need to expand from there. And so we put in all of the necessary measures that are necessary for any of the plans to be activated. So it would be true to say theres mison planning currently underway in case you have to do this . Senator, we always do Mission Planning in the military, so absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you, general. General guillot, i just on monday morning i got back from a trip to the arctic where i was able to see firsthand some of the efforts by the navy to pursue our arctic strategic objectives. And the arctic is a real area of concern and a good example of the intersection between defense policies, climate, and strategic parthiing i. C. E. Is making the arctic more accessible to everyone including russia and china. Its rich with oil minerals, fishing, other natural resources, and we have peacefulc benefits the United States and our partners and allies. Russia see to use arctic as a staging ground for power projection. In addition to its being a critical defense and deterrent for the homeland. The region. We have made Real Progress in combating russian influence in the arctic over the last year with finland andwe nato. Now every country with a border on the arctic is part of nato with the exception of russia. We must not miss this opportunity to advance our interest in the arctic while ruiasocusing on their illegal and brutal invasion of ukraine. General guillot, id like to do more detail what you think the u. S. Andlook like in the arctic. Senator, first thanks for visiting our forces of the dream its an extremely i. C. E. Camp operations that demonstrate our capability up theit submarines and lc 130 130 al the other aircraft and forces. As far as what we could doro ine arctic, you described exercises that were doing, ill call the alaska site or the approach. Weve also had some success working with the nato and european command on the 2 00 in last week for the first time in over two years, the russian sent two bear bombers down along that average to what we call the g. I. Uk gap of greenland, iceland and the united kingdom, perching the canadian and u. S. States their defense identification zones this activity in over two years. We were able to track them the entire time, thanks to the radar between countries within eucom, norway is what i will point out, and Northern Command. So we are to track this activity did you, what range we able to intercept them . Senator, we didnt have to intercept and b aircraft flying to the point we would intercept them before they crossed the identification zone. And the russians turned■ round prior to reaching that zone. Soviet aircraft both canadian and u. S. Fighters postured along the line which i think is probablytening to the russians to fly all the way to find out that we are waiting for the. Have you seen that is due to cooperation. The russians are pretty good operating in the arctic or have you seen the dances by the cheney . What ive seen, senator, is willingness and desire by the chinese to act up there. Weve seen that in the maritime. Weve seen them under the cloud of a technical or scientiuyk9■fc research, but we think it certainly most desha multimission to include military. And then expect i expect to see an activity in the alaska part of the arctic as soon as this year potentially. Its a very big concern by. Thank you, general. Senator. Senator rounds, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General guillot, general richardson, first of all thank you to you and your teams for your service to our country. I would like to follow up just begin talking about with regard to haiti. So general richardson, it seems to me that it rather surprises me that the main of the been in advance notice requesting additional or followup with regard to the possibility neooperation in haiti. Wouldnt that seem to be kind of an advisory that would be approprie receive something, at least from the administration, indicating it is a possibility and wouldnt that ybe opportunity to notify those individuals responsible for providing you with the resources necessary to do your duty to be ready to go . I mean, it doesnt seem m be on high alert all the time. Could you expand on it that a little bit, please . Senator, i didnt mean to ve not ready for that nobodys asked us to be ready or anything like that. We have been dcubeen talking wit staff, our chairman and her secretary of defense over the past two weeks abo all of the range the plans that we might have to do an evacuatn, and neo, a those things. So those nations of extracting some nonessential personnel from so its not j matter of being ready to fight tonight as much as yeah, we are aware and we are doing some preplanning just in case the call is made . Absolutely. Re ready to go. We have all of our plans ready to go. Okay, thank you. And also i noted with regard to discussions here about the Transnational Criminal Organizations come the drug cartels and so forth south of our border. Both of you have some responsibilities with regard to whethe its in other■■ parts of the norad command or so. Just a reminder once again that under the ndaa wve authorized use of our cyber teams to be able to find that in defense to know who these people are, where the bank, how they can make and hopefully we will not just authorized but now we will find that part of the operation so that we can assist those countries who want our expertise in find finding e about these organizations that that is available to them, simply thats available to you for your use. Let me also, general guillot, the potential investments a Fighter Aircraft by the air how the air National Guard who showed a significant portion for the burden of Homeland Defense, how they will be a capacity while also fulfilling their obligations under the National Defense strategy. I bring this up because the resourcing of the air National Guard received, that the resourcing that the air national to be incongruent with their mission assignments, which include both the Aerospace Control over Defense Strategy using the resources, and then also support the joint force in that National Defense strategy. Im just curious, are you involved in any planning or discussions with secretary kendall and general low as they discuss the plan for longterm air forceight fure . If not i would encourage you involvement. Could you share a little bit about your communications with them . Yes,enhanks for the outcast and contributions of our National Guard. We cannot conduct our air Defense Mission without them. Theyre not only the cornerstone, they provide 20 different aca sites that you mentioned, 24 7 cubicle to respond to. Because of the important i have talked direct with the the f staff of the air force about the commitment of the air force to that mission and that also wo he future as we draw down some capabilities and bring on new capability to include the collaborative combat aircraft, next air dominance. The general fully supports our mission and understands the no fill nature of our mission,■i ad then he invited me to be a part of the future discussions on how to incorporate these cubital. Actually, because we had to be able to incorporate the air guard and heft of the resources to do that successfully. General richardson, we discussed chinas going footprint and influence throughout southcom and how important■ u. S. Remain engaged in the region. One of the main tools you have at your disposal as we discussed in office is section 333 of title ten, which lets the dod helped build the security capacity of friendly nations. Unfortunately, section 33333 requires you to navigate a ponderous bureaucracy in both the Department Defense of the department of state before you canake use of this authority. It is not agile and it clearly is not very quick. Ironically, that Chinese Communist party is not bogged down by the same bureaucratic inertia. How important is section 333 authority to your mission, and how can it be improved . It is my main lever insecurity operations after cooperations, senator, us of the 333 triple three as we call it and the ability to■ be able toi have triple three package right now that is navigating all of the wickets that he needs to go through for a■; counter prc efft on port scanners, for example. And the stealing of data that po put a u. S. U. S. Company in there to be able to do the scanning for an ad out cargo isxtbout the data, as of the 333 and flexible authorities and being responsive is extremely important, and so i appreciate the help and assistance on those authority. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator r please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General guillot and general richardson, thank you for your service and to all the minute when his along with you. We appreciate that. General guillot, you mentioned the importance of the challenges washes a significant chums with is an arctic in in a previous question and how we need to seek ways to address that come make additional investments in■ the arctic resilient platforms as well as old coldweather tr, which is essential for our troops. I keep portion of conus, coldweather training is completed every winter during Northern Strike at the national all the main War Fighting Center in michigan. We are blessed with coldweather during the winters and it provides a great training portunity. So the question for you, general, is that while the some attorney portion of northnke ise that the exercises winter iteration of the training that we conduct their has some great expansion opportunities to provide Cost Effective coldweather training for men and women who may be tasked to serve up there. So my question for you is how can we grow conus arctic training through exercises Like Northern sike to suprt priorities of our national Security Strategy . Senator, i would be a strong proponent of doing exactly as you stated. One of the concerns visited alaska about a week into my command, to assess many of e areast you just discussed, was that the forces up there extremely welltrained and equipped with the right equipment to operate in arctic, but the backfill forces are probably very welltrained but theyre not equipped and they havent trained in that obama. So anything we could do for the supplementing forces or the backfill forces that would go into the arctic, train them in either in the arctic environment or in something as you described that would replicate that, will be very important not only to give them those skills to identify what other pieces of kit and equipmeha to develop an issue so they can seamlessly operate in the strategic and five. Very good. Thank you. General National Guard state Partnership Program links are state National Guard units with global partners. The program certainly has been invaluable i believe in strengthening our relationship with partner nations including southcoms 29 active participants. As part of the state Partnership Program u. S. Embassies ideally have a Bilateral Affairs officer as workis well as the partner country. But despite what i believe is a critical role, these ballots, these ballots unfortunately often say, sit vacant, forcing the cocom commanders to use their assigned billets to pay for these. So my question for you, general, is first off, what role do Bilateral Affairs officer split programs . Sfully implement a how can we address the gaps that exist in the billets to ensure their field and we can get the thank you, senator. I would say the spp program i have a large spp program ang all the geographic combatant commands and we are very grateful for the program. Its a huge enabler. Weve got to keep those slots filled with his o synchronize the activities of the National Guard spp program with an Operations Investments i have been used southcoms or is a Critical Mass to have to keep those field. And with the theater Maintenance Partnership initiative, which is a go out to put nine centers of excellence in the region, and this is partly with the partnern, militaries and their military academies with Program Instruction to teach and train maintenance and the culture of maintenance, but is a tactical of the program although we have to level into the ministries of defense where you can anticipate lostics and teach logistics and that culture of maintenance to keep equipment ready and increase the writing is a capability for these partnernat. Appreciate that. A a question i have for you as well, general richardson, is at myd right now that the Chinese Military is training about five tim more United States. I have some concerns that these ch military education exchanges may have an outsized impact on our allies, particularly in southcom. So my question for you ist with continue to let chinese education exchanges to outpace what we are providing . And how can congress support your command in c so the prc is using our playbook against us in terms of these exchanges and these all expense paid training exchanges for for a year to two years to china. And we are able to provide to the program for professional military education, but the difference that it makes when they come to our schools in the united United States, for example, when you dont speak the language or speaking the language, and i would say there are seval, ministers of defense and about 15 sheets of the defense that event to our United States schools. Chiefsrtie build the trust. I dont have to build the trust over a year with these leaders. So if they bring to our u. S. Schools i was a we need to continue to sustain that and even increase our program. Thank you, general. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator peters. Senator scott, ple my remarks ad questions each of you whichs something that what majority. Chuck schumer singhn right now. The majority leader on the is calling for a new Israeli Government. This is coercion. Its dangerous, itsif chuck sce netanyahu, it doesnt matter. We should respect the Israeli Government should be respected by the americantand strong with israels elected leadership, not threatening it as a fight terrorism. I personally hope, i hope iael destroys, kills every hamas terrorist there is. First of all thanks to both of you for your service. Somewhat to see if you think the four as a couple your nationalsd interest means the military must be made to focus on the cold hard facts and not only what our adversaries are doing but what theyre capable of doing. The violence and unrest in haiti is heartbreaking. It is a symptom of political unrest that is only continues t. Baudouin has the Biden Administration taken an active role in destabilizing the region by appeasing cuba, venezuela nicaragua that it appears white do with the consequences of the political unrest these regimes create and support. The policy of the United States could not be that which is intey totally unvetted anytime theres trouble around the world. That is what President Biden is done at the border with the lead pe after the botched withdraw from afghanistan with 90,000 unfitted people coming in. Now dont does this administration open up the floodgates of people who dont know anything about to come, anything about what would bleated to come to our country, President Biden democrats added level of government then give these individualsh,wyers and evd for by the u. S. Taxpayer. The entire Biden Administration can be summed up as this. Al immigration here, a piece of evil regimes the forces evict people to pay for the unrest, community in crisis ms border crossings that result. Cant be oriented to the chaos in haiti. Its also worth noting all of this work is to the benefit of her abbasids like china, russia and iran. Ournemies thrive on her chaos. These evil regimes are working every to expand a foothold in the western hemisphere and decrease stability for the■3 proxies to threaten the use and destabilize the region. For southcom we see iran infiltrating the region and communist chinese initiatives like b atheir influence and sadr countries like america with massive debt. For north, we see russia and communist chinese useer attacks going after a supply chain to take advantage of the open border. We are even seeing our adversaries undermined u. S. Security boss expanding the place in the arctic. I have a couple questions. General richardson, lets start with haiti. The people of haiti the breaking point. Florida families with the levitation against interstate our compassion. But there would about how this instability in the region to battle include haiti but all ofa Mass Immigration of it in my sticker i spoke with the coast guard elastic or i would like you from your w plan to address the possible fms migration if it which may not only affect florida but also our bases within the creeping . What are■ to us with the dod assets and capabilities . So in terms of a mass migration, we did, we have ournd walk last summer on naval station guantanamo bay. And that was with all of the interagency to walk through all the processes and ensure all the steps that are necessary to take place are actually inlace. Everything is refreshed, the equipment, everything is ready to go. And so as we work through all of ns, i assure you that u. S. Southcom and department of defense are ready to go. Second question for general a lot of us worked on getting a dual use a number for Homestead Air force base in fiscal year 23 ndaa. This base allows uspower and mra reisch and the rent is proxies are present and active. I asked air force leadership flying mission of the base. General brownish of his committed to having a platform operate posted. Can you talk with the strateg needed . So Homestead Air reserve base actually is a great staging platform. When i was in northcom in myob h command we stayed out of homestead, florida, responded to the bahamas for the damage that was done by hurricane dor our ml operations can buy theater special Operations Command is at Homestead Air being able to then we staged r missions that we conducted into haiti this past week from hosted. Homestead. And sohe for the department of defense to have homestead as a staging base in south florida to be able t to respond to you mentoring assistance and Disaster Response type activities is very hugely helpful. Thank both of you. Scott. Senator kaine, please. Thank you, mr. Chair a thanks to our witness forwt■ your■sreat service. General guillot, i want to begin with you. My colleagues and i on this committee have recently discussed installation security from with respect to drum threats at bases in the United States. Recognizing that were in an unclassified setting, what can you tell me about how n this isd with what partners are you working with challenge . Senator, northm of my 90 day assessment, to tell the truth, the counter uas mission has dominated that so fa month. Of course i knew was an issue coming from another combatant command where we faced the that threat in a very differentay because of the environment. What i wasnt prepared for the number of incursions that i see. I have gone into joint base langleyeustis, and amusing that as the centerpiecee where no rent and northcom can and should do more as this merging capability outstrips the have to address it. And can you talk about other partners that you would with . Because obviously there sort of of this here so else is working with you on this problem . Yes, sir, absolutely. So primarily to problem of Homeland Security and department of justice along the border have the primary responsibility. Thats who im working with there. In the interior its the services that have the responsibility for defending their bases pixel. To working with each individual service and then also against depart of Homeland Security and department of energy for specific Critical Infrastructure locations. Those are the primary ones that it were to it. Thank you for that. Now question of both of you the importance of fms was mentioned by general guillot last week. You mention it in written statement. General richardson you and i talked about a little bit last week when we were together. The fms programs that dont increase interoperability and re can help reduce partners reliance upon strategic competitors as well. What are you hearing from their counterparts about fms rexx on it what you particularly direct that to general richardson come recognizing general guillot short tenure this been domated by other issues. But general richardson, could you talk about the . So estimates as a critical enabler and odyssey with being able to have our equipment haven having u. S. Equipment and being interoperable and that sort of thing is an imperate. And so what secretary austin and the chairman dent instituted to speed up the processes within fms over two years have taken place but i would say weve got to streamline that to the interagency because its not just stake in that and that approves things. And so we got to see what that process a little bit better and speed itast week in my office about the potential synergy between the state partnership progrha discussing e theater Maintenance Partnership initiative. Could you talk a little bit about that and whether it could support or complement the fms well, it actually, i mean thats a whole reason for. We have u. S. Equipment in these countries, and so maintenance■dy and its hard for our partner nations as well. Is a ton and the National Guard so it makes it an easy way to teach and ing as well. Last question, one of the best advantages we have in your region the peace and security agenda. You have made this a priority in your trouble, can you become impact the initiatives are having . A huge impact so thank you for the question great the Security Council 13254 peace and security so every visit i do in the country we have and securit. We have animalistic professional leadership program, many women and leaders in our military formation in the region so that goes nicely with our different programs. The diversity and ability to increase readiness within their forces and realized that and they continue on that path. Thank you very much and i back thanks, mr. Chairman everybody is important. One guarding the back door and how important that is. Change in the government and canada in the direction they are going which should be reported for all of us. Do you see any change in terms of how they are helping usze . The first day of my command left the chief of the called springs we talk about canadas to that and t■ha i a dead committed all will to have two finish share the first day will will read and when youu get pushback from the northern border and . That you will have many conversations there . I have. Although customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security have not requested support, its something to watch closely for a number of reasons. One is scheduled for entrycountd frequent discussions with the Intel Community to see if there are any threats coming through. Be able to use panama canal . Noo improve but my concern is the other■j side the lineup municatn the panama canal, i woulde extremely concerned about the and we watch it very closely. Be able to use it . My concern is using themilitd and the proximity through the panama canal is a concern to me, ■ i have no doubt animals secury and ability to do that. Is the expansiontarget ths down there they were doing a lot of work, and whether you keep up with that orp3■z not. The prc, senator . Yes. They are building a fourth bridge and track everything that is done with the panama canal and authorities and partners. To take place have you o any of your staff from south america to north america . ■a i visited several times ive been to the binational base in columbia and conduct joints and operation. In terms of the operations conducted comes from resourcing they have panama forces. The market is so important of the american our country. Im sure you all could have used it in yourb budget and to workh. We need to help you, we really do not thank you, chairman. Holding this hearing, our nation, appreciate it. I will hit Russian Forces because as russia continues war in ukraine and china asked with increasing aggression indo pacific, both cntries are steps to pose a direct threat to National Security here at home. How could north, adapt this posture proactively respond increasing presence in assets od in north america with. The best way for us to counter is to have presence of our own so the execution of exercising control in domains is extremely important primarily focusing in the region ofa. The number of chinese should have and the same thing on what we call the 2 00 approach on the northeast we have presence there marcus what i think is the best way to counter part of that exed multinational and partners showing the result in the most im going to move on again talking about security because this is a big part of our nd security so you talk about north on currently addressing several Security Threat but watching your opinion, the creation of a unified command specifically responsible for■m these operatis to ensure that a comprehensive hes of defense posture against my previous response i should have mentioned cyber because it is the most prevalent threat we see on a daily basis maritime in the air. Every day we have the actors putting russia and china networ, the strength we have to cyber land defeating those threats is keeping us operational. First, to protect systems. Vi uo operate and we have four networks we protect and beyond that isment of Defense Network o make sure all of those are addressed in the third thing wew work with the fbi in Strong Partnership and averting met help other members of thew we Critical Infrastructure community and if they need eod support, it synchronized through north, to protect. Your question via separate command, i nd look into it but my initial response would the two commands observed, the relationship and support from Cyber Command is normal and i would hesitate to do anything that separates them from theirmf ability to do Operational Cyber and defense of cyber under the same us so have looked closely because Cyber Command has been a tremendous partner. Thank you, that is valuable and i appreciate i ill talk about, the department of defense investments focus peoples republic of china. You have turned regarding lack of language expertise for countr■ s i2 t of responsibility . Sufficiently addressed by this recruitment. I think spanish predominantly and portuguese is brazil mobley have enough but because a law of our linguists will speak vanish as well as other languages as well so it is a matter of making sure we register demand and requirement all the time in this region is important and we have to keep the positions filled. The panama canal and prc important to have possibly more than spanish and portuguese. My time is up. Thank you very much. We dissipate we will arrive shortly take the opportunity. Congress has been considering this band, the military used begi t sell, you tell the impact it would have on your operations. Sharing for yielding spectrum between three part one gigahertz would have a Significant Impact on the home is a cap defense system. Is there a possibility of sharing i know some folks have come back it is something l review, i havent found a way we can share especially because nothing possibility for defending the homeland law would need full access for the various ebays, landbased that use that range. A period of time where it operates themselves, is not there . As we moderate, have made it clear we need 24 7 to those trade mark the chinese influence agrees in your area command and focus on one of the one thing is strategic panels be the generation for the General Electric power. You have seen focus trying to. Yes. Especially ambassadors and the lithium triangle and it works to extracts well as full and proper. As a non chinese anthonys and begin Processing Initiative American Partnership for prosperity in billions of dollars into Critical Infrastructure. I will recognize for additional questions the potential increase in the number chinese nationals come across the southern border■ is a lot f chinese nationals across the last year flying in and out of ch of ca different ordeal. I want to ask the about content pushed on social Media Channels and vulnerabilities with the order concerned about espionage, flight information do we have and what activities you like this happening at a rate that doesnt feel natural but the number of chinese nationals across my wonder if you could that select the number of chinese across the border is a big concern of mine. ■u■ to talk to the agents and leadership and have spoken the commission of the cpp on the subject. What concerns me chinese migrants the ability and a strong robust relationship with the Interagency Committee and the headquarters on the on the threat you described do we have some of this is in a c but will kind of coordination in