Have been with an average age of 25th. Averages average. That means quite a few of the fleet are substantially older. The shocking statistic, more than half of our our forces are not sufficiently ready today for our highend play. Interfere with you. You did your defenses and the like. More than half of our forces are not sufficiently. I think we also realize that demand we do that and alltime high all around the certainly its dangerous complex and constantly changing the that i can ever remember in the 34 years that i have been. Have to join my colleagues and say that a budgetary trajectory that resulted in sequestration is not going to allow us to sustain the space. Let me now do my plays became. I believe sequestration is going to place american lives at greater risk at home and abroad. Sequestration remains the law of the land in the United States air force simultaneously be able to defeat in adversary and one for cant deny a 2nd adversary the objective a seat as well is the from th
And signer and nuclear and signs and technology and readiness and people. In other words, i think everything is threatened mr. Chairman, under sequestration. And most of all i fear that american lives would be at risk. So i ask you again, please continue your leadership to get sequestration lifted permanently. Please keep on pushing. Thank you very much, and we all look forward to your questions. Thank you. Im going to ask the staff to put me on the clock because i have really one question directed to each of the Service Chiefs. At our retreat general dempsey said, and he said we could quote him the budget request was the lower ragged edge of what it takes to defend the country. If you were talking to my con state opportunities or our colleagues who dont deal in this area every day and had one minute to describe what the consequences to the country would be for not approving the amount that the president the administration has asked for for department of defense or your service how wou
Moving money and putting off unnecessary programs and delaying modernization but those cuts and delays we will do with next year with the return now of sequestration and added to the cuts already would be a back breaker for the United States army and i would argue the military at large. Were doing everything we can. Just basic commitments to save normal security. Yes we have a presence in afghanistan but those are not big operations. That is dated day commitments. We are mortgage eight our readiness just to meet these commitments is something bigger happens we will not be able to respond to it awaited people are used to was responding. Divemaster to get you to help us by giving specific examples. That is a very good example. White the platforms you have to give up wort strength you have to reduce our installations to have to close a week to help them understand. It is difficult we have 30 or 45 seconds before they are thinking about Something Different and that is a challenge. We do ha
Privilege of operating. Admiral greenert cannot be here due to a death in his family but im joined by the very able vice chief, admiral michelle howard. Uniquely, the navy and marine corps provide presence around the globe around the clock. The nations first line of defense. Presence means we respond faster. We remain on station longer. We carry everything we need with us. And we do whatever missions are assigned by our nations leaders without needing anyone elses permission. We have always known americas success depends on exceptional navy and marine corps. Article one of the constitution, which you quoted mr. Chairman authorizes congress to raise an army when needed. But directs it to provide and maintain a navy. From the first six frigates to our growing fleet of today from tripoli to afghanistan sailors and the marines have proven the founders wisdom. American leaders across the spectrum have understood the vital significance of the sea power. We deploy in peace just as much as in
And that also and this is very important and this gets back to the earlier discussion of sequester if its in the base budget, it is the base upon which we build our future budgets, and we need stability. We need a horizon so that we know what our budget is going to be not only this year but in years to come. Otherwise, we cant spend it efficiently, and we cant spend it strategically. We need that kind of horizon and sequester is what robs us of that, and thats why its bad in a manage yearal sense for anybody who has their budget sequestered. General dempsey, do you want to speak to that and perhaps its affect on readiness . As you know, weve been trying to dig out of a readiness hole. We said three or four years ago if the wars in iraq and afghanistan ended then it would take us three or four years to recover our readiness because we were ready for ten years for a particular kind ever conflict, which you know better than most. And so we had to kind of recapture our credentials for othe