Climb to glory and command the third corps and the commanding general of u. S. Army forces command. One accomplishment that is not in his bio and one he is very proud and he is a proud son of a marine and the picture is the Fourth Division going over the jima. At iwa general, we are proud to have you with us today. A difficult duty is coming up for you and remain neutral at this years armynavy game. We have Great Expectations for your neutrality. Thank you what you have done for our country and allies around the world. I would like to turn it around senior fell oove who will kick off the conversation about the defense challenges that you face and we face as a nation and hell conclude with questions and answers. The session is on the record today. If you have questions, send them. Edu. Nts ooth brookings over to you, mike. Mike thank you, john. And i add my personal gratitude not only for you joining us today and for the men and women in the military families and veterans who have sacri
A discussion with the brookings institution. Topics included operations in afghanistan, military readiness and the importance of emerging defense technologies. This is one hour. John ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a sincere pleasure for me to welcome our featured and honored guests today. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark a. Milley, United States army. Since becoming the 20th chairman of the joint chiefs in 2019, general milley has worked to realize the u. S National Defense strategy, which prioritizes competition with china and russia in American Defense planning. Chairman milley has worked tirelessly with civilian and uniformed leadership towards developing the u. S. Armed forces into a truly modern armed force capable of deterring and heading off the threats of all types that we may be facing today, including those emanating from nearpeer competitors that have now really pronounced once again the idea of Great Power Competition. He simultaneously kep
He is the chief officer building capabilities for the military and department of homeland security. We can talk about that as we go through the interview. Thank you for being with us today. Just to start, what led you to do this book . I know you have been thinking about these issues for a while and it is something you have encountered a lot on the Armed Services committee and senator mccains policy advisor, but what was the genesis that led to you sitting down and writing the entire book . Great question. I ask myself that constantly. Why did we get into this every day i was working on it . Basically two things. Both of these were a product of many years i looked at these issues, just thinking about this on a daytoday basis but the first was the growing realization that we had a fundamental problem i felt was underappreciated that people didnt appreciate that we were losing competitive advantage, we werent where we needed to be from a technological standpoint or operational standpoint
Just released. Hes a former staff director for the Senate Armed Services committee and prior to that he was advisor for john mccain and previously held other positions in the government. Right now he is the chief Strategy Officer that builds capabilities for the military as well as the department of Homeland Security and we can talk about that as we go through the interview thank you very much for being with us today. Its great to be here. So just to start off with what led you to do this book . Youve been thinking about these issues for a while and obviously this is something youve encountered a lot during your several years on the Armed Services committee and with senator mccain as a policy advisor what was the genesis that led to you sitting down and writing an entire book . Its a great question and i asked myself that constantly, why did i get into this every day i was working on it . I guess it was basically two things. One was and both of these were a product of the many years i
Fighter program. As i have consistently said, the f 35 Program Remains one of my top acquisition and sustainment priorities. Earlier this month and our last press briefing i made a commitment to come back to you when we were ready to announce the next f 35 contract. Here we aare. The f 35 Program Milestone authority alongside abwe are here to announce the u. S. Department of defense and Lockheed Martin have made tremendous progress and now have an Agreement Regarding the lot 12 to 14 Production Contract. This is a historic milestone to the f35 enterprise. As the f35 is our largest taxpayer investment and will form the backbone of the u. S. And allied fifthgeneration inventory for the foreseeable future. Anf in the joint Program Office are laser focused on driving cost out, quality up, and achieving timely deliveries of our capability to our war fighters. With respect to ontime delivery weve exceeded the total aircraft quantity we delivered to the war fighter last year. We have a 96 per