Center. We provide a wide variety of enablers that support special operation. We will keep the linkage that will not break. Thank you sir. I appreciate your commitment to making sure our military men and women are able to perform the missions they are given. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you general for your service to our country and your familys support of the service. You and i have had a good conversation on things and i will ask you what i ask most of the people being pointed. What do you consider the greatest threat . As a soldier and military officer, i would have to say it is russia. Russia is the only country on earth that retains the Nuclear Capability to destroy the United States. It has capability. Intent . Dont know. But the activity of russia since 2008 has been aggressive. They attacked and invaded georgia, seized the crimea and attacked into the ukraine. That is worrisome. I would also add china and north korea and isis along with iran including the recent agreement signed the other day. I would not put them in particular order. They represent security threats in their own different way. We talked also about the obstacles you are facing. Or that we are facing by using National Guard to the full extent especially in day to day operations. What are the obstacles that prevent the army prom using this army National Guard to the extent they should be as well trained as they are today. As you know senator, the National Guard has been key over the last decade and a half. They have served proudly and honorablely in afghanistan and iraq and they fully integrate a lot of Training Operations here in the United States. It would help if we had greater access to the guard. Right now, we have the guard as a state partnership overseas with a wide variety of countries. There is a lot of exercise and support of commanders we could use Ground Forces and current operation. Some are peace officers and some are active like in afghanistan and iraq. But access to the guard is key. And that all links back to the budget. We can only way for bringing them on under the ocho funding and many of the operations are exercises and not covered with the funding. I am sure to look forward in working with you on making that available because i think the guard can be used more effectively right now other than private contractors. What is your understanding of where the army stands being ready by the year of 2017 for with drawl . I hear the army is on track and ready for the full auditing in 2017. If confirmed you make proving the Army Acquisition system a priority. Absolutely. I think you willed it Cost Effective at change those systems. It ties back to the auditing as quickly as that has been done. Do you have ideas on the amount of contracts or the army contracts . We will do that. Thank you, sir. Thank you, chairman and thank you general and your family for their service to the nation. I wanted to follow up you confirmed what general testified to the committee before that russia is our greatest National Security threat. I noticed also in your advance policy questions you stated that the army in europe doesnt have what it needs. What does it need that it doesnt have and how important is this to thing about russia as the most significant threat we are facing . I think there are two parts. One to assure allies and the other to detur russian aggression. The army is placing activity sets and prepositioned pre repositioned equipment. There are a lot of tools we can use but i think we need increase Ground Forces on a rotational bases to deter russia or allies. I wanted to follow up, you answered senator mansion talk about access it the guard, and one thing we saw was a program with the air force that is called toting force enterprise active associates unit. It is total force so in New Hampshire we had an active doubt Duty Association between the air force and guard that has been really effective. I wanted to see if you would partner together and have this because the air force had good success and recognizes as you indicated today we would not have been able to fight the war in iraq and afghanistan without the guard and reserve and doing training and Work Together i am look into this and the abram document served well and we will implement that. I appreciate that. The program has been successful. How important is affective air Missile Defense to air operations . One thing that has been brought to my attention as we have the patriot and 13 allies rely on that but some of the allies have more modern versions of the patriot our troops have. I dont agree with that. I think the committee in the defense authorization, the army requested 106 million for patriot improvements to upgrade and that was actually accepted by this committee. I wanted to get your sense on assessment of the patriot air missile and Defense System and do you support the improve funding and how important is this for the troops . Senator, lets take the last part on how important it is. I dont think the United States army is coming under enemy air attack consistently since the invasion of normandy. We have the capabilities and we want to retain that forever. We have a robust defense capability that is capable of shooting down incoming air craft. Since the modern development of missile technology, that is another component. We have come under missile threat. We are under missile threat in the first gulf war and second gulf war. The patriot plays a key role in destroying air craft but in intercepting and destroying incoming missiles. The patriot is a key system to the air defense of our allies and soldiers on the ground. Thank you. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you general to your and your family for your service. Should you be confirmed i look forward to working with you during your tenure. I know you know about the rebound program and how important it is particular in hawaii. I saw a direct exact on facilities there when mail com funding is cut. I hope you will work with user pack to make sure facilities are maintained and modernized so the troops have the facilities necessary to perform the tasks. I will certainly do that senator. I know you share my view the rebalance of the asia pacific is more than rhetoric. The navys intentions are to place 60 of the ships in this area of responsibility. What do you see as the major component of the rebound strategy . Two of the list of threats included china and north korea. So the United States army play as key role. 810 largest armies in the world are in the pacific. Navy and air force and marines are fundamental to success for u. S. Security in the pacific but the army is too. We have deployed forces in north korea that have kept the piece peace for the last 60 years. And most importantly in the state of hawaii. So there is a considerable amount of army in the pacific that play a key role supporting the pay com strategy. We recognize that because of the budget issue certain reductions were inevitable. I appreciate the consideration given at a the rebalance of the system and hoist a strategic location and decisions made regarding the cuts to our army. Can i expect if confirmed you will continue to give ample consideration to strategic positions including alaska and the importance of the rebalance . Absolutely. As we go forward balancing the position of the army forces in accordance with the National Strategy and balancing that against risk is a key task for the army chief of staff and i will take that. This committee has spent considerable time on the issue of Sexual Assault in the military. It is still of course occurring and persist in the military. From your testimony and our meeting you find it totally unacceptable as well. However, while efforts are bogue made to support and encourage victims to come forward we are becoming aware of the problem of retaliation. Can you share specific plans to reduce not only Sexual Assault but stop the further abuse by retaliation. Senator, as you mentioned Sexual Assault there is no place for it in a disciplined military force. Two years ago there were 24,000 reports of Sexual Assault. That is wrong. It is not acceptable and we cannot accept those casuality and it is unacceptable. The army has done a lot over the last many years. There has been some progress but it is not enough and i am full oh committed if confirmed as army chief of staff to continue to work on the problem and bring it to zero. I saw a study showing 60 of victims report retaliation. Some by chain of command and others by peers. I think by chain of command retaliation we can get after that fast through a variety of tools and holding commanders accountable. Peeronpeer is more complex and i will to study to see what techniques could be used. This is an ongoing area of concern for many of us on the committee so thank you for whatever you can do to improve the situation vastly. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you general. It is great too you in front of the committee. I want to thank your wife for being here as well. Thank you for the support you have given over 30 years for your husband. I will not ask about the National Guard. We have had very in depth discussions in our office and i thank you for the willingness to work with the wonderful National Guard and those great young men and women that provide a great support system to the active component members. Thank you for that. I wanted to mention the ties between the active component and the guard. We do have our secretary bct from iowa rotating through jrtc right now. We do appreciate that partnership. I want to tag on with a little bit on what brought up in regard to the cases of Sexual Assault in military. I was at the west point visitor board of meeting yesterday and this was a topic we discussed. You have over 34 years of experience in the army so you have seen a lot of changes through the yearsism when it comes to especially Sexual Assault, in the way the army reports this we have seen changes in the recent years. I would like your take away on what we have seen and with those changes what do you see . Is it improving . The areas where you think we have seen the most impact. If you could just talk about that a little. Thank you senator. It has been some improvement. It is not good enough. But there has been some improvement over the last couple years. We know the prevalence of incidents appears to be down and the numbers of reporting is up so showing some shift in change of command. If an incident does occur the first thing is to protect the victim and then investigate with investigators and hold those perpetrators accountable. I think the entire key is within the hands of the chain of command. Staff sergeants and First Sergeants all the way up through general officers. All of us have to be engaged to get after that. A couple things in the 35 years i have used and seen and one is the role of the commander. An engaged commander makes a difference between success and lack of success. Secondly i would say operate in body teams. There is great value in using the buddy temperatures approach. And third is control of the terrain which is the barracks. Cannot control outside of the force but as commanders we can control the barracks and displain is fundamental to the barracks. And lastly is alcohol. We know in many cases of Sexual Assault alcohol is a contributing factor. I think commanders and the chain of commands the sergeants, captains generals and sergeants are fundamental to getting after Sexual Assault and bringing it to an end. I appreciate that very puck much. I do see we have a lower level of incidents and a very long way to go with this. One of the points we raised yesterday as west point was that it is really difficult when you have someone like yourself or even me with a lot of gray hair telling soldiers dont do this, dont do this. I think where we can see a lot of shift in the culture and environment is when peers are stepping up and saying dont do it. We talked about not in my squad. I think that is an important step. We have a long ways to go general. I look forward to working with you on the important topic and protecting our sons and daughters as they serve. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General, i want to commend you on your statement. I think it is one of the best statements about the role and mission of the army should be required reading, i think, for every member of the army today. One of the questions you answered to the chairman was would you commit to provide your personal views even if they differ from the administration in power. I want to underline the importance of that. All of your experience, knowledge and wisdom that you accumulated over the years are of no value if you dont share them. You will be operating in the highest level of the government in a situation that can be intimidated. We want to encourage you to remember that question and speak up. You have to share your knowledge and experience that got you where you are. I hope you will remember that question and the commitment you made. I think you have a great deal to offer the country. I will be intimidated by no one. I believe that general. More specific question. Are the Iraqi Security forces willing to fight . When we left in 2011 the reports i wasnt there in 2011 but before that and Iraqi Security forces were willing to fight. In the years between 2011 and today the chains of command have been decimated and they were not getting proper pay and training went down the tubes. After three or four years and you lack training equipment, and spare parts and most importantly you lack a leadership then you can certainly understand why units fell apart last year during the isis. I think there is nothing prohibiting the Iraqi Security forces from a will to fight with the exception of a lack of proper leadership. That is important from where i sit and i would like to take a trip to talk to the commanders on the ground. But my assessment is they have the potential and capability to fight but they must be led, just like any army must be led, to close width and destroy the enemies of their country. It seems when we think about the strategic challenges of iraq afghanistan, ukraine, all of those are local troops with u. S. Support in way or another. And one of the key challenges is how do you teach the will to fight . Have we learned that . Are we at a place where we know the pressure points to develop the command mentality that is necessary . We are in a series of disputes around the world. None of which involve directly, if any, u. S. Troops. We are at the mercy of how the local people perform. I am wondering about the armys thinking about to training. That might be one of the most essential tasks the new army as. We in the army think that we do know how to develop leaders. The army does many things and does many things well. They are not going to follow them and the third piece i think is a committed leader, leader committed to the cause which they fight. If those elements are combined together in the iraq e. Leadership. And the Iraqi Security forces have a chance of prevailing. The senator and i were in lebanon and we saw the Training Program that involves bringing. Particularly bringing them here they see that they get a lot from their peers when they are at fort benning or four or wherever they are is that a program that you think should be continued to strengthen, emphasized . Yes i do. Its been invaluable in the past over many decades with many armies around the world. Im a little bit over time but how long would it take to go from a 4 50 god forbid the circumstances required, whats the lead time . I would have to get back in but to build a brigade for example, the Brigade Combat Team depends on the type of brigade that you have. To build from scratch is about a three year pure code to get them certified and ready to engage in Ground Combat operations. So, to regenerate that it can be done but its not going to be done in a very short amount of time. Thank you mr. Chairman and for your testimony for coming by to see many of us before the testimony. I want to ask about the commission of the army which was established by the National Defense authorization act of 2015. End of the and the armys Aviation Restructuring Initiative. At the National Commission mandate is to evaluate the future missions, evaluate the mix of the total and evaluate whether combat Aviation Assets should be transferred to the army. I understand the army intends to implement certain forces as early as october 1 of this year. As ive expressed to you making these irreversible changes to the guard before weve had a chance to see what the Commission Says about the ari wouldnt be advisable. The intent of congress was clear there should be no transfers of helicopters away from the guard until congress receives and reviews the findings of the commission. I would like to know your opinion of the ari plan which would remove all combat aviation from the National Guard. Do you support halting transfers of power copters away from the guard until the Army Commission report back in february of next year . Its my understanding of the the transfer is in accordance with last years and the one thats under debate right now so the army is actually executing the last return order. I will lo