Admiral michael gil roys confirmation, he has been nominated to become chief Naval Operations. Conflicts of interest . There we go. Yes, senator, i have. Will you ensure your staff complies with deadlines for request of communications including questions for the record and hearings . Yes, sir, i will. Will you cooperate and provide witnesses in response to the congressional requests . Yes, sir, i will. Withl those witnesses be protected for their testimony and briefings . Yes, sir, they will. Testify upon request of this committee . Yes, sir, i will. Do you agree to provide documents, including copies of electronic forms and communications in a timely manner when requested by the constituted committee or to consult with the Committee Regarding the basis of any good faith delay or denial in providing such documents . Yes, senator. And have you assumed any duties or undertaken any actions which would appear to. The outcome or the process . No, sir, i have not. Directs our nations military to prepare for the return of strategic competition. This means we must be prepared to deter and, if necessary, decisively defeat potential near adversaries like china and russia. Its a different world now that weve had before. I mean, most American People just assume that we in america had the best of everything and we have watched whats happened over the last decade. In fact, thats not true. With their alarming speed and modernization of conventional and nuclear forces, china and russia now present formidible threats to america and our allies. One example of this is that according to the office of naval intelligence, the chinese navy is growing more than 20 times faster than our navy. 25 times faster than our navy. At a rate of 11 ships annually and the capability of those ships is increasing as well i mean, stuff they have is new stuff. Its pretty scary. Our navy has a key role to play in this competition, which requires it to be maintained and equipped appropriately. Howev however, im concerned that the navy may be out of balance in each of these areas our ships appear undermanned with destroyers manning roughly 85 , undermaintained with more than 60 of ships running long in maintenance and more than 1. 8 billion in maintenance needs are funded. And the third area, underequipped key capabilities like fully functional 40 class carriers and combat ships, missions and modules are significantly delayed in getting to the fleet. Overall, it seems to me that theyre having trouble maintaining the ships and it will only continue as it surp s surpasses 310 by 2022 on the way to 355ship navy. You werent involved in all this stuff. Youre inheriting it, though, with this position. In my view, the navy must first sustainably man and maintain our Current Fleet in terms of modernization, technical risks, must be better understood before hearing major new systems without better acquisition performance and erosion of u. S. Competitive advantages that they will accelerate. So this is a critical time for our navy, and your leadership is coming along just about the right time. Thank you, sir. Secretary reed . Thank you, chairman. I want to welcome admiral gil y gilday, particularly his mother, his wife, one of his sons. Youve served with exemplary service. We thank you for that, and we thank you for your willingness to continue to serve. Admiral gilday, you have an exemplary record. If you are confirmed as chief of Naval Operations you will be tasked with recruiting and maintaining a quality force and ensuring that force contains the necessary structure and readiness levels and able to respond to tomorrows threats. Needed ships and aircraft on time and on budget and this challenge will be compounded by the need to recapitalize the Ballistic Missile submarine fleet built in the 1980s. The navy is also struggling to maintain the ships and aircraft we already have in the inventory, including having some attack submarines untable to complete attack missions due to maintenance needs. In the navy fleet to avoid preventable accidents like the mccain and fitzgerald. Im interested in your vision of the navy and how you would go about making that vision a reality. A major focus of the committee this year has been the state of privatized military housing. I saw this firsthand in rhode island. Admiral gilday, acceptable housing for all its Service Members and changes the system that oversees housing, that Navy Commander commanders have a responsibility. We live in Tumultuous Times and many core values are being tested. Such times can have a corps owesive effect on our military personnel. Its never been more important that our navy have principle leaders with respect throughout the ranks and adhere to a moral code that can serve as an example to all our sailors and marines. Admiral gilday, we all expect and demand and are confident you will be that leader. Thank you for your commitment to the nation. I must apologize. I must go to the Appropriations Committee hearing that i cochair but i shall return. I think a famous west pointer said that, but i shall return. Well be waiting your return. Thank you, members of the committee and Ranking Member reed and chairman inhofe. Im grateful for the confidence of the president of the United States, secretary of defense and secretary of the navy in nominating me. Most americans associate the strength of the navy with ships at sea. But the true sources of our naval power are the people and the loved ones who support them. My family is no different. My father enlisted in the navy right out of high school. My mother, who is here today, raised five sons along his side until my dads passing a few years ago. For the past 24 years, my wife, linda, has been a constant source of inspiration. Despite moving around the world with me, she has maintained a successful career in both the private and public sectors while raising our two sons. Our oldest is a sophomore at the university of virginia and could not be here due to rotc training. His younger brother, michael, soon to be a freshman at auburn, is here today along with other members of our family. Like countless military families around the world, my familys love, resourcefulness and their support have made my Naval Service possible. I owe everything to them. Our country and our navy face many challenges, both now and in the future. If confirmed, i intend to ensure our navy remains focused on our role within the joint force and protecting the American Homeland and defending americas interest. The priorities of the National Defense strategy are clear. True north is Great Power Competition against russia and china. It is our duty to fight and win across the spectrum from peaceful presence to violent conflict in all domains. In a word, it is about lethality, producing and fielding a combat credible naval force with global reach, capable of deterring any potential adversary and protect our nations interest at all times. If confirmed, sustaining our readiness and modernizing our navy will be my top priorities. Thoughtful, focused decisions to rapidly mature, acquire and field cuttingedge technologies, integrating them into joint operating concepts will be key to ensuring our navy always fights for our advantage, unmatched by any rival as a preempt nent navy in the world. My commitment to you is a navy ready to respond to the nations call both now and in the future. To that end, our competitive advantage is our sailors and Service Members. We owe them sufficient resources to do their jobs effectively. In that respect, continuing unwavering support of our navy team by providing adequate and sustained funding. I am truly honored to be part of the greatest navy in the world and if confirmed, i will work closely with this committee and with this congress. I am great frful for my nomination and look forward to your questions. Thank you, admiral. Well have fiveminute questions a round. Im going to begin. Im going to begin. Ill ask you a quite lengthy question and then shorter questions that require lengthy answers. Incomplete, nearly two years late in 2017, 2 1 2 billion over budget and 9 of 11 weapons elevators still dont work with costs continuing to grow. The ford is a numerical replacement decommissioned in 2012. Since then weve had 10 operational Aircraft Carriers, despite the requirement for 12 and this mismatch continues to place a heavy burden on the fleet to do more with less. The ford was awarded to a sole source contractor on a contractplus contract with four new immature technologies that had next to no testing and had never been integrated on a ship. Resting gear and weapons elevators, which i mentioned in our opening statement. The navy entered into this contract in 2008, which combined with other contracts have ballooned the cost of the ship more than 13 billion without understanding the technical risk, cost or schedule. This ought to be crennel. I first became exposed to this when i was down there, on sight. Its a great ship. Weve got to do it. Weve got to keep up with as we mentioned other countries such as that are creating a problem and becoming very competitive. So we have to do it, but we have to do a better job i sense at that time that was the sole source, that there was a level of arrogance that didnt really make any difference that the elevators dont work, you know. If youre carrying ordinance in elevators and they dont work, thats not much good in the field. So since that time, the secretary of the navy told the president , quote, elevators will be ready to go when she pulls out or you can fire me. Remember that . Well, they still dont work. At that time, the ford was supposed to pull out from its Maintenance Period this month. The departure has since been delayed to october. Even with this delay, only two of the 11 elevators will be ready in october, nine elevators will not be ready and likely not complete until 2020 or later. The secretarys promise to the president months ago either acknowledges poor facts or poor judgment, the latest example of navy leaders not being straightforward when it comes to the program. Thats quite a charge, isnt it . When you see this happening, and seemingly theres nothing we can do about it. This is going to be dumped in your lap and i would like to have your thoughts on my opening comments about that particular ford class. What are your thoughts . Mr. Chairman did we do a good job . Sir, so i share your concern and i agree with your assessment. Including the fact that we will likely only have two, perhaps four elevators operational by the time ford leaves for availability in the fall. Its still unacceptable. We need all 11 elevators working in order to give us the kind of redundancy and combat readiness that the american taxpayer has invested in that ship. Of course, you know its more than just the elevators . Thats right. The other inefficiencies ive mentioned. 23 new technologies introduced to that ship as you know. Of those four were immature when we commissioned ford in 2017. We have seen progress in the launching systems, arresting gear and also with the dual band radar. So, the reliability of those systems is trending in the right direction and actually where we want them to be. Its the elevators, i think, that is the remaining big hurdle to get over to get that ship at sea and finally deployed. Okay. On that one, when you are confirmed, i believe you will be, would you agree it would be wise to report to us on a monthly basis as to the progress thats being made . Yes, sir, i commit to that and complete transparency as well as taking what we learned from the ford and ensuring that we dont commit those same mistakes again in the columbia class. Appreciate that. We mentioned opening statement. The navy seems to be out of balance, maintenance delays and unvented work and major delays. For the record i would like you to respond as to your view of the overallstate of the navy. Is it balanced . Were positioning ourselves to 355 ship navy which many of them will come out in the course of this hearing. And the second question for the record would be by 2023, the fleet is expected to grow 314 ships with several new lead ships. This addresses the lead ship performance problems that weve been under. And i would like to have you kind of give an answer for the record on your view of the recent lead ship performances and what youre going to do differently to adequate to ensure adequate technical prior. If you would do that for the record, i would appreciate it very much. Senator shaheen. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Congratulations, admiral gilday, and thank you to you and your family for being willing to consider this position at this critical time in our countrys history. I also appreciated your visit last week. One of the things we talked about is our Public Shipyards. I am very concerned what happens at Portsmouth Naval shipyard. You have been invited to visit. We hope youll do that. But one of the things all our shipyards need is investment. I support the Navy Shipyard opt medication plan released february of 2018, and it focuses among other things on increasing dry dock capacity and improving facility layout. Again, Critical Issues for the Portsmouth Naval shipyard. Do you believe the navys Public Shipyards require significant Infrastructure Investment in order to increase capacity and modernize our force . I absolutely do. It is a Critical Partnership with those public yards as well as the communities around them. So that skilled work force obviously comes from those communities. That partnership runs long and deep from within the navy, our requirements and acquisition specialists all the way to partnerships we have with the shipyards and people that provide the Skilled Labor. And youre committed to doing everything you can to moving forward with that Optimization Plan . Yes, maam. Thank you. The other issue was secretary spencers visit to the shipyard, reassurances that Construction Projects there on the dry dock would continue to move forward despite the president s Emergency Declaration to take military Construction Funding for the border wall. Can you give us an update on the status of. I am not aware of funds now at this point that are diverted to the border wall that effect the portsmouth ship tleep yard. I appreciate that. One of the challenges looking at the sub yard class and continuing to modernize them, we dont have parts needed to continue to do what we need to for the virginia class. We are cannibalizing parts from other ships to update them. Can you talk about what else the navy can do to address limited availability of virginia class submarine parts . Yes, maam. I think the challenges that we have in virginia extend to some of the other ship classes that we also have problems with parts availability on. It is the focus of the department to ensure we have the right parts and requirements identified well before ships go in the shipyard so we dont have delays. Which is part of the problem with production line the past three years, and trends the chairman indicated in his opening statement. I will look at virginia class and other ships, as part of other limiting factors to look at to ensure production line continues to flow as it should. Right. Without small bitsz, we dont have the other pieces we need to keep construction moving and big part of that is making sure that those Small Businesses have opportunity to get contracts. I hope youll also do everything you can to ensure that that continues. Senator, i will. I consider them part of the team. I take your point, it is well taken on ensuring there are no constraints to being able to contribute to where we need to go. Thank you. Now i would like to ask about the tensions have escalated, shooting down our drone and attacking other vessels. Can you talk about what you think the situation is in the persian gulf and what we might do to deescalate tensions there . Yes, maam. The department of defense is firmly in support of a department of state led effort to bring iran back to the negotiating table on the nuclear deal. The focus of u. S. Central command with the navy in support as well as other services is to have sufficient resources in theater to both protect the forces that we have in theater now and be able to respond should the iranians do some type of activity against u. S. Interests. We have taken great care not to be provocative against iran in operations and our very moderate force build into the region, again with focus on protecting. The diplomatic effort needs to have off ramps to bring iran back to the table so we can dehe is deescalate, get a better deal, send resources back against the russians and the chinese in terms of our global posture. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I agree. I think diplomacy is the best resolution of the situation there, and war is not in our interest or irans interest. Yes, maam. Thank you very much. Senator cotton. Admiral, thank you very much for your testimony today. Congratulations on your nomination, being willing to serve again. Lets continue to talk about submarines. At the last Posture Hearing for the pacific command, admiral davidson said continuing to build submarines is critically important to the force because some of our as he put it most significant advantage in all domains is in the sub surface. Do you agree the submarine forces may be the most significant advantage over adversaries like china . Yes, sir, i agree the submarine is an advantage against the chinese and the russians. Thats one reason why those countries, and also countries on the periphery are racing to get more of their own submarines, correct . Yes, sir. Thats why we need to continue to outpace them. Fair to say in words of the National Defense strategy that submarines playing a critical row, key intelligence functions and other essential war