Sen. Imhoff we all have on our minds and in our prayers senator mccain. He is going through some recovery right now and will be able to come back this week. That will change the way we are doing business a little bit. Nonetheless, he will be back with us very soon. Committee this morning is considering the renomination of general sova for the appointment of vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. We have already been through this trail that through this drill. Do you have any family you would like to introduce . I have an opening statement. Imhoff general selva, your time has been marked by great challenges in national , north koreas pursuit of nuclear and longrange missile capabilities, isis, and are young women and men continue to serve in the battlefield in afghanistan to ensure that that country never again serves as a safe haven for terrorists. Moving forward, new leadership at the department of defense and military services present renewed opportunities for armed forces as we work to meet the threats of today and prepare for the threats of the future. Crises around the world only continue to multiply. Our servicemembers face the most complex and diverse array of Global Threats since the end of world war ii. Leading our military during such challenging times requires leadership, and the committee looks forward to your testimony about how you plan to guide our men and women. Senator reid. Reid i want to join you and wishing best join you in wishing senator mccain a speedy recovery and trip back. I certainly do. Sen. Imhoff the first three that were here on time were all three army. Thank you for being here. Sen. Reid thank you mr. Chairman. I want to join you in welcoming general selva. Thank you for your service as we consider your reappointment to vicechairman of the joint chiefs of staff. We thank you for your many years of service to the nation and your willingness to continue to serve. I also want to revise your wife for her many years of support. The u. S. Faces a wide range of multifaceted and various challenges around the world. If youre reconfirmed of the vicechairman, you will be an integral player in addressing these complex International Issues facing our national interests. Activities have been aimed at the American Election process and other western elections. Russia continues to threaten its neighbors and our nato allies. Russia has refused to withdraw its support for the assad regime. North Koreas Nuclear program is an immediate and Grave National security threat, and there is no quick set of certain options. China has not implemented. Anctions against north korea iran continues their aggressive Weapon Development activities, including the listed Missile Development efforts, as well as other destabilizing activities in the region. While we continue to make steady military progress against isis, the the aforementioned challenges are urgent and pressing and i look forward to hear from you on how the department of defense looks to address these issues. A number of specific responsibilities, the fiscal year 17 National Consensus expense act strengthens control on the requirement on Oversight Council by making the vice chair joint chiefs on joint lining capabilities and performance are pirates. Given the important function of the Jay Rockefeller and to ensure they are reasonable and necessary i look for to your reports on the effectiveness on the new authorities and if you believe additional changes are requires it often working closely with senior policymakers, a National Security council and National Security issues. In light of the challenges i givennced earlier, part of developing Innovation Strategy including the socalled third all set. Other special projects, it med you will provide continuity between the past administration and the Trump Administration. This important to continue to harness new technology. Thank you again for your willingness to serve our nation. Thank you. Before he began i would like to recognize chairman mccains service to our nation both in and out of uniform. We wish him a complete and speedy recovery. I look forward to him being back at work soon. This thing with members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to be considered for a second term as the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Im grateful to the president and the secretary of defense for their continued trust and faith in my ability to serve. I would like to make brief points before a continue to look forward to your questions. I commend those who wear the cloth of our nation. I have had the opportunity to visit Service Members and their families around the globe and i can continually impressed by their dedication and their exceptional talents. Tohas been my distinct honor serve the men and women of the United States armed forces and every confirmed i will strive to keep faith with them. , itnd as you have mentioned is important to ignore the challenges that face our force today. Become a nation of external challenges presented by adversaries and competitors with internal challenges as well as modernization. Instability are issues with which this committee is very familiar. Please know i value the dialogue that i and other senior military meters have with this committee and i think this committee for the work on behalf of the soldiers and coast guardsmen. Particularly with the passage of the National Defense authorization act. I hope through my work i convey the seriousness which i take my responsibility. I went to recognize my wife, the love of my life and who has shared my 37 year career and our 37 year marriage. She was a classmate when we attended the air force academy. Lifelong friend and partner but provides me with the council with only someone in her position can. For that i will forever be grateful. For theu again opportunity to appear before this committee to be considered for a second term as the vice chairman of the chiefs of staff. I look forward to your questions. I like to start off with one that has been on my mind and the minds of most of the members here as well as the uniforms. I applaud the uniforms for being straightforward and honest about the threat we are facing right now. Korea successfully tested a Ballistic Missile on the fourth of july. He successfully test may 14. The test to be the most significant advancement toward an intercontinental Ballistic Missile. We have had a lot of witnesses talk about this. What that will mean in turn in terms of threat. ,f you take the projected range. Hat will be around 5000 miles had the Armed Services 25 wetee hearing on april had a panel of experts and they agreed with me that north korea is the most significant threat. I would like to start with three questions concerning, do you agree with the experts who have come to that conclusion concerning National Security . North korea is known to export Ballistic Missile technology to other adversaries like iran. Do you believe they are in the process of doing that, they have done that . What other countries might post a threat. Thirdly, what is your level of confidence in terms of the Intelligence Community ability to monitor what is going on here . Thank you mr. Chairman. With thee in principle assessment that the north koreans are moving quickly to develop an intercontinental holistic missile capability. I am not saying the test on the fourth of july demonstrates they have the capacity to strike the united dates with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence of success. Is thee experts tell me north koreans have yet to demonstrate the capacity to do the audience and control that would be required i was referring to range. In range they clearly have the capability. The other improvements are perhaps not too far behind. We will have to watch very carefully with the development on this particular capabilities. Ive agree with the Intelligence Community that and the democratic peoples republic of korea is an arms proclivity arms peripherally or proliferator. They have proliferated every other weapons system they have ever invented. It is a pretty Clear Pathway to the potential proliferation of these kinds of weapons systems. Im reasonably confident in the ability of our Intelligence Community to monitor the testing but not the deployment of these Missile Systems. Kim jongun and his forces are good at camouflage, concealment, and deception. With a series of that talk to the ability of our Intelligence Community, military and civilian, to monitor those. I think it has been set out of a phosphite hearing that the thehe has been doing nicest thing i can say is he is completely unpredictable. The most unpredictable of anybody ive ever had any kind of experience with. That is what has been scary. I assume you agree. I do agree. Getting down to our threats. The committee has received testimony from the uniforms and from the experienced people outside of the uniforms that only one third of our armies arrayed on the on army prorated contacts. F18s, we recognize when we are going through what we have been going through in the last three years. Maintenance and of course modernization. I would like to have your assessment as to whether or not you do agree with general wilson when he testified before this committee that fewer than 50 of that fewer than 50 of the air force combat force are sufficiently ready for a fight against pure adversaries. You go beyond equipment, we are getting to individuals. And generallson bels fiend that there will 1500 pilots, a of them fighters by the end of this year. Do you agree with this assessment . Do you want to elaborate on anything they have said . I agree with both assessments. Both speak to the availability of funds and resources to the high end training that is wired to make our forces ready for highend the combat against a competitor. The budget in 17 is helpful. The proposed budget for 18 will move us done the pathway to restore that training. It will be a twoyear process beyond the initial insertion of those resources before you see the readiness. Thank you very much. Thank you council. Terms ofe issues in the third offset, one is the defense they are working the Public Knowledge on very cheap satellites and also exploiting them with Artificial Intelligence, something we really need. Particularly in korea. We are told they are about to run out of money and we have not received reprogramming yet. I would say this is an urgent need. Can you explain why they are in this distress and what we could do . Gen. Selva yes, sir, i can. We put great emphasis on the experimental project they are working on for us. We were notified early last week by the director that we have a reprogramming proposal in staff as we speak that will address the balance and requirements for this fiscal year and we will begin some of the funding for programs that will extend into the next fiscal year year. They will be able to do that with yearend money. One of the areas of concerns is a situation in iraq. I was there about four weeks ago. Making progress on the ground. General townsend is doing a great job as the commander on the ground along with, when i was at key west, the eightysecond brigade was leading the advisory for. Effort. The issue now becomes as we reduce their affect on isis, the longterm crisis. Also, i heard there was claims that if they are designated a terrorist group, they will retaliate. Can you give us any insight . The fighting is far from over. Isis has lost the sanctuary of mosul but they still have a lot of small towns they control. President a body has a plan abadi has a plan to begin the campaign to clear those towns and secure the border with syria. Important work because that will deny isis sanctuary on both sides of the border. I share your concern. I read this morning about the iranian Republican Guards making a statement that if they are declared an International Terrorist organization they will retaliate against our forces in iraq. We will have to take that into consideration. I do not think we should take that threat and keep it from action. Ction t you indicatedarea which is something that has been said by so many that our adversaries in Technology Savvy technologies has eroded what used to be h amend this over max by the United States. The question is, what are we doing to get back way ahead. Not just a few inches ahead metaphorically. Gen. Selva you alluded to the work weve been doing over the past couple years and the advanced concepts arena as well as working with former deputy secretary called the third offset strategy. Those are concepts that would allow us to contest what we call the antiaccess area denial strategies that many of our adversaries have attempted to impose on us by making our bases and forces more resilient and able to survive under the kind of tax associated with the area of attacks associated with the area denial strategies. Particularly china and north korea. It allows us to eject force that in otherwise would be presumed denied. Finally quickly, we have been working for several different congresses on acquisition reform. We have passed legislation. We have a long way to go. We both recognize that. As chairman, you have been given additional responsibility both actual and referential, symbolic. Can you tell us what you are doing to kind of help them jumpstart acquisition and get it so we can deliver systems . The army is committed for anything many things, but they have a tough record at getting systems from the drawing board into the field. Can you comment . We are implementing last years ndaa. There is more flexibility. The direct performance to be advisor to the chairman for readiness and the deployment of systems that support readiness. The second is building the relationship was serviced use service chief and Service Secretaries in their Acquisition Authority roles. So we are now requiring service directly to acquisition authorities, not only for the basic design and Integration Capabilities going into systems but actual performance on the line of buying systems. One really striking example of the capability was a piece of work we did to move counter Unmanned AircraftSystems Technologies into iraq from idea to fruition measured in months. From delivery to deployment measured in weeks. Those are numbers that are actually quite useful. Thank you mr. Chair. Thank you general selva and mrs. Selva. Thank you for your service to our nation as well. In your answer to our advanced policy questions regarding southeast asia, you suggest shortterm stressors can be managed within the alliance construct and a few weeks ago referring to the will of been philippines specifically, secretary mattis testified that in 2014 we canceled our named counterterror operation with a premature view of success, causing us to lose funding lines we would have otherwise been able to offer. Do you agree with me and a secretary mattis that reestablishing a named operation is something we should consider as part of our alliance obligation in order to make sure that those shortterm stressors do not turn into a prolonged or longterm catastrophe . Gen. Selva yes maam. In every case where we see the resurgence of terror networks, particularly in the southern philippines i think it is worth considering whether we reinstate a named operation. Not only to provide for the resources required by to get the specific command commander and field commanders in the philippines the kind of authority they need to work with indigenous Philippine Forces to help them be successful in the battle. Excellent excellence. I hope we can work with secretary mattis on this issue. You have been moving on to another topic, you have been overly critical of congress about the budget tosses. I agree it is long past time for us to break the cycle of the continuing resolutions. Were not doing ourselves any favors. However, budgets are a twoway street. The dod has not been able to conduct or pass a clean audit for a very, very long time and so that is not helping our cause either. What specifically were you doing your next few years to achieve a clean audit that you have not maybe been able to accomplish in the last two years . Gen. Selva i have found of the last several years that achieving a clean audit is a vexing journey. In particular, the discussions over the valuation of rope Real Property are in obstacle in the way of getting that work done. The debates over what we own and what it is actually worth. I will share with you that in advance of his confirmation, spent several hours with the new deputy secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan discussing how we might get at this issue of valuing Capital Property is said that we can in fact clear a clean audit. We will commit to working not together to the Defense Management action group to come to a resolution. I appreciate that. I hope we can move forward especially when it comes to Real Property. We have to own this. We absolutely must get this done. To know how the dollars are things spent so we can reassure our taxpayers that we in congress and you as the dod are doing the right thing. So thank you, i hope we are successful. You also support providing lethal defense assistance to ukraine, some