The committee will come to order. We have individuals who would like to disrupt the hearing. So i will ask our spectator who is are here to observe the hearing today to observe the courtesy of allowing us to hear. If cause a disruption, which you usually do, we will have to ask you to leave. I dont know what the point is but if you do, i would ask you to for your courtesy to hear what our distinguished panelists have to say who have served our country with honor and distinction. I hope you would respect that. So we will move forward. The Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Meets today. We will receive testimony on the impact of the budget control act of sequestration on u. S. National security. I am grateful to our witnesses not onlt for appearing before us today, but also for their many decades of distinguished service to our country in uniform. I also appreciate their sincere and ernest attempts over many years to warn the congress and the American People of what is happening to our Armed Services, the brave men and women they represent, and our National Security if we do not roll back sequestration and return to a strategybased budget. We look forward to their candid testimony on that subject today. Such warnings from our senior military and National Security leaders have become frustratingly familiar to many of us. A number of threats arose after our current 2012 strategy was developed and then adjusted in the 2014 q. D. R. We are on track now to cut 1 trillion from americas Defense Budget by the year 2021. While the ryan murray budget agreement of 2013 provided some welcome relief from the mindlessness of sequestration, that relief was partial, temporary, and ultimately did very little to provide the kind of fiscal certainty that our military needs to plan for the future and make longer Term Investments for our National Defense. Yet here we go again. If we in congress do not act, sequestration will be turned in for fiscal year 2016 setting our military on a far more dangerous course. Why should we do this to ourselves now . Just consider what has happened in the world just in the past year. Russia launs muched the first crossboard invasion of another country on the european continent in seven decades. A terrorist army with tens of thousands of fighters, isis has taken over a swath of territory the size of indiana. We are now on track to having nearly 3,000 u. S. Troops back in iraq and find hundreds of air strikes a month against isis. Yemen is on the verge of collapse examine as an iranianbacked insurgency has swept in, and of course, alqaeda continues to use countries ungoverned spaces to plan attacks against the west. China has increased its aggressive challenge to america and our allies in the asiapacific region where geopolitical tensions and the potential for miscalculations are high. And much course just last month north korea carried off the most brazen cyberattack ever on u. S. Territory. Lets be clear. If we continue with these arbitrary defense cuts, we will harm our militarys ability to keep us safe. Army and marine corps will be too small. Air force will have too few aircraft and many of those we will will be too old. The navy will have too few ships. Our soldiers, sailors airmen, and marines will not get their training and equipment that they need. It will become increasingly difficult to respond to any number of contingencies that could threaten our national interest. We have heard all of this. My top my trillion commanders before, yet there are still those who would say never fear. It is frustrating because of dr. Carter said before this Committee Hearing. What is particularly tragic is that sequestration is not the result of an economic emergency or recession. It is not because Discretionary Spending cuts are the answer to our nations final challenge. Do the math. It is not in reaction to a change to a more peaceful world. It it is not due to strategic insight. It is not because other paths have been explored and exhausted. It is clearly the Collateral Damage of political gridlock. I would like to quote from yesterday, no foe can wreak the havoc on our security that mindless sequestration is achieving. More than three years after the passage of the budget control act, it is time to put names on the census policy, do away with the budgetdriven strategy, and return to a strategydriven budget. Our troops in the nation may defend and deserve no less. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling this important hearing, and for all your timely and insightful remarks. I would also like to welcome our witnesses and think these thank these gentlemen for their input. For their extraordinary service. This hearing takes place as the administration and congress continue to wrestle few intersecting policy problems in a debate on how to solve them. Because we have a strategic problem. Every civilian and military leader has told us that if Defense Budgets continue to be maintained at sequestration levels we will likely not be able to meet the National Defense strategy. As senator mccain has indicated, we face a variety of new and continuing threats around the world. If we do not ad depress the problem of sequestration, we will severely limit the range and available military options to address these threats. For the last three years and numerous rounds of dodge hearings and testimony our witnesses have described increased Strategic Risk and damaging impact of the budget control act and sequestration restrictions on military readiness. I am sure that we will hear a similar message today. Compromise and difficult choices retire to provide sequestration really for the department of defense and other Critical National priorities including the public safety, infrastructure, health and education. I know you are committed to working with our Budget Community to find a way to work through these challenges. In the meantime, ill look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. Thank you senator. 41 pending military nominations. Is there a motion . Second. All in favor say aye. The ayes have if. Thank you chairman mccain Ranking Member, other distinguished members of the Senate Service committee. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity to talk about this important topic today. As i sit here before you today as sequestration looms in 2016, i am truly concerned about our future and now we are investing our nations defense. I believe this is the most uncertain time i have seen in the National Security environment in my nearly 40 years of service. The amount and velocity of instability continues to increase around the world. The unforeseen expansion has dramatically escalated conflicts in the region. Sponsoring the insurgency expansion in the country is quickly approaching civil war. In north and west africa, anarchy, exstreamism and terrorism continue to threaten the interests of the United States as well as allies and partners. In europe, russian intervention in the ukraine challenges the resolve of the European Union and the evkiveness of nato. Across the Pacific Chinas military modern zation efforts to raise concern from allies and regional interests while the cycle of north korea and provocation continues to increase. The rate of humanitarian and Disaster Relief missions sitch as recent threat heightens the level of uncertainty that face around the worlds along with constant evolving threats to the homeland. Despite all of this, we continue to reduce our military capabilities. I would like to remind everyone that over the last three years we have significantly reduced the capabilities of the United States army. The last three years the arms component has been reduced. 13 less active by cade combat teams were eliminated. Our combat brigades have been canceled and almost half a Million Dollars in maintenance has been defered, both affecting training and readiness of our units. Even after Additional Support, we only develop 33 of our brigades ready, to the extent we would be asked to fight. Even after Additional Support from the b. B. A. Today, we have only 33 of our brigades ready. Our soldiers have undergone separation boards, some while serve in combat zones. Again, this is just a sample of what we have already done before the sequestration even kicks in again in 2016. When it returns, we will be forced to introduce another 70,000 and 35,000 out of the National Guard. And an additional 10 to 12 combat brigade combat teams forced to further reduce modern zation and readiness levels because we simply cant draw down. We need to end restructure, or l with a decrease of 40 . Training will be severely underfunded. Institutional support will be forced to drop over 5,000 seats for initial military training, 85,000 seats for specialized training, and over 1,000 on Pilot Training programs. Soldiers and Family Readiness programs will be weakened, and our investment and installation training and readiness facility upgrades will be affected, impacting our longterm readiness strategies. Therefore, sustainable l readiness will remain out of reach with her international with international. Additionally the mechanism sequestration has will continue to reduce our ability to effectively manage the dollars we do have. Its increasing cost across the board, whether it be an acquisition or training. How does this translate strategically . It will challenge commitments of our partners around the world. It will eliminate capability on any scale specifically detering in one region while feeding in another. Essentially, for ground forces, sequestration puts into question our ability to have a long, prolonged Multiphase Campaign against a determined enemy. Ultimately sequestration limits effectiveness, and requires us to hope we are able to predict the future with great accuracy, something we have never been able to do. Our soldiers have done everything we have asked of them and more over the past 18 years and they continue to do that today. Today our soldiers are supporting campaigns on Six Continents in over 140 countries. They remain professional and dedicated to the mission, to the army and to the nation. Withed very foundation built on trust. At what point do we as a nation lose our soldiers trust . The trust that we will provide them the right resources. The training and equipment to properly prepare them and lead them into harms way. Trust that we will boldly take care of our soldiers and their families and our civilians who so selflessly sacrifice so much. In the end, it is up to us not to lose that trust. Today they have faith in us, trust in us, to do the tools necessary to do our job. We must never forget, our soldiers will bear the burden of our decisions with their lives. I want to ensure this remains the greatest lapped force the world has ever known. To do that we have to allow our army with the necessary resources for success. It is our decisions, those we make today and in the near future, that will impact our soldiers, our army, and the joint force, and our nations Security Posture for the next 10 years. We do not want to return to the days of a hollow army. Thank you for allowing me to testimony, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you general odierno. General, Ranking Member, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify about the impact of sequestration on our navy thus far and the potential return to that in 20167. Mr. Chairman, presence remains the mandate of our navy. We must operate forward where it matters and we need to be ready when it matters. I have provided the chart to show where it matters around the world to us and where it matters to our combatant commanders. Recent events testify to the value of forward presence. For example, when tasked in the office to the george h. W. Bushs strike group relocated from the arabian sea to the north arabian gulf and was on station within 30 hours to 30 hours ready for combat operations. Navy and marine strike fighters generated 20 to 30 combat per day and 45 days represented the only coalition option, strike option to the project power. The United States arrived in the black sea to establish a u. S. Presence and reassure our allies within a week after russia invaded crimea. Over a does u. S. Ships led by the u. S. S. S. George washington strike group provided Disaster Relief to the philippines in the wake in the philippines. Chairman, we have been where it matters when it matters with deployed forces. However, due to sequestration in 2013 our Contingency Response forces. What is on call from the United States. It is onethird of what it should be, and what it needs to be. Our Carrier Strike groups and most of our destroyers have been on the deployment lasting eight to 10 months longer. This comes at a cost of our sileors and their families resiliencey and reduces the performance of the equipment and will reduce the service lives of our ships. Navy fleet readiness will likely not recover from the ship and Aircraft Maintenance backlogs until about 2018. Five years after the first round of sequestration. This is just a small glimpse of the readiness price. Although funding levels provided to us under the bipartisan budget act of 2013, their were 13 billion of sequestration. Those budgets for 16 billion below the resources we described we needed in our submission. Now to deal with these shortfalls we have slowed, pushed out modern zation that we had scheduled fob done during the future defense plan. A return to sequestration in 502016 would necessitate a revision of our Defense Strategy. We have been saying this for years. That would be a budgetbased strategy for sure. We would further delay war fighting capabilities, and perhaps forego a defense procurement of ships. In terms of depsh the navy would be left in a position where we could not execute those missions. We would face higher risk and five Additional Missions of those 10. 710. More detail on the impact is in a handout in front of you and is outlined in my written statement, which i request be added to the record. Although we can model and analyze and quantify, what is less easy to quantify is the fact of sequestrations impact on people. People underwrite our security. It is they they are the difference for sure between us and even the most technology and advanced navy. We have enjoyed meeting our recruiting goals and until recently our attention has been remarkable. However, the chaotic and indiscriminate excursion of sequestration in 2013 really left a bitter taste with our sailors, civilians, and families. We are already seeing disconcerting trends in our retention, including our pilots, information technology, aegis radar and nuclear fields. These resention symptoms that i describe to you remind me of the challenges that i had as a une i dont remember officers after the vietnam war. And it reminds me of when i was in command of a submarine in the mid 1990s. However, the world was more stable than it is now. And i think sequestration will set us on the same course. As the general said, i dont think we need to go there again. Shipbuilding also also will suffer from a sequestration environment. Companies, not necessarily the big prize, but the companies that make the key vessels, and the things that put together the ship. The Critical Infrastructure is key to seapower. So mr. Chairman, i understand that the the pressing need for our nation to get our fiscal house in order. It is imperative that we do so in order to retain the trust of our people. And to suss sustain the appropriate war fighting capability for your navy and forward presence and its readiness. Unless naval forces are properly sized, modernized, at the right pace with regard to the adversary that we might have, ready to deploy with the adequate training and equipment and capable to respond in the numbers that the speed that is required by the combatant commanders, they wont be able to answer the call. I look forward to working with this committee and the congress to find the solutions that we will ensure that our navy retain the ability to organize, train and quip our great sailors and marines and soldiers and airmen and coast guard men in the defense of this nation. Thank you. Thank you mr. Chairman a, Ranking Member members of the committee. Can you repeat that. We are now the Smallest Air Force . We are now the Smallest Air Force we have ever been, chairman. When we deployed to apparition desert storm in 1990, the army had 198 fire squads. Today queff 54 and are headed to 49. In 1990 there were 511,000 active duty airmen. Today we have 200,000 fewer than that. As those numbers came down the operational tempo went up. The air force is fully engaged. All the excess capability is gone and now more than ever we need a capable fully ready air force. We system reply dont have a bench to go to and cannot continue to cut structure to pay the cost of readiness and modern zation or we will risk being too small to succeed. The real impact of these choices on current u. S. Military operations would be significant. In the i. S. R. Mission area alone, 50 of the High Altitude missions being