Hose who against who it has illintent. So the South Koreans have suffered from this. Now to see them move forward and expand this Nuclear Weapons program. Each new launch brings them closer. They say they can hit the west coast of the United States. Theyre claiming they will be able to hit the entire u. S. With their icbm program. These placards that you see and these posters actually show their missiles coming down on the United States. And so at this point, i think it is critical and our colleagues mountain senate feel the same way and i want to thank our Senate Colleagues for building upon the house bill which eliot engel and i have authored, and i also appreciate the cooperation of the bipartisan house leadership to ensure this bills quick scheduling. Its just back from the senate. In the wake of north koreas Fourth Nuclear test and its recent missile launch, many of our allies also are trying to tighten the screws now on that regime in order to slow its capability to deliver this type of weapon. Only days ago, south korea shuttered the Industrial Complex because as they observed it was giving the north korean regime the hard currency it needed in order to move forward its weapons programs. And this will end a very important revenue for the north korean regime. Japan has issued a new set of sanctions as well, and china and russia should take notice and follow this example. It is time for the United States to stand with our partners in northeast asia as we press china and russia to follow suit and this bill sends the message to that regime in north korea that they must reform and they must disarm this Nuclear Weapons program. By cutting off kim jong uns access to the hard currency he needs for his army and his weapons, h. R. 757 will return us to the one strategy that has worked financial pressure on the north korean regime. So i urge the passage of this coming up next, air force officials testifying on the budget request. Then president ial candidate Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in minnesota. A discussion of a discussion of the state of workingclass families after that. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] president obamas request calls for spending for the United States air force. A Senate Armed Services subcommittee heard from air force officials on friday about the budget plan and its effect the training. Nd this is an hour and 20 minutes. Chairman wittman good morning, i want to call to order the house Armed Services subcommittee. Take it for joining us. I would like to recognize a airmanof our great young that are here from Langley Air Force base. I want to welcome you to washington. We appreciate all the Langley Air Force association does. Thank you so much for your leadership. We appreciate that. I know that i have to can beat compete with ms. Bordallo. [laughter] chairman wittman we have a little competition going on. That we havee sure the opportunity to recognize them this morning. Yes. Ms. Bordallo would you kindly stand up, please . Chairman wittman i knew it. [laughter] chairman wittman i knew it, i knew it. Fantastic. She only does. , good morning. I want to think all of you for being here for the readiness hearing on the 2017 budget requests and readiness posture. , and inthe first december and january the services testified on increase readiness risks. Today i look forward to hearing how the air force budget request enables a readiness Recovery Plan and where we continue to take risk. Welcome all of our experts. This morning we have with this general david goldfein, within a general john raymond, then a general Lieutenant General john cooper. Thank you all for testifying today. We look forward to your thoughts and insights on these important issues. The purpose of this hearing for the committee to receive clarification on air force choices for its budget request. Funding priorities, and gather more detail on the current and future impacts of these decisions on operations and training. , i want to thank our witnesses for participating. I would now like to turn to our liking member for any remarks she may have. Ms. Bordallo i would like to thank the witnesses. Fein, nice to see you again. Of course come all the airman that are here. T that youroub testimony before a subcommittee will prove insightful. I thank all of you for your service to our nation. The air force has been engaged with constant combat operations overseas for a quarter of a century while conducting Global Transport and mobile operations. We know, we do know that this has taken a toll on our airman and their equipment. You are accomplishing this feat today with a force that is considerably fewer personnel and aircraft than it did for the five years ago. Our forces continue to be deployed throughout the world. Countering terror organizations, other adversaries. The requirements placed upon our never beas a whole can understated. Because of unreliable and unpredictable funding, resulting from sequestration and numerous continuing resolutions, over the past several years you have had to maintain a delicate balance between readiness and moderation. At times this has cost readiness, the further behind we get behind this cover the harder it will be for our forced to recover to full spectrum readiness. A better can get understanding of the forces plan to maintain readiness and personnel training. Again, thank you all for your service. I look forward to your hearing. Chairman wittman becky so much. I will go now to general goldfein. I understand you will be providing the statement for the panel. All of your statements will be entered into the record. We will have that. If you want to add anything we can do that to the question period. Gen. Goldfein thank you, chairman wittman, and distinguished members of the committee. On behalf of our secretary and chief of staff it is an honor to be with you today and sit beside these two great airman. We are honored to represent the 660,000 total airmen serving today. We request our written statement replaced in the record. Over 25 years ago, then captain in served in the Opening Hours of desert storm. During the ground war that followed the air campaign, the air force along with our joint Coalition Partners provided the same blanket of air power that had shielded u. S. Forces since april of 1953. The last time an American Service member was killed by enemy aircraft. In addition to providing top cover, it is a perimeter and refueled and maintained aircraft, controlled air traffic, manage the supply line, tended our wounded, and support of the joint team of Global Vigilance and power. For many americans, and others across the globe, operation torm set the standard for airpower and it is what they remember. In the quarter of a century since desert storm your air force has remained in combat operations without respite. Our nuclearover enterprise. However, 25 years of continuous combat operations coupled with budget instability have made the smallest,one oldest, at least ready in its history. Relative size in perspective, in 1991 we deployed 33 of our 134 combat coded active guard corps squadrons squadrons in support of operation desert storm. The average age of our aircraft for 17 years. 80 of the Fighter Force was ready for full spectrum conflict. In contrast, today we have just 55 total force Fighter Squadrons and approximately 660,000 total airmen. The average age of our aircraft is 27 years, and less than 50 of our combat air force is ready for fullspectrum conflict. Rejections readiness reduction with a rising china and maligned influence in the middle east. North Korean Nuclear ambi tions, and you have an air force the is too small for what nation requires the subsample he put, if we will remain the most on theve air force planet, we must take steps to rebuild our readiness now. This, theo accomplish fiscal year of 2017 budget aims to build, train, and equip air capable of air force responding to todays threats. Yorty, intelligence surveillance, rapid global superiority,ir intelligence surveillance, and rapid global mobility. Icbms,ng investments in as well as b52 bomber modifications. 35 will change the calculus of any potential adversary and will be critical to success in any future high and fight. Force, for the air forcing to push the technological limit will lead to failure. Our budget request includes the funding required to cover the manpower needed to ensure the health of our nuclear force, Aircraft Maintenance scheme, battlefield airman, and other critically undermanned fields. Return oft marks the a committed investment to Global Vigilance, global reach, and global power for america. A return to bca level funding will further decimate our readiness and modernization. It will place a nation at unacceptable risk was that mr. Unacceptable risk. Mr. Chairman, these are fundamental to American Security and the joint operations. The fiscal year 2017, and flexibility to execute the budget, is an investment in the air force that our nation needs. Commanders require it. With your support, our airman will deliver it. On behalf of our secretary, and chief of staff, and the active guard and reserve airman who give our service life, thank you for your tireless support. We look forward to your questions. Chairman wittman thank you so thank you for your testimony. Commitment,r your and the other airman getting our air force back to where it needs to be full stop i want to ask, in that context ,where we are in restoring readiness. We know that the real building point rebuilding point is that by 2020. If you can give us some perspective on staying on that glide path. Based on with the budget request is this year, and the receiving resetting, how far are we go into be able to restoring air force readiness . Give us some ideas of the timeframe. Along the way, you will have to make some tough decisions about risk. What Core Functions will you where will risk be placed in this readiness recovery effort . Gen. Goldfein thank you, sir. We have stated previously that our readiness Recovery Plan is dependent on a couple of key variables. The most important is a reduction in deployment. That allows us to have the time to do the training that we need for highend conflict. That is something that we cannot the globalen situation. We are incredibly proud of the fact that airpower is a requirement in all our contingencies that we face both current and in the future it has resulted in a demand signal that has reduced our ability to do the high and training we need. Believe that we would be able to achieve fullspectrum readiness on a given date, it is a rolling timeframe. As our chief secretary testified year timet an 810 frame. We, the last time we testified was targeting, that was based on assumptions that did not pan out. We assumed we would not be increasing our activity in the pacific, or increasing activity in europe. And that we wouldnt be increasing activity in iraq and syria. As long as that the man the signal is there, youll see a continual rolling 810 year to get readiness going. Our goal right now is for the next 23 years will probably just be able to hold our own and the current state of readiness. Where we currently sit and where i mention in my opening statement, we are approximately 50 ready across the total force for a fullspectrum conflict. Gen. Goldfein chairman wittman does that reflect maintaining the necessary effort and Core FunctionsGoing Forward . Secondly, does 2017 budget does that help you in setting the conditions for restoring readiness . If not, where of the shortfalls, or things we need to consider as we develop the policy . We. Goldfein so, when submitted this budget, we worked to get the best balance we could. See in the will readiness account is that we funded our readiness account to the capacity that we can generate. So, that, with the addition of funding on top, we are able to fly to the capacity that we can generate. You asked before but the Core Functions, where were taking the greatest risk. Spaceo are in air and superiority and global strike. The reason for that is that is what we have to train to the highend. Are not gettingwe the down time to train to the level. Only talk about combat air forces and maintaining air superiority, that requires training at a very high level. That is where we are struggling to be able to find the time to do that. Chairman wittman thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. The air force is facing a modernization bubble with several Major Projects competing for budget space. As evidenced by the f35 procurement decrease in the coming years. What is the one thing the congress can do to improve readiness while the dressing the modernization changes . Gen. Goldfein first, let me will hear a consistent answer from me. That is repeal bca. When we take a look at what happened in the United States air force in 2013, it devastated our readiness. Quite frankly, we are recovering. Now, take a look at the budget we submitted. We did have to make some strategic traits between modernization and readiness for stub funded to capacity our current capacity and the readiness accounts. To do that, we had to take risk in modernization that we did not want to do. C130 procurement, pushing to the right modernization of our fourthgeneration aircraft all required for that highend fight. Those are all risk trades that we had to make and keep our readiness account at capacity. Ms. Bordallo thank you. Another question i had, the air force has been a leader in advocating for the total force concept. You see inunities do willand future years leverage in cost saving nature of the National Guard . Where can Congress Play a role in facilitating these engagements . Gen. Goldfein thank you for the up 30 to showcase our guard reserve. We are one force, one air force. All the components are actively participating. Air Component Commander, i traveled around the region. It never ceased to amaze me the cockpitinto and ask which one is reserved, i could have all three in the same cockpit performing that mission. One gives you vignette of how integrated we are across the force. Where we can for leverage the hiring experience level in the stability in the guard force and our reserve force as we look to continue to associate in ways that can bring more and marketability to the fight. Capability to the fight. One of the activities we are looking at is how to we take the active Service Codes out there and combine them to make it easier for folks to come into the guard active reserve. They can chant between those components. We can leverage the most that we can from individual components. That is one quick vignette. Our chief came back from a visit up in washington, he noticed a young Senior Airman driving to work in a tesla. He said, ok, talk to me. How is this . The nationalin guard. When i am, im the director of security for a fortune 500 Silicon Valley tech company. [laughter] chairman wittman gen. Goldfein but, i also want to serve. When im not working security for this particular company, i am a Senior Airman and doing cyber business. We want to make that easier. Can do tohat Congress Help us to make that continuum easier would be extremely helpful. That is what we want to leverage. Ms. Bordallo thank you very much. I have one final question. I was that we, as members of guardss, travel the is there for us. The budget request indicates that the air force will continue to take risk in facility assisting restoration and modernization. Reduced,cts will be and what impact will it have on the daytoday quality of life . The simple truth is theres not enough money to go around. It does take risk, that is where we take the risk at the expense of modernization. As you divel see into the budget is that we have constructed our installations around military construction and around facility sustainment modernization. 2013, we have to get at construction. We have to get more money into our military construction. Ourut less momney in restoration, or modernization. We have to keep the buildings moving. That does push us into a strategy of worst first. With a backlog in full billion dollars in modernization projects. We are addressing the worst first. That focuses around the mission. Quality of life is competing against mission requirements. We are opting for our mission requirements. We are working processes on those Core Services to make sure we can get the best we can give them. Child Development Centers and gymnasiums, and dining facilities. We are using transformational efforts. At the funding level we are at we need to focus on readiness. Ms. Bordallo thank you for your candid answer to our question. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Chairman wittman i will now go to mr. Scott. Gentlemen, thank you for being here and for your service tonight. Is that plane still flying . What were flying 25 years ago . It isoldfein i am told now being used for unmanned drone. Im hoping not. It probably still is in the air. Mr. Scott we had a many decades edge 25 years ago. Adversariesen our an opportunity to get closer to us. Platf