A communist in their parliament in ukraine. So we have that problem at the same time as the others youre addressing. What do you think about our european strength as it is right now . Are we adequate . Are we becoming inadequate . I think that our strength in europe is our alliance with nato and the political solidarity that that represents, which is very important when it comes to the Baltic States and also the response in ukraine, which while not a nato nation is certainly a european nation and european unity is an important part of that. So one of our strengths is that. Another strength is our military strength. And there i understand that we are adding forces Rotational Forces to the Baltic States as a presence there as a deterrent to any russian kind of adventurism on the part of russia. In those states i certainly support that, and if im confirmed, id want to look into what more we can do. I wish the european states and secretary of defenses have said this were investing in their own defense. Lastly, im out of time, but for the record if youd submit this for the record to me, in the event were able to get the perpetrator of the horrible crime that took place, would you examine the expeditionary legal complex that we have as a place to do our interrogation . I heard your response to the first question that we at least considered that. Sure, ill learn more and respond. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, dr. Carter. Thank you for your continuing presence at this hearing. I appreciate your acknowledging at this hearing the importance and the seriousness of Sexual Assault in the military. And in response to questions that have been submitted to you, you said that you would take a personal role in addressing the prevention and dealing with this scourge in a much better way. So i will have a continuing interest in seeing how you do in that regard. I also agree with you that the security of our country is very much dependent, i would say, on maintaining the stability in the asiapacific area, so of course, we need to continue our commitment to the rebalance and at the same time be able to deal with the instability in other parts of the world. Now president obama recently visited india and announced a series of Bilateral Agreements with Prime Minister modi. Can you talk briefly about the future of the u. S. India relationship in the context of our rebalance commitment . Thank you senator. The rebalance is a rebalance not only within to the asiapacific area, but within it. Our historic focus has been east asia and i think that your question points to the importance to pay greater attention to south asia as well. India is, in my view, destined to be a Strategic Partner of the United States. Its a large democracy shares a lot of our political values and values of pluralism so i think that destiny will bring us together but im for hastening that. In the Military Area and the defense cooperation and Technology Cooperation areas i think theres a great deal that we can do with india. If im confirmed i would take a strong interest in doing that. Thank you. Do you view u. S. Energy security as a vital component to our Overall National security, and clearly on the military side . What role if any, do you believe that the department of defense has in supporting efforts to increase u. S. Energy security . I think Energy Security is an important part of National Security. The Defense Department does play a role not a central role but a role in Energy Security. I think every dollar we spend of the Defense Budget we need to be able to justify on defense grounds, and we make some investments in Energy Technology because they pay off for the Defense Budget and for the soldier, we make investments in batteries, solar cells, things that are inhalation insulation. So in some ways the department of defense, like other large institutions in the country, is investing in Energy Efficiency in the future. I think thats an important thing to do. D. O. D. Is the largest user o of energy in the federal government. Regarding acquisitions, with your experience in the defense acquisition process including the time in which you led the Acquisition Technology and logistics directory at the pentagon, as you review our d. O. D. Acquisition program with the various cost overruns delays et cetera, which others have noted including the chairman, what would be your First Priority to improve the acquisition process . For example, would you look at the kind of contracts that we enter into. , training, requirements process, what would be your First Priority to improve matters . All of those are important. To take the point you made about contract structure, contracts are a way of providing incentives to industry to control costs and meet schedule, thats an important part of negotiating a strategy. To get to your other suggestion in order to negotiate those contracts well, we need people on the government side who are capable, who understand acquisition and who understand industry. I am in favor of introducing reintroducing to the acquisition system the role of the customer, which is the chiefs of the military services. I think thats been a proposal made by others with which i associate myself, so theres no one silver bullet. There are many things that we need to do to improve acquisition. Thank you. Senator fischer . Thank you mr. Chairman. And thank you, dr. Carter, for your service and your willingness to continue that service to our country. I appreciated our frank conversation that we had in my office the other day, and i look forward to many more in the future. In that conversation and today also you talk about the deterrents, our Nuclear Deterrence is being the bedrock of our defense. I appreciate your views on that and i agree with your views. We also talked about modernization and the importance of modernization and how as a country we need to step forward and really see that through if we are going to continue to enjoy the security that we have as a country. So thank you for your comments on that. In 2013 you led the strategic choices but the gao has issued reports that cast doubt on if that will take place and even if we have an accurate picture on what the full resources are that are devoted to that Headquarters Staff. So a couple of questions here will you, if confirms maintain the goal of the 20 reduction in the Headquarters Staff and how will you accomplish it if we dont have any idea what those numbers are . I certainly think it is important to to diminish Headquarters Staff and other forms of overhead. I think the 20 goal is a sound one. I do not know where it stands in terms of implementation but if confirms i will try to meet that goal. Because we have to get rid of the overhead so we can spend the dollars on the war fighter, which is what it is all about. Have you seen the gao report questioning if those numbers are even out there and if they are even available, and if you believe that, how are you going to get the numbers . I have not seen that gao report. But if i am confirmed well find out where the department stands in terms of implementing that goal and if they are off track, try to get them back on track because i think it is a good goal. Do you think now is the time that we should look at elevating cyber to its own command or even with the commission that we had yesterday, there is a recommendation in that commission for a joint readiness command. When we look at overhead and administrative costs what would be your initial response to those that are promoting ideas for additional commands. Im all for paying much more attention to cyber and think we need to do that. But the creation of new commands and new headquarters in this budgetary environment is something i think we need to look at very closely and cautiously. As you know, our chairman senator mccain, is interested as we all are, in gaining more knowledge about the information sharing with regard to our Cyber Security threats and that is one area that i believe has broad support. I know there is support not just from members of this committee and members of congress but also the president has discussed the need for informationsharing on those Cyber Security threats. I agree that information sharing and better defense is a first step, but do you think that we can achieve relative Cyber Security simply by improving those defenses or do we need to perhaps go on the offense and impose more i guess you would say visible costs with regards to our actions on Cyber Security . I think both are important. We need to improve our defenses. But we also need to improve our abilities to respond. And those responses can be in cyber space or in other ways, but certainly they should include the option to respond in cyber space. And the option to respond, would you say that would include demonstrating that we have the capability to do so, is that part of our deterrence when it comes to protecting our country our agencies and private businesses when it comes to Cyber Attacks . I agree with you. I think deterrence requires that a potential aggressor know that you have the capability to respond and they obviously cant know all of the details of that or they can counter respond but they should know you can respond. And would respond if necessary. And would respond if necessary. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator cask ill. I want to talk about the weapons. You are in a special position because you have been in the weeds on all of this in the previous position and we worked on war time contracting reforms which are now in the statutes and i know you will be aggressive about making sure of all of those provisions are adhered to. I also want to address a question to you for the record on the murky line on the building of infrastructure during contingencies in theater while we are fighting. I think what weve learned in iraq and afghanistan through the special Inspector Generals reports is that this line of passing back and forth responsibility for building roads, building highways building grids, building Water Systems and power plants between aid and defense has made it difficult for us to hold everybody accountable that needs to be accountable for dramatic failures and on that note i want to talk about special Inspector General reports. Yesterday i learned for the first time in six years the special Inspector General reports as to the way we are accomplishing our mission in training the Afghan Security forces was going to be classified by general campbell. That was never done before. That is essential to robust oversight. I kicked up dust last weeb about it and on monday it was announced that general campbell was reversing his decision in some regard. I want to ask your commitment to make sure that throughout the chain of command there is an understanding that the decision to classify is a very, very precarious decision because if you dont do it when it needs to be done, but if you overclassify it removes the ability of us and the taxpayers to hold the military accountable and i wanted to bring that up to you and ask you for your commitment in that regard. I give that commitment. And i also wanted to briefly talk about Sexual Assault in the military. The report that came out in december while it still shows work to be done, i think it is important that on the record we talk about the success that we have had. Reporting is up. Weve gone from one in ten victims coming forward to one in four in a matter of a few years. Incidents is down. Importantly, restricted reporting is up. And maybe, the most Important Information in that report that hasnt gotten a lot of cover in anonymous surveys and focus groups with victims more than two thirds of the victims said they had complete confidence in their commanders in how they are handling the crimes and they feel their privacy is being respected and that they are being supported. That is huge. And i wanted to point that out because i do think we are making progress. But on retaliation, that same report, as senator gillibrand reported, we still have a 62 of retaliation. If you look at the report you realize it is not retaliation by the convening authority, by the command as making the decision as to whether to go to court marshal. But it is peer command. We make retaliation a crime. We expect to get say report in how many times that has been pursued in the military Justice System. That just went into place a relatively short time ago. What do you plan on doing in connection with this retaliation problem and with this new crime in the military Justice System to pursue it. Thank you and thank you for everything youve done. Ive, from the outside looking in observed and admired the ideas and the energy and the commitment youve shown to this getting rid of this scourge of Sexual Assault, so first of all thank you for that. With respect to retaliation, that is one of the dimensions that i think the report you cite uncovered as very prevalent. I think the 62 of victims were reporting experiencing retaliation. And as you say not so much although not to the exclusion of but not so much from the chain of command, but from peers and subordinates. And you are right, this is a crime and its prevalence suggests we are not doing everything we can to root out that crime so if im confirmed you can count that im attentive to this issue of retaliation and determined to do something about it. I look forward to working with you if i am confirmed. Thank you very much. Dr. Carter. I look forward to looking with you. Senator lee. Thank you very much dr. Carter. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate the visit we had in my office the other day. And youve certainly proven yourself as someone who knows a lot about the department of defense, having served at the highest levels as Department Secretary in the past. I want to talk about a few things. First lets talk about the f35 for a minute. The f35 is an amazing system with units at Hill Air Force base that are set to be hosting the f35 starting this fall. It is a program, however, that has been marred by delays and cost overruns as you know. As the department of defense looks at acquireing other new Weapons Systems and equipment to make sure that we maintain our Technology Advantage over our adversaries, i think it is important not only to work time and cost efficiencies and acquisition into the equation for such programs but also to integrate that with logistics and maintenance processes that are absolutely essential to make sure we get our moneys worth. And of course with the program like the f35 the biggest single expense through the life cycle isnt just acquiring it it is maintaining it and making sure we get our moneys worth out of it. Given that the department of defense has been reforming the acquisition process in various ways for decades, what would you do differently not only to improve that process but to make sure that acquisitions and development and logistics are all aligned in a way that increases the life cycle and increases the efficiency and utility of these various Weapons Systems . Thank you, senator. It is exactly as you say. The lions share of the cost of any weapons system is not in buying it, but in having it. Which is why in getting to the f35 system that you cite, the longlasting strike is still ongoing and it going on as long as it is in existence has to go on as long as it is in the aircraft. We have worked on cost control in the eric and in sustainment as well, exactly as you say. Thank you. And i appreciate your thought on that especially because your experience gives you a real strong ability to appreciate the nuances involved there. General john kelly, the commander of south com called last years border crisis an existen shall threat to the United States. Do you think our ability to adequately enforce security at our borders does present a Security Threat to the United States including a Security Threat that could involve the possibility of terrorists entering into our country without our knowledge. I think control of our borders is an important part of our National Security yes. And that is something you would continue to watch out for if confirmed at this position . Absolutely. It was reported on february 2nd, a few days ago, that iran successfully placed another satellite into orbit using a twostage rocket. Do you think the continuing development of iranian Ballistic MissileTechnology Presents a threat to the United States and what do you think we should do about it . It is a threat to the United States and friends and allies to the region and one of the things that iran is doing that is dangerous. With respect to the Ballistic Missiles