Firing surfacetosurface missile statue. Berry lowtech threat essentially very. What can you do about it . Well, what you do about it over all is enough multimission platforms and you trained your sailors, your marines to be flexible and adaptable because you dont know what the threat is going to come at you. You dont know what the next thing coming over the horizon is going to be. But when those missiles were fired at the ships, they took out some appropriate action. Nothing hit the ships, no one was harmed on the ship. And to show you the value of naval presence and being everywhere at the right time, the right place, but all the time, is that instead of saying youre in big trouble two or three weeks from now when we can get somebody here to shoot at you, we had somebody there. We had a tomahawk shooter right there that, when the decision was made to retaliate, to show people that if you attack us, you do so at your peril. We were there. We could do it instantly. I think its interesting, one of the threats is while the bureaucracy, again while the bureaucracy may move a little slow in this town, enemies move pretty fast, pretty lowtech. The only reason i say marine corps is a land force, or land forces facing an isis threat here we know that isis is challenging you rudimentary, they have that ability. This weekend we saw then set fire to an oil plant and a phosphorus plant in the iraq. That doesnt take massive multigazillion weapons to defend against that it does take your troops being able to still have the equipment to operate. So talk to us about that. Thats a threat perhaps could be anticipated but still when it comes its very challenging. We do a fairly good job of anticipating a lot of the threats, not when theyre going to use them or how theyre going to employ some of them but being prepared for a multitude of threats in the battle space. But it gets back to a point that weve been talking about this morning. That decision cycle, the cycle the adversaries are so good it. In many ways theres a lot of innovation in military, a lot of innovation in Industrial Base that succeeds despite the prophecies and the barriers that we put up in place. In many ways the department of defense to operates like its the 1950s and we are driving technological change. When there is all the change that we can keep up with, its faster than we can absorb it. What worries you the most on that point of Iterative Technology moving faster . Is everything. The Rapid Capabilities office, we set it up in the army because we are seeing, we been focus on certain type of fight for 15 years, and russia goes into ukraine and all of a sudden we see that they did turned into much more of a learning institution that we thought they were they have been watching us, studying in making improvements. And are decisive advantage we thought we had wasnt as big as it turns out as we hope it was for thought it was. So we set this office up for things like cybercom Electronic Warfare composition navigation and timing, and countering this threat of the uhf. I think the two things, the three things that worry me the most, cyber, position in china, gps, not having that in a fight and everything that is pretty much dependent on it one way or another. And then of the threat of these kind of insistence that were starting to see proliferate. We could talk about this point for ever but let me shift now to the sort of Service Members sight of it. Over the last several months everyone in this room has heard the constant conversation whether its aimed at congress and the budget and sequestration, the pressure on your budget, which are not going to be able to do with sequestration. We have heard from all sides in the political arena, the military, you know, broken stress, disaster, not ready. Set that aside for a moment. Lets get the bottom line from all three of you on readiness current and anticipated threats. What can you do . What do you worry you cannot do to meet the current threat . How ready are you . How broken is the readiness . The United States air force is not at all broken. I would begin by saying we are the best air force on the planet. We have challenges. We have challenges and manpower. First of all in my opinion over the course of 27 years and type in the air force. Weve probably gone to far which is why we have stopped downsizing and now were modestly growing our force, particularly to the blog some important holes in the maintenance arena and also growing our rpi aircraft force and cyberforce to name just a few. So we are growing our force modestly. When it comes to our readiness, our ability to do our jobs that we are called upon to do today, you always have to ask yourself, ready to do what . Which job are you talking about . The question is are we ready to do what we are doing in the middle east, the site again isil in iraq and syria comes the answer is darn right we are. Weve been doing this types of operations for years and we do them extremely effectively. What if you get into a different type of site . If i or you dont necessarily control the skies and where the enemy on the ground or elsewhere can interfere with you in a major way. But if you get into a site into a site where theres integrated air defenses to go up against the underground. This is where you have concern that you dont have enough force to take on that level aside. We will do the job but at levels of lower readiness, our worry is that it will take longer to get the job done. We may lose more lives. More people may be hurt or killed. We may lose more assets, more aircraft and the like. Thats the impact of not having sufficiently high levels of readiness for what i call the huygens complex fight. The Navy Marine Corps are ready to fight tonight. We are global around the globe, around the clock. The people that we deploy, the forces we deploy are at the absolute top of readiness training. New mexico are at the same level, getting the treatment they are needed. The equipment they need, the and maintenance done. It is the next force. The search force after that at the cost of sequester, the cause of declining budgets that were not getting enough training for the longterm, not doing the longterm maintenance as well or as deeply as we should. The number one theme for the navy was when i came in, we just didnt have enough ships. The fleet had decline from 316 ships and 217 a ships in 08. You didnt have enough ships you are having to make choices as to where dissent assets. In the time from 010 wait, what the organ once ships under contract. Not enough to keep our shipyards in business. In my seven years would put 86 ships under contract. We will get back to 300 ships by 20 night and 301 by 2021 what does rss need of today. We are living with the fleet size today based on decisions made 12, 15 years ago. The decisions that i make in on this bigticket items are going to determine the fleet size 2025, 2030 in your comment about giving the future of seat at the table. You have got to do that and you got to do it in a way that you dont know what the threats are going to be. Every time a striker comes back, i get a briefing on it and the one constant is they face in shame that they have not expect to comment that during their work and training and it wasnt foreseen. We are just not. The only thing we can do is have enough of the acquit and, chavez ready it changes you can possibly have. And finally, that you trained to be very flexible, and that you dont all into one mind that, but you dont fall than to fighting the last war, that you are about to ball, that you do see their threats when they come and your good at overcoming them. Ill echo the army is ready. Its incredibly lethal war fighting machine, by far the best weve ever had in the best in the world. Debbie was they asked the question ready for wide. But when we talk about first of all readiness, and resets the number one priority but its resilient soldiers who are trained and properly equipped. And so i think the army is ready. We are expanding the trading. Weve been focusing on that in the last year taken on Decisive Action that the larger scale near peer adversaries, different type of sites focused on in the last 15 years. But because of that site that weve in the last 10 years, i would never say broken. I would never say hello because it is a very strong lethal army. But weve been running it hard for yvonne time now and there is no end in sight to that uptempo that has been tough on the army and expanding at the expense in some ways that the future. Weve cut the procurement budget pretty dramatically over the last 10, 15 years. Focus on todays readiness, making sure the army of today is ready or paired for the combat situation it finds itself in. I worry about making sure the future army has what it needs to get done. What i hear from all three of you is yes, randy, but that such are all paid to do is to worry. Essentially. So let me ask you this. Secretary james, you mentioned if you had to be at the followthrough is nobody goes a long if you are suddenly in an area where you did not control and youre in an area challenged by missiles on the ground. So lets be very specific. If for all three of you not hypothetical. Its been discussed. If you had to do a socalled nofly zone over syria, many people in the pentagon say ok but that would take resources away from the current pace despite. Could you prosecute the current site air, sea, ground and still have resources if you are ordered to do a nofly over syria . Could you do that . I will just begin by saying without diverting resources away. Let me begin by saying if we were called upon to do a nofly zone, we know how to do this. We know how to put this together. We know how to plan it, how to execute. Its been done before. As you point out it would require money, people and resources. We would figure out how to accomplish it. Remember, the United States air force is not alone. We are with the u. S. Navy. We have a coalition of partners. I have to believe that we were called upon to do this we would keep the fight going at pace again isil and iraq in the area and we would find out away to do a nofly zone. Weve done it in the past. We know how it can be connect to it. You are suggesting it could be difficult to layer on these additional tasks as threats emerge an additional tasks emerge given what you are facing right now anyhow with the challenge to your budget. Difficult is that the military guys. We do planning and execution so i dont want to in any way makes it sound like it would be complex. What im trying to convey is if asked to do so would step up to the plate, do it with our joint war fighting partners and do it as part of the coalition. Eric, you talked about, one of the dead, but theres been a lot of talk about pressure going into crimea and Eastern Ukraine at various points. You have a step g Army Presence in the air force president in Eastern Europe now. Military personnel generals have expressed concerns that if russia did make a move, came the u. S. Army, can nato push it back fast enough . Do you have enough to have a credible deterrent to russia right now do you need more . I think we are a credible deterrent to russia. Let me just address that for a minute in terms of it there is a nofly zone are stepped up her occasional presence in europe. It goes back to the readiness question. We hold our military to a higher standard as we should. We want the jury in a decisive way and we are asked to do things all over the world. Adversaries just have to jam us or prevent something from happening. We have to penetrate and defeat them decisively into it at the globe. As secretary of the army im always going to want more to make me feel more comfortable in terms of deterrence to russia are resources for soldiers. But i think we are right now a credible deterrent. I suppose it all depends what level of risk one is willing to take. I you dont keep everybody at the top alert status around the world all the time, but you do have ships there just in case. And thats the value of the Maritime Forces that present day in, day out. That is the reason you need decisively that you need. You have to have enough ships to be there. Havent shifted more folk and have it shipped in san diego doesnt do much for an immediate crisis. To your question to eric, we do this is a joint course and weve got a lot of presents, protect you early navy and marines. The army has come behind the marines and the blacks rotational force. We were together incredibly well, the air force and the navy and what used to be called air sea battle. The notion that we can control the skies. The other thing that a Maritime Force brings you is we operate off of sovereign u. S. Territory. We dont have to ask anyone for permission to get the job done. The best example of that was when the president made the decision to strike a says in august of ford team we had a carrier stationed in less than 30 hours launching straight. We were the only strike option or 54 days. It wasnt because we didnt have other assets. We have lots of other assets in the region. But the countries with the lower planes to take off. We did not ask. Would you tell your successors as this approaches . Not you personally, the u. S. Defense part in. Have you pretty much given up on that old notion that you might have to be ready to face two major regional conflicts . I made only person on this panel of math to remember. Have you given up that construct . Or is that still where we are. Of course theres north korea out there, russia, the middle east. Weary think of the joint force as the u. S. Military, we are prepared in the event that there should be a conflict with what is sometimes called a near peer competitor. We are preparing for the possibility of a persistent fight against terror for years to come. So it is a combination of all of these elements that we are trying to make sure we are prepared to do. But i was not one to pick a fight with anybody, this is mostly about deterrence, about being there and reassuring allies around the world. As was noted we are globally engaged force. To the extent are people feel some strain is because of the pace of operation. My last question before we go to all of these which are looking really good, north korea. The reason i ask about this in terms of transition and what may come next, a couple weeks ago the cia director, john brennan, publicly was talking about north korea and said that he thought it was kind in not only the Current Administration obviously has to prepared to deal with at any time, but that he thought a new Administration Needs to get ready now, that both candidates irrespective of who wins need to be briefed up and ready, that you could literally have a new president having to deal with north korea from minute one, that they could take advantage. So talk to me as you look ahead on what you want to prioritize for yourself as you form the next budget. How much does north korea play into your thinking . Youve got people rate air. First i just want to speak to your last question and say we have not given up on the atf has been able to do more than one thing in the world simultaneously. I dont want anyone to think. You certify that on the head when you said its about balance that risk. That is essentially what the jobs are about. We have the incredibly potent michael force and its a matter of determining how you balance that risk based on the enemy having a vote in this. Weve not walked back from that concept at all. We can do more than one thing and we are now in fact doing more than one thing. North korea plays heavily in my mind because it is so the situation is so one predict the bold and the pace seems to be increasing and there are quite a few soldiers that are sitting right there ready in case something happens. So making sure we are prepared for this increasing thread is north korean capabilities increase is a very important part of the calculus budget together. It is not just north korea. Any Incoming Administration is ready from day one for any of the threats out there and that is part of our job to pass to our successors. The readiness is rare, you can take north korea as an example. Again, i come back to the wordpress and. Our soldiers are already bear upon the ground and south korea. Our ships, weve got carrier in japan. We are adding destroyers to that after. And the Ballistic Missile destroyers. They are there. They are forward. So if there is a crisis, you dont have to wait. We are not going to have the luxury whatever the next fight is there whenever there is the next fight as being able to take weeks or months to get forces there. It doesnt matter what the sources are. Youve got to have them ready and theyve got to be ready to fight tonight. I think thats not just north korea, but that has to be the way pass on to our successors. I certainly agree, but leave as soon as we know what the next president will be and as soon as we have a Transition Team specifically at the pentagon, that very quickly there will need to be a Strategic Review by this team of the threats. I will prep the larger quadrennial defense review down the line, but steve will be very, very important. To understand the threat profile, to also conduct to overtime and Nuclear Posture review, something most administrations will do to look at the state of our enterprise and we go from here. The new administration will have to also address up front whether or not we stay the course, a direction we have been going in space which is near and dear to my heart because in addition to being secretary of the air force the principal Defense Space advisor ensign years and seven years ago with that space with the peaceful domain. Today we recognize it is contested and congested i have lots of satellite, debris and all sorts of things. Its terribly important will have to make decisions Going Forward on that as well. There will be a lot to do and on our behalf we are about organizing, training and equipping and i will be stressing some very important people issues Going Forward, said an important training type issues for our readiness and the importance of modernization across the board. Lets go to some questions. Everyone is probably curious about what this person is asking, which is how your services are preparing for the upcoming transition. And there is a new on the book that actually allowed some preparation for trend mission prior to election day. Can you give some insi