During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) spoke about President Trump accepting a 747 plane through the Department of Defense from the Qatari Royal Family.
00:00Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Hirono. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to start by
00:11noting a very questionable act by President Trump recently, wherein he confirmed that he is planning
00:19to accept a $400 million Boeing 747 gift from the Qatari royal family. Let's call this what it is.
00:27The president is using the DOD to accept, you could even call it launder, an impermissible gift to skirt
00:38constitutional limitations on the acceptance of personal gifts from foreign governments without
00:44congressional approval. Even more brazenly, he is placing the burden to retrofit the aircraft on the
00:54Air Force, which experts say is likely to cost more than $1 billion before transferring it to his own
01:04personal use post-presidency. And of course, a particular concern to this committee as well
01:11as other committees, accepting this gift brings with it significant counterintelligent risks.
01:18And as we sit here concerning ourselves with the use of taxpayers' money, from both an operational
01:26security and financial management standpoint, it makes little sense that this should even occur.
01:36So, Mr. Chairman, I wanted to make a note of what it is not just me, but others consider
01:42very questionable behavior by this president. Moving on to questions for General Saltzman.
01:50The Space Force is planning to install up to seven additional telescopes on Haleakala
01:59and Maui to support space domain awareness. Monitoring and tracking the increasing number of objects
02:07in orbit is critical to supporting the joint force. However, Haleakala holds cultural significance
02:14to the Native Hawaiian community. And given the unique environmental and cultural significance of Haleakala,
02:22will you commit to working with and listening to the concerns of local stakeholders to ensure transparency
02:29and community engagement as the Space Force considers options for this project?
02:37Absolutely, Senator. We have conducted several community engagements and we will continue to do that as we progress with the project.
02:43I appreciate that because I know that what you are contemplating is very important and the last thing we need is for
02:51the community to not have the kind of awareness and support that it needs to enable us to and you to go forward.
02:58For General Alvin, with the ongoing retirement of the aging E-3 fleet, Pacific Air Forces has identified an urgent need to
03:09find a replacement as soon as possible and I have discussed this with others.
03:14Also, my understanding is the Air Force is planning to spend an additional $400 million in fiscal year 25
03:22for an advanced procurement of the E-7 Wedgetail replacement aircraft.
03:27Can you talk about the importance of rapidly fielding an E-3 replacement aircraft to support operations in the Indo-Pacific?
03:37Yeah, thank you very much, Senator. And we couldn't be more on target there with the idea of being able to maintain our ability to do airborne warning and battle management.
03:48And the E-3 has been a fantastic platform, but it is sort of self-divesting and it's really getting old.
03:54And so, as we look to the future, we understand there is a future there where, working with my brother in the Space Force,
04:00that we will be able to sort of migrate some of that into space.
04:04We have to make sure that we can migrate it all into space, not only just the sensing, but the sensing and the making sense and then the deciding based on that.
04:11And so, the E-7 offers advantages that the E-3 does not have with respect to enhanced capability range and some of the other capabilities that it has.
04:20So, the ability to maintain a viable battle management, especially in the Indo-Pacific, and some redundancy between the air and space layer as the space layer matures,
04:32is going to be very important going into the future.
04:34This replacement situation has been already delayed, and my understanding is that the administration may still be considering whether to cancel the E-7 altogether in favor of a space-based system.
04:49But that is going to take time, and I think that you need to have this replacement for aircraft that are over 50 years old,
04:58much sooner than moving toward a space-based system.
05:02Would you agree?
05:03Well, I do believe that we need to maintain that viability, and I don't want to get ahead of where the administration is on this budget,
05:09but you're correct in the 25, our 25 position did have us advancing those two prototypes.
05:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:18I will submit other questions for the record.
05:20Thank you, Senator Hirono.
05:22Senator Cotton.
05:22General Ullivan, you've talked about the need to buy new aircraft to replace our oldest.
