During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) questioned military officials about necessary modernizations.
00:00Thank you, Chairman. Let me start with a question about the state partnership program. If I might, General Nordhaus, you know I've long been an enthusiastic supporter.
00:08You mentioned 115 nations around the world. In my view, the proof of concept of the state partnership program is best exemplified by the California National Guard-Ukraine partnership that goes back, I think, to 1993.
00:20I had the opportunity to visit Ukraine in 2016. Obviously, they were engaged in active combat in the Donbass, but the transformation of the Ukrainian military from a Soviet-style to a NATO-style, U.S. style, I think, was significantly facilitated by that partnership. Do I misunderstand? Am I correct?
00:38Senator Coons, I completely agree with your statement, and we're seeing that across the board, where our partnerships, it starts mill to mill, but then goes mill to sieve and sieve to sieve, and so it builds these trust partnerships, it builds partner capacity, and it builds resiliency, not only within their nation, but we learn from each of these countries as well.
01:01We bring that innovation spirit back to our formations, and it makes us stronger all the way across the board.
01:08Are you going to receive funding through this CR, FY25 CR, in time to prepare for summer exercises that are relevant to these particular missions?
01:18Senator, I do want to thank Congress. In this year-long CR, we were able to receive funding for state partnership programs, so thank you very much. We are putting it to good use. We are short a little bit, as I have states that are looking in the Indo-PACOM theater to do exercises,
01:36and so we are pulling together and trying to mitigate those impacts. The state of Washington is working with two of their partners to put on an exercise. I think we are going to be able to figure out how to do it, but we look.
01:48The growth of the state partnership continues to be robust. This year, we are adding nine, and so as we look to the future funding of the state partnership to match the slow and steady growth, I think is very critical to that.
02:02We are seeing nations continue to want to partner, and we are seeing states continue to put in and apply for these partnerships, and they are very robust, and they really fight.
02:12And I probably get most consternation from the adjutants generals when they're not selected for, you know, a state. But we have an incredible transparent and repeatable process in selecting, and we work with not only OSD, but Secretary of Defense, but also the State Department and the COCOMs to make sure we match up the right partners with the right states.
02:35And I've seen, I have visited deployed units of National Guard from six different states in the field, from Latvia to Djibouti. My hope is that my state, which has long had a partnership with Trinidad and Tobago, has an air reserve, or air guard function in cyber, and may well be able to expand to Malta, but that's a competitive process.
02:56Just know that I view the state partnership program as something that is a real force multiplier, low cost, high impact.
03:03We talked about KC-130s. You mentioned that as the next platform. I'm concerned about the NGRIA accounts. I think literally all of you referenced NGRIA on the importance of keeping, whether it's old aircraft or other platforms working, and money that's going into maintenance that could instead be put into new platforms that would require less money.
03:25I would just be interested in, you are supposed to be receiving proportional and concurrent fielding of modern equipment, but we are at or near the lowest level in a decade of that. Air Force reserves, for example, spends nearly 70% of your NGRIA allocation just to keep very old aircraft working money that could go to modernization.
03:48Because of, again, the 166 in Delaware, I'm very attentive to the C-130J modernization, but I'd be interested in your view about what's the value of modernization upgrades for C-130Js? What's the value across any of your services for more NGRIA funding and that balance between maintenance and upgrade?
04:11I'll start with General Nordhaus and then move to Lieutenant General Harder and then move to Lieutenant General Healy if we might, I could see interest.
04:18Thanks, Senator Kunt. I'm going to quickly take you back to my time flying the F-16 over forces in Iraq. And so I'm over the top and without NGRIA, I wouldn't have a lightning pod that I could have used to save lives on the ground.
04:34I wouldn't have had the engine and the jet to give me the thrust capable to meet and defeat threats. As we look every year, whether it's in the MAF community or in the CAF community, those forces make us not only modernize those equipments, but they make us combat interoperable and capable to be part of the joint force.
04:57Whether it's here in the homeland to be able to do our homeland defense missions with AESA radars on our F-16s that enables us to have the capabilities we need for the North-Northcom mission or to be able to have jamming pods that are needed to fight up at the next level for adversaries that we might face.
05:17General Harder?
05:19Yes, Senator NGRIA is absolutely essential. We receive less than one percent of the Army's procurement budget. And so our fleets are aging. I talked about the percentage of fuel and logistic support that's in the United States Army Reserve.
05:32reserve. And so we do use Negria to procure exactly those systems. We have been focused more
05:38on communication and network and survivability in that spectrum on the battlefield to try to
05:43encourage my army teammates to help us with the cascading effect of that critical equipment. But
05:47Negria is essential to plugging that modernization gap. Thank you, General. General Healy. Yes, sir.
05:53Negria is an absolute essential part of our budget. It's 55% of our procurement dollars right
05:58there. We use it much like General Nordhaus said, our F-16s at the 482nd down at Homestead.
06:06The oldest F-16s in the inventory right now, but they have an ESA radars in each one of them.
06:11They've got EW pods, and I equate it to, we might be bringing a knife to a gunfight, but it's a really
06:17good knife. So we use it for modernization on that end. Meanwhile, as you mentioned, the majority of
06:25our fleet, 88% of our fleet is over 39 years old. So it's everything we can do to keep them
06:31involved in the fight through secure comms, ensuring that they know what their surroundings
06:36are when they go into the Pacific, making sure they have infrared radar detection systems up
06:41armored and so forth, make them more survivable as well. General Harder, you referenced in your
06:46opening forward deployment of some of your equipment into potential theaters. Could you just
06:52say a little bit more about overseas depots and how that strikes the balance in terms of training
06:58and readiness versus spending money on repair and maintenance? Absolutely, Senator. So right now,
07:04back here in CONUS, I'm funded to maintain really about 35% of my equipment. About 25% is maintained at
07:11home station. The rest, 75%, is maintained at one of my equipment concentration sites. And those
07:16mechanics, I'm funded about 50% of that requirement. So I really focus on units that are deploying,
07:21units are going to major exercises. So we thought, why not, let's start positioning some of those
07:26critical fleets forward. We, the Army Reserve, are maintaining that. We're coordinating with Army
07:30Materiel Command. I have one-star commands in both Europe and Pacific theaters. So right now,
07:36we have a maintenance company on the ground in Europe. We're looking to put one of my bulk petroleum
07:41transportation companies there as well as an ordnance and ammo company. And we're looking to do the
07:45same thing in the Pacific. Posture the fleets forward. The Army Reserve is, we're the ones with the
07:50equipment that's going to be called upon. Let's, you know, close the gap on time and distance.
07:55Should something bad happen, let's have it in theater. We'll maintain it. And we're going to
07:58continue to work that pilot, Senator. So if I hear you right, the tyranny of distance means
08:02better to move the really heavy, big stuff long way first, and then have the people follow it,
08:08rather than have the people and the very heavy stuff here and not be able to move it and not be
08:13relevant if things evolve. Exactly right. Plus, we can focus on maintaining it over there.
08:18I think the logistics, my brother was second armored, the logistics lesson from those first
08:23few days of the conflict in Ukraine were huge. And that's part of the challenge of keeping an
08:28actually combat capable force. A question to all of you, I understand there's another Senator
08:33coming. So I'm just going to keep asking questions. Unless you interrupt me, Mr. Chairman.
08:37Well, I think that Senator Sheehan and Senator Hovind are on the way. Is that right?
08:43Senator Sheehan.
08:44I hope they get here soon. I've got more questions. On readiness, because of the CR,
08:53the continuing resolution, the department didn't make a request to pay for the southwest border
08:58or overseas operations. And both of these would normally be done in a supplemental. The way the
09:05department chose to implement the CR takes billions out of the base budgets to pay for these
09:11other deployments and missions. I'd be interested in hearing from each of you how you've been
09:16impacted by the CR generally and the tradeoffs you have to make, training, maintenance.
09:23How the hiring freeze and the DRP has impacted your workforce. And I have a particular question
09:29about the MilTech shortfall. If anyone wants to speak to the OPM process and how it's working to
09:36literally have to have approved one at a time, your MilTechs, I'm very concerned about how that's
09:42impacting readiness. I'll start from General Healy, who seemed quite excited about the MilTech point.
09:48To get to that point first, sir. So we currently, as I mentioned in my opening statement, 28 days of the
09:55month, our full-time force is 25 percent. And that's what mans our basis. To keep the lights on.
10:00They're also the instructors, the evaluators. They're the ones who train and get ready our part-time
10:06force. Through normal movement, they are scheduled to move around the country into new positions, a PCS,
10:13a permanent change of station. Part of that is considered a new hire. So they apply for the job
10:19and they go. Of the 440 people that were caught in this, dual status technicians during the hiring freeze,
10:27they were considered civilians, can't move, can't hire them into the new positions, even though they
10:31were existing dual status technicians already. On April 2nd, it was identified as a major impasse to us
10:38and they were universally exempted from DRP. Since then, of the 440, we've gotten 21 through OPM and into
10:47USA jobs. And the direct effect on readiness is, as I stated, these are the instructors, the evaluators,
10:54the people that teach our traditional reservists, how to get ready for the future deployment. So we
11:00will see an impact in the beginning of 27 or 26-1 or the first half of 26 and the second half of 26
11:07with the readiness state of our deployers going out the door, sir.
11:11As you well know, I suspect Dover Air Force Base has both active duty and reserve component. They're
11:17absolutely critical to mission readiness out of Dover. I would benefit from some direct input
11:24to me, if possible, in response to my questions about how this OPM chokepoint is impacting Dover
11:31and impacting your units elsewhere so that I could be constructive in offering some input to OPM
11:37and DOD broadly about how this is impacting training readiness deployments.
11:41I'll take that for the record, sir. I'll get back.
11:43Thank you. Anyone else want to speak up about the MilTech challenge or, more broadly,
11:48training readiness and, in particular, the DRP?
11:51Yes, Senator. So I'll engage the DRP, just an anecdotal point, but I bet all my teammates
11:57have the exact same challenge. And it relates to your question and comment about the hiring freeze.
12:01So, for example, at one of my formations forward in Europe, I had an office, a finance office that
12:07supports a bunch of Army soldiers. For context, the Army Reserve has about 11,000
12:11civilians, 7,000 military technicians, 4,000 Department of the Army civilians.
12:17The finance office had four people in it, three civilians and a military. All three civilians took
12:22the DRP. So now I've got one soldier there trying to support what's going on. Then you have the hiring
12:27freeze, and you're trying to work through the authorities to backfill those positions.
12:32John laid it out well. As far as the continuing resolution, the challenge for the Army Reserve
12:39is when you have the, you're funded to last year's dollars. It's orders. It's cutting those orders for
12:46soldiers. We've curtailed exercises that we're doing this year. Schools get impacted. And right now,
12:52we're trying to figure out how to make sure we can pay all our soldiers for their statutory battle
12:56assemblies in September. So we're churning through that. We're looking for, you know, programming
13:00authorities through the Army. But it's just, it creates a lot of turbulence, and predictability
13:07is the most important thing for an Army Reserve soldier.
13:11Senator Coons, thanks for the question. As was discussed by my teammates here, our military
13:16technicians are the lifeblood, those full-timers that are prepping everything, getting everything
13:22ready to go, whether it's on a flight line or facilities, to be able to get the equipment ready.
13:26And so anytime there's any pause or disruption in the hiring, it's going to impact readiness. So we've
13:33worked incredibly hard through the department to open that up and get that moving as fast as we can.
13:39We have had some success, but it does impact our readiness and lethality. And so we look forward to
13:45getting that back to full speed for hiring. And then on the CR, certainly consistent funding. As we think
13:52about planning and exercising into the future and into the summer months, having the dollars early
13:58so that we can plan and predict where we're going to go, where we're going to exercise. And that
14:02includes the exercise we do with our state partners across the board.
14:06I'm going to ask you a last question, General Nordass, if I might, while Senator Shaheen settles in.
14:11I recently read DHS is requesting 20,000 guardsmen for interior immigration enforcement.
14:18It seems clear to me that it's important that there not be any crossing of the line between the
14:27guards' role and domestic law enforcement. The guard does not train for domestic law enforcement. Is that
14:32correct? We have military police, security police, and we have over the years trained in support of
14:41law enforcement if we get called to do the mission set. How are you going to ensure that guardsmen deployed
14:47understand the legal environment they're operating in and the restrictions that that may impose on
14:51their conduct? Senator, if you look at presidential inauguration 60 or 59, anytime our folks get
14:59called up to a mission to support, those are all things that we go through. What are the rules for
15:04the use of force? What's the legalities law? What mission sets are they going to be on? What
15:10equipment do they need to be able to do the mission set? So we're very focused through the
15:14adjutants generals to make sure that they have the training and they're being put on missions that
15:19they can support and do following the constitution, the law, and any policy or guidance that's laid out to
