During a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) questioned General B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations at the USSF, about space capabilities.
00:00You can allow for that excess and still comply with the statute, can you not?
00:05We must, because it is in law. Yes, absolutely, Chairman. Recognize that.
00:08Thank you very much. Senator Fisher.
00:11Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Mink, at your confirmation hearing, you committed to utilizing all available tools to accelerate sentinel emplacement
00:22and ensure that our nation's ICBM capability does move forward.
00:27The Nunn-McCready review concluded that the continuation of sentinel is essential to our national security.
00:35And thanks to the thoroughness of that review, we can make smarter changes to the program that will reduce the projected cost and schedule of the program.
00:46However, the Air Force needs to start making design decisions that will get us to milestone B.
00:54The longer you wait, the more likely it is that costs will increase.
00:59I also don't want to see the Air Force choose to raid sentinel budget lines to pay for other programs because the Air Force has delayed milestone B decisions.
01:10So, Mr. Secretary, I know you've been in this position for all of about a week now.
01:16But next time you come before the committee, I would want to have a robust discussion on sentinel's progress and the risk that we would incur if the program is arbitrarily delayed or underfunded.
01:32Also, sir, U.S. STRATCOM commander General Cotton has recommended that the Air Force procure at least 145 B-21 bombers to meet his requirements as STRATCOM commander.
01:50How do you intend to work with STRATCOM to understand these requirements and ensure that the Air Force procures enough B-21s so that we can meet that projected threat?
02:05Thank you for the question, Senator.
02:07With respect to sentinel, yes, ma'am.
02:10The fifth day into the job, I will be having my first deep dive into the sentinel program.
02:14So, this Friday, it's scheduled.
02:15Great.
02:16That'll just be a start.
02:17So, yes, Senator, something we have to get on.
02:19Obviously, the number currently led to some restructuring of the program.
02:23What exactly that's going to be, I'll be working with the team and I'm happy to get back with the committee when I get more detail on that.
02:31B-21, yes, Senator, I understand that General Cotton, and I do expect to be a meeting with General Cotton soon, I hope,
02:37to discuss this entire portfolio, but B-21 is a big part of that.
02:42But the department, I understand the department's working with STRATCOM as well as joint staff and throughout the administration, the SECDF,
02:50to help define what is that long-term required and do we need to increase beyond 100.
02:55So, we are looking at that and it is one of the areas.
02:57And thankfully, that is one of the programs that's actually executing pretty well within the department.
03:02Right.
03:03The STRATCOM commander does have to express his needs, his requirements, so he can address the threats.
03:12And then it's up to the services to step forward and meet those requirements.
03:18Am I stating that correctly?
03:20Into the joint staff and then, yes, the service executes on that requirement.
03:24Okay.
03:26General Salzman, all of the other services are investing heavily in long-range fires.
03:32And as I've said many times, we can't shoot what we can't see.
03:38We are going to need to rely heavily on our space-based systems to track objects beyond the line of sight.
03:45How does Space Force work with your sister services to understand what space capabilities they will need to rely on so that they can close those kill chains?
03:57Yes, ma'am.
03:58We were designated the Joint Space Requirements Integrator by the JROC on the joint staff.
04:04And one of the ways that we execute those responsibilities is we stood up a requirements integration cell in the J-8 where all the services can put their requirements in,
04:13vet them all, make sure there's proper attention given to each requirement and there's not too much redundancy but no gaps in the capabilities as well.
04:22Programs like our Ground Moving Target Indicator, soon to be our Air Moving Target Indicator, account for these requirements,
04:29what the fidelity of the data is, what the latency of the data to support weapons system in-flight updates, et cetera.
04:36We make sure we account for all those things as we develop the programs.
04:40And Mr. Secretary, in the submitted Air Force Posture Statement, you describe SAOC, crucial to any future warfare endeavor.
04:51I agree with that.
04:53And it's for this reason that I was disappointed that President Biden, his budget request last year did not include any military construction funding necessary to support SAOC.
05:05Do you agree that the Air Force should be planning for SAOC's associated military construction projects, those hangars and ramps, for example,
05:15to be completed by the time that SAOC is expected to reach the initial operating capability by 2032?
05:24Yes, Senator, we should be planning for that. And I've already had some discussions on that to make sure that we're ready.
05:31Will you continue to have the Air Force work to ensure that those projects are going to be completed in a timely manner?
