Chuck Fleischmann Asks Army Reserve Official To Assess Health Of The Army Logistics Fleet

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) questioned Lieutenant General Robert D. Harter, the Chief of Army Reserve and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Reserve Command, about the logistics fleet.

Transcript

00:00I'm in Mr. Fleischman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'd like to thank each and every one of you

00:05all for your service and your dedication and your excellence, and for your time here today.

00:12I'd like to especially thank Lieutenant General Harder for taking time to come and visit us in

00:17our office with your great staff yesterday and meeting with my staff. Very helpful and insightful,

00:22sir. Thank you. I've got a couple of questions, so I'm going to try to condense this a bit.

00:28First questions on the tanker fleet. As you know, I'm from the great state of Tennessee.

00:35Tennessee's 134th Air Refueling Wing was rightfully honored for their role in Operation True Promise.

00:42I believe 11 Air Guardsmen were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their service.

00:47Just truly, truly outstanding. The Navy's current tanker, the KC-130T, has a mission-capable rate

00:56of about 30 percent and apparently is, quite frankly, not a survivable aircraft in a contested

01:01environment. The KC-130T fleet is being recapitalized to the J model, apparently.

01:08My question for the Navy and Air National Guard, can you share with this committee your role in

01:14logistics sustainment and provide your assessment of our current tanker capacity to sustain protracted

01:20conflict in the Pacific? And a follow-up question, the KC-130J and the KC-46 complement each other's

01:28roles. Is there a target number between the Air National Guard and the Navy Reserve that would

01:33be sufficient to fulfill our projective logistics demands?

01:38Oh, thank you, Congressman. I appreciate your interest in our airborne logistics. For the Navy, you're right,

01:50the KC-130 Tango mission-capable rate is not great. It's not where it needs to be. And this is a reserve-only

01:57mission that we support the active duty for the inter-theater logistics. So it's critical that we recap

02:03to the Julietts for a couple reasons. One is they come with integrated survivability systems,

02:10which will allow us to operate in a contested environment. But two, we're also anticipating

02:15emission-capable rate of above 70% for those aircraft. So that'll be essential to what we do.

02:21The pack fleet commander has already asked us to work on organic aerial refueling, and we are doing

02:27that with the Tango's, but it's a long haul. They're not all plumbed for that. Whereas the Julietts will come

02:33with that plumbing already established. We anticipate with that at least two times the aerial refueling

02:38rate. And if we include ground refueling as well, we're looking at probably eight times our refueling

02:44capability in theater, which will be a huge win for us in the Pacific. Thank you.

02:51Congressman, as we look at the Air National Guard, and in the previous role, I worked out at NORAD,

02:57and as you looked at tankers to support not only the Homeland Defense mission, but then you have the

03:02nuclear mission that you need to support. And then you have the other COCOMs. Tankers are an incredibly

03:07vital capability and requirement for a nation to be able to do air superiority. The Air National Guard

03:14has 36% of the Air Force's air refueling capacity. And so most of that is in the KC-135, which does

03:23amazing work, but it's an aging fleet and will need to be able to modernize in the future.

03:28On the KC-46, as you know, we have several units out there, and MOB-7 will be announced

03:34towards the fourth quarter of 2025. And we look forward to continuing to modernize in the fleet

03:40in coordination with the Air Force as we go forward.

03:43Thank you. Thank you both.

03:45Now a question about the Army Reserve's role in Pacific logistics. The Army's fleet of landing craft,

03:52logistic support vehicles, and utility vessels play a significant role in the military logistics

03:58ecosystem. General Harder, yesterday in my office, you emphasized that the Army Reserve delivers over

04:04half the Army's maneuver support capabilities and over 90% of certain key theater level enablers like

04:11sustainment, medical, and engineering. My question, sir, is I'm deeply concerned about the age and size

04:18of the Army's watercraft fleet? Can you provide us with your frank assessment on the health of the

04:23Army logistics fleet and ability to sustain a war in the Pacific? And what would you prioritize,

04:28sir, to improve your capabilities? Thank you.

04:32Thank you, Congressman, for the question. So we have divest our watercraft fleet, although that might

04:37be coming back. So we're posturing for that, how we support active Army, sir. But with regards to the

04:42question, what we discussed yesterday, the, you know, I said 99% of bulk petroleum transportation

04:48supports in the Army Reserve. And in that, in that, in that tabletop exercise that we ran, it was

04:53focused on the Pacific theater. So what we're looking to do, again, agree, it plays a huge role in how we

04:58modernize our fleet and get after the new tankers that the Army's providing. And then we are also

05:04looking at how we posture equipment forward. We've already tested it in the European theater, where we put

05:08some of our own equipment forward that will be needed early in the fight. And we're now starting

05:12to posture for, for Indo-PACOM and in the Pacific theater, because we will not have time to get

05:18that equipment there in large-scale combat operations. So I thank you for that question.

05:23Thank you, sir. And I yield back.

05:25I thank the gentleman.

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