John Boozman Questions Top Air Force General About Troop Deployments & Readiness

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) asked Air Force General David Allvin about troop readiness and deployments.

Transcript

00:00Bozeman, Murphy, Capito, and Shaheen.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Coons.

00:08And first of all, thank you all for your service, a very distinguished service to your country.

00:15Mr. Secretary, we discussed the critical role the F-35's training mission at Ebbing plays,

00:21not only in maintaining our air superiority but in strengthening our alliances.

00:26I was thrilled to see the first two Polish pilots recently graduate from the program,

00:33a milestone that reflects the growing importance of training our allies on U.S. platforms.

00:38Senator Coons earlier mentioned, and Senator Shaheen, being at NATO,

00:45and again, the excitement of our allies having this type of plane.

00:51Can you talk a little bit about why it's important to train our partners and allies on U.S. systems

00:57and how that training helps improve readiness and strengthen deterrence globally?

01:04Yes, Senator, and I think during the Chairman's introduction talking about how important our partners are,

01:11particularly when they're planning to ramp up expenditure on military defense,

01:17I think a couple of things, just the training, training with, my guess is when you were training,

01:23you trained with international partners as well.

01:26I did as a navigator when I was going through training.

01:29That's stuff that helps forever, right?

01:32So I think it's a combination of, I would argue, simplifying FMS so that it allows them to get the platforms

01:38and then allowing them to train with us on the platforms is one of the best ways to get integrated effects

01:42between us and our international partners.

01:45Very good.

01:48Did you have something?

01:49I would just add that we, on the Air Force side, we're very cognizant of if those delays occur,

01:55that we continue to have dialogue with the nations to ensure that we sort of feather in the training

01:58to where there's not a gap or there's not sort of a glut of training all at one time

02:02so we can smooth flow that because, again, if we're selling them the best equipment,

02:06you want them to be trained by the best, so we want to be able to do that at Ebbin.

02:09That's right.

02:10And really the only problem is they want them yesterday.

02:14General Alvin, can you speak to how the deployable combat wing construct fits into the Air Force's broader force design

02:24and readiness goals?

02:25Earlier this year, the Air Force announced that Little Rock Air Base and four other organizations

02:30were selected as the first tranche of the deployable combat wing initiative.

02:36Can you talk a little bit about that and what that means?

02:38Absolutely, Senator.

02:39And it was brought up a couple times here about the increased threat that our airmen are under

02:42when they're deployed overseas.

02:45And the deployable combat wing allows us the opportunity to move away from a pattern we've had

02:50over the past few decades in which we sort of crowdsource airmen from across our Air Force,

02:55put them together, and then put them over in the theater.

02:57And they go and they fight together.

02:58That was okay for the last 20 years, but as we see, the threats are more increasing and complex

03:04even in the Middle East.

03:05You take that times 10 and that's what you have in the Indo-Pacific theater.

03:08I can't in good conscience continue to send airmen over that are trained as individual

03:12and not trained as units to fight as units and understand the new complexities of the

03:18international strategic environment.

03:19And so the deployable combat wing allows us to do just that.

03:23And we have an increase in airmen that will make sure that when that entire wing picks up

03:26and goes that the base is still supported.

03:29But I think we're going to see not only an impact on fighting effectiveness,

03:33but we're also going to see an increase in morale.

03:35Because units that train together, that do things together, have a common esprit de corps

03:39that I think is pushing that warrior ethos or trying to enhance.

03:42Very good.

03:46I'm not going to have you all comment about it because several have already asked you to comment

03:51about it, the continuing resolution, the importance of that, of us doing our work

03:57and you all helping us in doing that work so that we can get you a reliable source of income

04:03so that you can plan.

04:05And, I mean, how does anybody function without that?

04:08And you have, sadly, as you mentioned, Mr. Secretary, you know, that's been kind of the mark

04:14of most of your careers is having to work around the situation that we get you in.

04:20Also, and again, you've already gone into detail about it.

04:24Senator Coons mentioned the, due to the incident that occurred in Ukraine with the Ukrainians

04:32without an Air Force wiping out the Russian Air Force, things that we need to do that.

04:39So we want to work with you.

04:40And if you all will give us some ideas, some specific things,

04:45I think this committee would be very, very interested in actually getting some legislation

04:50that would result in us actually doing something.

04:55Happy to do that, Senator.

04:56And as I mentioned before, we're working on some suggestions to bring forward to you.

05:00So hopefully we can get that to you fairly soon.

05:02Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:03Thank you, guys.

Category

Transcript

Recommended