During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski asked Air Force Secretary Troy Meink over a micro nuclear reactor project.
00:03Gentlemen, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your leadership and just deep appreciation for the extraordinary professionalism that we see out of our Air Force, all of our military, as we saw things executed literally before our eyes over the weekend.
00:21So just thank you for that. I want to ask a little bit this morning about the E-7 and the termination, the 26 budget requests seeking to terminate this acquisition program that's slated to replace the E-3 sentries.
00:39You've heard me before talk about the need, certainly, up in the north.
00:47We just haven't heard, in my view, sufficient justification for the cancellation of such a critical program.
00:57We hear all the time how the E-3 fleet is barely operational. It's kind of limping along.
01:03I do understand. I've had the conversation about the intent to shift towards space-based AMTI, supposedly by 2027, and then using the Navy's E-2 as a stopgap.
01:19I'm told that the E-2 can't match the E-7's capabilities.
01:23And then when it comes to the AMTI, we heard from General Guttlein, he estimated the capabilities might only, his words were, start coming online in the early 2030s.
01:39General Alvin, you have underscored previously to me the E-7's superior role over the E-3.
01:47And then, General Saltzman, in prior comments, you've agreed that space offers advantages but isn't optimized for the full military spectrum and have advocated for basically a mixed capabilities approach.
02:01So, General Alvin, can you detail for us any concerns that you may have on the gaps terminating the E-7 program presents?
02:17Well, Senator, I think you appropriately characterized the challenges that we're having with the E-3.
02:22And I will acknowledge that the E-7 is a far superior aircraft in its capabilities to the E-3.
02:28I think as we look at multiple phenomenologies, as we discuss multiple domains, that fell into the realm of difficult decisions that were made by the Department of Defense.
02:38And we'll have to look forward in the future on how we would stitch together those and ensure that we would mitigate any gap based on the resources issues.
02:45So, about the fact, I mean, stitching together to fill the gaps, if it works, but we don't want to be operating off of a wing and a prayer here.
02:57Are you comfortable with the fact that we'll be able to stitch these gaps?
03:03Well, Senator, we'll certainly work as hard as we can on that.
03:06We will look to that and look at the ability and how fast the phenomenologies from the other domains will come on.
03:12And we will deal with these hard decisions that were had to be made by the Department of Defense.
03:15General Salzman, can you speak to that just in terms of when you might expect the delivery of this base-based AMTI?
03:23Well, we're already evaluating data to include our own kind of government-based evaluations of the data, as well as what some of the vendors are telling us the data looks like.
03:34It's promising.
03:35And then you have to put together the right contract vehicle to launch the satellites in a time and place.
03:39So, I think by the end of the decade, you will start to see capability delivering data.
03:44I won't say that that's accomplishing the mission by 29.
03:48I think General Gutlein's assessment that this is an early 30s delivery of a real capability is not too far off.
03:53Yeah.
03:54Just recognizing the very tenuous situation that we are in right now and the need truly for speed on all of this.
04:04We get that, but we've got to be honest.
04:08If we're going to be facing some gaps that are going to allow for a level of exposure, we're talking about spending a lot of money on a lot of different initiatives that are quite significant.
04:18But we've got to have the ability to go from A to B before we go from A to Z here.
04:26I want to ask you a question, Mr. Secretary.
04:31And this relates to the micro-reactor pilot.
04:37Finally, after way too many years here, we've got another notice of intent to award for the Eielsen micro-reactor project.
04:50It's good news.
04:51It's long overdue.
04:52We all get that.
04:54I know that the initial goal was to have this demonstration reactor operational by 2027.
05:02Every time I've asked, I get the, well, we're on schedule.
05:06Well, you can't be on schedule if you haven't even had a notice of award yet.
05:10So can you give me what you believe is a more realistic deployment schedule and hopefully that the department has a strategy for scaling the micro-reactor deployment beyond Eielsen?
05:24I think this is going to be absolutely key for us to meet our energy needs, whether it's in Eielsen or ADAC or wherever in the world you may be.
05:34I agree, Senator.
05:36This is going to be a critical capability in many locations that we have to operate in that local power just is not available or not reliable or expensive or we impart challenges on the local communities when we do come in.
05:48So I agree 100% with you.
05:50I have to, I'm a little bit of a loss because I was under the impression that we had actually had announced that we had made a selection and that we had awarded a contract.
05:58I will get back to you on the specific details of that contract, but we are still looking at 27.
06:05You know, the contractor is just spinning up.
06:07We're still getting some of the specific details, but we are still looking at a 27.
06:10But I will get back to you, Senator, if there's anything.
06:13I will get back to me with more accuracy to that because we're told that it has issued, the Air Force has issued another notice of intent to award for the project.
06:26And again, that it's still 2027.
06:29Yeah, I'll get you the specifics of where the contract state is, but I believe it's still 2027.
06:34Okay, I'm thinking this is still wishing a prayer, but I want you to stick with that 2027 date.
06:43I'm probably not going to bet a week's salary on that, Senator, but, you know, we have a lot of the contractor, we have a lot of confidence in the approach, and we are, the important thing is we're off to the races now and we're moving out.
