During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) asked President Trump's nominees for various posts in the Navy's leadership about the Navy's readiness.
00:00To making sure that we get that done, project done.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04Thank you, Senator Hirono.
00:06Senator Mullen.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:09And thank you to all of you guys for stepping up and willing to serve in these capacities.
00:16It's challenging times and a lot of changes for the better.
00:22And unfortunately, a lot of roles you guys are stepping in, change isn't exactly easy.
00:28It's tough.
00:28So with that, Mr. Kao, can you explain to me why you're taking on this role and responsibility?
00:36Thank you for that question, Senator.
00:39I came to this country with nothing, as a refugee.
00:43And we grew up in Africa, actually.
00:45And in 1979, when the Shah of Iran was overthrown, the Marines brought us into the embassy and stood watch over us in case they had to do a new evacuation.
00:54And the look in their eyes that night that said, nothing's going to hurt you, not tonight, not on my watch.
01:00I want to be like those heroes.
01:02So I dedicated my entire life to serving in the military.
01:07Right now, my son is a senior at the Naval Academy.
01:10In 11 months, he will be commissioned as an officer.
01:13I don't want him to go to war the way I did, where we used our body armors to put it between the doors to protect us.
01:22We were lucky enough to have body armor.
01:24That's not going to happen to my son, and that's not going to happen to any American sons and daughters, not on my watch, sir.
01:32We have real issues going on with shipbuilding.
01:36We're behind.
01:37We can't seem to get anything out of dry dock, much less get something out of, from conception to delivery.
01:46How do we fix this?
01:49Senator, I've been studying this issue, and I have 10 different levers that I want to provide to you and the president in order to get shipbuilding going.
01:58But we also have to remember that we need to maintain those ships, and we need to man those ships, and we need the weapons to go on those ships.
02:05So it's a four-pronged problem that we need to address.
02:08And if confirmed, I will look into all these issues, present all the solutions to the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy, as well as this body.
02:17Should we be trying to refit the current platforms, or should we be trying to embrace new technology and new platforms
02:26and maybe rethink the way we're having naval warfare to begin with?
02:31Senator, absolutely.
02:32We need to rethink naval warfare.
02:34We need to use what we already have because the wars could be any day.
02:39I mean, we live every day as if it's September 10th, 2001.
02:42So we need to be ready for what happens tomorrow.
02:44And that means we need to maintain our ships.
02:47We need to have the electronic warfare systems on board to fight off any hypersonic weapons.
02:53We also need to accelerate shipbuilding as well.
02:58Mr. Gillis, the United States has an abundant amount of natural gas, and same thing with Oklahoma.
03:03And when we start talking about Army installations, how do we become energy resilient if we have burdensome regulations that prevent us from moving forward?
03:19Senator Mullen, I think you're exactly right.
03:22The more we can bring on-site generation and on-site power sources to Army installations, the more resilient they are.
03:30We've got at least one use case where we're currently extracting natural gas on an installation for that purpose.
03:36And I think that's a great use case and would like to be able to see it expanded and would love to work with you to make sure that we have the authorities to do that.
03:42What type of legislation do you need?
03:43We've looked in this before.
03:45I mean, we just talked about in Macalester, the munition depot there has a tremendous amount of resources under the ground.
03:53And you look at the paperwork that it takes to do it, it's nearly impossible.
04:00So how can we help you be successful in this?
04:04Senator, I appreciate that offer.
04:05And if confirmed, I will take you up on that.
04:08And we'll have the team look deeply into that issue and let you know exactly how we could use some help.
04:15Chairman, I'm going to yield back some time.
04:17Thank you very much, Senator.
04:19Senator Cain.
04:20Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to my colleagues and those who are here, I've been in the Senate now coming up on 13 years.
