called meeting to order good afternoon your land forces subcommittee meet today to receive testimony on the equipment status and requirements of the army and air force national guard and reserve components and i will apologize as an initial matter we probably won't have that many members at the committee day since the house concluded its business for the week a little over an hour ago and many members i'm sure are heading back to their districts  as quickly as possible but mr bartlett nigher i believe more than capable of holding down the fort and we will accommodate anybody else who does show up but i want to thank our witnesses for being here today and welcome them we have major general raymond carpe junior chief u s air force reserve thank you jim and offer being here since september two thousand and one almost six hundred thousand selected guardsmen and reservists have deployed in support combat operations representing forty percent of the total selected reserve force of one point four million troops all thirty four army national guard combat brigades at the ploy to either iraq or afghanistan and this is an unprecedented deployment schedule that has placed an enormous strain and burden on those in the guard and reserve and their families as well but they've also performed with incredible ability all of us in this committee of had the opportunity in iraq and afghanistan and certainly back here as well to visit with those troops and they have done an incredible job for us while at the same time maintaining their domestic obligations and responding to a variety of emergencies as well and we thank you for gentlemen for your outstanding leadership and for the service all those who serve and you have provided for our country we could not be more proud of their performance last year secretary gates adopted eighty two recommendations from the congressionally mandated commission on the national guard and reserves one of those recommendations was to equip and resource the guard and reserve component as an operational reserve rather than the cold war model of the strategic reserve additionally the chief of the national guard bureau is now a four star general giving equal status among the nation senior officers the old strategic reserve model assume very few mobilizations an assumed risk with inadequate equipping strategies the change to an operational reserve status coincident with the reorganization of the army has greatly increased the amount of equipment guard and reserve units are required to have all the partners making improvements in progress and providing adequate funding to equip the guard and reserve components to enhance its well as an operational reserve there are a significant number of units the do not have their required equipment and this is the big issue that we wish to talk about today and we understand with the trains that have been put upon the force since nine eleven with iraq and afghanistan you know we are doing whatever we can to make sure that our war fighters out there in the field have what they need and there are changes that have to be made but at the same time we want to make sure that your guard and reserve components are adequately equipped for the mission that we're asking you to do as difficult as that is this committee is very committed to trying to find the way forward to make make sure that happens the witnesses have been asked to clearly lay out what equipment levels they were going to as asians are required to have and how those requirements of changed as well as what equipment levels they actually have on hand and almost guard reserve units deployed overseas have all the equipment they would choir many of those units don't get all that equipment until just before deployment in some cases after they deploy which makes training to deploy very difficult aging aircraft continues to be a critical issue for the air national guard air national guard aircraft are on average twenty eight years old with the k c one thirty five tankers averaging forty eight years old and again i should point out it's major priority for this committee to get you tanker that a couple bumps in that road as we all know but we are proceeding forward and we will continue to press to make sure that happens as soon as it possibly can we very clearly understand the need if the problems of equipment shortages and aging equipment persist national guard and reserve units that while very dedicated and willing may simply not be able to adequately respond in mastic emergencies let alone train for combat congress has not hesitated in trying to address the equipment  shortfalls we've noted in many guard and reserve units gardens or component procurement for fiscal year two thousand and four to fiscal year two thousand and ten has told approximately forty two point one billion dollars averaging almost six billion dollars per year since two thousand and four congress has provided approximately seven billion dollars and a separate dedicated equipment account entitled the national guard and reserve equipment account this funding has enjoyed sustained bipartisan support both on this committee and throughout congress and finally respect again a better understanding to the prime grass that has been made on improving visibility of tracking equipment requirements to budgetary preparation and we view appropriations funding allocation and ultimately in the distribution of new equipment that concludes my statement i will submit the full statement for the record and with that i will turn it over to the ranking member on the committee mr bartlett for his opening statement thank you mr chairman i want to thank our witnesses for chairman the reserve component is no longer considered a strategic reserve and is now considered an operational reserve others forward to hearing from eyewitnesses to how this transition is going and what if any the long term impacts might be from an equipment perspective i absolutely agree that if we're going to continue to expect so much for my reserve forces then not only must we properly equip them in terms of numbers of equipment but when also equip them with modern equipment well i have some concerns regarding modernized equipment for the army guard and reserves i have major concerns for our air guard the air force proposed major changes to force structure along with the fiscal year ten budget request i along with most of the other members of this committee were very concerned that these force structure changes were soley the result of a budget exercise and failed to account for the actual military requirements needed to address the security challenges of today and the future seeing the short term perspective the q t r in the thirty year and eighty at their two year aviation plan has only added to my concern and this past week we received the final of three reports required by last year's legislation one on the combat air force restructuring one on the fighter force structure and one on the potential to meet fighter shortfalls by procuring new f fifteen s f sixteen s and eight teams those reports which are unfortunately classified and cannot be fully discussed here did little to change my belief that the budget is driving the force structure requirements instead of the other way around the fiscal year two ten budget request targeted the fighter for structure and it appears the two eleven budget targets the tactical aircraft for structure in a similar manner the proposed movement of c one thirty s from the air national guard to the active component is very troubling to me the c one thirty s play a key role in the guard's title thirty two responsibilities and  critical assets for the nation's ability to respond to most any type of domestic event such as natural disaster or terror attack is unclear to me how we arrive at a point that the active force has to take aircraft in the air national guard and what we've been told about the budget is true in my mind of the military requirements were in fact being met by the budget request then this attempt at robbing peter to pay paul would not be taking place i also believe that the shortfalls in tactical aircraft could have been mitigated if we had stuck to the plan to put your seventy eight cargo joint cargo aircraft but unfortunately that program was cut as well i find this all very troubling and i hope that when this is the day can help us understand just how much additional risk we've been asked to take thank i will now proceed with the panel's testimony and then go into questions without objection all witnesses prepared statements will be included in the human record and would ask that you try to keep your remarks in the sort of five to eight minute representing over three hundred sixty thousand army national guardsmen over fifty thousand who are currently deployed and on point for our nation i wish to thank you for the opportunity to share relevant information on the equipment posture of the army national guard we thank you for your continued support and sustain the initiatives today we would like to discuss are critical dual use equipment are critical need for certain configurations of the high mobility multi purpose wheeled vehicles finally called the humvees the national guard and reserve equipment account and the improvements in the modernization and making our facilities energy efficient the army national guard equipping levels for domestic missions had fallen from seventy percent in two thousand and one to as low as forty  thousand and six several factors contributed to the decline of the army guard equipment levels changing requirements equipment destroyed during combat operations and equipment left in theater for other units current equipment levels as of april tw are seventy seven percent equipment on hand and eighty three percent of that equipment a subset critical dual use equipment is available for domestic response missions during f y o nine the army g eight released a new army equipping strategy that establishes a goal of at least eighty percent of equipment on hand for critical dual use for army guard units that being in the state of ailill for the governor regardless of their rotation status in the army fourth generation cycle the army national guard has an f y eleven authorization for forty eight thousand seven hundred twelve humvees with ninety six percent of those homebodies on hand although we are approaching one hundred percent equipment on hand only about ten thousand around twenty percent of our authorized plea is currently modern as based on the army enterprise equipment and reuse conference projections this number will grow to about fifteen thousand or approximately thirty percent by the end of f y eleven assuming scheduled deliveries are executed as plan congress has been very responsive to the army national guard requirements the national guard and reserve equipment account has been especially supportive in the pursuit of our equipping for the force the army guardian agree a receive seven hundred seventy million dollars for  six one point one billion for f y o seven one point three billion for f y o eight and seven hundred seventy nine million for f y o nine this funding has been used for critical dual use equipment for command and control communications aviation force protection including civil support teams engineering logistics maintenance medical security and transportation our essential ten capabilities of able for the governors if there is requirement in you you ask about the status of funds provided for two thousand and eight two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten overall we have used these fonts to purchase stocks of radios trucks night vision devices small arms and communications equipment to fill our most critical gaps some of this funding still remains to be executed but is always focused on our most urgent priority priority needs progress is also being made in the visibility and transparency of tracking equipment funds from appropriation through procurement to actual fielding the army national guard has worked and continues to work with the army to improve transparency and i am confident we have a path to success in the future the army national guard will continue to focus on our equipping levels especially for  critical dual use equipment and hance our emphasis on energy efficiency and our readiness centers provide the logistics train that supports the army force generation cycle and procure vehicles that meet our training needs as well as our domestic and contingency operation needs the the national guard renders a dual federal and role state role and provides unique support to our nation in a cost effective manner through adequate funding over resources and leadership and gauge went in the equipment fielding  transparency given by ongoing support from congress the army national guard will continue to meet operational demands i appreciate the opportunity to be here today and look forward to your questions thank you joe journal i german smith and ranking member bartlett distinguished members of the committee thank you very much for the opportunity to visit with you today regarding the equipment posture of our nation's air national guard some one hundred six thousand seven hundred members strong since nine eleven over one hundred forty six thousand air national guards guard members have deployed overseas many of them on second and third rotations to combat zones seventy five percent of those in a bar on terrorism status in the past year alone we have deployed eighteen thousand three hundred sixty six service members to sixty two countries and every continent including antarctica the stewardship of your committee and the level of commitment of our nation's department of defense and the u s air force have ensure these airman go to war well equipped well trained and well led the air reserve components are part of a seamless integrated total force team we're very thankful for your support and everything you continue to do to ensure our members are appropriately equipped and trained in the performance of their duties the air force is in the midst of modernizing and recapitalizing its major weapons platforms in the air national guard is a partner in this process many of the aircraft in operation today are much airman opera to that end we support the air force's recapitalization plan and have been working diligently to ensure all force structure roadmaps are inclusive of the air national guard additionally the air national guard as our nation's cost effective ready and reliable force accessible and available continues to leverage the vast majority of its equipment is doing use meaning it may be used to support both federal and state missions this ensures that needed capabilities are available not only to combatant commanders but also for the governors and maintaining capabilities for homeland defense however despite the overall excellent equipment support provided by the air force the air guard still has shortfalls in critical support areas including the  just logistics be ticals and maintenance their national guard equipment readiness presents greater challenges as long term cost in operating and maintaining older aircraft continued to rise to more frequent to rise due to more frequent repairs fluctuations in fuel prices and manpower requirements the cost of aircraft maintenance continues to rise significantly as we struggle to extend the life of our aging fleet these rising maintenance costs are not solely confined to aircraft during the past year we have worked with the adjutant general to develop an air national guard flight plan which includes viable options for the air national guard in the end our goal is to ensure that all plans are concurrent and balanced for the entire total air force i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the men and women of our nation's air national guard i thank you for your continuing outstanding support for the air national guard as it remains america's ready and reliable forces we meet the challenges of the twenty first century and very much mr chairman thank you general general stalls german smith congressman bartlett other distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you for the invitation to appear before you today on behalf of two hundred  seven thousand seven hundred forty nine our we reserve soldiers who are currently deployed in twenty some countries around the world as well as here in the continental united states so we continue to transition from what was the strategic reserve that i entered way back in one thousand nine hundred seventy four or actually one hundred seventy nine after five years on active duty and seventy four to what we have today an operational reserve where we keep thirty thousand army reserve soldiers on active duty in addition to our sixteen thousand full time military for this nation so out of the authorization of two hundred five thousand we're providing roughly forty five thousand full time soldiers on a regular basis it is a great return on investment for america but we need to keep keep that force trained ready and equipped the army reserve has seen improvements in the amount of equipment on hand to meet requirements of an operational force all reversed several barriers continue to slow the army reserves transition from that strategic to an operational force the army reserve relies on internal lateral transfers and theater provided equipment to meet current missions since we are currently at eighty percent equipment on hand but only sixty five percent modernize we continuously cross a level equipment to meet those needs we are very thankful to congress for helping us abate our equipment challenges through the national guard and reserve equipment accounts these funds greatly add toward our operational army reserve by serving as a supplement to the planned army procurement in g r u a enables the army reserve to procure modernize equipment that the army is unable to provide for example between two thousand and nine and two thousand ten the army reserve was allocated two point seven billion dollars for equipment by the congress and was appropriated two hundred twelve million through n g r e a we are procuring with that money power generation feel feeding liquid logistics systems and tactical will vehicles in addition to what the army is scheduled to provide for us our goal is to make the most effective and efficient use of these funds to procure equipment that produces train units that are ready to fight and win on the battlefield or respond to domestic homeland missions in order to successfully function as an operational reserve and support the army force generation process the army reserves reserve requires a consistent and transparent stream of modernized equipment the army reserves equipping go is to ensure that our soldiers train with on and train own the latest equipment the army uses in the field as they progress through the cycles of the readiness model filling our unit requirements with current generation equipment increases our ability to meet pre mobilization training and readiness objectives when the in the army force generation and maximize the boots on the ground time that those soldiers have when they're deployed the army reserve is working collaboratively with the army and d o d to secure the critical resources required to produce individuals and units that can to participate in a full range of missions in a cyclical manner as directed by army we have transition our training programs to prepare a forces to perform full spectrum operations increasing our capability but also requiring the equipment to do full spectrum operations we still have the challenge of modernizing key individual systems i'll give you one example the family medium family of medium tactical vehicles the f m t v percentage for the army reserve may be at eighty percent however the modernised is only forty nine percent and we see this across our force where we have equipment on hand that is in lieu of our substitute items for the modernized equipment that those soldiers will operate or train own that need to train to operate in theater one of the greatest challenges facing the army reserve today is having the right number of modernize equipment sets own hand to train prior to deployment while we've seen improvements in equipment levels and upgrade modernize equipment we continue to experience shortfalls the n g r a as i said before is a great asset to us i look forward to your questions but on behalf of those two hundred seven thousand plus soldiers i want to say thank you for the support that they have been given by you in previous years and look forward to your support for the future thank you sir thank you general general steiner thank you sir chairman smith congressman bart distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you as well for allowing us the opportunity to come today and give you a status report on the strength that we have here in the air force reserve the strength that you have an air force is doing the nation's business right now around the world and i have with me today i'd like to introduce real real briefly here our air force reserve command command che master sergeant chief white bed he's here helping me in his capacity as a senior ranking enlisted member to keep track of the seventy two thousand members of the air force reserve is the number we're growing to as we grow in all the missions at the air force is doing all the missions around the world and as part of that three component air force the air force reserve is is pleased to be a full partner in that effort i will tell you that to the authorization that you have given us in the past have helped tremendously to keep us in a ready status and we've been doing this as an air force for nineteen years since the desert shield desert storm days now we have had some folks in combat operations over the skies in the mid east and in other locations around the world continually we have a tempo that was sustainable we have a predictable rotational base and we keep our folks trained and ready using those authorizations using season in training authorisations using the techniques and tools that we have to get those folks through the basic training and then through tech school making them combat ready and in much shorter time and when they are only available to us on weekends they are there training on the equipment three components training on the same equipment and deploying with the same equipment that we have right now because we as an air force do manage and monitor the airplanes the equipment as a three component air force and it is the negre of dollars that are so precious to us as your force reserve that helps us accelerate the buys on many of the things in the precision engagement kind of equipment in defensive systems and in irregular warfare combat gear that allow us to train on the same systems and sustain and maintain that combat capability that we have  a three component air force getting a good deal for only five point three percent of the mill pers budget we've got fourteen percent of the capability in the airports reserves and we are partners in all of those missions sir and i think that that that pays the nation big dividends the way ahead for us in equipment is to continue to sustain that increase and that increase in capacity the production capacity that comes with those integrated dollars in those three major areas as we do that i think we will grow in all those missionaries and we will in fact adjust our active reserve component manpower our authorisations we'll adjust the full time and part time to get more efficient in each of those areas share where we do the equipment used the equipment at the maximum rate we can use it and in those associate concepts and constructs we are able to seamlessly integrate trained and ready to the same standards based on the readiness dollars we have and using and leveraging that equipment as part of that operational force that is in fact the leverage from the strategic reserve that we are we're ready for the major conflicts and we are a full partner in a rotational basis on a daily basis associations rebalancing adjustments and optimizing the equipment we have utilizing the negre of that we've got focusing on precision engagement defensive systems any regular work area gear will help us prepare today for tomorrow in the future and we will maintain that in a sustainable unpredictable passion with those eighty percent volunteers that are doing the business of the nation around the world today i thank you for the opportunity and i look forward to your questions thank you very much  army has concluded that they've got enough basically they're not building any more now they're basically we capping the existing fleet that's here and coming back moroccan terms of your needs will that sufficiently meet their requirements as you see them for you or need to do you think you will need more vehicles sir we worked with the army as they went through the process of making this decision and one of the guiding  facts with regard to this whole decision process was that up armored humvees are no longer being used in afghanistan and iraq and they have given way to m raps so with that knowledge and understanding that there was a more modern vehicle on the horizon the army made the decision that they were going to terminate the procurement of newer these those being the opera armored ones for us inside the army national guard it's more of a modernization program than a deployment program as i mentioned in my opening statement eighty percent of our humvees are older than twenty will be older than the twenty year mark by the time we get done using them and so our concern is to be able to sustain that for that fleet part of the discussions with the army as we made the decision was that they were going to put a certain amount of money against the recap program and that additionally they were going to cascade a certain number of those humvees to us so that we could maintain something that looks like a modernized fleet to the extent that the army keeps the promises that they made i think we're going to be in pretty good shape and in all honesty the up armored humvees  of marginal use in some of our homeland defense our responses in general to need from kentucky can tell you that up armored humvee doesn't have the greatest utility in an ice storm and so there is good reason for us to sustain the the fleet within our organization and you have enough and in terms of the domestic needs i understand that completely but in terms of your training for when you're activated training requirement in terms of what you're going to be actually using in the field yes sir that's important for us as we get ready to mobilize in the ploy to ensure that we have the up armored version of the humvees so that we've got a training set that we can train on in order to qualify or drivers beyond that we're also being one thirty and the demand for those is great obviously in theater more of those are being moved into the active component and i think there's a concern on this committee whether or not the guard and reserve will have what they need in terms of one thirty's to meet their training in domestic mission can you walk us through that a little bit and what your confidence level is and whether or not you're going to an adequate number one thirty's so i think it's german as you the mobility capabilities requirement studies were released and published late february early march identifying a a lower requirement and a current  overcapacity of c one thirty s doesn't address the the component necessarily where those aircraft are located but it does address a lower number that are that are needed i think you see in the presidents eleven budget an effort to retire some of the older the models and each models which are again aging airframes costly to maintain and a direction where we need to go so that we can position ourselves for the missions of the of the future johnston and i have met extensively with the air force subsequent to the release of the president's budget and we are dressing the c one thirty issue that that you have mentioned in fact we had another meeting on it today i'm confident that that we will meet a resolution that will address the adjutant general's needs and the governor's need for a domestic airlift and at the same time perhaps in a training role how do we balance the active and reserve and guard at that particular location a mission to get the most of it and then how then will that free up some of the other manpower to put into mission sets of the air force has been tasked with that we have been up until this point unable to finance and find within the cap that we have on manpower so i think that the one thirty will be an example that make sense will want to keep carefully to make sure that you have enough to do that but i think certainly i want to make the most of what we've got mr martin thank you very much i want to ask a couple of questions quick questions about the c twenty seven j it's my understanding that the original requirement which has never been formally reduced was seventy eight aircraft is that request that correct ok and i'm also assuming that that did not include the aircraft that might be needed by the guard for homeland security that was just the combat forces correct with that i think you're correct sir ok and in spite of the fact that we originally said we needed seventy there's been no study that said we needed fewer and those seventy eight did not include the guard used for for homeland security or stateside use were not for buying only thirty eight and we can only account for  twenty four of those and we're wondering where the others are going if you could help us where we're going to be bedded down and then the question is you know with these reduced assets and the increased responsibilities that you have locations for aircraft each at six different locations leaving fourteen aircraft yet to be decided is as far as their bed down location that question is now being abetted through the air force's str ategic basing executive steering group which is the entity inside the air force that addresses locations according to the drafted criteria for that particular platform and i'm  maurice the the need for additional c twenty seven's you mentioned the direct support mission the direct support mission can be performed by other aircraft and so i think i guess my best answer to that would be that there continue to be discussions and analysis inside the air force to determine the best way to meet the direct support requirements that the army has has indicated and the proper aircraft mix proper location proper component to fly th our requests for forces forces the request for capability from the combatant commanders and i'm aware that there has been a in additional requests for direct support aircraft in theater again whether that is filled with the by the c twenty seven or the c one thirty depends upon the availability of aircraft and the specific type of direct support mission that the combatant commander is addressing so it's difficult to answer your question without knowing specifically what the  combatant commanders are requesting at any point in time there is a space issue or ramp space issue in theater we're limited in the numbers of aircraft regardless of what types they are just because the limited number square footage of concrete in  theater but certainly the direct support mission is an important one to the air force and it's extremely important the air national guard since all thirty eight of those airplanes that you mentioned the c twenty seven's are designated for the air national guard at this time general you mentioned in your unclassified report that the air national guard base is a capability gap in the near term which increases in the longer term additional delays in production rate decrease and thirty five program will have a direct  and what can we do to mitigate it as you're aware sir most of the older block f sixteen block thirty's reside in the air national guard and so we face a recapitalization issue may be a little more imminent than the air force as a whole you're also very well aware that the secretary of defense has recently restructured the f thirty five program and it is essential that the program as restructured stay on target  and be implemented as requested by the secretary you need to laze create more difficulties for the air national guard to transition out of the old legacy airplanes that will be aging out into first hand i have three sons in the army national guard two sons of served in iraq one is served in egypt and and so i know that our guard members really want to be operational not as i was for many years truly in reserve so thank you for what you do and also i'm very grateful my former national guard unit and i just i know how much it meant to them the two eighteenth brigade  to serve in afghanistan led by general bob livingston truly as i travel south carolina today people who served in afghanistan it was a life changing positive experience  for the members of the national guard so thank you for what you do looking back i would like for all of you to reference how would you rate your ability from the equipment perspective to complete your missions  in contrast to where we were pretty nine eleven two thousand and one and we can begin left or right sir first of all let me thank you for your service in the service of the family and the service of the two eighteenth brigade they did wonderful work over there task force phoenix and they put in place some of the training base for the afghan national army an afghan national police that we're building on interior today so they can be very proud of what they've done over there i think that in response to your question there are two pieces those two pieces being the quantity of equipment that we have in the army national guard and the quality of equipment that we have in the national guard pre nine eleven we had seventy percent of the equipment that we were authorized but honestly much of it was not modern equipment and so as we saw our responsibility to mobilize and deploy our soldiers and what was the kind of equipment that was allowed for deployment in the theater and what the combatant commanders wanted there versus what the national guard equipment set look like we found that there was a lot of equipment inside of our organization that of the type that would not be allowed to even be deployed that was further exacerbated when we saw the results of hurricane katrina when we were looking for high water vehicles in order to do conduct operations in that particular emergency and disaster and again the old deuce and a half that many of us grew up with was not adequate for what we were doing there and i'd point out that this year an f y eleven we are going to retire the deuce and a half which has been in our formation since the hundred fifty s so that's a huge accomplishment and i think it's a good indicator of where we're at in the modernization program as i pointed out we've got seventy seven percent of the equipment we're supposed to have on hand across the entire army national guard now it varies by state because the states mobilize and deploy that are equipment resident inside the state changes and much of that equipment deploys with the organization when they leave so the statistics i quoted at the outset a critical dual use equipment which is available for both the homeland and the overseas mission right now is eighty three percent sixty six percent of that's available for the governors so we have seen huge progress here inside the equipment counts and that's due to the thirty two billion dollars that you all have invested in our organization as an operational reserve wilson as from the air national guard standpoint you know we have been an operational force i think probably out of necessity as we have a ball from the very first desert war so we've been operational force for about the past twenty years  while we continue to spar as an equipment standpoint have the numbers of equipment that we need our problem again is that qualitative issue as the air force moves into more modern equipment our challenge is to modernize our equipment to make sure that it remains compatible with the better equipment flown by the active component we stress the importance of the ingredient account to help us do that we know that  an expensive and time consuming process and we know that we can't get to recapitalization at the drop of a hat so we've got to stress modernizing the equipment that we do have we also look at dual use when we expand our angry  monies last year i believe the amount was one hundred thirty five million dollars critically important to getting us the communication links that we need to provide the type of the targeting pods that we need the type of protective equipment for our security forces  are the those first responder state mission type folks that we have embedded inside their national guard so the quantitative is not necessarily the issue but the qualitative and continuous modernization is is what is important to us situation of not just own hand but modernization and as i said earlier we've we're about eighty percent on hand equipment which is ice we've ever been but only about sixty five percent modernize and why that is important and the point i would make and keep it short it's not just about what they're able to do in theater we provide them the best and the most modern equipment in theater but if we don't have the modernized equipment back home it reduces our strategic flexibility and we've already experienced that where we've had units that were scheduled to deploy to iraq and we wanted to remission them to afghanistan but because of the surge going on there but one unable to because they were going to fall in on provided equipment in iraq there is no provided equipment in afghanistan and the equipment back home was not the modernized equipment and so it really limited our flexibility already there so i would stress that it's not just about having the right equipment for what's currently going on it's having the right mr chairman and thank you for allowing me to ask questions on the support and hearing even though i'm not a member of this particular subcommittee and i thank my colleague mr wilson for offering me his slot distinguished members of our panel thank you for your testimony today and i thank you for your dedication to our country my question is for gen carpenter in regards to the joint cargo aircraft the army guard fleet of c twelve c twenty three c twenty six aircraft continues to age with no replacement in the future years defense plan and finally the mobility capability and requirement study released here provides little details on the c twenty seven j the items i've listed leave me a little confused now this aircraft is needed however we have cut the programs seventy eight to thirty eight aircraft and the m c r is a document that describes our mobility capabilities in the air force barely addresses the aircraft army guard planes are getting older and therefore i would like to ask general carpenter how is the army and the army national guard addressing the critical need to replace fixed wing aircraft within the army national guard and i know this i'm being a little bit redundant here congressman bartlett to touched on this but i would like to have a clear answer on this thank you for the question congressman  al i think that you know that the secretary of defense made a decision this past year to transfer the c twenty seven program from the army and from the army national guard to the air force that left us with the c twenty three aircraft that we currently have inside of the army national guard those c twenty three is continue to provide exceptional support in iraq and we have i believe eleven of those aircraft currently deployed the other thing that the c twenty three does is it has a huge capability in the homeland mission into our in terms of being able to deliver smaller cargo loads in a very responsive manner c twenty seven program was transferred to the air force our issue is to be able to maintain the capability the c twenty three inside the army for the time that it's required and we have a plan with the army to do that we see twel and the c twenty six fleet are separate issues and we are working with the army on a modernization program for both of those aircraft they have found a place particularly in iowa so far and transportation of passengers in theater and their value that are craft has been validated and so we are continuing to work with the army on the modernization piece for that i would defer to general wyatt to discuss for the c twenty seven issue with regard to the that part of your question from theater it's true that the c one thirty s can handle some of that direct support but the exact mix in relation to not just the direct support mission requirements but also the  perhaps the the larger requirement of tactical airlift as set forth in the mobility capabilities requirement studies requires the air force take a pretty long look at how we're going to meet both the m c r requirements and the direct support requirements what that particular mix might be is still being discussed and i wish i could be more specific than that but i just don't have exact numbers at this point time but it is going to be an issue here inside the airports as we talk about those requirements thank you very much i have one question also this has to do with the territory of guam which is important this is concerning the bed down of the j c eight tomorrow our staffs will be briefed on the bed down plan for several airframes including the j c a can we expect to see a bed down plan that addresses the only and defense requirements of the guard to support the fema regions within us and the territories also has there been any discussion about the requirements to support the compacts states in the pacific this is very important to the guam national guard and the navy on guam since we have an obligation to support the requirements of the free does it include concern about homeland security homeland defense mission in the human regions the answer is yes the criteria does consider that it is part of the criteria not necessarily the the most important but certainly an important to lot of different criteria going into the the bed down decision of where that airplane should be bedded down as far as the the territories are concerned and the airlift support required to cover that part of my grid he's an area yes ma'am is part of the c r s studies that have already been accomplished now as as to how the air force specifically will address that requirement  is again being worked out as we study bhima as we study their lives support that part of the world and to send comments and the other parts of the world so it's it's kind of a rubik's cube trying to put all the requirements together and best deciding which air frames and what numbers support that those particular requirements and which component what type of associations we need as we transition in the future thank you very much thank obviously is getting the the f sixteen replacement the f thirty five the current states occur and they have called i was one of those states we have the f sixteen and we're waiting for a decision on whether or not we're we're going to have the f thirty five can you tell me where we schedules have been recently restructured by the secretary of defense last fall the air force announced through their strategic basing executive steering group process eleven candidate bases that would address the bed down of the first i think two hundred seventy nine aircraft f thirty five about half of those roughly going to the training mission and about half were operational the first to seventy nine have been restructured as a part of  the secretary of defense's restructuring of the program i think it's the intent of the air force that as we progress down the delivery schedule of that airplane that we will subsequently continue with the next portion and i think what you're going to see is probably every two years there will be a release of a number of candidate bases subsequent to the release of the candidate bases they have to go through the site evaluations  many guard organizations that currently have the x f sixteen will not get the f thirty five they will have to find an alternate mission i think the the answer that question would be would be determined by how many we ultimately acquire in the air force you know the goal continues to be one thousand seven hundred sixty three the frequency and the rate that those are produced or acquired will determine to some extent what existing f sixteen bases will be i think candidates for that particular airframe we're looking at we know that probably not all of our f sixteen units will transition to the f thirty five but we think all of our f sixteen units whether they transfer the f thirty five or some other legacy airplane is the air force fields f thirty five some of their more modern f sixteen s f fifteen swi floated the through the air national guard so we see some of our f sixteen bases being awarded the f thirty five some being awarded later block f sixteen s some transitioning into other missions like remotely piloted aircraft distributed ground station intelligence cyber wings emerging missions that will continue to be a violent towards united states air force and so you know to say how many i can at this point in iraq from my perspective we are getting the most modern equipment we're getting equipment in quantities that we probably didn't haven't gotten you know certainly over my career and and we can keep a couple do's and have surround for you if you like but for the most part they're not relevant in our operations anymore we were tired the last h one air aircraft here this past year again all  that's certainly a testament to where we're at in the modernization piece and what negri and the investment that congress has made in the national guard how that has increased our ability to be an operational reserve so  we're we're working towards a modernization program got a ways to go yet but certainly have come a long way thank you  chairman first i want to thank each of the for your many years of service to our country i love what i do not even serve in public office but it pales in comparison to each of you and all of our men and women in uniform and specifically your efforts in  in there continues to meet the mission requirements are challenged in quitman is part of that challenge your your efforts in leading the efforts to do right by all who serve  with you is much appreciated and with that fabulous job out there and also our reserve wing out of mcchord that i know has been very very active many of them are my neighbors so they're doing a great job and the entire guard in our area top notch so we certainly appreciate their service the two things that i would like you to get back to me on you know is talk that we capitalization requirements for all your components is a dollar figure you know if you could imagine here's what we truly need to be where we're at now i understand you get your budget and you don't come up here and then say and this is where it's insufficient you come up here and say it's efficient because it is what you've got and it's what you're going to work with but for our planning purposes going forward to the extent we could get an idea of what it would be required what would be required to recapitalize you at the level to get the equipment you need to perform your domestic mission and doing the training to be an operational force that would be helpful in the other big problem that this committee congress i think the d o d s facing is all the implications of the f thirty five problems a lot of them come back towards you and sort of follows up on mr kaufman's question there is going to be some shortages there as we transition forward it is quite possible that the f thirty five will slip again in terms of when it's going to be delivered it is even more possible that it will wind up costing more than we expected and as a result we will not be able to buy as many it strikes me as sort of crying out for a plan b in terms of let's say we don't wind up with the current requirement of twenty four hundred forty three f thirty five you know what are we going to do to make sure that we have the fighter attack aircraft fleet that we need active as well as guard and reserve and what would we do i mean obviously one of the places to look would be to build more fifteen sixteen you don't want to do that and i realize you get into a tough sort of call because if you spend money on that then you have less money for the top of the line f thirty five but in terms of making the money work and making sure you all have what you need i think i think we need to be thinking about those things and let's see about this guy but both of those questions if you did submit something to the committee you know what your thoughts are on those two that would be very helpful the question i have had to do it with crewmen and retention and with your force and as i mentioned i know as i think everyone in this committee and probably every one of the country does many people who are in the guard reserve and what they have been asked to do since nine eleven the number of deployments now numbers and i've heard are that you're doing good well i guess in terms of getting the numbers at one of that and what are you thinking about in terms of what you need to do for your individual garners or members and their families because you know i mean this impacts all of them and that in terms of recruitment retention it's not just the individual it's the family that is impacted as well and what have you thought about in terms of how to to work on those issues to help with recruitment and retention and to make sure you have a satisfied force and you know it's also going to start off there  alluded to early our recruiting and retention right now is very very good we are almost three thousand over strength so my problem is rebalancing the force and we've actually had to tell him to slow down on the recruiting because we've got too many of the young soldiers and not enough of the mid grade soldiers but one of the things and it does get to the equipping side of the house that i have a concern when it comes to retention we've got the best trained most seasoned combat force we've ever had and those soldiers have performed magnificently what troubles me is when they come back home and they come back home to that reserve center and they go to their weekend drill and there's a thirty year old truck sitting there instead of the piece of equipment they've just operated in theater and it does become a morale issue and so getting the modernized equipment is a key strategy for me in terms of retention i've got to be efficient about it and i've got to say ok if i get a full set of new trucks i probably can't give them all to one unit i'm going to have to spread a piece of each of those modernized trucks throughout so they can train on them but at least they get to touch and feel that same piece of equipment that they just trained on in theater and just operating theatre with regard to the  families the yellow ribbon programs that we're doing now the strong bonds programs that we're doing now all of the family support programs are there we're doing our critical because it does show to them our commitment that we are going to take care of them that we do realize they're the recruiting retention are good we have the highest retention we've had in a long time we're bringing folks on and we figured out we but we thought we'd better figure out why so we started looking at it with some data and some analysis and some sesame groups and in the questions that we asked were why do you join and why do you stay patriota most of time at the top of the list they want to be a participant in this nation's defense folks are doing the job and they don't want to stop doing the job but they need to do it in a sustainable and predictable fashion so we protect that civilian job that they've got as well so we protect that career path they've got in their civilian jobs so we're going out to the employers as well and asking what is it that is affecting you the most about the temple that we have how do we make  sustainable and predictable for that that employer and then the families as well what is it that they need and the yellow ribbon as was already mentioned is a huge help and getting that done folks want to participate sir and they're doing it in good numbers  thank you i again over time so i'll move on to other members there since if there's anything that our committee can do to help you know supporting for your individual soldiers and airmen and their families is credibly important to us what it's now what we can  do with that i'll turn to mr bartlett if he has further questions thank you very much general stultz we hear general casey talk about the army's fourth generation model and the heavy reliance the model has on those combat support and combat service support forces which predominantly rest in the reserve components this is where your force is crucial to the army's mission as a huge portion of the army's reserve is essential and abler as it needs what are your critical equipment shortages and how do these shortages impact your ability to support the army's missions and i think sir as you just indicated the structure of the army has come to the point where we have operationalized the guard and reserve not because we wanted to but because we had to when you have seventy five percent of the engineer capability in the guard and reserve when you have about seventy five percent of the medical capability in the guard and reserve when you have about sixty percent of your logistics you have to operationalize that force if you going to be an extended conflict the the equipping needs i had as i outlined already one is to give us that flexibility that we need strategically so that we can flex when we need to deploy forces other places as well as that training so that we maximize the amount of time we can deploy a force by minimizing the amount of time back home to required to train because you're training on the right equipment the  formations which says you're eighty percent equipped but you're forty nine percent modernizing that family of vehicles and their humvees and eighty five percent equipped on thirteen percent modernize and home these mile and these are the old soft skinned home these they're not the up armored they're not equipped for the up armored my trucks average age are thirty years old the dump trucks we've got are thirty four years old every change so my needs are getting the modernized equipment own hand to the tune of about by f y sixteen if i was fully modernize it would be about eleven point three billion dollars because the other challenge i've got to your points or is as the army continues to learn and change based on our lessons learned in theater they're turning to the reserve and guard and saying ok we need you to take down this capability that we're not using but we need more engineers impedes transportation whatever we're  transforming sixteen thousand spaces inside the army reserves in strength for new capability based on what the army says they need that comes with an equipment bill because every truck company or e m p unit every engineer unit has a bill of equipment and that's where that eleven point three billion comes from it's modernized equipment plus new needs that the army says we need thank you gen y i have a similar question relative to the essential equipment items for the air guard to fulfill its homeland defense and direct military missions the f y two eleven budget request appears to plan further drawdowns in air guard aircraft can you provide the committee your sense of the potential impacts or areas of risk with the level of aviation assets planned in the budget yes or a two part question the first having to do with the essential equipment shortfalls that that we see in the area things like improved boice data communications the real mission and state mission self protective equipment anywhere from suburban any chemical biological radiological protective equipment base mass shields helmets gloves all the way up to large aircraft infrared countermeasures protective equipment for aircraft missile warning systems anything that upgrades our ability to find fix target targeting pods helmet mounted queuing systems radar systems that help distinguish especially in the air some the alert mission to distinguish tall i mean small targets  in highly cluttered air environments and again the dual use equipment special use equipment like fire trucks buses tactical be heckled and those sorts of things to your second question on aircraft drawdowns term we're ok we do have the concern that i mentioned earlier about some of our older airplanes in the twenty fifteen twenty sixteen time frame the block face some sustainment issues as we go forward  the the larger aircraft again we look to the mobility as capabilities requirement study is kind of the road map but it has just recently been released so i think the airports are going to need some time to work our way through that to determine the next concern is equipping the guard reserve forces who have been deployed to afghanistan again each of you could tell us what the status is of their equipping i think as the chairman pointed out in his opening statement every unit that goes down range has absolutely the best equipment that we can provide to him across the army that that results in cross leveling across in our case the army national guard in some cases across the army to make sure that when a unit like the eighty first or the two eighteenth goes down range that they have absolutely the best equipment when they come home it takes a little bit longer for them to get their equipment back because there are what we call reset requirements and so in some cases for up to a year or maybe even a little bit longer depending upon the type of equipment the unit does not have the equipment i supposed to have for instance i think the eighty first right now the equipment fail that particular unit is around forty three percent they just came back last fall and so the equipment is in process of being recapped reset which is absolutely the right thing because that quickly needs to be prepared for the next time should there be a requirement for that unit to deploy and it needs to provide the equipment for that unit to train on and so for the most part overall the average that i gave before of seventy seven percent across the board that a that accounts for units that are in reset while other units are in the vailable year we we have provided as part of our response and written testimony the requested maps that show the equipping levels in the air national guard as each of the states you know sworn were in pretty good shape our issues continued to be primarily in the logistics arena and this goes back to some of the that the truck special use vehicles we have some some shortages in the in the weapons and the personal  weapons for some of our security forces but our primary problem is one of modernization to make sure that when we deploy we were up on that operational step with the active component in making sure our systems are inner operable and that's where we  concentrate to the drug degree that we can the expenditures of additional resources like in greece trying to match that with the state mission to a lot of those a lot of those types of equipment that we we need our  that's where we focus our efforts those are every army reserve unit that we deployed down range goes one hundred percent equipped with the mission essential it meant that they need and it's the modernized equipment that they need the challenge we have i think is in two fold one the unique sets of equipment that are in theater use example of the m raps in iraq and the m a t v s that are now in afghanistan we don't have those back here  we're currently trying to acquire twenty four m wraps to put it our training centers to give them the experience we think will be successful in that regard but now the focus is on m a t v c and all the m a t v's me and producer go into theater and so in some cases the first time they'll see that piece of equipment when they get into theater and have to go through a train up that time prior to instead of prior to the two deploying the other thing that we're doing it to mitigate is on the rapid fielding initiative r f i that's the personal gear that you get that's unique to the theater that's all the best and greatest and thanks to congress that protects our soldiers to the best extent possible but they don't get that or if i quit mine until they get to the center in most cases we've got a lot of training we want to do better prior to that unit getting mobilize so in the army reserve we've established what we call regional training centers we've outfitted those with our f i so during the year prior to the unit goes through that center to do their warrior leader task and we issue them the r f i so they can train with the latest and greatest helmets sites and everything then turn that back in so when they get to the most station now they've already trained on that type of equipment and  it reissued at that point jim and i will echo and and congressman wilson echo general wyatt's comments but i'll let me put a finer point on that as far as the bigger dollar amounts we have taken risk as an air force over the last several years and weapon systems  all three components we've done that to include modern ation as a higher priority weapon system sustainment it is now a priority now to catch up on some of the backlogs and some of the depos and some of the engines and some of the recaps and resets that we've got to do in our major weapons systems so weapon system sustainment overall for all three components has got to be increased and the equipping levels that we've got to represent protective gear sustained as well and  recapitalized as well but we do send the folks to the a o r with the most modern and most recent equipment and seamlessly integrated with our active component thank you sir thank you it is a better than a parent i appreciate so much what you do for our troops with alm i think we're good again i want to thank all the gentlemen for your outstanding work it's been a major transition in the guard and reserve since nine eleven and as all of us have testified to you have done it incredibly well and our committee simply wants to help any way we can to provide you the