U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office,

http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center,

U.S. Government Printing Office. Phone 202–512–1800, or 866–512–1800 (toll-free). E-mail, gpo@custhelp.com.

i 

65–108 2011

[H.A.S.C. No. 112–8] 

HEARING 

ON

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT 

FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012 

AND

OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED 

PROGRAMS 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

FULL COMMITTEE HEARING 

ON

BUDGET REQUEST FROM THE 

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 

HEARING HELD 

MARCH 1, 2011 
(II) 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS

HOWARD P. ‘‘BUCK’’ MCKEON, California, Chairman 

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland 

MAC THORNBERRY, Texas 

WALTER B. JONES, North Carolina 

W. TODD AKIN, Missouri 

J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia 

JEFF MILLER, Florida 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey 

MICHAEL TURNER, Ohio 

JOHN KLINE, Minnesota 

MIKE ROGERS, Alabama 

TRENT FRANKS, Arizona 

BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania 

K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas 

DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado 

ROB WITTMAN, Virginia 

DUNCAN HUNTER, California 

JOHN C. FLEMING, M.D., Louisiana 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

TOM ROONEY, Florida 

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania 

SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia 

CHRIS GIBSON, New York 

VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri 

JOE HECK, Nevada 

BOBBY SCHILLING, Illinois 

JON RUNYAN, New Jersey 

AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia 

TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas 

STEVEN PALAZZO, Mississippi 

ALLEN B. WEST, Florida 

MARTHA ROBY, Alabama 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TODD YOUNG, Indiana 

ADAM SMITH, Washington 

SILVESTRE REYES, Texas 

LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

MIKE MCINTYRE, North Carolina 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania 

ROBERT ANDREWS, New Jersey 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

JIM COOPER, Tennessee 

MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam 

JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut 

DAVE LOEBSACK, Iowa 

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona 

NIKI TSONGAS, Massachusetts 

CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine 

LARRY KISSELL, North Carolina 

MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico 

BILL OWENS, New York 

JOHN R. GARAMENDI, California 

MARK S. CRITZ, Pennsylvania 

TIM RYAN, Ohio 

C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland 

HANK JOHNSON, Georgia 

KATHY CASTOR, Florida 

BETTY SUTTON, Ohio 

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Hawaii 

ROBERT L. SIMMONS II, Staff Director 

HEATH BOPE, Professional Staff Member 

PHIL MACNAUGHTON, Professional Staff Member 

MARY KATE CUNNINGHAM, Staff Assistant 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS 

2011 

Page 

HEARING: 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011, Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization 

Budget Request from the Department of the Navy ........................................... 1 

APPENDIX: 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 .......................................................................................... 53 

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2011 

FISCAL YEAR 2012 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET 

REQUEST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 

STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 

McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ‘‘Buck,’’ a Representative from California, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services .................................................................. 1 

Smith, Hon. Adam, a Representative from Washington, Ranking Member, 

Committee on Armed Services ............................................................................ 2 

WITNESSES 

Amos, Gen. James F., USMC, Commandant of the Marine Corps ...................... 8 

Mabus, Hon. Ray, Secretary of the Navy .............................................................. 3 

Roughead, ADM Gary, USN, Chief of Naval Operations ..................................... 6 

APPENDIX 

PREPARED STATEMENTS: 

Amos, Gen. James F. ........................................................................................ 123 

Mabus, Hon. Ray .............................................................................................. 57 

Roughead, ADM Gary ...................................................................................... 97 

DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD: 

[There were no Documents submitted.] 

WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING THE HEARING: 

Mrs. Davis ......................................................................................................... 155 

Mr. Langevin ..................................................................................................... 156 

Mr. Larsen ........................................................................................................ 156 

Mr. Smith .......................................................................................................... 155 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING: 

Mr. Akin ............................................................................................................ 166 

Ms. Bordallo ...................................................................................................... 171 

Mr. Coffman ...................................................................................................... 191 

Mr. Conaway ..................................................................................................... 187 

Mr. Forbes ......................................................................................................... 173 

Mr. Franks ........................................................................................................ 185 

Ms. Giffords ....................................................................................................... 174 

Mrs. Hartzler .................................................................................................... 195 
Page

IV 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING—Continued 

Mr. Hunter ........................................................................................................ 191 

Mr. Kissell ......................................................................................................... 176 

Mr. McKeon ....................................................................................................... 159 

Mr. Miller .......................................................................................................... 175 

Mr. Palazzo ....................................................................................................... 196 

Mr. Smith .......................................................................................................... 166 

Ms. Sutton ......................................................................................................... 179 

Mr. Turner ........................................................................................................ 180 

Mr. West ............................................................................................................ 197 

Mr. Wilson ......................................................................................................... 178 

Mr. Wittman ..................................................................................................... 189 
(1) 

FISCAL YEAR 2012 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET REQUEST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF 

THE NAVY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 1, 2011. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in room 

2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ 

McKeon (chairman of the committee) presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD P. ‘‘BUCK’’ MCKEON, 

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES 

The CHAIRMAN. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you 

for joining us today as we consider the President’s fiscal year 2012 

budget request for the Department of the Navy. Secretary Mabus, 

Admiral Roughead, good to have you here again. General Amos, 

welcome for your first hearing here as Commandant. Glad to have 

you. 

We want to thank all of you men for the tremendous service you 

have performed for our country and for those that wear the uniform behind you, and behind you, elsewhere around the country, 

around the world. As we review your budget requests and reconcile 

it with the larger DOD [Department of Defense] efficiencies initiative, we can see in many ways the Department of Navy gained capabilities. 

However, I remain concerned that this request does not fully provide for the Navy and the Marine Corps. I support efforts to identify savings and reinvest those dollars in the critical force structure 

and modernization. But many of the efficiencies identified by your 

department are cost avoidance initiatives and not clear-cut savings. 

As such, we are concerned that they in fact materialize. 

Furthermore, over the 5-year period that this budget request covers, your Department harvested over 42 billion in so-called efficiencies yet had to sacrifice approximately $16 billion of that 

amount or 38 percent back to the Treasury. In order to generate 

much of the savings, you have been compelled to make significant 

force structure cuts. But your requirements haven’t changed. 

For example, the amphibious assault mission remains valid but 

you cancelled the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Likewise, the 

strike fighter inventory requirement to support the current National Defense Strategy’s 10 aircraft carrier air wings containing 50 

strike fighter aircraft each. 

We do not currently meet this requirement but the budget request puts the F–35B Joint Strike Fighter on a 2-year probation 
2 

and you have shuttered an aircraft carrier air wing. Similarly, the 

budget request assumes savings as a result of a decrease in the 

Marine Corps and end strength of 20,000 personnel before the Marine Corps could even complete its force structure review. Now, the 

Marine Corps suggests they cannot live with that number. It can 

only reduce end strength by 15,000. 

Finally, you proposed to design the Ohio-class replacement ballistic submarine with fewer missile tubes than envisioned by the 

New START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] Treaty or 

STRATCOM [United States Strategic Command]. Adding to my 

concern is that the current battle force inventory is at least 25 

ships below your stated 313-ship floor. Although we have not seen 

the results of the force structure assessment you indicated was underway last year, one can only imagine that the requirements for 

ships will grow as missions such as anti-piracy and sea-based missile defense expand. 

Just in time replacements for legacy force structure such as the 

Ford-class aircraft carrier program and the Joint Strike Fighter 

program are currently behind schedule and over cost, causing even 

more resources to be required to sustain legacy platforms. Your department gives this nation the most flexible and lethal projection 

of power of any country in the world. It is imperative that we sustain and maintain a robust and effective fighting force borne from 

the sea and that we provide you with sufficient resources to do 

that, which includes finishing the fiscal year 2011 Defense appropriations. 

As you know that we are really working together to try to see 

that happen, it is not going to happen this week. But hopefully in 

the ongoing discussions we can bring that to a good conclusion. 

Ranking Member Smith. 

STATEMENT OF HON. ADAM SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM 

WASHINGTON, RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON ARMED 

SERVICES 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you, gentlemen, for being here this morning and for 

your service to our country. And we are in a very, very challenging 

budget environment. Short-term, we need to get something done for 

fiscal year 2011. I know the pressure that has put on you; it is always helpful to hear specifics about that. 

So during your testimony today, it would be good to hear more 

about sort of what the C.R. [Continuing Resolution] means in 

terms of limiting your ability to operate, hopefully to spur us all 

to get that done so that we can have an actual appropriations bill 

for the Department of Defense. We know that impacts you in many 

ways. And then beyond that, even once we get through the last 7 

months of 2011, and going forward, we face enormous budget challenges across the whole of government and certainly that will have 

some impact on the Department of Defense. So, we are anxious to 

hear how you plan to manage those. 

And the Navy and the Marine Corps are in a sort of a unique 

position. You are the main upfront projection of our power. The 

main point of the Navy and Marine Corps is to be ready to go anywhere anytime, often with very little notice. So that preparation re-
3 

quires, you know, a broader array of preparation to make sure that 

we are ready for whatever comes at us. 

You have all done that very, very well in the past. And in the 

future, there will be many more challenges along those lines. We 

continue to have the problems of piracy. The disruption in the Middle East could give rise to any number of different decisions that 

we have to make in terms of being able to get in to that region in 

a supportive capacity. And, of course, there continues to be major 

challenges in the CENTCOM [United States Central Command] 

AOR [Area of Responsibility] that require your services. 

So that ability to project power is critical to our national security. 

Navy and the Marine Corps are a critical part of that. So I agree 

very much with the Chairman’s comments about, you know, some 

of the challenges going forward, some of the decisions that have 

been made about which programs to continue, which programs to 

cancel, how to make shifts. 

I look forward to your testimony today, to further explain some 

of those decisions and how exactly they will work out. And pretty 

much along the lines as was what the Chairman said so I will not 

repeat that. 

And I guess the last thing I like to say, you know, we, for quite 

some time in this committee have talked about the number of ships 

that are necessary within the Navy, 313 seems to be the magic 

number. I think it would be helpful for all of us to sort of better 

understand why. You know, what are the requirements that have 

led us to say that 313 is the magic number. 

And then the other piece of that, of course, is you have a lot of 

different ships, that are not all created equal, we could conceivably 

have 313 but still not meet your needs if we don’t have the right 

types of ship—no, I am sorry, ships. So a better understanding of 

how you see that balance going forward would be helpful for the 

committee. 

And with that, I will yield back and I look forward to your testimony. 

And thank you again, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Well, we are happy to have the Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary 

of the Navy; Admiral Gary Roughead, the United States Navy, 

Chief of Naval Operations; General James F. Amos, the United 

States Marine Corps Commandant. 

Mr. Secretary, you will start it out. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RAY MABUS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 

Secretary MABUS. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Smith, members of the committee, I have the honor of appearing here today on 

behalf of the sailors, Marines and civilians that make up the Department of the Navy. 

I want to mention the absence of Representative Gabby Giffords, 

who were it not for the senseless act in January, would be here 

with us today. She is a member of the Navy family and been a true 

friend of the Navy and Marine Corps throughout her entire career. 

And I want to extend the thoughts and the prayers of everybody 

in the Department of the Navy to her and to her family as she recovers. 
4 

Today, the Navy and Marine Corps are conducting missions 

across the full range of military operations. They remain the most 

formidable expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known. 

And with your support, they will continue to meet the multiplicity 

of missions entrusted to them by our nation. 

Today as the Chairman and the Ranking Member pointed out, 

we face an immediate crisis, the absence of a Defense Appropriations Bill and the increasingly serious problems of operating under 

a continuing resolution. The pressure of the C.R. has already significantly impacted procurement and reduced the resources available to maintain readiness. 

If the C.R. continues for the entire year, we will be forced to reduce aircraft flight hours and ship steaming days, cancel up to 29 

of 85 surface ship maintenance availabilities, to defer maintenance 

on as many as 70 aircraft and 290 aircraft engines, defer up to 140 

maintenance and construction projects across this country. 

In addition, the lack of legislative action will prevent the construction of one Virginia-class submarine, two Arleigh Burke destroyers and one mobile landing platform, prevent procurement of 

two nuclear reactor cores and delay increased funding for the Ohio- class replacement. 

Reduce Marine Corps procurement up to a third after rebal- ancing the Marine Corps manpower counts, create a $4.6 billion 

shortfall in operation and maintenance accounts, and create nearly 

a $600 million shortfall in combined Navy and Marine Corps manpower accounts. These measures will not only place additional 

stress on the force and our family, they will weaken the industrial 

base and affect over 10,000 private sector jobs. 

The disruption to our fleet and to our shore maintenance and 

modernization schedules may take years to recover from and will 

come at a much greater cost. We strongly request congressional action to address the implications of this continuing resolution. This 

is particularly important when considering submission of the fiscal 

year 2012 budget request which was based on the fiscal year 2011 

request. 

The fiscal year 2012 President’s budget request of $161 billion, 

an increase of only 0.5 percent over fiscal year 2011, includes funds 

for 10 aircraft—for 10 ships and 223 aircraft. It maintains our commitment to take care of our people, build a strong R&D [Research 

and Development] and industrial based and grow the fleet. 

The $15 billion request for overseas contingency operations 

which represents a drop of $3.5 billion from fiscal year 2011 includes funds to sustain operations, manpower, infrastructure as 

well as procure equipment and support operations in Afghanistan. 

During the development of this budget, we were keenly aware of 

the fiscal position of the country and the necessity to be responsible 

stewards of taxpayer dollars. 

The resulting request is a strategy-driven document informed by 

fiscal realities. It balances competing requirements and tries to do 

what is best for the country, the Navy, the Marine Corps and our 

sailors and Marines. We began this budget cycle by examining 

every aspect of what we do and how we do it. 

Consequently, $42 billion in the Department of the Navy efficiencies were identified over the 5 years. As a result, we had been 
5 

able to add one Aegis-class destroyer, three TAO(X) fleet oilers, one 

T–AGOS ocean surveillance ship to our shipbuilding plan. With our 

dual-block LCS [Littoral Combat Ship] strategy, this increases the 

total number of ships over the next 5 years from 50 to 56, including 

one Joint High Speed Vessel to be built for the Army. 

The savings also allows us to buy additional F/A–18s, extend the 

service life of up to 150 legacy aircraft as a hedge against delays 

and the deployment of the F–35B and allow us to continue investing in unmanned systems which are becoming increasingly important on the battlefield and unmatched in their ability to covertly 

surveil hostile forces without placing our own people at risk. 

This upcoming year, we will see deployment of the Fire Scout to 

Afghanistan and continued testing of the UCAS–D [Unmanned 

Combat Air System Demonstrator], the forerunner of an integrated 

carrier launch strike system. In 2010, one of the most important 

efforts was the decision endorsed by Congress to pursue the new 

Littoral Combat Ship through a dual-block buy strategy. At an average cost of less than $440 million per ship and with 

the cost reductions we have seen on LCS–3 and 4, the new strategy 

will save taxpayers $2.9 billion. This plan is one that is good for 

the Navy, good for taxpayers, good for the country and demonstrates what can accomplished when sound acquisition principles 

are followed and enforced. 

We heard the message from Congress very clearly. We need more 

ships but they have to be affordable. The LCS strategy supports 

the industrial base by keeping workers employed at two shipyards 

and is indicative of the Department’s push to ensure acquisitions 

excellence. 

The fixed price contracts used for LCS are our model. They are 

the result of effective competition and give the government full 

ownership of the technical data packages in construction and afford 

greater Congressional oversight. With the new LCS strategy, we 

get more ships more quickly, more affordably. 

Significant additional savings were also achieved through terminating the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. It is important to emphasize that this decision in no way changes our nation’s commitment to amphibious warfare or on amphibious assault capability. 

We have to maintain an amphibious assault capability that will 

put Marines ashore, ready for the fight. But the EFV [Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle] is not the vehicle to do this. Conceived in 

the 1980s, the EFV was a previous-generation solution to a tactical 

problem that has since fundamentally changed. And its cost per 

unit would have consumed half that Corps’ total procurement and 

90 percent of its vehicle-related operation and maintenance account. We simply cannot afford it. 

In aviation programs, we are also closely monitoring the Joint 

Strike Fighter, particularly the Marine Corps variant, the B. After 

a 2-year period of focused scrutiny, we will make an informal recommendation about resolving the technical and cost issues. Ashore, 

we continue to confront rising health care cost caused by an increasing number of beneficiaries, expanded benefits and increased 

utilization. 

To deal with these trends, we have to implement systematic efficiencies and specific initiatives that improve the quality of care and 
6 

customer satisfaction but at the same time more responsibly managed cost. We concur with the recommendations made by the Secretary of Defense to ensure fiscal solvency and benefit equity for 

our retirees. 

Finally, we are continuing efforts to invest in and develop alternative energy. The latest headlines from around the world reinforce 

our basic point—energy is first and foremost an issue of national 

security. We can’t allow volatile regions of the world to control the 

price and affect the supply of the fuel that we use. 

Last year—the Navy and Marine Corps took some huge steps forward including flying the F/A–18 Hornet on biofuel, conducting a 

large scale of expansion of solar power and beginning expeditionary 

initiatives, efficiencies and initiatives in Afghanistan. 

What we are doing there is already saving lives as we reduce our 

reliance on imported fuel. We will continue these investments this 

year. And we will continue to move forward toward our goal of at 

least 50 percent alternative energies by 2020. 

In closing, it is a solemn privilege to lead the naval services during an era of protracted war and of national challenge. I have been 

honored by the trust the President and Congress have placed in me 

and profoundly moved by the sacrifice and devotion I have witnessed in the sailors and Marines who defend us. 

The Navy and Marine Corps are and will remain ready to do any 

mission America gives them. 

Thank you and Godspeed. 

[The prepared statement of Secretary Mabus can be found in the 

Appendix on page 57.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. 

Admiral. 

STATEMENT OF ADM GARY ROUGHEAD, USN, CHIEF OF NAVAL 

OPERATIONS 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman McKeon, and Ranking Member Smith, and members 

of the Committee, it is my honor to appear before you in my fourth 

year as the Chief of Naval Operations, representing more than 

600,000 sailors, Navy civilians and their families who operate and 

live globally. 

I appreciate your continued support for them and their families 

as they continue to carry out our maritime strategy. I, too, would 

like to echo the Secretary’s comments and thoughts with regard to 

Representative Giffords; all of us who served wish her the very best 

and a speedy recovery. 

Our Navy continues to meet operational commitments and respond to crises as they emerge. We are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan with 14,000 sailors on the ground and another 14,000 at 

sea in the region. Thirty percent of the air support over Afghanistan flies off the decks of our aircraft carriers. But our presence in 

the Middle East also gives us the flexibility to respond to the 

sweeping changes that we see taking place there. 

But our interests extend far beyond that and so do our operations. Today, we have approximately 65,000 sailors deployed at 

about 40 percent of our force structures. 
7 

We are globally present and we are persistently engaged. We 

provide deterrence in Northeast Asia and a presence in the Western Pacific. We conduct counter-piracy operations in the Indian 

Ocean and we are building maritime partnerships in Africa, South 

America and the Pacific. 

The demand continues to grow for the offshore option our Navy 

and Marine Corps team provides the nation. We assume the lead 

for the first phase of the phased, adaptive approach for ballistic 

missile defense in Europe and we are working with the Missile Defense Agency on providing that same capability ashore. 

We have created the new information directorate on my staff and 

that has enabled us to make better decisions and investments in 

countering anti-access and area-denial threats. We have recently 

established the 10th fleet, our cyber fleet, and it’s already demonstrated its expertise by conducting joint and naval operations in 

the cyber network cryptology and space arenas. 

To deliver the above, we have been pushing the fleet hard. We 

have 288 ships today, the smallest it has been since 1916 when our 

interests and responsibilities were nowhere near what they are 

today. And that is why 313 ships remains the floor of our future 

force. It also is why sustaining fleet capacity is essential in reaching that floor. 

Since I became CNO [Chief of Naval Operations], I focused on 

ensuring the Navy is ready, that our quality of work and quality 

of life for fulfilling to the men and women of our Navy, and that 

we place underperforming programs back on track. We have introduced stability, affordability and capacity into our shipbuilding and 

aviation plans. And with the assistance of Congress, we have advanced capabilities to meet the most likely evolving threats. 

We have secured as the Secretary mentioned the fixed-price dual 

award for 20 Littoral Combat Ships. We have addressed our strike 

fighter capacity with a multi-year F/A–18 procurement. Pending 

resolution of the continuing resolution, we will build two Virginia- class submarines per year, another guided missile destroyer. We 

will start the mobile landing platform, construct and refuel our aircraft carriers as planned, and continued the design of our replacement strategic deterrence submarine. 

I am pleased with our accomplishments and I thank the Congress for their continued support of our acquisition strategies. Our 

fiscal year 12 budget request is a balanced approach to increasing 

fleet capacity, maintaining warfighting readiness, and developing, 

and enhancing our Navy total force. 

The budget goes beyond ships and aircraft. It enhances electronic 

warfare, information dominance, integrated air and missile defense, and anti-submarine warfare capabilities for the evolving 

challenges. 

It continues to develop a family of unmanned systems that will 

work in concert with our manned systems to secure access and establish maritime superiority when and where we choose. It continues our effort over the last 2 years to reduce total ownership 

costs and leverages the opportunity presented by the Secretary of 

Defense’s efficiency initiative to reduce excess overhead, improve 

readiness, and reinvest in warfighting capability and capacity that 

improves the long-term sustainability of our force. 
8 

Importantly, it supports the Secretary of Defense’s health care 

initiatives included in the President’s budget, which continue our 

efforts in health care to improve internal efficiency, incentivize behavior, and ensure all our beneficiaries are treated equitably. 

We are seeing high satisfaction with our medical home port initiative. And I am comfortable with the changes to propose fees and 

co-payments including indexing enrollment fees to a medical inflation index, incentivizing beneficiaries to use the most cost-effective 

prescription delivery methods and the elimination of sole community hospital status. 

These are gradual, fair, and equitable changes that enhance our 

ability to deliver high-quality health care for years to come. You 

can be exceptionally proud of our sailors and Navy civilians, who 

they are, and what they do. Today, sailors are the best with whom 

I have ever served. 

I ask for your strong support of our fiscal year 2012 budget request. And I thank you for all you do to support the men and 

women who make our Navy the enduring global force for good. I 

look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Admiral Roughead can be found in 

the Appendix on page 97.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Admiral. 

General. 

STATEMENT OF GEN. JAMES F. AMOS, USMC, COMMANDANT 

OF THE MARINE CORPS 

General AMOS. Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Smith, and 

members of the committee, it is my honor to appear before you 

today for the first time as the commandant of the Marine Corps to 

articulate the posture of your Corps. Today, the Corps serves as 

America’s Expeditionary Force-in-Readiness, a balanced air-ground 

logistics team of 202,000 active, 39,600 reserve, and 35,000 civilian 

Marines. 

Our ability to serve as our nation’s principal crisis response force 

is due in large part to this committee’s and Congress’s strident continued strong support. I thank you for that. 

Today, there are roughly 32,000 Marines forward deployed 

around the world. As we sit here, it is roughly 7:50 in the morning, 

excuse me, in the evening, in Afghanistan. The rainy season has 

hit. The evenings remain cold and damp. It is in this nation where 

20,000 of our young men and women are engaged in full spectrum 

combat operations and counterinsurgency operations. 

I am encouraged by the significant progress that they have made 

in the Helmand province. And you have my assurance that this effort remains my top priority. Sergeant Major Kent and I spent 

Christmas with our Marines and our sailors in Afghanistan. I am 

happy to report that their morale is high and belief in their mission remained strong. 

Partnered with the United States Navy, we are forward-deployed 

and forward-engaged. This past year alone, our afloat forces conducted humanitarian assistance missions in Pakistan, Haiti, and 

the Philippines. 

We recaptured the pirated ship, Magellan Star, rescuing its crew 

from Somali pirates, and partnered with allied forces in engage-
9 

ment missions in the Pacific Rim, Latin America, Africa, and 

throughout Eastern Europe. 

Halfway around the world this morning, Marines are ready, 

honing their skills on board our Navy’s great capital ships, prepared to do our nation’s bidding. Such a role as America’s crisis response force necessitates that we maintain a high state of readiness. 

We are either ready to respond to today’s crisis, with today’s 

force, today, and thus—or you risk being late and thus being irrelevant. I am keenly aware of the fiscal realities confronting our nation. During these times of constrained resources, the Marine 

Corps remains committed to being the best stewards of scarce public funds. 

We maintain a longstanding tradition in Congress as the Department of Defense’s penny-pinchers. Our institutionalized culture of 

frugality positions us as the best value for the defense dollar. For 

approximately 8.5 percent of the annual defense budget, the Marine Corps provides the nation 31 percent of its ground operating 

forces, 12 percent of its fixed-wing tactical aircraft, and 19 percent 

of its attack helicopters. 

This year’s budget submission was framed by my force service 

level priorities. We will, number one, continue to provide the best 

trained and equipped Marine units to Afghanistan. Two, rebalance 

our Corps and posture it for the future. Three, better educate and 

train our Marines to succeed in increasingly complex environments. 

And four, finally, keep faith with our Marines, our sailors, and our 

families. While these priorities will guide our long-term plan for 

the Marine Corps, there are nonetheless pressing issues facing our 

Corps today that concern me, issues for which I ask Congress’s continued assistance in solving. 

Our equipment abroad and at home stations has been heavily 

taxed in the nearly 10 years of constant combat operations. The 

price tag for reset is $10.6 billion of which $3.1 billion has been requested in fiscal year 2011 and $2.5 billion is being sought in fiscal 

year 2012. The remaining $5 billion bill will be needed upon the 

completion of our mission in Afghanistan. 

The F–35B STOVL [Short Take Off and Vertical Landing] Joint 

Strike Fighter is vital to our ability to conduct expeditionary operations. Continued funding and support from Congress for this program is of utmost importance. During the next 2 years of F–35B 

scrutiny, I will be personally involved with the program and closely 

supervising it as the commandant of the Marine Corps. 

Both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy 

have reaffirmed the necessity of the Marine Corps’ amphibious assault mission. We must develop an affordable and capable amphibious combat vehicle to project Marines from sea, to land, in permissive, uncertain and hostile environments. I ask for your support to 

reach this goal. 

To ensure that the Marine Corps remains a relevant force with 

the capacity and capability to respond to the demands of the future 

security environment, we recently conducted a detailed and internally driven force structure review. The results of this effort provide America a strategically mobile middleweight force optimized 

for forward presence and rapid crisis response. 
10 

As we look to the future of the Marine Corps, it is committed to 

finding ways to be more energy efficient. Since 2009, we have aggressively pursued energy-efficient capabilities that will make Marine units more energy self-sufficient, increase our combat effectiveness, and protect our lives. 

Two weeks ago, I signed our new bases-to-battlefield energy 

planning guidance, which sets goals and metrics in a plan to implement just that. Finally, I would like to comment on the impact the 

current continuing resolution has had on our operations and programs. As of today, $565 million in military construction contracts have not been awarded. $2.4 billion of MILCON [Military Construction] 

is at risk for the remainder of the year for the Marine Corps. These 

projects impact the lives of Marines, the local economies of the 

communities around our bases and stations, and are projected to 

generate over 63,000 jobs from the Carolinas to Hawaii. 

If the continuing resolution extends through the entire fiscal 

year, 13 bachelor enlisted quarters, totaling 5,000 affected spaces, 

will not be built, thus stymieing our BEQ [Bachelor Enlisted Quarters] modernization efforts. These 13 bachelor enlisted quarters 

will allow eight infantry battalions to move out of 50-year-old Cold 

War barracks. Finally, a continuing resolution could prove catastrophic to our procurement accounts, resulting in a loss of almost 

a third of our procurement budget. 

Lastly, you have my promise that in these challenging times 

ahead, the Marine Corps will only ask for what it needs, not what 

it might want. We will make the hard decisions before coming to 

Congress and we will redouble our efforts toward our traditional 

culture of frugality. As has been the case for over 235 years, your 

Marine Corps stands ready to respond when the nation calls whoever the President may direct. 

Once again, I thank each of you for your continued support. I ask 

that my written testimony be submitted for the record. And I am 

prepared to answer your questions, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of General Amos can be found in the 

Appendix on page 123.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, General. 

Thank you to each of you. Just a couple of things on the C.R. If 

that had been taken care of last year on regular order, we wouldn’t 

even be discussing it now, but it is what is. And I know we’re, all 

of the members on this committee in strong support of getting this 

work finished up. 

In the process of the C.R., the appropriators and the leadership 

have separated out the defense and they are working to bring that 

to a resolution and then all the other issues will be dealt with in 

one large omnibus package. But the defense, we are trying to finish 

up that appropriation bill. And I know every week that goes by, it 

causes more problems. So, hopefully we can get that wrapped up 

quickly. 

General, I just returned. Mr. Reyes and Mr. Kline and myself 

went to Afghanistan. I know other members of the committee have 

just returned over the last break from Afghanistan, and I was very 

impressed with the morale of the Marines down at Marja and in 

the south down there with the job that they have done. 
11 

And those young captains were so excited to show us what they 

were doing and what they had accomplished, and I was really impressed by their attitude, by their professionalism, and by the way 

that they are carrying out their responsibilities. 

And it was just—it was a great experience for me. And I saw a 

lot of progress from a year-and-a-half ago to now, when the Marines had just gotten to Camp Leatherneck were just starting to 

move out to where, now, they have freed up most of that area and 

done an outstanding job. 

The concern I have and I mentioned it in my opening statement, 

the out-years Department of the Navy budget plans for the Marine 

Corps end strength of 182,000 personnel. However, the Marine 

Corps force structure assessment just released states a requirement for an end strength 5,000 personnel over that amount. What 

is your out-year budgeting strategy for adding back the additional 

$500 million required to accommodate an additional 5,000 personnel? 

General AMOS. Congressman, that—as you recall that sits out 

there in year 2015 and 2016, is when the budget was adjusted and 

it was 10,000 a year, that was the drawdown. That was proposed 

at the time. Now there is recognition within the Department of Defense that it is not 20,000. 

What I have asked our leadership to allow me to meter down 

that manpower to avoid reductions in forces and keep faith—my 

last priority, keep faith with my families and sailors and our Marines. So, yet to be seen precisely how that drawdown will take 

place. 

The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy have assured me that it will be conditions-based. In other words, it is designed to be post-Afghanistan when the Marines are out of Afghanistan. So, based on that, there will probably be some adjustments 

as we move in to POM [Program Objective Memorandum] 2013 and 

POM 2014 as we work those budgets. 

So, right now, we don’t have as you note, we don’t have the solution to that 5,000 yet. But we will be working that as we build the 

2013 budget and as we build the 2014 budget, sir. 

The CHAIRMAN. I understand it is very difficult for us to look out 

a year, especially when we haven’t even finished up last year’s 

work. So, it is difficult. But I have heard also that that is conditions-based. And we will just take care of this 1 year at a time as 

best we can. 

On the SSBNX [Next-generation Ballistic Missile Submarine] 

program, the Navy has determined that designing an Ohio-class 

ballistic missile replacement submarine with 16 missile tubes is 

more affordable than designing it for the current missile requirement of 20 missile tubes per submarine. 

You know, one of the things I am really concerned about is we 

have just eliminated the EFV. We have eliminated most of what 

we had planned for in the F–22s. When I first came here, we had 

out the B2 from a 130 to 20 and there have been a lot of programs 

started. And the excuse for eliminating the EFV is because now we 

can’t afford it. 

Well, I don’t know when we determine that, because we have 

been working on it for 20 years. What my concern is now on this 
12 

submarine program, is that 20 years from now, are we—I mean, if 

you look at it right now and realistically look at the budget, we are 

not going to be able to afford it even at this reduced number of 16 

silos. 

Are we? Or do you feel that that will be affordable with all the 

other things that are needed for the Navy? 

Secretary MABUS. Mr. Chairman, as we have looked forward, as 

you know, the Ohio-class replacement, we have to start building in 

2019 to go on patrol in 2029, its first patrol. So what we are doing 

today is trying to come up with the best R&D, the best design that 

we can and to get the cost into a manageable range. 

We have taken a billion dollars per boat out within the last year 

and we are looking for another half billion per boat. And the reason 

for that is twofold—one is to give us the best deterrent capability, 

because the Ohio class and its replacement are the most survivable 

legs of the nuclear triad. But it is also to keep from hollowing out 

our fleet, as we start to build these replacement submarines, because they do take such a large part of our shipbuilding budget, 

and to show what that will do in our long-range plans. 

We have—one of the things that I have committed to and I think 

we stuck to is to be very realistic in terms of how much something 

will cost. How much we can anticipate the—a range that we can 

anticipate that Congress will provide for shipbuilding and to work 

within those means. 

But I do think that the Ohio-class replacement that we are designing will be, well, it is absolutely necessary and we need to 

make it affordable so that we can both have that deterrence and 

also have the rest of the fleet that we are going to need in the next 

20, 30, 40 years. 

The CHAIRMAN. I think we are in on an agreement on the need. 

What my concern is that somewhere down the line, I mean, one of 

the ways we got the billion dollar saving is just cut it from 20 to 

16 tubes. We cut the capability of the ship to save money. And that 

makes me a little nervous about how we are going to be able to 

really provide all of our needs. It is just across the board I see our 

defense needs being driven by budgetary concerns rather than to 

meet potential crises that might confront us at some point down 

the line. 

Secretary MABUS. The number of tubes designed in today for the 

Ohio-class replacement meets every contingency that we know of 

today. It meets every targeting design that we will be tasked with. 

We also—as technology changes we are able to reduce the number of those submarines from 14 to 12 because now we are—we will 

be building a life of a hull reactor so that there won’t be the need 

to pull two submarines at a time out for a refueling. They would 

be able to stay on patrol for their entire lifetimes without refueling. 

So, as the technology changes, we will absolutely meet the needs, 

but try to do it within the fiscal realities that we confront. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Ranking Member Smith. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate the 

difficulties of operating under a C.R. and the 2011 budget. And to 

share the Chairman’s concerns, I want to make sure we go forward. 

It is worth pointing out that the House did in fact pass a 2011 defense appropriations bill. Also worth pointing out, actually, that the 
13 

Senate, on more than one occasion, had a defense and appropriations bills as well. But the filibuster is a very powerful tool to stop 

things from happening. 

One of the things that I am committed to, this whole committee 

is committed to is working together across party lines to get something done. But certainly the House fulfilled its obligation and we 

are trying to get the appropriations bill done still. We are going to 

work together to make that happen. 

And also I want to say I was in Afghanistan at the end of November and was very, very impressed with what the Marine Corps 

has accomplished. We were taken down to Helmand Province, 

walked to a village down there that you know a mere matter of 

months before no one could have walked through safely and we 

were able to do that, meet with the village leaders down there. The 

Marine Corps has done a fabulous job you know taking back territory and making a real difference and at a very high cost as well, 

which we are all aware—so, we thank you for your leadership and 

we thank all the Marines in Helmand for their incredible service 

to our country and moving that forward. 

On the budget question, I think I share the Chairman’s concerns 

you know broadly going forward how are we going to meet the requirements that are out there? One thing that I hope that you all 

would do, and everyone working on the Department of Defense 

issues on this point forward, is go back and look at the requirements very closely. I think that is really the key to making a fit 

within the budget. 

You know what are the requirements that have been there for 

a long, long time and are just still sort of there because they have 

always been there? And what are the real requirements in the 21st 

century for what we are going to need to meet our national security 

needs? I think that is going to be a big part of the challenge, to 

make sure that we can fund what we need to fund by making sure 

that we are not funding things that we don’t need to fund. 

Those are some tough questions that I think the people—you 

know you three are certainly the most qualified people out there 

to answer those questions as are others in the DOD. I think we are 

going to need to take a hard look at that on all sides of this equation. So, I hope we will do that. 

I want to thank you also for your kind words on behalf of Congresswoman Giffords. We appreciate that. She is getting better 

every day. And we are really looking forward to the day on this 

committee when she comes back. She is a valuable member of this 

committee, and she will be back soon, back working on those 

issues. So, I appreciate that. 

Also, I am going to ask you a couple of questions that her staff 

has given me about issues that she is concerned about, and then 

I have just one question of my own. 

As you know, Congresswoman Giffords is a leader on alternative 

energy and any energy efficient issues across all of government but 

particularly within the DOD. And the Navy and the Marine Corps 

have been just outstanding leaders on this issue. 

On a previous hearing, we discussed a little bit the Marine Corps 

operating base and to figure out a way to better use solar power 

so that they can reduce their fuel consumption. And in reducing 
14 

their fuel consumption, reduce the number of shipments that had 

to be made. And every time, anyone has to drive, they are at risk 

of IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] so reducing that doesn’t 

just save energy and money, it actually saves lives, and we appreciate that leadership. 

And then, of course, we also have the Super Hornet that flew 

with the 50–50 mix of biofuels. I had to call it the Green Hornet. 

The name was just out there. It was very easy and very clever. So, 

we really appreciate your leadership and those issues. 

A couple of specific questions, how scalable is all of this? Because 

I think that is one of the blocks that stops people from fully embracing alternative energy and energy efficiency. It is like, yes, 

there is a good idea here, a good idea there. But what does it really 

mean? How much does it really save? 

I am a true believer, as is Congresswoman Giffords, that if we 

do this and do this aggressively it is very scalable. It can save us 

an enormous amount of money. But can you give us some idea of 

what—where you think this can go? How far can we go using alternative fuels? And, Secretary Mabus, if you would start off, it would 

be great. 

Secretary MABUS. I think it is very scalable, Congressman. I believe that we will reach our goal of at least 50 percent alternative 

energy or non-fossil fuel energy, both afloat and ashore, by 2020. 

You mentioned the Marines, you know General Amos has signed 

out his plan to aggressively move these things forward into the 

combat zone. We import fuel more than any single thing into Afghanistan. 

As you pointed out, we save money by producing energy on site. 

We save lives, because Marines are not guarding fuel convoys. And 

we free up Marines to do what they were sent there to do, which 

is fight or engage or rebuild. 

On the Navy side, we have looked at two things, one is energy 

efficiencies; simply driving down the amount of energy that we use. 

You know things like hull coatings and voyage planning tools, 

things like that. We have also launched our first hybrid ship and 

we are going to do more in terms of hybrid drives, using electric 

drives for lower speeds. 

And those—the Makin Island, our first hybrid ship, in its maiden 

voyage from Mississippi around South America to California saved 

almost $2 million in fuel cost. And so, we believe that is very scalable. 

As you said, we have flown the F/A–18 and certified it on a 50– 

50 blend of biofuel. And we have also certified our helicopters. We 

have certified our swift boats and we are in the process of certifying our large service combatants on biofuels. 

We believe that as the market increases, particularly from the 

Navy and Marine Corps, that prices are coming down. We are seeing that happening already today. And, that infrastructure will be 

built to support this. So, we think that it is absolutely scalable and 

not only scalable but absolutely necessary for our national security. 

Mr. SMITH. Great. Gentlemen, do you have anything you wish to 

add? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. I agree with the Secretary. Two 

years ago, when we established Task Force Energy in the Navy, we 
15 

started looking at where we could go and that led to the Green 

Hornet and to taking our inventory and putting it on alternative 

fuels. I have been very pleased with what I have seen. My recent 

updates indicate to me that it is scalable, that costs are coming 

down. 

I also believe that there is an expanding interest out in the commercial sector which is going to be critical and I think will be imperative, and that will contribute to bringing these costs down. 

We are continuing to press forward with the objectives that the 

Secretary has laid out, and I am encouraged by what I see. But I 

am also encouraged by the energy that our people are putting into 

this. And I think the cultural change is equally as important as 

some of the technical things that we see coming along. 

Mr. SMITH. That is terrific. 

General AMOS. Congressman, the CNO talked about cultural 

change and that is—I think that is really the hinge point probably 

for all services certainly within mine. At the lowest level—if you 

can get the young captains and the corporals excited about not having to carry extra batteries up into the mountains on patrol, such 

as in India Company 3rd Battalion 5th Marines up in Sangin who 

have been on a pretty tough fight for the last 4 months. They went 

for 90 days just recharging their batteries that we would normally 

resupply on an almost daily basis, just using their solar roll-up 

blankets that they had, to the point where they built their combat 

outposts and strung out all their stuff and then realized they liked 

it better than having generators run and having to haul water and 

having to haul fuel up there and then batteries resupply. So, it is 

a culture change for us. It is catching on. 

Two Fridays ago, I sat with a Marine colonel that had a Black 

Engineer of the Year award and he was the award winner from Albany. And he was bragging about this new methane gas energy 

generation capability that they have at Albany. And they are using 

the trash in the dump and using all the land fill and then harvesting out the methane to run the generators. But we have been 

doing that at Miramar now for several years, but he has taken it 

to the next step. 

He has captured the exhaust and the heat generated by this generator that is run on methane gas to develop steam and provide 

heat for the base. So, it is a culture change. I think we are not 

there yet, but I am very, very encouraged. And my sense is that 

probably all of our services are about ready to kind of jump off the 

edge of this thing. So, I am very encouraged by it. 

Mr. SMITH. Terrific. Thank you. One question, and you can submit it for the record to my staff. You mentioned the other services—that was the last question—was how the different services 

are cooperating on this? Because everywhere I go—you know Army, 

Navy, Marine, Air Force—everyone’s got sort of creative ideas. I 

wanted—I am curious what sort of synergy is going on so that you 

are learning from each other as you go and not duplicating. So if 

you could just have your staff submit something, both to my office 

and Congresswoman Giffords’ office, that would be great. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 155.] 
16 

Mr. SMITH. The only question that I had was on something you 

have mentioned in your testimony about how we changed now the 

aircraft carrier groups; you are reducing the air wings and the associated staff. There are 11 aircraft carriers and they are going 

down to 9 strike groups and air wings. And the staff and I are not 

quite clear on exactly how that is going to work or what impact 

that might have on your capability and how you feel about how it 

is going to play out. We understand the budget savings, want to 

make sure it can still work to fully support those 11 aircraft carriers. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. I think a lot of the questions that 

have risen over taking out structure in the Navy really gets to 

some of the headquarters elements that we are talking about. As 

I have looked across the Navy and looked at how we were overseeing the operational forces, quite frankly, in my opinion, we had 

too much overhead structure. That structure tends to be more senior and, therefore, more expensive. 

But if you look at our ability to still field the 10 carrier air wings, 

that is there. What we have done is in the submarine community, 

the destroyer community and the aviation community, we have 

taken out overhead, headquarters, senior people so that we could 

get more junior sailors back at sea in positions that really make 

a difference. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Bartlett. 

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you. It has all the characteristics of a perfect storm. There is general agreement that the world has now 

reached that point that the United States reached 40 years ago, 

that is the peak oil where you have reached the maximum ability 

to produce oil. 

This happens at just the time that the industrialized world is 

struggling to recover from a recession and demanding more oil. The 

developing world led by China and India are demanding hugely increased amounts of oil. There is now escalating unrest in the Arab 

world where most of the world’s oil reserves are. 

And a couple of weeks ago, WikiLeaks indicated that Saudi Arabia has 40 percent less oil reserves than they were claiming. That 

is probably true of most of the OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] countries that we believe increased 

their projected reserves so that they could pump more oil. And all 

of this is happening at the time that the world has quite clearly 

reached its maximum ability to produce oil. We are not going to 

produce more than about 84, 85 million barrels a day. 

What is the world’s response to this? The leadership in our country seems largely unaware of these challenges. We have only 2 percent of the world’s oil. We use 25 percent of the world’s oil and we 

are buying reserves nowhere in the world. 

China is now very aggressively buying oil reserves all over the 

world. Why would they do that? In today’s market place, there is 

no advantage to owning the reserves, because you can go to the 

global oil auction and buy all the oil that you can afford, whether 

or not you have reserves in your country. We buy 25 percent of the 

world’s oil. We have only 2 percent of the world’s reserves of oil. 
17 

There is only one reason that I could think of that you would 

want to own oil reserves and that is that the time will come when 

you are not going to be willing to share those reserves with the rest 

of the world. 

If that is China’s goal, then they need to be able to protect the 

sea lanes. Just a bit ago, they fielded a very sophisticated anti-ship 

missile. We are struggling to develop defenses against that. 

Just quite recently we saw their J–20, very large fighter. There 

is a suggestion that it really wasn’t designed as a fighter aircraft. 

It was designed to release wave-skimming, supersonic anti-ship 

cruise missiles. What do you make of this confluence of events and 

what contingency plans are you pursuing? 

Secretary MABUS. Congressman, on the energy question, I think 

you made the point about not relying on fossil fuels and particularly imported fossil fuels more eloquently than I ever could. What 

we are doing is trying to move as rapidly as possible, the Navy and 

the Marine Corps, off dependence on fossil fuels, move them to 

American-based alternative fuels, both for expeditionary purposes 

or afloat purposes and for basing purposes. 

We have a goal and we are going to meet it of use—of having 

at least half the Navy and Marine Corps total energy coming from 

non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2020. 

We absolutely think that it is a matter of national security, of 

energy independence that we not be dependent on this. It is also 

simple finances. Every time the cost of oil goes up a dollar a barrel, 

it costs us $31 million. So, if oil goes up $30 a barrel, you are talking about spending an additional billion dollars just on fuel. 

The Navy has always been a leader in terms of changing the 

types of fuel that we use. We went from sail to coal in the 1850s, 

from coal to oil in the early part of the 20th century; then, we pioneered nuclear in the 1950s, and we are going to do that again. 

That is our plans, and it is because we need a hedge against exactly what you were talking about to maintain our warfighting capabilities. 

I would like for the CNO to talk about the specific operational 

things that we are doing about the other part of the question. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. And, thank you for the question. 

And I echo the Secretary’s comments on—in what really is behind 

our energy initiatives, it really is an operational issue and less a 

technical issue for me. I mean, it is really about how we operate 

and how unencumbered we can be if we get off the foreign oil. 

With regard to the capabilities that are being fielded, you cited 

China; but quite frankly, many of those capabilities tend to proliferate today more than they have in the past. So, as I look at 

what we as a Navy must be able to do, it really has a global view 

and not just about China, but in all areas. 

As we look at capabilities that are being developed as we have 

over the years, we look at what are the counters to those, what are 

the strengths that we as a Navy have and we amplify on those 

strengths and we address those areas that we know we want to 

pursue counters to. 

I think in the area of anti-submarine warfare, for example, which 

is one that is—submarines are proliferating globally. There is no 

better anti-submarine warfare weapon than the Virginia-class sub-
18 

marine. And that is why we want to get to two a year this year. 

If the C.R. is lifted, we can do that. But that is hugely critical. 

We have made significant investments in ballistic missile defense, increasing the number of ships in our inventory up to 41 by 

the end of this defense plan. 

We also have restructured ourselves within the Navy. We have 

recreated the U.S. 10th Fleet to go after areas of electronic warfare, electronic attack and cyber warfare. 

And so, what we have done is we have re-imagined the future. 

We have reinvented ourselves to be able to address those challenges that are likely to be occurring in the years ahead. Thank 

you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Reyes. 

Mr. REYES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, welcome and 

thank you for service. I have two main areas that I would like for 

you to address in the 5 minutes allotted to me. As we talked the 

last couple of days about the possibility of a no-fly zone over Libya 

and the ability to enforce that, and there are a couple of options. 

NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] has been mentioned. 

The United Nations authority is the other. When we are talking 

about the constraints, the uptempo and all the things that impact 

our Navy today, the Navy would be the only option to be able to 

impose that no-fly zone over a place like Libya. Am I correct? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. That would depend, Mr. Reyes, on basing 

rights, over flight rights. But to your point, we in the Navy don’t 

have to worry about those, because we come from the sea. We don’t 

ask permission where we put our airfields. We put them where 

they are needed. So, we are a very good option for that. But there 

are other factors that I think leadership would have to take into 

account. 

Mr. REYES. Well, my point being—and that—and it goes to the 

question that the Ranking Member talked about in terms of going 

to nine carrier wings versus the 10. When we have unexpected 

emergencies or situations that come up, will—in your mind, will we 

be able to handle those kinds of things given the fact that we have 

these worldwide commitments and, basically, the Navy would be 

the best option in terms of being able to project that capability? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. We are. Today, we have four aircraft carriers deployed. Two more are underway. And what we do 

with the fleet is we have it so that it is always forward and that 

we can move those carriers very quickly from one region to the 

other. And that is the beauty of how we have designed our fleet response plan. 

So, I feel very comfortable with that. I also believe that what we 

have put in place with respect to our strike fighter force, the service life extension on the airplanes, the procurement of some additional E and F model Hornets and then moving to the Joint Strike 

Fighter that the Air Force that we have, particularly when we coupled with the Marine Corps and their Hornet force and what will 

also be a Joint Strike Fighter force that we will be well positioned 

for the future. 

Mr. REYES. Okay. Thank you, Admiral. General, I have one question. And, again, I was as impressed with the change in conditions 

in Southern Afghanistan particularly in the area where the Ma-
19 

rines where, we were wondering where they are going to be able 

to take it back. But one of the—we heard a very moving story 

about an IED attack on one of the—one of the units and I guess 

it was the convoy commander that got hit the hardest on there. But 

clearly, one of the big issues which also affects the Army is the 

traumatic brain injury. Can you address specifically in terms of the 

Marine Corps the kinds of programs or what you are doing to address TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury]? 

General AMOS. Congressman, I would be happy to. This has been 

evolutionary and I know that you are close to General Croley when 

I was the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. We worked 

for—both General Croley and I worked for 2 years in earnest trying 

to capitalize on all of the latest technology as far as being able to 

determine what is traumatic brain injury, what is it, what are the 

effects of that on that mass inside that skull. 

We have come a long way since 2003 when, quite honestly, nobody was even talking about TBI. In a nutshell, today, we recognize it, we understand some of it, we don’t understand all of it, but 

we have taken lessons learned from the National Football League, 

worked very closely with University of California, Los Angeles, the 

head of traumatic brain injury out there, Dr. David Hovda and 

using that as—and bringing in great minds across the country that 

understand this. 

We built about 2 years ago—about a year-and-a-half ago what we 

call a concussive protocol. And what that means is recognition first 

of all that a concussive event of any kind that either knocks a Marine down, perhaps, or throws him up against the wall, or worse 

yet, he is standing 5 meters away from his buddy that steps on a 

pressure plated IED that goes off, all that has a great effect on the 

brain. Each brain is different. It is affected different. 

So what we have done now using this protocol is we have 

brought every single Marine, and it has happened to every single 

soldier now that this happens to in Afghanistan. You enter this 

protocol. In other words, you have the event. It is registered. You 

come back to your combat outpost, forward operating base, wherever you are. You see the corpsman, medic in the case of the Army. 

The next person is the doctor if there is one available. 

Depending on the extent of the injuries, we will fly our Marines 

from our forward operating base or combat outpost in the Leatherneck and they start this procedure where we do an exam of the 

head. There is a physical examination and then there is a cognitive 

test, a series of cognitive test over days. And depending how you— 

whether you were knocked out, depending on how feel, depending 

on how you look, with regards to the examination, dictates what 

the next step is. 

But in a nutshell, this is the—what we have discovered is the 

brain needs to be rested after a concussive event. The very best 

thing you can do is take the brain and put it at rest. In that case, 

just keep it in the combat outpost, kept it at the forward operation 

base or fly back to a resuscitative—not a resuscitative, but a care 

unit which we have established at the Leatherneck. 

And then depending on how long you were knocked out or how 

severe it is, it dictates how long it is before you go outside the wire 

again. You could conceivably never leave what we call the wire of 
20 

the combat outpost again. In our case, we have what is known as 

‘‘three strikes you are in,’’ which means on the third concussive 

event, you are not going anywhere. You are not going on patrol 

anymore. You are not leaving the wire. 

So, these are things we are doing. We have set up the organization at Leatherneck which examines Marines and helps them with 

rehabilitation. The final thing, Congressman, is that we are in the 

process now of deploying an MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] 

into Camp Leatherneck. That should happen this year and that 

will then give the local folks an opportunity to examine the brain 

and then send that information digitally back to the United States 

of America for analysis. 

So, great recognition that is real. We are doing something about 

it. I think a concussive protocol will probably save mental lives 

down the road yet to be seen. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. REYES. Thanks. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Akin. 

Mr. AKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, our witnesses here this morning. 

First of all, Admiral Roughead, the brief that you gave, I believe, 

was 2 or 3 weeks ago in the SCIF [Secure Compartmented Information Facility] was tremendously helpful. It was fast paced, but 

you covered a lot of territory and maybe quieted a lot of fears in 

certain people relative to naval capabilities and some of the new 

threats. That was a very helpful briefing. 

And also, General Amos, thank you for taking time to review the 

EFV decision that you had worked through. I still have some reservations as you know. We will probably have a committee hearing 

about it just to try to look into that. But I appreciate your availability and your candor in saying this is what we are trying to do. 

And as you know, Mr. Secretary, and General Amos, we are— 

part of our job is to say, ‘‘Wait a minute. We think you guys are 

being too good of soldiers’’ in terms of maybe being too tough on 

the budget, and there may be sometimes where we need to push 

back. We have tried to do that, members of this committee making 

the case that the overall national budget problem can’t be fixed by 

cuts to defense and that that may be very unwise. 

Certainly, the number of 288 ships that we are the same place 

we were in 1916 is not something that gives us a lot of sense of 

peace here. And you have heard me complain before that the more 

that you can include us in the process and help us to go to bat for 

you, particularly, General Amos, in terms of your reset necessity 

because of having had all this equipment deployed for so long, we 

want to try to help you in that regard. 

Help us to help you in giving us as much heads up as you are 

making different decisions and things are going along instead of 

catching us. And you know, that has been my continuous complaint, and I repeat it too much. But all three of your availability, 

we are very appreciative. 

We are supposed to know something about the political situation 

of what is going on and we, as you know, the House did pass an 

appropriations bill because we understand the pressure that you 
21 

are under. However, we are not the only players in this game and 

so far, that hasn’t gone anywhere. 

My recommendation is that you prepare just as Secretary and a 

number of you listed off—I forget who has made the list today— 

but you listed off some of the things where you need transfer authority. If we are continuing on this continued resolution approach, 

I think it would be good to have the second arrow and that would 

put together the most important transfer authority requirements 

that you need so that we can go to bat and if we have to include 

those in the—we can’t do it in this little short continued resolution, 

as I understand it, because the bus has left the station. 

But we may well be back at another one of these Band-Aid type 

things. And if we do have the key transfer authority things that 

you need, it may allow us to try to help you. You might think that 

there are a couple of—particularly a certain subcommittee chairman is a pain in the rear for complaining about you making decisions and not telling us ahead of time, but we are also, in the other 

hand, fighting in your behalf. 

And we are trying to be a team player and a help, and we may 

be able to get some of those key transfer things through even if we 

don’t have the appropriations piece fixed because we are in a period of tremendous budget instability as you know. The case that 

we have been making as a member of the Budget Committee, if you 

take a look at the simple numbers, our revenues are 2.2 trillion. 

Maybe you know this. Maybe you don’t. 

Two point two trillion, that is how much money comes in, and 

our entitlements plus debt service is 2.2 trillion. So we can zero defense and it doesn’t solve the problem. And so we are making that 

case that we have to deal with this other budget problem aside 

from trying to continuing to whack defense and to run a Navy at 

the 1916 level. So help us to help you, but do help us by giving us 

this—the most important transfer authority pieces that you need. 

That was—so that was really all I had, unless you want to respond, 

I have a few seconds left here so—— 

Secretary MABUS. Thank you, Congressman. And just to respond 

very quickly on a couple of issues. One is it is not just transfer authority that we are lacking. It is new START Authority. That is 

what is really going to hamper so much on ship construction, for 

example, and you pointed out that we are, as the CNO said, 288 

ships the lowest since 1916. But if we build our 5-year and then 

10-year shipbuilding plan, we will get to around 325 ships in the 

early 2020. 

So we will pass the 313 floor, and we will go up to the mid-320s 

in the early 2020s, but we won’t be able to do that absent the New 

START Authority to build the second Virginia-class submarine, the 

two Aegis-class destroyers, the mobile landing platform. So I would 

add that. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. AKIN. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Sanchez. 

Ms. SANCHEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and, gentlemen, thank 

you once again for being before our committee. Secretary Mabus, 

February of last year, the Department of Defense took up what I 

believe is a commendable step in reversing the ban that prohibits 
22 

women from being on Navy submarines. And as you probably 

know, I have been a strong advocate to allow women to fulfill all 

the positions currently available in our military, and I hope more 

of that happens. 

So, Secretary, can you provide our committee with an update 

now, a year later, how that is going and if it is being successful 

and what more do you need. Do you need anything from us to ensure that that goes well? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, thank you, and I share that that women 

should be absolutely integrated into all parts of the Navy in, particularly, the submarine community. We are moving forward the 

first group of women, are in nuclear power school and in submarine 

training, preparing to go on board our ballistic missile submarines 

and our guided missile submarines at the—late this year is the 

best estimate that we have. 

The level of volunteers that when we made this announcement 

from both the Naval Academy and ROTC programs around the 

country was simply astounding. And the quality of the young 

women that are going through these—this program heading for our 

submarines is as high as can be imagined. Now we are also moving 

laterally some Supply Corps officers to be department heads on 

submarines and act as mentors for these new submariners, and 

that is also coming along. 

And finally, we notified Congress in December of our intent to 

begin do design work on our attack submarines so that women 

could also be integrated into those. But we think that at this point, 

it is going very, very smoothly. 

Ms. SANCHEZ. Great. That is great to hear. I wanted to give the 

opportunity to one of our members who is sitting very close to 

you—that would be Mrs. Hanabusa because she represents Hawaii, 

which, you know, the Navy and Marines are very important to. She 

sits on the, what we call, the bottom row, which means she probably never gets to ask a question very often. I don’t know with the 

rest of my time if the gentlelady from Hawaii would have some 

questions for you. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Mr. Chair, is that acceptable? Thank you. 

Thank you, gentlemen. I would like to understand something, 

which is—and I hope I am not overstepping Congressman 

Bordallo’s question. But in the whole concept of the Guam situation, I noticed that there is reference to the fact that the budget 

request includes $33 million intended to move to other agencies to 

mitigate the infrastructure and socioeconomic impacts of Guam associated with the move of the Marines. 

Can you explain to me exactly what the concern is that $33 million would have to be diverted for that specific purpose? 

Secretary MABUS. One of the keys to the Guam strategy is one 

Guam and one government here that we are a total all of government solution and not just the Defense Department moving toward 

that. That was the rationale for moving that because other agencies would have a more direct interest and ability to do some of 

things that will need to be done to make the Guam move go forward. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. So do you sense that there is going to be some 

resistance or concern raised by the people of Guam of this move 
23 

and if that is why the almost a proactive action of taking steps to 

ensure that it is—that you are addressing various types of social 

issues before the move? 

Secretary MABUS. We have been working very closely with the 

government of Guam and with the people of Guam. We have had 

a lot of public input before the environmental impacts. Statement 

Record of Decision was signed last fall. The governor of Guam is 

here now and has been meeting with the Department of Defense 

and Department of Navy officials about this. 

My Under Secretary, Bob Work, has recently returned from his 

fifth or sixth trip to Guam and we are endeavoring to work very 

closely to meet any cultural concerns, any concerns of the people 

of Guam have as this move proceeds. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Forbes. 

Mr. FORBES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

General Amos, I wish I had the words to adequately thank you 

for what you have done for our Marine Corps and what our Marine 

Corps does every day for our country, but suffice to say, we appreciate it a great deal. And Admiral Roughead, I have known you for 

years, and I know your heart for and service to our Navy, and we 

thank you. 

And, Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here today. One of my 

big concerns is when you look at the recent review by the Quadrennial Defense Review independent panel which as you know is a bipartisan panel made up of some very talented individuals that concerns you when you hear the word train wreck associated where 

they think we are headed with the recent QDR [Quadrennial Defense Review]. And they mentioned specifically the Navy and the 

need for us to grow the Navy. 

And then it concerns me when we see the Secretary of Defense 

coming in as he did last year talking about the shipbuilding plan 

and saying that the out-years of the shipbuilding plan are simply 

a fantasy. As you know, our shipbuilding plan, we are looking at 

how many ships we are going to have both short-term and down 

the road. It is a pretty simple calculus. It is the number of ships 

we plan to build added to the number that is going to be in our 

fleet less what we decommission. 

OMB disagrees with the number of ships that as you know that 

the Navy projects, they think we are headed towards 270 and not 

in the 300s. But suffice that—just put that aside for a moment. I 

am concerned about the ships we have on our fleet and, specifically, the estimated lives of those vessels because as you know, two 

things have happened—one, we have used them a lot more than we 

anticipated; but, secondly, we—we know that we have had just in 

2 fiscal years, fiscal year 2010 and—I mean, 2010 and 2012, we 

have had $567 million of deferred maintenance. 

When will we receive a revised assessment showing not the initial estimated lives of these vessels, but the current estimated projections of the life expectancies of those vessels? Is that in the 

works at any time for us to get? 
24 

Secretary MABUS. Congressman, if I could address one little part 

of the earlier statements. In the QDR review that was conducted 

as you said by some very distinguished Americans looking at that, 

they came up with a number of ships for the Navy that was higher 

than our plans get us in the early 2020s, which is in the 325-ship 

range. 

The major difference though is in the way they counted ships. 

We do not count certain support ships that they did count and if 

you count apples to apples in those two documents, we are very 

close to where they think we need to be in the early 2020s. In 

terms of maintenance, we are very concerned because as the CNO 

says the Navy resets in stride. Maintenance is our reset and we are 

concerned that all our ships reached the total lifespan that we expect of them. 

The CNO has established for each class of ship an engineeringbased maintenance plan so that they will reach the end of their life 

span. We are moving sailors from shore afloat, 2,200 sailors will go 

into the fleet for optimum manning of our ships so that more maintenance—more preventative maintenance will occur on a routine 

basis. Four hundred sailors are moving to the pier for intermediate 

maintenance so that as ships come in for their scheduled maintenance calls, those maintenance calls are more valuable and make 

more of a difference. 

Mr. FORBES. Mr. Secretary, I don’t want to interrupt you, but I 

am losing my time. 

Secretary MABUS. But because of—because of these things that 

we are doing, we think that the ships are going to reach the end 

of their schedule of life. And it was a long answer and I apologize 

for that, but—— 

Mr. FORBES. I appreciate the answer. The other question I have 

for you is, we know that we have had officials from the Navy talking about doing a new force structure assessment to look at if that 

number is correct or not correct, and I am always concerned. We 

talked about getting strategy but limiting based on fiscal realities. 

How can we be confident that when that assessment is done we 

know the part of it, that strategy versus the part of it that is being 

driven simply by budgetary concerns? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, Congressman, the force structure review 

of the number of Navy ships which is under way in which will be 

completed soon. We are basing it all on what we need, on strategy. 

But we are also very mindful that we need to be good stewards of 

the taxpayers’ money, that we try to be—try to make use of every 

single dollar that we get so that we can get to the number of ships. 

But this is a bottom-up strategic review that is not budget-driven 

but nation-driven. 

Mr. FORBES. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. McIntyre. 

Mr. MCINTYRE. Thank you. Thanks to all three of you for your 

leadership. I have one question for each of you, so in my time allotted, I will try to get each of these questions done. 

Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the opportunity to be with you and 

the Secretary of Agriculture. Last year when the biofuels agreement was signed at the Pentagon and also to be at the maiden 
25 

flight of the Green Hornet last year on Earth Day, on page 27 in 

your testimony, you mentioned your five energy goals in wanting 

to generate at least 50 percent of all energy from alternative 

sources. 

With the F–35 coming online, is there an effort even now to 

make sure that it can operate on biofuels rather than waiting to 

have to convert it later? 

Secretary MABUS. There—one of the requirements we have for 

any biofuel that we use is that it is a drop-in fuel, but it can be 

used in any engine that we have. So, the Green Hornet was not 

modified in any way to fly on biofuels. Same will be true for the 

F–35. The fuel will have to match that and so far, they all have. 

Mr. MCINTYRE. All right. Great. Thank you, Sir. 

General Amos, on page 14 of your posture report, you mentioned 

MARSOC [United States Marine Corps Special Operations Command] which of course has its headquarters in North Carolina. Has 

the Marine Corps resolved the issue of whether MARSOC personnel will remain within MARSOC in the special operations community for life or will they rotate back to conventional forces? And 

is this affecting the number in terms of your consideration for the 

growth of MARSOC? 

General AMOS. Congressman, we have—when MARSOC is fully 

stood up after the—they get that latest tranche of 1,000 Marines, 

they will be about 3,600 strong. Of that 3,600, there is roughly 

about 815 what we call critical skill operators. And those are those 

Marines that have the ultimate in training. They are the real special operators. They will have their own military occupational specialty designation. They will remain in MARSOC, that 815 for 

more—unless they want to come out. 

But they are going to remain in MARSOC probably for the 

length of their career. The other remaining 1,800 will rotate out of 

MARSOC. Those are communicators, those are UAV [Unmanned 

Aerial Vehicles] folks, those are CI HUMINT [Counterintelligence 

and Human Intelligence] folks. They will come out at 5-year marks, 

come back to the fleet Marine force and as a rising tide raise all 

boats in the Marine Corps while they spread their goodness that 

they learned in MARSOC. 

So we have solved it and there is a portion that will remain in 

MARSOC for the remainder of their time in the Marine Corps. 

Mr. MCINTYRE. Thank you, Sir. And Admiral Roughead, thank 

you for coming to Wilmington, North Carolina last fall for the commissioning of the USS Gravely, the Navy’s newest destroyer named 

for the first African American admiral in the United States Navy. 

I know that on page 7 of your testimony, you mentioned specifically reducing risk with regard to purchasing more F–18 Super 

Hornets. We understand in the next decade, there is an assessment 

of a shortage of about 65 aircraft later in this decade. 

What risk do you see that can make the strike-fighter shortfall 

rise even higher in the years ahead and that we may have to complement this with the Super Hornet? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Right now, sir, I think that we are in a very 

good position with the new Super Hornets that are in this budget. 

There are nine as, you know, pending on the hill. And then the 
26 

Service Life Extension Program that we have funded in this budget. I am very comfortable with the 35C that is coming along. 

So, what we have been able to lay in and with the support of 

Congress, I think we have a good way forward on our strike fighter 

shortfall and, you know, we will continue to watch the development 

of the F–35C but I feel very good about how we position ourselves 

for that future. 

Mr. MCINTYRE. All right. Thank you. Thank you, gentleman, 

very much. We got it all done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Miller. 

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have questions that I 

would like to submit for the record and because he is the last one 

to ask a question, I would like to yield my time to Mr. Palazzo. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized for 4 minutes and 

50 seconds. 

Mr. PALAZZO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Kind of caught me off 

guard there. But I appreciate it. 

General Amos, there was recently an article in the Washington 

Times that stated that American combat troops will get sensitivity 

training directly on the battlefield about ‘‘don’t ask/don’t tell’’ instead of waiting until they returned to their home base in the 

United States. 

The article goes on to say that no units will be exempt. In your 

professional military opinion, do you believe that performance sensitivity training of this nature in anticipation of the repeal of ‘‘don’t 

ask/don’t tell’’ while—is the best use of military resources at this 

time? 

General AMOS. Congressman, we have about—we have done the 

math now. We have many units on the ground of Afghanistan that 

make the 20 thousand, we have turned several units over. 

Those that are coming in have already—we have rushed to make 

sure that they had to train before they left. We estimate about 11 

units of lieutenant colonel command battalions and squadrons that 

will need to get the training, what we call tier-three training while 

they are in Afghanistan. 

Honestly, I am not concerned about that. I don’t look at it as sensitivity training by the way. I look at it as leadership training. And 

my sense is that I have good lieutenant colonels, good company 

commanders, and they will know precisely when the optimum time 

is. 

Not every Marine in combat is busy 24 hours a day, 7 days a 

week as, you know, from your former life. So, there will be opportunities where Marines will be able to sit down with their company 

commander, the company first sergeant or squadron commander 

and have that leadership training. 

I don’t think it will be onerous. I think it will be focused purely 

on leadership principles. Those things that are near and dear to 

the Marines. And I think actually it will be a lot easier to do in 

combat than we thought—than we might think otherwise. 

Mr. PALAZZO. All right. Thank you, General. I yield back my 

time. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Andrews. 

Mr. ANDREWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome. It is good to see you. And on page 17 and 18 of your testi-
27 

mony, you make reference to the Littoral Combat Ship dual-block 

procurement strategy which I agree I think has been very beneficial for the department and for the country. 

And you indicate that you are projecting savings of approxi- mately $1.9 billion over a 5-year period on the program and across 

to $40 million per ship. To what would you attribute those cost savings from the dual-block strategy? In other words, what is the wisdom of the strategy that generates those savings? 

Secretary MABUS. A couple of things, one is competition. We have 

two variants, they competed against each other and drove the 

prices down significantly. 

Secondly, is we have locked in those savings over the 5 years by 

signing firm fixed-price contracts for 10 of each variant, so, 20 

ships. 

Mr. ANDREWS. Right. 

Secretary MABUS. If we, by sticking to those two things, competition and then doing firm fixed-price contracts, we know we are 

going to—we are going to get these savings and one of the things 

I think is important to point out is that while the average is—cost 

of these ships is of about $433 million apiece, the last ship—the 

last two ships will cost around $360 million apiece. 

So, the cost of the ships as each ship is built is going down—as 

you go forward, we should see those savings continue. 

Mr. ANDREWS. I appreciate that. I know this is not a decision at 

your pay grade but I think the Chairman would be interested as 

well in exploring why that same logic doesn’t apply to the JSF 

[Joint Strike Fighter] engine program, if there are benefits to having two competitors that create those efficiencies over the long 

term, why doesn’t that argument apply to the second engine? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, if I could take a crack at my pay grade, 

we always planned to have two competitors for—you know, for the 

Littoral Combat Ship. And we have paid for all the engineering 

and R&D, the upfront calls that makes it different from the alternate engine in that—the alternate engine are the—engine was seen 

as one. And you would have to pay for all the development cost for 

a second engine. That is a huge difference. 

Mr. ANDREWS. I do appreciate that although I would respectfully 

say that it looks like the savings over time would let you catch up 

and dwarf what it would cost to catch up with—the R&D outlay 

but thank you. 

Let me move on to General Amos, his comments about the amphibious combat vehicle. And I guess, I see your comment that you 

are going to begin development of an affordable and capable ACV 

[Amphibious Combat Vehicle] to replace the EFV program. 

When do you think that the alternative would be fieldable? I 

mean under optimal circumstance, we go from where we are sitting 

this afternoon to where we will be able to get those vessels in the 

water, what is the optimal timetable to make that happen? 

General AMOS. There are two answers to that. One is the Commandant of the Marine Corps answer which is before I leave office 

4 years—31⁄2 years from now, we have a program of record, we will 

have steel, it will be a vehicle, and I will be able to drive that. That 

is my answer. 

Mr. ANDREWS. I like that answer. 
28 

General AMOS. Okay. That is the answer. And I am trying to 

pressurize industry. I am trying to pressurize the acquisition professional folks, I want the word to get out. If I go by the standard 

acquisition timeline which in some cases got us to where we are 

today, it will be 2024. 

So, you understand the exigency. And we will have a vehicle by 

the time I give up this job. 

Mr. ANDREWS. What would you say the two or three main impediments are to you achieving that objective by the time you relinquish your job? 

General AMOS. I think it is—first of all, I have, in this case, I 

am on reasonably solid ground because I have the full support of 

my Service Secretary, his acquisition professional, Sean Stackley, 

I have the full support of the Secretary of Defense and Dr. Ash 

Carter who is AT&L [Acquisition, Technology and Logistics]. 

So, they are all behind it and they are going—what we would 

really like to do is use the MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected] model. Understanding the MRAP model was probably too 

aggressive and—but it saved lives. But so—something probably 

that resembles the sense of urgency of the MRAP. 

But probably a little bit more scheduled. And that is what we are 

going to do. We’re going to try to move everything to the left. 

Mr. ANDREWS. If I could just permit one moment of advertising. 

You guys did a terrific job on the MRAP without Chairman Hunter, 

former Chairman Skelton, former member Gene Taylor and some 

others that would have never happened, and for those who think 

Congress should not have a direct role in spending decisions here, 

I would refer you to the MRAP decision. 

I yield back. I thank you for your answers. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, and I appreciate the gentleman’s 

question. You are right, I am also interested, and my recollection 

is that the Department also planned for two engines originally in 

the JSF acquisition strategy. 

And if we were a couple of years down the road, we will have 

already—we would have already paid for those acquisition costs as 

we did with the LCS. And then we would have the opportunity of 

realizing the competition going forward. 

Thank you. Mr. Turner. 

Mr. TURNER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am a little taken 

aback by the answer of what the timeframe is on the EFV, I mean, 

I am very concerned about that—that whole decision process and 

the answer because in your answer is a timeframe that does not 

have anything to necessarily reflect on the threat. 

I mean the time that you are finished being commandant doesn’t 

really answer the question of when is it going to be needed. Here 

is my concern on the whole question of the EFV: We know that 

there is no funding in fiscal year 2012, both you and the Secretary 

have re-affirmed the requirements to conduct amphibious assault 

missions. 

And you intend to develop, as you were describing something 

else, but the—as the Secretary was giving us the answer of his cuts 

when you have announced that there was going to be a cut with 

this vehicle. He says, ‘‘the most plausible scenario of power projections from the sea could be handled through a mix of existing air 
29 

and sea systems employed in new ways along with new vehicles— 

scenarios that do not require the exquisite features of the EFV.’’ 

Can you describe the analytical work Secretary Gates is referring 

to in his statement? And was there a report done? And the EFV 

also to my understanding that there were, there was the cessation 

of the testing phase. And I am a little worried about our ability to 

mine or ascertain the innovations with respect to the vehicle. 

May I—if I can have your thoughts. 

General AMOS. So on your last point, the acquisition decision 

memorandum was released about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Giving 60 days 

for the Secretary of the Navy to and the Department to take a look 

at how to shut down the current EFV line. 

The forecast is, is to take the best of what is left in the testing 

for this fiscal year and continue on with that. Those decisions are 

working through right now. So, what you will do is you will capitalize between now and the end of this year—the end of the contract on those things that are probably going to be the most fruitbearing as it relates to the EFV. 

The whole concept is to take those technologies, those lessons 

learned and then apply them to the amphibious combat vehicle. So, 

the shutdown of the line is in work right now. But it will be done 

from my words, it will be done focused on those things that it 

ought to be focused on. 

As it relates to the EFV and the elegance of the EFV, when those 

requirements were developed 21⁄2 decades ago, we look at a threat 

and said it is 25 miles that is about the farthest a naval vessel will 

have to go over the horizon to be able to be out of harm’s way. 

Well, we know that that is not the case today. The enemy has 

not gotten any easier, has only gotten more lethal. So, as a superpower nation, we could either decide we are going to abrogate all 

that space—the sea space. And get out a thousand miles or we can 

take the technologies and capabilities we have—that we know we 

have right now and integrate them in the joint force and allow the 

naval vessels to come in to be able to disembark the Marines in the 

new amphibious combat vehicle. 

That is the difference between the requirements the way they 

were viewed in the 1980s and the requirements as the way they 

are being viewed in 2011. 

Mr. TURNER. As we have had a lot of discussions here today 

about the reductions, ways to find savings and everyone understanding that of course we have the cost pressures—we would certainly also need to recognize that we are a nation at war. And a 

lot of these cuts and reductions have an effect on our capabilities 

and on our men and women who are serving. 

We have also the end-strength reductions that are planned and 

I am very concerned there. And I wanted to also give some of my 

time to Mr. Runyan who is down in front. But when you answer 

his question, could you also add any thoughts that you might have 

on how those end-strength reductions might affect dwell time. I 

think people are very concerned about the ratios of dwell time. You 

have a goal of one to three. And now, we are having difficulty I believe meeting—getting one to two. 

And then I have a minute left but I would like to—I concede that 

Mr. Runyan for him to add additional question. 
30 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized for 1 minute. 

Mr. RUNYAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you the gentleman from Ohio. Mr. Secretary Mabus and Admiral Roughead, 

according to recent reports the Aegis radar system is in the worst 

shape ever. Aegis is considered the world’s best seagoing radar and 

combat system due to its power and adaptability. 

But the training and maintenance are vital to maintain in the 

system’s readiness out in the field, could you please discuss any— 

Aegis fleet readiness concerns that you have and how we can help 

keep the Aegis radar available—a viable option once fielded? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Thank you very much, sir. And then, we 

have—similar to how we looked at all of our ship maintenance 

issues, we have looked at Aegis and also how that system and the 

radar integrates into some other complex areas. 

There are some things that we are working on in a technical 

sense that gets to the interoperability in a much better and a more 

reliable way than what I would like to see. But then we have also 

taken a look at what training do we have to add into the pipeline. 

We are also adding people to those ships because as we went 

through an optimal manning initiative, we took people off of the 

ships which ultimately gets to equipment maintenance, equipment 

reliability. 

So, those are just a couple of the things that we are working on. 

Mr. RUNYAN. Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. It is the Chair’s intent to call two 

more questioners and then a 5-minute recess. Mr. Conaway. Excuse me, Mr. Langevin. 

Mr. LANGEVIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And gentlemen, I 

want to thank each of you, Secretary Mabus, Admiral Roughead 

and General Amos for your testimony here today but most especially for all that you do to protect our nation. 

Let me just say that I want to talk briefly about one of our nation’s most vulnerable strategic—I am sorry—valuable strategic assets, our nuclear submarine force. 

We have talked about the Ohio replacement in particular a bit 

this morning. Obviously, our submariners have maintained a constant vigilance over the past decades to provide us and our allies 

with strategic deterrence that remains unmatched by any other nation on the planet. 

Their work in the silent service, obviously deserves our utmost 

respect and support. So, I believe it is absolutely vital that we remain committed to projects such as the Ohio Replacement Program. 

I do, however, remain concerned that the large investments required for this critical system would be threatened by the needs of 

our surface fleet. Admiral Roughead, as I understand you recently 

stated support for moving the SSBN–X funding out of the Navy 

shipbuilding and conversion account. 

Given our fiscal pressures, can you offer your vision of how that 

could be accomplished? And what legislative authority or permissions would be needed to change to be needed—to be changed or 

added? And in addition, the Navy’s—Navy officials recently told 

committee staff that our programs—that the program’s schedule 
31 

and cost present ‘‘huge challenges and tremendous risk,’’ which we 

can all understand of course. 

But what are your views of this program and your confidence 

level that the Navy will meet its cost and schedule goals given the 

critical importance of this program? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Thank you very much, sir. And my comments relative to the SSBN–X dealt with the fact that submarine 

is being recapitalized in the decade of the 2020s and at that time, 

there are several things that are going to happen. 

Many of the submarines and surface combatants that we built in 

the 1980s are going to be aging out and retiring from service during that decade. That is when we are starting to lay in the SSBN– 

X. 

On top of that, we will be building the carriers on 5-year centers, 

so there will be likely two carriers built during that same time. We 

are also going to be refueling our aircraft carriers which—that is 

not inexpensive. And at that time also, we are going to be decommissioning some of the earlier Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. 

So, in the 2020s you have a fairly significant demand being 

placed on the shipbuilding account and also on the shipbuilding infrastructure. And so I do believe that that has to be examined, the 

recapitalization of the service fleet, recapitalization of the ballistic 

missile submarine, with everything else going on, I believe requires 

some different thinking. 

With regard to legislative authorities, my sense is it is really a 

question of how the budget is laid in for that. I am not sure that 

there is a legislative piece but I would leave that more to you to 

have a view of that. 

I am very comfortable with where we are going with SSBN–X. 

The decision and the recommendation that I made with regard to 

the number of tubes—launch tubes are consistent with the new 

START treaty. They are consistent with the missions that I see 

that ship having to perform. And even though it may be characterized as a cost-cutting measure, I believe it sizes the ship for the 

missions it will perform. 

We are not backing off on the stealth imperative that that ship 

must have because the last one of that class will be on patrol in 

2080, and so we have to make sure that we have built in the 

stealth. 

I am very comfortable with our knowledge of how we have been 

able to bring down the cost on Virginia to apply that to the SSBN– 

X and I am very positive about where we are headed with it. 

Mr. LANGEVIN. Thank you, Admiral. Also on another topic that 

has been important to me—cyber security. For Secretary Mabus or 

Admiral Roughead, let me just talk about cyber security threats to 

our critical infrastructure in particular. 

Let me just say that I have been relatively disappointed by the 

overall lack of response and commitment to this issue. And I firmly 

believe America is still vulnerable to a cyber attack against our 

electric grid which would obviously cause severe damage not only 

our critical infrastructure but to our economy and the welfare of 

our citizens. 

We need to pay more attention to this issue, because of this concern last Congress, I posed a question to heads of Cyber Security 
32 

for all of our military services, and the question basically was if our 

civilian power systems are vulnerable, what is being done to protect our numerous military bases that rely on them to operate? 

So, the answers though were disturbing but not surprising, specifically Vice Admiral Barry McCullough, head of the Navy’s 10th 

Fleet testified, ‘‘These systems are very vulnerable to attack.’’ 

So, noting that much of the power and water systems for our 

naval bases are served by single sources that have only very limited backup capability, with an attack on our power station, when 

an attack on a power station potentially requires weeks or even 

months to recover from, our bases could face serious problems 

maintaining operational status. What is Navy doing to address 

these threats not only to its critical structure but also its secured 

and unsecured networks? 

The CHAIRMAN. Gentleman’s time has expired. Could you please 

give him those answers for the record please? 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 156.] 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Conaway. 

Mr. CONAWAY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, welcome. 

Glad you are here. Just an aside, I want to associate myself with 

Mr. Andrews’ comments. I do believe competition works. It works 

for LCS, and I think it works across most of our platforms that— 

including the engine. 

But I would like to turn my—our attention to something a whole 

lot more—less exciting and more mundane than the cyber attacks 

or anything else. It has to do with back office at the Navy and your 

inability to provide the taxpayers in this country with audited financial statements of the sums of money that we—that we give 

that we provide through the appropriation process. 

I want to brag right upfront, the Marine Corps has taken the 

lead as they typically do on most things and that rumor has it that 

the September 30, 2011, financial statements will get audited by 

the Marine Corps and will pass an audit, that same issue needs to 

be spread across all branches, I have had this conversation with 

the Secretary and others as well. 

Nothing in your written statements that I was able to see made 

reference to this issue at all. Without top-down leadership this ain’t 

going to happen. I have met with the next layer below you guys, 

with Robert Hale and others, your counterparts for the Navy, in 

the Marine Corps and the Army and others, and they get it. And 

they are ready to go in and they are making efforts to do that but 

without you two saying make it happen, then this isn’t going to 

happen. 

I am also concerned, and I am going to appreciate your comments in reference to all of the cost savings and cuttings and redeployments and swaps around that is going on, I am concerned 

that you will cannibalize the resources needed to make this happen 

in efforts to redeploy those resources somewhere else. 

And my final comment as to why this is important. Over and 

over and over this morning, you have talked to us about greening 

the military and how much that is going to ‘‘save us.’’ 

I have professional skepticism about that number. You cannot 

tell us today what the differential between what we would have 
33 

spent had we ignored the greening effort versus all we spent on 

this. You know, you can’t tell me that delta and if we are going to 

eliminate the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle because we ‘‘can’t afford it,’’ then taxpayers need to know what it is we are doing and 

why. 

And so, give me some sense as to your commitments to making 

this happen sooner than later in terms of getting the back office 

in the shape that it can be audited. 

Secretary MABUS. Congressman, as a former elected state auditor 

of Mississippi—— 

Mr. CONAWAY. Good. Glad to hear that. 

Secretary MABUS [continuing]. I understand very well the importance of what you are talking about here. And I want to echo what 

you said about the Marine Corps. The Marines are very close to 

being able to do that. I want to also assure you that the entire Department of the Navy is taking this very seriously and working 

very hard on it. 

We have two major issues. One is legacy systems just the sheer 

number of legacy systems that we have out there and the amount 

of effort that is taking to convert those. But we are doing it and 

we are also presenting our financial statements to you in GAAP 

[Generally Accepted Accounting Principles] form and in meeting 

the FASB [Financial Accounting Standards Board] regulations. 

Secondly, one issue that we are working with GASB [Governmental Accounting Standards Board] on is coming up with an accurate cost for our assets. For example, USS Enterprise was built 

more than 50 years ago, in the 1960s. 

Going back and finding an accurate cost at that time is just onerous. It is going to require a lot of time. It is going to require a lot 

of effort and we won’t get much for it in the end. So, we are working to try to come up with a good cost-figure structure so that we 

can move to the audited financial statements. 

If I could say one word on the energy initiatives, one is, over the next 5 years we can show absolutely that we are going to save $1.5 

billion by—— 

Mr. CONAWAY. Yes, okay. I got you. But if we’ve got the accounting sytems in place that allows us to rely on those numbers, I 

would appreciate it. In the closing comments, I agree with you figuring out what Ft. Hood costs or a 50- or 60-year-old aircraft carrier. Don’t let that be the reason why we don’t audit and put in 

place the things you use every day to run your business. 

And we are—I would be glad that I will be working with GASB 

to try to figure out a different standard for the only customer, the 

Federal government. I mean, the fixed asset side is important, but 

just don’t let that be the enemy of what we need to get that done. 

And so I appreciate that. 

I yield back. Thanks for your comments. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

We will now take a 5-minute recess and reconvene at 1 minute 

to 12:00. 

[Recess.] 

The CHAIRMAN. The meeting will come to order. 

Mr. Cooper. 

Mr. COOPER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
34 

First, I want to thank the Navy for allowing me to have a Navy 

fellow this year. John Krisciunas does an excellent job, but he 

should not be blamed for whatever inadequacies are in the following questions. 

Three hundred and thirteen ships is a crude measure of capability. Is there a better way to help explain to the public platforms 

and missions so that they can know that our Navy is strong enough 

to do the job? 

Admiral. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Well, I think you are right onto it, sir, because too often we do look at the number. And as was mentioned 

by one of your colleagues earlier, we could drive to that number 

rather quickly, but it would be rather ineffective force. 

I think it is important that we continue to have a dialogue with 

the American people about the types of capabilities that we need, 

but I think it also is on full display every day. 

The four aircraft carriers that we have deployed now are there, 

flexible, and ready to respond particularly as we see events sweeping through the Middle East. In the Western Pacific and in the 

Arabian Gulf and in the Mediterranean are surface combatants 

who are providing ballistic missile defense capability. 

Our submarines are forward-providing intelligence, surveillance, 

and reconnaissance. And so the real key is designing the type of 

force and the balance in the force that allows us to go forward as 

a nation to protect our interest to support and operate with our 

friends, allies, and partners. And that discussion is something that 

I really believe is necessary if we want to have a valid discussion 

about the Navy the nation needs. 

Mr. COOPER. Secretary Mabus, when will the new force structure 

assessment be ready do you think? 

Secretary MABUS. It would be ready very soon, and we will certainly get it to you. But to the CNO’s point, to your point, new force 

structure assessment was built on capability needs and mission 

needs and not to reach a certain arbitrary number. We wanted to 

look at the mix of ships, the type of capabilities and the missions 

that we have been asked to do in order to come up with that force 

structure. 

Mr. COOPER. It is about a lot more than hulls in the water. 

Tell me, the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] may have outdated numbers, but they were estimating the Navy’s needs to be 

about $19 billion a year in funding. And it is my understanding 

you are going to have to make do with something more like $15 billion a year. Is that doable? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, if you look at our 5-year shipbuilding 

plan and then on out to 10 and then 30 years, one of the things 

we try to be very realistic about was how much money we could 

expect, and the average is $15 billion a year. For our shipbuilding 

needs, we think that that falls within the historic average. And it 

will give us the ships we need if we manage that money correctly 

and if we bring those ships in at the budget that they need to be 

brought in at. 

Mr. COOPER. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 
35 

And I appreciate that question about the 313 versus the platforms performing the missions. However, it was pointed out I believe in the QDR that at some point numbers do count, too. So, it 

has to be a combination of both. 

Mr. Coffman. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Admiral 

Roughead, Secretary Mabus, and General Amos. Thank you all for 

your service, long service to our country, distinguished service. 

Secretary Mabus, I just want to clarify this. Under Secretary of 

Defense Carter’s memo of February 16th, 2011, directs you within 

60 days to provide a plan for the cancellation of the Expeditionary 

Fighting Vehicle including termination cost for the program and a 

plan to harvest technology from the program for future efforts. 

How do you plan on maximizing the return on taxpayer dollars 

already invested in the EFV program in terms of technology harvested and lessons learned? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, as you pointed out, Congressman, the directive tells us to harvest as much of those technologies as is possible. We would much prefer to use the monies remaining in the 

current contract to harvest that technology instead of paying termination fees. 

And so the plan that we are coming up with to the very maximum extent possible gets those technologies so that we can use 

those and use the lessons learned as we develop the next amphibious assault vehicle, as General Amos has talked about earlier 

today. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Well, Mr. Secretary, let me ask you a follow-up. 

How long do you anticipate it will be before you have a new amphibious tractor, a new EFV or add initial operating capability? 

Secretary MABUS. I absolutely agree with my Commandant. I 

want to add one thing here. We can build a new tracked amphibious assault vehicle in a reasonable amount of time. 

The EFV, had it been continued, would not have reached full operating capability until the mid 2020s. And we were going to have 

to do how to take mitigating steps in terms of upgrading our AAVs 

[Amphibious Assault Vehicles], slipping our AAVs, things like that, 

regardless of what amphibious assault vehicles that we were doing. 

And I think we ought to be able to build these things a lot 

quicker than we have historically. And as I said, I absolutely trust 

my Commandant in his estimate. 

Mr. COFFMAN. General Amos, do you have any response? 

General AMOS. Sir, I think the benefit of—I mean, it is regretful 

that we spent $3.2 billion over the last 21⁄2 decades, and that pains 

me. I won’t belabor why I came to a decision that I want to recommend my Secretary. I won’t do that here. 

But here is the good news out of this thing. We will take a lot 

of that technology, a lot of the capabilities that have been developed for the EFV to include the remainder of this year. 

And I have every expectation that we will be able to translate 

some, if not the large percentage of that, over to the amphibious 

combat vehicle. So it will not all be lost to include the remainder 

of the money, sir, for this year, sir. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thanks, General Amos. 
36 

Admiral Roughead, one of the Navy’s core requirements is amphibious power projection. In a recent Navy Times article, you 

spoke about increasing the manning levels of our Navy’s amphibious fleet to ensure these vessels are properly staffed to carry out 

their vital missions. 

Given the personnel challenges, the problematic first deployment 

of the LPD–17 USS San Antonio and projection of 30 operational 

amphibious ships in fiscal year 2012, what other steps are you taking in terms of shipbuilding, operational readiness assessments, 

and service life extension to ensure that the nation retains its ability to project power with our amphibious fleet? How effective have 

efforts been to extend the service life of the USS Nassau and USS 

Peleliu? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Well, thank you, sir. 

A range of things we have underway talk about manning. We 

leaned out some of these headquarters so I could put more sailors 

on ships so that the ships can be properly maintained. Sailors have 

the time now to go off to school to be trained in the skills they are 

going to need. 

We have moved maintenance back onto the waterfront. Again, 

that is also very helpful. We put in place a structured, engineered 

life cycle plan to get the ships to the end of their service life. 

The other thing that we have done and what we have been forced 

into by this continuing resolution is some of those ships are getting 

ready to go into a midlife upgrade. And in order to make sure that 

I can get to that, those are some of the other—I am canceling other 

availabilities to try to hang on to that midlife. Because if we don’t 

get to midlife, then we have a real issue. So, that is one aspect of 

it. So, there is a whole collection of activities that we have in place 

to make sure that our ships get to the end of their service life. 

With regard to Nassau and Peleliu, I believe that we do have 

enough life to get them to where we now have them going out. But 

in any efforts to keep those ships for additional time, we will run 

into maintenance issues and then also the manpower piece because 

those sailors are destined to go on to the new force structure. So 

we have to keep that in mind as well. 

I do believe that we are through the woods on the LPD–17 quality issues. We have worked that very hard. And I am pleased with 

how those ships are now starting to perform. But it is also a lesson 

to be learned that you don’t take ships before they are finished and 

that you really make sure that you are leaning on the quality early 

on in the construction process. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you, Admiral Roughead. 

Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. Courtney. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you to the witnesses for your outstanding testimony 

today. 

This past weekend, there was kind of a lot of news reports about 

the speech that was given by one of the senior senators in New 

England area who talked about communities have to be ready, 

‘‘when the 2015 base realignment and closure process begins.’’ 
37 

You know, someone who is now in the middle of—I think this is 

our third hearing on the cost efficiencies over the next 5 years. Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, I mean, none of the witnesses have 

ever uttered the word BRAC [Defense Base Closure and Realignment]. And I am just wondering if you could speak to whether the 

Navy or the Pentagon is preparing for new BRAC, has requested 

one or plans to before the completion of the 2005 round. 

Secretary MABUS. No. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you. 

And again for folks maybe who are in the room here, I think it 

is important to, again, reiterate that Congress authorizes the 

BRAC process. 

Again, if you extrapolate from the 2005 BRAC round, the authorization occurred in 2002, so if we were really heading down that 

path, I mean, this really is the year that we would have to authorize it because it takes a while to get a commission up and running. 

And is that—I am just wondering if you could help sort of explain 

that process a bit. 

Secretary MABUS. Congressman, first, I know of no effort to plan 

for one in the Navy, or in larger DOD. You are right that it is a 

long process. It takes a long time. In fact, we are still dealing with 

a lot of the issues that previous BRAC round surfaced and we continue to work those. And it is a long process, it is a congressionally 

mandated process. And I don’t know of anything in the Navy or 

Marine Corps that we are looking at to process such as that. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you. 

I think that answer is going to be very helpful. And again, just 

the budget which came over from the administration actually has 

about another $300 million this year just to, again, continue to implement the last round. So, we are far from done with that last 

process. 

Admiral, the New York Times editorial page about 2 weeks ago 

had a piece about cost savings in the Pentagon. I think someone 

has got it stuck in their word processor a phrase that says that the 

Virginia-class program is a Cold War relic because that is how they 

referred to it in that piece. 

And you talked earlier about the proliferation of submarines 

around the world, and I am just wondering if you could just address, again, the question of whether or not this really fits within 

the strategic needs of our country, the Virginia-class program. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Absolutely, Mr. Courtney. 

The Virginia-class submarine is not looking back, it looks forward. And it is the best submarine in the world today. Its capabilities are absolutely extraordinary. It is a submarine that is here. It 

is not something that we are thinking about. 

We already have three of them homeported in Hawaii, out in the 

Pacific. And we have deployed the submarine. We are very pleased 

with the results. And it is, as I have said on many occasions, the 

best anti-submarine weapon that we have in our inventory and it 

is going to be relevant for a long time. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you. And I want to find that guy who 

writes those things because it just—and sit down with them because—and thank you for your answer. 
38 

You know, lastly, there has been some discussion about the second engine battle. I think this Committee could tell it looks like 

that beer commercial where one side yells ‘‘tastes great’’ and the 

other side says ‘‘less filling’’ in terms of the debate that is there. 

But, you know, Admiral Roughead, you spoke very eloquently 

about the fact that you can’t just look at the production cost, you 

also have to look at the life cycle cost in terms of, you know, having 

systems to repair and maintain two separate engine systems. And 

I was wondering if you could maybe reiterate that point again because I think it really is a very powerful argument about why we 

have to make a choice here. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir, I agree. I mean, if you introduce, 

in my opinion, the second engine you are talking about, dual logistics, dual training, dual maintenance, and that all comes into play. 

The other thing for the Navy that is important and why we have 

long advocated the single engine is that when we go to sea in our 

aircraft carriers and our amphibious ships, we are rather space 

constrained. 

And so, for the Navy, one variant where we have one training 

track for people, one logistic system and one maintenance system 

is the way that we must be because we can’t afford to have the redundancy in the space that would drive. So, we have long advocated for the single engine. And for the Navy, I think that that is 

really the most effective cost approach that we can have. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

And we have not had any discussions on the BRAC on our side 

or Mr. Smith and I have not discussed it and we are not contemplating it. So if that helps too. 

Mr. Rigell. 

Mr. RIGELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And Secretary Mabus, CNO Roughead, and Commandant Amos, 

from one American to another thank you very much for your distinguished service. I appreciate what you are doing to protect our 

young men and women and give them the best equipment and 

leadership when we put them in harm’s way. 

And I would like to direct our attention today to our East Coast 

carriers home porting of those carriers, the threats that may come 

against those carriers and mitigating those risks. 

And can you tell us today are there times we have five in ports 

on the East Coast, or are times when there are fewer than five in 

port and as few as, say, two carriers in port at any one time? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes sir, the carrier numbers fluctuate depending on how many are deployed, how many may be out for local 

operations, so the number of carriers in port at any given time varies. 

Mr. RIGELL. And it can down to—we have had times then where 

we had as few as two and that even as few as one, correct, in port, 

and—? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I have been in Norfolk, I was assigned there 

for a long time, and I have seen the piers empty at times. 

Mr. RIGELL. That is correct, and so, there are times the ship’s log 

would indicate that there have been zero carriers in port and for 

some period of time. So we know that the Enterprise is being de-
39 

commissioned and the math is pretty simple. That is going to take 

us down to four. 

Is it reasonable to assume then that as the number of carriers 

decreases on the East Coast that the number of days that—total 

days that our carriers are in port would also decrease, correct? Do 

you follow me on that logic? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I am following you very well. Yes, sir. 

Mr. RIGELL. Okay. So as the target for the terrorists, the number 

of targets decrease, the threat also decreases against that particular asset, would you agree with that Admiral? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I think it is important to think not simply 

in terms of the ships alone but the infrastructure that is required 

to support them and to maintain them, to husband them. 

So even though if an aircraft carrier is at sea it still has to come 

back in to perhaps have nuclear maintenance performed on it and 

right now Norfolk, Virginia, or the Hampton Roads area, an area 

of about 15-mile radius is the only place on the East Coast where 

we can do that. 

Mr. RIGELL. Correct and that also is true, isn’t it of our SSBNs? 

We have—you know, the operations on the east at King’s Bay and 

also on the West Coast, just one, is that correct? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. That is not true when you get to the infrastructure, sir, because we have King’s Bay, we can bring a nuclear 

ballistic submarine into Hampton Roads to do maintenance there, 

either at Newport News or at the shipyard. And then if we have 

to, we could also take it up to New London to have work done at 

Electric Boat up there. 

So I have three sites on the East Coast where I can take care 

of our nuclear submarines. I have many sites on the East Coast 

where I can take care of our conventional ships. I currently have 

one place on the East Coast where I can maintain a nuclear aircraft carrier. 

Mr. RIGELL. Because I read your testimony which I appreciate 

you sharing with us that it indicated that one of the risks is I 

guess the weather or environmental things like that. Given that 

carriers by their nature are mobile, I frankly don’t place that much 

weight on that particular one, I am fully concerned about a terrorist attack. 

But given the fact that we are already in a decreasing risk environment just by the sense that we are decreasing from five to four 

on the East Coast and also in this context of extraordinary times 

that we are in from a fiscal standpoint that with my business background I can see—unfortunately it is only going to increase and in 

a rather dramatic way. 

The decisions that we make here, those who follow us 2, 4, 6, 8, 

10 years down the road I think are going to continue to be under 

enormous pressure. So it is disconcerting to me to see that Mayport 

still is a path that is being considered by the Navy for an East 

Coast home port for one of our nuclear aircraft carriers. 

Would you consider, if formally requested, an evaluation at this 

time which would recognize that our fiscal situation is very dynamic and would you reevaluate that decision just given the fact 

that there is enormous fiscal pressure on us? 
40 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I think the going in argument from me, 

from the very beginning of the strategic dispersal was the fact that 

having the flexibility and especially looking to the South. We are 

going to see changes in shipping patterns when the Panama Canal 

expands, so the southern regions, I think, will become more dynamic and not less. 

I believe as we look out into the future the approaches from the 

South Atlantic and particularly as Africa really becomes more central to international security affairs and resources. I think having 

the strategic dispersal, having the redundancy and being able to 

take care of these very capital ships that we have will be more and 

more important to us. 

Mr. RIGELL. Admiral, I would say this, in a perfect environment 

I would be fully supportive of more strategic dispersal. I do, as I 

look at our SSBNs and see we really, in many ways, have not dispersed those assets, it is difficult to process why we are so committed in this extraordinary fiscal environment of dispersing the 

carriers. 

I think once it gets there if there is one that is moved you are 

dealing with one carrier and then it goes to sea and all these assets—you know, all the infrastructure’s there are for nothing in effect. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I would say that infrastructure is available 

to give us the redundancy that we need in the carrier force but it 

is also maintenance capability that can be used on other ships of 

the Navy as well. 

Mr. RIGELL. Thank you for your time. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Ms. Pingree. 

Ms. PINGREE. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

And thank you to all of you for your perseverance today and your 

testimony, and your hard work on behalf of our nation. I appreciate 

it very much. 

Secretary Mabus, thank you for our recent phone call and your 

assistance and advice on the shipyard in my state, Bath Iron 

Works. But I want to talk to you today a little bit about the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard which is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

and Kittery, Maine. 

I am pleased that the shipyard has continued to be a bright beacon in this hard economic time both locally and for the Navy with 

a delivery of the Virginia-class submarines, it is clear that the yard 

has a solid workload for years to come. 

And I know, Secretary Mabus, that you visited the shipyard in 

2009, thank you for that, and you saw firsthand the extensive 

projects that are underway and the positive advancements in efficiency in technology that the yard is taking on. I am concerned 

though about the continued modernizations at the yard that are 

necessary to ensure efficient production. 

As you know the shipyard has received strong support from both 

state delegations for many years. The shipyard is an economic engine for the region which I know everyone says that about their 

local entity but even during this tough economic times the shipyard 

has been to keep hiring and that was due in large part because of 

the investments in efficiency that have been made over the years. 
41 

I welcome, along with everyone else, the important efforts to reduce spending, but all the upgrades at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard have been a direct result of congressional requests, or earmarks, as we used to call them. 

These upgrades not only have improved the work there but are 

also shared with other naval facilities for the betterment of the 

armed forces as a whole. While the possibility is there of including 

this funding in the Navy’s base budget, so it won’t be as reliant on 

member support, this was not addressed in the fiscal year 2012 

budget. 

Because of the current ban on placing such requests and the reduction of spending in the President’s budget, how do you plan to 

address such important efficiency needs that are directly related to 

ensuring our national security and readiness? 

Secretary MABUS. Congresswoman, first I want to agree with you 

wholeheartedly on the value of not only Portsmouth but our other 

public naval shipyards that we have. They perform an amazingly 

valuable service for the country and for the Navy. 

As we looked at the budget and add the maintenance requirements that we had, we tried to balance it out in terms of risk and 

in terms of absolute necessity for that maintenance. One thing that 

I would point out that was specific to shipyards was when the civilian hiring freeze was put into effect. 

Shipyards were exempt from that so that shipyards can continue 

to hire the skilled workers that they need to hire to meet these 

maintenance requirements. So I think we are addressing the needs 

in a fiscally constrained environment for not only Portsmouth but 

for the Navy. 

Ms. PINGREE. So I guess what I would say is we have developed 

a habit over what I think is 30 or 40 years of the shipyard, which 

is an old yard but does great work, requiring upgrades and efficiency but receiving all their support through the earmarking process. And while I understand we are in a transition here of how we 

do our budgeting, and we are in need of making tremendous cuts, 

and you had to be respectful of that in your budgeting process. 

I am concerned that the yard will not be able to do the high-quality work that the Navy depends on if the efficiency military construction doesn’t continue. 

So I know that is a hard thing for you to answer but, you know, 

just one more time I want to say that this is very important funding, it is not in the President’s budget, and it is not clear to me 

how we are going to continue that necessary work. 

Secretary MABUS. I do appreciate that and it is, as you pointed 

out a transition period between, from one source of funding to migrating to the Navy’s base budget. That and a lot of other things 

we will be taking close looks at because I know that the CNO 

maintenance and the maintaining of the fleet is among his very 

highest priorities as it is with mine. 

Ms. PINGREE. Great, well, I appreciate your answer, and I know 

you will continue to hear from my delegation and that in New 

Hampshire as well. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. Young. 

Mr. YOUNG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
42 

And thank you, Admiral, and Mr. Secretary and General for 

being with us today. I appreciate your service to our country and 

for your stamina here today. 

I want to follow up, Admiral Roughead, on your mentioning, in 

a general way, the Navy’s efforts to restructure how it deals with 

Cyber. And I would if you could specifically speak to the current 

status of the Tenth Fleet and its interface with other entities within DOD or within the Department of the Navy with respect to 

Cyber and whether those relationships are now clarified. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir, and I have been very pleased with 

how Tenth Fleet has come on. It has only been in existence now 

for a little over a year but the way that we aligned Tenth Fleet as 

a direct reporting component to U.S. Cyber Command and then the 

joint task forces under the Tenth Fleet, it has proven to be very 

responsive and very nimble and has given us a global view and a 

global response quite frankly that we did not have in the past. 

I think the command relationships are strong. I have empowered 

the Tenth Fleet commander budgetarily in ways that I have not 

done with other fleet commanders so they can move much more 

quickly. He can respond much more quickly. 

I believe that the dialog and the interaction, and the coordination 

that takes place among the service components is also going very 

well. So I think it is—I am very pleased with what I see. 

Mr. YOUNG. Thank you, Admiral. 

This line of conversation came up. I represent a district in southeastern Indiana and there is a large naval base, Crane, the naval 

service warfare center just outside the boundaries of our district. 

There is a great electronic warfare component to the services they 

offer there but they are also quite skilled in some different cyber 

areas. 

And we were discussing whether there are any training programs, First Doctrine, has that been developed in a joint way with 

respect to Cyber? And then training programs pursuant to that 

doctrine? And could you perhaps speak to that, and I am hopeful 

that Crane will find some role in assisting with that training too. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. And I think that the other thing 

that we have put a lot of emphasis on is the human dimension to 

this. We created the information dominance core, bringing together 

all the skills, about 45,000 people. And we in the Navy have the 

center for information dominance, essentially the school house for 

all of the services down in the Pensacola area for the Navy. 

The other thing that we have done and I think this is where it 

ties in to Crane, Indiana, is that the Space and Warfare Systems 

Command has now—it really couples in better to Tenth Fleet and 

Cyber and the N26 organization the director for information dominance on my staff in ways it has never been able to do before, and 

I think it has the potential to bring the centers, the labs, places 

like Crane into that environment where we can be much more effective and where we can train and where we can also use those 

assets more effectively. 

Mr. YOUNG. Thank you, Admiral. 

One final follow-up here. If our Navy and I have seen naval service and especially as a Marine myself, if our Navy and Marine 

Corps were to have a Pearl Harbor-level cyber attack, so to speak, 
43 

would we be able to reconstitute our capabilities in a short period 

of time or would—is there some methodology, some apparatus out 

there for us to continue operations, even after having absorbed 

such an attack? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I think that was one of the reasons why we 

have restructured ourselves, why we have created the Tenth Fleet 

was to be able to respond and be much more nimble and agile. 

I think it would be—you know, there is probably not one definition of a Pearl Harbor type Cyber attack. If it is regional clearly 

we have the redundancies globally to be able to respond to that. If 

it is at a particular system or network I believe that we have 

redundancies to be able to accommodate that. 

Would there be effects? Absolutely. But that is why we put in 

place the structures that we have, and as you know this is really 

an evolving area, but I believe that how we posture ourselves organizationally and with our talent today and the young sailors that 

do this. They are absolutely eye-watering. I believe we are well positioned to go into the future. 

Mr. YOUNG. Thanks so much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mrs. Davis. 

Mrs. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you to all of you for your service and for being here, 

and on a personal level for always being available for questions. It 

has been a really strong relationship, and I really am grateful for 

that. 

I am not sure whether anyone has asked about this question but 

I wanted to be sure I had a chance to check in with you on it. I 

know that the Navy, like so many other services, has had a challenge really of filling the number of medical personnel that it 

deems necessary. 

And I want to know what the current assessments are now for 

the Navy reserve and active duty component. How do you plan to 

meet a 100 percent of the need that you have by the end of the 

year? 

Secretary MABUS. In terms of doctors and nurses we are—we 

think we will meet the 100 percent requirement, where we are continuing to have some issues with psychological health professionals. 

And we are trying to cast as broad a net as possible, we are also 

doing incentives to come in to naval service for people like that and 

also incentives for remaining on active duty. But as you pointed 

out, the medical corps whether doctors, nurses, or on the battlefield, corpsmen constitutes one of the strongest links that we have 

to have to take care of our sailors and our Marines, and it is something that the CNO, the Commandant and I focus on in a very 

strong way on an enduring basis. 

And one of the great strands in that link is Balboa and the work 

that they are doing with our wounded warriors on things like amputations and bringing our wounded warriors back into either the 

service or the civilian community whole and ready to move forward 

with their lives. 

Mrs. DAVIS. It is an extraordinary job that is being done for those 

who have been severely wounded. I would certainly agree with 

that. 
44 

Our numbers would indicate that the reserve is coming close to 

the 100 percent but that the Navy really is still falling quite a bit 

below that, somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 percent. Are we 

just off in seeing that? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I think we are challenged a bit on the reserve side because as you know many of the reserve is filled with 

people leaving active duty. We don’t have as many people leaving 

active duty as we used so there are some challenges associated 

there. 

But we really have stepped up the efforts in the active side. As 

the Secretary mentioned in the mental health area we are—right 

now we are about 139 short out of around 830 or so professionals, 

but I would submit that that is a national issue that we are dealing with as well in the area of mental health. That there is a greater demand than there is a supply for that, but we continue to work 

this very hard, and we will stay in very close touch with you and 

with your subcommittee on this. 

Mrs. DAVIS. Can I turn to the issue of tuition quickly because 

perhaps you haven’t had a chance to talk about that. I understand 

that the Navy has begun to track the tuition assistance programs 

to gain a better understanding of how sailors are actually using 

this money. 

And you have distinguished between the profit and the not-forprofit schools. Could you go into a little bit of detail regarding how 

these degrees are being used and if there is a difference between 

the degrees obtained from these institutions? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Ma’am, I will take the question on the differences in how we are using the degrees between profit and nonprofit. And I would like to take that for the record if I could, but 

we have given our tuition assistance programs a very hard look as 

we look across all of the programs that are available to our sailors, 

whether it is the GI Bill and the Transferability Tuition Assistance 

and then MyCAA [Military Spouse Career Advancement Account 

Program] is another program to see how they all fit together. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 155.] 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. We did put in place some guidelines, some 

new guidelines on the tuition assistance. We want it to lead to 

something so we have wanted sailors to have a plan. We also put 

some restrictions on the first year of service because as a sailor 

comes in and checks into a command they may take on some educational obligations that then become a little difficult to deliver on 

because of the pressures of their jobs. 

So we have put some more structure and some more guidelines 

in place. 

Mrs. DAVIS. May I ask very quickly. General Amos, has the Marine Corps stopped giving tuition assistance and relying only on the 

GI plan now, understanding that the constraints that you are 

under, but is that—am I representing that correctly? 

General AMOS. Ma’am, I am going to have to come back to you 

on that for the record as well. What I know today is there has been 

no change in the way that we have done business over the last 5 

or 6 years but let me double-check, and I will get you an absolutely 

drop-dead accurate answer. 
45 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 156.] 

Mrs. DAVIS. Okay. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. Hunter. 

Mr. HUNTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And Admiral, General, and Mr. Secretary, I have a question that 

stems kind of from what is going on when it comes to Libya, when 

it comes to Bahrain, when it comes to Egypt, when it comes to all 

these places that we are in, and we are not completely thrilled with 

their form of government but we know that we have to be there 

anyway, and we are going to stay there as long as we have to, I 

guess you would say. But we would like to operate from a, you 

could say, a floating platform that Admiral Roughead mentioned it 

earlier. 

We have airfields on aircraft carriers obviously that operate anywhere we want them to operate. And I think there is going to be 

a point in time that I can see in the next decade or so where we 

have to leave some of these places where we have been operating 

simply because we cannot support their type of government, whether it is a semi-tyrannical rule or a total dictatorship but they let 

us use their air. 

So my questioning goes to shipbuilding, and I have been reading 

this, General Amos, the posture of the United States Marine Corps, 

it is a motivating document and a lot of talking there is about projecting force. So when it comes to the number of amphibs [Amphibious Assault Ships] your number is 33, that is the minimum. I believe you have 31 and you would like 38. 

So as we are moving forward to this time or we might be having 

to pull off of our land basis that we have established at various 

places throughout the world which in my mind makes amphibs 

that much more important. Why are we operating at the bare minimum? That just doesn’t seem to square with me, Mr. Secretary, 

maybe, or General or everybody, if you don’t mind answering that. 

Thank you. 

Secretary MABUS. Congressman, thank you, and I will give an 

overview and then ask General Amos to talk to it as well. 

Several years ago the Commandant and the CNO sat down and 

looked at amphibious requirements and in an unconstrained environment 38 is the number, 33 can get the job done that the Marines need to get done in terms of getting two brigades across a 

beach in a contested environment. 

We are building toward that 33. We are also building toward a 

little different mix of the 33, 11 big deck amphibs, LHAs [Amphibious Assault Ships] or LHRs [Amphibious Assault Ship Replacements], 11 of the LPDs [Amphibious Transport Docks], 11 of the 

LSDs [Dock Landing Ships] which will give us more flexibility in 

terms of how we set up amphibious ready groups and how we deploy a Marine expeditionary unit as you know so well from your 

previous service. 

So I think that we have the number right, and what we have got 

to do is make sure that we get to those 33 and that we get to the 

right mix. I would like to say that in fiscal year 2016, the next 
46 

LHA that we are going to build, we are going back to putting a 

well deck in it to give the Marines more flexibility in how they 

move on and off those ships. 

Mr. HUNTER. If I could be more pointed in my question, these requirements were written in 2009. These requirements were written 

before what has happened this year—happened obviously and we 

can all say that in December the world will look a lot different than 

it looked in January. I think we can all agree on that. 

And that a lot of these places where there is civil unrest and that 

we might have to take action or not, or that we decide it is not 

worth propping up a regime simply to be there militarily, your requirement of 38 was done then. 

So are we—I don’t know, I am still not squaring it away, when 

you say 38 is a good number and we are working towards it, that 

was 2 years ago or a year-and-a-half ago, it could be 45 right now, 

and we could not have enough amphibs if we had to operate in two 

different theaters and do something because I know for a fact the 

operational number of amphibs that the Commandant is able to deploy at any given time is much less than that 33 number or the 

31 number because of the rotation cycle and the maintenance cycle. 

So his numbers are extremely low in what he could actually deploy in any given time. The numbers you are working on, sir, are 

old. Those are old numbers that don’t take into account, I don’t 

think what has happened just this year. 

Could you respond to that please? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, number one the way that the 33 number 

was arrived was in terms of operational, what is operational at any 

given time given the maintenance requirements and the other 

things that you talked about. 

Number two though is coming up with this number. It was not 

coming up with a number in a static environment. It was under the 

terms of the last QDR in 2010 presented in early—presented in 

early 2010 for the 2009 QDR. It was not only two major combat operations at any given point but also other—the force was tested 

against three different scenarios which included two major combat 

operations at the same time, but also other things that were unforeseen, that you could have a situation occur in a specific area 

of the world, in addition to the major combat operation which I believe is what you are getting at. 

And this force of 33 amphibs was tested against that, and we believe will meet those requirements. 

Mr. HUNTER. Thank you, gentlemen, for your service, dedication 

and unwavering duty. We really appreciate it and so does the nation. We are all lucky to have you. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. And just for the record, we were talking about 

33, like we have 33. My numbers are that we currently have or will 

have by 2012, 30. We won’t have 33 if everything goes right until 

2017. 

Secretary MABUS. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Hanabusa. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, gentlemen, for being here. 
47 

First of all I would like to thank Admiral Roughead, who I remember from Hawaii in your years there. And my first question is, 

is to the Admiral. 

Admiral, you made an interesting comment in your testimony 

and it has to do with building tomorrow’s Navy. I am curious. 

Other than the hardware, the 313 that we want to get to, and you 

did mention the whole concept of the cyber terrorism and battles 

with that. Do you have a view of what tomorrow’s Navy is going 

to look like? You have been Chief of Navy now for 4 years. 

What is your view of tomorrow’s Navy that you want to build? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Thank you for the question. And I would say 

that tomorrow’s Navy still has to have the flexibility, the agility, 

and the ability to respond very quickly, the ability to operate far 

from the homeland in areas that are of great interest to us. 

But I do believe that it also requires us to move into this cyber 

world, which is something that we are all coming to grips with, to 

be able to operate systems, particularly unmanned systems, not 

just in the air, which is what most tend to think of when we talk 

about unmanned systems. But I think there is a huge potential for 

unmanned underwater systems. And I think how those net together will be a shape of the force into the future. 

I also look at the proliferation that is taking place and what are 

the systems that we will need there. There is no question in my 

mind that ballistic missiles will continue to proliferate, will continue to become more sophisticated and will threaten at longer 

ranges, which is why we in the Navy made the move to really 

make ballistic missile a core mission. 

And the reason I mentioned that is because something that is in 

Hawaii that is absolutely key to that is the Pacific Missile Range 

Facility at Barking Sands. There is no other place on the planet 

where that type of work is done, where the developments of this 

future capability will have to continue to evolve. 

So, you know, those are some of the things. And at the bottom 

of it all will be the young men and women that operate this very 

sophisticated force, because even when we talk about unmanned, 

it still requires a human being to direct it to make critical decisions 

and to operate it. And so, looking and attracting those young men 

and women who want to be part of this future Navy is something 

that is probably the most important thing that we will all be doing. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. And thank you, Admiral. And I think one of the 

understated facts that it takes someone to come here to know is 

really the ability of the Navy to have stepped up in Afghanistan 

and Iraq. And I know that a lot of the—what we call—OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] is attributed to all of you, and I 

think that we owe you a great deal of gratitude for that. 

I also would like to know from the Secretary, one of the things 

that I have been intrigued by when we talk about the nuclear capabilities and the Ohio class and going from 14 to 12 and 22 capabilities. How is that really—for lack of a better description, how do you 

get that and the President’s view of a nuclear-free weapon type of 

situation? How do we get those two things to work together? It just 

seems like we are talking about nuclear weapons and we are talking—and our President is saying we are going to work towards 

non-nuclear weapons. 
48 

So how do you do that? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, for the current time being, we have a 

triad of deterrence, and our Ohio-class submarines provide one leg 

of that deterrence, and I think that it is a critical national mission 

today. 

We hope to work toward a reduction in that. But until that day 

comes, I think, it is incumbent on us to not only have that capability, but for it to be credible, for it to be up-to-date, and for it to 

be very survivable. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. One tube, what is that capable of doing? It just 

seems like 24 to 20. They may not mean that much of a difference. 

I mean, you are talking about nuclear weapons, aren’t you? 

Secretary MABUS. Yes, you are. But you are also talking about, 

in terms of, what the mission is and what the targets would be 

under consideration. And in terms of coming up with the number 

of tubes, we have looked particularly with the uniform service of 

what the requirements are, what the mission is for this submarine. 

And we feel confident that the number of tubes that we are laying 

in for the Ohio-class replacement will meet all the missions that 

we have. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mrs. HANABUSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Jones. 

Mr. JONES. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. 

Mr. Secretary, I see you sitting there beside Admiral Roughead 

and General Amos. What is your title? 

Secretary MABUS. Secretary of the Navy, sir. 

Mr. JONES. Secretary of the Navy. Okay. 

In 1947, the National Security Act stated that we have four 

equal services and, in fact, it says the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, 

and Air Force as the four services given statutory missions. So I 

would assume in my mind that means they are equal. 

You, many times—in the 16, 17 years I have been here, I have 

heard many times that we are—the Navy and Marine Corps are 

one fighting team. Would you agree with that statement—one 

fighting team? 

Secretary MABUS. Yes, sir, one fighting team and one family. 

Mr. JONES. Right, one family. Well, I am pleased to hear that because I, again—and I won’t fight the Chairman and the previous 

Chairman who have been very supportive going back to—I believe 

in—that the family should carry one name and that name would 

obviously be Navy and Marine Corps. 

I have another issue, and I would like to bring this up, but our 

time goes so quickly. But I can assure you that when—I hope you 

have been to see the Navy football team play since you have been 

Secretary of the Navy. 

Secretary MABUS. I have. So far, they haven’t lost when I have 

gone either. 

Mr. JONES. Well, I am sure the Navy and Marine Corps loves to 

hear that, and I mean that sincerely. 

Well, a few years ago, we were here on the weekend and the 

Navy was playing Notre Dame. And so for the first time, sitting in 

my office, I happen to observe that on one sleeve, it has the Navy 
49 

anchor. On the other sleeve, it has the Marine emblem of the globe 

and anchor. I guess, you have noticed that on the jerseys. 

Secretary MABUS. Yes, sir. 

Mr. JONES. Okay. Well, again, we will fight this. We had 423 cosponsors in the House last year, Pat Roberts had 80 senators and 

I made the statement, ‘‘You couldn’t get 80 senators last year to 

agree there is a Santa Claus.’’ 

So we are going to take the same fight up this year. We believe 

that it is the right thing to do to share that the families are fully 

and clearly recognized as four separate fighting teams. And even 

though the Navy and Marine Corps are a family and we appreciate 

that, they should have—the coach of the team or the leader of the 

team should carry the name of both. 

It is a tragedy when a Marine dies in this country. And I have 

a copy of a letter that when a Marine dies, he receives a letter from 

the Secretary of the Navy, Washington D.C., with the Navy flag, 

nothing in the condolence letter about the Marine Corps—nothing. 

Yes, it does have in the first paragraph where it has the name 

of the Marine who was killed, that he was a Marine, but in the 

heading, the family’s name in the heading does nothing about Marine Corps. So thank you for your precise answers. I appreciate 

that very much. 

I want to go back to a point now. I have received letters from 

you, Mr. Secretary, and the new Commandant and previous Commandants about my concern about clearing the name of two pilots 

who were killed in Arizona. Nineteen Marines were killed when 

they were asked to do something they never should have been 

asked to do because the plane was not ready. 

In the 1 minute I have left, I have a copy of the guidelines for 

the British Royal Air Force. If there is a plane crash, these are the 

guidelines that they try to follow. And I don’t have the time, and 

you wouldn’t have time enough to answer—to ask you but one 

question. I want to go to the part that deals with guide to the consideration of human failings. We call them human factors. They 

say human failings. 

This is the question. I would like to know if you agree with this 

or not. I realize these are the British regulations and not yours or 

not ours. Maybe I should say it that way. ‘‘Only in cases where 

there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever should deceased aircrew be 

found negligent.’’ Do you agree with that? 

Secretary MABUS. Well, what I would agree with, Congressman, 

is that we should follow very carefully our regulations in terms of 

when we investigate an accident and the reports that come out of 

that. 

Mr. JONES. Mr. Secretary, that is fine. But I would tell you that 

your rules and regulations, when dead men cannot speak for themselves and dead men were put in a plane that should not have been 

doing the procedure it was, then we need to follow what the British 

say, and I will repeat it again, ‘‘Only in cases where there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever should deceased aircrew be found negligent.’’ 

Thank you for your answer. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. Larsen. 
50 

Mr. LARSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Admiral Roughead, I think I am expecting a letter from you by 

Friday regarding the P–8 and so I—well, that is all I will say about 

it. You can thank me later. But with regards to Aegis and looking 

at some other issues on one of the other subcommittees I have— 

Strategic Forces, and of course as well as on the Seapower, can you 

discuss the Sea-based Missile Defense requirements for our surface 

combatants. I know they are still in review. 

Has there been progress in determining what the requirements 

are for the Navy to meet the requirements of the Phased, Adaptive 

Approach and what kind of timeline are we seeing—what investment do we see in this budget and what kind of timeline do we see 

to meet those requirements? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, sir. Thank you. 

We are moving forward on Phased, Adaptive Approach. And, in 

fact, the first ship and the first phase will be sailing this month 

to be part of the Phased, Adaptive Approach in Europe. We also 

have been maintaining another ship in the Mediterranean with 

ballistic missile defense capability. 

I do believe that we have been able to settle on the number of 

ships that are required. And that is what really drives the request 

in this budget to ramp up the number of ships and then the number of interceptors. 

Those ships are still going to be very busy, there is no question 

about that, through this 5-year plan that we have in place. But we 

have closed in and your support to get us to have the 41 BMD [Ballistic Missile Defense]-capable ships by the end of this FYDP [Future Years Defense Plan] is going to be very key to minimizing the 

stress on that BMD force. 

Mr. LARSEN. Just a question on that. Is the Navy’s plan to make 

these primarily BMD ships first or are these going to be on-call for 

that? That is—obviously, they can do everything a destroyer can 

do, but are we going to ask them to be BMD first? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. They will receive more extensive training in 

BMD. They will be heavily focused on BMD. We will make sure 

that they are exercised routinely in BMD. So that will be an overriding case. 

But as you mentioned, these are multi-mission ships. They can 

do much more than that and, in fact, in this past week, the USS 

Stout which is the BMD ship in the Mediterranean is the ship that 

escorted the ferry that was carrying the Americans from Libya to 

Malta. 

So we can’t simply say they are BMD. We expect them to do 

more. They will do more. But they are going to be the BMD horses 

of the Navy. 

Mr. LARSEN. Great. With regards to the Next Generation 

Jammer, do we have a timing on the fielding of that? I know the 

budget just starts putting money into it, but what is the timing on 

fielding to replace—do you have anything on that? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I will get back to you on the exact timeline 

on that. But clearly, by the end of the decade, it is where we want 

to be with that—capabilities. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 156.] 
51 

Mr. LARSEN. And that will be able to ship to the 35, sorry to the 

18G. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Absolutely. Yes, sir. 

Mr. LARSEN. Yes. Yes. 

And, Commandant, is the Marine Corps anticipating that the 

35B will have electronic attack capability or is that going to be— 

I am not quite sure. Is that going to be all in the Navy now or as 

you move away from your EA–6Bs? 

General AMOS. Congressman, we transitioned from the Prowlers 

to the F–35B. We will have a significant electronic warfare, electronic attack capability in that airplane resident just the way it is 

coming off the line. So it is pretty significant. 

There is every expectation that they will take the Next Generation Jamming Pod that is being developed—or is developed now for 

the F–18G and more than likely—you know, or translate that to 

the F–35B. So it will be an electronic attack-capable airplane. 

Mr. LARSEN. Okay. Okay. That is great. We have been tracking 

that—has been tracking that—this progress for a while. 

Secretary Mabus, see you don’t get off too easy, again, we are 

going to be discussing these issues of satellites and probably in 

Strategic Forces. But the Mobile User Objective System programs 

experienced significant challenges, have increased costs and schedule delays, and don’t feel special. You can apply that to a lot of our 

satellite programs, something we have all been watching and trying to get on top of. 

But it now appears to be on track for the first launch in 2011 

this year. Do you have concerns about any capability gaps or have 

we looked at alternatives to fill those gaps until this is up, as well 

as any gaps once the first one is up until we get further buses 

launched? 

Secretary MABUS. You are correct on all of these things. And the 

thing we are looking at to fill any capability gaps is commercial 

service on a commercial satellite to make sure that we don’t have 

the gaps because this is such a critical component of everything 

that we do. 

Mr. LARSEN. That is right. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Secretary, Admiral, and General, thank you very 

much for your time here today and for your responsiveness. I am 

sure we will continue to work together as we go through the budget 

process. 

This hearing is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:00 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

A P P E N D I X 

MARCH 1, 2011 

PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

MARCH 1, 2011 

(57) 
58 
59 
60 
61 
62 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 
71 
72 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 
83 
84 
85 
86 
87 
88 
89 
90 
91 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 
97 
98 
99 
100 
101 
102 
103 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 
109 
110 
111 
112 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 
118 
119 
120 
121 
122 
123 
124 
125 
126 
127 
128 
129 
130 
131 
132 
133 
134 
135 
136 
137 
138 
139 
140 
141 
142 
143 
144 
145 
146 
147 
148 
149 
150 
151 
152 
WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING 

THE HEARING 

MARCH 1, 2011 

(155) 

RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. SMITH ON BEHALF OF 

MS. GIFFORDS 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. To avoid duplication of efforts, Navy 

is collaborating with the other Services to develop and implement the use of energy 

efficient and alternative energy technologies. Specifically, Navy is fostering 

synergies in the following areas: 

Fuels: Navy is an active participant in, and former chair of, the Tri-Service Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants Users Group. This Group brings together technical fuels 

experts from the research, test & evaluation, and logistics communities to address 

operational issues at the service user level. Navy and the other services are also involved in the Interagency Working Group (IAWG), an information-sharing organization chaired by the Defense Logistics Agency and the Department of Energy that 

deals with alternative energy issues, including biofuels. 

Aviation: As a member of the Joint Propulsion Coordinating Committee, Navy coordinates with propulsion leadership and technical experts from the three Services 

to address propulsion technology issues. In addition, Navy is working with representatives from Army, Air Force, NASA, and private industry to advance the Variable Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine Initiative, which focuses on the development of aircraft propulsion and related systems technology. 

Maritime: Military Sealift Command (which provides services to Navy, U.S. 

Transportation Command, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Missile Defense Agency, 

and other U.S. Government Agencies) and Naval Sea Systems Command are collaborating on a number of initiatives such as Hybrid Electric Drive, shore power metering, HVAC system efficiency modifications, ship energy surveys, and development 

of energy dashboards to provide users with real time ship energy consumption information. These two organizations are also working together to develop an energy 

portfolio manager position to prioritize and track the progress of existing and future 

energy initiatives. 

Expeditionary: Navy and Army have joined forces to test an innovative hybrid hydraulic energy recovery system for use in military heavy construction equipment. 

Once operational, this system should result in significant energy savings for amphibious and expeditionary forces around the world. In addition, Navy anticipates 

a partnership with Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) to test a hybrid bulldozer in the near future. [See page 15.] 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps is supported by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC ) and energy efficiency efforts across the Department of 

Navy are implemented in both Military Construction, where U.S. Green Building 

Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver is a standard for new construction, and renovations and repairs. In addition, NAVFAC carries 

out a ‘‘technical Evaluation’’ program that evaluates promising technologies for larger scale use across the Services. Additionally, the Geothermal Program Office assists 

in geothermal resource exploration with both technical and geological expertise in 

the search for commercially viable geothermal resources on Marine Corps installations. 

The Marine Corps participates in Working Group efforts hosted by the Office of 

the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations and Environment) 

(DUSD(I&E)). These groups ensure that ideas are shared across the Services. 

DUSD(I&E) also develops policies that apply to all Services. The annual GovEnergy 

Conference enables the Services to share information with other Federal Agencies. 

Under this OSD oversight, the Marine Corps executes projects using funds from the 

DoD Energy Conservation Investment Program (ECIP). The ECIP program also 

funds demonstrations of ‘‘pre-commercial’’ facility energy technologies for demonstration through the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program 

(ESTCP). The Marine Corps is currently participating in a ‘‘Smart Grid’’ demonstration with General Electric that will result in valuable information on smart grid implementation as well as some of the practical aspects of implementing grid monitoring and control for energy conservation, reliability and support to critical infrastructure. [See page 15.] 
156 

RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MRS. DAVIS 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Our Sailors use their education benefits for professional and 

personal development. The Navy has partnered with accredited public, non-profit 

and for-profit colleges to offer rating-related associate’s and bachelor’s degrees for 

all of our enlisted ratings. This approach enables our Sailors to improve knowledge 

and skills relevant to their profession, while providing them a valuable degree for 

transition to civilian life. For example, one of our newest partners, Bismarck State 

College in North Dakota, provides an on-line associate’s degree in Energy Management for our Gas Turbine System (GS) rating. We award advancement points to our 

junior enlisted Sailors for satisfactory completion of an accredited associate’s or 

bachelor’s degree. Degree completion may be considered during advancement selection board deliberations for senior enlisted Sailors. Our Enlisted Sailors may also 

use their degrees to apply for officer commissioning programs. 

We do not currently differentiate among the degrees obtained from different 

schools provided the institutions are accredited by the Department of Education. We 

are working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to establish a process 

to conduct third-party quality assessments of all schools that receive Tuition Assistance funding. This will help us identify schools, regardless of the type, that may not 

be providing a quality education for our Sailors. We have also supported OSD in 

establishing a formal complaint tracking process that will help us identify problem 

schools and take corrective action. [See page 44.] 

General AMOS. We continue to provide tuition assistance to our Marines. For 

FY10, the Marine Corps paid $51M in tuition assistance. FYTD11 (though 1 March 

2011), we have paid $27M from an annual budget of $48M. 

We do not plan to eliminate the program. The Tuition Assistance Program budget 

for FY12 has been reduced to $29.9M due to budget cuts and to better align with 

the Post 9/11 education benefit. [See page 44.] 

RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. LANGEVIN 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. Vulnerabilities to the Navy’s infrastructure and facilities are reviewed through threat assessment analyses and incorporated into our force protections plans. Similarly, we conduct cyber vulnerability 

assessments to protect the Navy’s utility distribution systems (electricity, steam, 

natural gas, fuel, water) and facility control systems (heating, ventilating, air conditioning). 

These assessments have led the Navy to identify the need for deployment of an 

Industrial Control System (ICS) sensors on a secure framework, to provide monitoring and prevent unauthorized access. The architecture of the secure framework 

is a closed network that carries all alarms, sensors, controlled access points, intrusion prevention/detection systems and security against malware and viruses. Secure 

ICS integration is currently being piloted and will inform enterprise-wide implementation. The envisioned enterprise-wide implementation will be a phased plan to integrate all ICSs, including over 685 unique legacy and new shore sensor systems. We 

are validating the security and robustness of this system with Department of Homeland Security’s cyber security experts working at the Idaho National Laboratory. 

Operationally, Fleet Cyber Command (FCC)/10th Fleet takes additional measures 

to ensure network security and reduce overall risk to the Navy’s Command and 

Control infrastructure. FCC/10th Fleet manages stand-alone emergency power and 

HVAC systems at over 50 discrete mission critical sites, which warrant added protection. [See page 32.] 

General AMOS. [The information was not available at the time of printing.] [See 

page 32.] 

RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. LARSEN 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Next Generation Jammer is on track to achieve Block I Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 on the 

EA–18G. This first block will cover the majority of the electromagnetic spectrum 

with which we are concerned. We will IOC Blocks II and III in 2021 and 2024, respectively, again on the EA–18G. [See page 50.] 
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING 

MARCH 1, 2011 

(159) 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. MCKEON 

Mr. MCKEON. The Navy estimates that its annual shipbuilding budget require- ment, on average, is $15.0 billion per year, to attain its minimum floor of 313 battleforce ships. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the 

Navy will require, on average, $19.0 billion per year to attain its minimum floor of 

313 ships. Given that there will be minimal to no real budget growth in the upcoming years, are you concerned with the Navy’s ability to reach its required force 

structure? 

Secretary MABUS. No. The requirement of 313 ships remains the floor and the 

Navy is committed to building to that floor. The disparity of funding requirements 

in Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) assessment of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 

Long-Range Shipbuilding Plan results from the difference in Navy and CBO estimating methods and assumptions about the design and capabilities of future ships. 

In the near term, CBO’s and Navy’s cost estimates are similar, however the differences become more pronounced over time as CBO acknowledges they have made 

different assumptions about both the size and capabilities of ships that led to different cost estimates. 

The Navy recognizes that building the required force structure will largely depend 

on controlling shipbuilding costs (including combat systems) within an affordable 

range. Navy is committed to maintaining stability in requirements, funding, and 

profiles in an effort to control costs. This will require the combined efforts of the 

Navy, the shipbuilding industry and the combat systems industry. Working in conjunction with Congress, the Navy will procure and sustain the force structure necessary to deliver the naval capabilities needed to support our national interests. 

Mr. MCKEON. Northrop-Grumman plans to spin-off its shipbuilding portfolio at 

some point in the near future. Can you provide us your view on how that will affect 

shipbuilding infrastructure and workforce, and what challenges the Navy may confront as it relates to maintaining cost, schedule and delivery times for ships currently under contract with Northrop-Grumman? 

Secretary MABUS. Having performed due diligence through extensive analysis and 

protracted discussions, and following appropriate adjustments, the Navy does not 

object to Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NGC) spin-off of its shipbuilding business. The Navy recently awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII) the contract for LPD 26, and we are in negotiations with HII for the DDG 113 contract. 

The Navy’s decision not to object to the spin-off is based on a critical review of HII’s 

proposed capital structure, current contract financials, required capital investment 

and proprietary forward-looking projections. Ultimately, the Navy has been able to 

resolve concerns about the risk involved to this important segment of our shipbuilding industrial base with appropriate adjustments made by NGC. These adjustments were a result of the Navy’s findings and captured within an agreement between NGC and the Navy. The Navy’s concern with HII’s credit rating, driven by 

its initial debt, has been offset by NGC’s agreement to relieve HII of first quarter 

2011 debts, to provide a starting cash balance of $300 million, and to assign retentions, performance incentives, and economic price adjustment (EPA) payments that 

the Navy might owe under current shipbuilding contracts with NGSB to HII. The 

Navy regards HII as a responsible contractor and is proceeding to finalize the negotiations with the intent to award the contracts for construction of DDG 113 to HII. 

Mr. MCKEON. Navy officials testified last year that the Department would be conducting a ship Battle-Force, Force Structure Assessment over the course of the past 

year to evaluate whether or not a force inventory floor of 313 ships is adequate to 

meet the National Military Strategy requirements applicable to the Navy. Can you 

provide us an update as to when we can expect to be provided the new Force Structure Assessment, and can you share with us any insight to its preliminary conclusions and recommendations? 

Secretary MABUS. The 2010 Force Structure Assessment has been completed and 

is currently in staffing. We expect to be able to provide the results to Congress within 30–60 days. 

Mr. MCKEON. Last year, the Navy testified that sea-based missile defense requirements for surface combatants (cruisers and destroyers) were still in the review. Has 
160 

there been any progress in determining sea-based missile defense requirements as 

it relates to Navy surface combatant requirements, and if so, can you describe what 

the forward-based requirements are for Navy surface combatants and what that 

means to the battle-force inventory requirements regarding destroyers and cruisers? 

Secretary MABUS. Each Geographic Combatant Commander (GCC) determines its 

own requirements for surface combatants in each mission area. These requirements 

are adjudicated through the Department of Defense’s Global Force Management 

process, which allocates the available Aegis ships. The Navy currently has sufficient 

capacity to meet the most critical demands for multi-mission surface combatants; 

however, Navy does not have the capacity to meet GCC demands for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) surface combatants without breaking established deployment 

length redlines. Based on threat analysis and steady state presence indications from 

the GCCs, the Navy, working with Missile Defense Agency, have concluded that the 

demand for BMD-capable Aegis ships will outpace capacity through approximately 

2018, assuming standard six month deployment lengths. 

Sea-based BMD requirements in the United States Central Command and European Command are sourced through the rotation of Aegis ships home-ported in the 

United States. The Pacific Command’s sea-based BMD requirements are sourced 

primarily from the Forward Deployed Naval Force in Japan. 

As the demand for these ships increase, either the inventory of Aegis BMD-capable ships or deployment lengths must increase. Accordingly, Navy, in conjunction 

with MDA, has established a plan to increase the total number of Aegis BMD-capable ships across the FYDP from 21 to 41, of which 27 will be deployable in FY16. 

This plan includes the increase in capacity and capability of surface combatants either through the installation of the Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite or Aegis Modernization program, as well as through new construction (commencing with DDG 113). 

The addition of BMD capabilities to the Aegis Fleet provides improved operational 

flexibility to GCC and Fleet Commanders to fulfill their various missions. 

Mr. MCKEON. The Navy’s budget documentation notes that, ‘‘the Department’s budget increases by over $900 million across the FYDP to address a significant increase in the cost of [the] solid rocket motor (SRM) component of the Trident II D5 

SLBM as a result of a shrinkage and reorganization of the national SRM industrial 

base.’’ Do you share these concerns about the solid rocket motor industrial base, 

what are their impacts, and how is the Navy mitigating these impacts? 

Secretary MABUS. Yes, the Navy shares these concerns as there has been an increase in the unit cost of Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) due to a decline in customers 

(end of NASA’s Space Shuttle Rocket Booster and end of Air Force Minuteman III) 

for Solid Rocket Motors. Additional Weapons Procurement, Navy funding is required 

in FY 2012 to fund an increase in the unit cost of TRIDENT II D5 rocket motor 

production from $10.7M to $19.2M. Also included in the $191.3M are increases for 

production requalification, HMX procurement, and tooling. The Navy’s TRIDENT II 

D5 rocket motor production program is now responsible for a significantly larger 

portion of the industrial base fixed costs. The Navy’s PB12 submit estimate is based 

on the assumption that NASA continues RDT&E investment at $400M per year and 

the Air Force maintains a warm line production investment of $40M per year for 

Minuteman III to maintain critical skills. In an effort to mitigate impacts, Navy 

Strategic Systems Programs is working closely with Lockheed Martin Missile Space 

Corporation and Alliant Techsystems Inc. 

Mr. MCKEON. Can you provide the committee with more detail about how the 

FY12 budget request increases research and development of capabilities to increase 

satellite communications bandwidth and survivability for off-ship connectivity? 

Secretary MABUS. Navy SATCOM RDT&E budget supports three major efforts to 

increase bandwidth and survivability for off-ship connectivity, eXtended Data rate 

(XDR) testing with the Advanced Extreme High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, development of AEHF Time Division Multiple Access Internet Protocol (ATIP), and the 

Split Internet Protocol (Split IP) capability. 

In FY12, both the AEHF satellite and the XDR waveform become available. Coupled with these capabilities, the Navy Multi-band Terminal (NMT) system will provide a four-fold increase in the off-ship survivable bandwidth. The RDT&E budget 

supports the formal testing of the NMT terminal with the AEHF satellite and the 

resolution of discrepancies discovered as a result of this testing. 

ATIP is an ancillary NMT component that allows the bandwidth from a single 

AEHF Satellite spot beam to be dynamically shared amongst multiple Navy NMT 

users. The dynamic sharing increases off-ship survivable bandwidth on one ship 

when needed, but reallocates the bandwidth to other ships when not needed. With 

the ATIP enabled bandwidth sharing, the Navy NMT users can fully leverage the 

DoD’s space investments to effectively increase survivable off-ship bandwidth to all 

users. 
161 

The Split IP effort develops the software to allow tactical units to transmit Internet Protocol traffic over one type of satellite link and receive the traffic over a different type of satellite link. Separating the transmit and receive paths efficiently 

uses the full array of DoD satellite systems for maximum off-ship bandwidth while 

increasing the survivability of these communications. 

Both ATIP and Split IP initiatives mitigate the limitations in bandwidth posed 

in a hostile satellite communications environment. 

Mr. MCKEON. The Navy estimates that its annual shipbuilding budget requirement, on average, is $15.0 billion per year, to attain its minimum floor of 313 battleforce ships. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the 

Navy will require, on average, $19.0 billion per year to attain its minimum floor of 

313 ships. Given that there will be minimal to no real budget growth in the upcoming years, are you concerned with the Navy’s ability to reach its required force 

structure? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. No. The requirement of 313 ships remains the floor and the 

Navy is committed to building to that floor. The disparity of funding requirements 

in Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) assessment of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 

Long-Range Shipbuilding Plan results from the difference in Navy and CBO estimating methods and assumptions about the design and capabilities of future ships. 

In the near term, CBO’s and Navy’s cost estimates are similar, however the differences become more pronounced over time as CBO acknowledges they have made 

different assumptions about both the size and capabilities of ships that led to different cost estimates. 

The Navy recognizes that building the required force structure will largely depend 

on controlling shipbuilding costs (including combat systems). Navy is committed to 

maintaining stability in requirements, funding, and profiles in an effort to control 

costs. This will require the combined efforts of the Navy, the shipbuilding industry 

and the combat systems industry. Working in conjunction with Congress, the Navy 

will procure and sustain the force structure necessary to deliver the naval capabilities needed to support our national interests. 

Mr. MCKEON. The Air Force Chief of Staff, General Schwartz, testified last week 

to this committee that an ‘‘Air-Sea Battle Plan’’ is being jointly developed, between 

the Air Force and Navy, for future operations. Can you provide us your perspective 

of the plan, why you feel it is necessary to implement, and an estimate of when we 

can expect to receive the plan’s details? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Air-Sea Battle is a limited operational concept that focuses 

the development of integrated air and naval forces on addressing the evolving antiaccess/area denial (A2/AD) environment. ASB encompasses three key elements: 

• Institutional cooperation will be enhanced by establishing an enduring organizational construct that will continue formal collaboration to address the A2/AD 

environment as it evolves over time. 

• Conceptual alignment will be perpetuated through the operational design that 

describes how capabilities and forces are integrated to accomplish operational 

objectives in an A2/AD environment. 

• Materiel solutions and innovations will be collaboratively vetted to ensure they 

are complementary where appropriate; redundant when mandated by capacity 

requirements; fully interoperable; and fielded with integrated acquisition strategies seeking efficiencies where they can be achieved. 

Air-Sea Battle is necessary because various states and their surrogates are developing capabilities specifically designed to deny access and challenge freedom of action. Failure to effectively address this threat could increase risk to our forces or 

compel them to operate at extended distances from an area of conflict. Either circumstance threatens the ability of joint and allied forces to accomplish assigned 

operational objectives. ASB identifies and characterizes specific A2/AD challenges 

presented to the joint force, and provides solutions to those challenges. We expect 

to be able to brief key stakeholders on the ASB Concept in the coming months. 

Mr. MCKEON. The LPD–17 San Antonio-class of amphibs has been plagued by 

quality workmanship and reliability issues. Can you provide us an update on how 

the Navy is progressing on addressing these deficiencies and to what extent these 

issues have been addressed with the shipyard to preclude future issues? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy has completed thorough reviews and assessments 

of the LPD 17 Class that revealed issues in the areas of construction oversight, 

manning, and training. Corrective actions are being implemented and lessons 

learned from earlier ships in the class have been incorporated into later new-construction ships. 

Specifically, quality assurance (QA) and production oversight during ship construction were not sufficient by the Navy Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion 
162 

and Repair (SUPSHIP) and the shipbuilder, which impacted Main Propulsion Diesel 

Engines, lube oil systems, piping welds, and foundation bolts and power train alignment. The shipbuilder has since developed new procedures and training for its personnel and added additional QA checkpoints to the shipbuilding inspection process. 

We have added additional staffing to the SUPSHIP staff with a focus on compliance, 

and we have instituted comprehensive quality audits of both SUPSHIP and the 

shipbuilder. 

The Navy is strengthening LPD 17 Class crew training by establishing more traditional schoolhouse training that will result in a blended approach of classroom, 

shipboard and computer based training, rather than relying on the previous model 

of extensive computer-based shipboard training. 

Initial system reliability issues with the engine controls, ship controls and interior 

communications systems have been addressed through major software upgrades to 

each system as well as the replacement of critical obsolete parts with rugged current 

technology hardware. We are replacing the ships’ 1990s-era technology asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) shipboard wide area network (SWAN) with a current 

Gigabit Ethernet technology network hardware and software. 

An LPD 17 Class Wholeness Task Force was formed by the Fleet to undertake 

a comprehensive assessment of the overall state of readiness for the entire LPD 17 

Class. The task force is addressing shipboard manning, adequacy of shore-based infrastructure support, performance of critical mission and propulsion systems, spare 

parts support, and adequacy of maintenance resources. 

The actions taken are resulting in better reliability and operational availability 

of the commissioned ships of the class, while improving the projected operational 

availability of the ships currently under construction. Recent examples are USS 

NEW YORK (LPD 21) completing, in February 2011, a highly successful Board of 

Inspection and Survey (INSURV) Final Contract Trials and USS MESA VERDE 

(LPD 19), in March 2011, departing early for its second overseas deployment in response to world events. 

Mr. MCKEON. Last year, the Navy testified that sea-based missile defense requirements for surface combatants (cruisers and destroyers) were still in the review. Has 

there been any progress in determining sea-based missile defense requirements as 

it relates to Navy surface combatant requirements, and if so, can you describe what 

the forward-based requirements are for Navy surface combatants and what that 

means to the battle-force inventory requirements regarding destroyers and cruisers? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy currently has sufficient capacity to meet the most 

critical demands for multi-mission surface combatants; however, Navy does not have 

the capacity to meet expected future GCC demands for Ballistic Missile Defense 

(BMD) surface combatants without breaking established deployment length redlines. 

Based on threat analysis and steady state presence indications from the GCCs, the 

Navy, working with Missile Defense Agency, has concluded that the demand for 

BMD-capable Aegis ships will outpace capacity through approximately 2018, assuming standard six month deployment lengths. 

Sea-based BMD requirements in the United States Central Command and European Command are sourced through the rotation of Aegis ships home-ported in the 

United States. The Pacific Command’s sea-based BMD requirements are sourced 

primarily from the Forward Deployed Naval Force in Japan. 

With the President’s decision to pursue a phased adaptive approach (PAA) for the 

missile defense of Europe, the Navy has been working within the Department of Defense to identify the most efficient method to provide the required afloat BMD capability. The establishment of a forward deployed force in Europe is one of the options 

being assessed, however, no final decision has been made. 

As the demand for these ships increase, either the inventory of Aegis BMD-capable ships or deployment lengths must increase. Accordingly, Navy, in conjunction 

with MDA, has established a plan to increase the total number of Aegis BMD-capable ships across the FYDP from 21 to 41, of which 27 will be deployable in FY16. 

This plan includes the increase in capacity and capability of surface combatants either through the installation of the Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite or Aegis Modernization program, as well as through new construction (commencing with DDG 113). 

The addition of BMD capabilities to the Aegis Fleet provides improved operational 

flexibility to GCC and Fleet Commanders to fulfill their various missions. 

Mr. MCKEON. Can you discuss how the missile defense mission and the multi-mission capability of Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships are affecting the overall force structure requirements for the Aegis fleet? How is the Navy managing the 

limited number of Aegis BMD ships when demand is greater than supply? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy currently has sufficient capacity to meet the most 

critical demands for its multi-mission Aegis ships; however, we do not have the capacity to meet all Geographic Combatant Commander (GCC) demands for Ballistic 
163 

1 Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, ‘‘New Plan for Missile Defenses in Europe 

and Implications for International Security,’’ October 1, 2009, p. 25 from the hearing transcript. 

Missile Defense (BMD) without exceeding established Personnel Tempo program 

limits for deployment lengths, dwell tempo, or homeport tempo. Based on threat 

analysis and current indications from GCCs, and assuming standard six month deployment lengths, the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) concluded that 

GCC demand for surface combatants with Aegis BMD capability will outpace capacity through approximately 2018. 

To meet the increasing demand for these ships and reduce the risk to our long 

term force structure caused by the increased operational tempo from longer deployment lengths, the Navy, working in conjunction with MDA, has established a plan 

(see Figure 1 on page 165) to increase the number of BMD-capable Aegis ships 

from 23 in FY2011 to 41 in FY2016. This plan balances the need for meeting current operational requirements against the need to upgrade existing BMD-capable 

Aegis ships to pace the future threat. Included in this plan are increases in the 

Navy’s capacity and the capabilities of Aegis ships through the installation of an 

Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite, the Aegis Modernization program, or new construction 

(commencing with DDG–113). 

To mitigate the impact of the BMD mission, Navy has implemented an operating 

concept for AEGIS ship’s conducting BMD missions that features a graduated readiness posture that allows BMD-capable surface combatants to be on an operational 

tether and available for other tasking when not directly involved in active BMD operations. Surface combatants operating in support of a BMD mission do not lose the 

capability to conduct other missions; however, specific mission effectiveness may be 

affected by ships’ position and/or application of ship resources to those missions. 

Navy analysis of evolving BMD and other mission area requirements indicates 

that the current Navy BMD upgrade plan will support BMD Global Force Management requirements while simultaneously fulfilling Navy’s requirements in other 

mission areas. 

Mr. MCKEON. Aegis ships support multiple Navy missions such as maritime security, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, etc. It has also been noted in previous 

committee hearings that when an Aegis ship is in missile defense mode, it has less 

capability for ship self-defense and therefore requires support from a second Aegis 

ship. 1 Please discuss some of these mission optimization challenges and tradeoffs, 

and how the Navy is addressing them. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. All Aegis BMD capable ships have the ability to defend themselves against both traditional and advanced air and cruise missile threats while 

also executing the BMD mission. Simultaneous BMD and Anti-Air Warfare engagements were demonstrated by USS LAKE ERIE on June 22, 2006 and this capability 

is the current BMD Fleet standard. It is proven and remains ready today. Navy continues to work with the MDA to ensure that future BMD upgrades will further improve the multi-mission capabilities of our BMD ships. 

Mr. MCKEON. Admiral Roughead, according to a Defense News article in June 

2010, ‘‘U.S. Aegis Radars’ Readiness Plunges,’’ the Aegis radar systems are ‘‘in their 

worst shape ever, raising questions about the surface fleet’s ability to take on its 

high-profile new mission next year defending Europe from ballistic missiles.’’ Discuss any Aegis readiness concerns you may have and how it might impact the 

Navy’s ability to meet missile defense mission requirements. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I am confident in Navy’s ability to meet our missile defense 

requirements, and I am pleased to report that the USS MONTEREY (CG 61) is currently deployed in the Mediterranean Sea as the first ship on station in support of 

the first phase of the President’s European Phased Adaptive Approach to Ballistic 

Missile Defense. 

While several reports and studies, completed last year as part of Navy’s ongoing 

self-assessment and continuous improvement efforts, indicated the beginning of 

some declining trends in various elements of Aegis readiness, the overall readiness 

of our Aegis Fleet remains high. A product of their ongoing success, these assessments reflected the elevated standards we are employing in measuring Aegis readiness, which may have led to the misperception that these ships are having difficulty 

meeting their assigned missions; nothing could be further from the truth. 

To ensure continued readiness in the future, we have initiated a study that will 

integrate previous assessment findings and provide a holistic assessment of Aegis 

readiness in terms of interoperability, maintainability, test & evaluation, manpower, 

training, and current development efforts. We will use the results to inform our continued improvement of Aegis readiness in a targeted, affordable manner to ensure 

that Aegis warships remain ready for tasking. 
164 

Mr. MCKEON. The Navy’s budget documentation notes that, ‘‘the Department’s 

budget increases by over $900 million across the FYDP to address a significant increase in the cost of [the] solid rocket motor (SRM) component of the Trident II D5 

SLBM as a result of a shrinkage and reorganization of the national SRM industrial 

base.’’ Do you share these concerns about the solid rocket motor industrial base, 

what are their impacts, and how is the Navy mitigating these impacts? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes, the Navy shares these concerns as there has been an 

increase in the unit cost of Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) due to a decline in customers 

(end of NASA’s Space Shuttle Rocket Booster and end of Air Force Minuteman III) 

for Solid Rocket Motors. Additional Weapons Procurement, Navy funding is required 

in FY 2012 to fund an increase in the unit cost of TRIDENT II D5 rocket motor 

production from $10.7M to $19.2M. Also included in the $191.3M request are increases for production requalification, HMX procurement, and tooling. The Navy’s 

TRIDENT II D5 rocket motor production program is now responsible for a significantly larger portion of the industrial base fixed costs. The Navy’s PB12 budget submission is based on the assumption that NASA continues RDT&E investment at 

$400M per year and the Air Force maintains a warm line production investment 

of $40M per year for Minuteman III to maintain critical skills. In an effort to mitigate deleterious fiscal impacts, Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) is working closely 

with Lockheed Martin Missile Space Corporation and Alliant Techsystems Inc toward cooperative solutions that support the industrial base and the nation’s strategic needs. 

Mr. MCKEON. Can you provide the committee with more detail about how the 

FY12 budget request increases research and development of capabilities to increase 

satellite communications bandwidth and survivability for off-ship connectivity? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy SATCOM RDT&E budget supports three major efforts to increase bandwidth and survivability for off-ship connectivity: eXtended 

Data rate (XDR) testing with the Advanced Extreme High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, development of AEHF Time Division Multiple Access Internet Protocol 

(ATIP), and the Split Internet Protocol (Split IP) capability. 

In FY12, both the AEHF satellite and the XDR waveform become available. Coupled with these capabilities, the Navy Multi-band Terminal (NMT) system will provide a four-fold increase in the off-ship survivable bandwidth. The RDT&E budget 

supports the formal testing of the NMT terminal with the AEHF satellite and the 

resolution of discrepancies discovered as a result of this testing. 

ATIP is an NMT component that allows the bandwidth from a single AEHF Satellite spot beam to be dynamically shared amongst multiple Navy NMT users. The 

dynamic sharing increases off-ship survivable bandwidth on one ship when needed, 

but reallocates the bandwidth to other ships when not needed. With ATIP enabled 

bandwidth sharing, the Navy NMT users can fully leverage DoD’s space investments to effectively increase survivable off-ship bandwidth to all users. 

The Split IP effort develops the software to allow tactical units to transmit Internet Protocol traffic over one type of satellite link and receive the traffic over a different type of satellite link. Separating the transmit and receive paths efficiently 

uses the full array of DoD satellite systems for maximum off-ship bandwidth while 

increasing the survivability of these communications. 

Both ATIP and Split IP initiatives mitigate the limitations in bandwidth posed 

in a hostile satellite communications environment. 
165 
166 

QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. SMITH 

Mr. SMITH. The USMC LAV Program Manager met with HASC staff in January 

2010 and reported significant benefits associated with Side and Wheel-well Armor 

added to the USMC fleet of LAV’s. These kits were developed by Armatec and installed at the Barstow and Albany USMC Depots. 

The HASC understands that several allied countries are incorporating, into their 

LAV fleets, additional technologies developed by this company such as Mine Blast 

floor and Underbelly Protection Kits, Roof Mounted Blast Attenuating Seats, and 

Armored Self-sealing Fuel Tanks. Given this, along with the success of the past LAV 

Side and Wheel-well Armor Kit upgrades, the Committee believes these additional 

technologies should be evaluated as part of the LAV Survivability II Upgrade Program. 

• Has the USMC LAV Program evaluated these additional vehicle and occupant 

survivability technologies? If so, report to the HASC all findings and follow-on 

actions. If an evaluation has not taken place, the Committee recommends that 

the LAV Program evaluate these technologies and requests a report of the findings be submitted to the Committee. 

• When does the USMC LAV program expect to release RFP’s for the Survivability II Upgrade program? 

• Will these RFP’s allow for full and open competition? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps Light Armored Vehicle Program Manager’s Office (PM LAV) has an open dialogue with Armatec, as well as with other companies 

offering survivability capabilities, to evaluate follow-on vehicle and occupant survivability technologies for the LAV program. 

The PM LAV Office has evaluated incorporating Mine Blast Floor and Underbelly 

Protection Kits, Roof Mounted Blast Attenuating Seats and Armored Self-sealing 

Fuel Tanks as a part of the LAV Survivability II Upgrade Program. The Marine 

Corps Survivability II Upgrade Program will be contracting for Blast Attenuating 

Seats and structural reinforcement in the vehicle chassis. A Request for Proposal 

(RFP) is anticipated to be announced for the second quarter of FY12 under full and 

open competition. As an interim solution, the Armatec driver’s seat has been procured for LAV use, in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), to improve driver survivability. Additionally, a contract for Self-sealing Fuel Tanks was awarded in September 2010. The RFP was issued as full and open competition with no restrictions 

on who could submit a proposal. The contract was awarded from a competitive 

source selection. 

Regarding Mine Blast Floor and Underbelly Protection Kits, the USMC LAV currently uses an underbody protection kit designed by the PM LAV engineering staff 

that has proven to be effective in the field. Our Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in OEF currently uses this kit. At their request, our Australian allies also 

are now procuring the PM LAV underbody solution on their vehicles in OEF. 

PM LAV’s survivability upgrade evaluation efforts are fluid and ongoing. We will 

continue to evaluate increasing occupant survivability technologies through (1) market research across industry; (2) participating in a bi-annual LAV User Nation’s 

Group meeting with the U.S. Army, Canadian Forces, New Zealand Army and Australian Army to collaborate on LAV survivability technologies that include the 

Armatec product line; and (3) participating in annual survivability technology review meetings with the Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Laboratories at which time we provide research direction to the science and technology 

community so that they can better tailor their efforts to meet our projected needs. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. AKIN 

Mr. AKIN. For the last ten years we have been operating our aircraft carriers and 

battle group in the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean regions leaving a power vacuum 

in the Mediterranean. With the recent uprising in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya 

do you see a need for our carrier navy to reassert itself in the Mediterranean Ocean 

and what affect will that have on our Fleet Readiness Plan and carrier Cycles? 

Secretary MABUS. Carrier Strike Groups are deployed in the Mediterranean several times per year. There are several factors involved in the timing and duration 

of those deployments, all of which require the approval of our senior civilian leadership. At this time, bolstered by the deployments of our coalition partners, there is 

no requirement for continuous Carrier Strike Group deployment in the Mediterranean. If additional Carrier presence is required in the Mediterranean Sea, carriers 

would have to shift from other areas of the world or curtail time for training and 

maintenance. 
167 

Mr. AKIN. The QDR independent panel recommended a fleet size of roughly 340 

ships. What kind of budget would you need to get to a 340 ship fleet? 

Secretary MABUS. The 2010 QDR Independent Panel recommended an Alternate 

Force Structure of 346 ships, the number found in the 1993 Bottom-Up Review 

(BUR). However, the BUR occurred as the US Navy and the other three Services 

were trying to establish the force structure floor for the post-Cold War drawdown. 

The 346 ships called for in the BUR represented a simple projection of the size of 

the Navy in Fiscal Year 1999 (FY99), not a statement of long-term steady-state requirements. For example: 

• The FY99 fleet projection was for 52 SSNs, but the BUR’s long-term goal for 

SSNs was 45 boats. 

• Similarly, the FY99 fleet projection included over 40 amphibious ships, against 

a long-term goal of 36 ships, and over 40 combat logistics force ships, against 

a long-term goal of 30–35 ships. 

Indeed, less than six months after the BUR was published, the Navy dropped the 

FY99 fleet target by 16 ships—primarily tenders and obsolete amphibious ships. In 

testimony, Navy leaders assured Congress that ‘‘This difference will not affect our 

warfighting and forward presence capabilities.’’ Moreover, the BUR fleet included 

ships not normally included in official battle force counts. For example, the BUR 

fleet included 27 mine warfare vessels. However, 11 of these ships were to be maintained in Mobilization Category B status, which do not count in official fleet numbers. 

If one focuses on the BUR’s long-range steady-state fleet requirements rather 

than the FY99 projection, and only those ships that contribute to official battle force 

counts, the BUR essentially called for a fleet of some 300–305 ships. The differences 

between the BUR fleet and the Navy’s current 313-ship plan are thus minor. 

• The nucleus of the BUR fleet included 11 active and one reserve aircraft carrier; 

45–55 SSNs, with a long-term goal of 45 SSNs; 110–116 active surface combatants, 8–10 reserve frigates, and 27 mine warfare vessels (some in reserve), for 

a total of 145–153 surface warships; and 36 amphibious ships to carry 2.5 

MEBs. 

• The steady-state 313-ship fleet includes 11 CVNs; 48 SSNs; 88 large surface 

combatants and 55 Littoral combat ships, for a total of 143 surface warships; 

and 33 amphibious ships to carry 2.0 MEBs. 

• The biggest difference between the BUR and 2010 QDR fleets is found in combat logistics, mobile logistics, and support ships. The 1993 BUR Combat Logistics Force (CLF) included single-purpose ships like the Ammunition Ships (AEs) 

and Combat Stores Ships (AFS) that have been replaced by multi-purpose/ 

multi-product ships in the fleet today. Moreover, although today’s fleet includes 

fewer ships in these categories, most are now more efficiently manned and operated by Military Sealift Command, and meet all fleet requirements. 

Navy is confident that 313 ship force structure requirements in the long-range 

shipbuilding plan reflect the latest approved Naval Force Structure Assessment and 

should be considered the baseline vice those articulated in the 1993 BUR. 

The Chief of Naval Operations has stated that the Navy requires a minimum of 

313 ships to meet operational requirements globally, and, as detailed in the LongRange Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for FY 2011, the Department of the 

Navy remains committed to reaching this ship number by 2020. While this minimum number remains the current target for force planning, the Department continues to examine this requirement to address the increased operational demands 

and expanding requirements for ballistic missile defense, intra-theater lift, and 

forces capable of confronting irregular challenges. 

Mr. AKIN. The Navy has seen a steady decline in their manning numbers through 

such force shaping tools such as Perform-To-Serve (PTS). This has been occurring 

at the same time as their OPTEMPO has been steadily increasing through the War 

on Terror, our other Deployed Assets and Humanitarian response. At what point do 

you believe the Navy will reach their breaking point with regards to dwell time? 

Secretary MABUS. The various metrics that may be used to assess how we are 

doing, suggest that we are operating within acceptable parameters, and that we are 

not approaching a breaking point, nor do we see that occurring on the horizon. 

While we are currently experiencing high tempo thresholds, particularly in certain 

units or missions areas, Navy expects to remain above Dwell limits based on current 

and projected operational requirements. 

Mr. AKIN. What are the costs associated with the purchase and later SLAP of an 

F–18E/F over a current SLEP of a current F–18C? Is it not more cost effective long 
168 

term to purchase a more capable platform that can last for 9000 hours then to extend a legacy system for 1400 additional hours? 

Secretary MABUS. The weapon systems procurement cost of an F/A–18E/F is an average of $84.4 million (CY11$), based on the current multiyear procurement 

(FY10–13). The current planned service life of the F/A–18E/F is 6,000 hours 

($14,000 per planned flight hour). At this time, the cost for a future SLEP of F/A– 

18E/F aircraft from 6,000 to 9,000 hours is yet to be determined. A Service Life Assessment Program (SLAP) is underway and will identifying the critical areas required to be addressed, which will inform future costs of E/F SLEP. The estimated 

average cost to extend the service life (SLEP) of 150 F/A–18A–D Legacy Hornets 

from 8,600 to 10,000 hours is an average of $14.1 million (CY11$) per aircraft 

($10,000 per planned flight hour). 

The Department of the Navy conducted a cost benefit analysis to compare alternatives to mitigate the Strike Fighter Shortfall considering cost, technical risk and 

operational requirements. The result of the analysis shows that the shortfall cannot 

be mitigated to a manageable level without Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) 

of some legacy F/A–18s to meet operational requirements; procuring additional F/ 

A–18E/F alone will not mitigate the shortfall to a manageable level. Moreover, overbuying F/A–18E/Fs now is not consistent with the DoN strategy to procure one 

squadron of F–35C Joint Strike Fighters for each active Carrier Air Wing (CVW). 

SLEPing legacy aircraft as a bridge to the JSF is a much better transition strategy. 

Consistent with this thinking, and as presented in the Fiscal Year 2012 President’s Budget request, the DoN planned to procure a total of 556 F/A–8E/Fs and 

extend the service life (SLEP) of 150 F/A–18A–D aircraft. The plan balances the 

strike fighter inventory requirement within the Department’s limited financial resources within the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP), mitigates the shortfall to a 

manageable level with acceptable risk. The addition of nine aircraft by Congress in 

the Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations Act will increase the number of F/A–18E/Fs to 

565, which will further reduce the risk associated with the inventory shortfall. 

Mr. AKIN. Assuming that we cannot fill the strike fighter shortfall what is your 

aircraft allocation plan for squadrons and airwings in the future? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department of the Navy (DON) has an existing inventory 

of 628 Navy and Marine Corps F/A–18A–D aircraft that will comprise over half of 

Naval Aviation’s TACAIR force structure until 2013. They are scheduled to remain 

in the inventory through 2023. The Navy has also received 418 F/A–18E/Fs to date. 

In December 2010, the Secretary of Defense made changes to the Programs of 

Record (POR) for both the F–35B/C and F/A–18E/F programs. Compared to Fiscal 

Year 2011 President’s Budget, the DON’s procurement of F–35B/C aircraft was decreased by 60 and the F/A–18E/F procurement was increased by 41. This action also 

extended the last year of procurement for the Super Hornets from Fiscal Year 2013 

to Fiscal Year 2014. By adding 41 Super Hornets and extending the life of 150 F/ 

A–18 A–D aircraft to 10,000 flight hours, the strike fighter shortfall estimate has 

been reduced from about 100 aircraft to a peak of 65 aircraft, occurring in 2018. 

The Department has testified that this level of aircraft shortfall is manageable. 

DON’s procurement objectives are presented in the FY–12 President’s Budget. 

The budget reflects the optimum balance of procuring new aircraft for a total of 556 

F/A–18E/Fs, extending the service life of 150 existing legacy Hornets, and procuring 

F–35B/Cs. This balanced approach will address the Department’s need for Tactical 

Aircraft to meet requirements. 

Mr. AKIN. Have we included the savings in fuel costs of a Super Hornet over a 

legacy Hornet in the long term cost analysis/benefit of SLEPing a legacy Hornet 

versus a new Super Hornet purchase? 

Secretary MABUS. The fuel consumption of a Super Hornet is approximately 100 

gals per hour more than a Legacy Hornet; this is driven by engine design and aircraft weight. Hence, there are no fuel savings. Fuel consumption for both Super 

Hornets and legacy Hornets has been included in the Operations & Support cost estimates for each respective aircraft in the Cost Benefit Analysis in support of the 

FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act. 

Mr. AKIN. How many planes will the Department of the Navy be short of its requirement of 1240 strike fighters at the peak of the strike fighter shortfall? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department of the Navy (DoN) is challenged with a Strike 

Fighter Shortfall due to the current F/A–18A–D aircraft reaching the end of their 

service life before the replacement aircraft (the F–35B/C) can be delivered into service. To address this shortfall, 41 additional F/A–18E/F aircraft and 150 F/A–18A– 

D service life extensions (SLEP) were added to the Fiscal Year 2012 President’s 

Budget request. These actions, in conjunctions with the Joint Strike Fighter postTechnical Baseline Review procurement rate, reduces the inventory shortfall to 65 

aircraft in 2018. Congress’ addition of 9 F/A–18E/F in the FY11 appropriations proc-
169 

ess further reduces the predicted shortfall peak to 52 aircraft in 2018. The DoN has 

determined that this shortfall is a manageable level. 

Mr. AKIN. With ISR requirements increasing across the whole of the DOD and 

the Navy specifically, the Air Force appears to be maxed out in their ability to provide 24 hours coverage across the globe. What is the Navy’s need and capability to 

provide ISR for the short and long term future? 

Secretary MABUS. The Global Commons, which comprises the littoral regions and 

the contiguous brown water and inshore areas, contains over three-quarters of the 

world’s population, over eighty percent of all capital cities, and nearly all the marketplaces of international trade. The United States ability to operate in the Global 

Commons is of critical importance for all nations of the world who wish to be part 

of the global economy and who wish to have free access to the markets of the world. 

The United States Navy’s ability to operate on the high seas in the conduct of future 

operations requires an increasingly robust maritime domain awareness of these waters and is the key driver for future Navy ISR requirements. The United State’s 

ability to influence those regions and to win Overseas Contingency Operations 

(OCO), as well as future conflicts, requires not only control of the littorals, but rest 

upon a clear understanding of what is happening on those waters. The ability of existing and projected U.S. forces to gain access and conduct sustained operations in 

this near-land battlespace can be limited by the demanding natural environment 

(including restrictive features such as choke points, high shipping densities, and 

shallow waters) and a considerable adversary area-denial competency. All of which 

necessitates a robust Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) capability. 

Another essential requirement exists to sustain and improve maritime ISR capabilities for U.S. Naval forces in traditional, Joint and combined roles to counter 

changing and emerging threats. Maritime and littoral ISR demands already outstrip 

the capacities of available naval ISR assets. The importance of establishing the capability of launching ISR assets from a Sea Base cannot be understated. Sea Basing 

offers an alternative to basing forces ashore in host nations that is less vulnerable 

to attack from the opposition. Sea Basing also offers the ability to quickly establish 

an ISR capability anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. 

The Navy’s ISR ‘‘Family of Systems’’ integrates land-based and sea-based, manned 

and unmanned air systems to increase capability across a full spectrum of maritime 

and littoral missions while adhering to fiscal restraints in a challenging budgetary 

environment. The legacy platform, EP–3, will be sustained until the system is fully 

recapitalized in accordance with the FY11 National Defense Authorization Act and 

the 2008/2009 Consolidated Intelligence Guidance. All aircraft will be sustained 

through the Special Structural Inspections and Special Structural Inspection Kits. 

The Joint Airborne SIGINT Common Configuration (JCC) includes the Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) spiral upgrades. The latest upgrade, JCC Spiral 3, will meet 

current threat and supportability challenges with advances in technology, and will 

be the baseline for any EP–3 follow-on capability. 

Currently, the Navy is focused on five land- and ship-based UAS platforms: 

1) Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAS: An ACAT 1D program 

with an FY16 IOC, the land-based BAMS will provide persistent (24 hours/day, 7 

days/week), multi-sensor (radar, EO/IR, ESM) maritime surveillance capability with 

worldwide access, enhancing situational awareness of the battlespace and shortening the sensor-to-shooter kill chain. BAMS UAS mission operations, which are adjunct to P–8A, will share facilities and personnel between the manned and unmanned assets. Additionally, Navy and Air Force are working together to exploit 

synergies between the BAMS UAS and Global Hawk UAS programs. The FY12 

President’s Budget (PB 12) requests $ $548.5M in research, development, testing, 

and evaluation (RDTEN). 

2) Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike 

(UCLASS): The UCLASS program will build upon technologies and lessons learned 

from the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS–D). Utilizing the 

Northrop Grumman X–47B demonstrator air vehicles, UCAS–D will perform catapult launches, arrested landings, flight operations in the vicinity of a carrier, and 

automated air refueling by the end of 2013. The program of record, UCLASS, will 

enhance the Navy’s Information Dominance mission and will shorten the timeline 

to find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess time sensitive targets. With an initial 

capability in FY18 timeframe, the UCLASS system will integrate with the carrier 

air wings to increase the flexibility, versatility, and capability of the carrier force. 

PB12 provides $121.2M in RDTEN funding for UCLASS and $198.3M in RDTEN 

funding for the UCAS–D. 

3) MQ–8 Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff UAV (VTUAV): The MQ–8 system is designed to operate as an integral component of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Mis-
170 

sion Modules and from hangar-equipped, air-capable ships with an FY12 Initial 

Operational Capability (IOC). OSD directed Navy to support interim Special Operations Force (SOF) maritime sea-based urgent needs through FY18 using MQ–8 

until a new Medium Endurance Maritime UAS is fielded. Support includes increasing aircraft and ship control station procurement, integration onto twelve additional 

ships, and implementing an Engineering Change that increases MQ–8 endurance 

(the larger airframe VTUAV+) and integrates mission specific payloads. Also, Navy 

is using the Rapid Deployment Capability process to integrate a weaponization capability. The PB12 funding request includes $108.2M in RDTEN and $192.0M in 

APN. 

4) Medium Range Maritime UAS (MRMUAS): MRMUAS is a planned FY11/ 

12 new start program to develop a multi-intelligence ISR and targeting platform capable of operations from any hangar-equipped, air-capable ship in support of MDA 

and Irregular Warfare mission sets, including maritime ISR in support of SOF. The 

PB12 funding request includes $15.0M in RDTEN. 

5) Small Tactical UAS (STUAS): STUAS is an organic ISR asset for Navy Special Warfare (NSW) and LSD–41 class ships with an FY13 IOC. It provides the deployed unit the capability to control its own ISR capability for use at the tactical 

level. The Navy plans to buy four systems. USMC still plans to buy 32 systems and 

shares RDTEN costs with the Navy. PB12 funding includes $12.8M in APN and 

$22.7M in RDTEN. 

Mr. AKIN. For the last ten years we have been operating our aircraft carriers and 

battle group in the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean regions leaving a power vacuum 

in the Mediterranean. With the recent uprising in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya 

do you see a need for our carrier navy to reassert itself in the Mediterranean Ocean 

and what affect will that have on our Fleet Readiness Plan and carrier Cycles? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Carrier Strike Group’s are deployed in the Mediterranean 

several times per year. There are several factors involved in the timing and duration of those deployments. At this time, bolstered by the deployments of our coalition partners, there is no requirement for continuous Carrier Strike Group deployments in the Mediterranean. If additional carrier presence is required in the Mediterranean Sea, carriers could be shifted from other areas of the world or we could 

adjust training and maintenance schedules. 

Mr. AKIN. The QDR independent panel recommended a fleet size of roughly 340 

ships. What kind of budget would you need to get to a 340 ship fleet? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The cost of a 340-ship Navy depends upon the capabilities 

and mix of ships desired in the Fleet; the associated effects and costs related to the 

shipbuilding industrial base, including second and third tier suppliers; and the manpower and operations and maintenance funding necessary to operate a 340-ship 

Navy. These factors must be determined before addressing the resources required 

to get to a 340-ship Navy. 

Mr. AKIN. The Navy has seen a steady decline in their manning numbers through 

such force shaping tools such as Perform-To-Serve (PTS). This has been occurring 

at the same time as their OPTEMPO has been steadily increasing through the War 

on Terror, our other Deployed Assets and Humanitarian response. At what point do 

you believe the Navy will reach their breaking point with regards to dwell time? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The metrics we use to assess impact to the force on high operating tempo and lower dwell time, indicate we are operating within acceptable parameters, and that we are not approaching a breaking point for our sailors. While 

we are currently experiencing high tempo with particular units or within certain 

mission areas, Navy expects to remain above established Dwell limits based on current and projected operational requirements. 

Mr. AKIN. What are the costs associated with the purchase and later SLAP of an 

F–18E/F over a current SLEP of a current F–18C? Is it not more cost effective long 

term to purchase a more capable platform that can last for 9000 hours then to extend a legacy system for 1400 additional hours? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. During the five-year timeframe in which our strike fighter 

shortfall will peak, there is not a significant yearly cost difference between performing SLEP on our F/A–18A–D aircraft and procuring new F/A–18E/F aircraft 

when the costs are amortized over 5 and 20 years respectively. Costs associated 

with extending the F/A–18A–D aircraft and operating them for an additional five 

years is estimated at $10.2 million a year, per aircraft. Procuring additional F/A– 

18E/F aircraft and operating them for five years is estimated to be $10.8 million 

per year. The Navy’s decision to SLEP 150 F/A–18A–D aircraft and procure 41 additional F/A–18E/F aircraft and the Joint Strike Fighter is the most viable and cost 

effective strategy to mitigate the impact of the projected strike fighter shortfall. 

(Costs provided in CY11$.) 
171 

The Service Life Assessment Program (SLAP) for F/A–18E/F is underway; however there is no cost estimate on extending F/A–18E/Fs to 9,000 flight hours. F/A– 

18E/F SLAP effort has not produced data yet to support a cost estimate for SLEP 

of E/F, therefore those costs are not included in the comparison. 

Mr. AKIN. Assuming that we cannot fill the strike fighter shortfall what is your 

aircraft allocation plan for squadrons and airwings in the future? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Navy’s peak strike fighter shortfall of 65 aircraft in 2018 is 

manageable. With the fidelity and understanding we possess today, we do not plan 

to develop an alternative allocation plan for dealing with our anticipated strike 

fighter shortfall. Should Navy experience a greater strike fighter shortfall than expected, we will investigate a variety of options for dealing with the projected shortfall. 

Mr. AKIN. Have we included the savings in fuel costs of a Super Hornet over a 

legacy Hornet in the long term cost analysis/benefit of SLEPing a legacy Hornet 

versus a new Super Hornet purchase? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Fuel consumption for both Super Hornets and Legacy Hornets has been included in the Operations & Support cost estimates in the SLEP 

Cost Benefit Analysis conducted in support of the FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act. Because the fuel consumption of a Super Hornet is approximately 

100 gals per hour more than a legacy Hornet, we do not anticipate any fuel-related 

cost savings. 

Mr. AKIN. How many planes will the Department of the Navy be short of its requirement of 1240 strike fighters at the peak of the strike fighter shortfall? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Based on the 2012 President’s Budget, the Department of the 

Navy projects it will experience a peak inventory shortfall of 65 aircraft in 2018, 

should the following conditions exist: accelerated transition of ten F/A–18 legacy 

Hornet squadrons into Super Hornets; the service life extension of approximately 

150 legacy Hornets; and procurement of a total of 556 F/A–18E/F Super Hornets. 

As I testified, this aircraft shortfall is manageable. 

Mr. AKIN. With ISR requirements increasing across the whole of the DOD and 

the Navy specifically, the Air Force appears to be maxed out in their ability to provide 24 hours coverage across the globe. What is the Navy’s need and capability to 

provide ISR for the short and long term future? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy’s need to conduct current and future operations in 

service, Joint and combined roles requires robust maritime domain awareness and 

is the primary driver for Navy Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) 

requirements. 

Current demand for maritime and littoral ISR exceeds existing Navy ISR capacity. We are investing in an ISR ‘‘Family of Systems’’ that integrates land-based and 

sea-based, manned and unmanned, air systems to increase ISR capability and capacity for the full spectrum of maritime and littoral missions. Programs essential 

to improving our ISR capability and capacity include: Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system, MQ–8 Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff 

UAV (VTUAV), Medium Range Maritime UAS (MRMUAS), and Small Tactical UAS 

(STUAS). Our Presidential Budget FY12 submission funds development and/or procurement of each of these systems. We will continue to sustain and modernize our 

EP–3 aircraft, including spiral upgrades of SIGINT capability, until a replacement 

capability can be fielded. 

Mr. AKIN. What is your goal for the cost of the replacement for the EFV? 

General AMOS. We will assess affordability of future vehicles based on assumptions of a declining budgetary environment. Historically, ground combat and tactical 

vehicle procurement has accounted for 33% of our overall Service level procurement 

account. The addition of the EFV alone at a projected $17M cost per vehicle in a 

continuously forecasted declining budgetary environment would have consumed the 

preponderance of our procurement account and 100% of our operations and maintenance account through 2025. Procuring a modern amphibious vehicle at a unit cost 

of $8M (calculated in FY11 dollars) is affordable based on procurement budget projections. Operations and maintenance allocations are expected at 7% annually of the 

vehicle price, or $560K/year per vehicle. A vehicle of $12M also is affordable if funding continues at the projected FY16 level. Therefore, we judge that a range of $8– 

12M per vehicle is affordable 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. BORDALLO 

Ms. BORDALLO. Secretary Mabus, there seems to be some confusion here on the 

Hill about the Administration’s position on the realignment of Marines from Oki-
172 

nawa, Japan to Guam. Can you detail the rationale behind the current budget of 

$155 million for military construction on Guam directly related to the military 

build-up? This direct U.S. funding for the realignment is significantly smaller than 

the Government of Japan contributions. Why is there a discrepancy and does this 

mean there is any shift in position by the Obama Administration for the realignment of Marines? In my opinion, the current funding level seems consistent with 

concerns that were raised by this Committee last year and are concurrent with the 

Adaptive Program Management mitigation measure outlined in the Record of Decision but we would appreciate your insights on this matter. 

Secretary MABUS. In determining the request for FY–12, the Department considered the concerns noted by Congress in the FY–11 National Defense Authorization 

Act Joint Explanatory Statement. The Department is committed to executing the realignment in a deliberate manner and funding decisions were made to take the time 

to work towards resolution of these issues. Additionally, as discussed in the Record 

of Decision for the Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Military Buildup, the Department will use Adaptive Program Management to adjust the 

pace and sequencing of construction projects so that the buildup does not exceed 

Guam’s infrastructure capacities. Efforts are underway to increase the capacity of 

Guam’s commercial port, using; $50 million in Department of Defense (DOD) funding and $54 million in United States Department of Agriculture financing; improve 

roadways using Defense Access Road funding ($49M authorized in FY10 and $67M 

authorized in FY11); and address critical improvements to Guam’s utilities systems 

by applying financing from the Government of Japan. As these upgrades come online, the pace of construction can be adjusted accordingly. Projects requested in FY– 

12 are those that are necessary at this time to support future vertical construction 

and also to support the introduction of off-island workers necessary to ramp-up construction over the next few years. 

At $167 million, the Government of Japan’s direct cash contribution for Japanese 

Fiscal Year (JFY) 2011 is comparable to DOD’s $156 million request. The Japanese 

Diet is currently considering $415 million in utilities financing in JFY–11 in addition to the direct cash contribution. $273 million of this utilities financing will be 

applied to critical upgrades to wastewater systems off-base, which will support the 

relocating Marines and Guam’s population growth in the long-term and in time to 

support the requirements of the off-island construction workforce. The balance of the 

JFY–11 utilities financing will be used for improvements to the Navy’s water system 

on base and will eventually be married up with the P–2048 Finegayan Water Utilities FY12 MILCON project request. Coupled with the efforts noted above, these improvements will allow for the construction program to ramp-up. 

Ms. BORDALLO. My top legislative priority is the passage of H.R. 44 the Guam 

World War II Loyalty Recognition Act. We advanced the bill forward with the Senate by agreeing to some compromises but that was due in large part to the Department of Defense’s support. As you know, the people of Guam are expected to concede 

additional land for a firing range for the Marines and I would be remiss if I didn’t 

point out that the resolution of Guam war claims is important to getting the buildup done right. To that end, Secretary Mabus and General Amos can we count on 

both of you to support H.R. 44? Is there recognition of the importance of this bill’s 

passage to getting the build-up done right? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department understands the importance of resolving war 

reparations to the people of Guam. In December 2010, Deputy Secretary of Defense 

William Lynn sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Senator 

Carl Levin in support of the Guam Loyalty Recognition Act. The Department remains in support of the Guam Loyalty Recognition Act as stated in the letter. 

Ms. BORDALLO. Under Secretary Work outlined 4 key pillars for the military 

build-up and one of those was 24/7, unimpeded access to the Pagat cave and nearby 

historical and cultural sites. Can you tell me what is being done to reconfigure to 

the potential firing range to meet this pillar? I remain skeptical that the Department of Defense will be able to obtain the land necessary for this firing range and 

so, again, I urge the Marines and the Department of the Navy to seriously consider 

using Tinian for the firing range to meet the full spectrum of individual and unitsized training that is necessary. Are the Marines continuing to look into Tinian to 

meet the full spectrum of training requirements? 

General AMOS. The Department of the Navy has not yet issued the Training 

Record of Decision finalizing the location of the firing ranges at Route 15. When 

that decision is made and a follow-on survey of the Route 15 area occurs, the Marine 

Corps will be able to finalize a range design that allows 24/7 unimpeded access to 

the Pagat historical site. The ranges planned in the Final Environmental Impact 

Statement (FEIS) for Guam are critical to meeting Marine Corps individual training 
173 

requirements. The Tinian ranges outlined in the FEIS complement, rather than replace, the Guam ranges and provide limited small unit common skills training utilizing up to 5.56mm ammunition only. 

Ms. BORDALLO. My top legislative priority is the passage of H.R. 44 the Guam 

World War II Loyalty Recognition Act. We advanced the bill forward with the Senate by agreeing to some compromises but that was due in large part to the Department of Defense’s support. As you know, the people of Guam are expected to concede 

additional land for a firing range for the Marines and I would be remiss if I didn’t 

point out that the resolution of Guam war claims is important to getting the buildup done right. To that end, Secretary Mabus and General Amos can we count on 

both of you to support H.R. 44? Is there recognition of the importance of this bill’s 

passage to getting the build-up done right? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps fully supports the Department of Defense position in support of the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act as stated by the 

Deputy Secretary of Defense in his December 8, 2010 letter to Chairman Levin. The 

Marine Corps lauds the courage and fidelity displayed by the people of Guam during 

this dark chapter in their history and acknowledges this legislation as a significant 

step forward in providing closure for the People of Guam who endured unimaginable 

hardship, but who never lost faith in the United States. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. FORBES 

Mr. FORBES. 1. Given predicted FY12 shortfall of $367 million and deferral of 44 

maintenance availabilities, how do you plan to maintain a ready surface fleet that 

meets estimated service life and reduces INSURV failure rate? 

Secretary MABUS. Although it would be desirable not to defer maintenance, most 

of the work being deferred are the small, non-docking, pier-side surface ship maintenance periods that we know by experience can be temporarily delayed without substantial risk to achieving expected service life. The Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program (SURFMEPP) enables the Navy to mitigate risk by using 

available funding to schedule and complete the most critical maintenance in FY12. 

SURFMEPP also formally tracks deferred work and reschedules it for future maintenance periods, allowing future budget requirements to accurately reflect the full 

surface ship maintenance requirement. The FY12 President’s Budget represents the 

best balance of risk and available resources across the Navy Enterprise portfolio. 

Mr. FORBES. 2. With regards to your ongoing Force Structure Assessment: 

a. What assurances will you provide Congress that your conclusions on required 

force structure are based on the totality of threats and the strategy to handle those 

threats rather than driven by budgetary constraints? 

b. In light of numerous recent INSURV failures and clear evidence that the expected service lives of our ships are being reduced due to deferred and unperformed 

maintenance, can we expect the Force Structure Assessment to consider shorter 

service lives of our current fleet in assessing the future requirements? 

c. On Feb 3, 2010, the Secretary of Defense testified that the ‘‘outyears toward 

the end of the 2030’s’’ of the 30-year shipbuilding plan ‘‘is mainly fantasy.’’ Given 

this assessment, should we be prepared to see a lowering of the current ‘‘floor’’ of 

313 ships, driven by budgetary pressures, when the Force Structure Assessment is 

released? 

Secretary MABUS. a. In addition to A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century 

Seapower and the Naval Operations Concept 2010, the Quadrennial Defense Review, 

Nuclear Posture Review and Ballistic Missile Defense Review provided strategic 

guidance, threat assessments and analysis that validated Navy’s force structure requirements. This guidance supports a global posture of distributed, mission-tailored 

ships, aircraft, and units capable of regionally concentrated combat operations and 

peacetime theater security cooperation. 

The Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels projects the affordable 

procurement and available inventory of ships over the next 30 years. This shipbuilding plan is where the Navy balances the demands for naval forces with expected future resources. 

b. The Navy force structure requirements provide sufficient rotation base to sustain global posture indefinitely without jeopardizing service lives of platforms. Additionally, the Navy will carefully manage and closely monitor the material condition 

of these legacy ships during the various maintenance and modernization periods as 

they progress through their service lives. The Navy intends to utilize spiral upgrades to the maximum extent possible to help modernize existing ships and prevent block obsolescence causing unacceptable gaps in capability and capacity. 
174 

c. 313 remains the floor. Since the release of the Maritime Strategy, the Chief of 

Naval Operations has stated that the Navy requires a minimum of 313 ships to 

meet operational requirements globally. This minimum remains valid. The Navy 

will continue to examine this requirement in conjunction with the increased operational demands and expanding requirements for ballistic missile defense, intra-theater lift, and irregular challenges. 

Mr. FORBES. Regarding the Department of the Navy proposal to base a carrier in 

Mayport, FL beginning in 2019: 

a. In testimony before the House Armed Service Committee on January 26th, 

2011, VADM Greenert stated that the move to Mayport was considered when the 

Department of the Navy evaluated it’s efficiency initiatives and that the strategic 

necessity of the move outweighed the cost. In a conversation with Under Secretary 

of the Navy Work on January 6th, I was informed that the Mayport proposal was 

not considered in the efficiency decision. Which of these statements is accurate? 

b. If the Navy evaluated this proposal as part of its efficiency determination, 

please provide this analysis. 

c. How does the strategic priority of basing a carrier at Mayport compare with 

the priority of fully funding the maintenance of our existing fleet to ensure that our 

current inventory of ships achieve their intended service life? Please provide details. 

d. Given that the FY12 budget proposal includes $15 million for road improvements at Naval Station Mayport in anticipation of future carrier basing, along with 

an additional $549 million in other related MILCON over the next 3 years, why is 

the Navy willing to accept a $367 million shortfall in its ship repair account and 

the deferral of 44 maintenance availabilities? 

Secretary MABUS. a. Admiral Greenert testified that the costs associated with 

moving a nuclear carrier to Mayport were considered as part of the Navy’s ‘‘budget 

preparation’’, vice as an efficiency. This is not contradictory with Under Secretary 

Work’s statement that the costs associated with moving a nuclear carrier to 

Mayport were not considered in the efficiency initiatives. 

b. This proposal was not evaluated as part of the efficiency initiatives. 

c. Both are strategic priorities. The Navy’s budget submission represents the best 

balance of funding amongst all priorities. 

d. The Navy’s FY12 budget submission, which includes $15M for road improvements at Naval Station Mayport, and an additional $398M in other related 

MILCON across the FYDP for completing the remaining projects necessary to homeport a carrier there, represents the best balance of funding amongst all the Navy’s 

priorities. Although we will defer $367M of maintenance, primarily in the Surface 

Force, the work accomplished by the Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning 

Program (SURFMEPP) enables us to mitigate risk by scheduling and completing the 

most critical maintenance in FY12. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. GIFFORDS 

Ms. GIFFORDS. In relation to the Navy’s ‘‘Green Hornet’’ Program, where a Navy 

F/A–18 successfully completed test flights using a 50/50 bio-fuel blend and the Marines Corps’ 3rd Battalion 5th Marines employment of the Experimental Forward 

Operating Base (ExFOB) in Afghanistan can you answer the following questions: 

• How do these types of programs fit within the context of the Navy’s overall 

Operational Energy Strategy? 

• What is the inter-service process for sharing these operational energy lessons 

learned? 

• Can you describe the strategic impact of access to a scaleable bio-fuel on the 

Department of the Navy’s global roles and responsibilities? 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy’s Biofuels Program and the 

Marine Corps’ Experimental Forward Operating Base Program are on the leading 

edge of our Operational Energy initiatives. In order to achieve the SECNAV goal 

of having 50% of Department of the Navy’s energy come from alternative sources 

by 2020, we need to be bold and innovative. Our operational energy strategy relies 

on programs like these to continually push the envelope. 

Within our biofuels program, we are sharing data and information on our testing 

and certification process on our hydrotreated renewable jet fuels. We are going to 

work together on the CV–22/MV–22 airframe since Navy and Air Force both fly it. 

With the lessons learned in our Experimental Forward Operating Base, we are 

sharing the technologies and information with the Navy Expeditionary Warfare 

Group and the Army. 
175 

The Department of the Navy’s switch to biofuels, in and of itself, will not reduce 

the nation’s total energy consumption by a significant margin. To achieve this and 

extend our tactical reach, the Department of the Navy is pursuing energy efficiency 

initiatives, which together with the use of alternative fuels will achieve significant 

cost savings, guarantee energy supply, and reduce operational risk. 

Benefits of our approach include: 

• Cost savings. Increasing our use of alternative energy sources helps us achieve 

a level of protection from energy price volatility. For every $10 increase in the 

cost of a barrel of oil, the Navy spends an additional $300 million dollars a year. 

Operating more efficiently saves money by reducing the amount we spend for 

fuel. Savings can be reinvested to strengthen combat capability. The cheapest 

barrel of fuel afloat or kilowatt-hour ashore is the one we will never use. 

• Guaranteed Supply. Our reliance on energy can be exploited by potential adversaries. Efficiency and alternatives may be our best countermeasure. Energy 

efficiency increases our mission effectiveness by expanding our range and endurance, and reducing our need for logistics support. Efficiency improvements 

minimize operational risks of that logistics tether, saving time, money, and 

lives. Alternative fuels provide the Navy an ‘off-ramp from petroleum,’ mitigating the risk to a volatile and ever more expensive petroleum market. 

• Early Adopter of Technologies. The military has often led in the development of new technologies where there was a compelling military use, even if 

the civilian use was ultimately greater (ex. GPS, the Internet). The operational 

use of alternative fuels by the Department of the Navy will be hastened by collaborating with federal agencies and private industry at every step of the research, development, and certification process. The alternative fuel program establishes the Department of the Navy as an early adopter for investors in a nascent industry that could significantly enhance energy security, and thereby national security, in the mid- to long-term. 

• Fossil Fuel Independence. The Navy recognizes that our dependence on fossil 

fuels and foreign sources of oil makes us more susceptible to price shocks, supply shocks, natural and man-made disasters, and political unrest in countries 

far from our shores. 

• Combat Capability. Making our ships and aircraft more efficient improves 

their fuel economy. We can increase the days between refueling for our ships, 

improving their security and combat capability. We can also extend the range 

of our aircraft strike missions, allowing us to launch our aircraft farther away 

from combat areas. Increasing our efficiency and the diversity in our sources of 

fuel improves our combat capability strategically and tactically. 

QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. MILLER 

Mr. MILLER. Secretary Mabus, according to recent media reports, the Secretary 

of the Army has halted the insourcing of contractor positions within his department 

because the expected cost savings were not realized. Do you plan to implement a 

similar freeze within the Department of the Navy? 

Secretary MABUS. The DON is not abandoning all in-sourcing, but re-evaluating 

priorities and all workforce balancing efforts to meet FY 2012 budget expectations. 
176 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. KISSELL 

Mr. KISSELL. 1. When will the Navy achieve a 50% bio-fuel usage level? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. DoN does not have a specific bio-fuel usage goal. The Secretary of the Navy’s goal is for DoN tactical energy use to consume at least 50% 

alternative energy, to include nuclear, by 2020. 

Mr. KISSELL. 2. What percent of Navy fuel is nuclear? What percentage will be 

nuclear once we achieve 50% bio-fuel usage level? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Tactical fuel usage is defined as all fuel usage to maintain 

operations of our ships (including logistics ships), submarines, aircraft, and expeditionary ground vehicles/equipment. The Navy currently utilizes nuclear propulsion 

only for its aircraft carriers and submarines. As the below graph indicates, the 

Navy’s tactical energy usage today is 72% petroleum and 28% nuclear power. Nuclear power’s contribution is not projected to change appreciably as the Navy goes 

about achieving the Secretary of the Navy’s energy goal of 50% alternatives by 2020. 

As is graphically depicted, Navy’s Energy Vision is multi-faceted: enhancing our 

combat capability through operational efficiencies, an ethos towards energy that 

saves us 5M barrels of oil per year by 2020, and supplanting 8M barrels of petroleum with ‘drop-in’ biofuels to give us an ‘off-ramp’, in terms of price and availability, from petroleum. Much of this fuel, particularly for our local training needs, 

could be domestically produced. Together with nuclear, these new fuels will reduce 

our risk to petroleum volatility. 
177 

Mr. KISSELL. 3. What type of bio-fuel is being utilized? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy is currently testing and evaluating hydrotreated 

renewable fuels. These fuels are derived from algae and camelina. 

Mr. KISSELL. 4. What is the Navy’s/DOD’s primary source of bio-fuel? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy is currently testing and evaluating hydrotreated 

renewable fuels derived from algae and camelina. Defense Logistics Agency—Energy 

(DLA Energy) procures all fuels for the Navy through competitive procurement. 

Mr. KISSELL. 5. What is the daily percentage of bio-fuel consumption in all Department of the Navy operations? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Bio-fuel usage for tactical systems is limited to test and evaluation only. It is not yet approved for operational use and therefore not currently 

incorporated into the DON fuel supply. 

Mr. KISSELL. 6. What percentage of total naval fuel consumption is this (bio-fuel 

usage)? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Currently 0% of total naval tactical fuel consumption is from 

biofuel. In FY09 and FY10, 285,000 gallons of bio-fuel were procured for test and 

evaluation purposes only. 

Mr. KISSELL. 7. What is the Navy’s current capability to produce bio-fuels? If the 

Navy is not the lead on production then what efforts are the Navy and the Department of Defense taking to establish a production capacity that will facilitate a 50% 

bio-fuel usage by 2020? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy is only testing and evaluating biofuel to support 

the Secretary of the Navy’s goal for 50% alternative energy use (including nuclear) 

by 2020. The Navy is not producing and does not plan to produce bio-fuel. The Navy 

and the Department of Defense are partnering with commercial entities that use 

biofuels to establish a demand signal that demonstrates industry viability. Additionally, the Navy and Department of Defense are partnering with the Department of 

Energy and the US Department of Agriculture to spur biofuel development. 

Mr. KISSELL. 8. What generation bio-fuel is being utilized? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The classification system used to categorize the generation 

of bio-fuels has not been standardized; however, the Navy is testing a range of biofuels, which include those considered to be second or third generation fuels. 

Mr. KISSELL. 9. What efforts/initiatives is the Navy implementing to address the 

Chinese anti-ship missile? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy has made significant investment in kinetic and 

non-kinetic capabilities to counter the threat of anti-ship ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, including increased investment in Aegis modernization, 

which will upgrade our existing Aegis technology to continually improve our Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability. I would be pleased to provide a classified 

briefing for you to address our efforts in more detail. 

Mr. KISSELL. What is the impact to the 3–1 dwell time effort by the Marine Corps, 

once the Marine Corps achieves their target reduction of at least ∼15,000 Marines? 

General AMOS. Our overall objective is a 1:3 deployment-to-dwell ratio for the Marine Corps Active Component and a 1:5 deployment-to-dwell ratio for the Reserve 

Component in a post-Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) environment. Currently, my stated goal, in concert with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is for 

deployment-to-dwell ratios in support of combat operations in Afghanistan to be 1:2 

for the Marine Corps Active Component and 1:4 for the Reserve Component. 

Based on our current force level in support of OEF and other global force requirements, the Marine Corps could achieve a 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio across the 

Service within 18–24 months following the scheduled OEF draw-down. The Marine 

Corps’ deployment-to-dwell ratio will continue to improve in a post-OEF environment and reach the stated goals of 1:3/1:5 as we balance requirements in support 

of the Geographic Combatant Commanders and the President’s draw-down plan for 

Afghanistan. 

Establishing a sustainable deployment-to-dwell ratio is based upon forces available and the need to meet our global operational demands. We will closely monitor 

the pace of reduction in our end strength to best support Geographical Combatant 

Commander requirements while also fostering the best health and resiliency of our 

Total Force. 

Mr. KISSELL. If the Marines are going to maintain their amphibious, assault capability following the cancellation of the EFV (Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle). What 

efforts are currently ongoing by the Marine Corps to maintain this capability? How 

quickly will the Marines introduce a proposal to take the EFV’s place or refurbish 

their current fleet of amphibious assault vehicles? What is the expected refurbishment and maintenance cost to ensure an operational capability with an older fleet 

and what is the timeline for refurbishment? 
178 

General AMOS. Instead of procuring the EFV, the Marine Corps will pursue an 

integrated new vehicle program crafted from the beginning for affordability and taking advantage of the investment made in the EFV. As we move forward, the Marine 

Corps intends to mitigate risks associated with a new vehicle program and to maximize value by the use of an integrated acquisition portfolio approach. This approach 

will have three efforts: 1) an acceleration of the planned procurement of Marine Personnel Carriers (MPC); 2) investment in a service life extension program (SLEP) 

and upgrades for a portion of the existing amphibious assault vehicles (AAV); and 

3) the development of a new amphibious combat vehicle (ACV). We will manage the 

overall requirements and acquisition of these from a portfolio perspective. From an 

investment perspective, and understanding the imperative for a modern amphibious 

vehicle capability, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle emerges as a priority effort. 

From the perspective of current operations and near term relevance, the AAV 

SLEP is a near-term operational priority. We must upgrade a portion of the current 

inventory of AAVs now in order to provide a more survivable capability until the 

ACV is fielded. The complementary capability to achieve greater protection for our 

forces is the Marine Personnel Carrier. 

The Amphibious Combat Vehicle and the Marine Personnel Carrier represent the 

modern and enduring capability solution. The ACV will provide the surface amphibious assault capability and will be the heavy armored combat vehicle during sustained operations ashore. The MPC will provide armored mobility for the reinforcing 

element of the amphibious assault and will also provide armor protected mobility 

during sustained operations ashore. As the MPC is a wheeled vehicle, we envision 

it as a versatile platform capable of employment across the Range of Military Operations and in urban settings, and it will incorporate the high levels of underbody 

protection needed in an irregular warfare environment. Together, the ACV and 

MPC will satisfy the Marine Corps’ lift requirement for 12 infantry battalions– 8 

Battalions supported by ACV and 4 Battalions supported by MPC. 

Prior to EFV cancellation, we funded a basic AAV Survivability Improvement Program which would add armor and blast protective seats, and also would move the 

fuel tank. Early analysis in support of that effort has begun and will proceed to research and development in FY12. We are now developing an additional upgrade for 

the AAV. This new initiative is intended to improve the AAV’s mobility, lethality, 

communications, environmental and habitability capabilities and provide a bridge in 

capability until the Amphibious Combat Vehicle enters service. The timing of the 

decision for a comprehensive SLEP is dependent on how rapidly we can acquire a 

replacement amphibious vehicle. 

The Marine Corps released a series of ‘‘Requests for Information’’ (RFI) to industry in February covering the three vehicles that comprise the Amphibious Vehicle 

portfolio. Responses to the RFI, received in May, will provide a better understanding 

of available technology and associated costs. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WILSON 

Mr. WILSON. General Amos, the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a letter conveying their ‘‘strong support for the military health care program changes that are 

included in the President’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget.’’ 

a. Please explain in your own words why you support the proposed changes. 

b. These changes will go beyond the beneficiaries and will impact the people who 

support the Department of Defense health system. Are you concerned about the implications these changes will have on hospital employees, pharmacists, vendors, just 

to name a few? In your opinion, will these effects harm the quality and access to 

care for our service members, military retirees, and their families? 

c. For example, there are hospitals located very close to Camp Lejeune, New River 

Air Station, Beaufort Air Station, Parris Island and Yuma Air Station that will be 

significantly affected by the plan to reduce the rate that TRICARE pays them to 

care for our beneficiaries. Does that concern you? 

General AMOS. I support the proposed changes because I believe they will allow 

the Department of Defense to continue providing the finest health care benefits in 

the country for our active and retired service members and their families while also 

ensuring that the Department remains a responsible financial steward of the taxpayers’ investment in our military. The Marine Corps, along with the other Services, 

will actively monitor any negative trends on access to or quality of care, but I do 

not anticipate any unfavorable impacts in these parameters as a result of the military health care program proposals outlined in the President’s FY12 budget. 

The proposed changes will facilitate the application of current Medicare criteria 

to determine which hospitals that provide access to service members should receive 
179 

special designations to ensure that they are appropriately compensated. These criteria are applied to all hospitals in the United States that request a special status 

from Medicare. TRICARE has similarly adopted these criteria to appropriately compensate hospitals that regularly support service member care. 

Some hospitals that regularly receive TRICARE funding, including some that 

serve Marines, have received a special designation in the past for which they may 

no longer qualify due to changes peculiar to their local conditions. In these cases, 

a level playing field would dictate that they be re-classified. 

Mr. WILSON. General Amos, in light of the results of the F–35’s technical baseline 

review and the previous initial operating capability date of 2012, when does the Marine Corps now plan to achieve F–35B initial operating capability? 

General AMOS. Our plan is to maintain our operational requirements, field the 

aircraft, train to the capabilities as they are cleared for operational use and achieve 

Initial Operating Capability (IOC) when the program office and contractor delivers 

the aircraft without limitations. IOC will depend on the results of the Joint Program 

Office technical and sustainment reviews. It also will depend on when we have a 

more clear understanding on flight test plans, software development improvements, 

and aircraft delivery schedules. 

Delivery of aircraft to the first training squadron will occur later this year. Delivery of our first operational aircraft is anticipated in 2012. 

Mr. WILSON. General Amos, what risks do you see of the F–35B not meeting its 

cost, schedule, and performance objectives in the two-year probationary period? 

General AMOS. The current two-year probationary period brings with it a reduced 

rate of production. In turn, this slows down our rate of transition from legacy tactical fighter aircraft—F/A–18 and AV–8B—all of which are nearing the end of their 

service lives. While we are pursuing Service Life Extension Programs of these older 

4th generation planes to mitigate risk and be a bridging capability until we fully 

field the F–35B, extended delays in this transition process will place greater burdens on our already operationally stressed legacy platforms. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. SUTTON 

Ms. SUTTON. A key component of modernizing our infrastructure, preserving our 

military assets, and saving money in the process is adopting a robust corrosion prevention and mitigation strategy. It is not a glamorous topic, but it’s one that is 

worth our time and attention, especially given the potential savings if we address 

it in a smart and appropriate way. 

The San Diego Business Journal reported on Monday, February 28 about the 

struggles the Navy faces with respect to rust and corrosion. The article quotes retired Navy captain Pat Garrett, who spoke of the early decommissioning of ships 

in the Spruance class partly due to decay of the vessels. 

If you could, I’d like to hear—with respect to the Navy and Marine Corps—what 

potential issues you may face with corrosion. 

Are there any specific programs or assets currently experiencing these problems 

due to corrosion? How can this committee best support DoD prevention and mitigation efforts to tackle corrosion and do you believe sufficient funding and resources 

have been devoted to address this issue? 

Secretary MABUS and General AMOS. Due to the location of many of our bases 

near significant bodies of water and the amphibious nature of our operations, Marine Corps maintenance efforts against corrosion are critical to extending the lifecycle and preserving the readiness of the fleet. Our assets stationed in Japan and 

Hawaii are most susceptible to corrosion due to the humid environment. One of the 

assets most damaged by corrosion is the quad container, often requiring extensive 

repair or disposal and procurement of new assets. 

Over the past several years, the Marine Corps has developed a robust Corrosion 

Prevention and Control Program (CPAC) focused on the identification of corrosion 

levels on our ground tactical equipment; followed by correction of the corrosion damage identified; and finally by the prevention and management of corrosion levels on 

ground tactical equipment. Our CPAC protocol is currently tracking and maintaining corrosion levels on more than 71,000 assets. We globally employ eight Mobile 

Corrosion Service Teams that update corrosion assessment data and apply Corrosion Prevention Compounds to preserve and protect Marine Corps equipment from 

harsh operating environments. 

The Marine Corps also maintains a field-level repair capability that repairs corrosion related damage when identified through the corrosion assessments completed 

by the Marine Corps CPAC Program Office. The field-level Corrosion Repair Facilities provide the operational commander with the capability to repair equipment. 
180 

The Marine Corps has also developed a robust on-the-lot Dehumidification Program which provides the unit commander with dehumidified space for staging 

equipment when not in-use. Previous reports identify an investment return at a 

minimum of 9:1, with the use of dehumidification in protecting equipment. 

The Marine Corps CPAC Program Office maintains an aggressive research and 

development program to locate, identify, evaluate and/or develop best corrosion prevention materials and procedures. These efforts support both the acquisition community and the field user. 

Our investment in corrosion prevention and control over the past several years 

will continue to pay dividends by decreasing total ownership costs and improving 

equipment readiness. However, as budgets become increasingly constrained, a major 

challenge will be maintaining sufficient operations and maintenance funding in the 

baseline budgets for corrosion control. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. TURNER 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, can you discuss how the missile defense mission 

and the multi-mission capability of Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships are 

affecting the overall force structure requirements for the Aegis fleet? How is the 

Navy managing the limited number of Aegis BMD ships when demand is greater 

than supply? 

Secretary MABUS. Navy force structure accounts for the employment of Aegis 

ships in multi-mission roles rather than for exclusive missions, such as BMD, on 

an enduring basis. Single mission use, as for BMD, may result in shortages in other 

mission areas and a loss of operational flexibility for the Geographic Combatant 

Commander (GCC). 

The preferred Navy operating concept for maritime BMD features a graduated 

readiness posture that would allow BMD-capable surface combatants to be on an 

operational tether and available for other tasking when not directly involved in active BMD operations. Surface combatants operating in support of a BMD mission 

do not lose the capability to conduct other missions; however, specific mission effectiveness may be affected by ships’ position and/or application of ship resources to 

those missions. 

Navy analysis of evolving BMD and other mission area requirements indicates 

that the current Navy BMD upgrade plan will support BMD Global Force Management requirements while simultaneously fulfilling Navy’s requirements in other 

mission areas. 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, according to a Defense News article in June 2010, 

‘‘U.S. Aegis Radars’ Readiness Plunges,’’ the Aegis radar systems are ‘‘in their worst 

shape ever, raising questions about the surface fleet’s ability to take on its highprofile new mission next year defending Europe from ballistic missiles.’’ Discuss any 

Aegis readiness concerns you may have and how it might impact the Navy’s ability 

to meet missile defense mission requirements. 

Secretary MABUS. I am confident in Navy’s ability to meet our missile defense requirements. While several reports and studies completed last year, as part of Navy’s 

ongoing self-assessment and continuous improvement initiative, did indicate the beginning of some declining trends in various elements of Aegis readiness, the overall 

readiness of the Aegis Fleet remains high. A product of their ongoing success, the 

elevated standards employed in measuring Aegis readiness can lead to the 

misperception that these ships are having difficulty meeting their assigned missions—nothing could be further from the truth. However, in light of Aegis’ role in 

ballistic missile defense, a study was initiated to integrate previous study efforts 

and provide a holistic assessment of Aegis readiness in terms of interoperability, 

maintainability, test & evaluation, manpower, training, and current development efforts. As has always been the case, Navy will continue improving Aegis readiness 

in a targeted, affordable manner to ensure that Aegis warships remain ready for 

tasking. I remain confident in the ability of Aegis ships’ to meet warfighter requirements today and in the future. 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, what specific changes in nuclear deterrence requirements or change in nuclear strategy have allowed the Navy to further reduce 

SSBN missile tubes from 20, as specified in May 2010 by the Secretary of Defense, 

to 16 missile tubes? 

Secretary MABUS. There have been no changes in nuclear deterrence requirements 

or nuclear strategy following the submission of the New START Treaty implementation plan (NDAA FY10 Section 1251 Report) in May 2010. While the Department 

of Defense’s implementation plan reduced the number of operational missile tubes 

from 24 to 20 on the current OHIO Class SSBNs, the OHIO Replacement SSBN will 
181 

be operational in the 2030 to 2080 timeframe beyond the period of treaty governance 

(2011–2021 with an option for a single extension to 2026). 

Coincident with the submission of the New START implementation plan, the 

Navy conducted an in-depth, extensive review of the capability requirements for the 

OHIO Replacement SSBN in parallel with development of the Service Cost Position 

required at Milestone A. This analysis concluded that even if the number of operationally deployed warheads assigned to the sea-based leg of the Triad remains constant after the New START treaty expires (an assumption that does not reflect a 

policy supporting downward reliance on nuclear weapons outlined in the Nuclear 

Posture Review), a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 16 missile tubes can 

carry all the sea-based warheads and maintain excess capacity in the event of a fundamental deterioration of the security environment or as a hedge against technical 

challenges within one or more of the other legs of the triad. 

It is the Navy’s judgment that the Nation’s sea-based strategic requirements can 

be met with a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 16 tubes and that a 20 

tube variant would inappropriately sacrifice other conventional shipbuilding requirements for unneeded excess capacity. OSD, Joint Staff and U.S. Strategic Command 

have since concurred with the Navy’s position on this military requirement. 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, the SSBN(X) is expected to have a service life of 

over 60 years. The threat and strategic environment can change significantly over 

the course of 60 years. What planning assumptions—both nuclear and nonnuclear— 

are being made? How do they affect the number of missile tubes per hull and what 

sensitivity analysis has been done? 

Secretary MABUS. The OHIO Replacement SSBN is being developed as a replacement for the current OHIO Class SSBN. The OHIO Replacement SSBN force is 

planned to consist of 12 SSBNs which will replace the current 14 OHIO SSBNs. The 

concept of operations for the OHIO Replacement SSBN is similar to the current 

OHIO Class SSBN, employing in-port and at-sea rotational patrols using a two-crew 

concept designed to meet U.S. Strategic Command at-sea presence and generation 

requirements. A force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs will maintain the same presence level as 14 OHIO SSBNs due to elimination of nuclear refueling and maintenance items during the mid-life maintenance period. 

The survivability of individual SSBNs as well as the SSBN force is a key attribute 

to meet the requirement for a survivable assured response. The current OHIO class 

with the TRIDENT II D5 Life Extension (LE) missile is the nation’s most survivable 

leg of the US nuclear deterrent force and will serve in strategic service from 1982 

to 2040. To ensure the SSBN force remains survivable, the SSBN Security Program 

in collaboration with the Office of Naval Intelligence and Johns Hopkins Applied 

Physics Laboratory has, over the past 40 years, anticipated potential threats and 

developed appropriate countermeasures to enhance survivability and protect SSBNs. 

Consistent with direction in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and FY12–16 

Defense Planning and Programmatic Guidance, the SSBN Security Program is an 

integral part of the development of the key survivability characteristics for the 

OHIO Replacement SSBN. This process included an extensive review of current and 

future threats as well as potential submarine vulnerabilities. The resultant acoustic 

and non acoustic performance of the OHIO Replacement SSBN will deter an adversary from attempting to hold a platform or the SSBN force at risk on patrol. 

The Navy conducted an in-depth, extensive review of the capability requirements 

for the OHIO Replacement SSBN in parallel with development of the Service Cost 

Position required at Milestone A. This analysis concluded that even if the number 

of operationally deployed warheads assigned to the sea-based leg of the Triad remains constant after the New START treaty expires (an assumption that does not 

reflect the 2010 NPR recommendation for decreasing reliance on nuclear weapons), 

a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 16 missile tubes can carry all the seabased warheads and maintain excess capacity in the event of a fundamental deterioration of the security environment or as a hedge against technical challenges within 

one or more of the other legs of the triad. 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, the committee understands the Navy has completed an updated cost estimate for SSBN(X). What is the new cost estimate for the 

average follow-on unit end cost, what is the margin of error in this cost estimate, 

and what is the estimate for the cost savings attributable to the reduction from 20 

to 16 missile tubes? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department has assigned an affordability target for the average procurement for hulls 2–12 of $4.9 billion (CY 10$, using Navy inflation/deflation indices, excluding outfitting and post delivery). 

Mr. TURNER. Secretary Mabus, what would be the costs to construct additional 

SSBN(X)-class submarines if it is determined in the future that the U.S. has insuffi-
182 

cient capacity to meet its nuclear strategy and mission requirements? For example, 

what would the cost of one additional submarine be in the 2035 timeframe? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department has assigned an affordability target for the average procurement for hulls 2–12 of $4.9 billion (CY 10$, using Navy inflation/deflation indices, excluding outfitting and post delivery). 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, can you discuss how the missile defense mission 

and the multi-mission capability of Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships are 

affecting the overall force structure requirements for the Aegis fleet? How is the 

Navy managing the limited number of Aegis BMD ships when demand is greater 

than supply? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy currently has sufficient capacity to meet the most 

critical demands for its multi-mission Aegis ships; however, we do not have the capacity to meet all Geographic Combatant Commander (GCC) demands for Ballistic 

Missile Defense (BMD) without exceeding established Personnel Tempo program 

limits for deployment lengths, dwell tempo, or homeport tempo. Based on threat 

analysis and current indications from GCCs, and assuming standard six month deployment lengths, the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) concluded that 

GCC demand for surface combatants with Aegis BMD capability will outpace capacity through approximately 2018. 

To meet the increasing demand for these ships and reduce the risk to our long 

term force structure caused by the increased operational tempo from longer deployment lengths, the Navy, working in conjunction with MDA, has established a plan 

(see Figure 1 on page 165) to increase the number of BMD-capable Aegis ships 

from 23 in FY2011 to 41 in FY2016. This plan balances the need for meeting current operational requirements against the need to upgrade existing BMD-capable 

Aegis ships to pace the future threat. Included in this plan are increases in the 

Navy’s capacity and the capabilities of Aegis ships through the installation of an 

Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite, the Aegis Modernization program, or new construction 

(commencing with DDG–113). 

To mitigate the impact of the BMD mission, Navy has implemented an operating 

concept for AEGIS ship’s conducting BMD missions that features a graduated readiness posture that allows BMD-capable surface combatants to be on an operational 

tether and available for other tasking when not directly involved in active BMD operations. Surface combatants operating in support of a BMD mission do not lose the 

capability to conduct other missions; however, specific mission effectiveness may be 

affected by ships’ position and/or application of ship resources to those missions. 

Navy analysis of evolving BMD and other mission area requirements indicates 

that the current Navy BMD upgrade plan will support BMD Global Force Management requirements while simultaneously fulfilling Navy’s requirements in other 

mission areas. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, according to a Defense News article in June 

2010, ‘‘U.S. Aegis Radars’ Readiness Plunges,’’ the Aegis radar systems are ‘‘in their 

worst shape ever, raising questions about the surface fleet’s ability to take on its 

high-profile new mission next year defending Europe from ballistic missiles.’’ Discuss any Aegis readiness concerns you may have and how it might impact the 

Navy’s ability to meet missile defense mission requirements. 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. I am confident in Navy’s ability to meet our missile defense 

requirements. While several reports and studies completed last year, as part of 

Navy’s ongoing self-assessment and continuous improvement initiative, did indicate 

the beginning of some declining trends in various elements of Aegis readiness, the 

overall readiness of the Aegis Fleet remains high. A product of their ongoing success, the elevated standards employed in measuring Aegis readiness can lead to the 

misperception that these ships are having difficulty meeting their assigned missions—nothing could be further from the truth. In light of Aegis’ role in ballistic 

missile defense, a study was initiated to integrate previous study efforts and provide 

a holistic assessment of Aegis readiness in terms of interoperability, maintainability, test & evaluation, manpower, training, and current development efforts. As 

has always been the case, Navy will continue improving Aegis readiness in a targeted, affordable manner to ensure that Aegis warships remain ready for tasking. 

I remain confident in the ability of Aegis ships’ to meet warfighter requirements 

today and in the future. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, in his January 6th efficiencies announcement 

Secretary Gates stated that ‘‘analysis by the Navy and Marine Corps’’ suggests that 

the most plausible scenarios requiring power projection from the sea could be handled through a mix of existing air and sea systems employed in new ways along 

with new vehicles—scenarios that do not require the exquisite features of the EFV.’’ 
183 

Can you describe the analytical work Secretary Gates is referring to in his statement? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy and Marine Corps have conducted campaign analysis and war gaming examining scenarios requiring power projection from the sea 

using the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) as well as the legacy Amphibious 

Assault Vehicle (AAV) and our current and projected suite of air assault connectors. 

The analysis used official threat assessments and modeled battlespace preparation 

in order to define threats to landings. 

Using fielded and planned capabilities to conduct pre-assault battlespace preparation, the Navy assessed that U.S. weapons and sensors will allow amphibious ships 

to operate at 12 nm from the coast with acceptable risk against any residual 

threats. This analysis suggests a 25 nm assault range of the EFV may not be required. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, what specific changes in nuclear deterrence requirements or change in nuclear strategy have allowed the Navy to further reduce 

SSBN missile tubes from 20, as specified in May 2010 by the Secretary of Defense, 

to 16 missile tubes? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. There have been no changes in nuclear deterrence requirements or nuclear strategy following the submission of the New START Treaty implementation plan (NDAA FY10 Section 1251 Report) in May 2010. Coincident with 

the submission of the New START implementation plan, the Navy conducted an indepth, extensive review of the capability requirements for the OHIO Replacement 

SSBN in parallel with development of the Service Cost Position required at Milestone A. This analysis concluded that a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 

16 missile tubes can carry all the sea-based warheads and maintain sufficient excess 

capacity for the future. It is the Navy’s judgment that the nation’s sea-based strategic requirements can be met with a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 

16 tubes and that a 20 tube variant would inappropriately sacrifice other conventional shipbuilding requirements for unneeded excess capacity. OSD, Joint Staff and 

U.S. Strategic Command concur with the Navy’s position on this military requirement. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, the SSBN(X) is expected to have a service life 

of over 60 years. The threat and strategic environment can change significantly over 

the course of 60 years. What planning assumptions—both nuclear and nonnuclear— 

are being made? How do they affect the number of missile tubes per hull and what 

sensitivity analysis has been done? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy plans to build 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs to replace the 14 OHIO SSBNs currently in the Fleet. The concept of operations for the 

OHIO Replacement SSBN is similar to the current OHIO Class SSBN in that it will 

employ in-port and at-sea rotational patrols, using a two-crew concept, to meet U.S. 

Strategic Command at-sea presence and force generation requirements. A force of 

12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs will maintain the same presence level as 14 OHIO 

SSBNs due to elimination of nuclear refueling and maintenance items during the 

mid-life maintenance period. 

The survivability of individual SSBNs and the SSBN force as a whole is a key 

attribute to meeting the requirement for a survivable assured response. The current 

OHIO class with the TRIDENT II D5 Life Extension (LE) missile is the nation’s 

most survivable leg of the US nuclear deterrent force and will serve in strategic 

service from 1982 to 2040. To ensure the SSBN force remains survivable, the SSBN 

Security Program in collaboration with the Office of Naval Intelligence and Johns 

Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has, over the past 40 years, anticipated potential threats and developed appropriate countermeasures to enhance survivability 

and protect SSBNs. Consistent with direction in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review 

(NPR) and FY12–16 Defense Planning and Programmatic Guidance, the SSBN Security Program is an integral part of the development of the key survivability characteristics for the OHIO Replacement SSBN. This process included an extensive review of current and future threats as well as potential submarine vulnerabilities. 

The resultant acoustic and non acoustic performance of the OHIO Replacement 

SSBN will deter an adversary from attempting to hold a platform or the SSBN force 

at risk on patrol. 

The Navy conducted an in-depth, extensive review of the capability requirements 

for the OHIO Replacement SSBN in parallel with development of the Service Cost 

Position required at Milestone A. This analysis concluded that even if the number 

of operationally deployed warheads assigned to the sea-based leg of the Triad remains constant after the New START treaty expires (an assumption that does not 

reflect the 2010 NPR recommendation for decreasing reliance on nuclear weapons), 

a force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs with 16 missile tubes can carry all the seabased warheads and maintain excess capacity in the event of a fundamental deterio-
184 

1 2008—Naval Campaign Analysis (2024) sponsored by OPNAV N816 and Marine Corps Combat Development Center (MCCDC) defines battlespace preparation completed by the initial landing and residual threat. The Naval Campaign is based on the 19 Sep 2007 MCO 1 Swiftly Defeat the Efforts 2014 Multi-Service Force Deployment. 2 2009—The Simulation Analysis Center of OSD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation 

Directorate led the MCO–1 Swiftly Defeat the Efforts 2014 Analytic Baseline. 

ration of the security environment or as a hedge against technical challenges within 

one or more of the other legs of the triad. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, the committee understands the Navy has completed an updated cost estimate for SSBN(X). What is the new cost estimate for the 

average follow-on unit end cost, what is the margin of error in this cost estimate, 

and what is the estimate for the cost savings attributable to the reduction from 20 

to 16 missile tubes? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The OHIO Replacement Milestone (MS) A Service Cost Posi- tion for the average follow-ship end cost (hulls 2–12) in CY10$ is $5.6B (using Navy 

inflation/deflation indices, excluding outfitting and post delivery). Additionally, the 

MS A Acquisition Decision Memorandum assigned an affordability target for the average follow-ship end cost (hulls 2–12, using Navy inflation/deflation indices, excluding outfitting and post delivery) of $4.9B in CY10$. 

The cost savings associated with a 16-tube vs. a 20-tube OHIO Replacement SSBN design is expected to be approximately $0.2B per ship (CY10$; average followship hulls 2–12), which when combined with a reduction of approximately $0.5B of 

non-recurring engineering costs for the first ship plus lead ship construction, result 

in a total class acquisition cost savings of approximately $3B (CY10$). These cost 

savings are in addition to those associated with decreased missile inventory requirements for the 16 tube variant. 

Mr. TURNER. Admiral Roughead, what would be the costs to construct additional 

SSBN(X)-class submarines if it is determined in the future that the U.S. has insufficient capacity to meet its nuclear strategy and mission requirements? For example, 

what would the cost of one additional submarine be in the 2035 timeframe? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The OHIO Replacement Program has a Milestone (MS) A Service Cost Position of $5.6B CY10 and an affordability target of $4.9B CY10 for 

average follow-ship end cost (hulls 2–12, including Navy inflation/deflation indices, 

excluding outfitting and post delivery). Assuming the cost target is achieved, an additional hull awarded at the end of the current planned production line would be 

expected to cost less than $4.9B (CY10$). A force of 12 OHIO Replacement SSBNs 

meets U. S. Strategic Command’s at-sea presence requirements. 

Mr. TURNER. General Amos, what effect will a reduction of 15,300 Marines have 

on individual dwell time ratios? Do you expect to meet the 1 to 3 dwell time goal? 

General AMOS. Our overall objective is a 1:3 deployment-to-dwell ratio for the Marine Corps Active Component and a 1:5 deployment-to-dwell ratio for the Reserve 

Component in a post-Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) environment. Currently, my stated goal, in concert with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is for 

deployment-to-dwell ratios in support of combat operations in Afghanistan to be 1:2 

for the Marine Corps Active Component and 1:4 for the Reserve Component. 

Based on the current USMC force level in support of OEF and other global force 

requirements, the Marine Corps could achieve a 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio across 

the Service within 18–24 months following the scheduled OEF draw-down. The Marine Corps deployment-to-dwell ratio will continue to improve in a post-OEF environment and reach the stated goals of 1:3/1:5 as we balance requirements in support 

of the Geographic Combatant Commanders and the President’s draw-down plan for 

Afghanistan. 

Establishing a sustainable deployment-to-dwell ratio is based upon forces available and the need to meet our global operational demands. We will closely monitor 

the pace of reduction in our end strength to best support Geographical Combatant 

Commander requirements while also fostering the best health and resiliency of our 

Total Force. 

Mr. TURNER. General Amos, in his January 6th efficiencies announcement Secretary Gates stated that ‘‘analysis by the Navy and Marine Corps’’ suggests that the 

most plausible scenarios requiring power projection from the sea could be handled 

through a mix of existing air and sea systems employed in new ways along with 

new vehicles—scenarios that do not require the exquisite features of the EFV.’’ Can 

you describe the analytical work Secretary Gates is referring to in his statement? 

General AMOS. The Navy and Marine Corps conducted campaign analysis 1 and 

a war game examining scenarios 2 requiring power projection from the sea using the 

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) as well as the legacy Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) and our current and projected suite of rotary and tilt wing aircraft. The 
185 

analysis used official threat assessments and modeled battle-space preparation in 

order to define threats to amphibious landings. 

The analysis assessed concurrent and separate landings from 25 nm off a coastline with one force using EFV and another force using AAVs delivered by Landing 

Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). The analysis did not specifically compare EFV and AAV 

in that the forces landed used different tactics, in different sites and facing different 

opposition. While both missions were accomplished, suggesting that the EFV may 

not be required, higher risk was incurred employing the LCAC/AAV as a result of 

a slower build-up of combat power ashore. In addition, the LCAC/AAVs required 

using vertical assaults to secure landing zones, losing the flexibility to maneuver 

deep inland. 

In February 2006, a systems threat assessment was conducted by Marine Corps 

Intelligence Activity and the Defense Intelligence Agency which supported a minimum distance of 10.8 nm from shore if the right capabilities were in place. Since 

that time, the Navy has assessed that employing planned U.S. capabilities in preassault operations will allow amphibious ships to operate at 12 nm from the coast 

with acceptable risk against any residual threats. This analysis suggests the 25 nm 

assault range of the EFV may no longer be required in light of the current capabilities. 

In March 2010, the Office of Program Appraisal ‘‘Assuring Operational Access’’ 

Wargame conducted three separate and distinct excursions using the former EFV 

program of record, the current capability set (i.e. AAV) and alternative capabilities 

(i.e. a notional Marine Expeditionary Maneuver Vehicle, and an experimental Ultra 

Heavy-lift Amphibious Connector). 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. FRANKS 

Mr. FRANKS. 1) Secretary Mabus, it is documented that the Aegis system has experienced setbacks, including failed tests and alleged ‘‘false positives’’. Furthermore, 

the radar system has also been criticized as being subpar and unable to meet operational expectations. The Aegis missile defense system is a vital part of our missile 

defense. What concerns do you have regarding Aegis operational readiness in light 

of its crucial role in our missile defense, and what is being done to address those 

concerns? Furthermore, can we rely on the Aegis system today if an attack were 

to occur during this hearing? 

Secretary MABUS. The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system is the most 

operationally ready, flexible, and effective regional missile defense system in the 

world and is in great demand by Combatant Commanders. Navy and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have achieved an unprecedented level of success with the Aegis 

BMD system and the SM–3 Block IA missile, accomplishing successful intercepts of 

ballistic targets in 18 of 21 exo-atmospheric tests. The system successfully intercepted and destroyed a de-orbiting satellite in February 2008. The system has also 

successfully intercepted 3 of 3 endo-atmospheric Short Range Ballistic targets in the 

terminal phase of flight using the SM–2 Block IV missile. In October 2008, Navy’s 

Operational Test and Evaluation Force declared, ‘‘The Block 4 Aegis, employing the 

Aegis 3.6 Combat System is operationally effective in the negation of Medium Range 

Ballistic Missiles and Short Range Ballistic Missiles and provides effective tracking 

of Long Range Ballistic Missiles for cueing of other Aegis, Aegis BMD, and DoD systems.’’ 

Navy is committed to maintaining the highest level of readiness for all Aegis 

BMD ships. Each ship undergoes extensive system evaluations prior to deployment 

knowing they may be tasked with BMD missions. Due to the high reliability required of the SPY radar while performing the BMD mission, selected critical spare 

parts have been augmented for these ships to ensure an even higher level of operational readiness. All ships currently employed on BMD missions are fully capable 

of providing the designed level of protection against ballistic missile threats. 

Mr. FRANKS. 2. Secretary Mabus, Aegis ships play large and various roles for 

Navy missions. One vulnerability that results from this multi-role is that the Aegis 

ship cannot fully defend itself during missile defense mode. Therefore, another Aegis 

ship is required to defend the Aegis ship in missile defense mode. Given the limited 

supply of Aegis ships, is this the best practice, or is there a better strategy to protect the Aegis ship in missile defense mode. How is the Navy addressing this situation of the limited Aegis fleet, and how can Congress help to make sure that our 

limited supply of Aegis ships are used in the best way possible? 

Secretary MABUS. From its inception, Aegis BMD was designed with three main 

objectives in mind. The ship would be 1) effective in conducting its assigned BMD 

mission; 2) able to survive air, surface, and subsurface attacks and; 3) be cost effec-
186 

tive. All Aegis BMD capable ships have the ability to defend themselves against 

both traditional and advanced air and cruise missile threats while also executing 

the BMD mission. This capability was initiated by Navy in 2003 and developed by 

Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Simultaneous BMD and Anti-Air Warfare engagements were demonstrated by USS LAKE ERIE on June 22, 2006 and this capability 

is the current BMD fleet standard. It is proven; it remains ready. 

An additional six Aegis BMD upgrades and installations were included in the 

President’s Budget 2012 for a total of 41 Aegis BMD ships by 2016. The Navy continues to work with MDA to ensure that further BMD upgrades will improve the 

multi-mission capabilities of our BMD ships. Finally, the Navy utilizes the Global 

Force Management process and coordinates closely with the Combatant Commanders to ensure the best possible use of our Aegis multi-mission ships. 

Mr. FRANKS. 3) Last year, the Navy testified that sea-based missile defense requirements for surface combatants (cruisers and destroyers) were still in the review. 

Has there been any progress in determining sea-based missile defense requirements 

as it relates to Navy surface combatant requirements, and if so, can you describe 

what the forward-based requirements are for Navy surface combatants and what 

that means to the battle-force inventory requirements? 

Secretary MABUS. Each Geographic Combatant Commander (GCC) determines its 

own requirements for surface combatants in each mission area. These requirements 

are adjudicated through the Department of Defense’s Global Force Management 

process, which allocates the available Aegis ships. The Navy currently has sufficient 

capacity to meet the most critical demands for multi-mission surface combatants; 

however, Navy does not have the capacity to meet GCC demands for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) surface combatants without breaking established deployment 

length redlines. Based on threat analysis and steady state presence indications from 

the GCCs, the Navy, working with Missile Defense Agency, have concluded that the 

demand for BMD-capable Aegis ships will outpace capacity through approximately 

2018, assuming standard six month deployment lengths. 

Sea-based BMD requirements in the United States Central Command and European Command are sourced through the rotation of Aegis ships home-ported in the 

United States. The Pacific Command’s sea-based BMD requirements are sourced 

primarily from the Forward Deployed Naval Force in Japan. 

As the demand for these ships increase, either the inventory of Aegis BMD-capable ships or deployment lengths must increase. Accordingly, Navy, in conjunction 

with MDA, has established a plan to increase the total number of Aegis BMD-capable ships across the FYDP from 21 to 41, of which 27 will be deployable in FY16. 

This plan includes the increase in capacity and capability of surface combatants either through the installation of the Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite or Aegis Modernization program, as well as through new construction (commencing with DDG 113). 

The addition of BMD capabilities to the Aegis Fleet provides improved operational 

flexibility to GCC and Fleet Commanders to fulfill their various missions. 

Mr. FRANKS. 1) Admiral Roughead, it is documented that the Aegis system has 

experienced setbacks, including failed tests and alleged ‘‘false positives’’. Furthermore, the radar system has also been criticized as being subpar and unable to meet 

operational expectations. The Aegis missile defense system is a vital part of our missile defense. What concerns do you have regarding Aegis operational readiness in 

light of its crucial role in our missile defense, and what is being done to address 

those concerns? Furthermore, can we rely on the Aegis system today if an attack 

were to occur during this hearing? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system is the 

most proven, operationally ready, flexible, and effective regional missile defense system in the world. Navy is committed to maintaining the highest level of readiness 

for all Aegis BMD ships and we put each ship through extensive system evaluations 

prior to deployment, knowing they may be tasked with BMD missions. All ships currently employed on BMD missions are fully capable of providing the designed level 

of protection against ballistic missile threats. I am confident in relying on this system today to defend our Fleet, our Allies and partners, and our national interests 

against the threat of ballistic missiles. 

Mr. FRANKS. 2) Admiral Roughead, Aegis ships play large and various roles for 

Navy missions. One vulnerability that results from this multi-role is that the Aegis 

ship cannot fully defend itself during missile defense mode. Therefore, another Aegis 

ship is required to defend the Aegis ship in missile defense mode. Given the limited 

supply of Aegis ships, is this the best practice, or is there a better strategy to protect the Aegis ship in missile defense mode. How is the Navy addressing this situation of the limited Aegis fleet, and how can Congress help to make sure that our 

limited supply of Aegis ships are used in the best way possible? 
187 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. All Aegis BMD capable ships have the ability to defend themselves against both traditional and advanced air and cruise missile threats while 

also executing the BMD mission. Simultaneous BMD and Anti-Air Warfare engagements were demonstrated by USS LAKE ERIE on June 22, 2006, and this capability 

is the current BMD Fleet standard. It is proven and remains ready today. 

The Navy utilizes the Global Force Management process and coordinates closely 

with Combatant Commanders to ensure the best possible use of our Aegis multimission ships. To meet increasing demand for these ships, Navy is growing its Aegis 

Fleet through modernization of our existing Fleet and the restart of DDG–51 procurement. To meet increasing demand for our Aegis ships, our PB 2012 budget requests funding for one DDG–51 restart ship (DDG 116) in FY 2012 and an additional six Aegis BMD upgrades and installations to increase the Navy’s Aegis BMD 

ships from 21 to 41 ships by 2016. The Navy continues to work with MDA to ensure 

that future BMD upgrades will further improve the multi-mission capabilities of our 

BMD ships. 

Mr. FRANKS. 3) Last year, the Navy testified that sea-based missile defense requirements for surface combatants (cruisers and destroyers) were still in the review. 

Has there been any progress in determining sea-based missile defense requirements 

as it relates to Navy surface combatant requirements, and if so, can you describe 

what the forward-based requirements are for Navy surface combatants and what 

that means to the battle-force inventory requirements? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy currently has sufficient capacity to meet the most 

critical demands for multi-mission surface combatants; however, Navy does not have 

the capacity to meet expected future GCC demands for Ballistic Missile Defense 

(BMD) surface combatants without breaking established deployment length redlines. 

Based on threat analysis and steady state presence indications from the Geographic 

Combatant Commander the Navy, working with Missile Defense Agency, has concluded that the demand for BMD-capable Aegis ships will outpace capacity through 

approximately 2018, assuming standard six month deployment lengths. 

Sea-based BMD requirements in the United States Central Command and European Command are sourced through the rotation of Aegis ships home-ported in the 

United States. The Pacific Command’s sea-based BMD requirements are sourced 

primarily from the Forward Deployed Naval Force in Japan. 

With the President’s decision to pursue a phased adaptive approach (PAA) for the 

missile defense of Europe, the Navy has been working within the Department of Defense to identify the most efficient method to provide the required afloat BMD capability. The establishment of a forward deployed force in Europe is one of the options 

being assessed, however, no final decision has been made. 

As the demand for these ships increase, either the inventory of Aegis BMD-capable ships or deployment lengths must increase. Accordingly, Navy, in conjunction 

with MDA, has established a plan to increase the total number of Aegis BMD-capable ships across the FYDP from 21 to 41, of which 27 will be deployable in FY16. 

This plan includes the increase in capacity and capability of surface combatants either through the installation of the Aegis BMD 3.6.1/4.0.1 suite or Aegis Modernization program, as well as through new construction (commencing with DDG 113). 

The addition of BMD capabilities to the Aegis Fleet provides improved operational 

flexibility to GCC and Fleet Commanders to fulfill their various missions. 

Mr. FRANKS. 4) Admiral Roughead, with fewer different fighter/attack aircraft 

today, and even fewer in the future, do you believe that the Navy is taking significant risks by not including a program to develop and procure a competitive, alternate engine for the F–35? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. No. The Navy does not have a requirement for an alternate 

engine; indeed, we would only take one model to sea. The additional costs of an alternate engine threaten our ability to fund currently planned aircraft procurement 

quantities, which would exacerbate our anticipated decrease in strike fighter capacity throughout the remainder of this decade. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. CONAWAY 

Mr. CONAWAY. From your perspective as the Secretary of the Navy, can you describe to the committee the strategic importance of the F–35 program to the future 

of Naval and Marine Corps fighter aviation? 

Secretary MABUS. The F–35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) and 

F–35C Carrier Variant (CV) of the Joint Strike Fighter are essential to our longterm national security as the future backbone of U.S. Navy and Marine Aviation 

combat air-superiority. I believe there is no program, or combination of programs, 

that will more affordably provide the Combatant Commanders these warfighting ca-
188 

pabilities they will need to protect the Global interests of the Nation. The integration of F–35 aircraft will provide the dominant, multi-role, fifth-generation capabilities needed across the full spectrum of combat operations to deter potential adversaries and enable future Naval and Marine Aviation power projection. 

Mr. CONAWAY. 1. In the Secretary of Defense’s recent restructuring of the F–35 

program, the F–35B was put on a two year probation due to development problems. 

• If the F–35B variant does not show significant progress by FY13 and is cancelled, what are the USMC’s alternatives to fulfill the requirements expected to 

be filled by the F–35B? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. We are confident that the F–35B program is on track and 

that the restructuring effort will be successful. However, in the event that the F– 

35B does not show significant progress and is cancelled, then the question of potential alternatives for USMC aviation requirements would more appropriately be addressed by the Commandant of the Marine Corps. 

Mr. CONAWAY. 2. In January, Secretary Gates announced a reduction of 124 F– 

35s over the FYDP. He further stated that the savings from this reduction would 

be used to fund $4.6 billion to extend the development period and add additional 

flight tests; as well as using $4 billion for additional purposes, such as purchasing 

more F/A–18s for the Navy. 

• How does this decision impact you? 

• How does this change in the fighter mix effect the Navy? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Secretary of Defense’s changes to the Programs of 

Record (POR) for the F–35B/C and F/A–18E/F in December 2010 impacted the Navy 

in the following ways: 

• Compared to PB 2011, the DoN’s procurement of F–35B/C aircraft was decreased by 60 in the FYDP, and the F/A–18E/F procurement was increased by 

41. 

• Procurement of 41 additional F/A–18E/F extended the last year of procurement 

for the Super Hornets from FY 2013 to FY 2014. 

• By adding 41 Super Hornets and extending the life of 150 F/A–18 A–D aircraft 

to 10,000 flight hours, our strike fighter shortfall was reduced from about 100 

aircraft to a peak of 65 aircraft, projected in 2018. As I testified, this aircraft 

shortfall is manageable. 

Navy’s PB 2012 budget submission, with the change in strike fighter mix, reflects 

the optimum balance of procuring new F/A–18E/F aircraft, extending the service life 

of 150 existing legacy Hornets, and procuring F–35B/Cs. This balanced approach 

will address the Department’s need for tactical aircraft to meet requirements. 

Mr. CONAWAY. Are you confident that the development challenges currently faced 

by the STOVL variant can be solved successfully? 

General AMOS. The current Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) technical challenges are typical of major acquisition programs during this stage of development. We do not regard any of these challenges as insurmountable. We already 

have incorporated corrective actions into production aircraft and identified the modifications needed in the aircraft nearing delivery; and we are proactively finalizing 

changes for future incorporation. 

I am personally engaged with the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office and 

prime contractors on a monthly basis. We collaborate in resolving these challenges 

by identifying the most efficient and cost effective processes through which we will 

implement long term engineering solutions. Our overarching intent is to meet our 

collective requirements and to deliver higher quality aircraft in a responsible timeframe. Ultimately, this will equip the warfighter with more sustainable and more 

capable platforms. 

On a related note, STOVL flight tests began to turn around this past January, 

and are experiencing unprecedented success this calendar year. Test point collection 

and sortie rates achieved from January to March this year have made up for the 

deficits of 2010 and continue to perform well ahead of plan to date. We are on track 

for ship trials this fall and commencement of training early next year. I am confident the F–35B will surpass expectations during this period of focused scrutiny. 

Mr. CONAWAY. How important is the F–35B to the future of Marine Corps fighter 

aviation? 

General AMOS. The F–35B is the future of Marine Corps fighter aviation. We intend to replace three aging platforms—the AV–8B, the EA–6B and the FA–18—with 

a single 5th generation platform—the F–35 Lightning II. Our F–35B Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant will become our utility tactical aviation 

(TACAIR) platform well into the middle of this century. The F–35C carrier variant 
189 

will serve as our TACAIR Integration aircraft for service with the Navy on their 

carriers. 

The F–35B is the tactical aircraft our Marine Air Ground Task Force requires to 

remain relevant in today’s world with tomorrow’s threats. This STOVL variant Joint 

Strike Fighter meets the expeditionary expectation that our Commander-in-Chief, 

our Combatant Commanders and the American people demand of the Marine Corps. 

STOVL aviation capabilities have deep roots in the Marine Corps. Current operations in Afghanistan and Libya and our experience in Iraq reinforce the critical 

role of amphibious-based and expeditionary STOVL aircraft. 

Our requirement is not complex. We require 5th generation stealth, sensors, interoperability and connectivity supporting our forward-deployed Marines. The F–35B 

will source the MAGTF with an agile, cross-functional tactical aircraft that will provide forward based flexible, scalable and responsive capabilities to our ground 

forces. F–35Bs transition from ship-to-shore, operating seamlessly from 850ft decks 

of amphibious ships to short-field, expeditionary operating bases. This proximity 

provides our ground forces immediate and integrated access to tactical aviation— 

a core tenet of Marine air operations. F–35B postures Marine TACAIR with the basing flexibility that MAGTF commanders require to execute expeditionary operations. 

Recent Joint and Coalition operations highlight the flexibility that embarked Marine 

TACAIR provides the nation and, in the future, the Joint Force will leverage the 

expeditionary, responsive and game-changing capabilities that the Marine STOVL 

F–35B brings to the fight. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WITTMAN 

Mr. WITTMAN. 1. Are we investing enough in our equipment to sustain our position as the greatest Naval Force throughout the 21st Century? As you all know our 

Navy and Marine Corps have conducted cyclic combat operations now for 10 years 

at a pace that we have not seen in the history of our fleet. Ships and aircraft are 

constantly deploying and critical life cycle maintenance is being affected due to the 

high operational tempo. Knowing there is deferred maintenance and a backlog of 

lifecycle management for our fleet, how is the past 10 years going to affect the service life of our ships, submarines, and aircraft? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Keeping our ships, submarines and aircraft in satisfactory 

material condition is essential both to supporting current operations and ensuring 

that we are able to get the projected service life from these valuable national assets. 

It has been central to the United States Navy’s mission to perform sufficient levels 

of maintenance in each of these areas to ensure our fleet is maintained and ready 

when called upon. Certainly the last decade of high tempo operations have been a 

challenge and there have been areas where we were not able to do all of the maintenance we desired. Based on the rapidly improving surface ship engineered maintenance requirement and the established aircraft, submarine, and aircraft carrier engineered maintenance requirements, the FY12 budget accurately reflects the maintenance necessary to ensure ships, submarines, and aircraft will reach their expected service life. 

Mr. WITTMAN. 2. What is the affect going to be on the service life of an F/A–18 

Super Hornet that is above its planned airframe and engine flight hours, or the 

DDG that has deployed so many times to support overseas contingency operations, 

that critical hull, mechanical, electrical, and weapons systems maintenance is neglected and pushed to the right? What do you believe the long term affect is to our 

overall material readiness? Furthermore, do you feel that we are allocating the appropriate amount of money to focus on maintenance, modernization, and modification? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Keeping our ships, submarines and aircraft in satisfactory 

material condition is essential to supporting current operations and ensuring that 

we are able to get the projected service life from these valuable national assets. It 

has been central to the United States Navy’s mission to perform sufficient levels of 

maintenance in each of these areas to ensure our fleet is maintained and ready 

when called upon. Certainly the last decade of high tempo operations have been a 

challenge and there have been areas where we were not able to do all of the maintenance we desired. Based on the rapidly improving surface ship engineered maintenance requirement and the established aircraft, submarine, and aircraft carrier engineered maintenance requirements, the FY12 budget accurately reflects the resources necessary to maintain, modernize and modify our ships, submarines, and 

aircraft to reach their expected service life. 

Mr. WITTMAN. 3. Do you feel that that $15.9 billion is enough to sustain a 30 year 

shipbuilding plan with a goal of maintaining 313 battle force ships? We have an 
190 

aging Oliver Hazard Perry Class that accounts for 29 frigates and over 40 submarines that are either past their halfway point of commissioned service (6 that are 

at or over 30 years of service) in the Los Angeles Class Submarine. Is the plan for 

313 battle force ships a realistic number and do we have the ability to reach this 

number when taking in to account the planned budget to reach that goal? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes. The requirement of 313 ships remains the floor and the 

Navy is committed to building to that floor. The funding in place supports the Navy 

plan of reaching that level in the next ten years. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Can you please talk about the 2 year probationary period that has 

been placed on the F–35B and how that is going to affect the Marine Corps Strike 

Fighter shortfall? If the F–35B struggles through test and evaluation, is there a 

backup plan to mitigate the risk of the F–35B being delayed in delivery to the 

USMC (will the USMC SLEP the AV–8 Harrier to sustain a STOVL capability or 

possibly invest in the F/A–18 E/F Super Hornet)? 

General AMOS. The Secretary of Defense’s decision to increase oversight and decrease early production of the F–35B was prudent. The primary contractor did not 

achieve fundamental program milestones on time, and the program lacked credible 

and tangible measurements for progress. I believe that the Secretary’s move further 

serves to emphasize the need to procure a fully capable aircraft that judiciously 

maximizes value to taxpayer dollars. 

I believe the F–35B aircraft will succeed, but I also share the Department’s concerns. That is why I am personally involved in tracking progress of this aircraft. 

The data that I evaluate on a daily basis suggests that our Short Take-Off and 

Vertical Landing (STOVL) test and evaluation is on track and exceeding expectations. In the first three months of this year, our test point collection overcame last 

year’s shortfall. The test aircraft are flying more frequently, are collecting more test 

points per flight and are surpassing planning measures in a sustainable way. Two 

of our aircraft are currently preparing for the first ship trial period later this year. 

That will be an important milestone in demonstrating that our 5th generation tactical aircraft is capable of integrating into our Marine Air Ground Task Force 

aboard the amphibious ships of the Navy’s Amphibious Ready Group. 

We agree that reduced F–35 production rates will slow transition. However, we 

also believe we can continue to successfully manage our inventory of legacy aircraft 

to meet operational commitments. We have a variety of service life management initiatives for legacy F/A–18 aircraft. Our AV–8Bs do not require service life extensions, but we plan to reallocate aircraft to manage attrition. Our recent TACAIR Integration agreement with the Navy requires the Marine Corps to procure 80 F–35C 

variants which will afford us maneuvering room following the F–35B reductions in 

the near term. Of these 80 aircraft, we will procure 35 across the current Future 

Years Defense Program and stand up three Marine F–35C squadrons by FY18. 

These measures allow us to actively manage our TACAIR inventory until we gain 

the efficiencies of an all F–35 force—340 F–35B and 80 F–35C. 

The Marine Corps has no intention to procure the F/A–18 E/F Super Hornet. The 

Super Hornet lacks a 5th generation capability that our MAGTF requires across the 

Range of Military Operations now and in future decades. With its expected service 

life and necessary survivability upgrades, this platform does not meet our vision for 

TACAIR recapitalization. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Has significant testing been done with regard to the F–35B STOVL 

taking off and landing from the deck of an amphibious ship yet? If not, when do 

you predict that testing will take place? Do we know if the thrust and heat produced 

from the engine of the F–35B will have a negative effect on the steel flight deck 

and I-beam support of the deck . . . will the deck buckle or become unstable over 

time? 

General AMOS. The F–35B test program has made substantial progress this year 

and is on track for the first Developmental Test Ship Trials scheduled in October 

through November 2011. During this trial, we will fully assess the environmental 

effects of the engine. After three years of focused analysis and preliminary tests in 

preparation for this event, we expect no significant damage or degradation will 

occur. The USS WASP will serve as the amphibious ship for this test and is being 

instrumented to assess the flight deck, substructure, and ancillary deck systems. 

The Marine Corps along with NAVSEA, NAVAIR, and the Joint Strike Fighter Joint 

Program Office has collaborated extensively to ensure F–35B operations aboard L 

Class amphibious ships are fully tested and representative of required standards. 
191 

QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. HUNTER 

Mr. HUNTER. The events in the Middle East and Northern Africa continue to jeopardize our ability to operate freely on land and from those locations in the region 

where U.S. forces are based. Given this uncertainty in the region, it seems more 

important that our amphibious assault force is fully operational to address any 

threat throughout the world. However, the amphibious ship requirement of 33 is 

less than the 38 requested by the Marine Corps. In fact, we are currently operating 

below the 33 ship requirement and won’t reach that level until 2017. 

Given what is currently taking place in the Middle East and Africa, why do we 

find it acceptable to operate at the bare minimum and below with our amphibious 

forces? What actions are the Marine Corps taking with the Navy to improve the 

operational effectiveness of our amphibious forces? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps assesses that the future security environment 

will require a minimum of three forward deployed Amphibious Ready Groups/Marine Expeditionary Units (ARG/MEU). To meet this operational requirement, we 

have planned for an ARG/MEU presence in the PACOM, CENTCOM, and EUCOM/ 

AFRICOM Areas of Operations. This necessity requires 38 amphibious ships to meet 

the Geographic Combatant Commander day-to-day partnering and engagement requirements as well as to be able to support the assault echelon of two Marine Expeditionary Brigades for a theater joint forcible entry operation. However, we have accepted risk at a minimum of 33 amphibious ships in our inventory. Due to decommissioning/commission and maintenance cycles, there are currently 29 ships operationally available in the amphibious fleet. Based on projected fabrication cycles, we 

anticipate the amphibious ship inventory will rise again to 33 vessels in FY17. 

We are utilizing our Marine Corps Service Campaign Plan as a roadmap to 

strengthen and maintain our core competencies and to ensure we remain America’s 

Expeditionary Force in Readiness. Our amphibious core competency figures prominently in our Service Campaign Plan, and as a result we have undertaken an array 

of exercise planning in this critical skill area. We will soon be conducting a Marine 

Air Ground Task Force Large Scale Exercise that will refine our capability to amphibious power projection and sustained operations ashore in a joint and interagency environment. In late 2010, we conducted Exercise Bold Alligator 2011, the 

first large-scale amphibious training exercise with the Navy on the East Coast in 

almost 10 years. This synthetic training event practiced planning for forcible entry 

operations against conventional and asymmetric threats and a large-scale non-combatant evacuation. We will take lessons learned from this exercise and build upon 

them for the next iteration of this important exercise with the U.S. Navy scheduled 

in the coming year. 

We are presently implementing a Naval Board that will provide a regular forum 

for senior-leader exploration of strategy, policy, naval concepts and doctrine, concepts of operation, technology, and resource issues to develop unified naval guidance 

for requirements. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and Commandant of the 

Marine Corps (CMC) will approve recommendations from the Naval Board. The 

Naval Board will consider issues selected by the CNO or CMC as well as issues 

raised by the commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands, Navy and Marine 

Corps component commanders and their respective Fleet and Marine expeditionary 

force commanders, and through other venues as appropriate. Although the Board 

will initially focus on improving coordination of capability development processes, its 

considerations may include a range of other issues with Navy-Marine Corps implications such as integration of strategic planning and Service campaign planning; 

prioritizing research and development efforts; development of naval concepts; training and education programs; wargame design; and resource investment recommendations. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. COFFMAN 

Mr. COFFMAN. 1.) Secretary Mabus, based on the National Security Strategy’s demand for theater security cooperation and engagement, I am interested in our nation’s ability to meet the requirement for Marine Expeditionary Units/Amphibious 

Readiness Groups (MEUs/ARGs). What was the Combatant Commander’s demand 

for Marine Expeditionary Units/Amphibious Readiness Groups (MEUs/ARGs) during 

the last five years? How much of this demand was satisfied? 

Secretary MABUS. Demand by Combatant Commanders for naval forces has remained high during the last five years. The inherent flexibility and capabilities of 

Amphibious/Expeditionary forces makes them particularly desirable by COCOMs. 

Navy’s current force structure can provide about five MEU/ARG deployments annually. While not able to meet the cumulative annual global COCOM MEU/ARG de-
192 

mand, Navy is meeting all adjudicated demands through the Global Force Management process, based on prioritizes requirements defined by the Guidance for the 

Employment of the Force. 

Mr. COFFMAN. 2.) Secretary Mabus, I applaud the efforts you have taken to identify efficiencies in the Department. I believe the reductions you have made to redundant staffs and large headquarters elements are a good step. Are there additional 

efficiencies to be had in other headquarters and staff organizations within the Department? 

Secretary MABUS. The Department’s efficiencies focused on three overarching efforts: Buy Smarter, Streamline Organizations and Operations, and Reduce Fossil 

Energy Consumption. More specifically, by Streamlining Our Organizations and Operations (-$15.4B), we looked hard at ways to save money by eliminating duplicative 

staffs, streamlining all staffs, reducing contractor support, and looking at our personnel policies and practices. We focused on building a more efficient operation by 

reducing infrastructure overhead, and consolidating headquarters activities. 

Examples include: 

• Reduce ashore manpower, reassign personnel to operational ships and air units; 

adjust special pays/advancements; and eliminate duplicative functions (-$4.7B). 

• Disestablish Second Fleet headquarters; disestablish/reorganize staffs for submarine, patrol aircraft, reserve aircraft, carrier staffs, and destroyer squadrons; 

and eliminate one carrier strike group staff ($-1.2B). 

• Efficient utilization of personnel (force shaping) and examination of personnel 

policies/practices; develop housing/BAH efficiencies; and rebaseline advertising 

(-$1.4B). 

• Reduce contractor support (-$1.7B). 

• Streamline air/ship/equipment maintenance; revalidate flying hour program 

model; modify fleet training concepts; and restructure maritime prepositioning 

force squadrons ($-4.2B). 

• Implement flexible and tailored responses to infrastructure sustainment ($- 

2.2B). 

While we do not foresee additional efficiencies to be garnered in other headquarters and staff organizations within the Department of the Navy at this time, 

we will continue the momentum to pursue streamlining efforts. 

Mr. COFFMAN. 3.) Secretary Mabus, the number of operational Aircraft Carriers 

and Submarines that the Navy is required to maintain are mandated by law. Are 

you in favor of mandating the requirement to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps’ 

published need for a minimum of 33 operational amphibious ships? 

Secretary MABUS. I do not believe mandating the number of operational amphibious ships the Navy is required to maintain is necessary or desirable as it would 

affect the flexibility and force structure decision-making going forward that the 

Navy and Marine Corps share in providing a capable, adaptable, amphibious force. 

The Navy and Marine Corps continuously evaluate amphibious lift capabilities to 

meet current and projected requirements. Specifically: 

In the January 2009 Report to Congress on Naval Amphibious Force Structure, 

the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps reaffirmed 

that 38 amphibious ships are required to lift the Assault Echelon (AE) of 2.0 Marine 

Expeditionary Brigades (MEBs). They agreed to sustain, resources permitting, an 

amphibious force of about 33 total amphibious ships in the AE, evenly balanced at 

11 aviation-capable ships, 11 LPD 17 class ships, and 11 LSD 41 class ships. The 

33 ship force accepts risk in the arrival of combat support and combat service support elements of the MEB but has been judged to be adequate in meeting the needs 

of all parties within the limits of today’s fiscal realities. The 33 ships represent the 

limit of acceptable risk in meeting lift requirements for the Assault Echelon in a 

two MEB forcible entry operation, the capacity to sustain a day-to-day forward posture of Amphibious Ready Groups with the full deployment capacity of Marine Expeditionary Units. In addition, a force of this size will provide sufficient capacity for 

single-ship deployments for theater security cooperation activities. 

The recently completed Report of the 2010 Marine Corps Force Structure Review 

of March 14, 2011 concluded that: ‘‘The dual demands of sustained forward presence 

and sufficient lift for the assault echelons of two Marine Expeditionary Brigades 

(MEB) result in a requirement of 38 amphibious ships. Given fiscal constraints, 

however, the Navy and Marine Corps have agreed to accept the risk with 33 ships, 

increasing the imperative to design a lean and effective force structure. We will also 

explore options for employing Marines from a wider variety of Navy ships, seeking 

innovative naval solutions to GCC requirements.’’ 
193 

In addition to the Department of the Navy’s internal reviews, the Quadrennial 

Defense Review Report of February 2010 determined that the main elements of the 

Navy force structure should include 29—31 amphibious warfare ships for the duration of the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) (Fiscal Year (FY) 2011—FY 

2015). 

Mr. COFFMAN. 4.) The Department of the Navy (DON) has led the DOD in establishing secure, enterprise-wide networking through the Navy Marine Corps Intranet 

(NMCI) and is to be commended for its leadership. However, the planned NGEN 

procurement contemplates a segmentation approach that proposes to split a unified 

network into at least four pieces, creating multiple, overlapping points of accountability across the network, leading to more complexity and likely higher overhead 

cost, slower problem resolution and most importantly, increased risk of security 

breaches. How much does the DON plan to spend on the NGEN procurement and 

why does the DON believe the proposed segmented plan is an improvement to the 

current IT NMCI/COSC program? 

Secretary MABUS. NGEN Increment 1 is the follow-on to the Navy Marine Corps 

Intranet (NMCI). NGEN will provide secure, net-centric data and information technology (IT) services and support to the United States Navy (USN) and United States 

Marine Corps (USMC) within the Continental United States (CONUS) and Outside 

the Continental United States (OCONUS). NGEN will position the DON for transition to the Naval Networking Environment (NNE) vision, and will be interoperable 

with and leverage other DoD provided Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES). 

NGEN is the foundation for the future Naval Networking Environment (NNE). It 

is the continuous evolution of the DON enterprise networks acquisition life-cycle, 

and the transition from the congressionally mandated end of the NMCI contract. 

The primary objectives of NGEN Increment 1 are to establish Government operational control of the networks and to provide service-specific network operation. 

The objectives will be accomplished via the acquisition of necessary NMCI infrastructure and Government Purpose Rights (GPR) of the NMCI Intellectual Property 

(NMCI IP). Government operational control of the network will be implemented 

using a phased transition approach and will be complete when the Network Operations (NetOps), Command and Control, Design Authority (DA), and Technical Authority (TA) of the network have transitioned to the DON. In addition, increased 

competition, to include the ability to periodically recompete this network capability 

were a critical objective supported by Congress, DoD and DON. The DON’s segmented approach, along with ownership of the infrastructure, and license to the IP 

accomplishes this goal. 

The current DON budget profile (PB12) reflects the Navy’s position regarding 

funding the NGEN procurement as follows (FY10 and prior years were budgeted 

under NMCI. The cost of NMCI is not included): (See page 194.) 

A new Program Manager for Naval Enterprise Networks (PMW–205) recently reported and is currently in the midst of conducting an initial program review to include the appropriateness and cost of current acquisition processes as applied to the 

transition of an existing capability to a new delivery model (i.e., segmented, government ownership and operations). The NGEN program is currently in the process of 

developing its Service Cost Position (SCP). With the assistance of the Naval Center 

for Cost Analysis (NCCA) a solid ‘‘will cost’’ position will be developed with appropriate sensitivity analysis and identification of program cost drivers. Once the 

NGEN ‘‘will cost’’ position is developed, the program manager will work toward a 

program ‘‘should cost’’ total. 

Mr. COFFMAN. 1.) Are you comfortable with the level of risk of operating amphibious ships within 12–15 Nautical Miles of enemy coastlines instead of the former 

25 Nautical Mile planning guidance? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Yes. Over the last two decades, threats in the littorals and 

US capabilities to counter those threats have evolved. Improvements in US areadefense and self-defense capabilities (fielded and in development) mitigate potential 

threats to an acceptable level of risk that I am comfortable with our naval forces 

launching amphibious vehicles from a 12 nautical mile standoff distance. 
194 
195 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MRS. HARTZLER 

Mrs. HARTZLER. 1) With the proposed repeal of the DADT policy, what changes 

to facilities are you contemplating to address the privacy and concerns of service 

members? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. There is no requirement to make any facility changes. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. 2) What costs do you anticipate it costing to make these changes? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. There are no identified costs because there is no requirement 

to make any facility changes. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. 3) What policies are being put in place to ensure all service members’ concerns will be considered without fear of reprisal? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Current policies ensure all service members have multiple 

avenues through which they can address their concerns. Service members who believe they have suffered discrimination or reprisal for communicating their concerns 

may petition for redress through their chain of command or legal office via existing 

grievance procedures under UCMJ Article 138 or Navy Regulations Article 1150. 

Similarly, service members with individual concerns or questions about the repeal 

of DADT may seek guidance through their chain of command. The Navy’s approach 

is founded on professionalism, treating everyone with dignity and respect, and 

Standards of Conduct that apply without regard to sexual orientation. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. 4) Given what is known about the normal human desire for privacy in sexual matters, why would policies requiring the constant cohabitation of 

mixed sexual orientation groups not undermine morale, disciple, and readiness, recruiting, and retention? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. In the Navy, we live and work in close quarters in many of 

our operating environments with individuals from diverse backgrounds. We expect 

all Sailors to treat their fellow shipmates with dignity and respect, and maintain 

high standards of behavior. This will not change following repeal of DADT. As in 

all situations, commanders may make reasonable accommodations in the interest of 

maintaining morale, good order, and discipline, consistent with the performance of 

the mission and the environments in which we live. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. 5) How would these changes improve the All-Volunteer Force? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Although I cannot quantify the extent to which repeal of 

DADT would improve the all-volunteer force, I believe repeal, in the long-term, will 

make our Navy better. Gay and lesbian Sailors already serve in our Navy. Repeal 

will end the unnecessary loss of these talented and dedicated men and women from 

the Service and improve our ability to provide an environment in which all Sailors 

will be able to serve with honesty and integrity. I am confident that the professional 

men and women of the United States Navy will ensure we remain the world’s most 

ready, capable, and professional Navy in which all shipmates continue to be treated 

with mutual dignity and respect. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. With the proposed repeal of the DADT policy, what changes to 

facilities are you contemplating to address the privacy and concerns of service members? 

General AMOS. The Secretary of Defense has been clear that the Services will not 

prescribe berthing or billeting assignments based on sexual orientation. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. What costs do you anticipate it costing to make these changes? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps does not anticipate any costs as separate facilities will not be established based on sexual orientation. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. How essential do you think it is for service member to be able 

to focus on their mission without distraction? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps is a disciplined, professional force trained to accomplish its mission regardless of environment. I have tendered my best judgment 

to the Secretary of Defense that the United States Marine Corps is prepared for the 

implementation of DADT repeal. The Marine Corps has conducted extensive training within the force on DADT repeal and has the applicable policies and regulations 

necessary for implementation that are consistent with standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention. I assess the 

impact of implementation to be low to moderate. We intend to resolve any issues 

that may arise through engaged leadership and discipline. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. Do you support the idea of, or do you think it is wise policy, for 

men and women service members to sleep in the same barracks and shower together? 

General AMOS. Sexual orientation is not synonymous with gender. The Marine 

Corps’ and other Services’ gender-based barracks have deep roots in longstanding 

societal and cultural norms. While males and females reside in the same barracks 

buildings, they have separate room assignments and individual shower facilities 
196 

within their rooms. We maintain gender separate room assignments now and currently see no reason to change the current assignment policy. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. Given what is known about the normal human desire for privacy 

in sexual matters, why would policies requiring the constant cohabitation of mixed 

sexual orientation groups not undermine morale, disciple, and readiness, recruiting, 

and retention? 

General AMOS. The Marine Corps is a disciplined, professional force trained to accomplish its mission regardless of environment. I have tendered my best judgment 

to the Secretary of Defense that the United States Marine Corps is prepared for the 

implementation of DADT repeal. The Marine Corps has conducted extensive training within the force on DADT repeal and has the applicable policies and regulations 

necessary for implementation that are consistent with standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention. I assess the 

impact of implementation to be low to moderate. We intend to resolve any issues 

that may arise through engaged leadership and discipline. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. How would these changes improve the All-Volunteer Force? 

General AMOS. Upon implementation of DADT repeal, the Marine Corps will continue making concerted efforts to attract, mentor and retain the most talented men 

and women who bring a diversity of background, culture and skill in service to our 

Nation. As always, we will raise our total capability by leveraging the strengths and 

talents of each and every Marine. 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. PALAZZO 

Mr. PALAZZO. 1. Admiral Roughead, you were quoted recently in the San Diego 

Business Journal expressing the needs of the Navy as it relates to the continuing 

resolution that we are currently operating under. I think it is extremely important 

that the Department of Defense is funded appropriately, through the regular appropriations process. According to the same article the Navy has had to delay or cancel 

29 trips to shipyards, could you give us an overview of the long term effects of this 

delayed funding and the consequences it holds for our Navy, our military as a whole 

and the Defense Industry? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Regrettably, the series of continuing resolutions (CR) for FY 

2011 prevented us from applying the increased FY 2011 O&M funding to improve 

our readiness, and it negatively impacted our ability to procure our future Navy and 

support our Sailors, Navy civilians, and their families. It forced us to take mitigation measures that included: reducing operations, limiting numerous contracts for 

base operating support, slowing civilian hiring, reducing Permanent Change of Station notifications for our Sailors from about six months lead time to less than two 

months, not initiating the Small Business Innovative Research program, and delaying procurement contracts for new capabilities and existing production lines. Starting in March, we cancelled or scaled back several ship maintenance availabilities 

in Norfolk, Mayport, and San Diego and MILCON projects in many states. The impact of these actions will jeopardize the efforts we made in recent years to restore 

Fleet readiness. 

With the passage of a full year funding bill we will make every effort to reverse 

these actions, but their initial impact will have negative downstream effects in our 

maintenance and MILCON portfolios for many y ears. 

Mr. PALAZZO. 2. The fiscal year 2012 budget request includes a $15 million military construction project for road improvements at Naval Station Mayport. The request is the first of several military construction projects that the Navy anticipates 

will cost $564 million to provide the supporting infrastructure for a nuclear aircraft 

carrier. The Navy cites the strategic risk of locating all nuclear aircraft carriers on 

the East Coast at a single location as the principal reason to relocate an aircraft 

carrier to Mayport. If strategic dispersal is central to the Navy’s decision, why did 

the Navy abandon strategic dispersal in the Gulf of Mexico in BRAC 2005 through 

the closure of Naval Station Ingleside and especially Naval Station Pascagoula? 

Admiral ROUGHEAD. Strategic dispersal remains a key aspect of Navy planning 

for, and mitigation of, manmade or natural disasters along our coasts. As the Navy 

grew its Fleet size to almost 600 ships in the 1980s, it constructed four naval bases, 

including Naval Station Ingleside and Naval Station Pascagoula, to support and disperse those additional ships. As the size of our Fleet has decreased over the last 

thirty years to 287 ships today, the Navy has methodically closed or consolidated 

its presence in many ports, including at Ingleside and Pascagoula as part of BRAC 

2005. 
197 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WEST 

Mr. WEST. 1) Do you believe that the Navy—as currently funded—has the ability 

to execute proper force projection in order to protect the sea lanes of commerce 

throughout the world, specifically off the coast of Somalia? 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. The Navy provides maritime forces to 

Combatant Commanders (CCDR) to accomplish their assigned missions, which include force projection and sea control. Our readiness and operational support programs will meet the anticipated CCDR demand for Navy forces within force structure constraints and provide surge forces in support of operational plans, with an 

acceptable level of risk. Although total CCDR demand exceeds Navy’s capability to 

source, the world’s sea lanes remain protected. 

Navy’s forward stationed and rotationally deployed forces cooperate with allies 

and partners to promote collective security, enhance global stability and confront irregular challenges. We join with navies and coast guards around the world to support the stability and security of the global maritime commons; a prime example of 

our maritime strategy in action. As articulated in that strategy, enhanced global 

stability and secure freedom of the seas benefits all nations. 

Mr. WEST. 2) Considering the recent developments in the Middle East—specifically in Bahrain—what is the current risk to the long-term viability of the 5th Fleet 

stationed in Bahrain? 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. There has been no change in the status 

of the relationship between COMUSNAVCENT/C5F and the Government of Bahrain. The Government of Bahrain continues to fully support hosting Naval Support 

Activity-Bahrain (NSA–Bahrain) and its tenant commands. The King and Crown 

Prince have stated their continuing support to the U.S. Navy presence in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We do not expect a change in the Bahraini government’s attitude 

toward hosting NSA–Bahrain. To date, there are no known credible threats to U.S./ 

Coalition forces or bases. There have been incidents of direct anti-Western/anti-U.S. 

(but not specifically against U.S. Navy) sentiment. We view the Government of Bahrain’s allegations that Iran could support specific measures in an effort to influence 

the opposition movement in Bahrain with concern. 

Mr. WEST. 3) Myself and a number of my colleagues are concerned about so-called 

invisible wounds, such as Traumatic Brain Injury. What can you tell me about the 

Department of the Navy’s efforts with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and 

Cognitive Stimulation? 

Secretary MABUS and Admiral ROUGHEAD. We are committed to providing all scientifically proven and FDA-approved therapies to our Sailors, Marines and their 

family members. As soon as there is evidence to ensure safety and efficacy of any 

new therapy such as HBOT, including documentation from well-designed, adequately controlled medical research studies, we move forward to make it available 

to our injured service members. In this regard, the Department of Defense has three 

trials in progress to assess the safety and efficacy of HBOT on the symptoms of mild 

and moderate traumatic brain injury. The Air Force study at Wilford Hall Medical 

Center recently completed enrollment and follow-up visits; and the DARPA/VA 

funded study is ongoing at the Navy operational hyperbaric oxygen chambers in 

Panama City, Florida. In addition, a large DoD multi-site study will utilize the 

hyperbaric oxygen chambers at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and Naval Hospital 

Camp Pendleton. Navy Medicine is working with their Army and Air Force counterparts to see these three studies completed safely and efficiently. 

With respect to Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy, Navy Medicine has recently initiated formal pilot programs at four sites that serve large Marine populations including: Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune; Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton; Naval 

Medical Center San Diego; and Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. All four pilot 

sites have interdisciplinary treatment teams that meet to discuss patients and their 

general progress, as well as cognitive rehabilitation. Cognitive rehabilitation interventions offered at the sites address the domains of attention, memory, processing 

speed, executive functioning, emotional regulation, and social pragmatics through 

individual and group therapy and training sessions. Outcome measures are collected 

using standardized psychological, cognitive, and neuropsychological assessments before and after treatment to document progress. Many other Navy medical treatment 

facilities offer forms of cognitive rehabilitation to their patients, frequently through 

the neuropsychology, behavioral health, and/or speech language therapy clinics. 

Æ