[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 115-71]
HEARING
ON
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019
AND
OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS HEARING
ON
AIR FORCE READINESS POSTURE
__________
HEARING HELD
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
28-994 WASHINGTON : 2019
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
JOE WILSON, South Carolina, Chairman
ROB BISHOP, Utah MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut
STEVE RUSSELL, Oklahoma TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama CAROL SHEA-PORTER, New Hampshire
VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri A. DONALD McEACHIN, Virginia
ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona, Vice Chair ANTHONY G. BROWN, Maryland
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee STEPHANIE N. MURPHY, Florida
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi RO KHANNA, California
MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin
Margaret Dean, Professional Staff Member
Brian Garrett, Professional Staff Member
Megan Handal, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Bordallo, Hon. Madeleine Z., a Delegate from Guam, Ranking
Member, Subcommittee on Readiness.............................. 2
Wilson, Hon. Joe, a Representative from South Carolina, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Readiness...................................... 1
WITNESSES
Nowland, Lt Gen Mark C., USAF, Deputy Chief of Staff for
Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force........................ 3
Rice, Lt Gen L. Scott, USAF, Director, Air National Guard,
Headquarters U.S. Air Force.................................... 4
Rydholm, Maj Gen Derek P., USAF, Deputy Chief of Air Force
Reserve, Headquarters U.S. Air Force........................... 5
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Nowland, Lt Gen Mark C., joint with Lt Gen L. Scott Rice and
Maj Gen Derek P. Rydholm................................... 27
Wilson, Hon. Joe............................................. 25
Documents Submitted for the Record:
[There were no Documents submitted.]
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
[The information was not available at the time of printing.]
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
Mr. Scott.................................................... 43
AIR FORCE READINESS POSTURE
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Subcommittee on Readiness,
Washington, DC, Wednesday, February 14, 2018.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 3:32 p.m., in
room 2212, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joe Wilson
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOE WILSON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
SOUTH CAROLINA, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
Mr. Wilson. Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, I call
this hearing to order of the Readiness Subcommittee on the
House Armed Services Committee. And our sound system apparently
is not----
Mr. Kelly. It does not work.
Mr. Wilson. Good afternoon. In the interest of proceeding
without a sound system, we will all speak a bit louder, and for
those of us from the Southern States, this may be a challenge.
But, fortunately, Ranking Member Bordallo is from Guam, so she
can be heard across the Pacific.
But good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I call this
hearing to order of the Readiness Subcommittee at the House
Armed Services Committee. Thank you for being here today. This
hearing is the first in a series of Readiness hearings on the
services' budget request and readiness posture.
Today, I look forward to hearing how the Air Force's budget
request enables a readiness recovery plan where we continue to
take risks and how this request supports our men and women in
uniform who put their lives on the line every day.
Over the course of the past 2 years, this subcommittee has
met with Air Force leadership to understand the depth of the
readiness challenges facing the Air Force. We expect that this
budget attacks the most critical challenges; namely, those
issues most essential to halting the readiness decline and
rebuilding and restoring the Air Force.
Our Air Force remains the most powerful in the world;
however, it will take years to rebuild and restore. The purpose
of this hearing is to clarify the Air Force's choices for its
budget requests, to address funding priorities and mitigation
strategies, and to gather more detail on the current and future
impacts of these decisions on operations, maintenance,
training, and modernization.
More importantly, does the Air Force have the resources it
requires in order to rebuild and restore readiness? Can it
support the largest sustainment bills looming in the future? We
firmly believe the primary responsibility of the national
government is to provide for the national security of its
citizens, and that is especially true of our airmen, who freely
risk their lives to serve this Nation.
Therefore, it is our responsibility, as members of this
subcommittee, to understand the readiness situation and how the
budget request assisting the Department of the Air Force in
correcting any deficiencies in restoring and rebuilding the
capabilities this Nation needs.
I welcome all of our members and the distinguished panel of
the senior Air Force leaders present today. This afternoon, we
have Lieutenant General Mark Nowland, the Deputy Chief of Staff
for Operations, U.S. Air Force; Lieutenant General Scott Rice,
the Director of the Air National Guard; and Major General Derek
P. Rydholm, the Deputy to the Chief of the Air Force Reserve.
Thank you for testifying today, and we look forward to your
thoughts and insights on these important issues.
Now I am very grateful to turn to our distinguished ranking
member, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, of Guam, for any
remarks she would like to make.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wilson can be found in the
Appendix on page 25.]
STATEMENT OF HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, A DELEGATE FROM GUAM,
RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
This committee is full of advocates for the Air Force. We
look forward to the opportunity to help you. To our witnesses,
our gentlemen, thank you for being here this afternoon. And
with the release of the budget request for fiscal year 2019
earlier this week, today's hearing marks the first step in this
subcommittee's work to develop this year's National Defense
Authorization Act.
Over the past year, the subcommittee has heard details of
the Air Force's readiness challenges: spare parts and munition
shortages, talent retention issues, and overall aircraft
sustainability challenges. These issues culminate in fewer
ready people, aircraft, and squadrons to meet operational
requirements.
The Secretary of the Air Force has identified restoring
readiness as a primary objective of the fiscal year 2019 budget
request. However, I have some initial concerns of how this
budget request will support that goal. Specifically, I note
that the base operations and maintenance request remains
relatively flat between fiscal year 2018 and 2019, despite
significant increases to overall defense spending.
While procurement of new hardware and advanced research
draw significant interest, it is the operations and maintenance
accounts that play a critical role in generating and restoring
readiness by supporting training, maintenance, and
sustainability of the current and future force.
So, with that in mind, the central question I believe that
members of this subcommittee must ask is, how will this budget
request increase the Air Force's readiness? And I hope that our
witnesses can help provide answers to that question today.
So I want to thank you very much, and I look forward to the
testimony and the discussions this afternoon.
And I yield back.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Ranking Member Bordallo.
General Nowland, we now turn to you for your remarks and
briefing on the incidents.
STATEMENT OF LT GEN MARK C. NOWLAND, USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF OF
STAFF FOR OPERATIONS, HEADQUARTERS U.S. AIR FORCE
General Nowland. Chairman Wilson, Ranking Member Bordallo,
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak with you today, along with my distinguished counterparts
from the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, on the
state of your United States Air Force.
On behalf of the Secretary, Chief, and 670,000 airmen
protecting our Nation, it is an honor to be here with my Total
Force partners. The Air Force is our Nation's asymmetric
advantage in defending our Nation. We defend the homeland. We
dominant the air, space, and cyber domains. And we project
decisive combat power forward with the joint team to defend
American interests and our allies worldwide.
The relentless pace of nonstop operations for nearly 30
years affected high-end readiness for the Active Duty, National
Guard, and Reserve forces. But make no mistake: we stand ready
together to answer our Nation's call to provide multidomain
superiority to the joint fight.
The newly released defense strategy is clear: we are in a
new age of competition. Driven by our Secretary and Chief's
priorities, the Air Force is on course to change the way we
assess and resource readiness for full-spectrum operations.
As the A-3, I have a team sequestered in the Pentagon today
working at a 45-day deep dive in how we report readiness that
we hope to share in the future. With your help, we can
modernize our capabilities in a cost-effective manner to ensure
your Air Force is ready to win any engagement in the future.
As you know, quickened by your assistance and with
additional funding in 2017, we have arrested the readiness
decline. We have begun to do so with a keen focus on our most
powerful resource: people.
Thanks to your help, we added 4,000 airmen to begin to
close our manpower gap. We are also funding more flying hours,
munitions, new equipment and parts, depots, training, and
training infrastructure. With stable, predictable funding, we
will begin to turn the corner this year and accelerate into a
multiyear climb towards full-spectrum readiness.
However, as you noted, there are always challenges. We have
our T-6 fleet grounded right now, and as I reported last week,
we are moving forward. We have two technical change time orders
that are being executed right now that we expect to be done on
the 16th of February.
Next week, we expect to start flying--24 crews will start
to fly the airplane to test our on-board oxygen-generating
system to see if we have the appropriate repairs and we can get
back to flying operations.
The team is also testing an alternative method with an
oxygen disconnect from the on-board oxygen-generating system
and also flying in a restricted flight envelope so that we
could get back to flying.
In other words, we have a two-prong attack to try to get
back to flying in our T-6, which is our primary trainer, which
we have lost 82 pilots this year already because we have
canceled one class. You all know that we are in a pilot crisis,
so the Air Force is laser focused on this effort.
General Pawlikowski, our AFMC [Air Force Materiel Command]
commander, has established a two-star in charge of it; and
General Kwast, our AETC [Air Education and Training Command]
commander, is making this his number one priority.
With your help, we look forward to moving forward and
continuing to increase the readiness of the United States Air
Force, and I look forward to any questions.
[The joint prepared statement of General Nowland, General
Rice, and General Rydholm can be found in the Appendix on page
27.]
Mr. Wilson. And thank you very much, General Nowland.
And we now turn to General Rice for your opening remarks.
STATEMENT OF LT GEN L. SCOTT RICE, USAF, DIRECTOR, AIR NATIONAL
GUARD, HEADQUARTERS U.S. AIR FORCE
General Rice. Thank you, Chairman Wilson and Ranking Member
Bordallo and the committee members all. Thank you for the
opportunity to talk about our Nation's Air National Guard.
I am here with a small team from my staff, including
Command Chief Master Sergeant Ron Anderson, our Command Chief
of the Air National Guard, that serves right alongside with me,
along with all of our airmen.
First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to
all those airmen, the men, women, and families of the Air
National Guard for their unwavering dedication to serving this
Nation.
Over 106,000 uniformed Guard airmen of the Total Force
provide operational and strategic depth to our Nation's defense
strategy, ready to deploy in the homeland or around the world,
as the threat dictates. The Air National Guard cost-effectively
employs experienced airmen who comprise about 21 percent of the
Total Force and contribute to every one of the Air Force core
missions.
Currently, we have about 7,700 dual-use Guard airmen
deployed around the world in support of global and domestic
operations. The demands are high, but the honor to selflessly
serve our Nation is a significant motivator.
Last year, the Air National Guard supported deployment
requirements in 56 countries; filled 46 percent of the Total
Force's overseas requirement for civil engineers; safeguarded
American skies from 15 of 16 aerospace control alert sites;
dropped 7.3 million gallons of water and fire retardant on
fires; and provided lifesaving rescue, support, and comfort for
the victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, to include
2,300 sorties flown and 11,600 passenger movements and 15,000
tons of cargo moved.
It is my job to ensure our Guard airmen are organized and
equipped with the right sources, tools--the right resources,
tools, and training to do what our Nation asks. My focus is
clear: support the National Defense Strategy through continued
readiness recovery, improving our operational depth and
capacity, and enhancing the lethality of our operationally
proven Reserve force.
To accomplish this task, we are focused on three Air
National Guard priorities: number one, readiness for today's
fight, to ensure we are manned, sized, and equipped to support
a more lethal total joint force; two, 21st century Guard
airmen, to foster a more innovative, agile, and resilient
warrior; and three, build for tomorrow's fight, to continually
evaluate mission areas, concepts, recapitalization and
modernization of force structure to more efficiently accomplish
our objectives.
I also want to extend my deep appreciation and acknowledge
your support of NGREA, the National Guard and Reserve Equipment
Account. NGREA is essential to modernize our combat equipment
to remain interoperable, reliable, relevant, safe, and
available to respond to any crisis anywhere in the warfight or
domestic environment in a timely and efficient and effective
manner.
The Air National Guard is committed to serve, excel, and
accomplish Air Force missions with integrity, respect, pride,
and honor. However, fiscal unpredictability creates significant
additional stress and high operational tempo of our Reserve
force. We need your continued support to restore readiness with
fiscal stability and focused funding so that we can build for
tomorrow's fight.
Ultimately, our task is to ensure the Guard airmen are
prepared and ready for the task we expect them to perform in
the defense of our Nation. Thank you for inviting me here
today, and thank you for your continued support of the Air
National Guard support mission and its members.
I look forward to your questions, sir.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much, General Rice.
And we now will be proceeding to General Rydholm.
Ms. Bordallo. The speakers are working.
General Rice. We are back on the air, so to speak. No pun
intended.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, General Rice.
I now proceed to General Rydholm.
STATEMENT OF MAJ GEN DEREK P. RYDHOLM, USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF OF
AIR FORCE RESERVE, HEADQUARTERS U.S. AIR FORCE
General Rydholm. Yes, sir.
Chairman Wilson, Ranking Member Bordallo, and distinguished
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
appear before you today. I am extremely honored to represent
America's Reserve citizen airmen on behalf of Lieutenant
General Maryanne Miller, Chief of Air Force Reserve and
Commander, Air Force Reserve Command, who is unable to be here
today due to obligations at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. Chairman, your Air Force Reserve is lethal, resilient,
and always ready to answer our Nation's call. Each day, we have
over 6,000 Reserve citizen airmen serving on full-time orders
around the world in all the core missions of the Air Force.
As we sharpen our edge to compete, deter, and win in the
fight tonight, there are two concerns that have my attention
because they impact our ability to strengthen our competitive
edge for the future. Our first concern is the impact of
continuing resolutions on the training and retention of our
Reserve citizen airmen. The second is the loss of our full-time
pilots and maintainers to commercial industry.
Continuing resolutions negatively impact our training,
retention, and ultimately our readiness. Our Reserve citizen
airmen rely on predictability to effectively balance their
civilian employment with their critical contributions to our
Nation's defense.
Reservist's availability must be matched with a predictable
funding stream or critical training is postponed. Delayed
training is difficult to reschedule and places an increased
burden on the one resource we can't buy back, that being time.
Our second concern as we continue to strengthen our
competitive edge is the loss of our technician force of pilots
and aircraft maintainers to the contract and commercial
industry. Retention of our technician force is essential to
maintaining our lethality and combat effectiveness. We have
taken steps over the past year to increase the retention of our
technician force, but work still remains.
One area this committee can be of great assistance is to
support legislation to authorize dual-status Air Reserve
technicians medical coverage under TRICARE Reserve Select. Your
support is vital to enhance continuity of care for our Air
Reserve technicians and their families while they perform our
Nation's call.
Supporting this initiative would do more for the retention
of our critical technician force than any action over the past
few years, and the time is now. TRICARE Reserve Select for Air
Reserve technicians bolsters the Nation's defense by retaining
seasoned airmen through a continuum of care measure with
enduring impact.
On behalf of Lieutenant General Miller, I thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today, and for your unwavering
support of our incredible Air Force, our Reserve citizen
airmen, and their families. I look forward to answering your
questions.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, General Rydholm.
We appreciate your first appearance before this
subcommittee, and best wishes for your continued success. And
thank you, you returned the sound.
Each member of the subcommittee will have 5 minutes of
questions to our panel. It will be strictly maintained by Ms.
Margaret Dean, and beginning with me, strictly maintained.
General Nowland, the Air Force is approximately 2,000
pilots short of their requirement. This pilot shortfall
continues to worsen, and essential training aircraft, like the
T-6 and T-38, have been plagued by increasing maintenance
challenges.
And most recently, the entire T-6 fleet was grounded due to
the onboard oxygen-generating system failing to provide
adequate oxygen to these trainee pilots. I have serious
concerns about training these pilots of the aircraft with an
average age of 55 years old and over 16,000 flight hours.
Congress supports a new trainer aircraft, the TX; yet the
contract award has been delayed.
How is it possible for the Air Force to adequately address
the pilot shortfall without an on-time delivery of the TX
training aircraft?
General Nowland. Congressman Wilson, thank you for that
question. It is a fabulous question and one that I am deeply
concerned about also.
Our T-6 fleet, as I said, is critical towards our ability.
It is our basic trainer. We are looking holistically to solve
that from a material solution, from an education solution, from
a training solution to get that fleet back up--that aircraft
back up on its feet as soon as possible and back up into the
air.
The TX, the good news for the TX is the decision was
delayed a little bit because of our acquisition professionals
want to make sure we got it correct, but we have money in this
budget to move forward on the TX. And I am with you: we need to
have that airplane delivered on time.
We, the Air Force, believe, because of the nature of the
aircraft, we are hopeful that there will be little to no delays
as we move through that. And part of the delay is to--the
decision, I understand, was to make sure that we have the best
choice, so if a protest came, we could move it forward as
quickly as possible.
And as far as our numbers, sir, and retention, you are
exactly right. We know that retention is critical. But guess
what? Production is critical. The way we really get out of this
situation is we have to--and our Secretary said it yesterday--
increase our production to 1,400 undergraduate pilot training
graduates per year and grow out of this problem.
Retention numbers are difficult to chase. Industry is
always there. We have over 60 initiatives, one of which is a
monetary bonus, and we are using the authority that you have
given us to try to adjust that bonus to maximize the potential.
But in the end, we believe growing pilots for America and
for the United States Air Force is in our best interest, and
that is what we intend to do.
Mr. Wilson. Appreciate your commitment on that. And as we
talk about the TX contract, what would be the timeframe which
you anticipate that a decision will be made?
General Nowland. Mr. Chairman, I am not in the acquisition.
What I have seen is just what you have seen. I believe it is in
the spring or summertime is when the selection will be made,
and then hopefully we will move in a rapid acquisition. And as
you see in the money--in our budget, we have a large section of
money as we move into the future to start purchasing that
airplane.
Mr. Wilson. Well, that is very encouraging. And, again, we
appreciate your efforts to expedite.
And then, for each of you, the latest projections for
rebuilding the readiness are based on setting conditions for
readiness recovery. What percentage of readiness will the Air
Force reasonably attain and by what timeframe?
Are there particular core functions that are more at risk
than others in terms of the readiness recovery efforts? How
does the fiscal year 2019 Department of Air Force budget
request impact the recovery plan for the operational readiness?
And, actually, I will begin with General Rice.
General Rice. Thanks for that question, Chairman.
In light of things the Guard is specifically doing to
increase readiness, first, we are hand in hand with the Air
Force in growing our end strength and filling in those gaps and
seams.
The second thing was, not only did General Nowland talk
about production of brand-new pilots, but the other two pieces
that we have a big part in is the training of advanced pilots
in our formal training units, as well as the next step, which
is absorption of those pilots into our force.
To increase our ability to observe across the Total Force--
Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty--we have increased things like
second-shift maintenance to get after some of these. So we put
resources of people and part supplies and flying hours into
that to increase our readiness.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much.
And my time is up. But, General Rydholm, thank you again
for being here. And I was particularly happy to see you are a
graduate of the Naval Academy. As a Naval Academy grad dad, I
am very appreciative, so best wishes.
And we now proceed to Guam with Congresswoman Bordallo.
Ms. Bordallo. All the way to Guam? You said proceed to
Guam.
Mr. Wilson. It is so close.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And before I begin, I have two questions for General
Nowland. But I just want to say, General Rice, thank you for
paying such great attention to the Guard units on Guam,
particularly Air Guard.
General Nowland, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I
am concerned about what I see in the fiscal year 2019 budget
request for operations and maintenance funding and specifically
in key readiness-enabling accounts, such as those that support
weapon system sustainment, and note that, in the sum, the
fiscal year 2019 request appears to be roughly the same amount
as fiscal year 2018 levels.
However, approximately $5 billion has been shifted from the
base request to OCO [overseas contingency operations]. Now, can
you explain to us the reason for this shift and also quantify
the level of risk the Air Force is taking in weapon system
sustainment compared to the full requirement?
General Nowland. Madame Bordallo, that is a great question,
ma'am.
So the exact answer of the shifting of the money I will
take for record and will answer, because we moved some money
around as the budget was moved around. But in end, we are
upping our weapon system sustainment by $400 million this year.
We are also upping our flying hour money that we are paying
for.
So the answer is, as we are moving forward, 3 years ago, we
started to build maintainers. We anticipate, next year, we will
grow those three levels, which are apprentice into craftsmen,
into five levels.
So we have put money into weapon system sustainment so that
we can hopefully increase our aircraft utilization rate by up
one per sortie per month across the fleet, which will help us
get an additional training.
In addition, we have put money into our adversary air
program at Nellis. So, when pilots go to Nellis, every sortie
they fly will be a blue air sortie is the goal so that they are
not taking their precious training time to act as an adversary
but act as a primary.
We think those two actions will help us increase our
readiness level as we move forward, ma'am.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The second question also is for you, General. The quarterly
readiness report to Congress identified three lines of effort
to return Air Force pilot manning to required readiness levels.
Now, one of those efforts included a significantly increased
take rate for the pilot bonus, almost double that of last year.
Now, I understand that the Air Force is pursuing a holistic
approach to the retention problem and that the service has not
found financial compensation to be a root cause of the pilot
shortage. However, neither the quarterly report nor any
Department leadership has identified what changes will be made
between last year and this year to achieve increased take-rate
percentage goals.
So, if pilot bonus take rate is one of the service's three
main lines of efforts, how exactly do you expect to meet your
fiscal year 2018 goal?
General Nowland. That is a fantastic question. Thank you.
The numbers that you--may have appeared, I think, were
mistaken. There was a number of 65 percent in there, which is
what we used to measure what we thought we had to retain. Our
actual retention, as you identified, is 43 percent last year,
and it went down a little bit. But it only went down 1 percent,
so that was--we thought that was a win.
So how we are going to do, given the authorities you have
given us, we are going to try to realign our bonus rate to try
to keep our most important people, which are our instructors
and our evaluators, across our weapon system to incentivize it
as we look at the business case analysis. That's the first
thing we are going to do.
The second thing we are going to do is we are going to
focus on that production because we cannot ultimately control
what the airlines are going to do and how much money they are
going to, but we are going to work on that production to try to
increase the maximum production we can get to while
simultaneously improving the quality of life with those 60
initiatives that we have to improve the quality of life so that
their quality of service is what they want to accomplish.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you, General.
And I do have just a few seconds, but I am going to yield
back in the interest of time.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness,
Congresswoman Bordallo.
And we now proceed to Congressman Austin Scott of Georgia.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, thank you for your service. I am disappointed in
the recommendation--some of the recommendations from the Air
Force. I would just ask you, on one of our other weapons
systems, the Air Force proposed several years ago and
unfortunately Congress allowed the canceling of the F-22
contract based on the promise that another plane was going to
be available.
Do you think it was a good decision to cancel the F-22
contract?
General Nowland. Congressman Scott, I assume that's for me,
right?
Mr. Scott. Yes, sir.
General Nowland. The F-22 is--I am an air superiority
pilot. The F-22 has proved to be one of our greatest air
superiority assets.
Mr. Scott. So would you agree that it was a mistake to
cancel the contract?
General Nowland. I was not in the Secretary's decision
space at that time. I know there were a lot of different
factors that worked into that at that time.
Mr. Scott. Let me rephrase it. Do you wish that we had
maintained the contract? Do you wish that we had more F-22s?
Would we be a stronger Air Force today if we had more F-22s?
General Nowland. The F-22 is an absolutely incredible air
superiority as we look to the future and great power
competition. Additional F-22s, I would estimate all combatant
commanders would like to have more.
Mr. Scott. One of the other things that our combatant
commanders would like to have is more ISR [intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance] platforms. So, every year,
the Armed Services Committee, we have heard from the combatant
commanders that they don't have the necessary ISR assets to
support the geographic commands. The JSTARS [Joint Surveillance
Target Attack Radar System] continues to be a highly requested
asset inside the Department of Defense.
General Nowland and Rice, what is the rationale behind the
Air Force's decision to impose risk on combatant commanders
with the divestment of three E-8C JSTARS aircraft in the fiscal
year 2019 proposed budget?
General Nowland. Congressman Scott, the long-term--the goal
is to increase lethality and effectiveness for the combatant
commanders by trying to disaggregate the moving target
indicator capacity across the force.
So we are going to maintain the JSTARS through the mid-
twenties, with--that is a while away, as we look at this idea
of disaggregation to see if we can create an advanced battle
management system that gives combatant commanders greater
capacity and dismounted moving target indicator by modifying
the MQ-9.
Mr. Scott. Thank you for that answer, General. But if I
may, the Air Force's decision, they have told us repeatedly, is
based on the fact that they don't believe that it is survivable
in a contested airspace. So the--we have been told that the
primary reason is that it is not survivable in a contested
airspace.
General Nowland. There are increased threats from our great
power nations that do make it in a higher threat environment.
Mr. Scott. Well, General, if I may, just continuing along
that, would you agree that those nations like Russia and China,
that space is a contested environment and they are working on
advanced technologies that would make--may make our ability to
communicate from space impossible?
General Nowland. There is no doubt that space is becoming
contested environment, and our Air Force space is looking at
how we get in warfighting constructs. And to say impossible
communications, sir, it is beyond the level of my knowledge,
but certainly I think there will be challenges in space.
Mr. Scott. But you would agree that they will have the
ability to break our lines of communications?
General Nowland. I am not----
Mr. Scott. There is a risk that they will be able to break
our lines----
General Nowland. There is a risk towards our
communications, of course. We know that they will always try to
go after our communications capability.
Mr. Scott. All right. I know I am getting a little short on
time.
And, General Rice, I apologize that I cut you out of that.
But I do need to go again, General Nowland, to the weapon
system sustainment accounts. What steps are you taking to
expedite the hiring in the depot workforce, the direct hiring
as well as the retention at our depots?
General Nowland. Our Air Force Materiel Command General
Pawlikowski, in working with our A-1, is attempting to
streamline that and reduce that timeline. Our goal, as you
know, is to reduce that and get the skilled workers that we
need to get out on the flight line as much as we can.
So the efforts and the authorities that you have given us,
the Air Force is acting on those and trying to implement those
procedures.
Mr. Scott. Gentlemen, thank you.
And I would point out to the committee that it was a
mistake to cancel the F-22 contract. It would have been a
mistake to allow the Air Force to get rid of the A-10 as they
had proposed to. And it will be a mistake to allow the Air
Force to stop the recapitalization of the JSTARS program.
And, with that, I yield the 6 seconds that I don't have.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Congressman Scott.
And we now proceed to Congressman Salud Carbajal of
California.
Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today.
My question is regarding the sustainment of the F-35s. I
don't understand how we can plan to sustain over 250 F-35
aircraft while we try to triple the size of the fleet by 2021
when there continues to be serious ongoing challenges to the
program.
Currently, F-35 repairs at the depots are 6 years behind
schedule. There is a part shortage leaving the aircraft unable
to fly about 22 percent of the time in 2017, and the Autonomic
Logistics Information System, ALIS, is facing development
delays. We are essentially building new aircraft to be quickly
deemed not mission capable.
This is a readiness challenge as we will not have full-
functioning F-35s for our pilots to train or operate on. It is
my understanding that ALIS has yet to be rolled out because of
key remaining deficiencies.
What is the status of ALIS? How is all of this impacting
our readiness and the ability of our pilots to train and deploy
with these aircrafts?
General Nowland. Congressman Carbajal, thank you for that
question.
We have deployed a squadron, the 34th Fighter Squadron, on
a theater security package into the Pacific AOR [area of
responsibility]. So the problems that you highlight talk about
the system in general, and as we look at the system in general,
they are absolute challenges in sustainment and cost.
And our Secretary of the Air Force is actively working with
the Deputy Secretary of Defense to try to drive cost down and
performance measures on the ALIS, Autonomic Logistics
Information System.
However, what we have seen from our deployed forces is that
those F-15s that are forward, the Air Force, as well as the
Marine F-15--I mean F-35s, are performing well downrange, and
they are actually making fourth generation better.
So it is a challenge as we grow the system with the parts
because we are still building airplanes, and it is an
international program. They are trying to work through it. Our
logisticians are working with the joint program office to
streamline that as best they can.
Mr. Carbajal. I appreciate your answer, but I will tell you
that it would be great if we could somehow get some kind of
action plan that identifies all these deficiencies and some
timelines by which we hope to be able to overcome these
challenges.
Because if not, your statement, as great as it sounds, it
is pretty hollow. So it would be great for us to know, what is
the Air Force action plan to address these issues and the
timeframe by which to do it?
General Nowland. We will take that and give you a written
answer on that so that way we can provide that to you.
[The information referred to was not available at the time
of printing.]
Mr. Carbajal. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I yield back my time.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Congressman Carbajal.
We now proceed to Congressman Dr. Scott DesJarlais of
Tennessee.
Dr. DesJarlais. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, gentlemen, for being here today.
General Rice, good to see you again. As you know, Tennessee
has a strong Guard presence all across the State. It is
something we are very proud of. And our Air Guard in particular
carried out an exceptional set of important missions that
contribute to our national security on a daily basis.
General James Hecker of the U.S. Central Command recently
stated that we have 50 percent more MQ-9 drones providing ISR
capabilities in Afghanistan than we had a year ago. For obvious
reasons, RPAs [remotely piloted aircraft] have become very
popular with our combatant commands, and the Air Force budget
reflects that demand with its request to procure 8 peacetime
and 21 OCO Reaper drones.
My question is, what does the combat line growth and
procurement increase mean for National Guard RPA missions?
General Rice. Thanks for that question, sir. And bottom
line, thanks for your support too of our Guard. We can't do it
alone. We need your help as we work hand in hand on how we
present forces across the Total Force, Guard, Active, and
Reserve.
As far as RPA specific, it is a building-block approach. So
not only is it just the platforms to put up, but it is also the
ground control stations, and it is the processing,
exploitation, and dissemination of the data. And so parts and
pieces of that are growing in Tennessee, and we are putting in
platforms, newer platforms of MQ-9s into Tennessee as we field
those over in the next few years. That is our part. That is our
role right now: to expand that capability within the National
Guard across all of our units that we have fielded, which
includes Tennessee.
Dr. DesJarlais. Okay. And followup to that, in regards to
RPA launch and recovery elements [LREs], during the recent
California wildfires, we saw firsthand the critical role RPAs
can have in assisting first responders. How many domestic LREs
do we currently have, and are there plans to prop up more LRE
missions?
General Rice. Our goal is to have 5 units with LREs. We
have two at each one of our training units in New York in
March, and then we have three other units that are receiving
the launch and recovery elements too.
Once we get to that level, I think we will be able to
maintain the weapons system for a while and a good balance
between home-station training and response in the homeland as
well as be able to deploy one of the five at any time to meet
Air Combat Command missions.
Dr. DesJarlais. We would be happy to host one of those at
Nashville, by the way.
General Rice. Noted, sir. Duly noted.
Dr. DesJarlais. And also because we are on that subject, we
would love to have you back down to Tennessee soon. And I want
to reiterate how perfectly situated the 164th is to host an
AEROMED [aeromedical] squadron should there be mission growth
in that area.
General Nowland, yesterday, this group was at an Armed
Services retreat, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick
Shanahan used an anecdote talking about the repair times for
aircraft. And he gave an example of a Southwest airliner, 737,
if it had a part problem, I think he used a flap as an example,
that that could be procured, replaced, and the plane could be
flying within 24 hours. But put that same 737 in a military
skin, it might take 6 months just to get the part and 3 months
to repair it.
First of all, is that an accurate description? And if so,
considering that 50 percent of our airplanes are in poor repair
and not ready to fly, how do we solve that problem?
General Nowland. Thank you very much. It is an interesting
question for me. I am not positive, given the facts, that I can
say if it is true or not true. Certainly, we have unique part
sets where our logistics system doesn't where we sit. And we
measure that, and remember, we call it S time and then B time,
which is technical term for how much we are sitting.
Our older airplanes absolutely have part problems. Our WC-
135s, our older boutique airplanes have logistics challenges.
Some of our newer airplanes, as was pointed out, F-35. But for
the most part, we have invested in weapon system sustainment.
So our parts supply and our Defense Logistics Agency and our A-
4 is managing it, I would say, fairly well if you look at our
metrics across.
The other thing that we do in our small airplanes is we
have what is called a CANN [cannibalization] rate, which is
where we take a part out and we take it and we move it. And,
right now, our cannibalization rate is very good. We are not
doing that. So all indicators are, across the majority of the
fleet, we are looking pretty well. Our older airplanes, though,
challenges.
Dr. DesJarlais. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much, Doctor.
We now proceed to Congressman Don McEachin of Virginia.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And, Generals and Major General, thank you all for being
here.
And if you have already covered this, I apologize for my
tardiness, but as we think about readiness and as we think
about readiness particularly where the Air Force is concerned,
can you speak to me about pilots? And do you have enough
pilots? Is there a pilot shortage? And how can we help you
address that shortage if it exists?
General Nowland. That is one of my favorite questions, so
thank you very much for asking it.
Where we can help, yes, we do have a pilot shortage. As you
know, the numbers were about 2,000 pilots short, about 1,300
fighter pilots short. Where it really manifests itself mostly
right now is in our staffs, which are our organizations which
oversee, because we are continuing to reduce our staffs to keep
our cockpits manned, which has a second-order effect.
Where we need help and I think that we are going to come to
ask Congress for some help, is to increase our capacity. As we
said, our Secretary said, our capacity needs to be at 1,400 per
year, and we need to hold that steady.
The question is: As was noted with the T-6, we are
challenged right now because that fleet is grounded; the TX is
coming onboard. So we have a group of ideas on how we could
increase our production, and we are working through those
ideas. And we would love to come into the future, once we get
them mature, to share those with the committee on how we think
we might need some help to continue to get after it.
The other thing we are doing is we are experimenting. Our
Air Education and Training Command, General Kwast, is running
an experiment on how do you increase, reduce the amount of time
that it takes to train a pilot, which therefore would increase
your throughput. So we are looking at all avenues as we move
forward.
Mr. McEachin. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Congressman McEachin.
We now proceed to Congressman General Trent Kelly of
Mississippi.
Mr. Kelly. Thank you, Chairman. And thank you, all, for
being here.
General Nowland, just real quickly, you talked about the
number of pilots, increasing the throughput and the training of
pilots on the entry level. Is that including the number
included for the National Guard and Reserve to make sure that
we have training seats?
Because it doesn't matter. We have got to have the capacity
to train, but it can't just be the Active Component. It has got
to be also--that capacity has to include those same pilots to
go into the Guard and Reserve. Does your number you gave me
include that--earlier, the number you gave earlier?
General Nowland. Congressman Kelly, thank you. Great
question.
Absolutely includes our Total Force--Reserve, Guard, Active
Duty--and it also includes a small sliver because our strategy
says ``in, with, and through international partners.'' So there
is some international development--I mean production in there
also.
General Rydholm. Congressman, could I pick up a piece of
that too, if I could, sir?
Mr. Kelly. Yes.
General Rydholm. To General Nowland's point, one of the
things that we see across the Air Force Reserve is that we lose
roughly--we have 3,500 pilots, and we lose roughly 10 percent
per year. We get 100 training slots, so we need to be able to
affiliate 250 Active Component airmen as they come off the
Active Duty and come to us.
One of the ways that we are looking at doing that is
through a number of initiatives, one of them being special
salary rates for our Air Reserve technicians, another being
some other incentive bonuses and things.
And then, in addition to that, with the pure production
piece that was just stated, we have contributed a number of
airmen to the enterprise, maintenance airmen in particular,
seasoned airmen in the Air Force Reserve that are helping some
of our large production formal training unit locations, such as
Luke Air Force Base and the F-16.
Mr. Kelly. Thank you.
And, General Rice, you talked about the TRICARE Reserve
Select and our Federal technicians. I understand that. I am
actually looking at that, and that is something that is very
important.
It is important to me that when we have soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines, whatever, Reserve or National Guard or
Active Component, if we are doing the same job on a daily
basis, we shouldn't have different benefits. They should be
exactly the same.
And we shouldn't tell people, ``Because you are a Fed tech,
you can't get this TRICARE, you have got to pay more and have
less benefits than someone else,'' when their part-time--their
full-time job supports the part-time job, and it is the same.
And so I am supportive of that.
And, General Rice, I just want to ask you: Do you feel like
you have the adequate number of training slots to make sure
that we have the right number of Air Guard pilots trained and
ready to go on a moment's notice?
General Rice. Absolutely, sir. We definitely have the right
number of training slots. As General Nowland referenced, this
is a Total Force effort on getting ahead on producing pilots,
and we are right there hand in hand with them.
Mr. Kelly. And, General Rice, I guess, this is for all of
you all, but I will start with you. We shouldn't have the part
problems that we have in getting parts there on time. And I
understand PLL [production load list] from an Army issue, and I
don't know what you guys call it, but we call it PLL, and that
is our basic load of parts that we know are going to break. And
that is delegated way too far down to the level on some of
those things.
We should know what is breaking on F-35s. We should know
what is breaking on A-10s and F-22s. And that has got to be
readjusted every year at the highest level, but we should never
be caught by surprise and have to wait 6 or 8 months for the
same part 100 times in a year.
That is poor management at some level. And so we really got
to get better. With all the computer systems, we know across
the world what the break rate on A-10s are or on F-35s or C-
17s, and so I just want to make sure.
And the final thing is, General Rice, allocating new
planes, are we getting the right mix of getting the C-17s and
the F-35s to the Guard and the Reserve to make sure that we can
respond in a moment's notice? Are we getting the right mix in
the acquisition and fielding of all of our planes?
General Rice. Mr. Kelly, we have five capstone principles
that define what the Air National Guard brings to the table,
things like we are experience based; we are dual-role mission
and doing domestic ops [operations] and overseas. And one of
the things that provides us the ability to serve as an
operational part of the force in the Reserve Component is the
fact that we get concurrent and balanced modernization and
recapitalization. And I am here today to tell you, yes, we are
getting concurrent and balanced modernization and
recapitalization from the Air Force. Great support.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Kelly. And very briefly, General Nowland, make sure you
are letting these guys know, all the guys who are leaving in
the Active Component, I hate to lose that. They should go to
the Reserves. There is varying levels of which people can serve
at points in their life. I am a victim of that at some time.
So make sure we don't lose a pilot, that we can maintain
those years of experience that can go to the Guard and Reserve.
And I have to yield back, but thank you, Mr. Chairman.
General Nowland. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you, Congressman Kelly.
We now proceed to Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler of Missouri.
Mrs. Hartzler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So, General Nowland, the end of the Cold War, along with
other factors, resulted in the early termination of the B-2
program, which is at Whiteman Air Force Base in my district.
And, ultimately, as you know, we only have 21. Originally, we
were supposed to have 132.
And that, of course, has resulted in ballooning the cost of
the--per plane when they were being built, as well as supply
chain issues, parts sustainment that we are still dealing with
today.
And the B-2 bomber, that was the only aircraft in the
bomber fleet that is able to operate in a contested air space.
Since we only have 20 B-2s, there is really less than that when
you see how many can be combat coded. So can you comment on the
importance of keeping the B-21 program on time and on budget
and at the full number requested?
General Nowland. Congresswoman Hartzler, that is a great
question, and it absolutely is imperative for the United States
Air Force that we move into great power competition, that we
fully recapitalize our strategic bomber fleet.
The 100 B-21s that General Rand as a minimum would like to
buy and our Chief and Secretary fully support is critical
towards our future capacity as we think about time-distance
problems that we have.
As you know, the B-2 strike that we did last summer all the
way in Libya is an example of the ability to reach out and
touch a target anywhere in the world and accomplish America's
objectives.
The B-2, the B-21, and the B-52 recapitalization with long-
range munitions are critical towards our power as we move into
great power competition, and keeping it on time is also really
important.
Mrs. Hartzler. So what is your perspective on when to
retire the B-1 and the B-2 bomber? Given that the B-2 can
penetrate anti-access air space and the B-1 cannot, doesn't it
make sense to retire the B-2 last to ensure the maximum amount
of stealth bombers are available to prevent any gaps in
capacity and capability?
General Nowland. Ma'am, I have talked to General Rand, and
I have been in a room with the Chief and General Rand were
talking about this, and combatant commander requirements are
absolutely included in the planning as we move forward to make
sure that we have no gaps in our penetrating capacity.
The future of the Air Force is penetrating, nonpenetrating,
manned and unmanned, but the strategic bomber capacity to
penetrate an enemy's airspace--and we think of the enemy's
airspace not as an Iron Dome but as Swiss cheese, so it is a
team of team approaches to get in that Swiss cheese, open it,
and they are committed not to retire anything and lose that
capacity. So they are sequencing that.
Mrs. Hartzler. Okay. And, General Rice, I am sure you are
aware of that as well. I am so proud of the way that Whiteman
is certainly a joint force with both the 131st Bomb Wing, the
Guard, with Active Duty 509th, totally, totally integrated,
work in harmony every day.
Now, airmen leaving the Active Duty Component have an
opportunity to continue their service in the Guard. However, if
there is not a control grade available, those highly qualified
and trained B-2 airmen cannot continue their service in the
131st unit.
So how does the current control grade cap impact the Air
National Guard's ability to recruit and retain qualified airmen
for full-time Guard positions?
General Rice. That is a very relevant question, ma'am,
because that is right in the heart of our personnel issues to
grow readiness. We need congressional relief for control grade
caps, no doubt.
Mrs. Hartzler. Okay. That is good. I am glad to hear that
clear message from you on that because I believe so as well.
And so you would concur that there is a shortage of control
grades, and how do you think that is impacting the Air National
Guard?
General Rice. I just would clarify something. I don't
think--I don't look at it in terms of a shortage or overage. I
look at it as a limit. So, right now, we are limited on the
number of control grades we have. That limit is stifling our
ability to capture--back to our capstone principles--the
experience base that is coming off of the Active service.
So we don't hire a lot of lieutenants and E-1s and E-2s. We
hire a percentage, but not a lot. Most of our experience base
is at the 10-year point, 15-year point, and more control grades
on majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels, and E-8s and E-9s
is critical for us to maintain that experience base.
Mrs. Hartzler. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Yield back.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Congresswoman Hartzler.
I am grateful that Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo has
another question.
Ms. Bordallo. General Rydholm, I have a question for you.
Thank you for taking time to meet with me on Monday, and I
appreciate you making multiple trips to my office already this
year to advocate for both the Air Force Reserve and the Total
Force.
Earlier this week, it was published that the Air Force
plans to retire both the B-2 and the B-1 bombers as the B-21
becomes operational. So can you please comment on any
intentions of the Air Force Reserve Command to absorb legacy
bomber aircraft?
And the second question is, what are the advantages or
disadvantages of the Guard and the Reserve Components
maintaining a fleet that has been divested by the Active Duty
Component?
General Rydholm. Okay, ma'am, well, thank you for the
question. I would like to answer it kind of in reverse order.
I would say--and General Rice mentioned this one time
before--we feel very strongly about the concurrent investment
and divestment of weapons systems. So the legacy H model of C-
130 is probably a good example of that because when you compare
that--and the Guard and Reserve had many of those airframes--
when you compare that airframe to the Active Duty J model, the
crew complement is different, the training is different, the
supply chain logistics are different, everything is different
about it. So it is bad, but the Air Force as a whole is doing a
great job when we expanded in new weapons systems of going into
those weapons systems holistically with the Total Force.
From our perspective in the Reserve Command, we are
currently participating in the B-52 at Barksdale and the B-1 at
Dyess. We anticipate, as has been stated earlier by General
Nowland, that, based on General Rand's plan of keeping a lot of
B-52s around for a long time, up to 100 years, for the
lifecycle time on that airframe, that growth in that is
actually a good thing, and we are looking at small growth in
what we are doing at Barksdale.
As far as the B-1 is concerned, our association there at
Dyess is fairly small. The footprint is working well for us,
and there is talk of expansion there. And our expectation, as
has been the case in other weapons systems, is that if we
retire a bomber, we will replace it with a new bomber.
And, therefore, our expectation would be that, if we are
currently associating in the B-1 at Dyess and the choice is
made to divest that aircraft in order to invest in the B-21,
that we would invest with our Active Duty partners in that same
airframe.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you, General. My time is so limited
here. As a followup, do you anticipate these changes in the
bomber fleet that would have any impact on the continuous
bomber presence on Guam?
General Rydholm. Well, I am not sure that I can answer, but
I think that one of the things that General Nowland mentioned
was that we do not want to take down any weapons system until
we know that we have at least a similar or a more capable
weapon system to replace it.
Therefore, my expectation would be with the investment that
we are doing into some of our older bombers, like the B-52, et
cetera, that the continuous bomber presence, which provides a
tremendous deterrent for our Nation, will continue.
Ms. Bordallo. All right. Thank you. You know, we really
want to keep those bombers there because of all the unrest in
the Pacific Asia area at this time.
In a hearing last month with this committee, GAO
[Government Accountability Office] identified critical F-35
sustainment challenges, including limited repair capacity and
spare part shortages. What steps does the Department intend to
take to ensure that the F-35 fleet meets production timelines
while stabilizing operation readiness requirements? Would that
be you or----
General Nowland. Ma'am, that would be me.
So the joint program office, which is led by a one-star for
the United States Air Force, is looking into this. And it
gets--it has to do with priority. The United States Air Force
right now has the most F-35s of anyone out there. Yet the
supply system right now kind of distributes them across the
force.
So the Air Force is looking, how do we do it, the
redistribution of the supply system, towards our priority
missions? We have a priority mission overseas, and it
demonstrates that, when the airplane gets the part, the
airplane flies extremely well. So they are looking at how we
hold sustainment costs down while at the same time providing
the parts that we need to get.
And I think that when we can provide a plan back, we will
provide that to the entire committee, obviously, and hopefully
that will help answer that question.
Ms. Bordallo. Okay. Thank you very much.
And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Congresswoman Bordallo.
And I am grateful that Congressman Austin Scott has a
further question.
Mr. Scott. General Rydholm, I think the statement that you
made was: Don't take down one system until you know you have a
replacement system that works.
General Rydholm. Yes, sir.
Mr. Scott. I agree with that, just for the record. The
JSTARS works, and there is no replacement system that works. I
would ask one followup to you.
Would you be supportive of legislation that would ensure
that Air Force Reserve mil techs are considered essential
during--and hopefully we have taken government shutdowns off
the table for the next 2 years with the bill that passed last
week--so that they would be exempt from furloughs?
General Rydholm. Well, I appreciate your efforts with the
bill. And as you know, I was in your office the day before the
government shutdown, and it was a difficult day for everyone.
We absolutely support the exemption of mil techs. As most
of you are aware, a number of us had--after the Friday night
shutdown, a number of Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve
organizations had their drill weekends, and that had an impact
on folks.
In a large degree, what we do on a drill weekend and the
heart and soul of most of our organizations are mil techs. That
30 percent at the unit level are the people that are the bread
and butter that run the daily operations in those
organizations, and when we have to make decisions about which
are exempt and which aren't exempt based on either emerging
missions or named operations, it becomes very complicated, and
it would be much, much better from our perspective if we, once
for all, first and foremost, we get back to a stable budget,
and we wouldn't have to worry about it. But if we can't get to
that, at a minimum then we would look for support to help us
get the exemptions for our Air Reserve technicians.
Mr. Scott. Well, I hope that we have an agreement so that
continuing resolutions and shutdowns and potential sequester is
over with for at least the next 2 budget years, but I do think
that we probably should continue forward trying to find a
resolution of that in case we end up in the unfortunate
scenario that we have been in because of the few hard heads up
here that would rather prove a point than make a difference.
So I look forward to continuing to work with you and thank
you. Thank you all for your service.
General Rydholm. Thank you.
General Rice. And, Congressman, I would like to add that it
is not just an Air Force Reserve mil tech issue. It is a Guard
and Reserve Total Force issue with dual-status guardsmen as
well
Mr. Scott. Yes, sir. Thank you for correcting me, General
Rice.
General Rice. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Scott. I yield the remainder of my time.
Mr. Wilson. And, Congressman Scott, thank you very much for
bringing up that very important issue and your insight.
Also, General Nowland, General Rice, and General Rydholm,
thank you for your candid remarks and helping this subcommittee
understand how the President's budget request plans to restore
and rebuild the U.S. Air Force, which we are so proud of.
This has been a special hearing in that with the sound
system on and off, depending on the moment, and I want to thank
our stenographer, Kellie Humiston, for being so understanding
as she sat there quietly and could hear all of us and correctly
record this hearing.
And for this, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:35 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
February 14, 2018
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
February 14, 2018
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[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING
February 14, 2018
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. SCOTT
Mr. Scott. I'm concerned to see the Air Force still imposing risk
in the Weapons System Sustainment (WSS) account in the delivered
budget. We need to remain focused on the depot funding to ensure
aircraft are available on time to meet combatant commander
requirements. One of the largest stumbling blocks is the recruitment
and retention of qualified individuals in our depots. What steps are
you taking to address expedite depot workforce direct hiring as well as
retention efforts?
General Nowland. HIRING: The Air Force is grateful for the direct
hiring authority to expedite hiring at depots that Congress provided in
the FY17 NDAA, an authority that has been extended through 2021. While
Air Force utilization of the direct hiring authority was delayed in
2017 due to the Presidential Hiring Freeze and delayed DOD
implementation guidance, Air Force Materiel Command is now maximizing
the use of the authority to expedite hiring in several occupations in
its depots (e.g., aircraft maintenance, engineers, firefighters.) As of
28 Feb 2018, 1000+ hires have been on-boarded under this expedited
hiring authority. 1. RETENTION: Retention efforts include maximizing
the use of recruitment and relocation incentives and student loan
repayments to hire and retain highly qualified depot personnel. These
efforts include using expedited advance in hire rate packages to offer
competitive salary increases to engineers. Additional retention efforts
include the following: a. Two key programs have yielded great benefits
in retaining scientists and engineers. First, Section 852 Defense
Acquisition Workforce Development Funds have been a valuable resource
supporting our efforts to recruit, hire, retain, train, and develop our
scientist and engineer workforce. Second, in 2016, the Air Force
Materiel Command implemented the DOD Civilian Acquisition Workforce
Personnel Demonstration Project (AcqDemo) for the acquisition
workforce, including scientists and engineers. Although it is in the
initial stages of implementation, AcqDemo provides vital hiring and
compensation flexibilities that enable hiring managers to offer
competitive salaries and compensate our technical workforce according
to performance. b. Additionally, the Air Force authorizes civilian pay
incentives to alleviate personnel recruiting and retention problems due
to differences in Federal and non-Federal pay for comparable
occupations. Retention incentives are paid to an employee if the agency
determines that the unusually high or unique qualifications of the
employee or a special need of the agency makes it essential to retain
the employee and the employee would likely leave the Federal service
without a retention incentive. Employees must sign a service agreement
prior to receiving a retention incentive. These incentives are based on
limited funding pools within the installations. Air Force Materiel
Command currently has 35 employees assigned who received 18K in
retention incentives.
Mr. Scott. I continue to support the Light Attack experiment and
look forward to the results of phase two at the end of July 2018. This
program will not only provide a means to avoid the costly operations
and maintenance on the 4th and 5th Generation fighter fleet but bolster
the opportunities to partner with international countries who might not
be able to afford a more pricey jet like the F-35 or F-15. What are the
initial assessments on the requirements for pilots to meet the cockpit
demand signal in the light attack while not decrementing the readiness
levels in other platforms?
General Nowland. The procurement of a light attack aircraft (LAA)
will initially introduce a minimum demand increase among experienced
fighter aircrew ( 50-100) over the inaugural years. This will be
effectively managed through the deliberate and combined use of Total
Force Airmen, transitions from other platforms, and contractor/civilian
augmentation. Around year three, the LAA enterprise becomes self-
sustaining to meet its demands with experienced LAA aircrew and begins
``paying bills'' for other communities (e.g., training assignments,
deployed staffs, etc.), allowing experienced aircrew in fighters,
mobility, special operations, and others to remain in their career
fields.
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