[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                   
                           [H.A.S.C. No. 118-27]

                                HEARING

                                   ON

                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

                          FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024

                                  AND

              OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS

                               BEFORE THE

                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                         FULL COMMITTEE HEARING

                                   ON

         DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY FISCAL YEAR 2024 BUDGET REQUEST

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD

                             APRIL 19, 2023


                                     
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 

                               __________

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
53-020                    WASHINGTON : 2024                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

                                     
                      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
                    One Hundred Eighteenth Congress

                     MIKE ROGERS, Alabama, Chairman

JOE WILSON, South Carolina           ADAM SMITH, Washington
MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio              JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut
DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado               JOHN GARAMENDI, California
ROBERT J. WITTMAN, Virginia, Vice    DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey
    Chair                            RUBEN GALLEGO, Arizona
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia                SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts
SAM GRAVES, Missouri                 SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California
ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York          RO KHANNA, California
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee          WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi             ANDY KIM, New Jersey
MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin            CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
MATT GAETZ, Florida                  JASON CROW, Colorado
DON BACON, Nebraska                  ELISSA SLOTKIN, Michigan
JIM BANKS, Indiana                   MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey
JACK BERGMAN, Michigan               VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida               JARED F. GOLDEN, Maine
MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana              SARA JACOBS, California
LISA C. McCLAIN, Michigan            MARILYN STRICKLAND, Washington
RONNY JACKSON, Texas                 PATRICK RYAN, New York
PAT FALLON, Texas                    JEFF JACKSON, North Carolina
CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida           GABE VASQUEZ, New Mexico
NANCY MACE, South Carolina           CHRISTOPHER R. DELUZIO, 
BRAD FINSTAD, Minnesota                  Pennsylvania
DALE W. STRONG, Alabama              JILL N. TOKUDA, Hawaii
MORGAN LUTTRELL, Texas               DONALD G. DAVIS, North Carolina
JENNIFER A. KIGGANS, Virginia        JENNIFER L. McCLELLAN, Virginia
NICK LaLOTA, New York                TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama
JAMES C. MOYLAN, Guam                STEVEN HORSFORD, Nevada
MARK ALFORD, Missouri                JIMMY PANETTA, California
CORY MILLS, Florida
RICHARD McCORMICK, Georgia

                      Chris Vieson, Staff Director
               David Sienicki, Professional Staff Member
               James Vallario, Professional Staff Member
                    Brooke Alred, Research Assistant
                           
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

              STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Rogers, Hon. Mike, a Representative from Alabama, Chairman, 
  Committee on Armed Services....................................     1
Smith, Hon. Adam, a Representative from Washington, Ranking 
  Member, Committee on Armed Services............................     2

                               WITNESSES

McConville, GEN James C., USA, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army.........     5
Wormuth, Hon. Christine E., Secretary of the Army................     3

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:

    Wormuth, Hon. Christine E., joint with GEN James C. 
      McConville.................................................    69

Documents Submitted for the Record:

    Programs That Would Be Affected by a Continuing Resolution...    91

Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:

    Mr. Finstad..................................................   102
    Mr. Kim......................................................   101
    Mr. Vasquez..................................................   101
    Mr. Wittman..................................................   101

Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:

    Mr. Bergman..................................................   109
    Mr. Fallon...................................................   113
    Mr. Golden...................................................   111
    Ms. Mace.....................................................   114
    Ms. McClellan................................................   115
    Dr. McCormick................................................   116
    Mr. Rogers...................................................   105
    Mr. Scott....................................................   107
    Mr. Turner...................................................   107
    Mr. Waltz....................................................   112
    Mr. Wittman..................................................   107
         
       
         
.         
         DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY FISCAL YEAR 2024 BUDGET REQUEST

                              ----------                              

                          House of Representatives,
                               Committee on Armed Services,
                         Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 19, 2023.
    The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in room 
2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Mike Rogers (chairman 
of the committee) presiding.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE ROGERS, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM 
         ALABAMA, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

    The Chairman. The committee will come to order. Today, we 
continue the fiscal year 2024 budget hearings with the United 
States Army.
    I want to thank our witnesses for being here. And, General, 
this will be the last time you testify before our committee. 
And I want you to know we appreciate your leadership and your 
service to our country. You have been a dedicated servant to 
the men and women of the United States Army. And I want to 
commend you for completing the Boston Marathon on Monday of 
this week. In 4\1/2\ hours?
    General McConville. A little more than that, but pretty 
close, sir. I won the Joint Chiefs category.
    [Laughter.]
    The Chairman. Yes.
    General McConville. Our record is still intact.
    The Chairman. I couldn't have done it in 4\1/2\ days. So, 
I'm really proud of you.
    [Laughter.]
    The Chairman. The Army is seeking $185.5 billion in this 
fiscal year. That amounts to an increase of less than two-
tenths of 1 percent. Given the today's rate of inflation, the 
President's budget effectively cuts the Army by over 5 percent.
    The President's budget cuts Army procurement, slashing 
combat vehicle acquisition by 16 percent and new aircrafts by 
22 percent. It cuts overall Army research and development by 8 
percent. That includes a whopping 42 percent reduction in 
early-stage research and development projects that are critical 
to Army modernization efforts. Finally, it guts military 
construction by 32 percent. Most disturbingly, that includes a 
20 percent cut to family housing.
    It is clear the Army is yet again the bill payer for the 
Pentagon. Unless Congress acts, the Army will struggle to 
manage the risk these cuts present. This will be especially 
hard to deal with in the near term, as the Army is the lead 
supplier of drawdown assistance for Ukraine.
    Making matters worse is the fact that the Army is 
struggling with an historic recruiting crisis. The Army missed 
their recruiting goal by over 15,000 soldiers last year. All 
the signs point to the service being unable to meet their 
recruiting goals again this year. That is unacceptable.
    We need to understand what actions our witnesses are taking 
to overcome this crisis. This committee stands ready to change 
laws and eliminate misguided DOD [Department of Defense] 
policies that act as barriers to men and women interested in a 
career in the armed services.
    If we are going to deter China, we need to recruit the best 
and the brightest. We need to provide them with the training, 
skills, and capabilities necessary to succeed on future 
battlefields. And we need to improve their quality of life to 
ensure we retain them in today's competitive employment 
environment.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues on these 
priorities, and I look forward to yielding to my colleague and 
the ranking member for any opening statement he may have.

STATEMENT OF HON. ADAM SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM WASHINGTON, 
          RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

    Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. And 
welcome to our witnesses.
    I want to join you in thanking General McConville for his 
service, and he has been just an outstanding partner on this 
committee through some interesting challenges during your 
tenure. You will be missed, but congratulations on the 
impending retirement and thank you very much for your service.
    And, Secretary Wormuth, welcome. We look forward to your 
testimony as well.
    I think the chairman laid out fairly clearly the 
challenges. It is modernization and recruitment, in a nutshell. 
And I will be really interested in hearing from our witnesses 
today how modernization is going within the Army, what the role 
of the Army is going forward in meeting all of our national 
security challenges. Certainly, China is, as we always hear, 
the pacing threat, but there are many challenges, and the Army 
plays a key role in all of that. How does modernization affect 
that? How are you going to be able to meet those challenges 
going forward?
    We do not have infinite resources. And as we have discussed 
in this committee, modernization is a huge priority in a number 
of different areas. We have to make choices somewhere. I 
personally think the President has made the right choice. An 
$860 billion budget, roughly, should be enough to defend this 
country. The question is, how do we spend those dollars? But I 
do want to hear from both of our witnesses how the Army is 
doing that.
    And then the recruitment issue, that the people are, 
obviously, the backbone of the Army and the backbone of our 
military. And it has been a challenging time. It is worth 
pointing out that, during COVID [coronavirus disease], you were 
significantly hamstrung in your ability to recruit, and this is 
the period where that would be coming through. And that is in 
some ways reassuring, but, on the other hand, there were 
challenges before COVID and there are challenges that are 
unrelated to COVID. So, do definitely want to hear how you plan 
to meet those challenges; what your level of optimism is that 
we can recruit the soldiers that we need to make sure that the 
Army meets all of those modernization goals.
    And then, lastly, is the issue of quality of life, which is 
connected, of course, to recruitment and retention. But this 
committee has done a lot in a bipartisan and bicameral way to 
increase basic housing allowance, to increase pay, to find a 
variety of different ways to increase the overall compensation 
and support for service members and their families. We want to 
know how that is going; what more we can do to make sure that 
we are meeting those needs going forward.
    And, with that, I look forward to the testimony and the 
questions and answers. And I yield back.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman. Today, our witnesses 
are the Honorable Christine Wormuth, Secretary of the Army, and 
General James McConville, Chief of Staff of the Army. Welcome 
to our witnesses.
    And I will start with questions, and I want to prepare the 
witnesses. We have a 5-minute rule. I believe you have got the 
clocks in front of you. When we get to 5 minutes, whether you 
are in the middle of an answer or not, I don't mean to be rude, 
but I'm going to stop the time, so we move on. So, everybody 
knows I'm treating everybody the same on the dais.
    So, let me start with--let me recognize Secretary Wormuth 
for your opening statement.

 STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTINE E. WORMUTH, SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

    Secretary Wormuth. Good morning, Chairman Rogers, Ranking 
Member Smith, and distinguished members of the committee. Thank 
you for your support, as we continue to build the Army of 2030.
    And I want to apologize up front. I have a bit of a cold, 
so I will try not to cough too much.
    We are pleased to be here before you today. I'm joined by 
General McConville, and I also want to thank him for his 
decades of service. I am grateful to work with him every day.
    We have accomplished a lot this year, but we still have a 
lot of work ahead of us. We continue to be focused on our three 
main priorities: people, modernization, and readiness. The 
fiscal year 2024 budget enables us to support the National 
Defense Strategy, provide ready forces to our combatant 
commanders, and take care of our people.
    By investing over $39 billion in procurement and RDT&E 
[research, development, test, and evaluation], we are 
maintaining our momentum in our modernization programs, and we 
are largely on track to bring 24 of our programs over the 
finish line in 2023.
    This is a big year for long-range precision fires. 
Prototypes of the Precision Strike Missile, the Mid-Range 
Capability, and the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon will be in the 
hands of soldiers this fiscal year.
    It is also a big year for Next Generation Combat Vehicles. 
Mobile Protective Firepower is in production, and the AMPV 
[Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle] is also being fielded. And it 
is a big year for our integrated air and missile defenses, as 
well as the Future Vertical Lift program.
    As we shift from two decades of counterinsurgency and 
counterterrorism operations to large-scale combat operations, 
we are also transforming our force structure. We are going to 
have to adapt our force structure to make room for things like 
our multi-domain task forces and other new units, like the 
Indirect Fire Protection Capability and our M-SHORAD [Maneuver-
Short Range Air Defense] battalions.
    We are a ready Army and we continue to emphasize readiness 
in everything we do. We are funding 22 combat training center 
rotations this year. We have a robust exercise program, and we 
are implementing our new readiness model, which helps us 
balance modernization, training, and ongoing missions. We are 
also investing in Army pre-position stocks, which have served 
us very well in Europe and will serve us in other theaters in 
the future.
    To assist Ukraine in fighting against Russia, the Army has 
provided over $20 billion in lethal assistance in the form of a 
wide range of munitions, radars, combat vehicles, and many 
other pieces.
    One of the most important lessons we have learned from the 
war in Ukraine is the need for a more robust defense industrial 
base. So, in our budget this year, we have invested $1.5 
billion in our ammo plants, our arsenals, and our depots.
    We are also working very closely with our partners in the 
defense industry to increase their munitions production, so 
that we can continue not only to help the Ukrainians, but also, 
importantly, to replenish our own stocks.
    Even as our soldiers provide lethal assistance to Ukraine 
and train Ukrainian soldiers, we haven't taken our eye off the 
pacing challenge of China. INDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific 
Command] may be a theater named after two oceans, but the Army 
has an important role to play there.
    The best way to avoid fighting a war is to show you can win 
any war you might have to fight. The Army is contributing to 
strengthening deterrence every day in the Indo-Pacific, as we 
campaign in the region through exercises and robust 
partnerships. And if deterrence fails, the Army will be a key 
player on the joint team in the event of a conflict.
    As important as it is to build new weapon systems and 
maintain our readiness, people are the strength of our Army. 
This budget increases soldier and Department of Army civilian 
pay by 5.2 percent and funds important quality-of-life 
improvements like family housing, childcare initiatives, and 
new and renovated barracks.
    We want to build cohesive teams of soldiers that are 
trained, disciplined, and fit. So, the Army is committed to 
building positive command climates across the force, so that 
our soldiers can be all they can be.
    We are also continuing to strive to prevent suicide in our 
ranks. Suicide, as you all know, is a national challenge, but 
we have to do everything we can to reduce suicide in our Army. 
So, we are pursuing a range of initiatives to make our soldiers 
more resilient.
    Our Army is the greatest army in the world, but to keep it 
that way, we have to solve our recruiting challenges. The 
difficult recruiting landscape we face didn't happen in a year, 
and it is going to take us more than a year to turn this 
around. We are laser-focused on this challenge and we are not 
going to lower our standards to solve this problem. The whole 
of Army leadership is focused on improving our recruitment.
    We are generating positive momentum from initiatives like 
the Future Soldier Prep Course, our Soldier Referral Program, 
and our new reinvented marketing campaign, Be All You Can Be. 
Our efforts are geared towards one thing: reintroducing 
ourselves to the American public and inspiring a renewed call 
to service. We very much need your help in this effort if we 
are going to be successful.
    I'm proud of all that our soldiers do every day and look 
forward to answering your questions.
    [The joint prepared statement of Secretary Wormuth and 
General McConville can be found in the Appendix on page 69.]
    The Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary.
    General, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF GEN JAMES C. McCONVILLE, USA, CHIEF OF STAFF, U.S. 
                              ARMY

    General McConville. Thank you, Secretary, for your 
leadership.
    And good morning, Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Smith, 
distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to be here today and for your continued support.
    The United States Army exists for one purpose. That is to 
protect the Nation by being ready to fight and win our Nation's 
wars, as a member of the joint force. To do this, the Army has 
set three clear priorities: people, readiness, and 
modernization, or in other words, future readiness. We have 
remained aggressively committed to these priorities while 
answering the Nation's call during every crisis and every 
challenge.
    This year, the Army continues to undergo its greatest 
transformation in almost 50 years. We are delivering on 
modernization because we have been consistent and we have been 
persistent on our modernization priorities.
    Last year, we officially updated our Capstone warfighting 
doctrine to multi-domain operations, which incorporates 
emerging lessons from Ukraine. We continue to stand up new 
organizations to support our doctrine. Last June, we 
reactivated the historic 11th Airborne Division in Alaska. In 
September, we stood up the third of our five multi-domain task 
forces. As the Secretary noted, we are on track to field 24 
weapon systems in 2023.
    But, at the end of the day, we must get the right people in 
the right place in order for any of these initiatives to be 
successful. And that is why people remain the Army's number one 
priority. We want every person and every parent to know that 
service in the Army is a pathway to success, both in and out of 
uniform.
    Whether you serve for 4 years or you serve for over 40 
years, the Army offers endless possibilities. We are not only a 
profession of arms, but we are also a profession of 
professions. You can be whatever you want to be in the United 
States Army. In fact, you can be all you can be.
    I'm often asked how people can help us, and my answer is: 
inspire other young men and women to serve. Because when we get 
the call, we go with the Army we have. The Army we have is the 
world's greatest fighting force because we serve with the 
world's greatest soldiers. With your continued support, we are 
going to keep it that way.
    I look forward to your questions.
    The Chairman. Thank you, General.
    I want to ask both of you--we are going to get an 
authorization bill passed in a bipartisan fashion and on time. 
But if Congress doesn't do its job and doesn't get you an 
appropriations bill passed in a timely manner, and you are 
stuck with a 2-years continuing resolution [CR], how does that 
impact your ability to do the job that you just described? I 
will start with you, Secretary Wormuth.
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Chairman, it would be, I think, a 
significant problem for us. You know, first of all, at a time 
where we are competing against China, I think a CR is, 
basically, sort of us fighting with one hand tied behind our 
back. A CR would essentially tie down about $5.3 billion in 
terms of procurement programs. There are tens of procurement 
new starts that we would not be able to move out on. There are 
dozens of research, development, and testing new starts that we 
would not be able to move out on. So, it would significantly 
impede us.
    The Chairman. What about the pay raise you just described 
in your opening statement?
    Secretary Wormuth. I'm sorry?
    The Chairman. What about the pay raise for the troops that 
you included in your opening statement?
    Secretary Wormuth. That would also be a problem for us.
    The Chairman. You mentioned $1.5 billion that you were 
going to put into ammo production. Would you be able to do 
that?
    Secretary Wormuth. Some of those programs would be delayed, 
sir.
    The Chairman. Okay. General, what would it mean to you?
    General McConville. Well, Chairman, I think it is going to 
hurt our people. You talk about pay raises, you know, we have 
got soldiers out there doing great things and their families 
deserve a raise. And we need to get that to them.
    I'm concerned about the modernization. We often are 
criticized for being slow in modernization, but right now we 
have the opportunity to transform the Army, biggest one we have 
done in 40 years. And new starts, production increases, as all 
of you know, those things don't happen under a CR.
    The Chairman. You have got the responsibility to resupply 
our stocks and at the same time supply Ukraine and Taiwan, 
trying to help them. Can you tell us how the Army is trying to 
achieve those goals?
    General McConville. Do you want to start, Secretary?
    Secretary Wormuth. I will start, and then after, you.
    We really doing three different things, Chairman.
    First of all, we are investing in our organic industrial 
base, like I said, $1.5 billion. And that is helping us be able 
to, for example, expand capacity at the plant in Scranton that 
makes 155-millimeter casings.
    We are also working really closely with defense industry to 
basically take the money Congress has given us, get it on 
contract, and allow them to expand their capacity and also the 
speed of their production.
    The Chairman. And on that point, do you have enough 
multiyear contracting authority to be able to make those--get 
those industries to be able to expand, or not?
    Secretary Wormuth. Multiyear procurement authority is very 
helpful. We have asked in this budget----
    The Chairman. And do you have it----
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes, we have asked for a couple more 
authorities.
    The Chairman. Okay. Good. Good.
    General.
    General McConville. I just, along with what the Secretary 
says, what we have seen is industry works on contracts. They 
don't work on enthusiasm. So, as we talk about the things we 
need, we have to replenish our war stocks, and as we like to 
say, with the weapon systems we are giving, we are not buying 
new old stuff. So as we give them systems, we are going to buy 
the new modernization systems. And so we are able to transform 
the Army with your support, as we go through this.
    The Chairman. Okay. I'm really interested in the $1.5 
billion for ammo production. We have really seen an exposure of 
our lack of capability in the organic industrial base. Tell us 
more about how you are going to spend this $1.5 billion.
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Chairman, we have 23 different 
ammo plants, arsenals, and depots around the country, as you 
know well, and that $1.5 billion is basically going into trying 
to modernize those plants. In some cases, it is putting in new 
machining tools. In some cases, it is putting in new software. 
But as you know, a lot of those plants were built in the wake 
of World War II. So there is a lot of work to be done there, 
and it is part of a broader, 15-year, $18 billion plan to 
upgrade our organic industrial base.
    The Chairman. Some of them are older than that.
    Have you projected what kind of capacity increase you will 
get as a result of that investment? Or do you know?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, you know, for example, with the 
155-millimeter shells, we are moving from--we went from 14,000 
production a month to 20,000 a month, and in 2 years we will 
have more than 75,000 a month being produced. So, it is going 
to take a little time, but it is a good, upward ramp.
    The Chairman. Well, you know, this conflict in Ukraine has 
exposed the inadequate capability that we have now to produce 
ammunition. I just didn't know if this alone is going to get us 
to a good place, or are we going to need to overlay more on top 
of that particular sector of production in our country to make 
sure we have ammo that we need in the future?
    Secretary Wormuth. My sense is, sir, we are going to need 
to do more. Because, again, I think one thing that the war in 
Ukraine has shown us is that the estimates that we have made 
about munitions for future conflicts are low. So, I think we 
are going to have to keep working.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    I yield to the ranking member.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you.
    General, I appreciated your reference to some of the old 
slogans in the Army there: ``Be All You Can Be.'' I always 
liked the one, ``We do more before 9:00 a.m. than most people 
do all day.'' My wife and I used to joke with our children 
that, ``You do less all day than most people do before 9:00 
a.m.''
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Smith. But sadly, most people didn't get that joke. So 
I appreciate you bringing that up.
    You know, on the modernization piece, the role of 
information systems and making sure the JADC2 idea of Joint 
All-Domain Command and Control, making sure that it is 
integrated, can you describe a little bit how that challenge is 
going in the Army? Because one of the concerns is, how do you 
truly make that joint? The Army is doing their thing; the Air 
Force is doing their thing; the Navy is doing their thing. How 
is that piece of modernization coming together for the Army--
for both of you?
    Secretary Wormuth. I'm sure that General McConville will 
want to comment on this, Representative Smith.
    But what I would say is, the primary way the Army has been 
trying to contribute to JADC2 is through our Project 
Convergence set of experimentation and exercises. We have a 
joint board of directors for that set of exercises. So, we have 
the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy, the Space Force working 
with us.
    And what we have been doing for the last couple of years 
now is really coming together in the dirt, trying to see if we 
can get our different platforms to connect to each other and to 
share data, you know, data from different sensors to different 
shooters. And we have been doing that successfully. I think 
there is still more work to be done, but I think the work we 
have been doing is widely seen as very joint.
    Mr. Smith. Are there gaps in the resources there? Is there 
like a program that, gosh, if we had another $500 million, you 
could make progress? Or is it more just a matter of trying to 
integrate very complicated systems?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think more resources would, 
undoubtedly, be helpful. And the RDER [Rapid Defense 
Experimentation Reserve] fund that the Deputy has established 
is something that we have been looking at. Part of it is, as 
the Chief likes to say, services, you know, we tend to do what 
is in our own interest. So, I think part of what we are 
experiencing is coming together and seeing how we can find 
common interest in building this vision.
    Mr. Smith. Okay. General.
    General McConville. Yes, and we are seeing a lot of 
grassroots efforts because people realize the importance of 
being able to move data very, very quickly between sensors and 
shooters. If you want to do long-range precision fires, you 
have to do long-range precision targeting, and you have to do 
that at the time of relevance. So, we are seeing that.
    As the Secretary said, one other thing I would add is we 
have stood up, we call it a Combined Joint Systems Integration 
Laboratory. It is up at Aberdeen. And what we do is we bring 
together the boxes. It is really about black boxes passing data 
between different weapon systems. And you have to be able to do 
that in a laboratory environment before you can actually bring 
it out to the desert, if you want to see it work.
    And we are on our third iteration. Each time we get better. 
Each time we get smarter people to help us understand the best 
way to move data through a data fabric and how you are going to 
do this.
    And now we are starting to bring in our allies and 
partners. So it is actually moving to a CJADC2, or Combined 
Joint All-Domain Command and Control system, because we are 
always going to fight with allies and partners, and they are 
very interested in joining this effort.
    Mr. Smith. That is great. Thank you.
    On the recruitment and retention issue, just focusing on 
compensation, particularly for your new service members, new 
soldiers who are coming in. They are starting at a relatively 
low pay level, and there are a number of stories about some of 
them are struggling just basically to put food on the table in 
some instances. We talked a little bit about this when we met 
yesterday. And some of that is economic choices. There is a 
whole lot of things that go into that.
    But in terms of making sure that--and this affects 
recruitment, obviously; if you are coming in, you want to make 
sure that you are being paid enough to support yourself and, 
potentially, your family. What are the keys to sort of getting 
to a better place on that?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think, Congressman, we need to do a 
couple of things. One thing we pay a lot of attention to in the 
Army is financial literacy for our soldiers, so that they know 
how to make a budget; how to live under a budget; how to plan 
ahead. That is really important, and we make sure that our 
soldiers get that kind of training and those resources at 
multiple points in their experience in the Army.
    This budget calls for a pay raise for soldiers. The 
Department has done a lot to try to help soldiers deal with 
inflation and rising cost of housing, for example. So, we have 
increased BAH [basic allowance for housing] in a number of 
different places.
    And then the next big thing we are going to do, as we 
talked about yesterday, is look at the Quadrennial Military 
Compensation Review to see whether we have got the actual pay 
rates set appropriately for soldiers.
    Mr. Smith. Okay. Yes.
    General McConville. Yes, I would just add, what I worry 
most about is our young soldiers with families. You know, our 
soldiers that are single, they live in the barracks and we 
provide them food. So a lot of their decisions are choices.
    If you are not living on an Army post and you have to go 
out into the civilian sector--and some of these places have 
high cost of living, and you are trying to live; you are trying 
to have a family--that is expensive for a young soldier. So, we 
watch that carefully with the housing allowances and the cost-
of-living allowances. And I think that is where our biggest 
vulnerability is.
    Mr. Smith. I'm out of time. So, thank you very much.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much, Chairman.
    And, Madam Secretary, General, thank you for being here 
today.
    And, General McConville, I want to congratulate you on 42 
years of service. You beat me by 11. But we look forward to you 
coming back and your input over the years.
    I'm grateful of the service of all the soldiers at the 
greatest installation within the United States, Fort Jackson, 
South Carolina. The leadership of Brigadier General Jason Kelly 
is so inspiring.
    The U.S. Army Training Center at Fort Jackson plays a 
critical role in the recruitment, training, and retention of 
soldiers through the Future Soldier Preparatory Course, and 
graduating over 50 percent of all soldiers through basic combat 
training.
    With that in mind, we appreciate the recent and upcoming 
changes to the Army recruitment and retention policies, 
General, or the programs, as the Army continues to face a 
declining pool of potential recruits. How are these policies 
and programs expected to impact the Army's overall readiness 
and effectiveness, General?
    General McConville. Well, Congressman, first of all, we are 
very proud of what Fort Jackson does every single day for our 
soldiers. But this new, innovative program, which stood up at 
Fort Jackson, the Future Soldier Prep Course, there is 
something there.
    And the Secretary and I have made a blood oath we are not 
going to lower standards to bring soldiers in. Quality is more 
important than quantity. So, we are going to invest in young 
men and women.
    And we have had about 7-8,000 young men and women go 
through the program at Fort Jackson, and about 95 percent are 
making it into basic training and they are excelling in it.
    So, I think our strategy has to be, the young men and women 
are having a hard time passing our ASVAB [Armed Services 
Vocational Aptitude Battery]; they are having a hard time 
meeting our physical standards; and we are willing to invest in 
them. And that is what we need to make sure. So, when parents 
ask, ``Why should my kid serve?'' ``Because your kid can be all 
they can be, and we want to help them be that.''
    Mr. Wilson. Well, I look at what you are doing as providing 
opportunities defending our country. All credit to my wife, I 
have got four sons who have served overseas in the U.S. 
military, and it is the most significant portion of their life. 
So, thank you for what you are doing.
    And, Secretary, at this very moment, the courageous 
Ukrainians are involved in the largest artillery battles of 
World War II, stopping war criminal Putin. They are using M777 
howitzers, which no longer are in production, and the Paladin 
Integrated Management [PIM].
    So, I was disappointed to see the PIM program cut in this 
year's budget. And to me, war criminal Putin, the Chinese 
Communist Party threats to America, the Iranian regime pledge 
of death to Israel/death to America, they must be deterred. And 
the way to do that, and given the prominent role of Ukraine and 
the global demand for this capability, how does the Army 
justify cuts? Would you agree that maintaining the capacity to 
produce artillery is vital to America's national security?
    And I'm concerned that the production of our only armored 
mobile howitzer at a critical time when its need is so vital, 
and we stand to benefit from full-rate production efficiencies 
to defeat war criminal Putin. What is being done?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I absolutely agree with you 
that everything we see in Ukraine shows the importance of 
artillery. And we see that for future battles. That is why we 
put so much emphasis on long-range precision fires for the 
future.
    The reason that we have made the choices that we have made 
about Paladin in the budget is we are trying to strike a 
balance. The Paladin is an enduring system. It is still very 
relevant for us. We need it. So, we are trying to continue to 
invest in that, while also taking our resources and investing 
in the new systems that we are developing--things like the 
Extended Range Cannon Artillery, for example. So, we think we 
have put enough in there to keep the production going, but also 
being able to invest in new systems.
    Mr. Wilson. And indeed, the importance of what you are 
doing with the circumstances that we have--yesterday, the 
incarceration, the imprisonment, of Vladimir Kara-Murza in 
Moscow; the oppression, by my view, of Putin of the people of 
Russia. We must, again, and I want to urge both of you, that we 
expedite long-range HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket 
System], whatever, to deter the aggression, the mass murder 
being conducted.
    General, as an Army guy myself, it never occurred to me 
what Putin is doing. And that is to attack civilian targets, 
and then to attract the EMS [emergency medical services] 
personnel and the fire departments, and then the real target 
would be to kill the civilian first responders. And so, this 
atrocity must stop, and you are in a position to help do that.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut, Mr. Courtney, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And, General McConville, again, I want to join my 
colleagues in congratulating you on your great career.
    The Massachusetts brain drain on the Joint Chiefs is going 
to be pretty steep this year, but I just want to say, hearing a 
Boston accent, I find very soothing at these hearings.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Courtney. So, again, I want to again thank you for your 
great work.
    Secretary Wormuth, again, the announcement yesterday by 
Sikorsky that they are not going to go to court to appeal GAO's 
[U.S. Government Accountability Office's] decision sort of 
still begs a lot of questions. Again, I'm sure we are going to 
spend some time going through the forensics of that decision.
    But, again, moving forward, the Army has stated a number of 
times that the--you know, the Valor is not going to be a one-
for-one replacement for Black Hawks. Again, given the number of 
Black Hawks that the Army operates--it is about 2,000--it is 
hard to visualize that there would be that many Valors 
purchased there. But that sort of begs the question of just, 
you know, what is the plan in terms of Black Hawk acquisition, 
which is probably going to continue for decades?
    I mean, the first Bell [Valor helicopter] is not even going 
to come off until 2030. So, I mean, that is pretty long time. 
It is within the Davidson window. So, maybe you could just talk 
about that for a minute in terms of what the Black II program 
is for Black Hawk and where the Army sees Black Hawk's role.
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congressman, and I'm sure 
General McConville, as an aviator, will want to add to this.
    First, you are absolutely right, we are not going to be 
bringing online the new FLRAA [Future Long Range Assault 
Aircraft] platform for some years, even though we have down-
selected, obviously, a partner with that. Black Hawk is a great 
helicopter and will continue to be an important part of the 
Army fleet. So, I would expect that we will continue to have 
thousands of Black Hawks in our fleet. We will need to sustain 
them. You know, the terrific industrial base in Connecticut 
that is so critical to the Black Hawk program is going to very 
much still be needed, because it will take us some time to 
start bringing in the new helicopter.
    General McConville. I would second what the Secretary said. 
The Black Hawk is a great helicopter. One of my sons flies the 
Black Hawk, and it is in our Special Operations Forces at the 
101st. It is going to continue to be the mainstay of medium-
lift helicopters. And I see, for the next 40, 60 years, I see 
us continuing to incrementally improve that system, and I see 
many of our allies and partners taking a hard look at that is 
the type of aircraft they have. So, it is going to be around 
for a long time.
    And I think it falls into what we have talked about, that 
enduring category. We are going to keep it. We are going to 
incrementally improve it, as we build--bring on the new 
systems. They're going to give us much greater range and much 
greater speed. In areas where we need them, we will use those 
systems. But the Black Hawk is going to be around for a long 
time.
    Mr. Courtney. So, Congresswoman DeLauro and I actually flew 
on a Coast Guard Jayhawk during the Easter break. And again, 
the sea services, obviously, are another sort of customer that, 
honestly, the Bell platform just does not work in terms of 
landing them on, whether it is Coast Guard ships or Navy ships.
    So, again, like I said, we are going to have plenty of time 
to, like I said, pick through entrails of this, and look 
forward to working with you.
    On the recruitment question, I thought the Army actually 
did something pretty interesting, which is you conducted a 
survey to sort of find out what is sort of going on in terms of 
military age-eligible Americans in terms of their thoughts 
about the Army. And obviously, we are living in a time with an 
economy with almost 10 million job openings out there. So there 
is lots of choices out there. Can you talk a little bit about 
what that survey showed you in terms of just, you know, how do 
we address this recruiting challenge?
    Secretary Wormuth. Sure, Congressman. We surveyed 2,400 
people between the ages of 16 and 28 to try to, frankly, 
understand, you know, how do they see the Army; what do they 
think about the Army? And we found a few things. And 
specifically, the survey was really focused on, what did people 
see in that age group as obstacles to service?
    And what we found was the number one fear was fear of death 
or injury. There was sometimes a fear of psychological harm or 
a fear of leaving friends and family. And then, after that, it 
was sort of a fear of the Army somehow putting your life on 
hold.
    So, one of the things we are really trying to do is 
emphasize the tremendous range of opportunities that the Army 
offers, you know, and the Be All You Can Be campaign, really 
tries to speak to that.
    Mr. Courtney. Great. I mean, obviously, there is the 
culture war sort of backdrop to this there, but that really 
came in very low, right, in terms of just that being a barrier?
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes. Concerns about, for example, 
wokeness in the military or the COVID vaccine mandate, for 
example, those were relatively low on the list of barriers to 
service.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. 
Lamborn, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And I want to thank you both for your contribution to our 
country's national defense.
    And there is a couple of important future weapons programs 
I want to ask you about in a minute. But, first of all, I need 
to drill down on a local issue of extreme concern.
    Secretary Wormuth, I'm still deeply concerned by the poor 
housing conditions at Fort Carson in my district. Soldiers at 
that base, and their families, face poor living conditions and 
maintenance which is hard to come by. The promise of modern and 
improved housing has been held hostage by severe construction 
delays.
    In the Army's annual housing survey released last year, 
Fort Carson ranked last in some of the categories for resident 
satisfaction. Just last month, a pregnant woman fell through 
the floor at her house because of poor maintenance. So, this is 
alarming and completely unacceptable. Construction on the 
Cherokee West neighborhood has not even started, as the design 
continues to be redone.
    So, each time I raise concerns to senior Army personnel, I 
am assured that these issues would be highly prioritized and 
resolved quickly, but this has not yet happened. The soldiers 
at Fort Carson and their families, who sacrifice for our 
country daily, deserve resolution of these issues immediately. 
Will you commit today that you will urgently prioritize 
improving the housing conditions at Fort Carson and addressing 
these pervasive problems?
    Secretary Wormuth. I will, Congressman. I will talk to 
General Omar Jones, our installation commander, today about the 
kinds of things that you are raising.
    Mr. Lamborn. Well, thank you. I will be following up with 
you on that.
    I'm sure Fort Carson isn't the only Army base that is 
facing serious housing challenges. Can you, or either of you, 
elaborate on how you plan to resolve these continuing issues, 
especially maintenance and modernizing base housing?
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes, Congressman. I actually, when I 
went to Fort Carson last, I went to see the Cherokee West 
neighborhood, and they were just getting started to do that 
demolition.
    Balfour Beatty, the company that provides the housing at 
Fort Carson, is a company that we are scrutinizing intensely, I 
think it is fair to say. We also have some challenges with them 
down at Fort Gordon. And one of my Assistant Secretaries was 
just there the other day.
    So, we are working very, very closely--and BBC [Balfour 
Beatty Communities] knows that--to make sure that they are 
living up to their contractual obligations. One of the 
challenges that BBC has, along with some of our other 
privatized housing partners, is hiring and retaining 
maintenance workers. That is part of the challenge, is, you 
know, we are all facing a war for talent and a war for workers. 
But we are really encouraging companies like BBC to make sure 
that they are paying for and retaining maintenance workers, so 
that they can go through those work orders quickly.
    Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
    General, anything you want to add?
    General McConville. No. As the Secretary said, we have a 
sacred obligation to make sure that our families and soldiers 
have quality housing, and we are committed to doing that. And 
when it doesn't happen, we have got to fix it.
    Mr. Lamborn. Okay. Thank you.
    Now, changing gears, for both of you, I'm excited that the 
Army will be fielding the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, LRHW, 
later this year. It will be the Nation's first operational 
hypersonic capability. However, I understand that a test 
scheduled to occur last month was scrubbed. So I'm concerned 
that we might be facing some delays. Can you give us an updated 
testing and fielding schedule with the committee?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I would be happy to talk 
more in a closed session with you about that. We are 
rescheduling the test that we had to scrub. So, I think we will 
be okay on that.
    And I also just wanted to emphasize that the battery at 
JBLM [Joint Base Lewis-McChord] that will eventually field that 
weapon system is already training with their equipment. They 
have already been moving their equipment onto C-17s. So, I 
think we are still going to be on track.
    Mr. Courtney. Okay. And, General, what kind of capability 
will this give you that helps you and your successors to better 
operate?
    General McConville. Well, you know, we've seen it played 
out in Ukraine. People talked about HIMARS being a game-changer 
as long-range precision fires, but this is really long-range 
precision fires. And the speed and range that you get gives you 
options, quite frankly, to deter those who may be wishing us 
harm.
    Mr. Lamborn. And, General, since I have got you here, it 
may be my last chance to ask you a question. We have some good 
developments in the area of directed energy with shooting 
down--well, Short-Range Air Defense, SHORAD. What are your 
plans for that in the future?
    General McConville. Yes, I think it is an option. It is an 
arrow in the quiver. And this gets to convergence, where we 
have multiple sensors and we start looking at swarms of UAVs 
[unmanned aerial vehicles] and other types of systems coming 
in. We have got to be able to react very quickly. We have got 
to pick the right arrow and be able to respond to it.
    Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
California, Mr. Garamendi, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Thank you so very much, General, for your long, long 
service and your work with all of us. I appreciate that.
    Madam Secretary, you have been focused on many, many 
things, one of which we haven't talked about.
    But, before I go to you, General, we were recently in a 
congressional delegation led by the chairman. And we were able 
to observe in Romania and Poland the extraordinary work being 
done by the 101st, as they rotated in and, eventually, will 
rotate out. Very, very impressive in delivering the necessary 
supplies, weapons, munitions into Ukraine and tracking and 
keeping a clear record of our efforts to arm. And so, thank 
you.
    Madam Secretary, you recently issued a report on how the 
Army can deal with climate change, resiliency in the face of a 
changing climate, but also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I 
would like you to speak to that for a few moments.
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congressman. Yes, we put out 
a climate strategy that had some ambitious goals in terms of, 
for example, fully electrifying our non-tactical vehicles by 
2035, for example. And we are working on that. Frankly, one of 
the limiting factors is the availability of electric vehicles 
writ large, but we are working to purchase those.
    We are also investing quite a bit in the resilience of our 
installations. As you know, in California, basically no matter 
where you are in the country, you are either experiencing 
drought or wildfires or floods. We have got to make sure that 
our installations remain functional throughout that extreme 
weather, so that our soldiers can train. So, we are investing 
in microgrids, for example, so that we can have the ability to 
continue to generate power.
    And then we are also investing in looking at hybrid 
vehicles, for example. This is sort of farther off, but I saw, 
for example, a hybrid Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which is not 
only more fuel-efficient than the conventional Bradley, but it 
is also quieter, which has some lethality/survivability 
benefits. And it also is going to, because it is more fuel-
efficient, it could potentially reduce the fuel convoys in the 
future and the numbers of soldiers that are exposed to danger. 
So, those are farther in the future, but I think it is 
important for us to explore that.
    Mr. Garamendi. Well, thank you very much.
    I urge you to continue to press forward on all of those 
efforts, particularly the hybridization of the tactical 
vehicles. It may be not so difficult, in that the downtime, I 
think, General, you still hurry up and wait a lot. And so, the 
waiting is, you know, the turbine can be going or the diesel 
engine can be going, or it could be battery-powered 
communications, and the rest. So, I urge you to continue to 
process that.
    I would like to go back to the issue of the new systems 
that you are bringing online. And I would like both of you to 
speak to the vulnerability of the systems coming online if we 
delay the appropriations and the authorization and have a CR. 
So, once again, drive home that issue, so that we might 
actually be listening to your concerns.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman.
    You know, again, this is the most significant modernization 
of the Army in the last 40 years. And a CR, particularly, a 
long-term CR, will significantly slow down that modernization 
effort at precisely the time where we are trying to compete 
with China. So, we will have, as I said, tens of new-start 
procurement programs that we wouldn't be able to move forward. 
The same with our research and development programs. It is 
really about $5.3 billion of programs that would be affected. 
So, it would be a substantial delay and impediment for us.
    Mr. Garamendi. If you could provide us with the specific 
list?
    Secretary Wormuth. I would be happy to do that.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
beginning on page 91.]
    Mr. Garamendi. Amongst us, we have advocates for one or 
another of those programs, and we ought to know what happens if 
we have a CR.
    Secretary Wormuth. We would be happy to do that.
    Mr. Garamendi. Please do that.
    General, would you like to comment on that issue?
    General McConville. Yes, I would. I think the Secretary 
covered it well on the modernization effort. But, again, I come 
back to the soldiers and their families, and training and 
readiness. You know, what tends to happen in units--and it is 
hard to capture--is they slow down spending. And so, they are 
not doing maybe the training they need. Or they don't get the 
increases that they need to pay for those things, and the 
system slows down. And as a result, you can't make up for that 
training that those solders didn't get or those benefits they 
didn't get.
    So, I just would ask, anything we can do to avoid a CR 
would be very helpful for the military.
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you. I yield back, sir.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia, Mr. Wittman, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Wittman. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And Secretary Wormuth, General McConville, thanks so much 
for joining us today. Thanks again for your service to our 
Nation.
    And General McConville, great to see you again from this 
past Saturday there in Boston. And thanks again for your 
incredible service to our Nation and for your family's legacy 
of service. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
    I want to begin by talking about where the Army is and what 
I think is a position that is very precarious in the 
restructuring to address the challenges in the INDOPACOM. In 
fact, I think the things that are there are lacking.
    I see the Army is divesting in watercraft and logistics 
connectors. There are some challenges, too, in creating the 
necessary communications network there and, for that matter, a 
continuation of logistics in the INDOPACOM.
    I think that it appears to me at this point that the Army 
is not as well prepared as it needs to be for the challenges 
that are going to be there in the INDOPACOM. Listen, we know 
combined arms maneuver has a place in Europe. We have seen that 
today. I think it is going to be minimally important in any 
sort of scenario we see in the INDOPACOM.
    And I just want to get your perspective on what do you 
think are the principal lines of effort that the Army needs to 
accentuate to make sure that the Army is up for the challenge 
in the INDOPACOM AOR [area of responsibility] and for that 
matter, specifically up to the challenge that we face from 
China.
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I would answer your 
question this way: I think the Army will do a number of 
important things in an INDOPACOM conflict, if there were to be 
one.
    First of all, we would be the primary force that would be 
establishing and building out staging bases for air and 
maritime forces. You know, ships are going to have to come to 
shore to refuel, reload, et cetera, and the same thing with 
airplanes. We will be protecting, then, those staging bases 
with integrated air and missile defenses.
    I think we have a role to play, a huge role to play, in 
terms of logistics and sustainment, which you mentioned. And we 
are investing in those areas. We are investing--we are also 
looking at we will play, I think, an important command-and-
control role as well.
    So we are investing in Army pre-position stocks in 
INDOPACOM. We are investing in deep-sensing capabilities 
oriented at INDOPACOM. We are investing in Patriot, IFPC 
[Indirect Fire Protection Capability] for INDOPACOM. Those are 
all, I think, really important roles that the Army would play 
out in that theater.
    Mr. Wittman. General McConville.
    General McConville. Yes, I would just add on the contested 
logistics, you know, we are seeing that play out in Ukraine, is 
if you can't resupply or sustain your forces, they're not very 
effective. And it is magnified in the Indo-Pacific, as you 
said, sir, because the distances are great, it is more a 
maritime capabilities.
    And so, some of the things that we are developing is the 
ability to operate in that environment. We just stood up a 
cross-functional team for contested logistics.
    Many of our systems that we are building, like long-range 
precision fires, they are long range and they go fast because 
that is what the theater demands. The aircraft we are bringing 
onboard, they go much further ranges, they go faster.
    And air and missile defense is really going to be important 
out there. And what we think is important is the convergence 
factor, because we are going to be working as a joint force. We 
have got to have deep sensors. You know, if you are going to do 
long-range precision fires, you have to do long-range precision 
targeting. You're going to have to take advantage of space and 
other capabilities we have to do that. You're going to have to 
work as a joint and coalition team. And we are doing all that 
right now, and we certainly can do more.
    Mr. Wittman. Well, listen, I think long-range precision 
fires in that theater are going to be key. I think that is an 
important role for the Army to play. The question is timing. We 
have to get that capability quickly. Listen, I like what you 
all are doing in taking current technology and putting that in 
a form the Army can use.
    I still, though, have deep, deep concerns about the 
logistical element. The Army is divesting in watercraft. Back 
in Fort Eustis, Virginia, is that logistic center there. I see 
it. I watched those Army ships, unfortunately, go away.
    We see the Ready Reserve Fleet is now down to 40 ships. I 
guarantee if there was a turbo-activation today, all 40 of them 
would not be certified to go to sea. So the Army is going to be 
really stretched in order to respond, if the balloon goes up in 
the INDOPACOM.
    Give me some sense about what you see as far as logistics. 
It is great to be developing these platforms, but you have got 
to be able to get to the fight, and then, as you said, sustain 
the operations in the fight. And we can go into weapons 
magazines later, but I just want to get your perspective on it. 
Give me some sense about what the Army is doing to address the 
logistics tail.
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, you are right, the Army 
made a decision a few years ago to divest of watercraft. 
Frankly, I think before everyone was as fully focused as we 
needed to be on the Indo-Pacific. But we are now reinvesting, 
if you will.
    So, for example, this year's budget has $180 million for--
--
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 101.]
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. 
Norcross.
    Mr. Norcross. Thank you, Chairman. I would like to thank 
the witnesses for being here today and General, for your 
lifetime of service. I much appreciate it.
    I want to start by focusing on our industrial base. And 
when we take a look over the course of the last few months, 
obviously we have seen a tremendous strain on the munitions 
industrial base. This is something that we have been working 
on, quite frankly, for the last 3\1/2\ years, as part of our 
Tactical Air and Land [Subcommittee].
    Very early on, we noticed that we were looking at an 
industrial base that, literally, reflected World War II, and we 
accelerated much of the improvements that needed to be done--
from modernizing the safety improvements, but, incredibly, the 
capacity, which, had we not started then, I think where we are 
today would be in much, much worse space.
    So, Secretary Wormuth, I just wanted to get a view from 
what you see as the highest risk and most urgent, from a 
technical standpoint, where you see that industrial base? Even 
with the investments that we made, that 10-year plan has been 
shortened down to 8, and I think should be even more resources. 
Where, technically, do you think our biggest challenge is?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, I mean, as you said, 
there are a number of challenges. The Army's organic industrial 
base is very, very old. I think it is fair to say it is vintage 
in a lot of our arsenals and depots. So, there is a lot of work 
to be done.
    Some of it is just putting in new machining tools. Some of 
it is bringing in new, more automated systems. Some of it is 
really trying to, again, get more automation and shift some of 
the workforce and up-skill some of the workforce.
    So, there is a lot of different areas that need work. And 
frankly, we continue--the more we are better able to see 
ourselves in our organic industrial base, the more we see that 
we need to invest. So, when I started as Secretary, we had a 
15-year plan for $15 billion. We still have a 15-year plan, but 
it is now $18 billion, because I think we are better 
understanding the kinds of investments that we need to make.
    Mr. Norcross. Certainly. And we are far from out of the 
woods, but the plan is laid down and I think we need to 
accelerate even more.
    Let me just shift a little bit to what we are witnessing in 
the Ukraine. When we look at the Abrams upgrade plan over the 
last few years, it has actually slowed down. Yet we see it in 
the unfunded priorities list. And then ultimately, we, as 
Congress, have plussed that up to a rate of around 90 tanks a 
year.
    General McConville, walk us through what we have witnessed 
over the course of the last year in Ukraine, its impact on our 
armor, and particularly in tanks, and what we have seen out 
there. Is that impacting any decisions on what we are doing 
with our Abrams and the upgrades?
    General McConville. Well, I think it is interesting. We 
watched the battles unfold in Ukraine; initially very 
defensive, and you saw our Javelins being used very effectively 
and some logistics problems for the Russians. And some people 
said, ``Hey, I guess we don't need armor anymore. Take a hard 
look at it.''
    I argue the opposite. If you want to win, you do it with 
armor. And we are seeing that play out, as we speak. And 
really, the strategy within the Army is, you know, we are 
modernizing our armor. We're doing--that is an enduring system, 
the Abrams is. You know, we have gone through the different 
models, and we continue to do that.
    As we give up armor to other countries, we are buying the 
brand-new capabilities. We are also seeing our allies and 
partners buy. Poland has bought a whole bunch of Abrams tanks. 
They certainly understand the importance of having mobile 
protective firepower.
    But even within our portfolio, we are building mobile 
protective fires. We are building the AMPV [Armored Multi-
Purpose Vehicle]. We are building the capabilities we need, so 
that we can conduct combined arms operations. And that is where 
we are going in the future.
    We don't have all the resources we need. So we make tough 
decisions on we have got to modernize and we have to do the 
enduring programs, and they may have to slow down, depending on 
the resources we get.
    Mr. Norcross. I thank you. I yield back.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes Dr. DesJarlais of Tennessee for 5 
minutes.
    Dr. DesJarlais. Thank you, Chairman.
    Secretary Wormuth, you have stated that recruiting 
shortfalls is the most important issue for the United States 
Army. And while I'm glad to hear your commitment to not 
lowering standards, I do want to ask you what you think the 
reasons are for the apathy in our young population when it 
comes to serving in the military.
    And I just wanted to cite a Wall Street Journal poll that I 
had entered into one of our last hearings that showed that 
patriotism has dropped in the young population, from about 25 
years ago, of 70 percent considered themselves very patriotic, 
to about 38 percent today. So, with that, what is your 
explanation as far as why we are seeing this apathy?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I saw that poll as well. 
And frankly, I was really disturbed by it. You know, I consider 
myself a patriotic person and I think young people should be 
proud of this country. So, I was disturbed to see such a 
dramatic drop in patriotism.
    I think there are a lot of different reasons why young 
people aren't as interested in service today as they used to 
be. I think some of it is just a lot of young Americans don't 
know very much at all about the Army. After the 9/11 attacks, 
you know, we went into our bases for obvious security reasons 
that were appropriate, but I think young people didn't see as 
much of us anymore.
    As I said, we have done polling that shows that young 
people sometimes are afraid that the Army will put their life 
on hold in some way. And I think we are really trying to 
challenge that misperception and show just how many 
opportunities the Army offers.
    Some of it is kids are, you know, a little afraid about 
leaving their families. So, I think there is a lot--the fact 
that we weren't in high schools for a couple of years during 
the pandemic didn't help us.
    Dr. DesJarlais. You know, you compare the current 
predicament to the general attitude around 9/11, when people 
were very patriotic and lined up around the block to serve. 
There certainly seems to be a little apathy in that regard now.
    Do you think it is possible that the lack of clarity in our 
policy could be driving some of that? I think, as far as what 
the outcome may be in Ukraine; what our goals, what our 
objectives are; the looming conflict with China and Taiwan--
there doesn't seem to be clarity, and frankly, a lot of 
ambiguity from the administration on what our objectives are.
    So, do you think that more clarification in what the goal 
of the Army, and the military, in general, is coming from the 
Commander in Chief would be helpful in recruiting?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I think the administration 
has been very clear about what its objectives are in terms of 
supporting Ukraine or in terms of the competition with China. 
But I also always think it is helpful to talk to the American 
public about why national security matters, and that the job of 
the United States Army is to protect this country and to fight 
and win the Nation's wars. And I think helping people 
understand that this is the most dangerous national security 
environment in the last 30 years is very important.
    Dr. DesJarlais. Okay. Well, I appreciate your optimism that 
you think they have made it very clear. But we have probably a 
different opinion from a lot of constituents back home, and I 
know I'm not alone on this committee, from both sides of the 
aisle. There seems to be a lack of clarity. So, I think there 
is definitely room for improvement in terms of what our mission 
is.
    Certainly, there is ambiguity when it comes to China and 
Taiwan. President Biden says, on three occasions, ``We'll be 
there''--only to have the White House walk that back. In 
Ukraine, we see billions of dollars going over, but we don't 
see a clear endpoint.
    So, even though your opinion--and maybe in here, where we 
get a lot more information--it seems clear, but, to the general 
public, I don't think that is the case. So, I definitely think 
we need to do a better job of clarifying it.
    General McConville, what effect would further reduction in 
the Active Duty Army have on the Army's ability to execute its 
position of the National Defense Strategy?
    General McConville. Well, first of all, I think the Army we 
have right now is we need to continue to grow this Army we 
have. If you take a look at what our troops are doing, the 
deployment-to-dwell ratio is very significant. We live in a 
very dangerous world, and you can't create an Army overnight. 
So, we need to be very aggressive on the recruiting.
    And just my thoughts from where I sit is, 83 percent of the 
young men and women that come into the Army come from military 
families. So, we are a military family business. We need to be 
an American family business.
    And the second one is, 44 percent come from high schools 
that have JROTC [Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps], and 
they are only in 10 percent of the high schools. And so, we 
need to do a better job.
    I'm going to stay out of the politics, but we need to do a 
better job exposing what our Army is about. And we put some of 
these great young Americans serving in uniform and they go back 
to their high schools, and they show how much they have grown, 
I think we can really have a much better effect on that.
    Dr. DesJarlais. I thank you both for your time.
    I yield.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
California, Mr. Carbajal, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you, Secretary Wormuth, for being here.
    And, General McConville, thank you for your service, for 
your longtime service to our country. Certainly, we are better 
for it. So, I congratulate you on your retirement coming up.
    I want to start by focusing on the recruiting challenges 
that the Department and the Army have faced today. Secretary 
Wormuth, you mentioned in your testimony that we are 
experiencing the most challenging recruiting landscape in a 
generation, making retention that much more important. What can 
Congress do to help you in your efforts for recruiting and 
retention?
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman.
    Retention is incredibly important at this time. I mean, it 
is always important, but it is particularly important when we 
are facing the difficult recruiting landscape we have. And I am 
happy to report that we are retaining extraordinarily well 
right now at over 104 percent.
    And I think that speaks to, frankly, how soldiers, when 
they join the Army, are more often than not happy to stay in 
the Army. And I think that is because they feel a sense of 
purpose, that what they are doing matters. They are getting 
great training opportunities. So, retention for us is good.
    Part of that is we are able to offer retention bonuses. So, 
certainly, we appreciate congressional support for that. And I 
think in terms of other things Congress can do to help us, I 
think the Department will be coming forward probably with some 
legislative proposals looking at how we can get better access, 
for example, to college dropout lists, for example. You know, 
that is a potential pool of high-quality recruits for us, but 
we don't always get that information from colleges in a timely 
way. So, you all supporting some of the legislative proposals 
that come over would be very, very helpful.
    Mr. Carbajal. Great.
    As we work to increase recruitment for our military, I want 
to applaud the Department for increasing the numbers of 
underrepresented minority groups. However, in fiscal year 2022, 
the Hispanic community, for example, represented 17.6 percent 
of the Army. That is up 5.6 percent over the last 10 years. 
However, my concern is that those numbers don't translate to 
the senior officer ranks. In the same year, the Hispanic 
community represented 9 percent of the Army's officer corps, 
but only 4 percent of the ranks 0 to 6. What is the Army doing 
to ensure greater representation of the underrepresented groups 
in the senior ranks?
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman, for that 
question. The Chief and I have talked about that very thing, 
and we do need to do better, frankly, in terms of making sure 
that our Hispanic-American officers, for example, have 
opportunities that they need to develop professionally, so that 
they are competitive for those more senior roles. You know, you 
are absolutely right that we don't have, frankly, the same 
percentage that we would expect to see.
    Part of what we are trying to do to rectify that is to have 
better mentorship programs, for example. So, we have some 
mentorship programs--the Cavazos program is one of them--but I 
think we need to do more to mentor our Hispanic-American 
officers earlier in their career, so that they, again, are 
getting the kind of leader development that they need. And our 
BCAP [Battalion Command Assessment Program] and CCAP [Colonels 
Command Assessment Program] assessment programs I think are 
also going to be helpful in that regard.
    I don't know, Chief, if you want to add.
    General McConville. I think we want to give everyone an 
opportunity to rise to the highest levels, and we have to coach 
and mentor to do that. We have got to make sure that the best 
and brightest, we keep them in the Army. We are in a war for 
talent, and it starts not at the colonel level, looking at how 
many generals you have. You really have to go back into the 
force; get the right people to go to the best universities, 
whether it is West Point or other places, and then make sure, 
as they come up through the ranks, we are competing for their 
talents, giving them the experience they need. So, when they 
come to the level, they are ready to assume that. And we are 
seeing that within--you know, the next commander of the 101st 
Airborne Division is going to be an Hispanic officer.
    Mr. Carbajal. The one point I would remind you is that 
there is a tendency, a natural tendency, for those that are in 
a position to promote, unless they reflect those that are in 
front of them, sometimes those biases have an impact. So, I 
encourage you to look at those promotional panels to make sure 
that they are representative of those that are before them as 
well.
    As the war in Ukraine continues, we are sending some of our 
stockpile of munitions to assist their efforts to defend 
against Russia. General McConville, what processes are in place 
to ensure we are maintaining enough supplies needed to defend 
ourselves, and do we have a set number----
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Mississippi, 
Mr. Kelly.
    Mr. Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And, first of all, General McConville, I just want to thank 
you for your service. And I want to highlight, I mean, the BCAP 
program, that is your baby. And I got to work with you when you 
were the Deputy G-1 and G-1 and Vice Chief. And I will just 
say, some of the accomplishments you have done over the last 7 
or 8 years have been tremendous and not only impact our Army of 
today, but they impact the Army of the future. And I want to 
thank you for that because I don't think you will ever get 
enough credit for that.
    That being said, what can we do better? You are a personnel 
guy, and I know you are also a combat warrior, but you are a 
personnel guy at heart and you know about soldiers, and you 
care about soldiers and their families. What things can we do 
better that help us with our families, the EFMPs [Exceptional 
Family Member Programs], all those things that make it better 
quality for the family, so that we can retain and recruit 
soldiers, so that is where they want to be, they know it is 
home?
    General McConville. Yes, thank you, Congressman.
    And as you know very well from your experiences, the Army 
is people. And quite frankly, that is why, when we talk about 
people first, they are our most important weapon system, if you 
will, and we enlist soldiers, but we retain families.
    And so, as we talk about continuing resolutions, we don't 
need a continuing resolution. We need to get the resources that 
you have given to us, we need to get it in the hands of our 
families, so they can build the right housing. When you think 
about it, what do our families want? Quality of life. They want 
good housing. They want good health care. They want child 
development centers. They want an opportunity for their spouses 
to have employment. And we have almost fixed this, but they 
want to have good moves, so they don't lose all their stuff 
when they go from place to place. And so, those investments 
really matter.
    Mr. Kelly. And I would just ask that we continue to invest. 
And, Secretary, we had a great talk yesterday, but we have got 
to invest in making sure we have transfer of professional 
certificates across States for our Army spouses. We have to 
make sure that we look at a retirement for those, and I have 
recommended TSP [Thrift Savings Plan] for spouses that are 
separate from their others, that they can invest in, and that 
is portable between States and employees and jobs. I think that 
is great opportunities. I just think there is a ton of things.
    I want to talk a little bit about resourcing, because, as a 
battalion commander, you know, I thought all I'd care about is 
operations, and I cared little about operations. I cared about 
personnel and equipment, because if you don't have those two 
things, you are not there.
    So, we have got the Army Futures Command and we are talking 
about the new systems that we are going to bring on. So, are we 
going to relook, based on the capabilities of these systems, 
how we form--you know, I think we have too little artillery in 
today's world, as opposed to the eighties, when I first was 
entered into--so, are we going to relook how we form our 
brigades, divisions, whatever those fighting units are, and 
what those capabilities? Do we have more artillery, more long-
range precision fires, more or less aviation, more heavy armor? 
And I agree with you, just because the Russians failed to use 
armor right and have inferior tanks doesn't mean that armor is 
out of business. Trust me, Desert Storm and the initial 
invasion of Iraq showed that armor works and is necessary. And 
if you can comment on that, General McConville or Secretary?
    Secretary Wormuth. Sure, Congressman. I would say we 
absolutely are looking at all of those things.
    First of all, Army Futures Command, with General Jim 
Rainey, and particularly as he looks out at the Army of 2040, 
is really looking at our formations. What do they need to look 
like with these new capabilities? How should we be thinking 
about autonomy and artificial intelligence, for example?
    But kind of closer in the windshield, we use our total Army 
analysis process to basically help us redesign. And, you know, 
we are putting a lot of emphasis on our joint forcible entry 
divisions, as well as our armored strike divisions.
    Mr. Kelly. And I'm sorry, but I have one more question, and 
I have got to get to it. General McConville and Secretary, over 
the last 25 years in Iraq, we have turned the Guard and Reserve 
from a strategic reserve into an operational reserve. But I'm 
seeing the same things now that happened in the seventies and 
eighties. I'm seeing the mentality of saying, ``We'll give them 
second-class equipment. Or give them the older version of the 
new equipment. Don't field them on the same rate that we do our 
Active Component.'' And I can tell you, we cannot fight a war 
with China or Russia or Iran or Korea without those guys and 
girls deploying tonight.
    So, I'm asking you, will you guys commit not to make the 
National Guard and Reserve second-class citizens when it comes 
to fielding of equipment? Because if you do, they will perform 
at the level of your expectations of them.
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes, Congressman, I'm a full supporter 
of the total Army.
    General McConville. Yes, I just want to say something about 
what a great job our Guard and Reserve is doing. As you said, 
Congressman, for the last 25 years, they have been incredibly 
impressive. They are doing a great job away and at home, and we 
are just very, very proud of our National Guard and Reserves, 
and they will get the equipment they need to do the job.
    Mr. Kelly. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, 
Ms. Houlahan, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    And thank you very much for your testimony and for your 
service.
    I had questions about supply chains, but I'm instead going 
to pivot to some of the questions that have come up since about 
retention and recruitment.
    I was an ROTC [Reserve Officers' Training Corps] scholar 
recipient in the 1980s, and my class of 40 ended up graduating 
4. And of the four that graduated, half of them had military 
families in their background. I was one of them and I was the 
only woman.
    Of the program that I was a participant of, I was able to 
receive full tuition and room and board and books as part of my 
deal at Stanford University. Since then, in the last 30 years, 
that program has been enormously watered-down--to the point 
where the tuition reimbursement is only about a sixth of what 
an education at a place like Stanford would be.
    And so, General, you were talking about wanting to make 
sure we could get the best and the brightest, and we wanted to 
make sure that we were able to find people whose families 
weren't necessarily from that West Point background or West 
Point heritage. I feel as though we have lost the thread on our 
ROTC programs because we have created sort of what seems to be 
a program and a process to get more, rather than better.
    And I'm wondering if you have seen that and reflect on 
that. And is there something that we can be doing, especially 
in a world where debt, college debt, is a real issue and where 
kids are making choices based on kind of where they are going 
to come out of this, with how much debt? Is there something 
that we should be doing to perhaps to return to a program and a 
process that allows people to emerge debt-free?
    General McConville. Yes, I need to check on that, 
Congresswoman, because two of my sons went to those type, went 
to Boston College and Boston University.
    Ms. Houlahan. Yes.
    General McConville. They went on ROTC scholarships, and 
quite frankly, the military did a very good job of really 
covering almost all of that. And even those universities kicked 
in to help those type things.
    So, we will come back to you. Because we want young men and 
women to go to Stanford. We want them to go to Harvard. We want 
them to go to their top schools. We want to give everyone an 
opportunity to serve. And if we have something missing, then we 
need to look into that because that's not what I believe.
    And West Point is kind of the core where we have got a 
thousand great young men and women there every year, but ROTC 
actually produces the most officers. That is a very important 
program and we have got to make sure we are funding it to do 
precisely what you said.
    Ms. Houlahan. I would absolutely love to look at that with 
you, because the feedback I have gotten--and I also have 
children of probably about your children's age--has been that 
this has been a discouragement from people pursuing 
opportunities like ROTC over other scholarship opportunities.
    My next question has to do with military spouses. I grew up 
in a military family and my mom moved every year, and every 
year hit reset. In fact, when I went off to school, to college, 
she was able to finally go back and pursue a graduate degree in 
GIS [Geographic Information Systems] and remote sensing. So, 
she is a smart, smart lady.
    Is there something that we can be doing, not just for 
making sure that people who are in career fields that need 
certificates and transfers can be happening, but also who are 
in career fields, for instance, that are financial or high-
tech, who can also pursue their careers? Meaning, can they stay 
a little bit longer in their service stations or their duty 
stations? Is there anything we can be doing to address that 
kind of a spouse?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think, Congresswoman, we need to be 
looking at the very good point you are raising about sort of 
longer assignments. You know, this is something I have heard 
from a number of different places. I think it would have 
benefits for spouses. It would, also, I think, have benefits 
for soldiers and just families generally. You know, that is not 
how the Army has done things, and we have slowly been 
lengthening assignment times from 2 years to 3 years and a 
little longer. But we probably need to look at that for a 
number of reasons.
    The other thing I would say, you know, where we could use 
your help is there is now, thanks to Congress, a Federal law 
that says all professional licenses are transferable across all 
States. But I think working with the States to get that 
actually implemented, that is part of the challenge. I don't 
think the State legislatures and Governors are all aware that 
you all actually passed a law making all those licenses 
portable nationwide.
    General McConville. If I could just add, I think this is 
really important on our spouses. And we see many professional 
spouses in the military now in all ranks. And I have watched my 
wife move 23 times, who was a professional trying to do the 
whole license bit and, you know, those type of things. We have 
gotten better, but we need to get a lot better.
    But we are going to have to compete. We are going to have 
to compete for these couples. And that is why the talent 
management system we have gone to is we really had to 
fundamentally change it. We cannot be an Industrial Age 
personnel management system and treat everyone the same. You 
know, you have got to bring the whole family along if you want 
them to serve, or they will go someplace else.
    Ms. Houlahan. A hundred percent. I appreciate you guys.
    I yield back. Thank you.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin, Mr. Gallagher, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Gallagher. Thank you.
    General McConville, how soon will we see an Indirect Fire 
Protection Capability fielded in an operationally meaningful 
number?
    General McConville. Well, as you probably know, 
Congressman, we do have--we have Iron Dome, which is fielded, 
which is an indirect fire, but that is not where we want to be. 
We want to improve that. We have what we call an Integrated 
Battle Command System which is the ability to take multiple 
sensors to combine that, and that is where we are going with 
it. Really, the future air and missile defense is multiple 
sensors, multiple shooters, tying them together, so you are not 
shooting Patriot missiles at an $100,000 unmanned aerial 
system.
    Mr. Gallagher. I guess the concern is, particularly, 
thinking about Guam and Misawa, you know, how far away are we? 
It seems to me that IFPC, it is like, you know, the Chicago 
Bears of systems. It is always, like, 2 years away from being 2 
years away. I could have done a Boston team, by the way; I 
didn't do that.
    General McConville. Yes, thanks. Thanks.
    Mr. Gallagher. And you guys win.
    General McConville. You hit that, that would be getting 
really close to home there, Congressman, but go ahead.
    Mr. Gallagher. Yes. But, I mean, it is a timeline.
    General McConville. Your point, I mean----
    Mr. Gallagher. And why not buy NASAMS [National Advanced 
Surface-to-Air Missile System] if they are good enough for----
    General McConville. Yes, well, you know, as you have 
probably seen, the Integrated Battle Command System has been 
going on many years. We are fielding it right now.
    Mr. Gallagher. Yes.
    General McConville. So, that has come into play, which is 
kind of the brain that it going to allow us to have it tied 
together, so you don't have one radar for one missile system. 
If you want to take advantage of the different sensors, you 
have got to have a system that is open architecture that allows 
you to bring that together.
    And really, when you take a look at places like Guam, and 
those types of things, it is bringing together THAAD; it is 
bringing together Aegis; it is bringing together Patriot. You 
are going to have to have smaller systems. You are going to 
have unmanned aerial systems. You are going to have to deal 
with swarms. And so, those are the capabilities we are 
bringing, and quite frankly, I see them sooner than later. I'm 
talking in the next couple of years, like really soon.
    Mr. Gallagher. Okay. Secretary Wormuth, you know, among the 
many lessons learned from, I think, our inability to deter a 
war in Ukraine, and the subsequent conflict there, it seems to 
be that in modern war, conventional war, even conventional war 
where you sprinkle on sort of asymmetric aspects, you burn 
through a lot of munitions very, very quickly. And we are just 
burning through a ton.
    How concerned are you about our stockpiles of key munitions 
systems at present, in light of what we have seen in Ukraine?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, I think, you know, I 
would like our industrial base to be more robust than it is 
today. But, as I have said a couple of times this morning, we 
are investing $1.5 billion in our organic industrial base to 
increase our capacity, to increase the speed of production. We 
have taken the money you all in Congress have given us and 
gotten it on contract very quickly with our partners like 
Lockheed Martin, like Raytheon----
    Mr. Gallagher. Yes.
    Secretary Wormuth [continuing]. To get them to be able to 
ramp up their production.
    I think the combination of expanding our own organic 
industrial base, getting our partners in industry to ramp up 
quickly, and frankly, pushing our European partners to increase 
their production and their industrial base, and working with 
allies and partners to make contributions, I think we can 
continue to provide assistance and replenish----
    Mr. Gallagher. But specifically about our stockpiles, and 
the same question for you, General McConville, are you 
concerned about the state of our stockpiles of key munitions?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well--oh, go ahead.
    General McConville. Okay. Yes, I'm always concerned about 
our stockpiles. I think we went through about 22 years of 
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we were basically building 
about 14,000 rounds of 155 a month, and that was more than 
sufficient.
    If you take a look at some of our other stockpiles, like 
Stingers and--you know, we haven't built a Stinger in years; we 
didn't need to.
    And so, I look back at when General Marshall had my job, he 
said, you know, ``When I had the time, I didn't have the money. 
Then, when I got the money, I didn't have the time.''
    And I think that is what we need to be careful. We need to 
get ahead of this thing. We know where we are at right now. To 
me, it is not about supply chains; it is about supply networks. 
We don't want to be one-option commanders. We don't want to 
have one capability. We need to invest in that, and we have to 
be innovative in how we get ahead of long-lead item times, 
because you don't want a whole bunch of ammunitions sitting in 
warehouses, either.
    Mr. Gallagher. Yes. And I don't know if you wanted to 
finish here.
    Secretary Wormuth. I would just add maybe, Congressman, 
that I think the multiyear procurement authority is very, very 
helpful in terms of getting industry to have confidence that 
that demand signal is going to be there.
    Mr. Gallagher. Authority is important. As authorizers, we, 
obviously, share that view. Appropriation would be even better. 
And if you talk to all the companies that you mentioned, I 
think they would say that multiyear appropriation, in 
meaningful scale for critical munition systems, particularly, 
Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles, JASSM [Joint Air to Surface 
Standoff Missile], SM-6, is absolutely essential going forward.
    With that, I have 15 seconds, so I can't ask another 
question. I yield back.
    The Chairman. Yes, I do want to follow up on that, General 
McConville. You said you don't want to have a bunch of 
munitions sitting around in storage. Isn't that what a 
stockpile is?
    General McConville. Well, what I mean by that is you don't 
want to have excess--I will clarify that. What you don't want 
to do, we find with ammunition, is have ammunition you don't 
need. You spend a lot of money on it, and then, you spend a lot 
of money doing what we call a service life extension program, 
or you do a--what we call demilitarize that ammunition. So, you 
want to be smart on how you want to do it.
    And like some of the systems, you may just want to buy the 
long-lead items. Because, you know, we talk about missiles. It 
is going to take us 2 years to get this. Why? Because this 
component takes 2 years to get it. So, we may want to be 
innovative and buy that component and maybe have that sitting 
in a warehouse.
    And then, the other things that we can make very, very 
quickly, we can turn in 3 months. So, you just took your time 
to make that missile to 3 months, and that gives you--and it is 
all about risk management. How long can you wait before you 
need that system? I think we need to think about doing it 
differently.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from New Jersey, 
Ms. Sherrill, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Sherrill. Thank you.
    Secretary Wormuth and General McConville, it is really good 
to see you both again. And thank you so much for your service 
to our country and for keeping our troops safe.
    Over the past two decades, our military has been focused on 
counterinsurgency operations. And as we prepare to transition 
to a potentially contested logistics combat environment against 
near-peer adversaries, how is the Army addressing our supply 
chain issues, specifically, on critical minerals which are 
mostly mined and processed by our strategic competitors?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congresswoman, I think the pandemic 
highlighted to all of us the fragility of our supply chains, 
and we have all become, I think, much more aware of how reliant 
we are on certain foreign sources for different things, like 
critical minerals.
    So, we are working with our partners in OSD [Office of the 
Secretary of Defense] to basically try to identify where we 
have vulnerabilities, where we can find additional sources. 
That is something that we are going to have to, I think, work 
together on with the Department to make sure that we find 
additional sources that we have much more confidence in, for 
example.
    Ms. Sherrill. Thank you.
    And I know the last briefing I had at Picatinny Arsenal, I 
know they are hard at work on tracing much of that. And as we 
work to onshore, nearshore, and friend-shore our supply chain 
for critical minerals, we are also going to have to come up 
with viable chemical solutions, not only to potentially provide 
the raw materials, but to process the minerals we procure.
    As the Army moves forward with that critical effort, our 
scientists and engineers are working out of, in many cases, 
World War II-era facilities. Can you describe the Army's plan 
to recapitalize our S&T [science and technology] infrastructure 
and why new lab facilities are so important for our lethality 
enhancement efforts?
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes, Congresswoman. Just as you said, 
you know, our labs are critical to our ability to produce a 
wide range of systems, munitions, and critical components. We 
have a 15-year plan to reinvest in our organic industrial base 
and our labs. And the resources that we have estimated to go 
into that 15-year plan have actually increased since I have 
been Secretary, and we are now looking at about $18 billion to 
reinvest in a lot of that infrastructure, which, as you pointed 
out, much of it is very, very dated.
    So, given the resources we have, we are not going to be 
able to do all of that work in the next couple of years, but we 
do have a plan, because we need to recapitalize those labs to 
make sure that we have the workforce that can supply us with 
the components that we need.
    Ms. Sherrill. That is great news, because I know, as we try 
to modernize our Army, getting some of the top-level scientists 
and being able to recruit them to world-class laboratories will 
be very important.
    And as we recapitalize our facilities, it will, of course, 
be important to fully utilize them, as the Army moves to 
outpace China and as the war in Ukraine proves our munitions 
need to have extended range and increased lethality.
    So, Secretary Wormuth, can you speak to the Army's specific 
expertise in developing next-gen propellants and explosives, 
and speak to a few efforts that could benefit from increased 
congressional support?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congresswoman, you know, we have a 
robust long-range precision fires program, for example. I know 
that you are familiar with that. And propellants are obviously 
a key piece of that. You know, things like our Long-Range 
Hypersonic Weapon, for example, is going to need new and 
different kinds of technologies for it to be successful.
    So, I think we are always looking at how we can do a better 
job of making sure that we have got the kind of skilled 
workforce that we need. And we have really built into our 
modernization plan looking at what kinds of capabilities do we 
need in our labs, for example, or do we need to have with our 
defense industry partners, to be able to successfully produce 
those new systems.
    Ms. Sherrill. Thank you.
    And then, switching gears just a little bit, how is the 
Army working to address resiliency and sustainability 
requirements? I know that clean fuel usage will impact the 
Army's logistics capabilities and overall lethality and 
survivability for equipment and personnel. Can you speak a 
little to the movements in those areas?
    Secretary Wormuth. Sure. We have put out a climate 
strategy, and I think of it as kind of really focused on two 
big areas of investment. Part of that is looking at the 
resiliency of our installations, so that they can be hardened 
against extreme weather, so that our soldiers can continue to 
train. So, that is where you see things like microgrids, for 
example.
    We are also investing in making our non-tactical vehicles, 
for example, fully electric by 2037. And that is going to have 
fuel-efficiency benefits. It is going to have greenhouse gas 
emission reduction benefits. But we are also looking at some 
hybrid vehicles that may actually be quieter, more fuel-
efficient, and less resources used----
    The Chairman. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mr. 
Waltz, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Sherrill. Thank you.
    Mr. Waltz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I just wanted to pick up on that climate strategy, Madam 
Secretary. The fiscal year 2023 NDAA required the Department to 
provide Congress with a cost-benefit analysis before you go to 
any indefinite orders on EVs [electric vehicles], and certainly 
before we go to tactical--I mean, I find it incredible that we 
are laying out in a long-term strategy to go to electric tanks 
and fighting vehicles. I haven't seen any charging stations in 
Ukraine or Africa, or anywhere else.
    My concern is, as my colleagues mentioned, we don't control 
the supply chain. Do we control the lithium, the cobalt, the 
manganese that would go into an EV fleet?
    Secretary Wormuth. No, Congressman, we don't, and I share 
your concerns about that.
    Mr. Waltz. So, would you agree, then, that we should 
certify to this committee, to the Congress, that we have 
control, and not only have control of it, that our greatest 
adversary that we are gearing up to defend against, and 
hopefully, deter, doesn't also control that same supply chain?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think we do need to work to get 
control of our supply chain, so that the critical components we 
have we control.
    Mr. Waltz. I 100 percent agree, and we will be looking to 
insert that certification language into future legislation, so 
that we don't go too far down that road and find out that it is 
too big to fail, and we have no control over the supply chain 
that would go into our tanks, non-tactical vehicles, tactical 
vehicles, what have you.
    In that same vein, along with the climate strategy, you 
recently unveiled a solar panel microgrid at Fort Bragg; not 
microgrid, but a panel at Muddy Lake, at Fort Bragg. Did the 
manufacturer certify that those panels were made in America?
    Secretary Wormuth. I don't know the answer to that, 
Congressman.
    Mr. Waltz. Shouldn't you?
    Secretary Wormuth. I believe----
    Mr. Waltz. Okay. It is in accordance with the law.
    Secretary Wormuth [continuing]. China makes a lot of a lot 
of our--a lot of solar panels.
    Mr. Waltz. Can you confirm that the solar panels were not 
made in China? Or that, as we go to base resiliency, that they 
are not made in China, in accordance with the fiscal year 2023 
NDAA?
    Secretary Wormuth. I believe many solar panels are made in 
China.
    Mr. Waltz. Actually, the largest solar panel factory in the 
world is in Western China--ironically, powered by coal. So, as 
we are patting ourselves on the back for going to a zero-carbon 
Army by 2030, it is actually being powered by slave labor with 
our greatest adversary and Russian coal in Chinese plants. Do 
you find that problematic?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think there are a lot of 
interdependencies that are challenging that we have to work 
through, yes.
    Mr. Waltz. Okay. So, for the record, you don't know if that 
grid, or any other grid, is made in America or not made in 
China?
    Secretary Wormuth. I would imagine, given that most solar 
panels are made in China, there's a good chance that those 
panels were made in China.
    Mr. Waltz. I find that just jaw-dropping, that we are 
driving our military--it is one thing for the country--but to 
drive our military into greater dependency on our greatest 
adversary to power our bases, much less our fighting vehicles 
in the future, to be a huge problem. And I just find it 
astounding that you are testifying before this committee that 
you don't know.
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I said that I think, since 
most panels are made in China, they are probably made in China.
    Mr. Waltz. Let's shift to the recruiting challenges. Are 
you on track to hit your number this year?
    Secretary Wormuth. We are doing better than we were last 
year, but we----
    Mr. Waltz. Are you going to hit the number? I mean, are you 
going to hit your recruiting goal?
    Secretary Wormuth. Sixty-five thousand was a very ambitious 
goal. We still----
    Mr. Waltz. Because we had to make up for 25,000 short last 
year----
    Secretary Wormuth. Because the Chief and I, because the 
Chief and I felt it was important to send a signal to our 
recruiter force that they shouldn't take their pedal off the 
metal.
    Mr. Waltz. Madam Secretary, are you going to make your 
number this year? Are we going to fall short again?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think it is going to be a challenge, 
but we have still got the summer, which are traditionally our 
best recruiting months. But I think it is going to be a 
challenge.
    Mr. Waltz. Are you going to, then, have to, subsequently, 
cut force structure? Are we going to be having a conversation 
this summer about cutting force structure in the Army, as we 
face unprecedented threats around the world?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, we were already going 
to be making some structure changes because we are transforming 
from a CT [counterterrorism]-focused Army to a near-peer major 
warfight Army. But certainly, if we don't turn our recruiting 
situation around----
    Mr. Waltz. Are you arguing, then, that a CT-focused Army 
needs to be bigger than a great power?
    Secretary Wormuth. No, Congressman. I'm suggesting that the 
kinds of structure we need for the Army of 2030 is different 
than what we needed in the last 20 years. And if we don't turn 
our recruiting situation around, I am concerned that we may 
have to make cuts to force structure.
    Mr. Waltz. I think you are going to have to, and that is--
--
    Secretary Wormuth. But we don't want to be a hollow Army, 
certainly.
    Mr. Waltz. Right.
    General, I agree with you, Junior ROTC can be a real game-
changer.
    Mr. Chairman, I will be introducing legislation to expand 
Junior ROTC to help with this recruiting crisis.
    Thank you and I yield.
    The Chairman. That is a great idea.
    The Chair now recognizes another great member from New 
Jersey, Mr. Kim, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Kim. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Thank you to the two of you for coming out here today.
    I wanted to just talk to you about something I was hearing 
about last time I was at the base in my district. You know, 
April being the Month of the Military Child, we were there 
talking about the challenges that military families are having. 
We are still having real significant problems when it comes to 
military families and childcare. And I guess I just wanted to 
kind of get a sense from you--I know you mentioned it earlier--
but just how are we doing on this front? What is your 
assessment in terms of our grade level, in terms of handling 
childcare, Secretary Wormuth?
    Secretary Wormuth. Thanks, Congressman.
    We are continuing to try to invest in childcare. I hear 
about that anytime I go to visit a camp, post, or station. It 
is critically important to our soldiers and their families.
    We have built a number of new child development centers in 
the past few years. We have got 10 CDCs and child/youth 
services that are going to be built in the future years. This 
year, we are really focused on trying to increase the staffing 
at our CDCs. If we are operating at 100 percent staffing, we 
can bring more children in off the waitlist.
    Mr. Kim. And I saw that, that you have made investments 
into being able to increase some of the entry-level salaries 
and other types of benefits----
    Secretary Wormuth. That is right.
    Mr. Kim [continuing]. To be able to grow that workforce. As 
you say, we are not firing on all cylinders right now in terms 
of our capacity to be able to do that. Have you seen these 
types of steps being able to increase that workforce? Are you 
getting a good response from these initial steps?
    Secretary Wormuth. Yes, it is definitely helping. We also 
have recruiting bonuses, for example. We also have creative 
things like a new CDC worker, if they have a child, we will 
give them a 50 percent discount. We have let new staff get 
commissary privileges, for example. So, that is helping.
    One of the things that is a challenge, frankly, is it takes 
a long time to bring on board our CDC workers----
    Mr. Kim. Yes.
    Secretary Wormuth [continuing]. Because of the background 
checks and such.
    Mr. Kim. I don't know if you know offhand--do you know, 
offhand, what the waitlist is on the Army side in terms of 
military families seeking childcare?
    Secretary Wormuth. I know that the average waitlist time is 
about 119 days.
    Mr. Kim. Do you know how many families are on that 
waitlist?
    Secretary Wormuth. I don't know off the top of my head.
    Mr. Kim. If you don't mind, maybe follow up, because I was 
told that before that we were talking about upwards of 20,000-
plus military families, I think across the DOD, but perhaps I'm 
wrong on that front. So, I would just like to make sure that I 
have the latest numbers on that.
    Secretary Wormuth. Sure, we will get that for you.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 101.]
    Mr. Kim. Just to kind of switch gears a little bit, I know 
that you have been working hard, and we have been seeing a 
Pentagon-wide effort when it comes to suicide in the military. 
I believe that the Army has seen some decreases, at least in 
terms of Army components in terms of suicide, more recently.
    But I guess I just kind of wanted to get a sense from you 
all, in terms of the initiatives that you are pushing, are you 
seeing certain ones being more effective? Are there lessons 
learned that you understand already? And I know from the 
broader Pentagon efforts and what they have looked into this--
are they any recommendations from some of those efforts that 
you are looking to now invest in the Army?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, we are doing a lot in 
this area. And I would say, you know, we did have a better year 
last year in terms of suicide rates going down. I will tell 
you, I am concerned this year, particularly, in the Active 
Component, we are seeing our numbers tick up a little bit, and 
that is concerning. So, we are really trying to focus on which 
installations are we seeing those suicide rates go up, but 
also, importantly, looking at the installations where we have 
seen the numbers go down, to look at those installations to 
say, what are they doing that, actually, maybe we should export 
to other camps, posts, and stations?
    But we have seen the behavioral health resources that we 
surged, for example, to Alaska, that has been very, very 
effective.
    Mr. Kim. Yes.
    Secretary Wormuth. And it is not just about behavioral 
health specialists; it can also be military family life 
counselors, chaplains. You know, the sort of full menu of 
resources I think makes a difference.
    I think what we are finding is, it is about connections, 
and it is not a one-size-fits-all program. One division may 
need a different set of resources than another division.
    Mr. Kim. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. I would like to make 
sure you have as many tools in your toolbox to be able to 
address it. I like that you are trying to be hyper-targeted 
about what installations; also, what types of professions 
within Army, you know, if there is any sort of prevalence 
there.
    And you are right, while it was encouraging that the 
numbers were not as significant the other year, but we all know 
that one data point is not enough for us to know that we have 
turned any corner or that it is any trend.
    But, yes, both of these issues, I raise these because they 
are not just issues that are there about helping our military 
families and our service members, which should be our top 
priority, but they are also issues that are related to our 
readiness, and they are also issues related to our recruitment. 
The stronger that we can show that we are being responsive, 
that DOD is a good employer, and a great employer at that, you 
know, the more we will be able to push forward and address some 
of these broader issues.
    So, with that, I will yield back the balance of my time. 
Thank you.
    Secretary Wormuth. Completely agree.
    Mr. Gallagher [presiding]. I will note that a new 
generation of leadership has occupied the top row and recognize 
Mr. Bacon for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Mr. Gallagher.
    I appreciate you both being here. I'm grateful.
    I'm sorry, my question may have been asked, but we have had 
simultaneous hearings today. So, we are trying to juggle a 
little bit.
    I don't want to repeat what Mr. Waltz said on the 
recruiting questions, because I was going to ask the same 
thing. But I want to dig a little deeper.
    When I go around the district, which is around Omaha, 
Nebraska, I hear reluctance to join the military right now for 
a variety of reasons. So, getting into the recruiting and 
retention issues.
    One of them was quality of life, which I have got some 
follow-on questions. We are going to lead a panel on this, 
starting in June, trying to make improvements to qualify of 
life.
    I have heard some voice concerns, like after Afghanistan, 
how we pulled out, that that has been an inhibitor. I hear from 
some multi-generation families that served in the military, 
where their kids would be more apt to join, a reluctance to let 
them join because there is a perception that the 
administration, that they are more about social issues versus 
warfighting. And these are the families you would recruit from, 
primarily.
    And I have also heard from some that the private sector, 
with offering college education, like at Starbucks, Walmart, 
sort of undermines our tools.
    Am I missing something or is there more to it than this? I 
just get curious for your feedback. Because this is what I am 
seeing on the ground.
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, thanks for that.
    I think many of the things that you raise are things that 
we have heard as well. I mean, certainly, quality of life is a 
big issue. You know, that is why we are spending a billion 
dollars a year on barracks, because, you know, I have seen some 
of our barracks, frankly, that I wouldn't want my daughters to 
live in. So, we are really trying to get after that. I want 
parents to know that their kids are going to come and have good 
accommodations.
    I do think, when I go and visit our soldiers, whether it is 
here in the States or overseas, what I see is them focused on 
warfighting. You know, we are a ready Army. We got an entire 
brigade combat team from Fort Stewart to Germany and doing live 
fire training in 1 week. That is a ready Army. That is what I 
see our soldiers focused on.
    But some of the concerns that, you know, you have 
highlighted are ones that I have heard. I think the Chief and I 
try to emphasize everywhere we go that our Army has to be 
apolitical.
    Mr. Bacon. Right.
    Secretary Wormuth. You know, our soldiers swear an oath to 
the Constitution, not to a particular President or a political 
party. And I think there are a lot of people who have questions 
about that on both sides of the aisle.
    Mr. Bacon. Right.
    Secretary Wormuth. So, we really need to hammer that home.
    Mr. Bacon. I appreciate your feedback on it and I agree 
with you. And it is a perception. Perception is not always 
reality, but it is reality to those who they see it on cable 
news or read it on the internet. I just think we have got to 
keep reminding folks we serve the greatest country in the 
world. We have the greatest Army in the world. We have the 
greatest military that will kick anybody's butt. And that is 
what people want to join and be a part of. They want to be part 
of the bust, but I think it is getting lost amongst all the 
differing messages that are out there.
    If I may ask, General McConville, if you had to prioritize 
quality-of-life measures that we need to take, what do you see?
    General McConville. Yes, I think where it comes to quality 
of life, probably the most important thing is housing, is the 
number one quality of life. And we talked about, at least I 
have talked about this. It is I worry the most about young 
soldiers with families that, quite frankly, can't get on-post 
housing. Only like 35 percent of our families actually live on 
post. And so, if they are off post, and they are specialists, 
and they have got two or three kids----
    Mr. Bacon. Right.
    General McConville [continuing]. The compensation is not 
that good. And even the way we do the housing allowance is not 
that good.
    Mr. Bacon. Yes.
    General McConville. So, I just worry about those young----
    Mr. Bacon. Let me follow on that. We have cut housing 
allowance by 5 percent, which, obviously, affects those who 
live off base. But it even affects those on base because that 
housing allowance goes to the private owners of those homes. I 
think we have got to reinstate that 5 percent.
    General McConville. Yes.
    Mr. Bacon. I mean, do you have any feedback on that?
    General McConville. I think we need to--you know, we are in 
a war for talent, and we want these qualified soldiers and 
families to stay. We like to say, we enlist soldiers, but we 
retain families.
    Mr. Bacon. Right.
    General McConville. And so, we have to compete for them. 
And it is a very competitive market out there right now.
    Mr. Bacon. You are absolutely right. I moved 16 times, and 
when my spouse decided she was done, it was hard to keep going. 
So, till it gets you there.
    We have anecdotal evidence of soldiers being on SNAP 
[Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and food stamps. Do 
you have much evidence of that? Because we want to dig into 
that and see if we can adjust the pay to fix that.
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I would say, you know, we 
certainly hear about food insecurity. I think RAND did a study 
recently----
    Mr. Bacon. Right.
    Secretary Wormuth [continuing]. And that would be important 
to look at.
    And we are not always entirely clear about what is at play. 
One thing we really try to emphasize is financial literacy for 
our soldiers. But I do think we need to relook our 
compensation, and the Department is going to do the Quadrennial 
Military Compensation Review starting very soon, and that will 
help us, I think, look at that.
    Mr. Bacon. Well, starting in June, the panel that we are 
standing up, we are going to be tackling that, too. So, we look 
forward getting your perspective and expertise on it.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. Gallagher. Ms. Escobar.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much.
    And Madam Secretary and General, thank you very much for 
being here today. Thank you, of course, for your service.
    General McConville, you will be missed. Thank you for your 
incredible dedication over all these years.
    And, Secretary Wormuth, I want to thank the Army, 
especially, for the great collaboration with my community, 
especially on Castner Range--incredible gift to the future, and 
it could not have happened without your leadership. So, thank 
you very much.
    As you both know, I have the privilege of representing Fort 
Bliss, and want to say that I was absolutely thrilled to see 
$74 million in the President's budget for the railyard at Fort 
Bliss. And additionally, it has been encouraging to find 
several key investments for Fort Bliss--the transient training 
barracks and a line haul facility--included in the Future Years 
Defense Program. I have long advocated for all of those 
investments.
    Can you speak about the importance of these MILCON 
[military construction] investments to support Fort Bliss 
mobilization and training mission requirements?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congresswoman. And first of 
all, I would say we are very pleased about the Castner Range 
situation. I think that is a win/win and we will look forward 
to being the custodian of that new national monument.
    In terms of the importance of the investments you cited, 
first of all, the railyard is going to be very important in 
terms of power projection. And we have got to always be looking 
at our power projection infrastructure and investing in that. 
And so this is going to be an important investment that goes 
towards making sure that we are able to push soldiers out of 
Fort Bliss.
    And then, just as we were talking about quality of life for 
our soldiers, the training barracks will be very important for 
that. We want our soldiers, when they come to Bliss to train, 
to be staying in good accommodations. So, we are pleased that 
we are going to be able to invest in that in a couple of years.
    Ms. Escobar. Thank you so much.
    I also want to ask for an update on M-SHORAD, the 
stationing timeline. Fort Bliss was identified as one of six 
potential stations for M-SHORAD battalions, which could be 
fielded at up to three of those installations, pending a 
programmatic environmental assessment. Could you provide 
information about the timeline for potential stationing at Fort 
Bliss?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congresswoman. We are using 
our total Army analysis process to basically look at things 
like where we are going to station the M-SHORAD battalions, but 
also our multi-domain task forces, for example, and the IFPC 
battalions.
    And I expect, you know, we are looking at some of that work 
right now and won't be making any decisions in the near term 
but will probably be in a position to be able to come and talk 
to you and other members about where we are later this summer.
    Ms. Escobar. Okay. That would be great. I'm very 
interested, obviously, not just in the timeline, but really 
hope that Fort Bliss is well-positioned from that perspective.
    And then, really, I actually want to take my last minute or 
so to mention that--I want to echo some of what my colleague, 
Mr. Kim, mentioned in his remarks about not just servicemember 
suicide, but provisions for childcare in child development 
centers, and making sure that we are providing those wraparound 
services for our families.
    One of the things that has been really alarming for me, 
especially at Fort Bliss, obviously is the suicides. And I know 
that we continue to work hard at providing the services and 
support that our service members need. At Fort Bliss, our 
commanding general actually is incredibly innovative. I'm so 
proud of his leadership, so happy that he is at our military 
installation.
    But he has really piloted, I think, something unique and 
something worthy of exploring at other installations as well, 
in terms of those wraparound services, kind of making sure that 
our service members--trying to dig into what their challenges 
are, so that they don't get to the brink. And I am very hopeful 
that his approach will be successful, and if it is, I think it 
would be a model to use throughout the military.
    And with that, just thank you again for your service, and I 
yield back.
    Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Ryan is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Ryan. Thank you both for being here. Thank you for your 
leadership in beating Navy this year--very important and near 
and dear to my heart.
    On a more serious note, I really want to commend you both 
for many things, in particular your commitment to our people, 
and throughout your testimony today and written testimony, just 
emphasizing the priority on our most important resource amidst 
the programs and equipment.
    I'm really proud to now represent the preeminent leadership 
institution, I think, in the world at West Point and know that 
you are both committed, and the Army is, to continue to invest 
there.
    I want to just shine light on and commend the President's 
commitment of an additional $48.7 million in this year's budget 
to the USMA [United States Military Academy] 2035 construction 
and capital projects to make sure that we can keep that 
institution physically up to at least the 20th century in terms 
of barracks and facilities.
    And I also want to commend--President Biden included this 
year a provision in an Executive order to ensure that that work 
is done using local union labor from our community in the 
Hudson Valley. So, as we invest in our future military leaders, 
we are providing good-paying, union jobs in the Hudson Valley. 
And I just want to ensure that, I know you are supportive of 
that, of course, but that we continue to support and work that, 
as we go forward.
    Another critical project there is the cybersecurity and 
engineering center. And so, that leads into my actual question, 
which is just to hear from you both, both in terms of 
cybersecurity and training the future force and the present 
force on cyber, but across the board, how do you feel in terms 
of both the readiness and morale of our junior officers and 
cadets showing up? And where do you need more help, more 
resources, to make sure we are prepared for all the 
contingencies across all domains, both for officers, NCOs [non-
commissioned officers], and soldiers?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, I want to just agree with you 
completely about the importance of West Point and the amazing 
cadets and officers that get produced out of there. It is 
really, really impressive.
    I think in terms of cybersecurity, in particular, I would 
say we are making huge investments in that. We are 3 years in 
to moving to the Cloud. We are spending $400 million on zero 
trust implementation.
    But we have got to be able to recruit the best and the 
brightest, and I think offering them opportunities in the cyber 
field through things like our Software Factory or in positions 
at Army Cyber Command, for example, you know, that is really 
important. And you can do things in the cyber field in the Army 
that you can't do anywhere else. And I think that is something 
we have to continue to emphasize.
    I don't know, Chief, if you want to add.
    General McConville. No, I think it is, as you may know, 
cyber is one of the top branches to go out first. So, there is 
tremendous competition to get into the Cyber Force. We are 
getting the best and brightest to come in there. And as the 
Secretary said, what we have to do is keep them. How do we keep 
them in? How do we get their master's, you know, doctorate? How 
do we give them purposeful work, which we are seeing? And it is 
going to be so important on the future battlefield protecting 
data, zero trust. All these type things that are going to give 
us the edge, we are going to need to protect, or we will go 
back to World War II tactics.
    Mr. Ryan. And to the degree that you can come to us with 
sort of creative ideas on retention or ways to compensate/
retain those kinds of unique skill sets that we all agree we 
desperately need, I think we are very--certainly, I am--open to 
hearing that and would love to work on that.
    Only a minute left, but I just wanted to follow up on the 
discussion on what potential recruits and future soldiers are 
focused on; what their concerns are. My colleague brought up 
threats, essentially threats to their safety as a number one 
concern. Can you like talk and go a little bit deeper of what 
do we mean by that? Is this the result of seeing 20 years of 
conflict? What do the surveys say, really, is below the surface 
there that we can try to address?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think, Congressman, it is about sort 
of perceptions [audio malfunction], like PTSD [post-traumatic 
stress disorder], for example, that they are concerned about. 
And that gets reinforced quite a bit through movies and things 
like that. And, of course, there are real threats in the Army 
to one's physical safety. You know, we are America's fighting 
force, but, again, I think we have to emphasize all of the 
amazing opportunities that you know very well that are out 
there for young Americans.
    Mr. Ryan. General, anything to add there?
    General McConville. Yes, I was just going to add that the 
idea about putting your life on hold, I felt the same way when 
I was 17 years old going to West Point. I was going to be 28 
before I got out of the Army, and, you know, I'm still around.
    Mr. Ryan. They got you. They got there, yes.
    Thank you and I yield back.
    Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Strong.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    General, it was good to see you a few weeks ago at Redstone 
Arsenal at AMC's [Army Materiel Command's] change-of-command 
ceremony. It was great to see you there.
    I know neither of you play favorites, but I can. North 
Alabama is home to the best there is, Redstone Arsenal. I have 
enjoyed a close relationship with arsenal leadership for years. 
I hope if I can ever be of assistance to the Army, you won't 
hesitate to call.
    You will be hard-pressed to find a more pro-Army State than 
Alabama. General McConville, I understand the Army's plans to 
field two IBCS battalions per year, but your top unfunded 
priority included another system, too, for the Indo-Pacific 
theater. Given the increased need for sophisticated air defense 
systems, do you believe this plan is truly sufficient to meet 
the need of the joint forces?
    General McConville. Well, Congressman, as you said, the air 
and missile defense is absolutely critical. The Integrated 
Battle Command System, which is coming online, we think is 
extremely important because the edge it is going to give us is 
many of our air and missile defense systems are based on one 
radar for one system. And what we want to be able to do is take 
those multiple sensors, bring that information together, and 
use the appropriate arrow, if you will, to deal with that 
sense. So, we need to move out as fast as we can develop these 
systems, and they are going to be very, very important for 
whatever fight we are in.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you.
    How does the IBCS fit into the Joint All-Domain Command and 
Control?
    General McConville. I think it's a key, an essential part 
of that, as we develop our future system. We talked about Iron 
Dome. That was one of the concerns we had; how does that fit 
in? But the systems we are developing and the systems that we 
are working with our joint partners are all going to need to 
play on that, because we are going to be able to use joint 
sensors. So, if we can't use each other's radars and sensors, 
we won't get the advantage that we need.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you.
    Secretary Wormuth, section 1244 of last year's NDAA gave 
the Department of Defense the authority to utilize multiyear 
procurement to accelerate production efforts. There are 
proposals for multiyear procurements within the fiscal year 
2024 budget, but I notice several critical munitions programs 
or Army programs in general, were included as candidates. Do 
you support using multiyear procurement for the PAC-3 and other 
critical Army systems?
    Secretary Wormuth. I do, Congressman. As General McConville 
said earlier, you know, industry doesn't generally do the work 
out of enthusiasm. They like to see a continued demand signal, 
and that multiyear procurement authority sends them that 
signal. So, we very much hope that Congress will give that to 
us for Patriot and GMLRS [Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System] 
this year.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you.
    Do you see a problem with the fact that there isn't an 
appropriations companion policy for the multiyear procurement?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, it would be helpful, I think, to 
have multiyear appropriations also.
    Mr. Strong. Okay. I agree.
    What measures does the Army propose to support expanded 
production of critical munitions?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, one of the things we are doing, 
Congressman, is to invest $1.5 billion in our organic 
industrial base. That is going to help us expand our production 
capability.
    And then, we are also trying to work very closely with 
industry, with our partners in industry, to get money on 
contract for them, so that they can ramp up their production, 
both in terms of speed, but also volume.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you.
    General McConville, you have given the United States your 
entire life. You and your family have made countless 
sacrifices, and we thank you for that.
    With this being said, your last time before us, what is a 
message you would like to leave with Congress and the American 
people?
    General McConville. Well, what I would say is I could not 
be more proud than [of] the soldiers I have had the privilege 
of serving with over the last 42 years-plus. This is a great 
Army and I'm very, very proud of those who have served, those 
who are serving now, and those who will serve.
    Mr. Strong. Thank you, General.
    I yield back.
    The Chairman [presiding]. The Chair now recognizes the 
gentlelady from Hawaii, Ms. Tokuda, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Tokuda. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Mahalo, General McConville, for your service.
    Thank you, Secretary Wormuth, for being here today.
    Last November, the Congressional Budget Office found that 
the U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii was in far worse physical 
condition on average compared to other Army bases. Our Army 
facilities accounted for significantly higher amounts of 
deferred maintenance, renovation, and modernization costs than 
any other Army base. In total, those costs combined come to 
about $4 billion, as you know, for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, 
which includes Schofield Barracks, which is in my district.
    Failing infrastructure has real, harmful impacts on our 
local communities and, honestly, strain our military's 
relationships with the people of Hawaii. It is not just the 
negative environmental or public health impacts that we hear 
about, like water main breaks or unauthorized wastewater 
discharges. When military housing on base is undesirable for 
our service members and their families to live in, they may 
choose, and do choose, to live off base instead, taking homes 
off the market for local residents and far worsening the 
housing situation in our strapped communities right now.
    Secretary Wormuth, I'm grateful that you recently visited 
Hawaii and was able to see firsthand our infrastructure issues 
and problems. Could you please discuss some of the challenges 
that you did see? And how is the fiscal year 2024 Army budget 
going to be addressing some of these challenges? I do know 
that, of the identified barrack--permanent party barrack 
requests, we were not part of that, and I know we have seen 
improvements back in 2022. But what can we expect to see in 
terms of investments prioritized going forward?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congresswoman, and it was 
very helpful for me when I went out in Hawaii recently to 
both--you know, I did a townhall with our soldiers and families 
and heard from them directly. I know that the Red Hill spill 
has had a tremendous impact on the folks out in Hawaii.
    And we, basically, have sent a couple of teams out recently 
to look at the infrastructure there, in particular, with a real 
focus on not just the aboveground infrastructure, but the 
belowground infrastructure, because we have got to look at our 
sewer lines, water lines, the power grid. And I think, as the 
Chief and I look to build the next year's budget, we are 
looking hard at how we can put more resources towards the 
infrastructure in Hawaii.
    I also saw barracks at Schofield, and some of the barracks 
I saw did not look too good. You know, we have got such a huge 
inventory of barracks across the country, you know, CONUS 
[continental United States] and in Hawaii and elsewhere, we 
just can't renovate all of them all at once. And so, what we 
have tried to do is we have a plan, basically, that we started 
in 2021 that goes to 2030 that will have us investing a billion 
dollars a year in barracks across Active, Guard, and Reserve. 
And so, while we are not getting to barracks this year, you 
know, we will be getting to barracks in Hawaii in the next 
couple of years. And we constantly evaluate with our commanders 
the state of those barracks, and we can make adjustments over 
time.
    Ms. Tokuda. Thank you.
    And then, I would say, to help guide us in those 
investments and prioritization of that infrastructure, I 
appreciate the belowground as well as the aboveground 
infrastructure repairs needed. Is it possible for us to also do 
some kind of housing impact assessment that takes a look at a 
number of different factors--how much of the BAH is being used 
off base; total number of service members and their families 
relative to move-in-ready units that we have got available--
just to determine really the scope and the scale of the Army's 
impact on our local housing inventory, so that we can, then, 
focus on prioritizing that infrastructure needed to, then, say, 
``This is how much more we need to renovate or actually build 
up, so that we can accommodate our service members versus 
against straining our local housing inventory,'' which is we 
are on an island. So, we really can't build out too much 
farther. Is there ability to do that kind of assessment?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think we could certainly work with you 
all to do that kind of assessment. And we have also really 
pushed our colleagues in Office of Secretary of Defense to 
reopen BAH and how it is calculated, because I am not confident 
exactly how we are calculating BAH is reflective of sort of the 
real-time housing costs that we see, not just in Hawaii, but, 
frankly, in other parts of the country.
    Ms. Tokuda. Absolutely, and possibly to also have a 
discussion with us on that matter as well. We appreciate more 
being given to our service members. What we can say is that it 
also drives up housing costs and rental prices in Hawaii.
    So, as we look towards the next subject I did want to touch 
briefly on, which is our overall leases that are going to be 
coming up for renegotiation, as you know very well, they are 
set to expire in 2029. This is a whole-of-military type of 
discussion that we have had in terms of impact on community, 
understanding we know our strategic importance and role in the 
Indo-Pacific, but things like impacts on housing always comes 
up in every single one of our communities.
    I'm running out of time, but I would like to have further 
questions about how the Army is approaching the lease renewals 
coming up in 2029. What is the next key deadline you are seeing 
prior to that, and how we are going to focus on constituent and 
community engagement, as part of this renewal and 
prioritization process?
    But thank you very much for your service, and I look 
forward to continued discussions.
    I yield back, Chair.
    The Chairman. The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Gaetz, is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Gaetz. When Secretary Austin was here, neither he nor 
General Milley could defend some of the bizarre DEI [diversity, 
equity, inclusion] activities that were going on at the DODEA 
[Department of Defense Education Activity]. And then, promptly, 
after my questioning, they shut down the DEI entity at DODEA. 
So, like maybe we can make similar progress today.
    Ms. Wormuth, do you acknowledge that some of the strange 
manifestations of this DEI embrace have put negative pressures 
on the Army's recruiting?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I'm not sure exactly what 
specifically you are referring to, but when we have done 
surveys----
    Mr. Gaetz. Okay. If you could put that slide up on the 
screen? I will give you one. I thought that might be where this 
was going.
    So, this is Vignette 8. It is an Army training, and it is 
regarding the use of showers. The vignette reads, ``A soldier 
transitioned from male to female, as indicated in DEERS 
[Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System]. The soldier 
did not have sex reassignment surgery. The transgender service 
member is using the female showers and has expressed privacy 
concerns regarding the open bay shower configuration. 
Similarly, other soldiers have expressed discomfort showering 
with a female who has male genitalia.''
    And then, you look over at subpart 3 regarding the 
considerations, it just says, ``All soldiers will use the 
billeting, bathroom, and shower facilities associated with 
their gender marker in DEERS.''
    What is your reaction to that?
    Secretary Wormuth. My reaction, Congressman, is we are 
focused on building cohesive teams that are trained, 
disciplined, and fit----
    Mr. Gaetz. General McConville, I'll give you the next 
chance. Do you think that it builds cohesive teams to have 
biological males showering with women?
    General McConville. I think we need to respect the privacy 
of our soldiers and have an environment where everyone can 
thrive.
    Mr. Gaetz. Well, of course, but that is not an answer to my 
question.
    General McConville. Well, that is the----
    Mr. Gaetz. You and I spent a good amount of productive time 
yesterday talking about cohesive team building.
    General McConville. We did, and----
    Mr. Gaetz. Does this advance cohesive team building in your 
best military opinion?
    General McConville. Well, I think the fact we are talking 
about this, and not talking about warfighting, is problematic. 
Because our focus----
    Mr. Gaetz. Well, but that is what the Army does, General. 
I'm looking here, ``Army Policy on Transgender Military 
Service,'' where you guys require training on this stuff. So, 
don't you think that when you require training on how to deal 
with men and women's shower stalls, and when you have these 
mandatory trainings on transgender service members, that that 
takes away from our focus on warfighting?
    General McConville. Yes, I think what, you know, again, 
from the Chief of Staff of the Army, my focus is very clear. I 
talk to every commander, every sergeant major, in the Army. I 
do it every single month. And what I talk about is our job is 
to build cohesive teams that are highly trained. They are 
disciplined; they are fit, and they are ready to fight and win. 
And that is where I am at.
    Mr. Gaetz. Right, but I am positing that, when there is a 
focus on how biological men are going to shower with women, and 
on unconscious bias training, which you require, and on 
mandatory gender sensitivity training, that like the call is 
coming from inside the house at DOD on some of these problems. 
And the proof is in the pudding.
    There seems to be a cognitive dissonance between your 
recruiting nightmare that we are living through, the Nation's 
recruiting nightmare at the Army, and this kind of stuff. 
Because I don't think it is going to be a big, like, positive 
recruiting pitch to women that, when someone shows up with male 
genitalia in their shower stall, that we tell them that we are 
trying to build a cohesive team. I would posit to you that that 
probably makes the team a little less cohesive. Will you allow 
for even that possibility?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, what we have seen in our 
surveys is that, basically, women are more worried about being 
sexually harassed in the Army than they are about the kinds of 
things that you are bringing up.
    Mr. Gaetz. Well, don't you think that someone might get 
sexually harassed if they are showering with a biological male? 
Don't you think that that environment could potentially 
increase the likelihood of that? We are all concerned about 
sexual harassment. We have grappled with these challenges about 
how to have it in the chain of command or outside the chain of 
command, but it seems a little silly to sit here and have 
discussions about the flowchart of a sexual harassment 
complaint when you have got people with male genitalia 
showering with your female soldiers.
    I want to recruit talented women into our Army, and I am 
concerned that this weird stuff that you guys are doing is not 
going to make it more likely that those people are going to 
sign up.
    General McConville, you and I spoke yesterday about the 
fact that the Army has to recruit extensively men from the 
American South, that that makes up a wide variety of who is 
coming into the United States Army. Do you think you are going 
to recruit more of them with this kind of stuff?
    General McConville. Probably not.
    Mr. Gaetz. And that is the point.
    General McConville. And I would----
    Mr. Gaetz. And I appreciate the honesty. And I know that, 
in August, you conclude a storied career, and we thank you both 
for your service.
    And we did get somewhere with this last time with Secretary 
Austin, and I hope you all will reflect on the damage that this 
embrace of DEI is doing to the military.
    The Chairman. Who is next?
    Oh, Ms. Strickland is recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Chairman.
    The United States has a long and proud tradition of 
offering immigrants a path to citizenship through military 
service. From the Lodge Act of the 1950s to the Military Bases 
Agreement of the 1990s, America's leaders have found creative 
ways to improve readiness through the call to service.
    Secretary Wormuth, with such an acute recruiting crisis at 
hand, what is the Army doing to avail themselves of the 
thousands of Dreamers and other undocumented young men and 
women eager for a path to citizenship?
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congresswoman.
    I know that the Department has--for example, your colleague 
in the Senate, Senator Duckworth, has introduced legislation 
that is focused on, you know, trying to look at Dreamers and 
others who might be interested in serving in the military. And 
the Department is very supportive of looking at finding ways, 
for example, to bring the Dreamers into the Army and the other 
services as a pathway to citizenship. And so, I think we would 
very much welcome that.
    Ms. Strickland. Thank you. My next question is for General 
McConville. I was pleased to see the selection of Sergeant 
Major JoAnn Naumann as the next Command Sergeant Major of Army 
Special Operations Command, the first woman to occupy the 
position.
    I'm trying to make eye contact with you, sir.
    [Laughter.]
    Ms. Strickland. As you know, special operations experience 
is frequently a common denominator among many of the Army 
senior leaders. Are you satisfied that there are career 
pipelines available to women capable of consistently producing 
general officers, part one? And then, part two, what are you 
doing to ensure that women are both aware of and encouraged to 
pursue opportunities in the special operations community?
    General McConville. Well, first of all, we are very proud 
of the women that are serving in the special operations 
community. And I think now that we have assignments opened up 
to everybody, that based on your merit, you can rise to the 
highest levels. You know, we have Laura Richardson, who is a 
four-star general, who came out of combat aviation.
    But in the military, or at least in the Army, the combat 
arms tend to have more general officers than the other 
branches. So, those branches are open. And then, we also have 
an obligation to, just like anyone else, recognize that talent 
throughout the ranks and make sure they get the appropriate 
experiences, so when they get to that level, they are highly 
qualified for those jobs.
    Ms. Strickland. Great. And I just want to go on record to 
let you all know that the majority of this country supports the 
work you do and understands that a diverse, equitable, and 
inclusive military is a strong one. We have a volunteer 
military, and everyone who is qualified who wants to serve 
should have the ability to do so. So, thank you very much for 
your leadership.
    I yield my time, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas, Mr. Fallon, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Fallon. General McConville, thank you for your service 
and your storied career. And this may sound odd coming from 
someone from Texas, but ``Go Red Sox.''
    General McConville, did General Milley over the last few 
weeks perhaps talk to you about the Humvee ABS [antilock brake 
system] and ESC [electronic stability control] program?
    General McConville. Yes, he has.
    Mr. Fallon. Wonderful. Because we had talked and he did 
promise me in this committee room that he was going to discuss 
this with you, and I'm glad he did. So, thank you for that.
    Secretary Wormuth, does the name Specialist Luis Herrera 
mean anything to you?
    Secretary Wormuth. I'm not sure that I have heard of that 
specialist, Congressman.
    Mr. Fallon. Okay. Specialist Herrera was from Marion, North 
Carolina, and he was killed in a rollover with the Humvees. And 
as you know, there have been about 900 of these incidents and 
we have lost 125 service members to rollovers.
    And we are very supportive. We have a bipartisan group of 
members on this committee that have allocated nearly $300 
million for this program to retrofit approximately how many 
Humvees? Do you know, offhand?
    Secretary Wormuth. We have 106,000, I think, approximately, 
in the overall fleet right now.
    Mr. Fallon. And there is about, from what the Army told us, 
in the neighborhood of 48,000 that are eligible for 
retrofitting. And why this is important is it saves lives, 
number one. Also, instead of buying new ones, this will save 
the Army $8 billion to retrofit them instead of buying new 
ones.
    And so, my question is, in fiscal year 2022, we allocated 
$193 million. And, Secretary, we haven't even spent all of that 
money yet. And then, last year, we allocated $119 million for 
this fiscal year. And I believe that money hasn't even been 
touched yet.
    And from what we are being told, there are between 500 and 
700 vehicles that are being retrofitted every month. The 
problem is the kit manufacturer and the folks that actually do 
the labor at Red River Army Depot are telling us that they have 
the capabilities to retrofit 1,000 to 1,200 per month. And when 
we drag our feet, military members are losing their lives.
    So, I would like to ask, why in the world are we delaying 
when this is not a controversial issue? We have bipartisan 
support on it, and it is saving the taxpayers billions of 
dollars and soldiers' lives.
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, of course we take the 
safety of our soldiers incredibly seriously, and we never want 
to see soldiers be injured or die in accidents that are 
preventable.
    As you said, you know, we are investing. We are taking sort 
of a combined approach of retrofitting our existing Humvees, 
and it was my sense that we had not only been doing that at 
sort of full rate at Red River, but that we had actually had to 
spread some of that work to other locations. But then, we are 
also buying some new JLTVs [Joint Light Tactical Vehicles] that 
have the anti-lock brake systems on them, because the Humvee is 
an old vehicle, and we want to get new vehicles----
    Mr. Fallon. Yes, and I have no problem with--you know, we 
are moving towards those. But in a November 2022 meeting, we 
met with the program office and General Warner and let them 
know, if you need any help from us, please--if you need any 
authorizations or anything, we are here for you.
    And so, I'm begging you and General McConville to help us 
out, because the money is there. The labor is there. And I 
think that we need--the vendor has been very successful, and we 
need a contract that lasts a year. We are giving you money on 
an annual basis to get this work done because it is absolutely 
inexcusable.
    So, just in summary, we save $8 billion. And, General 
McConville, I'm sure if we gave you $8 billion, you could put 
it to good use. It saves lives. But we are, again, dragging our 
feet.
    And please, can you commit to us, Madam Secretary, that we 
can get this up to full capacity immediately?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I'm certainly happy to look 
at, if there is money that is not being spent and there is 
capacity of the workforce, I'm happy to look into that.
    Mr. Fallon. Yes, from what we were told, it is over $100 
million that hasn't been spent and there is the capacity there. 
So, I would love to work with your office----
    Secretary Wormuth. I will certainly look into that. Happy 
to work with you on that.
    Mr. Fallon. Please. Thank you.
    Thank you, General, and again, congratulations on a storied 
career. You are a great American, sir.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Virginia, Mrs. 
McClellan, for 5 minutes.
    Mrs. McClellan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    And thank you to the witnesses.
    General McConville, thank you for your service and 
congratulations on your retirement.
    I have the pleasure of representing Fort Gregg-Adams, 
formerly known as Fort Lee, and I want to take a deeper dive on 
some of the quality-of-life issues.
    First, I will say the three issues we hear the most from, 
from the service men and woman and their families, is housing, 
particularly, the quality of the barracks and the dormitories 
there; access to mental health services and the mental health 
workforce; and childcare. We have touched on each of those, but 
I want to dive a little bit deeper into childcare. And I'm 
making my staff nervous by asking a completely off-scripted 
question.
    Following up on your comment, Madam Secretary, on the 
difficulty of getting background checks, does the DOD, do you 
do your own background checks, or do you rely on those done by 
State or local services?
    Secretary Wormuth. I believe we rely on, I think, the 
Department's consolidated agency that does background checks.
    Mrs. McClellan. And do you allow portable background 
checks, or do you have to have a background check every time a 
person applies for a particular childcare job?
    Secretary Wormuth. I would imagine we probably check every 
time.
    Mrs. McClellan. Okay. We have found in Virginia that when 
we allow portable background checks, that opens up a lot of 
doors because we saw where someone may be applying for five 
different childcare jobs, they had to get a background check 
every single time. If they get a job within a year, they would 
have to get another background check, and there was a huge 
backlog. So, if that is something we need to look into for you 
all, I think we should.
    I think we also need--well, are you finding the challenges 
to increasing the workforce greater or about the same for your 
child development centers versus your centers for school-age 
children?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think I would say they are about the 
same. I mean, we are really just in a war for talent against, 
you know, the private sector, Walmart, Amazon, Target--you name 
it.
    Mrs. McClellan. Thank you.
    And childcare is not just about providing care. I think 
they are called child development centers for a reason, because 
you are developing the child. And we know that 90 percent of a 
child's brain is developed before they are 5.
    And so, can you talk about what you all are doing, through 
your childcare programs, to ensure kindergarten readiness, and 
in your school-age programs to ensure that you are helping 
those children with any sort of K-12 needs that they have?
    Secretary Wormuth. Sure. You know, one, I would say, I was 
a working mom. My kids are now off in college. But anytime I go 
to see an Army daycare center, I am just really impressed by 
the quality of the facilities, but also the staff.
    You know, we have very strict standards for certification 
for our daycare workers. So, they have to be trained and 
certified to be able to provide age-appropriate educational 
development. And I think, to my knowledge, we are doing 
everything that we are supposed to be doing to get kids ready 
for kindergarten.
    Mrs. McClellan. And as part of that, are you developing 
partnerships with the school superintendents in the area, so 
that you can ensure that whatever curriculum you are using in 
your child development centers is aligned with the curriculum 
that they will face when they begin kindergarten?
    Secretary Wormuth. You know, I would have to look into 
that, Congresswoman, to see if we are doing that specifically. 
I know in many locales we are partnering with colleges and 
universities that have children's education programs and 
bringing in those students to be, basically, interns in our 
daycare centers, for example.
    Mrs. McClellan. If you are not, I strongly encourage you to 
do that. Because what we have also seen and studies show is, if 
those curriculums are not aligned, all the gains that that 
child gained before they started kindergarten will be lost by 
third grade because those curriculum are not aligned. And you 
really are laying the foundation for those children on whether 
or not they are going to succeed once they enter kindergarten 
and beyond. So, I strongly encourage you to do that.
    And I probably don't have time for another question. So, 
again, General, I want to thank you for your service, and thank 
you all for testifying here today.
    And if you have not been to Fort Gregg-Adams to look at the 
barracks and the dormitories there, I invite you to do that. 
They really need some attention as well.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentlelady. Excellent line of 
questioning.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. 
McCormick, for 5 minutes.
    Dr. McCormick. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    General, first of all, it is a pleasure to see you in 
person. Thank you for your service. We have actually known some 
of the same people. We have served in some of the same places 
and in the same units. And I just found out recently that you 
actually yelled at a junior Army officer who happens to be now 
my Chief. So, I get to yell at him every day, too. So, we have 
that in common also, Phillip Singleton. I'm sure he will be 
happy to hear I said that.
    I'm a little bit concerned. As we move forward in the next 
generation of weapons systems. Squad automatic weapon, when I 
grew up it was the M249. Now, we are moving into a different 
caliber weapon, away from the 5.56 into a 6.88 or 6.8, I 
believe. It is not a 7.72. It is not a standard round that we 
have had in the past. So, we are starting a whole new chain of 
ammunition production that we have never had before. And is it 
a NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] round, by the way?
    Secretary Wormuth. No, Congressman, I don't believe so.
    Dr. McCormick. Okay. So, my concern is, obviously, we do a 
lot of joint operations. We are going to have a lot of supply 
around the world of different munitions. You could see what we 
are doing with Ukraine, and we are going to give them weapon 
systems or ammunition. Why would we go away from something we 
have basically standardized since the Napoleonic era, where we 
tried to standardize ammunition size and something we 
distribute? Why would we go to a new size of caliber weapon 
system at this time in history? I don't get it.
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, I think--and I'm sure the Chief 
would want to elaborate on this--but it is my understanding 
that we needed to do that because of we needed the sort of 
penetration ability that that new caliber could give us, given 
some of the adversaries and equipment that they have.
    General McConville. Yes, I would just say lethality, and I 
think we owe you a private meeting on this thing; we get behind 
the scenes.
    I just talked to one of our senior leaders who has got 
tremendous operational experience, and probably one of the best 
in the Army. And I asked him about the new weapon system. He 
says the best he has ever seen, and this person, I would be 
glad to share with you who he is and his background.
    Dr. McCormick. Okay.
    General McConville. But there is a reason we went to that 
caliber. That caliber is the perfect sweet spot. The weapon 
itself--and this is someone that has served in our most elite 
units and have done some incredible things. And he was just 
talking about how lethal; this is going to change the way our 
soldiers operate on the battlefield. And that is why we went to 
the 6.8.
    Dr. McCormick. And the 7.62 is just a little bit too 
large----
    General McConville. A little too large, and the 5.56 was 
just a little too--I mean, again, we were aware of the 
logistics.
    Dr. McCormick. Okay.
    General McConville. We did take a hard look at that, but, 
at the end of the day, what drove this capability is lethality. 
And we owe you a briefing on it----
    Dr. McCormick. Okay. Great.
    General McConville [continuing]. And what is behind that.
    Dr. McCormick. Maybe it will become a new standard for NATO 
forces, too, as we move on. That would be awesome.
    Singapore has a newly established digital and intelligence 
service, and they are seeking partnerships with other 
countries, especially allied nations' militaries, notable to 
those dedicated cyber services. CYBERCOM [U.S. Cyber Command] 
is, obviously, our focal point. However, they are persistently 
stretched beyond their resources right now.
    Like our Singaporean counterparts, do you think, if we 
supported a dedicated cyber service which could offer a 
bandwidth beyond what we are currently afforded by CYBERCOM 
today, would that be a good thing?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, you know, I don't think the 
Department has done a study yet looking at a separate cyber 
force. I, personally, you know, my sense at this point is I 
would be reluctant to go in that direction, and here is why.
    You know, as I came to understand when I became Secretary 
of the Army, we are the biggest consumer, actually, of space 
capabilities, not the Air Force. And we have the best 
understanding of what our needs are. And I think we have the 
best understanding of what our cyber needs are. And I'm sure 
the Air Force has its own unique needs.
    So, I would be concerned that, by creating a standalone 
cyber force, you would be creating new headquarters, new 
billets for GOs [general officers], and might actually be 
taking it away from the home services, if you will, that know 
best what their requirements are.
    Dr. McCormick. That is interesting. That was one of my 
concerns as well, when I was briefed on this, because there is, 
obviously, point and counterpoint to this. There are advantages 
and disadvantages, but that is exactly my concerns that I 
issued also.
    I'm running out short. So, I'm going to kind of--actually, 
let's stick to this because it is my home district, or at least 
near me. Fort Gordon, recently, there has been some reports on 
the dilapidated state of that. And you mentioned, actually, in 
your opening remarks that that is a concern of yours. But it 
sounded like other people have forts in their areas that are 
also bad. I'm a Marine, so I'm used to some austere facilities. 
But do you think you have enough for your budget to make those 
improvements that are needed right now?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, I would say, you 
know, the inventory of our housing is enormous. So, we don't 
have enough in our budget to get it done in 1 or 2 years. But 
we just sent some of our officials to Fort Gordon, and we are 
laser-focused on Balfour Beatty and getting them to improve the 
housing at Fort Gordon.
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Nevada, Mr. 
Horsford, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and to the 
ranking member.
    General McConville, congratulations. Thank you for your 
service and best to you and your family.
    I have four military installations in my district, in 
Nevada's Fourth District. One of them is the Hawthorne Army 
Depot, which is housed on over a 140,000 acres and provides an 
explosive storage capacity of 7,685,000 square feet. It is 
quite an important and secure facility.
    I'm just curious, when was the last time either of you 
visited the Hawthorne Army Depot and what did you think of the 
facilities and the equipment of the base?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I have not yet been to 
Hawthorne. But what I can tell you from some of the other 
depots and ammo plants I have been to is, I am always 
incredibly impressed by the quality of the workforce there and 
the pride they take in the work that they do. And I imagine 
that I would see that if I went to Hawthorne tomorrow.
    Mr. Horsford. Well, I will extend an invitation. We have 
Armed Services Day on May 20th. It is the greatest parade in 
the country, and we will have the American flag that will rise 
and walk down the streets of Hawthorne.
    Can you outline some of the steps that you are taking to 
address the special requirements and funding needs of the 
smaller, rural installations in order to ensure proper 
maintenance and readiness at these crucial sites?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly. You know, for all of our 
ammos-- ammo plants, depots, and arsenals, a lot of them are 
very old and in need of reinvestment, because they provide 
critical capabilities for us. So, we have a 15-year plan to try 
to, basically, modernize our industrial base.
    And what we have done is essentially identified $18 billion 
worth of requirements to invest in them, and this year's budget 
has $1.5 billion focused on updating our arsenals and depots.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you.
    I agree, and I believe investing in the future force relies 
on timely, adequate, predictable, and sustainable funding in 
every budget cycle in concert with a focused plan. So, I look 
forward to working with you on that.
    Secretary Wormuth, thank you for stating, both in your 
testimony and in response to one of the colleagues on the other 
side, that the Army is committed to reducing the harmful 
behaviors that break trust with soldiers and the American 
people. These harmful behaviors you list as sexual assault and 
harassment, acts of extremism, and racism, among others. Can 
you expand on what the Army is currently doing to reduce these 
behaviors?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly. And I think it is really 
important because we have to have cohesive teams, as General 
McConville has said multiple times. You know, we bring together 
young people from all around the country from all different 
kinds of backgrounds, and they have got to be able to work 
together and respect each other.
    So, we really try and focus on making sure that our 
soldiers know what right looks like, and frankly, what wrong 
looks like. So, a lot of training around sexual harassment, for 
example, is focused on helping our soldiers know what they can 
do and what they shouldn't be doing.
    And one of the things we are doing to help us across the 
board, whether it is with sexual harassment or suicide 
prevention, is hiring a prevention workforce, so that we can 
have folks who are really focused on trying to make sure these 
behaviors don't happen in the first place. And we have hired 
the first tranche of prevention workers, but we are going to 
continue to be doing that in the next couple of years.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you.
    Finally, I care about our military members and their 
concerns. And if we push changes on them without a sound 
strategy to fulfill the mission line, then the holistic concept 
of readiness is not fully achieved.
    With this in mind, the Army's new unit lifecycle model, 
designed to address readiness issues caused by high operational 
tempo, has come under question due to the emerging COCOM 
[combatant command] requirements that challenge it. Has the 
Army made a plan to combat these issues to achieve the full 
stated implementation by 2023?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, what we are really trying 
to do--our biggest challenge is unpredictability of world 
events. You know, we need to be able to take units that are 
going to get some of this new equipment and give them a 
protected period of time to shed their old equipment and get 
their new equipment and start training on their new equipment.
    So, what we are really focused on is working with our 
combatant commanders to try to get more predictability on what 
their needs are going to be. And the Chief does that in his 
role as a member of the Joint Chiefs. I will be honest with 
you, it is a constant struggle because the world is 
unpredictable, but we are trying hard to stay agile.
    Mr. Horsford. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. 
Finstad, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Finstad. Thank you, Chairman Rogers, and Ranking Member 
Smith.
    Thank you as well, Madam Secretary and General.
    I'm relatively new to this committee and I was told early 
on that you never want to get in between a hungry general and 
his lunch, and here I am. So, I will be specific and quick and 
get you out of here as soon as we can.
    But I would like to introduce and touch on a specific issue 
that impacts so many Active Duty service men and women, as well 
as veterans, and that is hearing loss. And as a farmer who has 
grown up around large, loud equipment, this resonates to me.
    And so, according to the Defense Hearing Center of 
Excellence, the ability to hear and communicate is critical to 
soldier and unit safety, central to effective command and 
control, and integral to mission accomplishment. However, 
despite military services stressing the importance of using 
hearing protection and the establishment of conservation 
programs, military hearing loss and auditory injuries remain a 
consistent issue, including with our veteran population.
    The Veterans Benefits Administration reported that in 
fiscal year 2022, there were over 2.7 million veterans 
receiving disability compensation for tinnitus and 1.4 million 
veterans receiving benefits for hearing loss. These numbers 
make tinnitus and hearing loss the number one and number three 
combat-related injury for our service members.
    Our military men and women are equipped with the best 
technology available, and this should be the same when it comes 
to hearing protection. Many individuals do not wear passive 
protection, such as foam earplugs, because they only suppress 
noise and do not allow for situational awareness. And again, as 
a farmer, guilty of this also.
    Conversely, active hearing protection technology can 
prevent hearing injury. And again, I just want to say, active 
hearing protection technology can prevent hearing injury, while 
allowing service members to remain aware of their operational 
environment--a benefit from improved overall situational 
awareness and increasing mission effectiveness, safety, and 
survivability. Active hearing protection devices have the 
potential to save the Defense Department and Veterans 
Administration millions of dollars by reducing hearing injuries 
and post-service disabilities.
    So, with that said--and again, keeping this very focused--
General, can you provide me or provide us with an update--or 
Madam Secretary--an update of what the Army is doing to fulfill 
the Department of Defense's policy of protecting all military 
personnel and noise-exposed civilian personnel from hearing 
loss resulting from hazardous occupational and operational 
noise exposure? And have you found any of these programs 
successful for the Army?
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, you know, certainly, 
we want to make sure, again, that our soldiers are protected. 
And my husband is retired Navy, not retired Army, but he 
definitely has hearing loss from his time in the Navy.
    And as you said, we have a Hearing Center of Excellence, 
and our PEO [Program Executive Office] Soldier is always 
looking for new technologies to be able to make sure that our 
soldiers' hearing is protected. So, that is, generally, we use 
our Hearing Center of Excellence and our PEO Soldier to look at 
new technologies and to test new technologies.
    I would have to take your question for the record to give 
you a more detailed answer on what programs we found to be 
successful.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 102.]
    Mr. Finstad. General, any comments on this?
    General McConville. No, I think we have made tremendous 
strides from when I came in the Army in 1977 at West Point. I 
think, just like you said, having flown helicopters for 35, 40 
years, and we probably were not as sensitized to hearing loss 
as we are, and if we could walk it back, we might have done 
things differently. But I have two sons that are pilots now. I 
see the active protection that they have.
    We have had some problems with hearing protection over the 
years, when we thought we had hearing protection and we did not 
have hearing protection. And that is a different story.
    But I do think that that is definitely part of our safety 
training. It is definitely part of those who are around--and 
trying to get that sweet spot where you can hear what is going 
on for situational awareness, at the same time protect your 
hearing, you know, is very important.
    Mr. Finstad. Yes. So, I would just say that, with the 
advancement of technology, you know, there are all kinds of 
awesome products now that exist.
    And, Madam Secretary, to your point, my wife says I have a 
listening loss problem, not a hearing loss problem. So, maybe 
that is what is going on.
    But, no, I just thank you both. And I want to reiterate the 
importance of the Active Duty hearing protection and urge you 
both just to continue to work to ensure that we are providing 
our service men and women with adequate protection, so that 
they will not suffer these lifelong consequences.
    Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back.
    The Chairman. Mr. Finstad, my wife says I suffer from the 
same disability.
    The gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Vasquez, is recognized.
    Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, Chairman.
    Thank you, Secretary Wormuth and General McConville, for 
taking the time to speak with us today.
    My district in southern New Mexico is home to White Sands 
Missile Range just outside of Las Cruces, where we say, ``The 
first mile of missile testing is free at 5,200 feet.''
    But this part of the country has also, historically, had 
some disadvantages. And it has been susceptible to extremely 
high winds, flash flooding, record monsoons, which can lead to 
power outages and other disruptions to energy systems.
    Earlier this year, construction began on a microgrid system 
at White Sands that will be capable to providing 14 days of 
power for the installation's water system, should there be a 
wider power outage. This project is funded under the Energy 
Resilience and Conservation Investment Program, or ERCIP. While 
this is a critical step in the right direction, it is only the 
beginning of a long list of important infrastructure projects 
that are needed at White Sands and across the country, as we 
have heard today.
    General McConville, can you talk about how the Army is 
approaching energy resiliency on bases and the advantages of 
programs like ERCIP that use appropriated funds versus third-
party financing vehicles, or even utilities privatization, as a 
means of achieving energy resiliency?
    General McConville. Well, I look at it, as far as energy 
resiliency, really as a readiness factor on our camps, posts, 
and forts. And when I look at it, we have got to be ready to 
operate 24/7. So, if something happens out in the community--we 
have seen this happen--having the capability to do that is 
absolutely essential. How we do that, I would defer to those 
who actually make those types of decisions, what is the best 
path. We want to do it most efficiently, effectively, but at 
the end of the day, I want to make sure that our posts can 
operate, because we never know when we are going to get the 
call.
    Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, General.
    And so, would you say that, then, renewable energy projects 
and the complementary microgrids help greatly with the 
readiness of military installations, like White Sands Missile 
Range, and should continue to be part of the overall 
investment?
    General McConville. Well, what I would say is, having 
energy resiliency at a post is very important. How we do that, 
I would have to take a look at each of the programs and come 
back with a recommendation.
    [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix 
on page 101.]
    Mr. Vasquez. Thank you so much, General.
    I also want to talk about three of the other Army's 
priorities: people, readiness, and modernization. Particularly, 
the first and most important is the people who serve. As the 
Department of Defense's premier research and testing facility, 
it is extremely important to me that we have service members at 
White Sands Missile Range that are taken care of.
    Recently, my staff visited White Sands and I was 
disappointed to learn that members of our special ops forces 
are living outside in tents, and it is not temporary. They said 
that when the wind picks up, the tents are literally blown 
away, especially during this windy season in New Mexico. Even 
if the soldiers were in permanent housing, the barracks at 
White Sands Missile Range are outdated and don't meet the 
standards of square footage per soldier. And we have heard from 
many colleagues that this is a recurring issue at some of their 
existing forts and other military installations as well.
    For us, these are amongst our most highly trained units, 
our special ops forces, and right now, they don't have the 
dignity of having a roof over their head. We have to do better, 
and we should do better.
    Secretary Wormuth, when does the Army plan to upgrade the 
facilities at White Sands Missile Range to properly house the 
soldiers in my district?
    Secretary Wormuth. [Inaudible] call to General Jon Braga at 
USASOC----
    The Chairman. I don't think your microphone is on.
    Secretary Wormuth. Oh, I'm sorry.
    The Chairman. Okay.
    Secretary Wormuth. First of all, I will look into the 
situation that you are calling my attention to right away, and 
I will talk to General Jon Braga at USASOC [U.S. Army Special 
Operations Command].
    Just as we--I went down to USASOC and heard about the 
barracks at Smoke Bomb Hill at Fort Bragg. They were 
unsatisfactory, and we got our soldiers out immediately. So, we 
may have a similar situation here.
    I think what you have probably heard through the course of 
the morning is that our inventory of barracks is so enormous 
that we can't get to all of it that needs to be remodeled or 
torn down and rebuilt in just a year or two. So, we are trying 
to go about it in an organized, prioritized way, but I will 
look specifically at the situation at White Sands.
    Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, Secretary.
    And this is an Air Force issue, but, similarly, at Holloman 
Air Force Base, we have also heard that the prioritization of 
housing improvements is not made in an equitable way and 
doesn't consider some of these environmental factors or the 
requirements of training, and the hardships of training for 
specific missions.
    So, I think we could figure out a better way to categorize 
the expenditures that we are going to make, based on a 
different priority level that helps folks like the special ops 
forces at White Sands Missile Range, so they aren't put to or 
kicked to the bottom of the list because they don't meet 
outdated requirements.
    So, thank you for that, working on that, Secretary.
    And, General, thank you for your legacy of service. I truly 
appreciate it.
    And with that, I yield back my time. Thank you, Chairman.
    The Chairman. Yes, Secretary, I think that you can tell 
from Mr. Vasquez's questioning, and a whole host of people, is 
housing is one of the big problems. And you heard from me and 
the ranking member yesterday this is a priority for us.
    I would like for you and your colleagues in the other 
services to get us an aggressive plan for remedying that and 
let us worry about the money. Because we are serious about 
going after this, but help us help you.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Guam, Mr. 
Moylan, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Madam Secretary, a key corridor for the movement of 
military material is from Guam's harbor to Andersen Air Force 
Base. Currently, this movement places a strain on our public 
roads and could pose a security vulnerability.
    If the Department of Defense were to construct a defense 
access road from the harbor to Andersen Air Force Base, first, 
what role could the Army Corps of Engineers play, and second, 
would your office be open to extending this discussion and 
possibly supporting the funding of a study for this endeavor.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman.
    I am actually going to be going out to Guam later this 
summer. So, I look forward to seeing the situation there for 
myself. I have not yet been there before.
    As you know, as we continue to put the plan together for 
defense of Guam, there are going to be a lot of investments in 
Guam and the infrastructure there. I'm certain that the Army 
Corps of Engineers would play a critical role broadly in terms 
of improving the infrastructure, but, specifically, 
potentially, on this road.
    I'm not familiar with the specific access road that you are 
mentioning but would certainly be happy to learn more about it.
    Mr. Moylan. Thank you.
    My next question is, I understand the Medal of Honor is a 
distinguished recognition provided to service members for their 
selfless and heroic acts. But, sadly, despite having among the 
highest number of enlistments in the Nation per capita, no one 
from Guam has ever been recognized for this at this level. This 
includes a hero who threw himself at a grenade during the 
Vietnam conflict to protect his company. While he survived, he 
suffered lifelong injuries until he passed away several years 
ago.
    Now, 59 heroes made similar sacrifices during the Vietnam 
war and were awarded the distinguished Medal of Honor. In fact, 
there were 12 such heroes from World War II, 26 from the Korean 
war, and 1 from the Afghan war--all honored with this medal.
    Would you say that a specialist from Guam whose heroic 
efforts, where, literally, he lost his life, but saved others, 
in a war he was drafted to fight in. is deserving of such an 
honor?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, as you probably know, we 
have a very rigorous process to consider individuals for the 
Medal of Honor. Often, particularly if the person has passed 
away, it can be challenging to rebuild the records. But if 
there is new information that has come to light for the 
specialist that you believe bolsters the case for him being 
considered for the Medal of Honor, I would be happy to have my 
team work with your office to submit those records, so that his 
package could be considered.
    Mr. Moylan. All right. Thank you.
    Actually, those records were submitted before, but as it 
works up the chain, somehow it always disappears. But we do 
have the copies and we will work with you on that to resubmit 
for that medal.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you. Happy to work with you.
    Mr. Moylan. And finally, for my last question, yesterday, 
Admiral Aquilino testified that he needed an additional $147 
million to integrate the joint missile defense system in Guam, 
as reflected by his unfunded priority list. With this 
additional funding, would the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense 
Command be able to improve its capacity for joint coordination? 
And how does the Army's budget support a layer of 360-degree 
missile defense of Guam?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, we have made a number of 
investments in our budget in integrated air and missile 
defenses. I don't have the figure right off the top of my head. 
But I know Admiral Aquilino has a long list of things that he 
would like to see invested in in INDOPACOM.
    We have an $185 billion a year. The Chief and I try to do 
the best we can to take care of our people, invest in new 
weapon systems, and maintain our readiness. So, we have made 
some investments. I'm sure Admiral Aquilino would like us to do 
more.
    Mr. Moylan. Yes. Thank you, Madam Secretary, but I would 
stress, the $140 million is absolutely necessary. It is on top 
of his priority list. I think, without this, we are putting our 
troops at danger, and especially, our district and Guam, many 
U.S. lives in danger.
    The more forward we get this, the more we are able to 
complete this, and the admiral has spoken about it, just like 
the completion of our forts on Guam with the additional H-2B 
workers. With this, it will make a great difference. Without 
this, it will be very harmful to our Nation's defense, and I am 
very concerned about our citizens in Guam, our American 
citizens there.
    So, please, let's make sure we get that priority that the 
admiral has specifically said is very----
    The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, 
Mr. Davis, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Davis. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
    I also would like to thank Madam Secretary.
    To the General, thank you so much and we appreciate your 
service.
    I'm concerned, as we are fighting to maintain the freedom 
and security of the American people, we also, obviously, have 
to continue fighting for our kids here. So, I'm very much 
concerned about the lack of childcare development centers at 
many of our installations.
    In North Carolina, there are numerous installations that 
need new or additional CDCs. At Fort Bragg, there is currently 
an 800-child backlog for spots at the existing CDCs on the 
post. The real number, who knows what that is. Because I'm sure 
at some point you see there is an 800-child backlog; you just 
say, ``I give up,'' and not even sign up.
    This is not just a North Carolina issue. I do understand it 
is more broader in the Army. But going beyond just staffing, 
what is the Army doing to help address the issue? And I'm going 
to ask in a couple of ways. On the post itself? But then, off 
post in terms of building relationships to absorb this 
capacity? Because, at the end of the day, we have to provide 
our soldiers with sufficient access to childcare, so that their 
focus can be on defending the Nation.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman. And you are 
right, it is not just a Fort Bragg problem. It is something I 
hear about pretty much everywhere I go.
    We are trying to do a few different things, as I think you 
are aware. One is to build more CDCs. We have built a number of 
them in the last couple of years, and we are going to be 
building several more in the coming years.
    Part of it is about optimizing the level of staffing. We 
are also trying to get more families on post to participate in 
our family childcare center, which is, basically, sort of in-
home daycare. We are trying to incentivize that, where 
households that have participated in that, who PCS [permanent 
change of station] but stay in the program, get sort of a 
bonus.
    Because, again, we are trying to sort of thicken the 
capacity there.
    And then, we have also increased the monthly subsidy, the 
fee assistance that we provide folks who go off post to get 
daycare. So, we have raised that from $1,500 a month to about 
$1,700 a month.
    So, we are trying to get after it in as many different ways 
as we can.
    Mr. Davis. Okay. And I absolutely agree with the statement 
provided in the testimony, that every single suicide is one 
tragedy too many, which brings me to another concern. Suicide 
prevention is an issue that I raised personally with Secretary 
Austin, and I'm grateful for his commitment, you know, the 
funding, with the workforce and the funds that we are moving 
through the Congress.
    But when we look, specifically, at the Army, compare it to 
2021, and we see a decrease by 2022, I'm just understanding, 
based on what you were sharing earlier, this move towards 
prevention, a prevention workforce. Would you attribute that as 
to helping to curtail----
    Secretary Wormuth. Well, Congressman, we have just started 
hiring the prevention workforce. So, I think the decrease that 
we saw last year, you can't attribute to that. I think what I 
have seen is a lot of our great leaders, you know, really 
putting a spotlight and putting their energy on this. So, 
General Brian Eifler up in Alaska, for example, and his team, 
they have been really focused on it.
    I think the prevention workforce will help us. Part of what 
they are going to do is help us make better use of the data 
that we have, so that we can try to predict things and see 
trends better.
    But I think, you know, what is working, from what I can 
tell--and it is hard to tell--is application of behavioral 
health resources, but also chaplains, military family life 
counselors. Trying to help soldiers--a lot of the causes 
sometimes you see behind suicide are relationship problems, 
substance abuse problems, money problems. So, giving our 
soldiers resources to help with their marriages, help with 
their finances, that helps, and just emphasizing connections 
between our leaders, our soldiers, their buddies, and their 
families. But it is a hard problem.
    Mr. Davis. Going back to the prevention workforce, do you 
see it helping or is there any way of gauging how it may 
actually help?
    Secretary Wormuth. I think, you know, as we hire more of 
the prevention workforce and sort of have them fan out across 
our major installations, we will be better able to see how it 
is helping. Certainly, our intent and our belief is that having 
people who are able to help us focus on stopping harmful 
behaviors before they happen will help us.
    Mr. Davis. Thank you so much again, and we do yield back, 
Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman. That was an excellent 
line of questioning.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from--is it Missouri 
next? Mills? All right. Mills from Florida is recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Mills. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    So, I know that we are talking a lot about the Army budget. 
And one of the things we continually talk about is support and 
buildup for our industrial base. You know, I have had the 
unique pleasure of not only serving on this great committee, 
but also as a United States Army combat veteran and a defense 
owner of a business who has real understanding of what we face 
today, whether it is through Picatinny, PEO, or any other 
procurement arms.
    The thing that I continue to see time and time again, and 
this really impacted us when we went to that lowest cost, 
technically acceptable bid, but, then, failed to understand 
that we still had a best and final offer approach, that if a 
person who had qualified for BAFO--meaning they meet the 
technical acceptabilities, but was outside of the 20 percent 
competitive range--even though they would save taxpayers money, 
they would be removed from the bid.
    And when I was recognizing this and it was tailored more 
towards the primary, large defense business industry, there was 
another creation that had occurred with a Mentor-Protege 
Program, which, essentially, became something that was utilized 
by the larger companies to do nothing but utilize the smaller 
ones for tax shelters or to ensure they didn't get a certain 
amount of revenue which would have actually allowed them to 
show profits.
    So, I look at the fact that, while I do agree this is the 
time when we need to be focusing on not just our industrial 
base buildout, but I really truly believe that we need to also 
be looking at procurement reform, where we are slowing down our 
ability. And right now, it is about keeping the fastest pace.
    And I think that what we need to be looking at is true 
procurement reform that not only supports the things that we 
need to put into field, but also ensuring that the Directorate 
of Defense Trade Controls, when it comes to the weaponization 
or the dismissals from our DSP-5 and DSP-83s, the timeliness of 
how we do our approvals, really needs to be reviewed.
    And so, my question for you, Madam Secretary, is, do you 
support procurement reform with regards to how we are 
conducting things now?
    Secretary Wormuth. Certainly, Congressman, I'm always in 
favor of looking at how we can develop and acquire and field 
new capabilities more efficiently and effectively.
    Mr. Mills. And the other thing that I notice is that, while 
we look at things--and I will just utilize the Iowa Army 
munition factory as an example--you know, most of these 
facilities are GOCO-run facilities, where it is a government-
owned, corporate-operated facility, which, actually, in turn, 
is not the most cost-effective. And in many cases, the way that 
it is laid out and designed, it makes it very ineffective.
    The example of that is, when the Iowa Army munition factory 
was bidding to try and support the buildout for the Australian 
Defense Force, the ADF, they actually couldn't get the quality 
to exceed that of a smaller, private company, even after 
billions of dollars in investment.
    And so, one of the things that I looked at, and the 
reasoning for this, that these companies kept being able to run 
these GOCOs, is that there is a bit of a conflict of interest 
that has been established, whereby many of the members who are 
within the contracting department don't have the necessary 
moratorium time. And so, as soon as they actually start 
contracting operations, they, in most cases, are just thinking 
about whether or not they can go sit on the board of that 
company right after they retire.
    So, do you support a moratorium that would enable, that we 
could kind of reduce or deconflict some of that that is going 
on within the contracting agencies?
    Secretary Wormuth. Congressman, I would certainly be open 
to looking at what kinds of policies can be put in place to 
avoid conflicts of interest. You know, as a political 
appointee, I certainly have a 2-year window. And I think 
looking at those kinds of policies is appropriate.
    Mr. Mills. And I think that one of the things that has been 
abused for far too long is that there is a kind of 1- to 2-year 
icing period. But what happens in the loophole is that I, for 
example, am not allowed to talk directly with you because we 
may have contracted. But what I can do is ask my great 
colleague, Mark Alford, to go ahead and call and say, ``Hey, 
tell Ms.--tell the Secretary that I said hello from me, Cory 
Mills.'' And immediately, they'd know that I'm at that company, 
and now I have not directly contracted and discussed anything 
with you, but we know that that is the loop way or the loophole 
that kind of is worked around.
    So, I want to tell you that I am all in favor, 100 percent, 
of supporting the Army and what you are trying to do, as well 
as for the entire defense industry and building our 
capabilities to meet our adversaries. But I want to ensure, as 
a United States Congressman, that we are always being good 
stewards of the taxpayers' money.
    And so, we have a lot of great challenges that we must 
face. I know that you guys are dealing not just with the 
industrial base, but recruitment efforts. And I think that a 
lot of that that you are addressing right now is to improve the 
quality of life of our soldiers, which is truly important, 
which will get our recruitment up. Taking care of the spouses; 
getting the necessary counseling that is needed; making sure 
childcare is there; making sure that our salary increases 
reflect what is necessary for them to not have to worry about 
their spouse when they are abroad.
    So, I commend you on the efforts to try and do this and 
hope that we can look more stringent when it comes to our 
procurement process.
    With that, I yield back.
    The Chairman. I thank the gentleman. The Chair now 
recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Alford, for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Alford. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ranking Member, thank 
you.
    Just to clarify, Mr. Mills, I am not going into business 
with you anytime soon.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Alford. All right. We have an important job to do here.
    Well, thank you so much for being here. I know we are at 
the end of the day. You get the front row here, but we are 
almost done.
    We have talked a lot in this committee about the 
unprecedented recruitment crisis in the military. As you know, 
the Army has very much struggled, missing its 2022 recruitment 
goals by 15,000 soldiers, roughly 25 percent.
    I believe that part of the issue is improving our barracks, 
making it more livable for our men and women who are willing to 
serve, who are willing to die for our country. It is going to 
help in our recruitment efforts.
    I recently visited Fort Leonard Wood, which is in our 
district. We train some, or they train some 80,000 personnel 
each year--a great, fantastic facility. But they have some 
problems down there--problems with their housing. We need to 
prioritize this for phase two of the advanced individual 
training barracks and modernization, and we need to modernize 
some of our ranges down there.
    I was in one of the barracks that was built some 50 years 
ago, and they are doing the best they can, making this thing 
run on duct tape and baling wire, basically. I saw cracks in 
concrete, not a danger right now, but time is of the essence 
and getting some places for our men and women to live, that 
they are not looking for a palace or a Taj Mahal. They are 
looking for someplace that is safe and operational.
    And I understand money is tight, very tight. And I do 
appreciate the funding dedicated to family housing for Fort 
Leonard Wood in the President's 2024 budget. I want to make 
sure that our soldiers and their families have the best 
possible housing--and again, not luxurious, but something they 
can be proud to live in as well.
    As you know, it is going to take significant investment 
over multiple years to address the challenges. And I'm 
committed to working with you and working with the bases to 
make sure that happens.
    First question for Secretary Wormuth and General 
McConville. On February 1st of 2023, I sent a letter to both of 
you detailing our request to prioritize the advanced individual 
training barracks, phase two, at Fort Leonard Wood. In the 
President's budget, or at least in the Army's unfunded 
priorities list, since this funding was not included in either, 
can you please talk about why, despite planning and design 
funding being appropriated in fiscal year 2022, this barracks 
project was not included in fiscal year 2024 budget request, 
the Army's unfunded priorities list, nor the 5-year Future 
Years Defense Program? Ma'am, I'll start with you.
    Secretary Wormuth. Thank you, Congressman, and I'm actually 
going to be going to Fort Leonard Wood in a couple of weeks. I 
look forward to that and I will certainly go and look at the 
barracks that you are mentioning.
    As I think you have heard us say in response to a number of 
great questions about housing, the inventory of barracks that 
we have in the Army that need renovation or need, frankly, just 
total teardown and rebuild, is larger than the amount of the 
budget that we have in any given year or two to be able to 
spend. And so, we have a very thorough process called the 
Facility Investment Plan that allows us to work with 
commanders, work with the commanding general at Fort Leonard 
Wood, to try to prioritize how we are going to go about that 
work.
    And we refresh that every year because sometimes we come to 
realize that barracks are in worse shape than we thought. And 
if so, we move projects up. But, at the end of the day, it 
boils down to we just don't have the money to do everything all 
at once.
    But I will certainly look forward to seeing those 
barracks----
    Mr. Alford. Thank you.
    Secretary Wormuth [continuing]. And see for myself whether 
we need to move them up in the plan.
    Mr. Alford. Thank you.
    And would you, also, please visit one of the ranges there? 
I believe it is Range Number 8. We were there. It is not even 
operational. We went out there and it is sad. It is built on 
old seventies technology. The targets cannot ascend to where 
they can be shot at. And so, they are losing. And I'm really 
worried at a surge capacity, we are not going to have the 
training necessary to get our young men and women ready for 
active battle.
    Secretary Wormuth. I will visit that while I am there, sir.
    Mr. Alford. Okay. Thank you.
    General, I think the Chinese spy balloon highlighted the 
need to ensure that we have a collective domestic response, 
should an attack on the homeland happen. Can you take a minute 
to speak to the importance of homeland defense mission and how 
the Army contributes to something that can--and we only have 20 
seconds; I'm sorry.
    General McConville. No, I think we protect--we exist to 
protect the Nation. That is both home and abroad. And we have 
great forces here that provide, and some of the forces on the 
chemical, and all those types of things that happen, come out 
of Fort Leonard Wood. And we have great soldiers doing that 
every single day. And that is what we exist to do.
    Mr. Alford. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back and thank you for this great 
hearing, sir.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    And I think that the witnesses heard a theme today, and we 
are going to help you go after that.
    I really appreciate your service to this country. General, 
I wish you well in your retirement.
    Secretary, we are not through with you.
    [Laughter.]
    Secretary Wormuth. I'm not going anywhere.
    The Chairman. That is right. Thank you all for your time. 
And we are adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 1:00 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
     
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                            A P P E N D I X

                             April 19, 2023

      
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                             April 19, 2023

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                   DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

                             April 19, 2023

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              WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING

                              THE HEARING

                             April 19, 2023

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             RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. WITTMAN

    Secretary Wormuth. The Army continues to invest in our current 
watercraft fleet of 70 systems to extend their service life, while 
creating modernized designs for future acquisition. This year's budget 
invests $180 million for watercraft including two development efforts 
for the Maneuver Support Vessel Heavy and Light vessels, as well as 
investment in the forementioned service life extensions for our current 
vessels.
    We are investing nearly $100 million dollars in fuel, water, and 
aerial delivery programs to address the challenges of contested 
logistics in INDOPACOM. Army Futures Command and Army Materiel Command 
are in the initial stages of developing a Contested Logistics Cross-
Functional Team to address the need for more resilient and agile 
logistics in the Future Operational Environment. We have activated a 
new formation, the Composite Watercraft Company, in Japan as a mission 
command headquarters for current and emerging watercraft capability, 
established a Terminal Battalion Headquarters also in Japan, and are 
looking at adding a second INDOPACOM Composite Watercraft Company in 
the near future. Combined, these efforts mark a deliberate shift from 
divestment toward investment based on requirements in the pacing 
theater. Army Watercraft transformation has produced: an increase in 
authorizations in INDOPACOM in both personnel and current fleet, 
decreased key communication integration gaps in the current fleet with 
the addition of the Modernized Integrated Bridge System, and set 
conditions to actively procure the next generation of Maneuver Support 
Vessels deliberately designed to support the Army and enable the Joint 
Force.
    The Army is equally concerned with the status of the Ready Reserve 
Force (RRF). As the prime customer for Strategic Sealift, it is 
absolutely critical that sufficient capability be provided by the 
United States Transportation Command to project Army forces from the 
continental United States to any Theater of Operations. This is 
essential for both Army Combat and sustainment forces. Army Watercraft 
are not a substitute for Strategic Sealift, but a complementary 
capability required to integrate with power projection assets to move 
forces and sustainment into the operational area.
    This is a capability the Army is investing resources and structure 
in to meet Army and Joint Force requirements and with continued 
Congressional support we will achieve our goals.   [See page 18.]
                                 ______
                                 
               RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. KIM
    Secretary Wormuth. As of April 20, 2023, there are 5,666 children 
(ages 0-5) on the total Army Child Development Center waitlist.   [See 
page 33.]
                                 ______
                                 
             RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. VASQUEZ
    General McConville. Yes, renewable energy projects, when integrated 
into microgrids, help ensure the readiness of military installations. 
Multi-domain operations require Army installations to have secure and 
reliable access to energy to achieve mission objectives. The Army 
energy investments are directed to mitigate the risk of energy supply 
disruptions to critical military facilities--whether caused by extreme 
weather, cyber operations, or kinetic attack. Energy generation from 
renewable sources, like solar photovoltaics, located behind our fence 
line greatly reduces our reliance on the external grid or supply chains 
for fuel that can be stressed in emergency situations. When this onsite 
renewable energy is coupled with energy storage and control 
capabilities, combined into a microgrid, these capabilities can be used 
to create an ``island'' effect--enabling the Army to disconnect from 
the commercial electrical grid and sustain our critical missions during 
an outage.
    Because of their role in critical defense missions and preparing 
and deploying forces, Mission Assurance Installations, Power Projection 
Platforms, and Mobilization Force Generation Installations have 
priority for energy resilience investments such as microgrids. The Army 
has 28 operational microgrids along with 9 under construction, 26 in 
design, and many more in planning. This includes a project at White 
Sands Missile Range, funded through DOD's Energy Resilience and 
Conservation Investment Program and currently under construction, that 
will install a 700kW solar array, generators, and batteries configured 
into a resilient microgrid system to maintain critical water system 
operations in the event of a power outage.   [See page 55.]
                                 ______
                                 
             RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. FINSTAD
    Secretary Wormuth. Over the past decade, Army metrics regarding 
hearing-related injuries continue to improve. Since FY13, hearing-
related injury rates in Soldiers and Department of the Army (DA) 
civilians demonstrated a general decline. The rate of hearing loss 
across all Army Components decreased from 20.5% in FY13 to 16.4% in 
FY21. Hearing loss across the DA civilian population also trended 
downward from 45.4% in FY13 to 43.3% in FY21. While no one program can 
account for the improvement, multiple programs facilitated regular 
opportunities for preventive services.
    This is a result of the comprehensive Army Hearing Program approach 
which seeks to optimize hearing as a key sensor involved in mission 
performance while reducing noise-related injuries. The Army Hearing 
Program is comprised of four key elements.
    First, the Army is focused on hearing readiness. The Army utilizes 
a health readiness surveillance software to track soldiers ensuring 
they have adequate hearing capability. The medical surveillance 
software also ensures soldiers have the required personal protective 
equipment and education to perform their duties.
    Second, the Army provides clinical services. Army audiologists 
ensure those whose surveillance tests are abnormal have further 
evaluation to target the cause and treatment for their loss to maintain 
fitness-for-duty.
    Third, the Army is focused on operational services. The Army 
Hearing Program focuses on detecting and preventing noise exposure at 
the point of injury while enhancing communication in the operational 
space.
    Lastly, the Army is focused on hearing conservation. Specifically, 
targeting DA civilians, hearing conservation is a garrison-based 
prevention service to include monitoring compliance with annual testing 
and ensuring passive hearing protection for noise-exposed DA civilians.
    In addition to the aforementioned lines of effort, the Army remains 
committed to providing our Soldiers with the best equipment available 
to protect our Soldier's hearing. In May 2022, the Army approved a new 
requirement for Tactical Communications--Hearing Protection (TAC-HP). 
TAC-HP will provide Soldiers with improved communications, hearing 
protection and auditory situational awareness capability than current 
systems. The Army is currently in the process of evaluating material 
solutions to meet this requirement.   [See page 54.]

     
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              QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING

                             April 19, 2023

=======================================================================

      

                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. ROGERS

    Mr. Rogers. How does recompeting the LOGCAP Task Orders provide 
value to the government when compared to the cost of multiple years of 
recompetes/protests/transitions knowing this contract will immediately 
transition to LOGCAP 6?
    General McConville. Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) 5 
has seven years of performance remaining before it transitions to 
LOGCAP 6, and the U.S. Government is acting in accordance with the 
approved acquisition strategy which states ``Within five years, task 
order competitions will be conducted to replace the initial competed 
task orders for known performance requirements.'' The LOGCAP 5 base 
contracts fully comply with the Competition in Contracting Act, which 
encourages competition, even within established programs as task orders 
expire. Competition remains a critical tool to achieve the best 
technical approach, solutions, and cost on the LOGCAP requirements. The 
current LOGCAP 5 performance task orders will expire over the next two 
to three years and were already scheduled for a recompete action in 
accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations 6 and 16. The task 
orders competed under LOGCAP 5 since contract award received no 
protests and the associated transitions were completed in under 90 days 
with no impact on Army operations. Additionally, many of the task 
orders under the original contract award now include requirements that 
were added and awarded non-competitively to the incumbent due to 
urgency of need. Conditions and requirements have changed since the 
original contract and task order awards. Recompeting task orders will 
allow the U.S. Government to leverage competition to achieve technical 
advantages and better pricing for the U.S. Government, versus 
negotiating with an incumbent in a sole source environment. It also 
allows the U.S. Government an opportunity to assess and optimize 
contractor performance.
    Mr. Rogers. What value does the Army perceive in a recompete where 
the only competitors are the four LOGCAP incumbents. How does this lead 
to more competition?
    General McConville. There is value in a recompete among the 
Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) prime contractors because 
it allows the Army to leverage known and capable LOGCAP contractors 
globally across the entire contract portfolio in a way that maximizes 
benefit to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government acknowledges that 
execution of LOGCAP 5 recompetes does not lead to more competition 
beyond the prime contractor awardees, however, it does retain a level 
of competition among those awardees that is more beneficial than 
continuation with an incumbent via a sole source award, where the U.S. 
Government's only mechanism to improve performance and better pricing 
is through negotiation with weak leverage. In competitively awarded 
multiple award contract vehicles, as was done with LOGCAP 5, initial 
competition amongst the prime contract holders ensures the U.S. 
Government pays fair, reasonable, and competitive prices for the 
requirements, often seeking or receiving better technical solutions. 
The LOGCAP 5 base contracts were competitively awarded to the strongest 
offerors. Subsequent task order competition amongst these primes on 
requirements provides the U.S. Government an opportunity to select the 
best offeror to perform the required services.
    Mr. Rogers. With theaters engaged is specific Deterrence Operations 
(EUCOM and INDOPACOM) what is the Army's plan to mitigate Operational 
and Strategic risk associated with a major relief in place of large 
Base Operations and Contingency contracts? What input was received from 
the GCC and ASCC Commanders and do they concur with this strategy?
    General McConville. The Army Service Component Commands (ASCCs) in 
these two theaters establish requirements, for the Geographic Combatant 
Commands (GCCs), for base operations and contingency contracts for any 
given fiscal year. In the case that a ``major relief in place'' were to 
occur during a given year of execution, the Army provides support, 
through the respective ASCC, to the GCC to assure no interruption in 
the respective contracts occur during a transition period. GCCs and the 
ASCCs provide the Army with their Campaign Plans and Posture Plans 
annually to address potential risks. For a known transition that 
requires balancing risk with changes in operational contracting 
support, our ASCCs represent the Army to the GCC in identifying the 
requirement, then managing the eventual execution of the contract. With 
a ``relief in place'' there will be a transition period that may 
generate friction or disruption in services, however, we mitigate this 
risk through deliberate planning by the ASCC up to the Army Staff 
ensuring that there is a clear articulation of requirement linked to 
the service provided through the contract vehicle.
    Mr. Rogers. How does recompeting the LOGCAP Task Orders provide 
value to the government when compared to the cost of multiple years of 
recompetes/protests/transitions knowing this contract will immediately 
transition to LOGCAP 6?
    Secretary Wormuth. Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) 5 
has seven years of performance remaining before it transitions to 
LOGCAP 6, and the U.S. Government is acting in accordance with the 
approved acquisition strategy which states ``Within five years, task 
order competitions will be conducted to replace the initial competed 
task orders for known performance requirements.'' The LOGCAP 5 base 
contracts fully comply with the Competition in Contracting Act, which 
encourages competition, even within established programs as task orders 
expire. Competition remains a critical tool to achieve the best 
technical approach, solutions, and cost on the LOGCAP requirements. The 
current LOGCAP 5 performance task orders will expire over the next two 
to three years and were already scheduled for a recompete action in 
accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations 6 and 16. The task 
orders competed under LOGCAP 5 since contract award received no 
protests and the associated transitions were completed in under 90 days 
with no impact on Army operations. Additionally, many of the task 
orders under the original contract award now include requirements that 
were added and awarded non-competitively to the incumbent due to 
urgency of need. Conditions and requirements have changed since the 
original contract and task order awards. Recompeting task orders will 
allow the U.S. Government to leverage competition to achieve technical 
advantages and better pricing for the U.S. Government, versus 
negotiating with an incumbent in a sole source environment. It also 
allows the U.S. Government an opportunity to assess and optimize 
contractor performance.
    Mr. Rogers. What value does the Army perceive in a recompete where 
the only competitors are the four LOGCAP incumbents. How does this lead 
to more competition?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army perceives value in a recompete among 
the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) prime contractors 
because it allows the Army to leverage known and capable LOGCAP 
contractors globally across the entire contract portfolio in a way that 
maximizes benefit to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government 
acknowledges that execution of LOGCAP 5 recompetes does not lead to 
more external competition, however, it does retain a level of 
competition that is more beneficial than continuation with an incumbent 
via a sole source award, where the U.S. Government's only mechanism to 
improve performance and better pricing is through negotiation with weak 
leverage. In competitively awarded multiple award contract vehicles, 
competition amongst the prime contract holders ensures the U.S. 
Government pays fair, reasonable, and competitive prices for the 
requirements, often seeking or receiving better technical solutions. 
The LOGCAP 5 base contracts were competitively awarded to the strongest 
offerors. Additional competition amongst these primes on requirements, 
some of which have subsequently been awarded sole source, provides the 
U.S. Government an opportunity to select the best offeror to perform 
the required services.
    Mr. Rogers. With theaters engaged is specific Deterrence Operations 
(EUCOM and INDOPACOM) what is the Army's plan to mitigate Operational 
and Strategic risk associated with a major relief in place of large 
Base Operations and Contingency contracts? What input was received from 
the GCC and ASCC Commanders and do they concur with this strategy?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army Service Component Commands (ASCCs) in 
these two theaters establish requirements, for the Geographic Combatant 
Commands (GCCs), for base operations and contingency contracts for any 
given fiscal year. In the case that a ``major relief in place'' were to 
occur during a given year of execution, the Army provides support, 
through the respective ASCC, to the GCC to assure no interruption in 
the respective contracts occur during a transition period. GCCs and the 
ASCCs provide the Army with their Campaign Plans and Posture Plans 
annually to address potential risks. For a known transition that 
requires balancing risk with changes in operational contracting 
support, our ASCCs represent the Army to the GCC in identifying the 
requirement, then managing the eventual execution of the contract. With 
a ``relief in place'' there will be a transition period that may 
generate friction or disruption in services, however, we mitigate this 
risk through deliberate planning by the ASCC up to the Army Staff 
ensuring that there is a clear articulation of requirement linked to 
the service provided through the contract vehicle.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. TURNER
    Mr. Turner. Ms. Wormuth: In February 2022 Russia launched its 
illegal invasion of Ukraine with the full strength of its military 
forces. In the wake of this attack, the U.S. and its allies were 
reminded that the right time to prepare to counter aggression is before 
it occurs. The U.S. and its allies have effectively supported Ukraine 
with aid, however, this aid has highlighted the need for a defense 
industrial base (DIB) with the capacity and capability to deliver 
critical and state-of-the-art munitions and equipment in quantities 
sufficient to maintain our stockpiles and supplement our allies' and 
partners' requirements. Given that the U.S. government is the sole 
producer and customer for many critical weapons and materiel end-items, 
the DIB is particularly sensitive to congressional decisions. One 
example of a critical end-item produced by our DIB is the Abrams Main 
Battle Tank. When Congress and the Department don't provide enough 
certainty to industry, it disincentivizes suppliers and producers 
participation in the market, driving up costs and restricting 
production capacity. What is the Department doing to facilitate 
suppliers' participation in the DIB supply and production chain for 
Abrams tanks, and what can Congress do to better facilitate increased 
production?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army continues to pursue organic industrial 
base investments in locations like the Joint Systems Manufacturing 
Center (JSMC) in Lima, Ohio; Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois; and 
Watervliet Arsenal, New York to ensure its ability to meet forecasted 
demand for Abrams tank production. Continuous, consistent, and accurate 
projected demand is critical to suppliers and producers' participation 
in the market and their ability to appropriately plan and facilitate. 
The Army regularly shares its demand projections for domestic and 
Foreign Military Sales (FMS) tank requirements with industry to support 
their planning and investment strategies. Continued support from 
Congress for Abrams tank production requirements and rapid approval of 
FMS requests is the most effective method to ensure consistent and 
reliable demand signals. Reducing fragility in the domestic supply and 
production base may also be achieved with further use of Defense 
Production Act Title III resourcing specific to the tank industrial 
base and focused on reducing risk associated with long-lead materials 
such as wiring harnesses, connectors, titanium plate, castings, and 
forgings.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WITTMAN
    Mr. Wittman. You stated in response to Mr. Kelly's line of 
questioning that USAR and Guard units ``will get the equipment they 
need to do the job.'' With that in mind, on average USAR receives only 
1.8% of the total Army procurement budget, yet personnel wise makes up 
for 18% of the total Army force. USAR units in Virginia currently have 
a budget shortfall of over $280 million, including $34 million for 
HMMWV modernization efforts for vehicles beyond their service life that 
pose serious safety concerns. For a force with an already small budget 
in comparison to that of the active force, and one that must be 
prepared to respond to threats and emergencies both domestically and 
abroad, what steps will you take to ensure that USAR and Guard units 
receive full funding for necessary modernizations?
    General McConville. Current Equipment on Hand (EoH) rating for U.S. 
Army Reserves (USAR), Army National Guard (ARNG), and Active Component 
(AC) are all at 95%. This is an improvement of 22% for USAR and 21% for 
ARNG since 2002 and reflects a substantial investment in our Total 
Army. Critical Dual Use (CDU) EoH levels are also high for both Reserve 
Components (CDU is equipment used for both military and domestic 
purposes): USAR--96%, ARNG--95%, AC--97%.
    Our approach to modernization prioritization is the Regionally 
Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM). ReARMM seeks to 
align units and modernization levels against regional priorities and 
wartime commitments over time. This approach will drive how we 
prioritize and synchronize equipment fielding across the Army to match 
modernization levels against requirements regardless of component. 
Modernization will occur for units during ReARMM modernization windows 
for all components through new procurement, and equipment cascade, 
depending on unit priority and availability. We are committed to 
ensuring that formations across the Total Army remain interoperable, 
deployable, and sustainable regardless of component or modernization 
level.
                                 ______
                                 
                    QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. SCOTT
    Mr. Scott. The Russian-Ukraine war has shown that military forces 
must be prepared to conduct both offense and defense in major cities. 
What changes, resources allocation, change in priorities still have to 
be made by the U.S. Army to ensure the U.S. Army is ready for large 
scale combat operations in dense urban areas?
    General McConville. The Army must continue its modernization 
program to meet the requirements necessary to sustain the force in 
urban combat. Long-range precision fires, next-generation combat 
vehicle, future vertical lift, air and missile defense, network and 
Soldier lethality all inform how the Army approaches large scale combat 
operations in dense urban areas. Modernization programs like the 
Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle will provide greater survivability, 
reliability, and fire support while the Unified Network program will 
provide resilient communications and an integrated tactical network to 
support Soldiers conducting urban operations. These modernization 
programs are supported through our FY24 Budget Request.
    Mr. Scott. Should the U.S. Army be DOD's executive agent for urban 
operations?
    General McConville. Urban operations in Kyiv, Mariupol, and other 
Ukrainian urban centers demonstrate the reality of future combat in 
cities. The Army brings extensive urban warfare experience from 
operations in Baghdad during the early years of the Global War on 
Terror and, more recently, from the Afghanistan evacuation at Kabul 
International Airport, with troops deployed from the 82nd Airborne 
Division, the 10th Mountain Division, and the Minnesota National Guard. 
As the Army continues its transition to multi-domain operations, 
ground-based capabilities including armor units, missile defense, and 
logistics will be strategic imperatives for urban combat benefiting 
from the Army's experienced leadership.
    Mr. Scott. What is the U.S. Army doing to collect the lessons of 
the Russian-Ukraine War?
    General McConville. As Russia's war in Ukraine continues into its 
second year, the Army is continually examining the war to garner 
lessons learned. The Army is actively synthesizing observations from 
the Center for Army Lessons Learned at the Combined Armed Center, U.S. 
Army Europe and Africa, and the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine to 
inform our strategic thinking. The Army is also examining lessons and 
observations from allies and partners, such as the United Kingdom and 
other NATO members, to ensure the Army is inspecting the conflict from 
multiple perspectives. The Army is also partnered with the RAND 
Corporation in producing a study, The Russo-Ukrainian War: Lessons for 
Army 2030 with an anticipated completion in Summer 2023.
    Mr. Scott. Majors Alec Rice and Elliot Pernula wrote a February 22, 
2023 article for the Modern War Institute entitled, ``The Army 
Eliminated the Coast Artillery Corps in 1950--It's Time to Bring It 
Back.'' Do you support recreating the Coast Artillery Corps?
    General McConville. The Army is focusing on modernization of the 
Field Artillery branch to align with the Joint Warfighting Concept and 
the Army's Multi Domain Operations concept. The centerpiece of this 
modernization is Long Range Fires Battalions that are part of the 
Multi-Domain Task Force. This is a perfect example of combining 
existing weapon systems with new ones to create a dynamic offensive 
capability to challenge our adversaries around the world. Advancements 
in U.S. artillery fire support systems and munitions provide the Joint 
Force the capability to engage maritime targets in the near future. 
These new units will be trained, manned, and supported by Field 
Artillery Soldiers. The Army has also invested in modernization of the 
M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to fire the Precision Strike 
Missile family of rockets which will include the capability to engage 
maritime targets.
    Mr. Scott. What plans, if any, does the U.S. Army have to expand 
its officer education to include instruction on coastal geography, 
pathways, chokepoints, and the law of the sea?
    General McConville. Upon the publication of Field Manual (FM) 3-0, 
Operations, in October 2022, the United States Army evolved its 
operational concept from Unified Land Operations to Multidomain 
Operations. This shift has changed the focus of warfighting for Army 
forces from primarily conducting operations from the land and air, and 
extending these operations into the maritime, space, and cyberspace 
domains. Today, this concept of ``multidomain operations'' requires the 
``integration of Army and joint capabilities from all domains to defeat 
the enemy's integrated fires complexes and air defense systems so that 
maneuver forces can exploit the resulting freedom of action'' (FM 3-0, 
page ix).
    In addition, Defense Secretary Austin has characterized our 
``pacing challenge'' as the People's Republic of China, which has 
resulted in adjusted scenarios for officer education in the INDOPACOM 
theater, which has a greater emphasis on maritime operations in line 
with our FM 3-0 capstone doctrine.
    As a result, there will be a greater emphasis on maritime issues in 
professional military education in the U.S. Army to address concerns 
such as coastal geography, pathways, chokepoints, and the law of the 
sea. The depth of this emphasis will, of course, depend greatly upon 
where the specific education program falls within the progressive and 
sequential education continuum for graduates; the more senior the 
student body, the greater the emphasis will be. In addition to 
professional military education, the Army's exercise programs will also 
continue to have a greater emphasis on integrating maritime matters as 
the multidomain operations concept matures.
    Mr. Scott. Will Army aviation be ready to play a key role in 
casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) during large-scale combat operations 
(LSCO)?
    General McConville. Army Aviation utility aircraft will be ready to 
assist in the role of Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) during large scale 
combat operations (LSCO), as they have for over 50 years. The role of 
Army Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) aircraft will continue to provide 
first class medical services to our soldiers in LSCO and MEDEVAC 
operations will be tailored to the specific requirements of that 
environment.
    A LSCO environment is typically defined by integrated air defense 
systems capable of denying access and airspace to our aircraft. We may 
not be able to count on air dominance like we have over the past 20-
plus years of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations in the 
Middle East and Afghanistan. MEDEVAC aircraft will still provide the 
primary role in evacuating and moving our injured across the 
battlefield, but their ability to access the most forward areas will be 
challenged. New tactics, techniques, and procedures are being developed 
to ensure MEDEVAC aircraft are able to safely operate in a LSCO 
environment. Upgrades to our existing MEDEVAC fleet and fielding new 
aircraft such as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft will increase 
the speed and range of aircraft to enable faster response times and 
enable a wider range of operations.
    Mr. Scott. Shopuld all future systems include provisions for 
casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) from requirements determination through 
development? Will incorporating CASEVAC provisions during the 
acquisition process reduce post-production modifications?
    General McConville. In large-scale combat operations (LSCO), 
CASEVAC becomes paramount when ground and aeromedical evacuation 
ambulances capabilities (MEDEVAC capabilities) are exceeded. In today's 
modern multi-domain environment, the high lethality and casualty rates 
make CASEVAC a necessary part of any operation. Army formations will 
use whatever transportation assets (ground, air, and maritime) 
available to accomplish CASEVAC whether or not those assets are 
provisioned for CASEVAC. Army formations have unit Tactics, Techniques, 
and Procedures for medics, combat lifesavers, and buddy aid to render 
aid to Soldiers undergoing CASEVAC. Therefore, there is no need to 
include provisions for CASEVAC in every vehicle's requirements/
development. The Army intends to include requirements for CASEVAC kits 
in select platforms that are likely to see heavy use in CASEVAC 
situations (for example, cargo trucks and cargo aircraft). If the Army 
anticipates which platforms will be heavily used in CASEVAC situations 
correctly, and includes CASEVAC requirements for those platforms early 
in their development, there will be less likelihood of needing to 
modify those platforms after they have begun production in order to 
make them CASEVAC-capable.
    Mr. Scott. What can be done to enhance the stateside mission of the 
U.S. Army Reserve's air ambulance companies?
    General McConville. The United States Army Reserve (USAR) Air 
Ambulance companies are among the best trained and equipped air 
ambulance units in the country and stand ready to accomplish any 
assigned mission. Units require predictable and necessary resources to 
allow for continued training in order to maintain this capability. 
Modern facilities would allow units to optimize readiness and be ready 
for future fleet modernization. Stateside response can be performed by 
USAR Air Ambulance companies with the right resources and authorities.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. BERGMAN
    Mr. Bergman. My question pertains to the Army's Next Generation 
Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. I was concerned to read a recent article 
published in Army Times in February, which highlighted issues with the 
weapons' reliability, performance, and sourcing. Considering these and 
other previously raised concerns, I am concerned that the Army's 
acquisition strategy for this program may be unduly risky. I noted that 
the FY24 budget request includes funding to procure nearly 20,000 
rifles, a substantial purchase, especially if there are unresolved 
issues with the program. Can you please provide me with a status report 
on the program, including a list of identified issues and any plans to 
address them? I am particularly interested in whether the weapon 
systems currently meet the range, lethality, and toxicity requirements 
established at the outset of the program.
    General McConville. The Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) 
(Rifle, Automatic Rifle, Fire Control, and 6.8mm Ammunition) currently 
meets all Range, Lethality, and Toxicity requirements. Since the 
program's contract award for Low-Rate Initial Production, the Army has 
continued to monitor three primary residual risk watch-items captured 
from its prototype phase testing. The watch-items were Dispersion, 
Reliability, and Toxic Fumes. In 1QFY23, the vendor, Sig Sauer, with 
government oversight, conducted multiple technical test events and 
Soldier touchpoints. Vendor test results demonstrated that NGSW is 
meeting or exceeding all Dispersion, Reliability, and Toxic Fumes 
threshold requirements. The Army is currently executing government 
Production Qualification Testing (PQT) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, 
Maryland to validate NGSW performance against all requirements. PQT 
results will be briefed to the Army Acquisition Executive in 3QFY23 and 
will inform an Army decision to enter Full Rate Production in FY24.
    Mr. Bergman. The Aircraft Cleaning and Deicing System (ACDS) has 
been a requirement since the 1990s, yet it remains unaddressed. Prior 
budget documents show that the ACDS demonstration had been continuously 
pushed further and further into out-years. Therefore, the House Armed 
Services Committee included a provision on ``Accelerating aircraft 
cleaning and deicing systems for rotary-wing aircraft'' in the National 
Defense Authorization Act for FY2021 (H. Rept. 116-442) with the 
intention of seeing the Army move forward on corrosion prevention 
efforts to keep our assets flying. The Army's response acknowledged 
AMCOM/PEO Aviation will evaluate Commercial, Off-The-Shelf (COTS) 
systems and specified the Army was planning to move forward with the 
ACDS in Q1 FY24. FY23 Budget Justification documents confirmed the ACDS 
starting in Q1 FY24. However, the FY24 Budget Justification documents 
once again show the ACDS is being pushed out to FY27.
    Please provide justification for the delay of this program--
including details on how the Army is currently meeting rinse and wash 
requirements for rotary-wing aircraft as outlined in Operational 
Requirements Document #05033?
    What are the rinse and wash requirements you follow when aircrafts 
are flown over dirt, sand, salt, or if parked in such conditions?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army possesses aircraft rinse and wash 
systems that allow units to meet mandated wash/rinse requirements 
following aircraft flights into dirt, sand, salt, or other 
environmental conditions. The Army continues to explore options to 
obtain improved and/or modernized wash and rinse systems and evaluates 
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment when making such decisions.
    Delays in decisions to purchase and field new Army aircraft wash 
and rinse systems are due to the time required to test and validate 
equipment and overall prioritization of Army aviation modernization 
efforts. Prior to procurement of a COTS item, the Army must conduct a 
competitive selection process followed by a series of rigorous tests to 
ensure the equipment will meet operational, sustainment, and logistic 
requirements. This testing takes two years to complete. Once Army 
testing validates that requirements are met, the Army makes a 
procurement decision and begins fielding new equipment.
    Aviation units currently utilize a variety of fixed base and 
portable rinsing systems to meet directed rinse and wash requirements 
rotary-wing aircraft and the requirements vary depending on the 
environment. Using the AH-64 Apache helicopter as an example, wash and 
rinse requirements are as follows: in an extremely severe tropics/
saltwater environment, aircraft is rinsed daily, washed every seven 
days, and inspected for corrosion every seven days. In a severe coastal 
environment, aircraft is rinsed every 7 days, washed every 14 days, and 
inspected for corrosion every 30 days. In a moderate or intermediate 
environment, aircraft is rinsed every 14 days, washed every 30 days, 
and inspected for corrosion every 60 days. In a slight desert 
environment, aircraft is rinsed every 14 days, washed every 30 days, 
and inspected for corrosion every 90 days. When the area of operation 
is more adverse than the technical manual guidance, the maintenance 
officers can follow Technical Manual 1-1500-328-23, 2-2 Scheduled 
Inspection guidance.
    ``The Commander may authorize temporary exception to maintenance 
actions when an aviation system or aviation-associated equipment is 
subjected to unusual situations, such as, combat operations, matter of 
life or death in civil disasters, adverse environmental or weather 
conditions, the mission type, periods of extended inactivity, or when 
flight crew and/or maintenance personnel experience level overrides the 
consequences of continued operation. The Maintenance Officer is 
responsible for the scope and frequency of all maintenance inspections 
and actions.''
    Mr. Bergman. The Army's response to Congress stated ACDS was 
``budgeted to procure 170 systems through FY27'' with a projected spend 
plan of $3.2M RDTE and $15.2M APA funding through FY27. Where are the 
budgeted funds being shifted? As I understand, multiple COTS systems 
currently exist to address such corrosion prevention and control 
issues.
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army's top priority in the Aviation Ground 
Support Equipment portfolio is the procurement of the Aviation Ground 
Power Unit (AGPU) 1.1. The AGPU 1.1 replaces the legacy AGPU which is 
well past its economic useful life.
    Mr. Bergman. If there are COTS solutions ready now, why is the Army 
again delaying this program?
    Secretary Wormuth. Prior to procurement of a COTS item, the Army 
must conduct a competitive selection process followed by a series of 
rigorous tests to ensure the equipment will meet Army operational, 
sustainment, and logistic requirements. This testing takes two years to 
complete. Once requirements are met, the Army begins procurement.
    Mr. Bergman. If funding resources are the challenge, is $3.2 
million in RDTE funding needed to verify that a COTS product can meet 
the Army's requirements? Why not utilize those funds for system 
procurement?
    Secretary Wormuth. In order to complete selection testing, the Army 
requires two years of RDTE funds prior to begin procurement. Thorough 
testing is required to ensure the system can meet Army requirements and 
operate in extreme environments and combat or there is risk of spending 
money to acquire systems that do not perform or hold up to their stated 
capabilities.
    Mr. Bergman. My question pertains to the Army's Next Generation 
Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. I was concerned to read a recent article 
published in Army Times in February, which highlighted issues with the 
weapons' reliability, performance, and sourcing. Considering these and 
other previously raised concerns, I am concerned that the Army's 
acquisition strategy for this program may be unduly risky. I noted that 
the FY24 budget request includes funding to procure nearly 20,000 
rifles, a substantial purchase, especially if there are unresolved 
issues with the program. Can you please provide me with a status report 
on the program, including a list of identified issues and any plans to 
address them? I am particularly interested in whether the weapon 
systems currently meet the range, lethality, and toxicity requirements 
established at the outset of the program.
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) 
(Rifle, Automatic Rifle, Fire Control, and 6.8mm Ammunition) currently 
meets all Range, Lethality, and Toxicity requirements. Since the 
program's contract award for Low-Rate Initial Production, the Army has 
continued to monitor three primary residual risk watch-items captured 
from its prototype phase testing. The watch-items were Dispersion, 
Reliability, and Toxic Fumes. In 1QFY23, the vendor, Sig Sauer, with 
government oversight, conducted multiple technical test events and 
Soldier touchpoints. Vendor test results demonstrated that NGSW is 
meeting or exceeding all Dispersion, Reliability, and Toxic Fumes 
threshold requirements. The Army is currently executing government 
Production Qualification Testing (PQT) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, 
Maryland to validate NGSW performance against all requirements. PQT 
results will be briefed to the Army Acquisition Executive in 3QFY23 and 
will inform an Army decision to enter Full Rate Production in FY24.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. GOLDEN
    Mr. Golden. The Army Climate Strategy released in February 2022 
calls on the Department to simultaneously modernize its infrastructure 
and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
    Line of effort #2, Intermediate Objective 2.8 specifically adopts a 
buy clean policy for procurement of construction materials with lower 
embodied carbon emissions and states that ``it is time to ask Army 
suppliers to further reduce both embodied emissions and the impact that 
supply chain activities have on the climate.''
    Mass timber is a uniquely sustainable construction option and 50% 
of its dry weight is carbon actively sequestered from the environment. 
Mass Timber systems exceed ATFP (Anti-terrorism Force Protection) 
requirements and installation resiliency specifications related to 
seismic activity, lateral wind, and fire performance. And as the Army 
itself saw with five privatized hotels, mass timber buildings 
consistently go up almost 40% faster, with fewer labor requirements, 
and drastically less on-site construction traffic.
    Despite its sustainable attributes, however, mass timber has often 
faced difficulty in competing against more traditional MILCON 
construction materials.
    Given the Army's stated goal related to sustainable construction 
materials, are there ways in which the Army can more fairly advance 
sustainable building materials, including mass timber, to fairly 
compete for MILCON projects? Is the Army working to create shelf ready 
designs based on mass timber the same way it has them for other UFC-
certified materials? If not, how can the Army resist the inertia within 
the MILCON design process?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army is committed to the employment of 
sustainable building materials in military facility design and 
construction. The Army is currently pursuing two sustainable building 
material pilot projects, a FY24 barracks project at Joint Base Lewis-
McChord (JBLM), which is evaluating low carbon concrete and other 
sustainable primary materials, and a FY25 barracks project at JBLM to 
be built using Mass Timber as a primary construction material. The 
results of the pilot program will provide data on carbon footprint, 
life cycle costs, resilience to extreme weather events, impact on 
construction timeliness, cost effectiveness of military construction, 
and will inform the applicability of sustainable building materials on 
future planning and design for military construction projects.
    In accordance with Army policy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
(USACE) uses Army standards for the most widely constructed Army 
facility types. These standards are not based on specific systems or 
materials, but provide uniform functional and mission requirements. 
Many facility types also have standard designs that feature specific 
materials and systems. Project teams have the flexibility to select 
materials that provide the best-value to the government, based on a 
variety of factors, such as site conditions, force protection, 
resilience to weather, durability, esthetics, life-cycle cost, 
construction timelines, and geographic availability. Life-cycle cost 
effectiveness is required per the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 
109-58).
    The information and experience developed in the pilot project will 
be incorporated into the USACE standard designs as new military design 
and construction projects are authorized.
                                 ______
                                 
                    QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WALTZ
    Mr. Waltz. How do JROTC programs positively affect recruiting? Do 
your recruiters face any obstacles, either statutorily or from school 
districts to accessing high schools?
    General McConville. The mission of Junior Reserve Officers' 
Training Corps (JROTC) is to assist high schools in motivating students 
to be better citizens. The Army's JROTC program is an overwhelmingly 
positive youth citizenship program supporting more than 272,000 cadets 
at more than 1,700 high schools across the nation. JROTC's presence in 
high schools in areas that lack a military presence helps connect those 
communities with our Armed Forces. Across all programs, JROTC cadets 
have higher attendance, graduation rates, and Grade Point Averages than 
their peers, who do not participate in the program. While JROTC is not 
a recruiting program, approximately 44% of Army enlistees came from a 
high school with a DOD JROTC program. Within statute, recruiters 
maintain access to high schools and the Army routinely works with the 
Office of the Secretary of Defense to ensure the execution of that 
program.
    Mr. Waltz. The FY23 NDAA required you to establish gender-neutral 
physical readiness standards to ensure soldiers can perform the duties 
of their occupational specialty within 180 days of enactment. Is the 
Army on track to meet this deadline?
    Secretary Wormuth. The FY23 NDAA provision directed the Army to 
establish gender-neutral physical readiness standards that ensure 
soldiers can perform the duties of their respective military 
occupational specialties. The Army has developed gender-neutral 
physical readiness standards for each military occupational specialty 
and they are documented in the Department of the Army Pamphlet (DA PAM) 
611-21. The Army is prepared to brief these standards to Congress by 
June 21st, 2023, as required by the FY23 NDAA.
    The Army implemented the ACFT in October 2022 to strengthen the 
Army's fitness culture while ensuring fairness in the transition to a 
new fitness test of record. The ACFT, which is performance-normed by 
gender and age groups, is based on feedback from soldiers, an 
independent RAND study required by Congress, review of nearly 630,000 
ACFT scores, and over three years of ongoing analysis.
    The ACFT became a test of record for the Regular Army and Active 
Guard Reserve on October 1, 2022 and for the National Guard and Reserve 
on April 1, 2023, just weeks ago. The Army is now collecting ACFT test 
results for the Active Component and is evaluating the current ACFT 
implementation. As the Army committed to Congress last year, we will 
use the ACFT governance board to help the Army evaluate potential 
changes to the test. Before considering potential changes to the test, 
the Army will want to analyze the scores for all three Army Components.
                                 ______
                                 
                   QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. FALLON
    Mr. Fallon. Refn: Army's HMMWV Antilock Brake System/Electronic 
Stability Control (ABS/ESC) program
    In the hearing, you stated the capacity to retrofit HMMWVs with 
ABS/ESC technology had expanded beyond the ability of Red River Army 
Depot to conduct the work causing new sites to be brought on. This is 
false. Red River developed a fly-away capacity to expand the reach and 
speed of the program. That is the alternative site you referenced. What 
are you doing to expand the throughput of this program beyond 700 
vehicles per month at Red River Army Depot to the 1000 vehicles per 
month that Red River Army Depot and the supplier are capable of 
meeting?
    Secretary Wormuth. Current capacity to retrofit HMMWVs at Red River 
Army Depot (RRAD) is 130 per month on one shift given available parts 
and assets to retrofit. RRAD is capable of increasing capacity by 
establishing a second shift that would allow for production of 260 per 
month given available parts and assets to retrofit.
    Because of the RRAD capacity constraints on site, RRAD has expanded 
10 active regional retrofit Continental United States sites operated by 
RRAD employees. These sites have completed 4,420 retrofits to date. 
Each site's current capacity on one shift is 70 per month. Capacity at 
RRAD regional sites could also be increased by establishing a second 
shift. Production could be increased to 140 per month per site given 
available parts and assets to retrofit (total of 1400 per month).
    Establishing second shifts would take approximately 60 days to hire 
and train additional direct labor staff to execute the increased 
workload.
    Limiting factors to acceleration are primarily centered on 
additional labor funding associated with increased production 
quantities and the availability of additional Retrofit Kits and assets 
(unretrofitted HMMWVs) to support the increase in production volume. 
There are also additional costs and time associated with increasing 
throughput and shipping vehicles to RRAD as opposed to the dispersed 
retrofit sites.
    Mr. Fallon. Refn: Army's HMMWV Antilock Brake System/Electronic 
Stability Control (ABS/ESC) program
    How do you justify the fact that Congress has allocated more than 
$300M to this specific program for the retrofit of HMMWVs, yet you have 
failed to execute this funding in a timely manner?
    Secretary Wormuth. The HMMWV Antilock Brake System/Electronic 
Stability Control (ABS/ECS) program has reached the contract ceiling 
and is currently in the evaluation/audit of the follow-on contract.
    The Army's current plan to execute the funding can be broken down 
into two parts--funding for the hardware, and funding to support 
installation operations at Red River Army Depot (RRAD).
    For the hardware, $57.9M of FY23 funds will be obligated to procure 
6,530 Retrofit Kits in 4QFY23. Based on the Congressional Adds in 2022 
and 2023, the Army's reached its current contract ceiling. In order to 
exceed the ceiling, a Justification and Approval was approved at the 
end of November to support FY23 and future year's needs. As a result of 
the potential high dollar value of this action ($425M), the Government 
is currently executing an evaluation and audit of the proposed pricing 
with a forecasted scheduled award in 4Q23. The Government is also 
assessing accelerating parts of the award to ensure sustained 
production and installation. The contract mechanism will allow for 
immediate kit procurements funded in FY24 and beyond.
    For installation funding, $10.874M will be obligated to RRAD during 
3QFY23 to begin OCONUS retrofit installation operations. An additional 
$33.839M will be obligated to RRAD in 1QFY24 for retrofit installations 
occurring in FY24. This, combined with the previous obligations, will 
exceed execution goals.
    Mr. Fallon. Refn: Army's HMMWV Antilock Brake System/Electronic 
Stability Control (ABS/ESC) program
    Individuals with the Department of Defense and the Department of 
the Army have suggested there is an issue that the supplier of these 
kits is not on contract yet, forcing low-rate production. This 
``contracting issue'' is a farce, and it is threatening soldiers' 
lives. You can solve this issue today. How do you plan to transition 
these contracts to longer-term vehicles in order to execute the money 
Congress has already appropriated and that will come in Fiscal Year 
`24?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army anticipates funding to be obligated 
with the 4th Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 extension. The contract extension 
should provide the needed scope and time to procure all remaining kit. 
Based on coordination with the supplier, the Army is comfortable they 
have the needed capacity to produce the necessary kits and the Army is 
sharing quantity and schedule goals for forecasting.
    Mr. Fallon. Refn: Army's HMMWV Antilock Brake System/Electronic 
Stability Control (ABS/ESC) program
    Are you aware of special interests inside of the Pentagon that 
prefer the purchase of new HMMWVs over the retrofit eligible 48,000 
HMMWVs? How can you justify this when retrofit amounts to an $8 billion 
cost savings?
    Secretary Wormuth. No, the Army is not aware of any special 
interest groups. The Army has a three-pronged approach to Anti-lock 
Brakes System (ABS)/Electronic Stability Control (ESC) capability in 
the light tactical wheeled vehicle fleet. First, the Army recognizes 
the importance of retrofitting HMMWVs with ABS/ESC kits and fully 
supports that effort. The Army also appreciates Congressional support 
for ABS/ESC procurement. Second, the Army is also procuring a small 
quantity of new HMMWVs that are needed due to obsolescence issues with 
some of our older vehicles. Newly procured HMMWVs that are equipped 
with ABS/ESC will also address shortfalls in the HMMWV fleet of 
selected armored variants. The anticipated cost of these new HMMWVs is 
approximately $1.9 billion. Third, new JLTV procurement will further 
advance the Army's commitment to the safety and security of our 
soldiers as we intend to replace about half of our existing HMMWV fleet 
with the JLTV. All JLTVs are equipped with ABS/ESC.
                                 ______
                                 
                    QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. MACE
    Ms. Mace. Secretary Wormuth, The SPRIRC report proposes many great 
recommendations such as expanding the pool of behavioral healthcare 
provider candidates, improving aspects of the work-life balance, 
housing, childcare, and reenlistment options, and improving workforce 
shortages across the DOD. Which of these recommendations is the 
Department of the Army planning on implementing?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army is committed to enhancing its suicide 
prevention and response efforts and subsequent implementation of DOD-
approved recommendations. The Army actively participated in a DOD 
working group to lay out the roadmap for implementing the approved 
recommendations. DOD will publish the approved recommendations by June 
2, 2023.
    Following the release of the Suicide Prevention and Response 
Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) report the Secretary of Defense 
approved several immediate actions to improve suicide prevention. One 
of those actions is for Commanders at all levels to promote mission 
readiness through healthy sleep throughout the force. Research has 
shown that service members who report sleep disruption are three times 
more likely to report suicidal ideations. To expedite this immediate 
action, the Army has used existing capabilities such as the Holistic 
Health and Fitness (H2F) program informed by research from the Walter 
Reed Army Institute of Research's Sleep Research Center.
    Additionally, the Army is in the process of fielding modernized 
Suicide Prevention training curricula at all echelons which equips 
Commanders with tools to impart knowledge and skills through modular 
means in accordance with the SPRIRC's recommendations for frequency, 
intensity, and duration of education delivery.
    Of utmost importance to these efforts is ensuring that soldiers 
know they have resources available to them and are a part of a cohesive 
team that will support them and ensure access to those resources within 
their respective units/installations. Two installations that are 
leading important initiatives include Fort Drum and Fort Bragg.
        1.  Fort Drum: ``Keys to Connections'' is a spiritual readiness 
        initiative led by Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division 
        Chaplain Section and Religious Support Team. The program 
        focuses on the initial welcome and orientation soldiers receive 
        upon arrival at Fort Drum. During the 90-minute sessions, 
        soldiers are welcomed to Fort Drum as a valued member of the 
        team. Understanding that the time in an assignment can pass 
        quickly, the aim of these sessions is to assist soldiers in 
        reflecting about their goals while at Fort Drum, what a 
        successful assignment would look like, and identify potential 
        obstacles. The event features a resource fair to aid in 
        connection with support agencies and other resources. There has 
        been substantial positive feedback from soldiers surrounding 
        this event. The Army intends to continue to promote the idea 
        that proactive outreach, communication during critical times of 
        transition, and promoting access to resources in multiple 
        venues has an immediate impact.
        2.  Fort Bragg: The installation is currently running a pilot 
        program to reduce the number of suicides after a soldier is 
        released from in-patient psychiatric care. This pilot program 
        includes on-going risk assessment, communication with command, 
        follow-up out-patient care, restriction of lethal means, and 
        electronic-profile recommendations. Since implementation, Fort 
        Bragg has had zero deaths by suicide from soldiers recently 
        discharged. This pilot is expanding to Hawaii.
    Suicide is the result of complex and interrelated factors that 
drives the Army to take a comprehensive approach that includes 
awareness, research, and a combination of clinical/non-clinical 
initiatives to address suicide, protective factors to help safeguard 
our soldiers, and the high-risk behaviors undermining trust across our 
Force. Across the Army, there is a shift from responding to harmful 
events to an integrated primary prevention model. This approach also 
stresses the importance of continued investment in upstream prevention 
efforts like quality-of-life initiatives and efforts. Those include 
improved barracks, enhanced morale, welfare and recreation programs and 
facilities, development of financial literacy courses, expansion of 
spouse career and employment opportunities, access to quality health 
care and relationship and team building to help soldiers and families 
thrive and navigate the challenges they might face in Army life.
    Ms. Mace. Secretary Wormuth, As certain medications and drugs 
become more legal across the country and still illegal federally, has 
there been a revaluations of MEPS (Military Entrance Processing 
Stations) drugs testing and acceptance? What about children of military 
families who may have had some sort of behavioral health treatment when 
they were younger, possibly even as a result of their parents' military 
service, who are now ineligible for service themselves?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army's current drug and alcohol testing 
regulation is aligned with the DOD policy on Drug and Alcohol Testing 
(DAT) at a MEPS. However, we are constantly evaluating the Army's 
policies concerning previous drug used and the wavier process 
pertaining to these issues.
    Any applicant, regardless of whether their parents previously 
served, may be eligible for a psychiatric or behavioral health waiver. 
The Army takes each individual waiver request through a very rigorous 
process where a ``whole person'' approach to the applicant is used to 
determine the outcome--heavily informed by subject matter experts in 
the appropriate field or discipline.
    Ms. Mace. Secretary Wormuth, Are there any plans to combine 
recruiting forces into a Joint recruiting effort between all the 
services to save costs and improve recruiting? What are some of the 
ways the Army can and is not yet incentivizing Soldiers to stay in the 
Army?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army, through participation in the DOD's 
Joint Recruiting Facilities Program, is co-located with the other 
Military Services in order to ensure adequate support of their 
respective recruiting missions while keeping costs down. The Army 
continues to thrive with retaining soldiers and is anticipating 
exceeding its retention numbers in FY23. To capitalize on this 
momentum, the Army is conducting a study using in-person focus groups 
to get direct feedback from soldiers on what options and incentives 
they feel are most valuable.
                                 ______
                                 
                  QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. McCLELLAN
    Ms. McClellan. Secretary Wormuth, in your testimony before the 
Armed Services Committee you mentioned that the backlog for background 
checks posed a problem in hiring qualified childcare providers and 
teachers for child development centers and schools located on Army 
bases. Does the Army require individuals applying for childcare and K-
12 educational positions to get a background check for each job within 
the Army educational system that they apply to? And if so, has the Army 
studied making background checks portable--allowing individuals to 
apply for multiple childcare jobs with only one background check 
instead of requiring a background check for every position that an 
individual may apply to within the Army's childcare program?
    Secretary Wormuth. The Army requires that individuals possess a 
completed background check according to Title 34, United States Code, 
Section 20351. The law requires agencies in the Federal Government that 
operate a facility and hire individuals involved in the provision of 
childcare services to children under the age of 18 to conduct a 
criminal history background check on all existing and newly-hired 
employees. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division's (CID) Crime 
Records Center supports criminal background checks by conducting a name 
check with the National Crime Information Center; it has no backlog on 
name checks and for the last 4 weeks takes an average of 1.5 days to 
complete name checks relating to childcare services suitability 
screenings at the Department of Defense Education Activity. Completed 
background checks require a final adjudication, which, by OSD policy, 
must be completed by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security 
Agency Consolidated Adjudication Services. This adjudication process is 
currently backlogged.
    To help streamline the process where possible, the Army does 
execute reciprocity from one Army organization to another organization 
based on Army Directive 2014-23 (AD 2014-23) and 2018 Clarifying 
Guidance to AD 2014-23. Individuals that have served continuously in a 
position and are transferring to the same position in another 
organization do not require a new investigation. The code of Federal 
Regulations (5 CFR Section 731) does require a new investigation when 
an individual has a break in service for more than 24 months or where 
there is information that the person is not suitable for a child care 
position.
    Army installations continue to look for creative solutions to 
address the current challenges. For example, the Army has recently 
completed a two-month pilot in March conducted in three locations (Ft. 
Irwin, Ft. Moore and Ft. Lewis-McChord) intended to facilitate quicker 
movement of newly hired NAF/APF childcare providers under ``Provisional 
Hire (PH)'' status (i.e. they are unable to work in classrooms at this 
time), to ``Line of Sight Supervision (LOSS)'' status. Under LOSS 
status, the childcare providers are able to start working in the 
classrooms with children, and with someone monitoring them. Under the 
pilot, the G-1 Centralized Suitability Service Center (CSSC) utilized 
Installation Records Checks (IRC) (i.e. criminal history background 
information working on miliary installations, medical, and drug/alcohol 
checks), hiring documents, and fingerprint to produce an interim 
adjudication based on DODM 1402.05 versus including review of SF-85 
security questionnaire. When the adjudication is favorable, it allows 
movement of the hire from PH to LOSS status.
    The feedback on this process has been positive, and the pilot data 
has shown that the centers were able to release hires from PH to LOSS 
between 10-12 days for cases that require mitigation for derogatory 
information, compared to 30 plus days. Cases without any derogatory 
information showed interim determination of up to 5 days from PH to 
LOSS. Another significant success is the reduction of terminations of 
cases by 15%-20% which contributes to reduction in interim 
adjudication. The full results of the pilot are still being evaluated 
and analyzed by Army leaders and the feasibility to expand this success 
is yet to be determined. However, the Army will continue to prioritize 
solutions such as these given the direct impact it can and will have on 
our soldiers, families, civilians, and soldiers for life.
    Ms. McClellan. Secretary Wormuth, research has shown that most of a 
child's brain develops before the age of 5 and that when the 
educational programming offered in child development centers and other 
pre-kindergarten educational institutions does not align with the K-12 
system, there can be significant loss of learning. How is the Army 
working to ensure that the programming of its child development centers 
ensures K-12 readiness, and does this include working with local K-12 
systems to ensure proper alignment in educational programming and 
curriculum?
    Secretary Wormuth. All Army Child Development Centers enterprise-
wide use the Teaching Strategies Creative Curriculum. This early 
childhood curriculum is research-based and widely used within large 
school districts and most Head Start programs, along with Department of 
Defense Education Activity Pre-K programs. The standardized approach to 
the use of a single curriculum Army-wide allows for predictability when 
families move from one location to another.
                                 ______
                                 
                  QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY DR. McCORMICK
    Dr. McCormick. Since coming to Congress, I've become aware of 
serious issues in the medical separation process administered by the 
Defense Health Agency due to wounded warriors' lack of access to their 
branch chain of command. At the Medical Evaluation Board phase and 
elsewhere, wounded warriors are unable to seek relief after instances 
of negligence and malfeasance nor can they meaningfully appeal 
questionable or erroneous decisions through their chain of command. 
Given all of that, would you support returning authority for the 
morale, welfare, and determinations of fitness for active duty for 
servicemembers going through the medical separation process back to the 
service branches?
    General McConville. Each Service has and will continue to maintain 
authority for fitness determinations for service members in the 
Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES) process. The Army and 
sister services work as an integrated Military Health System with the 
Defense Health Agency to ensure healthcare delivery meets the 
department mission to take care of our soldiers and beneficiaries. 
During the IDES process, the soldier remains in their unit and has full 
access to the chain of command. The chain of command retains 
responsibility for the morale and welfare of the soldier while the 
medical community has responsibility for the evaluation of the 
soldier's ability to meet the established medical retention standards.
     Dr. McCormick. Since coming to Congress, I've become aware of 
serious issues in the medical separation process administered by the 
Defense Health Agency due to wounded warriors' lack of access to their 
branch chain of command. At the Medical Evaluation Board phase and 
elsewhere, wounded warriors are unable to seek relief after instances 
of negligence and malfeasance nor can they meaningfully appeal 
questionable or erroneous decisions through their chain of command. 
Given all of that, would you support returning authority for the 
morale, welfare, and determinations of fitness for active duty for 
servicemembers going through the medical separation process back to the 
service branches?
    Secretary Wormuth. Each Service has and will continue to maintain 
authority for fitness determinations for service members in the 
Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES) process. The Army and 
sister services work as an integrated Military Health System with the 
Defense Health Administration to ensure healthcare delivery meets the 
department mission to take care of our soldiers and beneficiaries. 
During the IDES process, the soldier remains in their unit and has full 
access to the chain of command. The chain of command retains 
responsibility for the morale and welfare of the soldier while the 
medical community has responsibility for the evaluation of the 
soldier's ability to meet the established medical retention standards.

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