[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20554-20555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SUPPORTING OUR MILITARY

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, President Trump's commitment to our 
veterans is only matched by his commitment to our servicemembers and 
our national security. You can't really segregate it out and say, well, 
we are going to take care of our veterans' activities and then still 
say we are not going to allow our country to have the national security 
they fought so hard for.
  We saw that earlier this week when the President outlined his 
national security strategy, charting a new course for American foreign 
policy, leaving behind the failed policies of the Obama administration. 
With his national security strategy, President Trump has been clear 
that he is committed to protecting the homeland, promoting American 
prosperity, and advancing peace through strength. Have you ever heard 
that before, peace through strength? I am one of the few who is old 
enough around here who remember our great President we had who talked 
about peace through strength when he had to rebuild the military after 
the Carter administration. It was actually as bad--or as downgraded as 
our military has become from the last administration.
  Now he is asserting America's leadership in the free world. We saw 
how under President Obama the military was forced to divert resources 
for priorities that weren't even about defending America. He used the 
military to advance his liberal agenda, which led to the wasteful 
spending on what they call the green Navy and the green bullets. The 
idea that climate change was the largest threat to our national 
security, all of that has changed and not a moment too soon.
  President Trump is focused on what matters, rightfully taking out 
things like just worrying about climate change as opposed to rebuilding 
our military, and he is building it at a very rapid rate right now.
  We passed the bill, the Defense authorization bill, and we have made 
a great start on this.
  Now, when the President came into office, our military was facing a 
readiness crisis, and Americans didn't really understand this. They 
didn't know. They had not been told this. We had a biased media that 
didn't allow this information to get out. As an example, our Air Force 
today, right now, is short 1,500 pilots, and 1,300 of those are 
actually fighter pilots. Only 50 percent of the Air Force squadrons are 
trained and ready to conduct all of their assigned missions. I have to 
repeat that. Only 50 percent of our Air Force squadrons are trained and 
ready to defend America.
  The Navy is the smallest and least ready it has been in years. It 
currently can only meet 40 percent of the demand for regional combat. 
The commanders in the field include only enough personnel to man six 
and a half of our nine carrier air wing.
  A carrier air wing is something a lot of people are not familiar 
with. A carrier air wing has approximately 75 combat aircraft. 
Currently, we have manned only 6\1/2\ wings and are 8,000 sailors 
short.
  This is an air wing. They have F-18s, they have EA-18s, they have F-
35s, they have C-2As. Again, just a little over half of ours are 
actually ready. Well, that is the problem we are faced with right now. 
More than half of the Navy's F-18s are grounded because they are 
awaiting maintenance or lack of necessary parts. If you look at our 
Marines, our Marines are using F-18s, and 62 percent of F-18s will not 
fly. People are just shocked when they find out about it. It is because 
we don't have the spare parts. Well, we are getting busy on that. We 
are going to make sure we correct those problems.

[[Page 20555]]

  The Army has said that only about one-third of their brigade combat 
teams, one-fourth of their air aviation brigades, and one-half of their 
division headquarters are currently ready.
  A brigade combat team consists of 7 battalions, approximately 4,500 
students. I wish I had time to come up with a chart on this, but the 
carrier wing is one that is absolutely necessary to get folks straight, 
and we plan on doing that.
  Faced with the most dangerous threats I have seen in my lifetime, 
these are critical gaps in our military we simply cannot accept.
  I often say, when I look back at the good old days of the Cold War, 
where we had two superpowers--and the superpowers, we knew what they 
had, they knew what we had. It is totally different now.
  You have a country like North Korea, which has demonstrated that they 
have the capacity now to reach an American city. We learned that on 
November 28, when they actually demonstrated a range that would reach 
one of our continental U.S. cities.
  They tried to give us a little bit of comfort in saying, well, we 
don't know that they would be able to carry a warhead. We don't think 
they would have the capacity to do that. Well, we don't know that. That 
is not much comfort.
  When they say: We don't have the capacity to be accurate on a reentry 
because of what a missile has to go through on a reentry, well, that is 
not very comforting that this would happen.
  Anyway, the NDAA--the bill we passed, that the President signed into 
law--would be a good step in correcting the readiness shortfalls. I 
look forward to continuing to work with him on this critical process.
  We have a committee that already is having hearings about the 
problems we are having. We had one, actually, in the subcommittee 
hearing I chaired just this week. We are busy correcting these 
problems.
  Meanwhile, back to our VA problems in Oklahoma, we put two new great 
directors in the VA clinics. We have a level of veterans' care 
Oklahomans are proud of. Only yesterday, President Trump signed the 
Enhancing Veteran Care Act to ensure that we continue to give our 
veterans the best care. They deserve it, and they are going to get it.
  At the same time, we are going to restore and rebuild the military as 
our Nation's No. 1 priority. Our troops deserve it, and they are going 
to get it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). The Senator from South Carolina.

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