‘Why Would You Delay Modernization?’: Seth Moulton Presses Chairman Brown & Sec. Austin On Budget

4 months ago

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) questioned Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Charles Brown about the budget and modernization.

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Transcript

00:00 - Mr. Moulton.

00:01 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:02 Mr. Secretary, you said your budget priorities

00:05 are near-term readiness, modernization,

00:07 and support for troops and families.

00:09 Those absolutely seem like the right priorities for me.

00:12 Chairman, you've famously said,

00:15 quote, "accelerate change or lose."

00:18 And of course, you're talking about our pacing China,

00:21 a pacing challenge China primarily.

00:23 But Mr. Secretary, you also explained that your budget,

00:26 quote, "dials back some modernization."

00:29 Now, how is that compatible with "accelerate change or lose"?

00:34 - So those platforms that won't deliver capability

00:36 before 2030 are the ones that we chose

00:40 not to invest in in this budget.

00:42 Now, we recognize that we will invest in those programs

00:46 in the out years,

00:48 and that'll require an increase in the top line.

00:52 - Mr. Chairman, most of this committee

00:53 is in wholehearted agreement that this budget is inadequate.

00:56 But why would you delay modernization

01:00 rather than following the lead of the Marine Corps

01:02 and just cutting old systems,

01:04 many of which are big and expensive to maintain?

01:07 - Well, that's part of the dialogue

01:11 we have with our Congress.

01:13 And that's the challenge that I see in some cases

01:15 where as we look at the capabilities

01:17 that we have to have today,

01:19 at the same time as we transform the force of the future

01:22 and balance it between the two.

01:24 And that's where the focus has been across the force.

01:29 This is an area that we gotta continue to have dialogue

01:31 of the things that we were willing to let go of

01:33 so we can actually invest in and modernize in the future.

01:36 - Well, I have no doubt that this is your philosophy.

01:41 I question whether it is really the focus across the force.

01:44 I mean, I think with the exception of the Marine Corps,

01:46 and a bit of credit is due to the Air Force as well here,

01:49 there's been a real reluctance to divest of old platforms.

01:53 I mean, I asked this question of Army leadership

01:55 just last week, I said, give me an example

01:58 of one old platform that you're cutting

02:01 to make room for modernization.

02:05 And the Secretary of the Army

02:06 used the future reconnaissance attack aircraft,

02:10 a future capability,

02:11 she's talking about cutting a future capability.

02:14 Can you give me, Mr. Secretary,

02:19 just a couple of examples of old weapon systems

02:23 that are big and expensive to maintain

02:25 that the Army is cutting to make room for modernization?

02:29 - Well, certainly, if you had the Secretary of the Army here

02:33 to speak to that, I'm sure that what she told you is accurate

02:37 so I won't challenge that.

02:39 But there are things like older artillery platforms

02:42 like the M777 that we provided to Ukraine

02:47 that we no longer use in our inventory

02:52 to the extent that we were before

02:54 that we're moving out of the inventory.

02:59 But some of these things that are no longer useful

03:02 for the Army are useful to us in the next fight.

03:05 As far as the Army's concerned,

03:08 we're able to transition those items

03:11 to partners and allies who need that kind of capability.

03:15 - Well, let's do that.

03:16 I mean, let's sell them, let's get some money, right?

03:18 But we've got to make money in our budget for modernization

03:21 because if we don't accelerate change,

03:23 accelerate, not just change at the rate

03:25 that we're changing right now, but accelerate change,

03:28 we are not gonna be able to keep up with China.

03:30 And Mr. Secretary, I just wanna be clear,

03:32 you are endorsing the Secretary of the Army's response

03:36 to my question, name an old system you're cutting,

03:39 when she named a future system

03:41 that you've chosen not to invest in.

03:43 - No, the reason I said what I said

03:46 was I really don't know the full context of,

03:48 but to your point, that is a future system

03:51 and not a system that we would typically look to divest of.

03:55 The systems that we wanna divest

03:57 are the systems that are too expensive

03:59 to upgrade, to modernize,

04:02 or are no longer relevant in the future fight.

04:04 - I mean, we live in a world where $5,000 drones

04:07 can destroy $5 million tanks.

04:09 Now, I'm not saying there's never gonna be a use

04:11 for a tank again, but we're still building a lot of tanks.

04:14 Poland has just agreed to purchase a whole bunch of tanks.

04:18 I don't know what nation they plan to invade

04:20 with these largely offensive weapons,

04:22 but that doesn't seem like a very wise investment

04:25 for us or our allies.

04:27 So I would just encourage you,

04:28 I know there are a lot of tank supporters in Congress,

04:30 there are a lot of F-35 supporters in Congress,

04:33 but you've gotta come to us with tough cuts

04:35 because coming here and just saying we can't modernize

04:38 is not acceptable.

04:40 Replicator is a good example of a revolutionary change,

04:43 but when they came before the committee,

04:45 I asked them, you know, Ukraine is innovating a lot

04:47 on drones, just tell me when is Replicator program,

04:50 with our GDP, going to catch up with Ukraine

04:53 that has 0.7% of our GDP,

04:55 and they said at the present pace, we're not.

04:59 We can't beat China at that rate.

05:02 - Gentlemen, time's expired.

‘Why Would You Delay Modernization?’: Seth Moulton Presses Chairman Brown & Sec. Austin On Budget

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