During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the Congressional recess, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) questioned Military officials about AUKUS submarine production.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to thank our witnesses for joining us. Thanks again for the incredible job that you all are doing.
00:10Admiral Parra, I want to begin with you. You talked about the importance of shipbuilding, but very specifically shipbuilding in certain areas.
00:17We have a distinct asymmetric advantage under the sea.
00:21Can you give us a perspective about what that looks like in relation to what we have as that advantage versus what the Chinese have,
00:28what they're building in relation to what we have?
00:32Secondly, too, is that we know that the Marine Corps is going to be the stand-in force there in the Indo-Pacific.
00:38They're going to be the tip of the spear, have that ability to make sure that they're the crisis response team.
00:44The challenge for us today is we don't have enough amphibious ships, and the ones that we do have have an operational availability of 41 percent.
00:51So when your call goes out, the challenge is can it be met?
00:56Because today we cannot put together an amphibious radio group Marine Corps expeditionary unit, better known as an ARGMU.
01:04Can't do it. We can put a single ship out there, but we can't put the complement of ships that we need for an ARGMU.
01:09Can you tell me where are we in relation to the need for getting to that 2.33 submarines a year for AUKUS and ourselves, why that's important?
01:18And then what do you see as your alternative in a crisis response if when you call for an ARGMU there's not one to be had?
01:28Thank you, sir. Great to see you again.
01:31Presently, we have a generational advantage from a submarine standpoint against our adversaries.
01:39And this is key, critical and indispensable to the ability to prevail.
01:44The PRC, though not perfectly linear, but the PRC is outproducing the United States by a rate of 2.0 per year to 1.28, presently, attack submarines per year.
01:58Required to get there are continued investments in defense industrial base, liberalizing the long lead time supply chains and giving a steady flow of funding.
02:12On the Marine stand in forces and on amphibious ships, amphibious ships are absolutely critical to this effort.
02:19And we are not meeting mission globally on doing so.
02:26It's a matter of the maintenance of the current capability that we have.
02:29And frankly, it's also a matter of the number of amphibious ships that we have.
02:34So the ops analysis does not lie on that, does not lie on that matter.
02:40Very good. Thank you. Let me then move from that.
02:43You talk about the need for us to get above the 1.28 production.
02:47That's not only to meet our requirements but also to fulfill the obligations we made under AUKUS to make sure we have that partnership.
02:54Partnerships are incredibly important in that region.
02:56We talk about AUKUS, but we also talk about the Quad Agreement.
02:59Can you give us your sense about are there any barriers that are standing in the way for us to fully operationalize AUKUS, whether it's Pillar 1 or Pillar 2, and all the opportunities that are there for us with the Quad?
03:12We see what our adversaries are doing and trying to create more relationships there.
03:17We have to do more at the pace of relevance to make sure we have substantive outcomes of these agreements.
03:23Can you give us a perspective about where you see things and what we need to do to accelerate that?
03:28AUKUS Pillar 1, operationally, we are meeting every milestone.
03:31The biggest risk driver to AUKUS Pillar 1 is getting to that production rate by the time that Australia purchases its own Virginia-class submarine.
03:42That is the greatest barrier that I see right now presently.
03:46On Pillar 2, the other capabilities, missiles and unmanned and cyber, on this case, the biggest barrier are barriers to our administrative and bureaucratic barriers to co-production.
04:04Co-production among our partners, not just our AUKUS partners, but all of our partners, would greatly enhance our missile magazines for all of us.
04:12Would you say that ITAR currently has been modified enough to open the door for Pillar 2?
04:20Because I know as we talk to the Australians, they are not very happy with still the impediments with ITAR.
04:26I would agree with that.
04:28Okay, very good.
04:29Let me ask, are there other ways that we can get the most out of technological cooperation with our friends,
04:35not just there with AUKUS, but also with the Quad, where there's great opportunities with India and more opportunities with Japan?
04:43Give us your perspective on that.
04:45Yes, that multilateral India, Japan, the United States, and Australia, that is critical and it's growing.
04:54And we've seen some progress also with co-production among us and we see some progress on exercises.
05:00But again, our limits to co-production and speeding up our ability to release key technologies to our partners under conditions of trust
05:14and under the scrutiny of trust that leads us to do so with confidence will enhance that effort.
05:21Thank you very much.
05:22Thank you very much.