During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) questioned Military officials about the effect Trump's tariffs will have on military capabilities.
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00:00I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Cisneros.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank our witnesses for being here today.
00:07And, Admiral, I want to thank your fleet master chief for your career, sir,
00:11and everything that you've done for this nation.
00:16Chiefs run the Navy.
00:18I'm a former naval officer.
00:20I can tell you one thing.
00:21When I left the Navy, I wish I could have took my chief with me there.
00:25The senior enlisted are a valuable asset to our military,
00:29and we need to do what we can to make sure that we support them in any way possible.
00:35I also want to say, just go back to Mr. Courtney's comments about the tariffs
00:40and what they are doing, Mr. Ngo.
00:44You know, the fact that we have three nations, Japan, South Korea, and China,
00:49that are coming together because of these tariffs,
00:52and these are three nations that have a history of contention.
00:55And you may say it's not an – the tariffs don't affect the military,
01:01but it is going to have an effect later on in the military.
01:04And so the Department of Defense should definitely be speaking up on that there
01:09because it is going to affect us at some point.
01:11General Brunson, I'm going to start with you, sir.
01:13We've seen the DRP, the DPRK, and Iran provide support to Russia during the Ukrainian conflict,
01:20supplying soldiers, munitions, critical minerals.
01:24The strengthening of these relationships continues to undermine the security and stability
01:28of the Indo-Pacific region.
01:31What are we seeing in the reverse as far as, I mean, those – Russia, China – supplying materials,
01:40technology, and things to North Korea?
01:42And really, what have we learned from the North Korean army
01:46with their experience there in Ukraine that is going to benefit you and your knowledge?
01:50Yes, sir.
01:52So one of the first things I would say is I'm looking at – I'm concerned with, more importantly,
01:59what's coming back, vice what's going out.
02:01I can see very, very well all the things that are going out.
02:05But coming back is technology.
02:08Coming back is critical munitions that are coming back there.
02:14What's coming back is critical materiel, which is changing our operating environment in a large way.
02:21And then what it's causing us to really do is look at how we might counter those things,
02:26that we might be able to continue to deter them, or have Kim Jong-un say, not today, not today.
02:34And some of that has to do with the posture that we take as we sort of organize ourselves differently
02:39within our operating environment.
02:41And I think that another thing that I'm looking at routinely is how am I communicating those things back out?
02:49How am I going back to ensure that not only our friends, partners, and allies are also witting to this,
02:55but how am I communicating back with INDO-PACOM to ensure that we are able to talk about the changes
03:00that we might have in our OE as well?
03:03Have you learned lessons from the – about the North Korean Army, about how they've been operating,
03:08what they've been doing in Ukraine that are going to be valuable to you?
03:12Yes, sir.
03:12We most certainly have.
03:13Good.
03:14Admiral, you know, you and your fellow co-coms are competing for assets continually,
03:23whether it be the aircraft carriers, air squadrons, special operation forces, Patriot missile batteries.
03:32Can you discuss the challenges that you're facing there in trying to respond to China's operations
03:38while you're competing for those assets?
03:40Yes, Congressman, understanding that there's a high demand for the global force is just my job.
03:48So mitigating that when the department, when the commander-in-chief makes a decision to shift one capability to another theater
03:55and to be able to mitigate for that.
03:58And sometimes it's the substitution of other relevant capabilities.
04:02Sometimes it's knowing what the response time is of that capability to restore it to the Indo-Pacific.
04:09All those are important factors.
04:12And so our job is to take the policy decisions and to mitigate those, to express the risk,
04:19and to do our very best to restore deterrence and to provide the indications and warnings
04:24if it has to return to a theater that has more exigent needs.
04:30Okay.
04:30With that, thank you very much for that answer, Admiral.
04:32And I've got about 30 seconds left, so I'm just going to yield my time back.