At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) questioned Matthew L. Lohmeier, a former Lt. Col. in the Space Force and author of "Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military," during his confirmation hearing to be to be Under Secretary of Air Force.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Senator King. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Lohmiller, I deeply respect your career in the
00:06Air Force and the Space Force, but to follow up on Senator Tuberville's question, my concern is
00:13that the Air Force, and particularly your position, is going to be responsible for
00:18two-thirds of the modernization of the nuclear triad, and the Sentinel piece is looking like
00:26the most consequential civil works project that the Pentagon, or perhaps in this whole
00:31country, has ever undertaken. It's already in a non-McCurdy breach, so I'm not satisfied with
00:39saying you're data-driven and you're going to hire good people. My concern is, I mean, you're the
00:45boss, and you will be, you would be, if you're confirmed, and I'm just uncomfortable. I'm not
00:54talking about past tweets or books or anything else. I'm talking about the future, and that is
00:59the management of probably the most complex and important defense project that's ever been
01:05undertaken by the Pentagon. Try to reassure me, I mean, a great center fielder for the Red Sox is
01:14not necessarily qualified to be general manager, and your service is important, but you're talking,
01:21we're talking about these critically important acquisitions projects that are intensely managerial.
01:28Try to reassure me if you can.
01:31Thank you, Senator. I agree with your concern. I share your concern for the criticality of the
01:37Sentinel program, concern over the non-McCurdy breach that's experienced. Modernization of the
01:43nuclear enterprise is, of course, a priority of mine. So here's the way in which I can try and
01:47reassure you, as I have throughout the rest of the hearing. I've been entrusted throughout my entire
01:53career with both leadership of men and women in uniform, as well as being entrusted with safeguarding
02:01and employing exceptionally exquisite and expensive weapon systems, both in the Air Force and the F-15C,
02:08and in the space-based infrared system, the space-based missile warning architecture, an $18 billion architecture. I've worked with acquirers, program managers in that process. This is not a question of whether or not someone has had the qualifications before to manage the Defense Department,
02:26because most human beings have never had that experience, in fact. This is a question of scale or scope, and I'll say that I've always been faithful to the trust that's been committed to me,
02:38even though the scale has been much smaller. And I'll say humbly that I believe I'm up to this challenge. I'm well qualified for this job. I'm air-minded and space-minded, and I understand very well the threats, especially, that we face
02:49from our peer competitor in China. And so, that's my best attempt to say, Senator, I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I'm also humbled by it. I'm very concerned about it as well,
03:01and I look forward, if confirmed, to doing my utmost very best to manage those very serious programs.
03:07I appreciate that. Mr. Overbaugh, every time, and like Senator Cotton, I also serve on the Intelligence Committee,
03:15to me, the most important quality for any intelligence official is the willingness to tell the truth to the boss,
03:23even if it isn't what they want to hear. Dan Coats, former DNI, said,
03:27the job of the intelligence community is to find the truth and tell the truth.
03:32Will you commit to me that you're willing to walk into the Oval Office or walk into the Office of the Secretary of Defense
03:39and say, this is the intelligence that we have about this particular problem
03:44that contradicts the policy desires of the President or the Secretary or the head of the Joint Chiefs?
03:54Senator, I can absolutely commit to that, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that
03:58seeking the truth is one of the most important, if not the most important,
04:02components of an intelligence professional's job.
04:05And if you look back on recent history, some of our real disasters have been caused by
04:09slanted or what I call cooked intelligence, and that's to be avoided.
04:15Simple question. Did Russia start the war in Ukraine by invading?
04:22Senator, it's a military fact that Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022.
04:29One, I will, there's one challenge about intelligence that we've learned, particularly in Afghanistan
04:37and then again in Ukraine, and that is the analysis of the will to fight of a population.
04:43We blew it in both cases.
04:45We overestimated the Afghans' will to fight and had the disaster of the end of that war.
04:51And then we, we did not, we underestimated the Ukrainians' will to fight and all the intelligence
04:59was that it would let, you know, they'd be in, the Russians would be in Kiev in two weeks.
05:03I challenge you, and I know the department has done serious work on this, to pay attention
05:08to that because that, for example, is, will be a factor in our policy decision about Taiwan.
05:14So it's not an easy question.
05:16It's not as easy as counting tanks from a, from a satellite, but it's nonetheless an incredibly
05:23important intelligence challenge.
05:24So I hope that's something you'll pay some attention to.
05:28Senator, I will, and I apologize.
05:30I see that we're over time, but I do want to address this, and I mentioned it in my opening
05:35statement about the importance of, of evaluating and questioning the assumptions that we use
05:40to make the assessments that we make, and examining the frameworks to determine how much they are,
05:47may be influenced by personal bias or bureaucratic bias, political influence, or any other type
05:53of interference which would inhibit our ability to provide our decision makers with the very
06:00best picture of adversarial threat to include, which I personally think is one of the most important
06:06components of, of enemy capability is will to fight.
06:11Find the truth and tell the truth.
06:13That's what we're looking for.
06:14Mr. Zimmerman, I'll submit some questions for the record.
06:16Thank you very much.