Opening Statement (As Prepared)

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Good morning and thank you to Secretary Wormuth and General George. While General George is no stranger to this committee and its members, having previously served as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, this is your first hearing with us while serving as the 41^st Chief of Staff of the Army. We look forward to your testimony today, and to hearing how our witnesses will man, train, and equip our United States Army.

The Army continues to modernize with an eye toward deterring our peer competitors and, if necessary, defeating them on the battlefield.  Recently the Army has started to look at ways to innovate more quickly and continually transform in response to what we are seeing in Ukraine, and to field new capabilities in a shorter time. When you look across the Army’s portfolio of equipment, some of it is simply no longer relevant to the modern battlefield. I believe that the Army Cross-Functional Team construct continues to effectively identify the capabilities that we need for the future fight, assess current programs for usefulness and relevance, and then develop and deliver relevant capabilities to the combatant commanders. The Army has also demonstrated a willingness to walk away from programs when analysis changes and the program can no longer deliver the capability that we need. While some of these decisions may be unpopular, I believe this is positive behavior in today’s budget environment. I look forward to hearing what progress the Army has made to modernize the force, but I’d also like to hear from the witnesses what help the Army needs to manage risk as it balances current readiness with a need to modernize.   

The most significant issue before the House is passage of a supplemental appropriations bill that will, if it is brought to the Floor and passed, enable Ukraine to defend itself, our allies, and our interests from Vladimir Putin’s violent and dark view of the world. This supplemental will also enable the Army to continue to replenish munitions capacity, and replace needed equipment. I’d like to hear from our witnesses their perspective on impact to Army readiness due to delay in passing this supplemental.

Munitions support to Ukraine highlighted a need to invest in our munitions industrial base, and recent events in Israel only exacerbate this problem. We’ve provided substantial resources over the last two years to increase our munitions capacity, and I’d like to hear about the progress we’ve made toward that end. What concerns me, however, is how we sustain the capacity that we’ve created in the munitions industrial base, and ensure that we don’t end up in a boom-bust environment. What I don’t want to see is the munitions accounts become the bill payers for modernization efforts, as we have seen in the past. I look forward to hearing how our witnesses will protect the investments we’ve made, and ensure that we protect our revitalized munitions industrial base.

For many years, Army readiness has been challenged by high operational tempo and global demand for rotational forces, and this year those challenges will be exacerbated by significant recruitment challenges.  I would like to hear from our witnesses today how they plan to meet this challenge, including actions taken to improve recruitment and retention, and to improve the quality of life of our soldiers.

Finally, the Army is continuing to institute its new unit life cycle model named the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM), with the goal of relieving operational strain and ensuring that equipment modernization is timely and prioritized. I am curious to learn how ReARMM will align with the focus on continuous transformation, and how the Army will ensure that sustainment of innovative weapons systems is factored into a model that fields new systems more quickly. We expect the Army will keep the committee informed on how this new force generation model will impact training and maintenance requirements, budgetary decisions, modernization efforts, and readiness of the force.

Thank you again to our witnesses for joining us, and I look forward to receiving today’s testimony and getting updates on all of these issues.

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