Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Senior Command Nominations

Interview

Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Senior Command Nominations

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Not tobacco farming, however, Senator.

I would -- thank you, Mr. Chairman -- like to associate myself with the remarks of the senator from Virginia with regard to --

SEN. WARNER: We have a lot of peanuts, you know.

SEN. THUNE: (Laughs.) That's exactly right.

But I do want to associate myself with the comments from the senator from Virginia with regard to NATO. NATO seems to becoming -- it's a club that everybody wants to be in, but nobody wants to do the work. And the numbers keep getting larger. We keep adding member nations to that organization, but its effectiveness, I think, is very much in question if we aren't able to step up to some of the challenges we face around the world, particularly in places like Afghanistan.

General McKiernan, General Odierno and General Sharp, thank you. Each of you have had incredibly impressive and distinguished careers. And we thank you for your service to the country. Each of you has spent a long time overseas in support of your country. And we thank you for yours and your family's sacrifice. And we appreciate everything you do for our country's freedoms.

General McKiernan, you stated in your response to the committee's advance policy questions that some of the challenges that you'll face as commander of ISAF are under resourcing and constrained forces. You also go on to state that fully resourcing military requirements and remaining caveats will be a major focus and that we should look closely at options for deploying additional brigade combat teams to Afghanistan. How many more brigade combat teams do you anticipate you will need to continue the mission?

GEN. MCKIERNAN: Sir, if confirmed, I would need to be on the ground to make an assessment for specific numbers. But again, it's a matter of the fact that over the requirements stated by current commanders there in Afghanistan that those requirements have not been filled through the NATO force-generation process. So specific numbers of brigades or other military capabilities, I can't give you the exact numbers today. It would be part of an assessment I would need to make. But we certainly need to build more capacity, not just in the military line of operation but also in the developmental and governance lines of operations. But there's more capacity that has to be built there in Afghanistan.

SEN. THUNE: What else do you anticipate requesting that hasn't already been identified, if confirmed in the position?

GEN. MCKIERNAN: Senator, I'm not sure if there's anything besides what's already been identified. But what's already been identified, as you correctly state, is more combat capability, but it's also more aviation, more ISR capability, additional operational mentoring and liaison teams, PRTs, et cetera. So those requirements that are already validated and are waiting to be filled, I think, is the starting point.

SEN. THUNE: You also stated that there have been recent reductions in the number and severity of caveats with regard to some of our NATO allies in Afghanistan.

Could you describe in more detail what those reductions are?

GEN. MCKIERNAN: I really don't think there have necessarily been reductions in caveats. I think what I meant to say, if I didn't in that statement, was that we need to continue to work to remove caveats. Because what they end up ultimately doing is degrading NATO's advantages in terms of mobility and firepower and sustainment and intelligence. And we've got to, I think, work to continue to remove those caveats.

SEN. THUNE: Are some of the caveats worse than others?

GEN. MCKIERNAN: I think so. Certainly those military contributions that are precluded really from conducting combat operations make it very difficult for those same forces to be effective in a counterinsurgency environment.

SEN. THUNE: General Odierno, General Casey's argued that we're in an era of persistent conflict. Assuming that he is correct, do you see any utility to the concept of standing provincial reconstruction teams, in other words, teams that are ready to deploy on a moment's notice?

GEN. ODIERNO: One of the recommendations I made coming out of Iraq was that we should take a look at how we might do that so they can be deployable no-notice as we continue to look at potential contingencies in the future, because I believe any contingency we might run into it would be important for us to immediately be able to have an interagency team on the ground to help us work the socioeconomic, political issues that ultimately are linked to operations.

SEN. THUNE: What about standing operational mentor teams or standing embedded training teams? Is that something your foresee?

GEN. ODIERNO: The one thing I would say is what I want is the Army has centered around brigade combat teams. And I believe our brigade combat teams we want to be full-spectrum in nature where they can accomplish a variety of missions. It's important for us to do that to get the efficiency out of our Army. And so in order to get the efficiency out of our Army, what we want is -- (inaudible) -- can do a number of things. And I think through task organization and other kind of things, they can conduct those type of operations as well as combat operations as well. So we want that flexibility within our force so we get the most out of our leaders and our soldiers.

SEN. THUNE: General Sharp, one of the questions that was posed to you by the committee in its advance policy questions regarded the missile defense systems and capabilities that you believe are needed to meet the operational needs of U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command. And that's, I think, on page six of your advance policy questions responses. You responded that, among other things, continued development of the airborne laser is needed to provided the layered, systematic missile defense capability required to protect critical United States facilities in the Republic of Korea. Could you expand a little bit further on why you believe the development of the airborne laser is needed to meet the operational needs of U.S. Forces Korea?

GEN. SHARP: Sir, I think as you look across the entire missile defense spectrum, you have to have a layered defense that starts from space and works all the way down to AEGIS and other ground-based systems to intercept the missiles. And I believe the airborne laser is a critical part of that ballistic missile enterprise to be able to allow for that effective defense.

SEN. THUNE: Looking at the readiness challenge, what do you see as the major challenge to readiness? Are the challenges with personnel, equipment or training? And given events in Iraq and Afghanistan, are we resourcing our forces in Korea correctly?

GEN. SHARP: Sir, the forces that are in Korea today, the U.S. forces that are there today, are properly trained and equipped to be able to accomplish the task and the mission that we have, working with our Republic of Korea ally, to defend the peninsula. Likewise, the Republic of Korea forces are also very well trained and very well equipped. They are an outstanding military, and they are also prepared to defend the Republic of Korea.

The forces that we would deploy from the United States, if we had to go do that conflict today, are not as well trained, as General Casey has said, because they are training on the missions that they have to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are counterinsurgency experts of the world. But we are confident that we would be able to deploy those forces, and we would be able to win in the Republic of Korea with our Republic of Korea allies.

And one other point I would like to make. Because of the amount of Reserve forces that we have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan -- Reserve and National Guard -- I personally believe right now they are the best trained that they have ever been trained because we've used them in combat environments. They would be also a key component of any conflict in Korea.

SEN. THUNE: Do you have any major concerns with transferring wartime operational control to the Republic of Korea?

GEN. SHARP: General Bell has worked very closely with our allies. And I believe that he has an excellent plan of exercises. He has an excellent plan of working with the Republic of Korea to make sure that they have the capabilities that they need, from surveillance to command and control and to the ability to, at a high level, command the fight, that I'm confident that by 2012 which is the currently agreed-upon time to transfer, we will be ready, and the Koreans will be ready to take control of that fight.

SEN. THUNE: Well, thank you all very much. And thanks, again, for your service. And we look forward to a speedy confirmation process and God speed in your new endeavors. Thank you for what you do.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source