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Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) – House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness ranking member – delivered the following opening statement at a subcommittee hearing on "Learning From and Preventing Future Training Mishaps."

Remarks as prepared for delivery:

We owe it to our service men and women to eliminate preventable accidents, period. Readiness is not just having enough spare parts on the shelves or enough aircraft to fly. Readiness is also ensuring our service members are proficient in their jobs and prepared to perform the duties our nation assigns them. This requires lots of time spent in tough, realistic training conducted in a controlled and safe environment. Unfortunately, this is not always in ready supply, particularly when there is unpredictability in the defense budget process and an insufficient topline that forces leaders to choose between executing the mission today or preparing for the future fight. That is something we in Congress have the power to fix.

Over the past several years, our subcommittee has held several hearings and briefings focused on military aviation safety, the state of surface Navy readiness, and ground vehicle mishaps. The services and GAO have also engaged through their own analysis, studies and programs.

This subcommittee directed the GAO to conduct a review of the relationship between tactical vehicle mishaps and training, vehicle safety, and training range conditions. While that review is not yet complete, we expect it will provide insights into the factors contributing to nearly 4,000 tactical vehicle mishaps over the past 10 years, leading to the loss of 120 servicemembers. When the report is available, I expect the recommendations to be implemented.

We continue to see a trend in deadly aviation accidents. The FY2019 NDAA created the National Commission on Military Aviation Safety to assess the causes contributing to military aviation mishaps. Results of that effort indicated that insufficient training and experience, sustainment issues, funding, OpTempo, and workforce attrition were contributing factors, among other serious issues. I expect to hear today what the services are doing to address this.

Since significant incidents and collisions in 2017, the Navy has conducted two primary reviews. Five years later, it is not clear that the reforms instituted are enough to protect our sailors and marines.

Quite simply, we need to do better for our servicemembers. Today our witnesses will discuss these important efforts to address underlying issues driving accident trends and share the extent to which each military branch has taken steps to implement concrete recommendations to mitigate and prevent accidents.

Finally, I would like to mention trends. While trends are important indicators of success and failure, we must not be complacent when trends are looking good. One Class A mishap or loss of life is one too many. I'm particularly interested in how the services are looking at Class B and C mishaps, as well as near misses, to examine root causes that may inform proactive solutions to more serious issues.

I want to thank the witnesses for your engagement today on this important topic. I look forward to hearing how your service is taking actions to prevent today's accidents while we all work to ensure that servicemembers have the time, tools, and training to be successful in the future.

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