Defense Drumbeat

Tomorrow, the Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing with the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Department of Defense's budget request for FY 2019. Chairman Thornberry (R-TX) will focus his questions on the readiness of our force and how the Department of Defense can best spend the funding that Congress passed last month to address those issues. For more information and to watch tomorrow's hearing visit the Committee's website.

Chairman Thornberry remains concerned about the readiness of our military and spoke directly about his concerns on Fox earlier this week. Watch his remarks below.

Chairman Thornberry:

"Look at what's happened. Just this past week we've had four major accidents where service members have lost their lives either because of the training or because of the status of the equipment..."

"The basic point is that if we're going to ask men and women to go out there and risk their lives for us they deserve the very best equipment, the very best training our nation can provide and they have not been getting it..."

"It is definitely a crisis and it does not help anyone to stick your head in the sand and wish this crisis away..."

"We've got to whatever it takes to have planes that fly and have training that is appropriate for a dangerous world..."