Today, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's Markup." For information and to watch the markup click here.
"The Subcommittee meets today to mark-up H.R. 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.
I want to thank all members of the subcommittee for their attendance, participation, and contributions in the overall process this year.
I especially want to convey my sincere thanks to our Ranking Member, Ms. Niki Tsongas, for her support and contribution to this mark. The bi-partisan partnership she and her staff demonstrated in helping to craft this mark is very much appreciated.
Unless her retirement plans change, this will be Niki's last mark-up as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and after more than a decade of service in the House of Representatives.
She and I began serving on this committee together in 2007. She is a well-respected colleague and also a friend. We have worked on some very challenging issues together. I'm particularly proud of all the work we accomplished with respect to military sexual assault prevention and response.
Niki, on behalf of the subcommittee, thank you again for your service to this country, your constituents, and to this committee. We are all going to miss you.
This mark addresses the bi-partisan priorities of our subcommittee Members.
Last year during our subcommittee hearings and events, we heard how years of continuous combat operations, compounded with years of deferred modernization, has created a crisis in military readiness.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 enacted last year, the Bi-partisan Budget Agreement signed by the President early this year, followed by the Fiscal Year 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act last month, all laid the foundation for our military's much needed stability and recovery.
Combined with the fiscal year 2019 budget request, the military services should be well-postured to continue the long-term modernization and readiness recovery.
We all acknowledge this damage did not occur in a single year and it will take consistent levels of long-term, increased investment and budget predictability to rebuild a modernized military that is prepared for full-spectrum operations.
So it is within this framework that we assembled this mark.
The mark focuses on restoring full spectrum readiness through modernization and recapitalization of existing force structure. The dollars invested on today's modernization enables tomorrow's readiness.
As part of the Mark, the Subcommittee conducted oversight on approximately $97.9 billion in program budget authority for fiscal year 2019.
This mark addresses the importance of modernization and works to ensure acquisition strategies are aligned with the new National Defense Strategy.
This year the Subcommittee is proposing 10 bill provisions and 18 pieces of directive report language, all of which were informed by Member requests and information gathered from various subcommittee oversight activities.
I want to briefly highlight three of those oversight issues in the mark:
First, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or 'J-STARS,' Recapitalization program.
The Air Force submitted a budget request that did not include funding for continuing the JSTARS Recap program. We have concluded that completely walking away from this program would prove to be an unacceptable level of risk to our warfighters and neglects years of substantial and relevant analysis the Air Force completed to justify the importance of the program. The mark supports the Air Force's concept for advanced battle-management command and control, but would require the Air Force to continue the JSTARS Recap program as the concept's foundational capability.
The second issue for the mark is the mitigation of physiological episodes, or 'P-Es,' in tactical and training aircraft.
We held one hearing solely on this issue so far in 2018, and addressed it in two other hearings and one briefing last year.
The Ranking Member and I have worked closely on this issue to include traveling to Pax River Naval Air Station to meet with pilots, and I just returned from Hill Air Force Base where I had the opportunity to meet with pilots and maintainers.
We all recognize the work that is being done to mitigate these events but the overall progress made in determining a root cause is just too slow.
These physiological episodes are not individual incidents. At this point we have an aggregate of these events that could point to a systemic issue. Since March 1st, Air Force student and instructor pilots have reported twelve additional physiological events in the T-6 trainer aircraft, in which the entire T-6 fleet was grounded for the same reasons and returned to fly just 2 days earlier on February 27th.
The mark this year will have several provisions to help facilitate mitigation efforts and will require the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Air Force to certify that any new aircraft procured will all have the most recent technological advancements necessary to mitigate future P-Es.
The mark also authorizes multiyear procurement authority for F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft to generate better cost savings for the taxpayer and provide needed capability and capacity to the Navy.
And the third highlight for the mark is Armored Brigade Combat Team modernization. The Army this year is requesting enough funding to modernize 1.5 ABCTs. This will help accelerate modernization and improve capabilities against peer and near-peer competitors.
We also believe, given this increased investment for ABCT modernization, the Army should examine the cost and schedule benefits of using multiyear procurement contracts for combat vehicle platforms that comprise ABCTs.
The mark directs the Army to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of using multi-year procurement contracts. We believe results of the cost analysis may demonstrate better cost-savings and more stability in the industrial base.
The subcommittee's recommendations to the Chairman's mark will also include full funding for most major programs in our jurisdiction, as well as recommendations for additional support to improve capabilities and mitigate existing shortfalls. These items would include:
• UH-60M Black Hawks and AH-64E Apache Attack helicopters for the Army National Guard;
• Stryker Combat Vehicles;
• F-35 Joint Strike Fighter spare parts;
• Critical munitions;
• Short-range air defense and indirect-fire protection capabilities;
• Fixed-wing I-S-R and communications aircraft upgrades; and,
• National Guard and Reserve Component Equipment.
In summary, this is a good Mark that provides necessary and reasonable oversight, and together with the full committee mark, continues the process of rebuilding our military. We must prepare today to dominate the future battlefields of tomorrow.
I strongly encourage your support."
