[House Hearing, 111 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.A.S.C. No. 111-132] HEARING ON NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 AND OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION __________ FULL COMMITTEE HEARING ON BUDGET REQUESTS FROM THE U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND, AND U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND __________ HEARING HELD MARCH 10, 2010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TONGRESS.#13 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 58-227 WASHINGTON : 2010 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center, U.S. Government Printing Office. Phone 202�09512�091800, or 866�09512�091800 (toll-free). E-mail, [email protected]. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES One Hundred Eleventh Congress IKE SKELTON, Missouri, Chairman JOHN SPRATT, South Carolina HOWARD P. ``BUCK'' McKEON, SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas California GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland SILVESTRE REYES, Texas MAC THORNBERRY, Texas VIC SNYDER, Arkansas WALTER B. JONES, North Carolina ADAM SMITH, Washington W. TODD AKIN, Missouri LORETTA SANCHEZ, California J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina JEFF MILLER, Florida ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania JOE WILSON, South Carolina ROBERT ANDREWS, New Jersey FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey SUSAN A. DAVIS, California ROB BISHOP, Utah JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island MICHAEL TURNER, Ohio RICK LARSEN, Washington JOHN KLINE, Minnesota JIM COOPER, Tennessee MIKE ROGERS, Alabama JIM MARSHALL, Georgia TRENT FRANKS, Arizona MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania BRAD ELLSWORTH, Indiana CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington PATRICK J. MURPHY, Pennsylvania K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas HANK JOHNSON, Georgia DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado CAROL SHEA-PORTER, New Hampshire ROB WITTMAN, Virginia JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa DUNCAN HUNTER, California JOE SESTAK, Pennsylvania JOHN C. FLEMING, Louisiana GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado NIKI TSONGAS, Massachusetts THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida GLENN NYE, Virginia TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine LARRY KISSELL, North Carolina MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico FRANK M. KRATOVIL, Jr., Maryland BOBBY BRIGHT, Alabama SCOTT MURPHY, New York WILLIAM L. OWENS, New York DAN BOREN, Oklahoma Erin C. Conaton, Staff Director Mark Lewis, Professional Staff Member Roger Zakheim, Professional Staff Member Caterina Dutto, Staff Assistant C O N T E N T S ---------- CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS 2010 Page Hearing: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, Fiscal Year 2011 National Defense Authorization Act--Budget Requests from the U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Joint Forces Command.... 1 Appendix: Wednesday, March 10, 2010........................................ 39 ---------- WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010 FISCAL YEAR 2011 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT--BUDGET REQUESTS FROM THE U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND, AND U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ``Buck,'' a Representative from California, Ranking Member, Committee on Armed Services........ 3 Skelton, Hon. Ike, a Representative from Missouri, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services.................................... 1 WITNESSES Mattis, Gen. James N., USMC, Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command 8 Stavridis, Adm. James G., USN, Commander, U.S. European Command.. 5 Ward, Gen. William E. ``Kip,'' USA, Commander, U.S. Africa Command........................................................ 6 APPENDIX Prepared Statements: Mattis, Gen. James N......................................... 157 McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ``Buck''.............................. 43 Stavridis, Adm. James G...................................... 46 Ward, Gen. William E. ``Kip''................................ 107 Documents Submitted for the Record: [There were no Documents submitted.] Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing: Mr. Johnson.................................................. 181 Mr. Sestak................................................... 181 Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing: [There were no Questions submitted post hearing.] FISCAL YEAR 2011 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT--BUDGET REQUESTS FROM THE U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND, AND U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND ---------- House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Washington, DC, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:03 a.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ike Skelton (chairman of the committee) presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. IKE SKELTON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MISSOURI, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES The Chairman. I want to welcome our witnesses today. And this is, as you know, the posture hearing for the fiscal year 2011 budget for the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), U.S. African Command (AFRICOM), and the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM). Before I introduce our witnesses, I wish to make note that our staff director, Erin Conaton, will be witnessing her last hearing in the role of staff director. To say that she has done yeoman's work is an understatement. I am immensely proud of the leadership--she supported--her ability, her tireless energy, her good judgment, and in steering this committee so very, very well. And we wish her well as the new Under Secretary of the Air Force, and she will be joining that team in just a few days. But this is her very last hearing. Mr. McKeon. Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to second everything that you have said, plus I would like to add that, you know, I am fairly new at this job, and Erin has made it so enjoyable. You know, as we went through the conference the day after I was named the ranking member, we had our markup. And so it was like drinking out of a fire hose for the next several months. And we got down to the final four. Many of those meetings that we held--and I want to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, because for what else is happening in this Congress, this committee has been bipartisan due to your leadership. And everything that we did, Erin made it bipartisan. She made sure that we know everything that is going on and all of the decisions. We didn't agree on everything. We probably agreed on more than we did with the Senate. But, I mean, through the process, she has been a true professional and done an outstanding job. And she will be missed, but the Air Force is gaining a great new member. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Mr. McKeon, thank you very much. Erin, we wish you well. [Applause.] The Chairman. We have announced her replacement, Paul Arcangeli, standing by the door by Erin, and as the deputy, Debra Wada, who all of us know so well through the years. Welcome aboard. [Applause.] The Chairman. Appearing before us today, Admiral James G. Stavridis, United States Navy; General William E. ``Kip'' Ward, United States Army; General James N. Mattis, United States Marine Corps. We appreciate your being with us today, and we welcome you. It has been the practice over several years, a very compressed hearing calendar causes us to consider your testimony as a group but, really, each of you deserve to have-- because of your position as commander of your important commands--deserve your own separate hearing, but we were unable to do that this year. And I hope you understand that. First, European Command. Admiral, Europe remains critical to our national security, and we should remember that. Long trans-Atlantic ties have endured difficult times over the years. Challenges in those relationships present themselves today. We tend to think of our European friends and allies solely as partners for operations outside of that theater, but we should not so quickly put aside what the Russian incursion into Georgia two summers ago reminded us; real regional challenges do exist in Europe. Many of our allies rely on us to guarantee security and stability in Europe. One shining example of our commitment to security is in the Balkans where, after nearly 15 years, the American presence in Bosnia Herzegovina is down to a handful, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Kosovo has brought us genuine stability. We are all watching the NATO mission in Afghanistan closely. Many of our allies are making considerable contributions to that effort and, sadly, suffering casualties to prove it. Somehow, however, are not able to perform all missions where this is a matter of concern regarding capability and not national will. I encourage you to continue to find ways to build their capacity and would like to hear your ideas along those lines. Next, General, U.S. Africa Command. After a beginning of fits and starts, it looks to me like AFRICOM has gotten its feet underneath it. You worked very hard to bring together parts of three other combatant commands, and until President Obama laid out a clear vision of United States national policy toward Africa last July, you had been operating under somewhat vague policy guidance. Now, it seems like things are finally coming together in your shop, none too soon. From Al Qaeda in East Africa to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabab in Somalia, we see that violent extremism on the continent is on the rise. AFRICOM has done some impressive things while working with its African partners to promote African stability and security. And that is, of course, a worthy effort. The effect the United States Navy and its African partnership station has had on developing African maritime security is a great example. So we feel like we should pat our Navy on the back for having done so well. I have thought for some time, General Ward, that when it comes to your command's activities that are not clearly counterterrorism, your challenge has been to describe them in terms of a clear linkage to U.S. national security interests. I hope you will emphasize that point in your testimony today, sir. Last but of course not least, United States Joint Forces Command, JFCOM, perhaps one of the most opaque commands for an outsider because so much of what you do, General Mattis, is conceptual. Sometimes, it feels like one has to be an experienced practitioner of the art of war to understand it. Still, that intellectual space is exact the where the next war is going to be won before we even know who we will be fighting against. At last month's hearing in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), I observed that the QDR did not pay enough attention to the operational needs of our money boot warriors. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made it very clear that the superiority of individuals in small units engaged in close combat is essential if the United States is going to win these sorts of wars. These are our most effective weapons, and I understand the Joint Forces Command is making great strides in developing innovative tools to make sure our small units are fully and realistically trained. I think we are a ground-combat team. It is the same sort of preparation in terms of stimulus and other training tools that we give our pilots, for instance, and I hope, General Mattis, you will talk about that today. We welcome you. We look forward to your testimony. This should be a very, very interesting hearing. The ranking member and the gentleman from California, my friend, Buck McKeon. STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD P. ``BUCK'' MCKEON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA, RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today, we begin our series of posture hearings with the commanders of U.S. EUCOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and U.S. Joint Forces Command. I would like to welcome Admiral Stavridis, General Ward, and General Mattis and thank each of you for your leadership and your service to our Nation as well as all of those people that are here with you in uniform. Thank you. Your appearance also reminds us of our extraordinary military men and women serving around the globe to protect American national interests. Please pass along my sincere gratitude to all of our service members and their families serving under your command. Admiral Stavridis, unfortunately, we do not have time to cover all of the challenges facing EUCOM and NATO, but I would like to highlight a few areas that I hope that you will address today. The first is the administration's Russia reset policy. While your written statement correctly highlights the complexities of engaging with Russia, we need to ensure that the reset policy does not risk the viability of the security architecture that has kept the European continent peaceful for nearly 60 years. In other words, reset needs to be balanced with U.S. reassurance to our allies. This is why many of us support a NATO-first policy which would make clear to our NATO allies that U.S. bilateral engagement with Russia will not foster collected insecurity amongst our allies. I am pleased that your prepared statement addresses the need to strengthen trans-Atlantic security, assure allies, and dissuade adversaries. Important to assuring allies is a U.S. force presence in Europe. Your prepared statement states that force posture is key to achieving our national objective in EUCOM's area of responsibility and offers context by highlighting how U.S. personnel in Europe has decreased from 300,000 during the Cold War to less than 80,000 today. While some have called for even less force presence, you state that--and I quote--``without four brigade combat teams in Europe, deterrence and reassurance are at increased risk. Given Russia's military modernization efforts, its behavior in Georgia, and its revised nuclear doctrine, this is not a risk we can afford to assume.'' A key development in your area of responsibility (AOR) since last year is missile defense. While I understand the missile defense costs and capability are not EUCOM issues, addressing our allies' concerns about the Iranian threat is a major EUCOM equity. With respect to defense of Israel, EUCOM should build on its October 2009 Juniper Cobra exercise which successfully exercised the active missile-defense capabilities of both U.S. and Israeli Armed Forces. I do have concerns about the administration's phased adaptive approach, however. In my view, it is critical that the administration deliver on its promise on missile defense in Europe. We have learned little about this plan since the September 2009 announcement. Does EUCOM have a detailed plan in place to execute this policy? Finally, absent from your comprehensive testimony is discussion of NATO as a nuclear alliance. While you highlight that Article 5--and collective defense is a cornerstone of the alliance--you do not address whether the U.S. should continue to have a nuclear presence in Europe. In my view, our forward-deployed nuclear forces strengthen trans-Atlantic security and are critical to the credibility of our collective defense commitment. I take to heart the view that our nuclear forces work for us every day by providing assurance to allies and deterrence to our adversaries. Mr. Chairman, I ask that my entire statement be included for the record where I address policies facing the other combatant command testifying today. Once again, I thank you, gentlemen, for being here, and I look forward to your testimonies. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman, and the statement will be spread upon the record without objection. [The prepared statement of Mr. McKeon can be found in the Appendix on page 43.] The Chairman. Admiral Stavridis, welcome. STATEMENT OF ADM. JAMES G. STAVRIDIS, USN, COMMANDER, U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND Admiral Stavridis. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the committee. Thank you so much for taking time to have a dialogue with each of us and to hear our views and to learn of yours. I want to also commend Erin Conaton who has been a terrific liaison and, sir, has represented this committee in an extraordinary fashion. I was also pleased to see you use a nautical metaphor to commend her doing ``yeoman's work'' which we like that expression in the Navy. And she has been a good friend to the Navy and, indeed, to all the services and I believe will be an extraordinary addition to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon. I am very blessed to be here today with two outstanding shipmates who are on my flanks and are both good friends. And as I mentioned yesterday, I feel very safe in the company of two combat-serious infantry-type officers from the Army and the Marine Corps. Mr. Chairman, I will be extremely brief. I want to, as always, thank this committee for all of the support to all of our men and women. Your visits matter. Your support through the committee matters deeply. It is the fuel in the machine, and we thank you for it. And we thank you for your informed engagement with us that helps guide us. I will talk--and I look forward to taking your questions on Afghanistan. My role there, of course, is in my Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) NATO hat. I am cautiously optimistic about progress in Afghanistan. Secretary Gates is down south in the Helmand yesterday and said he sees bits of pieces of progress. I think we have a long way to go and a tough year ahead, but I am encouraged by what I have seen over the course of the last year in terms of strategy, resources, and leadership in Afghanistan. The Balkans, Mr. Chairman, thank you for mentioning the Balkans. It really is a success story. I look forward to a continued reduction of our forces there. The key in the Balkans is to ensure we don't fall backward. As you pointed out, 10 years ago, we had almost 30,000 troops all over the Balkans. Today, we have less than 1,200. Our allies are there. The allies have almost 15,000 troops there. So they are pulling hard, and I think, overall together, the Balkans are an example of trans-Atlantic security working at its best. A couple of other issues that I think are key I would like to touch on at some point today are cyber. I am concerned about that both in the context of U.S. European Command and, also, on my NATO side. I am very concerned about Iran. Thank you, Ranking Member McKeon, for mentioning the missile defense threat. I think that Iran is what poses that threat, and we need to be responsive to that. And Russia, I take your point entirely, Ranking Member McKeon, that it is a balance between these polls of reset and reassurance, as you correctly point out. In terms of how we are approaching business as U.S. European Command, as I did at U.S. Southern Command, we are working very hard to have an international, an interagency orientation in the work we do. We are trying to have effective strategic communications and explain what we are doing. And above all, we depend on the brave men and women, almost 80,000 of them in Europe today, who are defending our Nation forward. I thank you for your time today, and I look forward to your questions, sir. [The prepared statement of Admiral Stavridis can be found in the Appendix on page 46.] The Chairman. Admiral, thank you very much. General Ward, please. STATEMENT OF GEN. WILLIAM E. ``KIP'' WARD, USA, COMMANDER, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND General Ward. Chairman Skelton, Ranking Member McKeon, thank you for this opportunity to be here, distinguished members of the committee. We appreciate all that you do in support of our command as we work to pursue our interests in the continent of Africa. I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Erin. She has been such an instrumental and supportive part of all that we have done these past now two and a half years in standing up our Nation's newest combatant command. And, Erin, thank you for your support and how you were able to help us along in so many ways and wish you all the best in your new assignment. And we look forward to working with, also, with Paul and Debra as they continue to work with us as we move forward for our Nation. I am honored to appear here today with my friends and distinguished colleagues, Admiral Jim Stavridis and General Jim Mattis. What we do in AFRICOM to protect American lives and promote interests is our mission, and we do that by supporting security and stability programs in Africa and its island nations. We concentrate our strategy and our efforts on helping African states build their capacity to field professional and capable militaries that respect human rights, adhere to the rule of law, promote professionally dedicated militaries and, also, effectively contribute to stability in Africa. We are assisting our African partners in building capacity to counter transnational threats from violent extremist organizations, to stem elicit trafficking, to support peacekeeping operations, and to address the consequences of human disasters, whether they be manmade or natural. Supporting the development of professional and capable militaries contributes to increased security and stability in Africa, allowing African nations and regional organizations to promote good governance, expand development, and promote their common defense to better serve their people and to help protect the lives of Americans, be they abroad or here at home. The Africa partnership station--and, Chairman, thank you for mentioning that--which includes our European and African partners as member of the staff, is now on its fifth deployment and has expanded from the initial focus in the Gulf of Guinea to other African coastal regions as well. Africa Endeavor, a continental-wide command-and-control exercise, has seen a steady increase in participation with over 30 nations projected to participate this year. Exercise National Fire was acclaimed by all as a tremendously successful exercise bringing together five Eastern African nations to address their response in a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief scenario. Mr. Chairman, in my written statement, I highlight these and other programs and activities all designed to help build our partner security capacity, and I ask that it be made a part of this record. These programs reflect the willingness of our partners to work with us and with each other to address common threats that have the ability to impact us here at home and reflect that our programs and our activities are, indeed, producing tangible results. And I will provide some examples of that later on. My focus is on activities, programs, and communications that support our national interests and also reinforce the success that we have established in ways that will assure progress in the long term for our African partners to be more capable of providing for their own security and, thus, helping to guarantee our security here as well. We closely harmonize our activities with our colleagues at State, at United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other agencies of our government. Our service components continue to mature. Our offices of security cooperation, defense attaches, and network of forward-operating sites and cooperative security locations, including Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, are tremendously valuable as we pursue U.S. security interests. It is my honor to serve with the uniformed men and women as well as those civilians who comprise the United States Africa Command. We are making a difference in this vitally significant and strategically important area of our global society. Their dedicated efforts exemplify the spirit and determination of the American people, and I would be pleased, with your permission, to introduce someone here with me today representing those men and women, the command senior enlisted leader, Command Sergeant Major Mark Ripka, who is here. What we do is important. We recognize the contributions of this committee. We thank you for your support, and I look forward to taking any additional questions to provide you any additional information that I can with respect to our command. Thank you very much. [The prepared statement of General Ward can be found in the Appendix on page 107.] The Chairman. General Ward, thank you. General Mattis, welcome, sir. STATEMENT OF GEN. JAMES N. MATTIS, USMC, COMMANDER, U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND General Mattis. Thank you, Chairman Skelton, Ranking Member McKeon, and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify. And, sir, I request my written statement be placed into the record. The Chairman. Without objection, the written statements of each of the witnesses will be placed in the record. General Mattis. Thank you, sir. And I wish to echo my shipmates' respect of Erin's service and quiet support of our military forces over many, many years. You will be missed. You have been magnificent, Erin. Over the course of the past year, Joint Forces Command has continued to provide combat-ready forces to the combatant commanders to support active military operations. We have continued to prepare for future conflict by thinking ahead so, if surprised, we have the fewest regrets. And after a historic change of command in NATO in which I handed over supreme command of allied command transformation, we continue to ensure Joint Forces Command remains closely linked with our allied partners in NATO. The character of this current conflict remains different or, better said, irregular. We have continued to adapt our forces in stride to become increasingly competent in irregular warfare. Across the board, the joint forces significantly adapted to this new environment, but our watch board must be balanced. The chairman and Secretary of Defense have stated we must not lose our nuclear deterrence, our conventional superiority in the process of adapting to irregular warfare. Even as we continue to prepare and deploy forces into the irregular fights of Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot permit the dormancy of our conventional capabilities. Our forces will continue to achieve balance as dwell times build. Through effective training and education across the force, we can strike the appropriate balance while ensuring our current and future combat readiness. Based on the reality of current active operations and future trends outlined in our recent assessment of the joint operating environment, Joint Forces Command's top priority continues to reflect balance between support for the current fight and our constant assessment of the future to ensure we remain the most capable military in the world. Thank you, sir. [The prepared statement of General Mattis can be found in the Appendix on page 157.] The Chairman. Thank you so much, General. Let me ask a few questions, if I may. Admiral, I made reference to Russia as well as the ranking member did. Would you discuss for us what you see in Russia? Is it a rising Russia? Is it going back to its earlier status? What is your opinion of that country and where it is headed? Admiral Stavridis. Mr. Chairman, as I look at Russia and the way the impact of Russia is felt in the European landscape, the view is varied. The view varies from the Baltics and the Eastern European states who remain concerned about Russian activities that range from Zapad exercises to the residual effect of the activities involving Georgia. All of that raises a certain level of concern in that part of Europe. On the other hand, in Western Europe, there is a very strong attempt to try and find zones of cooperation with Russia. And so the view of Russia varies across the European theater. My own view--and I think the Secretary General of NATO has expressed this well--is that we need to find areas of cooperation with Russia wherever we can. And they can vary from arms control in a bilateral sense to counter-piracy, counter- narcotics, cooperation in Afghanistan is possible. We can have discussions about military reform. As you know, the Russians are in the process of doing a fair amount of military reform, including a significant reduction in their officer corps and raising the professionalism of their non- commissioned officers (NCOs). On the other hand, we need to find and demonstrate to our allies in the Baltics and in Eastern Europe reassurance; show them that we have contingency plans; that we have the ability to back up Article 5 of the NATO treaty. So I would conclude by saying it is really all about balance in approaching Russia. And we must maintain a sense of both reassurance with our allies but also find zones of cooperation as we move forward. The Chairman. What military-to-military operations do we have? Admiral Stavridis. In terms of operations at this point, we are not engaged in anything that I would describe as an actual operation, Mr. Chairman. But we are engaged in active dialogue with Russian counterparts. For example, I held meetings in Brussels recently with General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of Defense (CHOD) of Russia. We are in a dialogue with them about exchanging noncommissioned officers and having a sense of showing them our training program and understanding what they are trying to do. We are also talking to them in general terms about their experiences in Afghanistan; trying it learn some lessons from all that. And, also, we are operating with them--and this is probably the closest we would come to an actual operation. There are Russian ships that are involved in counter-piracy operations alongside our ships, both on the U.S. side and on the NATO side, of the Horn of Africa. So that is a quick summary of where we are. The Chairman. Thank you. General Ward in your capacity, you, of course, have the service component commands working with you and for you. Is that correct? General Ward. That is correct, Chairman. The Chairman. Well, in particular, tell us what the Navy has been doing in the maritime security arena. And that has been of help in working with our African partners--the United States Navy? General Ward. Mr. Chairman, approximately two and a half years ago, in October of 2006, we conducted a maritime conference in Cotonou, Benin. It was--at that time, I was still the Deputy Commander at EUCOM, and we had the Commander of Naval Forces Europe with me. And we worked with the Chief of Defense there to find out from them what they needed to help them be in a better posture to protect their territorial waters from all the elicit trafficking things that had been going on. As a result of that conference, we have expanded into what we now call the Africa Partnership Station. It is a program. It is not the platform. It is a program. It is a training program that brings together the various nations of the littoral there in the continent of Africa. It started in the western part of the continent. As I have mentioned, it has expanded around to the entire continent now. But it includes our U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, other European partners, the Dutch, the Germans, the British, French, as staff members of this training platform. It also includes members from the African nations where this platform, as it circumnavigates the continent, will touch for two to three week periods of time, training these African nations on things that they see for themselves as important to increase their capacity to improve their security. It includes such things as small boat maintenance and repair. If you have a problem in your territorial waters, you have to have assets to deal with that. And so as simple a thing as keeping your boat motors operating, as keeping your electrical systems running are the sorts of things that we do with this platform. It includes professionalization of the noncommissioned officer corps. It includes other professionalism discipline sorts of drills that increase the capacity of these nations to bring their own security capacity to bear as they seek to protect their territory waters. It also includes how they work together in a linked way with respect to how they monitor and surveil their maritime areas. And so how they bring their surveillance systems into play is part of that dynamic. Training, in some cases, providing the equipment, that program is being led by the United States Navy, and it is under the auspices of my command, my component command, Naval Forces Africa, who now leads that program but with the involvement of the players of Europe, as I mentioned, the continental players, as I mentioned, but also other parts of the interagency in that attempt to help these countries increase their maritime safety and security. The Chairman. Thank you. General Mattis, let us talk about professional military education for a moment. Our colleague from Arkansas, Dr. Snyder, in his role as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, has delved into the professional military education at great length in a series of hearings. And I have a concern that--well, it is reflected pretty well in an article that retired General Bob Scales wrote entitled, ``Too Busy to Learn.'' And he compared what we are going through today, about putting off education for some people and some not even getting it, to what the British went through prior to the First World War. How do we correct that? You know, there is only so much time in a person's career. How do we do that? The promotion timelines are so tight that it is just hard it fit it all in. But if we are to be successful in the future years, it is important that we educate our officers at all levels. Do you have thoughts on that, General? General Mattis. I do. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. The only thing worse in a war than obsolete weapons is obsolete thinking. And you can get obsolete by thinking that the war you are fighting is what all wars are going to look like. There can be no doubt about the operational effectiveness of the U.S. military today. It is unmatched in the world. The problem is we are not worried about today in terms of your question. We are worried about tomorrow. I think that you point to a very specific problem of arithmetic. There is no more years in a career right now, so you have to squeeze it all in. And when you look at the service competency upon which officers create their own self-image, they test themselves, they develop their confidence based on their service capability, whether it be an infantryman in the Army or a ship driver in the Navy or a pilot, they have got to get good at their basic skills, their basic military skills. Then what do we do? I believe that we are going to eventually, in light of the better health of the force today where we don't drink or smoke like we once did, this sort of thing, that we need to look at extending officer careers. There should be certain restrictions on this. There should be continuation boards so we don't end up keeping the wrong people around. But you simply can't put in the amount of education and everything else that needs to be into an officer's career if we continue with the current 20- and 30-year expectations. I believe that the danger is real, and we are going to have to address it in more than just the manner in which we have in the past. In other words, distance learning, we are going to have to reward the kind of behavior that we want to keep. Institutions get the behavior they reward, yet we do not have sufficient rewards right now for those who, on their own, commit to an active learning throughout their career. So I think you need to change some of the reward systems. We are talking personnel policies here. And we also need to consider extending, as appropriate, not in all cases, the normal career to 30 and 40 years versus 20 and 30. I hope that addresses your question, sir. The Chairman. Thank you so much. Mr. McKeon. Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Admiral, while the current policy seeks to reset relations with Russia, I think we ought to take steps to reassure our allies and friends, as I said in my opening statement. And your posture statement notes that, without four brigade combat teams in Europe, deterrence and reassurance are at an increased risk. I talked about moving from 300 down to 80,000 and then if we took 2 brigade combat teams out, it would cut it in half again. Can you explain how reducing our force presence in Europe puts deterrence and reassurance at risk? Admiral Stavridis. Yes, sir. I think you have outlined the top two aspects of it very well, which are the physical presence of our troops is extremely reassuring on the one hand to the allies and friends about whom we spoke earlier. And I think there is a deterrent value in it. And so with that as backdrop, I would add three other things that I think are important to this four brigade combat team level presence in Europe. One is one we don't always focus on, but it is logistics. It is having that capability to move rapidly globally and, let us face it, our current set of missions are on the other side of Europe. And so that footprint in Europe is well supported. And those four brigade combat teams are all cycling forward into the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. So I would add logistics. I would also add training. There is an extremely important training element in the building of partnership capacity with our allies. And with four brigade combat teams, the level, the complexity, the depth of training that can be conducted with allies is twice as good as with two brigade combat teams. So I think that is a second element I would add to the two you mentioned. And then thirdly, I would say there is really a leadership component for the United States. For us to maintain a leadership role, I think, that level of 80,000 troops in Europe is roughly about right, particularly, when you look at the steep decline it has gone through, as you pointed out earlier, sir. So I would sort of say reassurance, deterrence, logistics, leadership, and training as the five reasons that I would put forward the military advice to remain at the level of four brigade combat teams. Mr. McKeon. Thank you. There seems to be a debate brewing over U.S. nuclear forces in Europe. Your statement was notably silent on this issue. Do you think keeping these forces in Europe strengthens the alliance? Is our nuclear presence important to Article 5, the common defense provision? Admiral Stavridis. Sir, I have not taken a public stance on this because, as you can appreciate, it is very much in the political venue. I mean, this is an international dialogue that has to be conducted among the members of the alliance. I will say that the shared responsibility of these nuclear weapons creates a military-to-military level of trust and confidence that is extremely helpful, in my view, in maintaining the military-to-military aspects of NATO. I would also say that I would hope that any decisions that are taken are made multilaterally and that we do this as an alliance, not responding to this nation or that nation having a particular political issue, but rather we look at the whole question of nuclear weapons in the alliance as a whole. And I believe that is where Secretary General Rasmussen wants to take this dialogue. Mr. McKeon. Thank you. I understand that the recent Juniper Cobra exercise with Israel was a success. Given the growing crisis over Iran's nuclear program, what additional steps is EUCOM taking to ensure the defense of Israel and its stability in your AOR? Admiral Stavridis. Well, thank you, sir, for mentioning Juniper Cobra. We are extremely proud of that exercise. We had over 2,000 U.S. and allied forces involved in that. It was a very complex missile defense exercise that married up the Israeli systems, the Arrow and the Iron Dome system, with our own AEGIS sea-based system as well as some of our land-based systems. Very complex to bring all that together. Very effective. I would say that we need to build on that exercise and continue to have that level of dialogue and engagement and actual operational activities with our Israeli friends. And I believe that we can learn from them and we can learn from their technical systems just as they can marry up and learn from ours. So I would say build on that missile defense. I would say continue information and intelligence sharing. And I would say--I would support, obviously, the continued very strong military-to-military cooperation across the board that we enjoy with Israel today. Mr. McKeon. Thank you. I am concerned about the reset policy, particularly, the impact on our NATO allies. What are you hearing from our NATO allies on U.S.-Russian engagement? And what is the military, particularly EUCOM, doing to prepare in the event of another Russia-Georgia or similar conflict? Admiral Stavridis. From all of the allies, there is a real understanding that we have a need to train and be prepared for any kind of contingency in Europe. And so we are constantly, actively reviewing all of our contingency plans both on the NATO side and on the U.S. European Command side to be prepared for any security eventuality in Europe. That is an active dialogue, and it is sort of step-one planning. Step two is a very robust series of exercises both on the NATO side and on the U.S. European Command side. Example, this summer, we have what are called BALTOPS, Baltic Operations, which will bring both Marines afloat as well as ships at sea as well as Army operators ashore and special operators ashore to practice and exercise with our Baltic partners. We are going to do a special operations series of exercises this summer in the--in Eastern Europe as well. So exercises, I would say, are number two and equally important. And then third and finally, it is the sharing of information and training--the kind of international military education and training (IMET) program where we bring our partners here to the United States to train. We send our folks to train and be educated in their institutions. To the Chairman's point about education, that also creates a real bond among the allies at the officer-to-officer level and at the senior NCO level which is extremely, extremely helpful in maintaining the sense of reassurance amongst all of the allies. So I did put those three things at the top--planning, exercises, and shared education and training. Mr. McKeon. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. I thank the gentleman from California. We are under the five minute rule. Mr. Ortiz, please. Mr. Ortiz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I would like to thank all three of you for appearing before our committee today, and thank you for your service. General Ward, I just have a few questions for you. In light of the horrific recent tragedies in Nigeria, does AFRICOM have enough troops to conduct training? And I know you have had some training exercises with countries that have requested support. And can you also speak to the training of African troops by AFRICOM? And I know that, in the beginning, you know, when we set the command, there were some questions about being accepted in the area where we had troops. How well are the African troops faring in actual operations? Can we conduct the performance reviews on the African training programs? And I know that all of this comes into play with the complex humanitarian emergencies that come about, but maybe you can give us a little input as to what is going on and the training and whether you have enough personnel to do something that does justice to them. General Ward. Thank you, Mr. Ortiz. First, you are correct. We have no assigned forces. We get our forces through the global force management process administered by the Department of Defense (DOD) here in D.C. as well as my friend, Jim Mattis' Joint Forces Command. And we submit, through a request-of-forces process, our requirements for forces. We are being--that requirement is being satisfied at about the 80 to 85 percent rate which is commensurate with what happens at the other combatant commands. It does affect us a bit because we don't have any assigned forces to complement that. But at the current time, we are looking at ways and the Department of Defense is also looking at ways to reestablish the global employment of the force priority structure such that the requirement for building partner capacity that you have addressed here is achieved--receives a higher priority in this whole process. But right now, that is how we do it. And for me, having assigned force is not necessarily the issue. What is important is that, when I have a demand for forces, those forces can be provided. Owning them is not important, but having them available is something that I think is very, very important. As we work with the African nations with our various exercises, we provided training support, logistics support, and they have participated in peacekeeping operations. We see that level of training and support being very, very instrumental to their level of performance. As a recent example of a training iteration that we conducted in Mali as we were working with the Malian armed forces as they conducted their counter-terror training. You may recall that, last summer, the Malians suffered some pretty substantial defeats on the part of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Part of the outcome of this most recent training happened in January from one of the members who participated who said, had I had that training prior to or had those who encountered that incident last July, had they had this training, the outcome would have been different. We think we are making a difference. The performance of these African nations indicates that our presence, our training with them makes a difference. And we certainly look to continue that because that is how we help safeguard our own populations. With their having increased capacities to do those things, to provide for their own security, it has a direct impact on the safety and security of our citizens and Africa but also in the transnational nature of today's threat environment also helping them do their part to counter those transnational threats. Mr. Ortiz. And I know that we do have some health threats, pandemics in the area. How are we addressing some of the health problems, the pandemics that we have in the area? Are we working jointly with them? Are we having doctors that help out as well? General Ward. Our efforts are part of the entire Department of Defense health assurance program. We work our pandemic plans with the African nations as well as, obviously, our European friends because we see the global connectivity of all of those things. We do work with them in their planning, their response. A part of my staff--my surgeon staff, my medical staff--are going and doing their engagement--our medical engagement, also, to help them address their own individual unique requirements and how they counter these threats from pandemics. The H1N1, they didn't have a problem with it. It was kind of in reverse how they tried to assure people that that didn't have an effect on them. And, obviously, the health threat that would emanate from the continent and would spread, likewise, keeping those in check. But other things as well from HIV-AIDS, malaria, robust program with all those issues of health are also security related if they are left unchecked. Mr. Ortiz. Again, thank you so much for your service. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett. Thank you. During the last break, I and 12 other members of Congress, both the House and Senate, spent the better part of a week with several Russians in Madrid talking about U.S.-Russian relations. It was pretty obvious from the perspective of those Russians present that there are two major impediments to better relationships between the United States and Russia. One is NATO, and the other is our placement of anti-ballistic missile defenses. Sometimes, it helps to put yourself in the other guy's place. Suppose that the Cold War had gone differently and we had lost and NATO was gone and the Warsaw Pact was alive and growing, and the next two countries that were coming into the Warsaw Pact are Canada and Mexico. How would we feel? That is kind of the way that the Russians feel, I think, when the Baltic countries and the Ukraine might be coming into NATO. If we need a good will--European good will society, it probably ought to be called something other than NATO or Russia ought to be invited into NATO. One of those two solutions, I think, would be very preferable to what we are now doing. The other major impediment to better relations was our placement of the missile sites. I don't think there is any country that is going to launch over the pole except Russia, and our meager defenses there would be immediately swamped by Russia. They have thousands of weapons. These other people may be evil. They are not idiots. They are not going to launch from their soil. Are they going to launch from the ocean? They know if they launch from their soil, they will be almost immediately vaporized. They are not going to do that. If, in fact, you think we need these sites in the Arctic, why not put them in Russia? Russia has a lot of Arctic territory. As far as protecting Europe is concerned, we were going to place them in Poland and Czechoslovakia. If you look at the map, that leaves about half of Europe totally unprotected. You really need these missile sites to protect Europe from Iran, and Iran is not going to launch weapons from their soil. But if we really think you need that, what is wrong with the most extreme southwestern part of Russia? If you look at that site as a far better place to put missiles to protect Europe than where we are now planning to put them? Would you agree that these are the two major impediments to better relations with Russia? Admiral Stavridis. I would say that I have heard both of those discussions from my Russian interlocutors, and that Russia, as you know, sir, just recently issued a new strategic doctrine in which they talk about NATO expansion as a--they call it a danger to Russia. So I think it is absolutely correct to say that, from a Russian perspective, NATO expansion is of concern. Mr. Bartlett. Then, sir, why do we continue with this if we want better working relations with Russia? Admiral Stavridis. Well, NATO is an open organization. And if you look at Article 9 of the NATO treaty, sir, it says very simply that membership in NATO is open to any nation by a unanimous-consent vote of all the current nations in NATO. Mr. Bartlett. Have we invited Russia in? Admiral Stavridis. We, the United States, have not invited Russia into NATO, no, sir. Mr. Bartlett. Why would we not want Russia to be a part of NATO if we want better working relationships with them and better security on the continent? Admiral Stavridis. Well, I think that that question really is better posed to NATO rather than to the commander of U.S. European Command. But I know that the Secretary General of NATO, Secretary General Rasmussen, recently had a visit in Moscow and had a very wide-ranging discussion about all of these topics and is working very hard, along the lines of what you suggest, to place himself and to place the alliance in a position to look through the eyes of Russia so that we can find these kinds of zones of cooperation. So I think our hand is out from a NATO perspective. I have heard the secretary general say repeatedly our hand is out in cooperation. I think whether there is a follow-on along the lines you are discussing is something that all 28 NATO nations would have to discuss. Mr. Bartlett. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank you. Before I call on Mr. Taylor, General Ward, you formerly were the deputy at European Command. Is that correct? General Ward. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. And your rank was four-star. Is that correct? General Ward. Correct, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. You do not have a four-star deputy in your command. Is that correct? General Ward. None of the combatant commands have four-star deputies. The Chairman. That answers the question. Thank you very much. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Chairman, I am going to yield to Mr. Kissell and take his place at the appropriate time. Mr. Kissell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Mr. Taylor. The last time, Mr. Taylor was nice enough to yield to me like this, I said I would be glad to take his time if he would also yield some questions to me because Mr. Taylor asks some of the best questions that are ever asked on this panel. I welcome you gentlemen here today and thank you for your service and thank you for being here today. Admiral, we have talked quite a bit about the importance of NATO and our relationship with NATO. What is the mindset of NATO towards the organization--the European mindset. How committed are they? What do they see as the future for NATO? How do they view this alliance? Admiral Stavridis. Sir, I believe that broadly--and here I speak from polling data conducted in Europe--about 60 percent of most Europeans in Western Europe feel extremely positively toward the NATO alliance. And those numbers go up as you move toward the east. So that in the eastern part of Europe, we see numbers very high, as high as 70 percent, if you will, approval ratings for NATO. So from a public perception, I have that, broadly speaking, there is acceptance of NATO as a fundamental construct in the trans-Atlantic bridge. My own experiences talking to heads of state, ministers of defense, ministers of foreign affairs, chiefs of defense, the equivalent of our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, certainly support that. I feel there is strong support for NATO, even as we are today engaged in a wide variety of activities. We have almost 90,000 NATO troops engaged on three different continents in operations all around the world. There are losses, but, overall, I believe there is a strong sense of support for NATO as an alliance moving forward. Mr. Kissell. Just curious in a specific country, Turkey. Reading last week about conflicts between a less secular part of Turkey versus the military. What do you see is the role of Turkey and how it might play out there? Admiral Stavridis. I believe Turkey is an extremely important state geopolitically. It is a hinge state between Europe and the Levant and South Asia and, indeed, the entire arc of the Islamic world. So the presence of Turkey in NATO is extremely important and I think is very helpful in maintaining an orientation of Turkey toward and with the West. Mr. Kissell. Okay. General Ward, we have had hearings recently about our relationship with China. What is the influence of China into the continent of Africa? How is that playing out? Pros and cons about what is taking place there? General Ward. Thank you, sir. China is pursuing its interest in Africa like other nations. It is working with many nations of the continent pursuing economic and developmental interests. Their--from what I can see, their military relations are not very robust. From time to time, you will note some engineering sorts of things going on with infrastructure development. It is the type of thing that, from my perspective, we clearly see how these sovereign nations reach out to other sovereign nations to help them achieve various national objectives that they may have. China is one of the countries that they reach out to. China responds in ways that satisfies requirements. What impact that will ultimately have, I am not prepared to address. The work that we do is work that we hope that, where there are opportunities to cooperate from the standpoint of promoting security and stability, that that would clearly be an objective, also, of the Chinese and any other nation that is engaging on the continent with the sovereign nations of Africa as they move ahead and pursue those common objectives. That is how I see the current situation as it moves ahead there on the continent, sir. Mr. Kissell. Thank you, sir. And General Mattis, you had talked about, in your opening statement, about the thoughts in trying to envision the next war. And looking at that now and our mindset--where we are with the conflicts we have and the challenges we have--what would be an area--or what is the area that most concerns you that we are missing the most as we do move forward? What potentials are we missing? General Mattis. Sir, that is really the $64,000 question in my line of work, knowing that we will not get it exactly right, we just don't want to get it completely wrong. We look at what happened in our current operations. We look at South Lebanon in the second Lebanon war, and we look at Russia-Georgia, and we put together what we believe is a hybrid nature of threat that is coming at us, where it will not be all conventional or all irregular; it will be more of a blurred hybrid threat that we have to confront because the differences between types of warfare seem to be blurring. The enemy has found our weak area, and they are moving against us in those areas. They are a very learning, adaptive enemy. So the most important point we can make is that we not adopt a single preclusive view of war and we stay attuned to what Secretary Gates has called for with this balance because we could inadvertently actually incite an enemy to try us in an area that we decide to abrogate because we don't think it is very likely. It makes for a very difficult effort, but it is one that is primarily addressed through education and training that creates the kind of adroit officer that can move from one type threat to another without being caught flat-footed, sir. That is about the best answer I can give you with just a couple moments here. Mr. Kissell. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. And, thank you, Chairman. I yield back. The Chairman. Mr. Forbes, the gentleman from Virginia. Mr. Forbes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And gentlemen, let me echo what my colleagues have been saying in terms of our appreciation for your service and all that you do. And General Mattis, if I could follow up on some of your previous comments that you just made in response to Mr. Kissell's questions. As you know, our forces face an adversary that does tend to avoid our strengths and exploit our weaknesses and remains quickly adaptable to the changing engagement environment. To train our soldiers in our conventional manner is expensive and time consuming. I am just wondering if you could share with the committee how we can use modeling and simulation to help train our forces. And what do you believe the resulting benefits would be? General Mattis. Thank you, Mr. Forbes. This is an area of some great focus to me. And if we would go back to the Chairman's opening remarks about the need for superior individual and small-unit capabilities being the most critical, most effective weapons today, we are going to have to have the ground forces adopt an aviation and a maritime view with the use of modeling and simulation. The aviators and the maritime forces have used them from the Idaho desert where they have the reactors for the Navy to the simulators on every single airbase for our aviators. We just had signed 48 hours ago by the Deputy Secretary of Defense a decision to create a line of funding that will permit us to take advantage of the gaming industry's advances, and we will try to put our young troops, our infantry, the ones who take-- over 80 percent of our casualties since 1945 have been infantrymen--we are going to try to bring to them a level of simulation and modeled training that will put them through as many technical and ethical challenges as we can before they go into their first firefight and during every dwell time after that. This is, to me, a fundamental area. It is both a military effectiveness area of opportunity, and it is an ethical burden that we need to take on right now. Mr. Forbes. And, General, I have heard you speak before, but I was just wondering if you could elaborate on your thoughts about how that kind of modeling and simulation training could actually save of the lives of some of our infantrymen. And where do you see JFCOM in this role, and how are they positioned to, perhaps, assist or help with this? General Mattis. Yes, sir. JFCOM has a role because, today, we find jointness where the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, coalition forces are working together at increasingly lower levels. Where, at one time, you might have an Army division alongside a Marine division alongside an allied division. Today, we have Marine infantrymen with Army intelligence specialists serving alongside them inside an Army brigade with Air Force and Navy close-air support alongside a NATO ally that is closely off an enemy line of retreat. This means we can no longer leave simply to the services without support the ability to train the joint and coalition warfare at levels now that may involve NCOs receiving the same kind of training that you and I have characterized in the past for junior officers. So the Joint Forces Command role is one to bring this joint piece down to the lowest tactical level so joint intelligence capabilities are understood and used there, joint fires are used to mitigate danger, carry out the mission. Mr. Forbes. And specifically as it relates to casualties for our infantrymen, what role can modeling and simulation play in helping to ratchet up their experience level and, perhaps, reduce these casualties? General Mattis. Mr. Forbes, I have been in a lot of fights, and this isn't scientific, but I would say half the people--I am an infantry officer--half the casualties I have seen on our side were for silly, stupid reasons. And if we can put people through simulation--it is not so they know one way to take down an enemy stronghold but so they know five different ways to do it and they have already been through it so many times they know how not to make the mistake that can be made on a simulator. We will still have to do live-fire training. It won't give us a risk-free environment. But I am convinced, both ethically and casualties wise, we can reduce the missteps that we are taking on the battlefield and reduce them significantly. Mr. Forbes. Thank you, General. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Dr. Snyder. Dr. Snyder. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here. We appreciate your many, many years of service to our country. Admiral Stavridis, Mr. Kissell asked about Turkey. In the Arkansas River, we have the USS Razorback, which was a World War II era submarine. It is actually one of the submarines that you see in the row in Tokyo Harbor in 1945 at the surrender. It saw some action at the end of the war and then did some Cold War tours, but at some point, was donated to Turkey as part of our U.S.-Turkey alliance. It served the Turkish navy for quite a few years. And a few years ago, they donated it back to the city of North Little Rock as part of a museum. And so we actually have a submarine sitting in the Arkansas River. We had to lift it a little bit between some barges to get it up there. But it sits there. I think it is a symbol of the very, very strong relationship between Turkey and the United States. Would you amplify, please, on how important Turkey has been or is currently to our activities in both Iraq and Afghanistan? Admiral Stavridis. Yes, sir. I will be glad to. As the--first of all, as the only Islamic nation in NATO, Turkey has been extremely helpful in assisting all of the other nations in understanding the cultural morays that are so important as we go into these kinds of complex situations that General Mattis is talking about. Secondly, Turkey is a big, muscular country with a strong- standing army and a very capable military. We have learned a great deal and have drawn on their active support, for example, the Turks today have 1,800 troops in Afghanistan doing exceptionally good work really across a wide spectrum of missions in the country. Thirdly, they are an absolutely vital link in the overall Article 5 defense of the alliance. They are a border state of NATO. The Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), the air- control station in the southeastern portion of the alliance is located in Ismir, Turkey. They link up with us extremely well. We have forward aircraft there. At every dimension, Turkey has been an extremely strong NATO partner. In terms of the U.S. aspects of this, the bilateral relationship, equally so. They have been very supportive. We are working with them on intelligence and information sharing along their borders working across that border with Iraq. My good friend, General Ray Odierno, has been very engaged in this. I count the chief of defense of Turkey, General Ikler Basbug, a close friend and interlocutor who gives me good advice on how we should be approaching and working in the Islamic world. So overall, an extremely important partner both to NATO and to the United States. Dr. Snyder. There also is a very strong relationship between Armenia and the people of Armenia and the American people. And as you know, on August 31st of last year, Turkey-- the leadership of Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols that they intend to be a pathway to normalization. And the protocols, as you know, are awaiting legislative approval in both countries. And we, as a Nation, certainly understand agreements, whether they are trade agreements or other agreements, awaiting approval by legislative bodies. Should both countries approve those protocols, how important a step do you think that will be forward for Europe? Admiral Stavridis. I think it would be an extremely important step. There are several of these so-called frozen conflicts in Europe. And this is one of them. And a step forward between those two nations, I think, would also serve as a very good example as other types of these issues are worked through, for example, in the Balkans. My grandparents were born in Turkey. They were of Greek descent and immigrated here to the United States. It is an extremely complex region of the world. And whenever these nations can find common ground and move beyond the disputes and the anger and the warfare of the past, that is an extremely salutary step, really, for all of Europe but certainly nations involved. Dr. Snyder. And we wish both nations well as they grapple with that issue. Admiral Stavridis. Yes, sir. Dr. Snyder. General Mattis, you specifically mentioned in your opening statement in response to the Chairman's question talked about PME. I was at Quantico a week ago or so, and we wanted to have a discussion about enlisted PME. And one of the topics that was brought up there by the leadership there was the fact that, at the enlisted level--while we do a lot in the Marine Corps and the military for enlisted PME--when you take a 30-year enlisted person and look at their career, how much time they have been given during their career to actually go to college, it is dramatically lower than the officers. And the feeling was that is something that we need to look at. I just have a few seconds left, but if any of you had any comment about that issue of should we be revisiting the issue of enlisted people and where time off to go to college. Because a lot of them go to college, but it is on their own time at night. Any comments? General Mattis. As you know, sir, the Congress has given us money to defray the tuition costs for our NCOs going. And they have taken great advantage. We have a quality of enlisted force today that is eager to learn very broadly and, of course, their own skills. A point I would make is one of the great strengths of the American forces is its NCOs--noncommissioned officers--and petty officers. Much of what we call ``sergeant's work'' or ``chief's work'' cannot really be taught in a college or university. So we need to make sure that we separate out the natural quest of almost all of these young Americans to improve themselves and educate further versus the military requirement which may require more extended military schooling at a level that we usually associate with junior officers vice putting them through college which may or may not actually make them better NCOs. But the need for the education is absolute. It is just making certain we do it in a focused way so we stay at the top of our game, sir. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Kline. Mr. Kline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen, for your service and for being here. Just a quick comment, General Mattis. I was very pleased to hear your comments about modeling simulation response to Mr. Forbes' questions on the one hand. On the other hand, it is almost appalling that we have reached this 2010 and we are not further along. I know the services--and certainly the Marine Corps because I was involved in it going back 16 years or more ago--was recognizing that need for modeling simulation. So I hope we will move out aggressively to take advantage of that technology. General Ward, it is always great to see you. I sometimes flash back those many years ago when we were colonels and commanding soldiers and Marines in Somalia. And I want to get to that country in just a second. But I was looking at some headlines here in the last week from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and others: Hundreds dead in Nigeria attack; Mauritania vows no negotiations or prisoner exchanges with Al Qaeda; tear gas fired at Togo protestors; Sudan army says it now controls strategic Darfur plateau; twin blasts hit Rwanda's capital; Canada lists Somalia Shabab as a terrorist group; France claims biggest haul of pirates off Somalia; Libya calls in U.S. oil firms over Gathafi jibe; and so forth. You have got a mess and very few forces. Let us go to Somalia, if we can, to help me and us understand how AFRICOM works to address these issues. If you look at Somalia--and you know well what a mess it was 17 years or so ago when you and I were there. And you look at Al Shabab and you look at the headline that I just read. And today, in the New York Times, it says as much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants, and local United Nations staff members. We could have read the same thing 16, 17 years ago. In fact, that is why you and I were there because food wasn't getting where it would supposed to go. So we have AFRICOM. And somehow, you have got to work with the interagency, with Special Operations Command, with African forces. Who is in charge? And how do you do that? I know that is a big question, but I know that we have been grappling since the standup of your command. How does that work? Is Special Operations Command in charge? Are you in charge? You know, is the ambassador in charge? Is there nobody in charge? Use Somalia as the example or pick any one you want to kind of tell us how that works. General Ward. Well, thank you for that, Mr. Kline. And, obviously, as you pointed out, that is a complex environment, and things have not changed. If you take the case of Somalia, obviously, with where we are and the transition federal government that is there and the fact that the African Union--which wasn't the case when we were there 17 years ago--there is a continent-wide organization that has said that we will do our best to help bring this transition federal government into a place where it can begin to exert some control over that vast territory. The problem in Somalia is the lack of a government. It is the lack of effective governance. But there are things being done to address that. Is it truly an international effort. It requires the support of the global community. And the response that the United States has in that endeavor is--and the things that we are doing to try to reinforce the work of this transition government, to reinforce the work of the African Union, its mission in Somalia, Amazon, as they have fielded peacekeeping forces, African peacekeeping forces who have familiarity, have understanding. Our training support, our logistical support, our support to the transition federal government forces to cause them to be in a better state to help deal with this lack of governance are the sorts of things that we are doing in support of this, I think, international effort to address the problems of lack of governance in Somalia. And doing what we do through our interagency process, coordinating our activities with the Department of State and where there are things that need---- Mr. Kline. If I could interrupt, I am about to run out of time here, and I do really want to be respectful of that. But I am just struck again that this New York Times story is talking about a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants, and local United Nations staff members. And if the United Nations is, frankly, is as inept now as it was when you and I arrived there those many years ago where they were all holed up in a little corner of the Mogadishu Airport, I guess I would like to have the confidence--or I would like to have a feeling that, somehow, AFRICOM, now that you are in existence, is going to be able to exert, perhaps, more influence to help clear that up. And I have run out of time, and I know it was too big a subject. But it is worrisome to us that we don't--you don't have, perhaps, the organizational ability to step in there. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of areas to follow up on some of what my colleagues had asked about and some from your opening statements. Admiral Stavridis, if you could talk to us a little bit about our NATO partners in Afghanistan now that we have been into our new strategy for a few months, making progress in some areas, obviously, long-term continued support across Europe is going to be critical and it is hard to come by. Certainly, the population has considerable concerns and the leadership is grappling with that. If you could just walk us through how you think that is going as someone who is got to perspective. Where are our European allies at in terms of their cooperation short term and long term on our plan in Afghanistan? Admiral Stavridis. Sir, I would be glad to. Big picture, U.S. has about--we are moving toward about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. Our allies are about 40,000 troops. We have taken just over a thousand casualties. Our allies have taken about 750 casualties. They are very much in the fight with us. I think it is worth mentioning as a passing aside, if you will, 75 percent of the casualties in Afghanistan are actually taken by Afghan security forces. But of that 25 percent, our allies are very much in this fight with us. In fact, the nation who has taken the most casualties on a per capita basis may surprise you. It is Estonia. Estonia, Great Britain, Canada, the Dutch, many of these nations have taken a great deal--have given a great deal of blood as well as treasure. At the moment, we are seeking to fill up to about a total of 10,000 allied troops coming in alongside the 30,000 that President Obama just sent forward. We have got about 9,500 of them committed, but we are concerned about the fact that the Dutch government, as you mentioned, appears to be taking their forces out of Afghanistan by the end of this year. So that is of concern. Mr. Smith. And what--how many troops do they have there now? Admiral Stavridis. They have about 1,700 troops there now. So that would set us back from filling up that goal of a total of 10,000. My particular focus at the moment is on trainers because the success strategy in Afghanistan will be training the Afghan security forces, and that is really where we have made significant progress and where our allies have been very, very helpful over the last seven or eight months. I need about 700 more NATO trainers, and we are working very hard going country by country to get that and to fill it up. So overall, we have a significant contribution from the allies. I would like to get a little bit more. We are working very hard to achieve that. The war is, in various places in Europe, it is less popular than the United States. And in other places, it is--I don't want to say more popular--but it enjoys a higher level of support even than it does here. So it really varies across the European continent. I would say, overall, the allies are very much in this with us. I think they are--they will be with us through the short term, and I would say as long as the U.S. is engaged, as long as NATO is engaged, I am confident, overall, they will stay with us. Mr. Smith. Thank you. General Ward, I don't have a lot of time left here, but I would want to ask quickly about the situation in North Africa, Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in particular. You know, we are looking at, you know, future places that could be sort of the next Yemen, if you will, in terms of a place that rises up and becomes more of a problem than perhaps we expected, though I will say the DOD expected Yemen for some time. It is a bit of a misconception that we didn't see that coming. But in North Africa, in Mali and Mauritania, Al Qaeda (AQ) is very active and we simply don't have the resources there, certainly, than we have in Iraq and Afghanistan but even than we have watching Yemen and Somalia. What is your assessment of where that threat is at and what more we can do to be aware of what is happening? Because my great fear is there is a lot of, you know, vast open space out there that we know AQ is active. We don't have the type of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) coverage or intelligence that we would like to know what is going on there. Could you give me your quick assessment of that region and what more we should be doing? General Ward. Thank you, Mr. Smith. That region that you are describing is the size of the continental United States. It is a vast region, and what we are doing, working with those nations--those are sovereign nations there. So our effort is focused on trying to give them additional capacity to help, in fact, have better control over those vast spaces. So we will work with Malians, Algerians, Burkina Faso, Niger, other nations in the Sahel so that they have increased capacity. The intel piece is a very great piece of that, sir. And so how we are able to have additional information that helps them understand better what the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is doing will also be a part of their ability to then deal with that threat. Mr. Smith. Can you say a quick word about Mauritania? I know we have the--their critical there in the middle of this. We had the problem--they had the coup a few years back, broke off relations to a certain extent. What are we trying to do to deal with Mauritania's role in all of that? General Ward. Thankfully, in Mauritania, we are past the coup, and we are looking to increase our cooperation with the Mauritanians to work with them as well as other international players working with the Mauritanians to give them increased capacity to deal with the threat as well. And we are opening that again. Mr. Smith. Thank you. It is an area of particular interest to me and would like to be supportive as I can of your efforts there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank you. Before I call Mr. Coffman, Admiral, earlier, you mentioned a concern regarding the cyber world. Would you explain that, please? Admiral Stavridis. As I look at a world today in which 1 billion devices are connecting to the Internet and I look at all of our vulnerabilities in U.S. European Command and also look at it from the perspective of a NATO commander with 28 nations all of whom are very dependent on this cyber world, this cyber sea in which we sail, I am concerned that we are vulnerable from a military perspective; that we do not have the level of international cooperation that would create the norms, the systems of maintaining together how we navigate this cyber sea. And so I am an advocate of an international and an interagency approach, and I think the cyber world really needs to be a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach. And so as I look at our vulnerabilities, I am seeking to improve those by working with interagency partners as well as international partners in the NATO context particularly with the NATO cyber center that we have established in Estonia as one example of that, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank the admiral. Mr. Coffman. Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, General Mattis, I first want to commend you in taking a look at going beyond this 20-year career path and looking at a longer career path. Having served as an infantry officer, too, only having one year as a rifle platoon commander in my first assignment, I mean, I think that we need to look at individuals being able to serve more time at different develops in their career path. And I think we are pushing people through faster than we ought to. But one question--first, a statement that I disagree with using nation building as a principle tool for achieving our foreign policy objectives, but I understand that is beyond the pay grade of--or beyond the Department of Defense to make that decision. But one question I have of you is, number one, has using our conventional forces and a heavy footprint for counterinsurgency purposes--how has that degraded our war fighting capability from a conventional standpoint? And prospectively, are there plans to use our--rely more heavily on special operations forces (SOF) to counter irregular threats, asymmetric threats and utilize our conventional forces to counter conventional threats going forward? Could you address that, please? General Mattis. Thank you, Mr. Coffman. On using our SOF more, we are using them right now to the absolute limit of capacity in a number of areas, not just the ones that make the newspapers every day. So between General Casey, General Conway, Admiral Olson who commands Special Operations Command, between the Army, Marine Corps, SOF, and Joint Forces Command, we are looking at those engagement efforts, counterinsurgent efforts, that require SOF only. We are building relationships and this sort of thing. If it is just teaching troops how to fight small-unit tactics, how to march, how to shoot, how to do first aid, those are things the general-purpose force can take off of the special forces so they are free to do only the things that they are best tuned for. So there is going to continue to be a need for our general- purpose forces to be able to fight across the spectrum of combat. We cannot have forces that we basically put on the shelf and say we only use them in this kind of a fight. We try to bring all of them together. And I recognize there is some degradation right now, but we believe that, with the congressional build-up of the Army and the Marines that they have funded, and with the drawdown of about 10,000 fewer troops in the Central Command (CENTCOM) AOR in September of this year compared to September of a year ago, you will see dwell times extending. And that will allow the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to get back to some of the more conventional aspects of war, which we have put on the back burner right now. We have Marines who have not been on board ship, although they have been in the Marine Corps for eight years. We have Army troops who have not coordinated large artillery fires in support of brigade maneuver. Dwell time will give us the chance to do that, sir, without segregating the general-purpose force out of irregular warfare. Mr. Coffman. Thank you, General Mattis. Admiral, I think you have four brigade combat teams organic to NATO or positioned in Europe. But my first assignment was in the United States Army mechanized infantry in Europe, and we did Reforger exercises every year--I don't know if those are still ongoing--where forces from continental United States (CONUS) would then go to Europe and we would kind of simulate being able to utilize them for a counterattack against, at that time, Warsaw Pact forces. Since we have that capability, can't we preposition those forces within the United States without compromising our commitment to NATO and simply utilize those forces on an ongoing operational basis by deploying them into Europe on a very temporary basis and then pulling them back but basing them inside the United States? Admiral Stavridis. You could examine a construct like that, and I recognize that any decision like this has political and economic elements that need to be worked out. There is a business case that is involved with all this, and I would refer that aspect of it to the Department of the Army which looks very closely at all this. My job is to provide my military advice as to what I think is best for the security and defense of the United States in Europe, and I have look at this very closely. And from my perspective, because of the things we talked about earlier--the reassurance, deterrence, leadership, logistics, training--I think four brigade combat teams in Europe is a good investment for the United States, sir. Mr. Coffman. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, in reverse alphabetical order, if you don't mind, we will start with you, General Ward, in a minute and a half, what keeps you awake at night, if anything? General Ward. Sir, I am concerned about the potential that American lives will be lost because of what might generate and emanate from the continent of Africa. That is why our focus on the security capacity of those nations to secure their territorial borders, to secure their territorial waters is so important. Those threats could affect us wherever we may be in this globalized society. What goes on in Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, what goes on in East Africa with respect to Al Qaeda, what goes on in Maghreb with respect to Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb--our programs are all designed to address those threats that are faced by Americans who live on the continent and also could have an effect on us here at home. Mr. Taylor. Thank you, sir. Admiral. Admiral Stavridis. Sir, I will be very brief. Afghanistan, through my NATO hat, is of extreme concern, and we are working that. And I would put that at the top of my list of things I worry about. I am concerned, also, about the Balkans, making sure we don't fall back into the situation we saw in the 1900s. As I mentioned to the chairman, I worry about cyber. I don't think we spend enough time looking and thinking at that. And then, lastly, I worry about Iran, about the growing threat of ballistic missiles, about the possibility of them acquiring a nuclear weapon, about state-sponsored terrorism. So those four things, sir. Mr. Taylor. General Mattis. General Mattis. Sir, mine are a mix of current and future concerns. First of all, the loss of precision dominance by our forces means that no longer do we have the ability to hit the enemy in ways they cannot reply in kind. Just think of Israel. Instead of under attack by ballistic-launched rockets, think if each one had a GPS transmitter or receiver on the front that can guide them precisely onto locations and what are we doing to make certain, if we deploy forces, they can protect themselves. Second is counter-improvised explosive device (IED). We need to get away from defensive measures and create technologically sustainable offensive ways to turn the IED on the enemy so we are no longer putting more armor or more jammers on ours. Mr. Taylor. General, can I interrupt? Do you see that technology anywhere? And is Congress missing the boat on acquiring it? General Mattis. Sir, it is not the Congress. There is enough money that you have given to Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and others. What we have is a technologically challenging effort, as a physicist put it to me, General, you are asking us to do something harder than going to the moon. That took us 10 years. You have been at war eight. We should be getting pretty close then. We have the money, sir. We need to organize the effort. But this one very much concerns me. This weapon is coming to a city near us very soon. A couple other things that keep me awake at night, sir, the quality of the troops joining the U.S. Army. The Army continues to do most of the fighting and most of the bleeding for this country. It is okay right now, but we all saw a concern about this a few years ago. And the all-volunteer force is unmatched, but we must maintain the quality of this force. I am also concerned in the long run about the financially unsustainable path that our national budget is on and whether or not we will be able to maintain the military forces when the only discretionary money you may have to play with, to address, to allocate, is at the Department of Defense. And what are the long-term implications of that? And last is the one that was just mentioned by my comrade here, and that is the cyber vulnerability. Mr. Taylor. Admiral, while I still have you, going back to your days in Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), are there any surface combatant missions off the coast of South and Latin America that cannot be handled by a Guided Missile Frigate (FFG) or a SLEP'd [Service Life Extension Program] FFG? Admiral Stavridis. Day-to-day, no. Everything can be handled by a frigate-sized vessel. I would only point out the Haiti experience that you and I remember both from the hurricanes and most recently from the earthquake, hospital ship, big-deck amphib for those extremely discreet individual high-end events. But other than that, those frigates do us very well down there, sir. Mr. Taylor. General Ward, on the counter-piracy mission off of Somalia, is there anything that could not be handled by a frigate? General Ward. To my best understanding, Congressman, there is not. Mr. Taylor. Okay. Thank you very much. And, again, thank you, all of you, for your tremendous service to our Nation. Thank you for being here today. Mr. Taylor [presiding]. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, for five minutes. Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Generals and Admiral, I want to join with you. I agree with you about Erin Conaton, who has been confirmed to be the Under Secretary of the Air Force. Ms. Conaton has just been a-- I have seen firsthand a devoted person for our military and, of course, she was trained by Chairman Ike Skelton. So we know that she will be an excellent resource and supporter of our military. So I am grateful for that. And General Ward, of course, each year, I like to welcome you. I like to remind you that Charleston, my birthplace, would love to have you and AFRICOM to locate there. The Chamber of Commerce in Charleston has an open invitation for AFRICOM. And with that, I understand that Secretary Gates has stated that a move of AFRICOM's headquarters will not be considered until 2012. When this decision is made, what are the primary issues that are going to be considered? Particularly, I am interested in the quality of life for dependents, access to schools, medical facilities, transportation access, jobs. How would that be weighed in the decision? General Ward. Thank you, Mr. Wilson, and thank you for your invitation, again, as well, sir. The decision, when it is considered in 2012, has not been outlined at this point in time. However, to be sure, in any environment, the quality of line, the well-being of the serving members, be they uniformed or civilian, their family members will be a part of that dynamic, I am sure. To what degree it will take, again, I am--we are not at that point just yet. As you are aware, those are factors in determining where the headquarters are currently located from the standpoint of the enduring location that Stuttgart offers, the availability of those facilities. So I am sure they will be considered in that same light when this decision is revisited in a few years. Mr. Wilson. Well, anytime I see you, whether in the hallway, anywhere, do understand, we would love for you to relocate to Charleston, South Carolina. [Laughter.] And, Admiral, DOD-sponsored programs for spouses and dependents of service members are very important. What are you doing to ensure the dependents of members stationed within EUCOM are receiving the same benefits as those stationed within the continental United States? In particular, are education standards for schools-age children meeting these of their counterparts in the United States? What are the employment opportunities for spouses? And what measures are being taken to increase awareness of those? Admiral Stavridis. Thank you, sir. I do want to mention that my sister lives in Charleston and she lives in Mount Pleasant. She is a schoolteacher there. And she loves Charleston which brings me to teaching children and the quality of that over in Europe. And I am very pleased to report that the budget coming forward for which we are seeking the support of the Congress does, in fact, allocate a significant upgrade in the schools for our DOD children which I would argue is at the very top of the quality-of-life programs. Every parent--we all know this-- every parent, the first thing we ask as military members when we are moving, the very first thing is how are the schools. So we have gotten a good level of support in the budget in front of you, and we would sure ask for your support on that. We also, to your question of how do we focus on this, we hold a lot of conferences. In fact, right now, my senior enlisted is not with me because he is back in Europe spearheading my annual quality-of-life conference which I know all of the combatant commanders do. We really value that direct feedback from the families. That is our kind of input loop. And I must say, this Congress has been terrifically supportive of our dependents in Europe and, of course, Kip is actually my next-door neighbor in Europe. His headquarters, as you know, is currently there. We are very happy with the overall level of support, and we ask for the continuance of that from the Congress, sir. Mr. Wilson. And we appreciate your efforts. And, General Mattis, I want to thank you for raising the threat and danger of the budget irresponsibility that is going on here in Washington. I am also concerned, though, about the joint training events. Are they sufficient for our troops to be trained? General Mattis. Sir, I just want to correct one thing. I did not say anything about budget irresponsibility. I just--I am concerned about the sustainability of the budget. Mr. Wilson. Right. General Mattis. But as far as the training, sir, we have the dollars, and we have the means to train. Where we are challenged right now is primarily for chief of staff of the Army, Special Operations Command coming out of the Marine Corps is the dwell time. That is improving, as you know, but it is mostly a time constraint, not a physical plant or a dollar constraint. Thanks, I might add, to the support of this committee. Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much. Mr. Taylor. The chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Johnson, for five minutes. Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With the ice melting in the North Pole due to global warming which does open up new lanes for commercial activity, shipping in particular, and given the fact that abundant natural resources lie in that area--natural gas, coal, even oil--and given the fact that Russia has planted its flag on a disputed region of the intercontinental shelf, I would like to know what we are doing from a security standpoint to protect our commercial interests in that area. Admiral Stavridis. Thank you for the question, sir. It is an extremely interesting part of the world, as you allude to. There are actually three combatant commanders who have contiguous responsibility, and I am one of them. U.S. European Command, also, U.S. Northern Command from the northern part of Canada and then U.S. Pacific Command. So the three of us, together, look at these security issues in that region. Today, there are five nations that surround that North Pole where you are correct, there are shipping lanes that, I think, over the next decade will begin to open up. U.S., Russia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway are the five nations. There are two others, Sweden and Finland, who are also associate members of a group called the Arctic Council. This Arctic Council, sir, is the forum in which all of these issues--and it is really security but also navigation. It is the environment. It is scientific research. It is hydrocarbon recovery, as you mentioned. All of those issues come together in this Arctic Council which provides a forum for discussion. I think that is probably the right place for this discussion to be occurring. It is a cooperative, an active body. And that is the center of the security discussion at this time. Mr. Johnson. Okay. Well, let me ask you this question and follow up. There is a need for vessels that can accommodate the conditions--icy conditions--in that area. Do we have--are we properly equipped navally to be able to address any concerns that would occur up there? And, also, I wanted to know about the relationship, military-to-military, between China and Russia. And not just military-to-military, but even other ways that they may cooperate with each other. Admiral Stavridis. In terms of the ability of U.S. ships to operate in high-north conditions, I think we are reasonably capable in that regard. In terms of more specifics, I would be happy to take the question for the record and go to the commandant of the Coast Guard because we should remember a great deal of this ice-breaking capability is resident in the Coast Guard and to the Chief of Naval Operations who, I think, are better suited than I to address--and I will get you that. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on page 181.] Mr. Johnson. How many working seaworthy ice breakers do we have in this country? Admiral Stavridis. I don't know the answer to that. It is not in my purview or my remit as commander of U.S. European Command. Mr. Johnson. I appreciate you---- Admiral Stavridis. I will be glad to find that data out for you and provide it for the record, sir. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on page 181.] Mr. Johnson. All right. Thank you. Admiral Stavridis. Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson. And with respect to the rest of the questions. Admiral Stavridis. To China--excuse me--China and Russia. As I survey the relationship between those two, I look at it, of course, from a Russian perspective because Russia is part of U.S. European Command's area of focus. I would say it is a relationship that has commercial, demographic, limited military-to-military cooperation, although they are both cooperating in the counter-piracy operation off the Horn of Africa. So I would say it is a relationship of both of the nations watching each other. They share one of the longest land borders in the world. But at this time, they are not in an extremely active geostrategic dialogue. Mr. Johnson. Thank you. And last question. How are AFRICOM and the U.S. military efforts in Africa perceived by Africans and by other foreign nations, General Ward? General Ward. The perception is increasingly favorable. It has been rising over the last two years, and they are continuing to increase in a most favorable way. Positive perceptions. Mr. Johnson. Thank you. Thank you, all three of you, for your work. Thank you. The Chairman [presiding]. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And General Mattis, I want to thank you. I read your article in Marine Times, March 1, 2010, ``Better Officer Training.'' And you called for an overhaul. I found that article very interesting, and I would hope that some of my colleagues would have a chance, maybe, to read the article and your recommendations. Thank you very much for that. Admiral, I want to ask you a question. I have got most of my questions for General Ward. But if you would, give me kind of a short answer. I remember back in 2003, 2004 many Generals--and I don't mean this disrespectfully--I mean, respectful. They would get questions about the Afghan security force, and they would say, well, the training is going well, we, you know, have got a lot to do, we have got years ahead, but it is going well. You know, the American people are frustrated, many in the military, particularly wives and some children are very frustrated. Do you see--I know this might be very difficult to project the future. That, I fully understand. But you know, I know the President said we are there another year and a half, but many of us are concerned that, as we get closer to that year and a half and another Presidential election, that some advisers--not necessarily military--might say, well, I don't think right now you need to pull down the troops in Afghanistan; we need--you know, we have got an election coming up. We have got to make sure that the people understand, you know, this and that. If you would, this is 2010, and I don't know who will be here--maybe I am running the gambit--maybe I will, maybe I won't. But two or three years down the road, if there is an admiral or a general that says that the training of the Afghan security force is going pretty well, how long should we say to the American people it is pretty well before we get to a point that we are financially broke as a country, we have worn out our military, we have worn out the equipment? I am not asking you for a timeline, but truthfully, do you see that maybe, in the short term, whatever the short term might be, that the Afghans can pick up it and take the responsibility? Admiral Stavridis. I will be very brief. I can talk for an hour and a half on that. Mr. Jones. I am sure. Admiral Stavridis. The short answer is, in the seven months that I have been in command and the eight months that Stan McChrystal has been in command, I think both of us would sit here and tell you honestly we have seen progress. And in January, February, and March of this year, we have seen everything from Afghans piloting MI-17 helicopters going on commando raids to them repulsing serious attacks inside the capital to the current operation in Marjah which is being conducted in a one-to-one ratio. So I can't speak to the four, five, six years ago, sir, but I can say that I think we are on a positive trajectory now. We have an outstanding three-star general who has unified command of all training for the first time, Lieutenant General Bill Caldwell. I would love to take you to Afghanistan and show you what is going on. It is hard. It is very challenging. There is great risk ahead. But I am seeing progress. And that is as short as I can be about it. Mr. Jones. Admiral, thank you. And maybe at some point in time in the future, I could ask you to come to my office and give me a briefing for an hour and a half if you want to. Admiral Stavridis. I would love to. I will do it. Mr. Jones. Really would appreciate that. General Ward, I want to pick up very briefly because time goes so quickly with five minutes. But the issue of China. You made a statement--and I accept your statement--that the Chinese are, as it results to their military, they are not very robust but in other ways, they are being very aggressive, I would assume. My concern is that--in your discussions with African leaders and other countries, do you feel that, at the present time, that the Chinese are trying to buy the hearts and souls of leaders by being able to be in a position of spending money, making investments in the infrastructure of certain countries? Do you feel that this is something that policy makers in Washington, not necessarily military people but policy makers need to be concerned about? General Ward. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I don't know if I am in a position to characterize Chinese actions in that way. I think what I would say is, as I see Chinese activities, as they attempt to secure the sorts of things that will help fuel their economic development, they are pursuing multiple lines and multiple channels to secure resources to have the type of impact in Africa that would be in keeping with them achieving whatever their national interests from the Chinese perspective may be. Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I see my time is over. Thank you. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Sestak, please. Mr. Sestak. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Good morning--good afternoon. Admiral, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, is this a good thing we are doing to repeal it? And I have a couple of questions, so I am just going to try to get to them rapidly. Admiral Stavridis. I think that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman have come forward and spoken to this, and they have put in place a process---- Mr. Sestak. As an operational commander, do you agree with it? Admiral Stavridis. I agree with their process that they are undertaking. Mr. Sestak. Good. There was a program called the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) Group where we focused with Norway and Russia on the SSBNs that were rotting away up there in--we have stepped away from that but never did the SSNs up there as at reactors are rocking away. Do you believe we should reengage on that effort? We stopped this about two, three years ago. What is your proposal? Admiral Stavridis. I will have to get back to you on that one. I don't have a set response for that. Mr. Sestak. It was called AMEC. Admiral Stavridis. Yes. We are looking at that type of issue, sir, in the Arctic Council which I spoke about a few moments ago. Mr. Sestak. Right. Admiral Stavridis. And that is--that, I think, is the right forum to address that, and I will get back to you with a more detailed answer. [The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on page 181.] Mr. Sestak. Thank you. Sir, I heard your response on AFRICOM. My understanding is, when we established this, we kind of pushed it a little harshly, potentially, without being a bit more ingratiating with South Africa. Is that an unfair statement after having sat down with them a bit and talked? General Ward. I am not aware of not being fair with South Africa, Mr. Sestak. That doesn't resonate with me. The South Africans had concerns, as did a few of the other nations, that it was being established to bring large military formations to militarize the continent. As we have seen, that didn't happen. The South Africans' response has been, certainly, less strident against the command. Mr. Sestak. We have a good bilateral Defense Department relationship with South Africa, particularly, in the environmental area. Is that part of your charge, also, as AFRICOM as part of this engagement that you are doing down there? General Ward. Not directly. Our engagement, military-to- military, that is very robust. It is growing. Our naval relationships, our land relationships, our air relationships, the work between the component commanders of my command and their South African counterparts---- Mr. Sestak. Mainly military-to-military? General Ward. Mainly military-to-military. Mr. Sestak. Wasn't your staff supposed to be two-thirds civilian, and so you were supposed to be a broader engagement than just military-to-military? General Ward. The staff is about half civilian. Of that half, a percentage of that is from the interagency. Not from the standpoint of doing the work of the interagency, from the standpoint of how the interagency work is more and better supported by what we do so we have a better understanding---- Mr. Sestak. I understand now. General Ward. Correct. Mr. Sestak. General, the Commandant of the Marine Corps testified to a question a week or two ago that it would take us, because of our involvement in Iraq and now Afghanistan, upwards of 10 years before we get the U.S. Marine Corps back to where it is able to respond to the war plans. My question to him had been that for the last four years, we have done no training except--nothing on combined arms--just on counterinsurgency--and that the Army can't respond to any other war plan around this nation; was that the same for the Marine Corps? In your joint training area, would you say that is a correct assessment that our military is--in order to get back to the pre-Iraq days of readiness to respond to that is about 10 years? General Mattis. Sir, I did not see the Commandant's--the context of how he was---- Mr. Sestak. His exact words were ``about a decade.'' General Mattis. Yes, sir. We have lost some of our edge that I believe that, thanks to the increased numbers of troops that you have authorized us and the drawdown in CENTCOM, is going to allow a graduated return to some of the things that have atrophied. Mr. Sestak. Would you think the time---- General Mattis. I don't believe it will take 10 years---- Mr. Sestak. All right. General Mattis. But I can't--I would have to study it a little bit and actually look at dwell times and training---- Mr. Sestak. If you are able to with our commitment in Afghanistan, it would be great because I think that is one of-- you know, the national fabric of national security got changed by Iraq. I am not arguing good or bad right now, although I would argue bad. But I would be curious if you did. Admiral, one last question. And, first, for all three of you, thanks for your service. Advanced Electronic Guidance and Instrumentation System (AEGIS)--we have taken and plucked out from the Czech Republic and Poland what some would say was a stick in the eye of the bear and placed the same missile defense capability at sea in a way that protects us, some would argue, where we couldn't do before--Turkey and Israel more immediately but also can give us something in 2017 to more effectively defend our Nation here. Right step? Admiral Stavridis. Yes. Mr. Sestak. He always cuts me off because I am a sophomore. [Laughter.] The Chairman. Finish your question. Admiral Stavridis. I think the question was finished, and I agree. I think we need to--we need to move forward, and I have confidence in the AEGIS---- Mr. Sestak. In terms of, also, of negotiating with Russia and---- Admiral Stavridis. I think it is---- Mr. Sestak [continuing]. Helping them pivot to Iran? Admiral Stavridis. Yes. Mr. Sestak. Thank you. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. Franks, wrap it up. Mr. Franks. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, gentlemen, thank you for your lifetime commitment to freedom. We never are grateful enough to you. If it is okay, I wanted to take off on a point that Mr. Taylor makes often about what keeps you up at night. I have to suggest to you, even though my perspective is not nearly as relevant as your own, that what keeps me up at night is the potential of Iran gaining a nuclear capability. I know that has been talked about and touched on significantly here. But I think that we, perhaps, made an error--and I am sure that there will be disagreement on the panel here--relating to the European missile defense site. Most of you know that the phased adaptive approach--and when we were in the Bush Administration, these were things that were planned in general already. These are already kind of on the planning schedule. But I am concerned about the timing. You know, one of critiques of the former missile defense plan was that it was only expected to cover about 75 percent of our European allies by 2013. But how does the phased adaptive approach compare coverage wise by percentage of allies supported by that timeline? And what can we look to in the future? And, Admiral Stavridis, I will talk to you first about that. Admiral Stavridis. Sure. First of all, the answer to that is a technical one, and I would have to really direct you to the Missile Defense Agency. They are the people that kind of come with that, and they can give you a very detailed briefing on it. But as I mentioned to Representative Sestak a moment ago, I am confident in the ability to begin by using a sea-based system off of our AEGIS ships, and it will provide some initial coverage. And then the plan, without going into classified details, is to use some of those systems ashore. And I am confident that we will be able to transition that technology. As to the precise degree of coverage and when it walks in, there is a classified briefing that can take you through that in detail. Mr. Franks. Well, Admiral Stavridis, I appreciate your perspective. I will just suggest to you that there is at least a conclusion on the part of a lot of us that, even though no one supports the AEGIS system more than I do--I think it is a magnificent testimony of American technology and capability--it is the timing. My concern is that Iran, in all of their calculus of moving forward a nuclear weapons program, I think part of their concern is what would be the response of the Western world. I am not sure that they are really too shook up about our response at this point. I am thinking they are more concerned about Israel's response. But if we had had that capability to defend most of Europe in the timeframe that could have at least beat them to the punch, I think it might have played in their calculus. At this point, I don't think that we are going to be able to have much of a deterrence within the timeframe here. And I guess I illustrate that by--it seems that we have made a buy of eight SM-3 Block 1-B interceptors for this year, and how does that affect the timeline in the phased adaptive approach? I mean, what happens if the industrial base that is currently set to produce 48 interceptors cannot make up the difference after 2 years without any real substantive orders from the Department of Defense? I mean, you understand we are behind the eight ball here. Admiral Stavridis. Well, again, sir, I am not the right person to address the slip stream of missile moving forward, but I will take that question to the Missile Defense Agency, and I will make sure they come and give you a brief in-depth about that. [The information referred to is classified and retained in the committee files.] Mr. Franks. Okay. I certainly don't mean to badger you because I think you are doing your job in a magnificent way. General Mattis, I appreciate your soldier statesman diplomacy in clarifying that you were saying ``sustainability'' instead of ``irresponsibility.'' That is a word left to people like myself, and I think I would probably--if I were to use ``irresponsibility,'' I would berate myself for understatement because I do think that the budget irresponsibility this administration has some pretty profound implications for our military readiness in the future. So with that in mind, if there were some area that you feel like we are maybe missing the boat on making sure that we are going to be ready for whatever contingencies come in the future, what area of the budget--and it is not fair to ask you, but I am sure your statesmanship will be in tact here too. What area of the budget would you be concerned about the most? General Mattis. Representative, looking at my crystal ball, which is about as good as anyone else's, we are facing an increasingly difficult problem gaining access around the world. And that access is being denied technologically, as we see a profusion of precision weaponry being passed around the world. We see it going to potential adversaries. It is political. All politics being local, there are places where large footprints of our troops ashore are not welcome. I think we are going to have to see an increased naval aspect to how we reassure our friends and temper potential adversaries' plans using our asymmetric strengths of sea control. Thank you. Mr. Franks. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Mr. McKeon, any further questions? If not, the hearing comes to a close. We thank each one of you for being with us, for your excellent testimony. In a word, you make us proud. 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SESTAK Admiral Stavridis. BLUF: Re-engagement thru the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) program would be prudent for the long term cooperation and protection of the Arctic. The more venues in which we can encourage dialogue and cooperation amongst the Arctic nations the better opportunities we have to develop peaceful and meaningful solutions to our challenges. Background: The AMEC program began as a Norwegian initiative to combine the efforts of the U.S., Norway, and Russia to address environmental problems in the arctic region associated with Russian nuclear submarine decommissioning. In a 1999 program plan to the Congress, DOD stated that AMEC projects would support the goals of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program. However in GAO-04-924 the GAO found that ``only one of eight AMEC projects designed to support CTR's objective of dismantling Russia's ballistic missile nuclear submarines'' had done so. ``Despite AMEC's limited contribution to the CTR, DOD officials, including CTR representatives, said that most of the projects can be used to support dismantlement of other types of Russian nuclear submarines'' Jerry Havens, Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering and director of the Chemical Hazards Research Center and reviewer for the Technical Guidance Group of the AMEC program stated in 2004 that ``nuclear submarines pose a transnational-boundary environmental threat primarily because of the highly radioactive spent fuel that remains in their nuclear reactors'' and that ``It is critical that the United States participate in the efforts to prevent further damage to the environment. It's not just Norway's problem or Russia's problem . . . eventually the pollutants released into the Barents Sea will wash up onto our own shores.'' [See page 34.] ______ RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. JOHNSON Admiral Stavridis. Last year, Admiral Roughead, the Chief of Naval Operations, began studying the implications of climate change for the Naval services. That research is ongoing as there are many factors that must be analyzed. The U.S. Navy has no ice-hardened surface ships and all of its icebreakers were transferred to the Coast Guard in 1965. As such, the Coast Guard is the federal agency charged with operating the Nation's icebreaking fleet. Polar-capable icebreakers are unique national assets and the only USCG surface assets capable of projecting and fulfilling national objectives in the Arctic region year round. Therefore, I feel it prudent that the USCG maintain its current icebreakers in operational condition until such time as the Nation can determine the best mix of assets needed to meet national requirements. [See page 32.] Admiral Stavridis. Currently the Coast Guard has three polar- capable icebreakers, although the USCGC POLAR STAR (WAGB-10) and USCGC POLAR SEA (WAGB-11) are the only two built to handle heavy ice. Both Polar-Class icebreakers are near the end of their service life. The third icebreaker, HEALY is a multi-mission, medium icebreaker that primarily supports Arctic science research; however, HEALY is not nearly as capable at breaking thick ice as our two Polar-class breakers. HEALY and POLAR SEA are operational. The Coast Guard is reactivating POLAR STAR from a caretaker status and it should be operational by the end of 2012. [See page 32.]