i [H.A.S.C. No. 113–91] HEARING ON NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 AND OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION FULL COMMITTEE HEARING ON FISCAL YEAR 2015 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET REQUEST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY HEARING HELD MARCH 25, 2014 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 87–854 WASHINGTON : 2014 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 202–512–1800, or 866–512–1800 (toll-free). E-mail, [email protected]. COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS HOWARD P. ‘‘BUCK’’ MCKEON, California, Chairman MAC THORNBERRY, Texas ADAM SMITH, Washington WALTER B. JONES, North Carolina LORETTA SANCHEZ, California J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia MIKE MCINTYRE, North Carolina JEFF MILLER, Florida ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania JOE WILSON, South Carolina SUSAN A. DAVIS, California FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island ROB BISHOP, Utah RICK LARSEN, Washington MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio JIM COOPER, Tennessee JOHN KLINE, Minnesota MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam MIKE ROGERS, Alabama JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut TRENT FRANKS, Arizona DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania NIKI TSONGAS, Massachusetts K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas JOHN GARAMENDI, California DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., Georgia ROBERT J. WITTMAN, Virginia COLLEEN W. HANABUSA, Hawaii DUNCAN HUNTER, California JACKIE SPEIER, California JOHN FLEMING, Louisiana RON BARBER, Arizona MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado ANDRE´ CARSON, Indiana E. SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia CAROL SHEA-PORTER, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York DANIEL B. MAFFEI, New York VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri DEREK KILMER, Washington JOSEPH J. HECK, Nevada JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas JON RUNYAN, New Jersey TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia SCOTT H. PETERS, California STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi WILLIAM L. ENYART, Illinois MO BROOKS, Alabama PETE P. GALLEGO, Texas RICHARD B. NUGENT, Florida MARC A. VEASEY, Texas KRISTI L. NOEM, South Dakota PAUL COOK, California JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana BRADLEY BYRNE, Alabama ROBERT L. SIMMONS II, Staff Director JOHN WASON, Professional Staff Member MIKE CASEY, Professional Staff Member JULIE HERBERT, Clerk (II) C O N T E N T S CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS 2014 Page HEARING: Tuesday, March 25, 2014, Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the Department of the Army .......................................... 1 APPENDIX: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 ........................................................................................ 51 TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 FISCAL YEAR 2015 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET REQUEST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ‘‘Buck,’’ a Representative from California, Chair- man, Committee on Armed Services .................................................................. 1 Smith, Hon. Adam, a Representative from Washington, Ranking Member, Committee on Armed Services ............................................................................ 2 WITNESSES McHugh, Hon. John M., Secretary of the Army .................................................... 4 Odierno, GEN Raymond T., USA, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army ............................... 8 APPENDIX PREPARED STATEMENTS: McHugh, Hon. John M., joint with GEN Raymond T. Odierno .................... 55 DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD: [There were no Documents submitted.] WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING THE HEARING: Mr. Enyart ........................................................................................................ 93 Mr. Wilson ......................................................................................................... 93 QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING: Mr. Barber ......................................................................................................... 104 Ms. Bordallo ...................................................................................................... 102 Mr. Brooks ......................................................................................................... 112 Mr. Conaway ..................................................................................................... 103 Mr. Cook ............................................................................................................ 115 Mr. Gibson ......................................................................................................... 110 Dr. Heck ............................................................................................................ 111 Mr. Langevin ..................................................................................................... 100 Mr. LoBiondo .................................................................................................... 101 Mr. Loebsack ..................................................................................................... 102 Mr. Maffei ......................................................................................................... 108 Mr. McKeon ....................................................................................................... 97 Mr. Nugent ........................................................................................................ 113 (III) IV Page QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING—Continued Ms. Shea-Porter ................................................................................................ 107 Mr. Smith .......................................................................................................... 98 Mr. Wilson ......................................................................................................... 99 FISCAL YEAR 2015 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZA- TION BUDGET REQUEST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:09 a.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon (chairman of the committee) presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD P. ‘‘BUCK’’ MCKEON, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA, CHAIRMAN, COM- MITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES The CHAIRMAN. Committee will come to order. I want to thank you for joining us today as we consider the fiscal year 2015 budget request for the Department of the Army. Secretary McHugh, General Odierno, thank you for being here. Our Nation is very fortunate to have both of you in your positions at this time. General Abrams, who was the 26th Army Chief of Staff, had a quote in regards to our failure to properly maintain the Army after World War II, and the negative consequences that resulted in the early days of the Korean War, and I quote: ‘‘We paid dearly for un- preparedness during those early days in Korea with our most pre- cious currency, the lives of our young men. The monuments we raise to their heroism and sacrifice are really surrogates for the monuments we owe ourselves for our blindness to reality, for our indifference to real threats to our security, and our determination to deal in intentions and perceptions, for our unsubstantiated wish- ful thinking about how war would not come.’’ It seems to me that we are ignoring the lessons of history. Based on what we know about this budget, the continued impacts of se- questration, and General Odierno’s testimony during the Strategic Choices Management Review hearing last fall, the Army is being forced down a path where it will be unable to fulfill its title 10 requirements. General Odierno has already told us that the Army can meet the Nation’s defense strategy with an Army comprised of 450,000 Ac- tive, 335,000 National Guard, and 195,000 Reserve forces. But to do so would be a fairly high risk. However, based on sequestration, the Army isn’t heading toward those numbers. They are actually heading towards 420,000 Active, 315,000 Guard, and 185,000 Re- serve. That is 60,000 less. The defense strategy, reaffirmed in the Quadrennial Defense Re- view [QDR], assumes that future conflicts will involve limited sta- (1) 2 bility operations, involve minimal casualties, and assume signifi- cant troop contributions from our partner countries. Therefore, the Department does not have the size of the Army for long-duration land wars. I worry that the Department is justifying its deep cuts to the Army based on this set of unrealistic assumptions. We can look to every major land conflict we have been involved in to know that we are usually wrong. And we have seen how deep cuts to our defense capabilities, especially the Army, can result in dire consequences. I fear that we as a nation are heading down that path that General Abrams was referring to. Wishful thinking is not a strategy to pin our force structure decisions upon. I hope these sobering remarks remind us to not lose sight of our shared values and the vital importance of reversing the dangerous budget trajectory. I look forward to your testimony here today. Mr. Smith. STATEMENT OF HON. ADAM SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM WASHINGTON, RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Secretary McHugh and General Odierno, for tes- tifying