biggest problem. thank you, all, very much. interesting time. going to be an action-packed week, culminate next week in hopefully passing the omnibus bill, but in addition -- oh, orange. in addition -- for the children. for the children. for the children. but in addition to that, we will be welcoming the marchers here on probably the day before the 23rd, but the march being on the 24th for gun safety in our country. again, a salute to the eloquence, courage, and determination of the young people across the country. thank you all very much.

and we are live once again this afternoon on capitol hill waiting for the start of a house armed services subcommittee hearing on the pentagon's national security strategy in space. earlier this week, president trump suggested the idea of a military force to fight wars in space. that could come up during this hearing today. it's expected to get under way shortly. live coverage here on c-span3.

>> good afternoon, this is -- welcome, everybody. this hearing of the subcommittee on strategic forces. and our hearing on the 2019 budget request for national security space programs. unfortunately, as everybody in the room now knows, we were interrupted by votes and we're an hour behind starting off. so for the sake of not keeping you all here all night, i'm going to submit my opening statement for the record and the ranking members told me that he's going to submit his opening statement for the record, too,

so we'll go vastraight to your opening statements and ask each of you have five minutes. your entire statement will be accepted into the record. if you summarize it, we'll get to questions and answers and finish this session and go to the classified section immediately after that. with that, thank you for being here, i know it takes a lot of time and energy to free paprepa these things but it really eps us, we need to hear your thoughts at this time of year. are that, i'll recognize general raymond, well, first let me recognize, we have general raymond with us today, betty p sapp from nro, and colonel rapawana. how do you pronounce that? we'll start with general raymond for your opening statement. you're recognized. >> thank you. general rogers, ranking member coop cooper, distinguished members of the subcommittee, i'm honored to appear before this committee. this time it's my first time being able to testify in front of you in my dual hat as the air force space commander, joint forces commander, component of

u.s. strategic command. i have the absolute distinct privilege of leading and representing both the air force and joint space personnel who underpin successful global operations for our joint force in our nation. as i have stated previously, i am increasingly convinced that we are at a strategic inflection point and we must accelerate our preparations to protect and defend against a conflict that begins in or extends to space. and that's exactly what we're doing. today's space capabilities are the foundation of power projection and fuel or joint force lethality. a high-end conflict may begin in our domain which will require us to fight for space superiority. as a component of united states strategic command, i would be remissecho the words of my boss, general hayden, to say our force is fully prepared to deter, and if necessary, respond and win if deterrence were to fail. as our national security strategy states, the united states considers unfettered

access to and freedom to operate in space to be a vital interest. our national defense strategy clearly articulates that the central challenge to the united states' prosperity and security is the reemergence of long-term strategic competition. space is a war-fighting domain, just like air, land, and sea. this budget is aligneded with the national defense strategy to meet our war-fighting imperatives necessary to compete, deter, and win. this budget marks a bold shift toward an increased focus on space superiority in a contested environment. specifically, we are enhancing our space situational awareness and our ability to command and control. we are shifting toward more defendable architectures. we are investing in tests and training infrastructure to further enhance our readiness and finally, we are enhancing our partnerships with intelligence community, our ally partners, and the commercial space industry.

i thank you for your support and i look forward to working with congress as we continue to focus on our national security space posture. i am privileged, absolutely privileged to be here with my distinguished colleagues on the panel this afternoon and i look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you, general. chair knnow recognizes betty sapp, director of national reconnaissance office. >> thank you, ranking member cooper and distinguished members of the committee. sure. it's a great pleasure to host you and your committee. your members out at the nro. it's a great honor for me to be here today. the nro has a very clear and very critical mission for the nation. we provide the space-pabased is capabilities necessary . the nro is structured for success, small and streamlined with end-to-end mission responsibility. we enjoyed success in all aspects. our research and development

team developed and matured the next generation technology necessary to stay ahead of changing tarne inine ining targ. fulfill commission gaps and develop new relationships. in 2017, for the ninth consecutive year, we achieved a clean independent audit opinion. demonstrating our ability to properly manage and account for the resources entrusted to us. we have four successful launches last year including our first on a spacex falcon 9. finally, most importantly, we continue to deliver critical operational capabilities with the better than 99.7% reliability. our fiscal year 2019 budget requests will build on this successful history of delivering innovative overhead intelligence systems for national security, with the resilience required for the threat environment we face. we're specifically focused on investments that will deliver and assure the space-based capabilities we'll needs in a future fight. more resilience, more capability

and capacity, and more speed. greater resilience continues to be a top priority. processes to protect our current orbit systems are being refined and tested and our people are being trained to use them to full advantage. new systems will have resiliency features built in as an inherent part of the design. in a future conflict, resilience must backstop and work in concert with resilient air assets. focus on achieving the capacity and capabilities required by the icd and dod. we are increasing persistence in the look rate from space, reducing the gaps currently exploited by our adversaries. finally, we require for capacities and capabilities in space, they must be combined to deliver the critical information directly to war fighters, at the tactical edge and in the fight and must be delivered when they need it. enabled by advances in artificial intelligence, automatic target recognition, machine learning and emerging

technology, the nro plans to do exactly that. everyone at the nro is focused on our mission, delivering innovative overhead intelligence systems for national security. the current and projected threat environment doesn't change our mission. it just makes it more challenging. the men and women of the nro are more than up to that challenge. thank you for your support and i look towaforward to your questi. >> thank you very much. chair now recognizes kenneth rapawano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security. thank you. >> thank you, chairman rogers, ranking member cooper, distinguished members of the subcommittee. it's an on mor tohonor to appea you today. and the u.s. strategic command joint force component commander, miss betty sapp, director of national reconnaissank reconnai. just as in land, air, cyber space, the department of defense must be prepared to address any and all threats to our national

security. space systems provide our joint force an unmatched ability to project power globally, respond to crises rapidly, strike swiftly and precisely, and command forces in multiple theaters of operations simultaneously. our national security strategy and the national defense strategy prominently recognize the criticality of space anding a dmoacknowledge the potential conflict to extend into space. new national defense strategy charts the course for how dod will contribute to each of the national security strategies for national interests. under the new nds, long term strategic competition with china and russia are the priorities for the department. addressing the challenges posed to our preeminence in space power is fundamental to that effort. today's potential adversaries and competitors have studied how the u.s. joint force operates and they are rapidly developing capabilities designed to

challenge our freedom of action across all domains. those potential adversaries view space as an area where they weaken our advantage and cause cascading impact on sea, air, land, and cyber systems, that rely on our space-based capabilities. denial of u.s. space advantage is a key component of their strategy. with this budget, the department is makeing critical investments in capabilities necessary to protect and defend the space domain to ensure the mission to compete, deter, and win in the face of growing challenges. the fy '19 budget request prioritizes activities to address the space threat and improves on the performance of our space systems. our aim remains to deliver the space effects to enable the combat edge our nation and our war fighters must have. we also recognize the important need for the department to be

organized and structured most effectively to deliver on the duty to protect our nation and its vital interests. the department must accelerate and is accelerating its response to the changing dynamics of space. the deputy secretary of defense has heard congress' concerns and consistent with the ndaa for fy 2018 has already taken action through interim implementation guidance and looks forward to completing the directed studies and changes that may be required. the department's partnership with congress is and will remain absolutely critical to our success. to that end, i remain grateful for this subcommittee's strong support and interest in this vital area and its advocacy to dissuade aggression and establish a lethal force with the unmatched ability to prevail in, from and through the ultimate high ground of space. i look forward to your questions. thank you. >> i thank you. and now recognize myself for questions.

general raymond, the space launch industry is innovating in some pretty incredible ways that could increase capability and reduce costs like moving toward reuseful launch vehic fufu fufu. given all of this, how does the air force plan to integrate reusability into the launch progr program? >> thank you. congressman rogers. i have gone on record in the past saying i fully support reusability. in my opinion, we would be stupid not to go down that path. it saves us money and it will make sure we do it smartly and that we'll be able to launch effectively but we fully intend to capitalize on the advantages that the u.s. industry has with reusabili reusability. >> great. mr. rapuano, given president trump's recent endorsement of the establishment of the independent space force, how do you think the department should implement that direction? because it is consistent with what this committee in the house of representatives has called for in the buildup to this last nda. >> congressman, the president is

very focused on outcomes. he has prioritized space. he has recognized the threats that have evolved and the pace at which they've evolved. and he recognizes as a war-fighting domain. he also is very interested in ensuring that the departmeortme department is best organize dd d equipped to achieve vital missions in space and he's very interested in exploring -- to exploring any options that can provide that enhanced capabilities. the deputy secretary, as you know, is leading the organizational and management review for the department, consistent with the ndaa. assessment of the space corps is one of those options that is getting close attention among others. he is going to be recommending that set of options that best ensures lasting u.s. leadership

and success in space by 1st august, per the requirement. >> i agree the president cares about outcomes but i ask you to look at his exact words, we have a space force, we will have a space force. you're right, though, deputy secretary shanahan is in charge of trying to design that. i was hoping you could show us a little bit of what it might look like before he does it but apparently that's not going to happen. with that, general raymond, yesterday if the full committee, we had testimony about how if the air force really wanted to, while we are between where we are now, establishment of the space force, space corps, whatever it's going to be, which will not be in the immediate future, the air force has a lot of challenges and did it with national security space and some of the threats that we face, b. it was proposed yesterday in the hearing if air force really wanted to demonstrate they get it and they're going to get after this, they would raise the

profile of space in the department, and put a significantly larger amount of money against that challenge. i don't expect you to have the number today, but i would ask you at your earliest convenience after you think about this for a while, kind of get back to me and let me you what you think that number might be to enable you to have all the resources you need to get after the challenge fast. >> i'll be happy to do that. i will tell you, i think the profile of space is pretty high in the air force, it's very high in the air force. this budget this year represen s s an 18% increase, about $7 billion increase but i'll happy to put some thought on that. i'll be happy to put some thought on that andle come baco you. >> thank you. i recognize mr. cooper for questions you may have. >> i welcome the stronger air force budget.

i will defer questions for the late session, given the excellent attendance by my democratic colleagues. thanks. >> the chair recognizes chairman from colorado for any questions he may have. >> thank you. i will have questions for the closed hearing. i got a couple for right now and appreciate the conversations we've had recently. the $350 million in unfunded priorities. as you told me earlier, there's a $7 billion increase. however, we have to draw the line somewhere when we're doing budgets, but if you could have that extra $350 million, what would we be able to get for that? and what are we losing by not having that? >> congressman, thanks for the question. the way the air force did the unfunded priority list was obviously -- it's in its name, priority, so we have prioritized those activities that we couldn't fit into the budget, although $7 billion is a significant increase for space

and as i mentioned in my opening comments a bold shirt toward war fighting. i'll be happy to come back to you and talk specifically about the items that are in the unfunded priority list but give congress options and priority order to help accelerate some of the things we already have in the program. >> okay. we can continue that discussion. i would also like to ask you about the increased need for space war fighting training. now that everyone's recognized that space is contested and it is a war-fighting domain, we need to have the personnel who have the training necessary to excel in that domain. what are your thoughts on that? >> it's a key, key focus area for us. i've been focused only that since the day i took command of the professional development and

training. we've made some pretty significant strides toward that end. we've implemented the space mission force which has allowed us to enhance the advanced training of our crews. we have implemented what we call space flags and just red flags to increase the focus of that as well. and what i would suggest to you is not just about space training, it's about multi-domain training. really what i'm focusing on is making sure we have space operators that are very smart in joint war fighting and we have joint war fighters that are also very smart in space because if that multi-domain strength, collaboration and strength, that's going to carry us to where we need to be in the future. we also in this budget spent about approximatedly $175 million, additional trainers, exercises, and war games. thank you. >> that's really good to see. lastly, for any one of you, can we do a better job of partnering

with the commercial sector, with private industry, to accomplish our goals? and if so, how? >> i don't want to monopolize this, i'll deflect, but i am passionate about this as well. we are working very closely with our commercial customers, and i think this will provide us significant advantage going forward. one of the things we've done in this budget, the enterprise space battle management command and control program is focused on voting open standards and n consortium approach. it's a key priority for us going forward and you'll see that reflected in our budget. >> that's great. either one of you? >> you know, the nro has always spent about 95% of its budget in industry, on contract, so we've always been a close partner with industry today and as new commercial providers are coming in, we're looking at every way to team with them and leverage their capabilities. >> i would just add that this is

a real intense focus of the deppdy sdepp depputy secretary of defense leading the reform efforts in the department, obviously a big component focused on acquisition. he's all about leveraging the commercial sector more effectively. i think we're going to be seeing a number of reforms in that area. >> these are excellent thanks. thank you for the work you're doing. >> chair, i pause for housekeeping i overlooked at the beginning of the hearing. we have two members of our full committee with us today. not members of the subcommittee. mr. moulton of massachusetts sit in on this hearing and be able to participate. without objection, so ordered. chair recognizes mr. norcross from new jersey. >> thank you, chairman. general raymond, if '19 budget significantly alters -- let me back up one page here.

you've had comments that starts from this, we're trying to get caught up and take advantage, whether it's private industry and others. the air force publicly says they want to move fast, they get effective capabilities deployed which capabilities deployed, which is why section 1610 for conference agrees that the united states air force operationalize existing best of breed commercial space situational capabilities but not later than may 30, 2018. what is the plan to operational the capabilities by this required deadline? and this has been ongoing. >> it has been. and in fact we leveraged them pretty heavily today. if you look at the c-2 system today called the j spock commercial capabilities leveraged pretty significantly in that. we also have stood up capability in colorado springs called

catalyst campus where we are bringing commercial applications in, the commercial companies can these tehem, then we'll roll thm in and facilitate them into our operations. finally ks finally, as i mentioned earlier, what we are trying to do is not have one company be winner and a bunch of losers. we are trying to open standards and consortium based approach where everybody can play. that's what we are doing. we'll have a prototype done by 2021 and i'm eager to get all of commercial industry wrapped around those standards. >> let me follow up with that. then general buck talked about this and said our capabilities were at a 3. why are we not doing this quickly, not waiting for

everybody to come on board, but take advantage of what we have now and buildup to that? >> i must not have been clear. we are taking advantage now and will continue to take advantage now. this is a future system going forward that we are building the entire system off of that commercial open standards. but we are leveraging those today and we'll continue to leverage commercial industry hard as we look to fill some of the gaps that we have. >> i'll wait for the closed session when we can get into it in a little more detail. i yield back. >> recognize mr. highs. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm not sure exactly who this question goes to, and i do have some others for our closed session, but just a couple right now. does the dod need to be more assertive by blocking companies by china in the space industry

here? >> congressman, that is a key issue. thank you for raising it. this is an issue that the secretary and both the secretary, deputy secretary have raised looking at the supply chain and foreign ownership and investment and capabilities that are critical or essential to national security. i believe you are familiar with the process in which these types of transactions are assessed by an interagency committee accessing intelligence and other sources of information to make assessments on the relative risk associated with these transactions. so i think we are definitely focused within the department on the ways in which adversaries can all too easily acquire capabilities or knowledge that they can use against us.

and we are actively involved in that process. >> i'm really glad to hear that. so are you saying then that the dod is responsible or authorized to block these kinds of acquisitions? >> the dod is involved in the interagency process that makes conclusions on transactions that rise -- that are concerning, and then rise to the program. >> so they have significant influence in the decision? >> we are pretty significant voter in the process. >> right. one other quick question, then i'll defer my other questions. during red flag event or some other kind of training event, are there services taken into account the possibility of partial loss of our satellite communications? >> absolutely. we embed our space operators into those exercises. space flag exercise that we also stood up compliments that, but

we exercise that routinely. >> okay. great. so any of your officers, or all of your offices involved in crafting those type training exercises? >> sir, that falls under my responsibility as organized training for space command. we work that routinely. >> very good. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. now recognize washington state five minutes. >> thank you p i'll yield my time to mr. molten from massachusetts. >> recognize for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general raymond, china has successfully conducted test launches of anti-satellite missiles able to destroy u.s. satellites. this development fundamentally alters the strategic balance between great powers and it's continued to evolve in favor 6 china which has accelerated development of space weapons.

>> public reports say china will be able to destroy u.s. satellites therefore by gps, targeting communications, and more. i'll be following up on this in the classified setting. but can you just give us an overview of what our strategy is to counter those capabilities? and echoing some of the other questions we've heard from the committee, are we committing enough resources to this development that could truly fundamentally alter the strategic balance? i'd add that, you know, miss sapp talked about the development of ai as one of the things we are investing in. china has committed to be world leader in ai 2030. you never heard such a commitment from us. i'm just concerned we are falling behind. and this is a place because of the strategic implications we clearly have to lead. >> space is a war defining

domain just like air land and sea and contested everything from low end jamming to the high end direct that was demonstrated in 2007 which you highlighted in your question. one of the things that we have a strategy, and really a strategy is that we share between the nro and the department of defense, we have a vision, we took that vision and we wrapped an operational concept around it called the space war fighting con ops. we have trained and exercised for that. and there are several lines of effort we are doing. again, if you are responsible for war fighting domain, you have to have awareness, ssa, so we are doing that. so we have invested in our command and control capabilities. you have to have defendable architecture. and in this budget we made a significant shift towards having those architectures that we are able to defend. you have to have partnerships,

just like we have in all other aspects of joint warfare. >> if i can interim. that sounds wonderful. but the question is are they significant enough? are they significant enough to compete with our great powers that have stuck their flag in the sand and said this is where we'll be in 2030? >> so, my view is we still have the best space capabilities in the world operated by the best air men. competitors moving very quick, and we need to pick up the pace to stay ahead of that threat. i am comfortable that the $7 billion that we've invested across this fight is going to shift and provide us the capabilities that we need to stay ahead of that threat as we continue down the path. >> director sapp and secretary rapuano, would you like to add to that? >> i'll just agree with general raymond, that i think we have not only plans but programs in place to defend against the

weapons you are talking about. and i this i we can give you some more detail in the classified follow up. i would also mention we've been working automated intelligence for quite some time. and have made real progress. in fact, it's in operations today. >> i this i it's well covered by general raymond and director sapp and just to reiterate the emphasis is that we are going to be able to prevail in all of those dough meamains critical i national security achieving our objectives. >> thank you very much. >> gentleman yields back. chair now recognizes gentleman from colorado mr. kaufman for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, i'll follow up with these questions in a classified setting as well. general raymond it's my understanding that traditional evolved expendable launch vehicle, eelv, providers are contracted under federal requisitions, the far, 15.

while new entrants are con trated under far 12. it is also my understanding far 12 is more commercial way of doing business than far 15. could you explain the differences in procuring launch services using far 12 versus far 15? and does the dod have the same in sight on cost as well as over sight on mission assurance when using both of these contracting methods? or is one more stringent than the other? >> congressman, first of all, good to see you. i'll take that for the record. i'm not an acquisition background guy and i just don't know the answer to your question. so i'll be happy to take it back and talk to our acquisition professionals and get you an answer. >> okay. yeah, at the hearing yesterday general raymond about space war fighting readiness, panelists made it quite clear that our nation war fighting construct must adapt to the threats we face today.

and in the future. it is evident that the air force recognizes this. however, the new start program, the next generation overhead persistent infrared, is not clear. as the panelists put, its not clear how the alternative is substantial different approach, quote. unquote it is not more resilient, and quote disaggregating does not improve missions. unquote. can you comment on that? >> i'd be happy to comment on it. it is more resilient. in fact, the nad required them to do assessment of that. they have done that. and i'll be happy to talk to you more in the closed session about it. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. now recognizes the gentleman

from california, mr. garamendi for five minutes. >> i'll pass and hopefully get to the classified asap. >> we have no further republicans. who do we have next? who? chair now recognizes the lady from guam. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. and thank you to our witnesses being here today. general raymond, there is an urgent need to rapidly reconstitute and replenish critical space capabilities to prever continuity of operations capability. so can you speak to some of the investments and responsive launch options that you would recommend the department pursue to fulfill this need? >> thank you. and it's great to see you again. we have invested in this budget

pretty significantly in small launch options i think is really important, as you said for replenishment. we have gone through appeared before. we did this in the early 90s when we launched satellites and a lot of companies being developed to do the launches. as you look to new space i think it's going to be important and we've invested that in this budget. >> all right. this next question is important to me, and i guess any of you could answer, if you could. today nearly all u.s. national security satellites are launched from fixed cotal u.s. launch sites that could easily be disrupted. these fixed sites also provide predictable locations from which adversaries could get clues to discern u.s. capabilities. are they using new launch sites to address these weaknesses and rapid and resilient launch

capability? i'm a representative from guam. and i'll say here that there has been inquiries about space capabilities in our territory from commercial investors. very recent were these visits. and they are very ambitious to begin operations. so could any of you comment on this? >> yes. there are commercial launch sites that are available today. we have them on our fixed basis, we have commercial sites. we also have different space ports in new mexico, in alaska, in florida, in virginia. so there are plult pal sites. >> is guam on the list, general. >> we'd be happy to put guam on the list. because i think it's important. i think resiliency is important. one of the big things that has land over the course of the year is significant and doesn't get a lot of press and that's to

autonomous flight ranks. so every time today every time spacex does a launch they do it autonomously. you have to have the ability to blow up a rocket if it goes astray. we have antennas and a bunch of contractors working that. today with spacex when they launch, it makes them a more resilient capability going forward. >> are there any other comments from the other witnesses? are you aware of the inquiries that have been made to guam? and they have been to guam to look at our, of course, our anderson air force base and guam international airport. so is anyone aware of that? >> commercial launch providers will do their own assessment as to what makes sense for their business. and we are going to use those commercial launch providers.

so we are going to go where they end up going. >> they were very interested in anderson air force base. >> that's great. >> so i thought maybe. so i have no questions and i yield back, mr. chairman. >> yields back. see no further questions. we will -- no. oh he showed up. slipped out on me and came back. chair now recognizes gentleman from the great state of alabama mr. burr for any questions he has. >> i'm glad you showed up. general, i hate to keep you a few more minutes. but my questions really pertain to personnel. and a lot of times we talk about space, we like to get talking about the technological stuff. but it's the people, as you know, better than i do that matter. do you think you have the proper number of service members to do this? do you believe you are efficiently manned peace time to wartiming one? and are we effectively utilizing

the skills to capitalize on talents? >> first of all, thank you for the question. gives me a chance to brag on the air men that i'm privileged to lead. we have spectacular men. the air force has more mission than resources. so part of the issue looking forward to contested environment, i do think there is room for growth. in fact the chief of staff of air force tasked me to conduct a study, which we are doing as we speak, to look at the structure, size, scale, professional development aspects of those air men, and i'll report back to them this summer. >> good. and do you think that you can shift with your present number from a peace time scenario to wartime scenario, would you have to have increase to do that? >> we operate 24-7, 365. global operations all the time. i'm comfortable that i have the capabilities that i need today. >> you would be unusual like anything else in the private

sector, is the rapidly changing for skills development because technology is working so fast. do you think you have the training to provide it these folks need? >> i do. as i mentioned one of the big priorities for the command is professional development and developing operating to be able to perform in the contested environment. in this bulgt we have invested in i think you might have been out, $175 million in training infrastructure to it be able to get after the challenges we are currently facing. >> i'm a strong supporter for what you are doing. i ran the workforce training system in alabama. and you know what we are doing m huntsville. and at maxwell air force base. and keeping the civilians into that was part of my portfolio. and i was amazed how rapidly things were moving. and i know you have that on steroids and i want to express

my support for what you are doing. and if you think more resources or help from us, please let us know. >> i really appreciate your support. thank you. >> thank you. i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. we will now go into recess and reconvene in the scif in about 10 minutes. (reces recess[ recess ]

. >> earlier today the house armed services committee held a hearing on military operations to counter potential russian aggression in europe. you can watch this hearing again tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this weekend on the c-span networks, saturday 9:00 a.m. eastern, american history tv on c-span3 with day long live coverage from ford theater in washington d.c. for the and you'll lincoln symposium with coauthor of our little monitor, greatest invention of the civil

war, harris, author of lincoln and commerce, lincoln and life, and walter star, author of stanton, lincoln's war secretary. sub'd at 1:00 p.m. eastern, book tv on c-span 2 is live from the new museum of the bible in washington d.c. and impact on government, legal systems, education and human rights, with the museum ease director seth pollen gear. also take your calls during the program. watch this weekend on the c-span networks. >> a senate commerce science and transportation subcommittee held a hearing with state and local officials to talk about transportation, infrastructure, funding and needs.