i'll post the forward to preston barton for his opening statement. so please don't you have the floor? surgery, general allies and friends 75 years ago when our nation has created the lions. president truman said, quote, we helped create a shield against regression as the fear of aggression and regret us to get on with the real business of creating a government and society for 75 years. our nations have grown and prospered behind the nato shield. today we're stronger than we've ever been. since i took office, we've doubled a number of battle groups and nato's eastern flank and united states has fairly sweden. have joined the alliance. and the number of allies spend at least 2 percent on defense has gone from 9 to 23. it's not happened by chance. but by choice at our summit, 2 years ago, we launched to plan to modernize our to turns and our defense. today, we have to ask ourselves, what is next? how can we keep breaking the shield? stronger? one answer must be to strengthen our industrial base. right now. russia is on a war time 40. with regard to def