navy. it was the dream of admiral vern clark. he saw it as a solution to the problems we faced and the kinds of wars we are now fighting where there was a level of activity in the literals. the contract was left before there was analysis of alternatives, where the mission had been competed. during the early development of the ships the navy changed the rules. the ship was bid with commercial design criteria. the navy then said that it needed to meet naval surface vessel rules which obviously would result in increased costs. the $220 million figure was really never the cost of the first ship but the cost of ships during production. there has been a lot of misinformation out there about this ship. considering how hastily the contract was put in production the ship had really gone compared with other classes of ships quite well. the second ship from marinet marine they say has very high accolades from the navy. there are lessons to be learned from this development and that is probably we shoul

moving forward the navy presents different problems. and the optimistic expectations for this program are no longer true. i'm asking the gao to review the lsc operation and assumption tanment strategy to ensure the nave has a plan to control costs moving forward. it's time for an independent assessment of what's really going on with this program. i'm going to -- return the balance of my time. >> is there further debate on the unblocked amendment? the chairman recognizes mr. bartlett for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, the development of the lcs did not follow the usual development of a class of ships in the navy. it was the dream of admiral vern clark, he saw it as a solution as to the wars we are now fighting where there was a lot of activity in the literals. to t to the contract left before the mission was completed. early in the development of the ship, the navy changed the rules. the ship was bid with commercial design. criteria. the navy then said that it needed to meet navel surface vessel rules, which obviously would re

navy global force for good, and as a example of this work, the navy reserve assumed 100% of the navy's individual augmentee commit to the oversea commitments for finkal year '3 and beyond. i believe reserve components, all in the national guard, must be asked and even required to do those missions we are able to do so that the active component can focus on the missions that they must do for our national security. as you know, this is my fourth and final year appearing before your committee. i'm proud of the accomplishments of the navy reserve and navy and truly grateful for the support of this congress in providing our quest to become a true total force. on batch of our sailors and their families and civilians of our navy reserve, thank you for your continued support and commitment to our navy reserve. >> thank you. thank you, admiral. general stultz. >> first of all, it's my honor to be here and thank you for all the support that you continue to give our soldier, and our families in our nation. on behalf of the 205,000 soldiers in the army reserve, that are serving our nation, that ar

300-ship navy. i could be totally dreaming. what would we buy? we are buying the right stuff. we have the best cruiser and destroyer in the world. the lcs is unlike anything out there, and i'm convinced it will be something. virginia is the best ssn in the world, and down. there's nothing like the wasp class. you take a look at that ships we're building, every single one of them all the best in the world. what would i buy? i would continue to buy what we are doing. i would come back to you and say we have to have a different plan. the surface navy as a very bright future. there is a lot of people that would like more chips, but the plan we are on now we think we can afford and we think it is what the nation needs. >> thank you for coming. thank you for charting -- technique you for helping me think our speakers. lunch is upstairs, one for up the spiral staircase. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> consumers are frustrat

i am a navy partisan. i think it's particularly important for those of us who care so deeply about the navy to have this kind of a discussion, okay? because if we don't scrutinize every single one of these decisions, and yes, i admit we're making the job harder. issues to that. that's why he gets paid the big bucks for, right, bob? we need of this kind of a discussion. because if we add native partisans don't have that discussion, others are going to have a force, including people who don't have the same kind of commitment to the surface fleet that we have. so that's how i come to this issue. the lcs has had problems. we know about this. low, i know a thing or two, a few things about to point on the first flagship. when i reached in march 1990, the boat had been underwater for nine years. we were still working through some of the problems associated being the first ship in the class, okay? and i understand this can take time. and i take, they have responded to these issues. they believe they've addressed t

unfortunately, the air force and navy funded this same fsrm at 82% and 80% respectively. i'd like to hear from the air force and the navy what level of risk they are taking on as a result of these lower funding levels and what steps they plan to take to avoid large bills down the road. finally, we have learned the department of defense will face at least a $1.3 billion bill as a result of the rise in fuel prices. this price increase has been exacerbated by the continued closure of the pakistan border, forcing supply convoys for our force in afghanistan to use the northern distribution network at an increased expense of about $38 million per month. given all of these challenges we face, we must strive to protect our readiness accounts, but we can also do a better job in managing funds like operation and maintenance. we can improve the execution rates and unobligated balances in these accounts in addition to our operational readiness models. as the services continue to identify efficiencies in overhead, support, and other less mission-essential areas, i challenge the servic

the world war ii navy was a small combat tax navy. we had steel-hulled submarine chasers, we had all sorts of gun boats. we were a small combatant navy. a very, very small percentage of our 6700 ships at the end of world war ii were large combatants. but in the first generation we found out that small ships can't carry the guided weapons you need to fight the bad guy. so we had 13 destroyer escorts and four claude jones. they were failures. they only stayed in the fleet for about 15-16 years. and the second generation we tried something smaller, the asheville gun boats, built 17 of them. their average year of service was only eight years. there just wasn't a need for them. they were actually created because of the cuban missile crisis. they were going to do interdiction, but they wound up doing all sorts of other smaller mission bees. and then in the third generation we built six hydrofoils, high-speed, low-drag ships really cool looking. very highly armed for their size. they had an average year service of only 31.5 years -- 11.5 yea

i will give you a navy example.even in this -- in this austere budget environment, when we are growing our fleet to make sure that we meet the responsibilities that we have from 9/11 until the day i took office, eight years later, in 2009, the american navy declined from 316 ships to 282 ships. we lost almost 49,000 sailors in that same time, so during one of the great military buildups in american history, the navy got significantly smaller. when i got there, nearly all of our ship building programs were in trouble, three ships had been built -- >> rose: because of financial issues? >> financial issues, primarily. only three ships had been built in 2008, today we have got 39 under contract. we are going to grow the fleet before the end of this decade to 300 ships, which is about the must be that we need to do all of our responsibilities and these are going to be new ships, very competent, very capable ships to do all of the missions we are called on. >> how many ships did we have at the end of the reagan administra

navy of global force for good. as an example of this work, the navy reservists once again assumed 100% of the navy's commitment to the overseas contingency operation for fiscal year 2013 and beyond. i believe we must be asked, and even required to do those missions we are able to do. so the active component can focus on the missions they must do. this is my fourth and final year appearing before your committee. i'm proud of the accomplishments of our sailors and the navy. on behalf of our sailors and the families and civilians thank you for the commitment to our navy reserv reserve. >> mr. chairman, senator cochran, first of all, it's an honor to be here. thank you for the support you continue to give our soldiers and our nation. on behalf of the 205,000 soldiers in the army reserve that are serving the nation. what i refer to as a national treasure. and i think what epitomizes what the soldiers are all about is the young soldier i brought with me today. so instead of being eloquent in an opening statement and ever

navy has their back. in the context of the surface fleet, we are building a coast guard cutter for other people's coasts. that is what in is. and other countries are choosing not to build anything at all. now, they have grown accustomed to this. they have sheltered under our protective umbrella for a long time. they have become didn't on the u.s. navy, and they are comfortable. a lot of people in this town like being the world's policeman, or the global force for good. if others are less inclined to defend themselves and their interests, that's ok as far as many people see it i see things differently. we doubt that the benefits of global primacy is worth the cost. it depends on a single superpower to police the commonts and enforce the rules. we here at cato it would not be a bad thing for others to contribute to global security, but we don't think they will do so as long as the u.s. taxpayer is picking up the tab and the u.s. navy is potentially on the front line of every dispute. we are lonely but not a

this will allow the navy to decide missions to the navy reserve from peace to war. while we will first have the opportunity to budget for such use in fiscal year 2014, i want you to know how important this was to our future force while i have the opportunity. i appreciate your support for the purchase of our 14 c48 for our essential airlift. a congressional support is allowing our lived to be more cost effective and more relevant in the future. our 2013 budget request will allow to support operations while maximizing the strategic force with its readiness and accessibility. the truth price for our sailors will be the real and meaningful work as part of the global force for good. they assumed 100 term of the navy's augment. the reserve much be asked and required to do those missions we're able to do so the active company can focus on the missions that they must do for our national security. this is my fourth and final year of appearing before your committee. i am proud of the accomplishments and am thankful for the support of this congress. on behalf of our sailors a

he joined the navy in 1999 and after becoming a navy seal 2002 severalled around the world. after serving two tours in iraq. he was deployed to afghanistan in the spring of 2005. for the action red wings he was warded the their i have cross in 2006 by george w. bush. after recovering the wounds, he served a second tour in iraq and received a discharge from the navy in june 2007. he is the author of the book "lone survivor" and a very poplar speaker. we can see that by the great turnout. in 2010 to honor the comrades from operation redwing. he -- warriors by providings unique education, rehabilitatation, recovery and wellness opportunities to u.s. armed forces service mens and their families. please join me in westbounding -- in welcoming marcus lou trel to luttrell to the navy memorial. [applause] >> please, sit down. all right. thank you all for coming out. for my first signing of service, i was pretty good entry. were there any questions? i don't know where you go from there. i guess we can take a little time and talk about the book service, kind wrf it came from, the idea

he wanted to become a navy officer and learn to fly navy airplanes, which is why he ended up here at the naval academy. a little background on shepherd because a lot of people have discovered don't remember who he was or why he was important, including my son sean and leo who early on in the process of writing this would ask me how my book on john glenn was going. shepherd on may 5, 1961 became the first american into space and he went up in this little can right here. 10 years after that, he became the fifth man on the moon and he was the guy who hit the golf balls there. but it was -- it was that first flight, the freedom 7 flight that he went up on on may 5, 1961, that defined shepherd. he had been in an intense competition with the other man who wanted to become the first man in space, and he was the guy they picked to be number one. and that was always sort of the highlight of his career, and his life. now, here we are 35 years almost exactly since man first landed on the moon, but really first step in that direction toward the moon happened in that space capsule right there. a

quite frankly, i do not know what the navy will do. i would be surprised, to be honest, if the navy proceeded to name a ship after harvey milk, because i do not believe we have, as far as we have come in terms of where we are nationally. verses where we are in san francisco.

navy has their back. in the context of the surface fleet, we're building a coastguard cutter for other people's the coasts. that is what this is. other countries are choosing not to build anything alcohol -- at all. they have grown accustomed to this. they have sheltered under our umbrella for a long time. they are not worried. some people in this town, many people in washington, like it that way. they like being the world's policeman. if others are less inclined to defend themselves and their interests, that is ok. i thought see things differently. my colleagues see things differently. we doubt premises of global -- supremacy -- we doubt they would do so as long as the taxpayers are picking up the tab and as long as the u.s. navy is on the front line of every potential dispute. we are a lonely but not alone in this fight. data shows most americans want for others to shoulder the burden of defense. one poll thousand the number sent americans think we spent too much money defending others. 79% think we spe

and personally, serving in the navy, i'm a little biased. about the importance of the u.s. navy. but what is the -- what is the prospect of this budget, if we approve the schedule for ship construction, maintenance, adding new ships to the fleet? is it robust enough to take care of responsibilities for national defense that falls exclusively under the jurisdiction of the navy? >> yes, sir, and i would respectfully like to defer that question, if i could. primarily because in the navy reserve which is my responsibility, obviously, we do have a navy reserve fleet of now nine frigates. as we're retiring those frigates we're bringing active frigates into the reserve fleet to replace them. until we retire all of our navy reserve frigates. as i look forward in the future, our involvement in the reserve, once the frigates are retired will primarily be with the ship program, which is ramping up and we're in active discussions with navy where we and the navy reserve will play into that. the larger question of the entire ship-building program i think is probably one i would like to defer o

navy. but what is the prospect of this budget we approve the schedule for ship construction and maintenance and adding new ships to the fleet. is it robust enough to take care of responsibilities for national defense that falls exclusively under the jurisdiction of the na navy? >> yes, sir, and i would respectfully like to defer that question if i could. primarily because in the navy reserve, which is my responsibility, obviously, we do have a reserve fleet of now nine fr frigates and as we're retiring those frigates, we're bringing more in to replace them until we retire all of our navy reserve frigates. as i look forward in the future, our involvement once those frigates are retired will primarily be with combat ship program which, as you know, is ramping up and we're in active discussions with navy and where we in the navy reserve will play into that. the larger question of the entire ship building program is one that i would like to defer obviously to the secretary and the cno. i will s

navy forces europe. as a former army officer, you had some pretty nice assignments there, captain manning. >> i did. >> captain manning served on the secretary of veterans affairs advisory committee on women veterans from 1998 to 2004 and on the military advisory committee on the legal service network from 2006 to 2009. she's a recognized expert on veterans issues, particularly as they apply to women. she's been a frequent guest commentator on a plethora of television and radio networks that are too numerous to mention. it's the whole alphabet we all know about tv and radio. it is now my pleasure to turn the podium over to captain lori manning who will introduce the panel members and lead our discussion. ladies and gentlemen, captain lori manning. [ applause ] >> thank you. it's great to be here on this beautiful and moderately cool, which i prefer to the 80-degree weather outside. it's gorgeous around this building today. before i introduce the first of the speakers, i want to give you a little bit of a

he joined the navy in 1999, and after becoming a navy seal in 2002, he served in many dangerous special operations assignments around the world. after serving the two tours and iraq, he was deployed to afghanistan in the spring of 2005. for his actions during operation red wings, petty officer first class luttrell was awarded the navy plans for combat terrorism in 2006 by president george w. bush. after recovering from his wounds, he served as the second tour in iraq and received his discharge from the navy in june of 2007 and a very popular speaker you can see that by the great turnout tonight in 2010 to honor his comrades from operation red wing he established a lone survivor foundation dedicated to honoring and remembering american warriors by providing unique education rehabilitation recovery and will miss opportunities to the u.s. armed forces service members and their families. please join me in welcoming marcus luttrell to the navy memorial. [applause] please, sit down. all right. thank you all for coming out. for my first signing of service. there was a pretty good introduction.

this will allow the navy to confidently assign missions to the navy reserve from peace to war. while we'll first have the opportunity to budget for such use of assured access in fiscal year '14, i want you to know how important your efforts were to our future force. i'm also appreciative of your support for the purchase of our 14th c-40a this year for our navy, unique fleet essential airlift. congressional support for our naval reserve program is enabling our critical intratheater capability tide to be more cost-effective and flexible and thus more operationally relevant well into the future. our 2013 budget request will enable the navy reserve to support continuing operations while maximizing the strategic value of the navy reserve, valued for its readiness, agility, and accessibility. the true prize for our sailors and the navy alike will be the real and me

quite frankly, i do not know what the navy will do. i would be surprised, to be honest, if the navy proceeded to name a ship after harvey milk, because i do not believe we have, as far as we have come in terms of where we are nationally. verses where we are in san francisco. at times, it seems, when it comes to the military, i hope we have moved farther along. i think that i am thinking and talking about harvey milk, let's remember the substance of what he was about, social justice and the dedication to the fight for social justice is the greatest honor that weekend bestow on him. supervisor chiu: supervisor meaner? supervisor wiener: thank you for all your thoughts. one thing that i forgot to mention, but this was not planned, today is harvey milk's birthday. thanks to the senate in the state, it is a holiday in california. at the harvey milk day. supervisor chiu: supervisor kim? supervisor kim: i have heard from multiple parties on this issue as well and i have to express my honesty, i feel very conflicted on this issue. i do not rea

we have the navy. we don't really have enough navy. what we ought to have then is an additional hearing on how many ships, how much more military budget, how much more infrastructure we need to do it our way. and say let the rest fly by themselves. i take your time to listen to all of this because essentially you presented a very strong case. and people from industry are going to present a strong case. and they will be pilloried as capitalists who are looking out for their own stockholders, for their own interest. once again, without regard to sovereignty and the ability we could shoot it out if we really are up to it. i don't know who else will come in. perhaps we'll have some peaceful types who will say, you know, peace in the world is important. i'm afraid they're going to get short shrift with regard to this particular argument. how, secretary panetta, would you begin to describe really the military problem here? in other words, we do have the navy and we are not going to stand by. and we are worried about the south china sea and a

next we will hear from admiral mark ferguson, vice chief of naval operations, united states navy. >> madam chairman, senator ayotte and distinguished members of the committee, it's an honor to represent the men and women of the navy and review the readiness of the force with you today. as we prepared our fiscal year 2013 budget request, our decisions were driven by the new defense strategy and our sailing directions for the navy, emphasizing war fighting, operations forward, and readiness. we focused on funding the critical elements of readiness as we balanced our investments in future capability, operations and maintenance, personnel, training, and spares. our budget proposes reductions in force structure and delays in the procurement of some new platforms to ensure the wholeness of our remaining force. importantly, we invested in maintaining a sustainable deployment model to allow for the reset and stride of our forces between rotational deployments, as well as in selected ordnance and training for the fleet. we also focused on enhancing our forward presence to mitigate a reduced f

navy vessel after harvey milk. as a navy veteran and a gay rights icon, it is entirely appropriate that the u.s. navy considered naming a ship in honor of harvey milk. i urge your support of the resolution today. >> my name is not tiley notnaftali. i am a long -- naftali. i am longtime citizen of san francisco. i'm speaking in favor of the resolution. when i think of harvey, i speak of gay liberation. for me, this is less about honoring harvey, who has been well honored over the years, and it is forwarding the goals of the lgbt liberation movement, which is to include us and to have equity in all things. this is a phenomenal honor. i urge you to support our folks in san diego and vote for this. thank you. >> thank you. if no one else like that, this will be our final public comment speaker. cracks good morning. i am a rape -- >> good morning. i am a retired navy commander and an annapolis graduate. i worked for 18 years on don't ask, don't tell, and have dedicated my cent -- my life to supporting lgbt service membe

slinky does a true navy. is when you want to order true to size and measure it according to your bust. i will give you those measurements in a quick second. the leopard is the in your black but then of course it showcased and highlighted by this amazing georgette trimmed. is like a genuine leopard like. if you want to measure according to bust size.34 extra small, 36small, 44

navy seals were involved in another mission in january 2009. they rescued captain richard philips after his cargo ship had been hijacked by somali pirates. >> thank you goys so much. >> seals shot and killed three somali pirates and rescued philips. navy seals continuously put themselves in high risk situations without the recognition being the silent heros and name of faceless sailors that stand up against the world's most dangerous threats. and adam brown was already a navy seal when he was blinded in one eye in a training exercise and then lost parts of his fingers on a dominant right hand when the hum vee crashed. he learned to shoot with his left hand and passed the test to be a member of navy seal team six. he was killed in action in afghanistan march 17th, 2010. his remarkable storiev bravery is told in a book fearless. >> joining me is two that served with adam. >> it is great to have both of you here. remarkable story of adam brown in a story called fearless. what was it about adam's story that captivated you and said it ought to be a

c-span: what was the navy's attitude about having you on there? >> guest: the navy was not happy.they had been very reluctant to get me out there in the first place. it had taken me months of sort of waiting and waiting and writing more memos and writing more requests and finally i did get out there. i think once i got out there, they got even more uncomfortable with me because i made an off-hand comment. i said something about--people kept asking me over and over again. 'what are you writing about? what are you writing about?' and i said something about, 'well, i--i'm writing about how politically correct you all have become.' and people got very, very tense about that and then i was sort of treated like a--a prisoner, you know, under escort... (unintelligible). c-span: did you ever have a time when an escort wasn't with you? >> guest: yeah. yeah. i--i eventually had sort of a violent divorce from my escort. i--on the first day, he showed up at my-my state room, accompanied me down to breakfast, sat next to me at breakfast. then i said, 'ok, i'm going to do my first interview now

can the navy afford its plan? for the last 30 years the navy has spent $16 billion a year on new construction, refueling of submarines, delivery, everything. the navy's 2013 plan proposes to spend on average over the next 30 years $16.8 billion a year for new construction alone. when you add in all the other things, you're talking about $18.5 billion a year per year over the next 30 years. of that money, a lot of this will be loaded beyond the fit- up. the cost of this is $13.7 billion a year. we do not know how the sequestration is going to play out, but regardless, it seems clear whether we get a change in the budget, that may have a further impact on the amount of funding available. is the navy buying the right ships? makingy's plan has been changes to the service combatant forces. it truncated a program, canceled another, it has restarted another line, it is proposing to modify a line as the economy exists with an improved radar. it has maintained 55 lcs in that program. a recent report raised questions whethe