'Mr. Secretary, We Were All Troubled...': Tammy Baldwin Grills Sec. Austin On A Military Review

the Army continues to budget for tactical wielded vehicles at rates well below the minimum sustaining rates industry requires to keep uh production lines open and further the Army is risking a gap in production by transitioning The Joint light tactical vehicle to a company that has no experience manufacturing this platform so I'm worried that the Army's management of these programs and their Associated industrial base um and and um the Army is due uh to complete a strategy for the acquisition of these platforms this summer uh but I'm concerned about the Army's ability to grade its own work frankly the Tactical wheel vehicle sector is an important part of the overall industrial base and our national security strategy um so Mr secretary can I count on sound decision making from DOD on vehicle program and further will you engage the office of the assistant secretary of defense for industrial-based policy in reviewing the Army's management of the Tactical wield vehicles and providing recommendations uh you you can I I will um and uh there's no question that uh Wisconsin's industrial base is critical and uh and so uh we want to make sure that we continue to do the right things and keep uh and make sure sure we have the capacity to address our needs going forward so okay um uh Wisconsin's industrial base is something of course that's always on my mind and so I'm going to shift to our ship building um Mr secretary we uh were all troubled by the uh 75-day ship building review that found major delays among most of the ship building programs and I was surprised to hear that the Navy estimates that the frigate uh will be deled uh by as many as 36 months um as you and I discussed last year uh I work to secure funding for uh the industrial based and Workforce Development programs that would support growing the skilled Workforce that we need to sustain robust production of the frigate I'm disappointed that it took the Navy 15 months to obligate the fiscal year 2023 funds um Mr secretary uh will you uh explain explain to the committee the importance of continuing to fully fund the frigate program and its Associated Workforce Development needs on a consistent annual basis and will you commit to working with me to ensure that the Navy uh Works diligently and responsibly to execute These funds as you know this this budget request Senator does include requests for uh fully funding the the FY 25 frigate and uh but to your point in terms of making sure that we have uh the workforce that can provide the capacity that we need to stay on on track and uh and keep up with the with the demand that's critical so industrial base needs to be able to rec not only recruit but retain the talent that's needed to to do that uh and we have to continue to invest in that and and again we have to pick up the pace and so we will continue to work with industry leaders uh to do uh in fact do that and I met with some industry leaders and talked about uh the you know what we're doing with the uh the resources that are being provided uh to investing in in the industrial base and we'll continue to do that going forward and I think I think they are doing some things on their own to uh to invest uh but uh we have to work together in a more meaningful way to to increase capacity so thank you thank you Senator Graham thank you uh rather than getting a fight about the why don't we agree with the following uh that the Battle Force ship assessment requirement report uh issued said that we need 381 manship 3134

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Length: 4min 13sec (253 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024