How important will the Virginia payload module be in addressing at least a portion of this looming gap in undersea strike capabilities?

One concern I have as we look going forward, particularly with respect to our public shipyards, is that there's a real backlog of projects that need to be done at those shipyards.

Congress must do everything possible to avoid sequestration, because I certainly agree with that.

Certainly in New Hampshire we've seen both sides of the issue, because Pease Air Force Base was the first base closed in the country.

I hope that we act immediately on this on a bipartisan basis.

Secretary Panetta and Chairman Dempsey have said that sequestration will hollow out our force.

I can't imagine anyone on this committee would ever stand for hollowing out our force.

If these reports, public reports, are accurate, we're talking about individuals who, senior-most Taliban commander in northern Afghanistan, someone who is an alleged war criminal in his role for the massacre of Shiite Afghans.

These are very dangerous individuals if they are as they've been reported by the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

I want to echo concerns that Secretary Panetta himself, having gone through this process, raised before the House committee in October...

General Fraser, what are the readiness risks associated with these slower response times?

the criteria that comes out for the basing of the KC-46A will be objective and transparent

I hope that you'll convey, obviously, to the Chief of Staff and to your commander how important it is that this be an open and objective process.

General Fraser, were these readiness risks associated with this proposed MPF reduction included in the DOD risk assessment that is being finalized?

I was concerned about what this would mean in terms of our readiness.

One of the concerns that I have is it delays, for example, production of one Virginia-class submarine.

We are certainly taking on additional risk with this.

With $15 trillion in debt, that is a really hard sell to my constituents, that we should allocate $400 million for a system that we will never procure or use.