The combatant commander asked for the F-35s to fly in Korea a short while ago as a message to those who would try to do our Nation or our allies harm.

I support the President's commitment to rebuilding the capacity and capability of our military.

It is a fantastic capability. Red Flag Alaska again up there as well.

We are particularly interested in understanding how this budget request will begin the process of reversing the trend in deferred modernization funding.

The hearing will come to order. The subcommittee meets today to review the Army and Marine Corps ground force equipment modernization budget request for fiscal year [FY] 2018.

Yesterday, the CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, apologized to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for his company having dragged a passenger off of one of their aircraft. Mr. Munoz highlighted the policy changes…

Your statement that it is malpractice and unprofessional is incredibly important, and everyone in Congress needs to hear it.

There is no reason it should not be an exception because we have already passed the DOD approps.

We need to reestablish a forum to talk with the Russians on strategic stability issues.

the ability to understand future impacts along our coastal and our most vulnerable cities and infrastructure are exactly what we are using.

Sustainment of the F-18E/F fleet is critical but what type of capability requirements are also necessary to keep the platform operationally relevant into the 2030s as required to meet evolving threats?

Continuing down this path of budget-driven defense strategies rather than capacity-driven defense strategies, places too great a burden on our men and women in uniform.

The Navy has always said that their requirement is to have a combination or mix of 4th gen and 5th gen aircraft.

What are the effects of a year-long continuing resolution to the Navy's strike fighter fleets?

I appeal to their patriotism. I said, you know, bottom line, the leadership and, frankly, this body here has been working hard to get us the resources to do readiness recovery.

I think that we have to remember that he is a KGB [Committee for State Security] agent and somebody that knows how to use propaganda.

This hearing will now come to order. The subcommittee meets today to continue the ongoing process of informing our members and the public about the current readiness crisis that all of our military services find themselves in.

to pursue peace through strength, it shall be the policy of the United States to rebuild the United States Armed Forces

The readiness that we desire for aviation is about 75 percent of our fleet.

No one--no one--should feel as if they are in a compromising position in serving their Nation.

I have stood in front of a bunch of F-18s that were disassembled.

We need additional funds above the PB 2017 request.

During this period of reduced funding, but not reduced missions or operational tempo, what types of investments has the Marine Corps sacrificed to sustain the deployable readiness levels of the operating forces?

Staying in line with the specific focus of this hearing, what are your top three ground force modernization priorities, and are they currently fully funded?

Currently, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle Increment 1.1 (ACV 1.1) is in the preliminary stages of Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) testing...