Joe Manchin

General Barclay, have you done any cost analysis to determine incremental increases or savings associated with such a force structure?

A major tenet of both the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance is protection of the Nation's defense industrial base.

Have you performed any analysis of the potential readiness or operational impact of the loss of industrial capacity or capability to support fielded and deployed weapons systems?

If we continue along the current path of fiscal uncertainty we will be unable to avoid the consequences of a hollow army.

The size and the steepness of cuts required by sequestration make it impossible to downsize the force in a deliberate, logical manner.

You can probably go and buy this off the shelf for the mission that you want it to be used for, correct?

We think that Iraq's not in any better shape today than it was when we got there, and that we don't have any more influence or control, or maybe not as much or even less than what we had before, and Iran has a better foothold than we do.

If I'm hearing you accurately, you're saying even with 2014, as we approach 2014 for the drawdown and leaving Afghanistan, it's going to be quite expensive for us to do it right.

I don't believe, from the retrofitting or refurbishing--I've seen what the National Guard units can do in my own State of West Virginia, the amount of money that can be saved by them doing it, whether it's simple retrofitting the tires or…

It doesn't make economic sense, when you look at the amount of money that we've spent on contracting or private contractors versus what the soldiers have done in the past

I believe that we should be working with you more than telling you what to do.

I just think that you truly have a window here to bring to us a common sense business plan that makes sense.

Just on face value it doesn't make like it's a good business arrangement.

What do you mean by 'borrowed manpower'?

The sequestration is taking on a whole new life of its own.

The bottom line on the Lakota is we all probably have strategically something being manufactured in our State.

If we were to stop production of the Apache program, it would impact the production line and it would impact many of those 300 companies and 20,000 workers.

The soldiers have sacrificed dearly and stepped up when so many others wouldn't.

I want to make sure you all know you have our full support.

General Bogdan, of all the issues the F-35 must overcome, is a helmet among the top three?

We must start today to tackle long-term cycle costs of that weapon.

If the Chinese Government can produce in 22 months a competitive aircraft, there had to be piracy or espionage, had to be.

While the Senator is still here, I'd like to follow up because when these programs--I'm understanding when these programs are coming to life there is a competitive process you go through, like the so-called fly-off.

If we had the ability to put those cuts in the areas that we thought we could most handle the risk and take the force structure adjustments that we needed to, I think that would be certainly a benefit to anything we want to do in the Air…

We're being joined by Senator Blumenthal and we appreciate having him here.