To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Earlier this week, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, questioned U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Hon. Frank Kendall, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, and U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman on the U.S. Air Force’s and U.S Space Force’s respective budget requests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.

During the hearing, Senator Capito asked about Space Force cooperation with commercial partners like the Green Bank Observatory on space domain awareness, tradeoffs in the FY 2025 budget, and current military readiness of Air Force service members and equipment.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON SPACE FORCE PARTNERSHIPS AND WEST VIRGINIA SPACE EXPERTISE:

SEN. CAPITO: “We do know that space domain awareness is essential for our military operations in space. And for many operations rely on space-based assets like our satellite communications, obviously, in the- in the non-military space. So, cislunar space domain awareness has also increased in importance. How is the Space Force collaborating with private sector, academic, and interagency partners to leverage the space domain awareness arena and capabilities?”

GEN. SALTZMAN: “I can't emphasize this enough: avoiding operational surprise in the space domain is one of our top priorities. The foundation of avoiding operational surprise is access to data that is collected by a number of sensors. We, organically, have many of those in the Space Force, but we rely on industry, commercial services, commercial data capabilities. We rely on allies, international partners. The more data you have on the space domain, the better you're able to make sense of what's going on. And so, we spend money on it. We have it [as] a part of our commercial space strategy to make sure we can incorporate that data, and we're committed to it.”

SEN. CAPITO: “Is that an increasing capability that you- I mean, it seems to me that would be ever expanding?”

GEN. SALTZMAN: “You know, it is ever-expanding. And so, one of the things that I'm starting to realize now is: as we increase the amount of data that we're pulling in from other sensors, we have to be able to make sense of that data.”

SEN. CAPITO: “I understand, too, that there is some emerging cooperation between the Space Force and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. So, I'd like to stay in touch with you [Gen. Saltzman] on those capabilities, and because of the radio astronomy that we have out there and have had out there for decades, so [I’m] excited about those possibilities.”

ON THE BUDGET REQUEST ASSUMING RISK IN MODERNIZATION, READINESS:

SEN. CAPITO: “Secretary Kendall, nice to see you again. You wrote in your statement, something stuck out to me. It says ‘the Air Force is accepting risk across the service’s modernization accounts, in order to maintain minimally accepted near-term operational readiness. This places additional risk on the Air Force's ability to deter and defeat any adversary going forward.’ Obviously, what caught my eye, or ear, on that, is the ‘minimally accepted.’ Is that the standard where we are now? And I think that is a minimally accepted standard- I can't even imagine that that's actually an accepted standard, the way you phrased it, so could you explain that to me a little bit in more depth?”

SEC. KENDALL: “The availability of our aircraft right now sits at around 60%. To me, that's a minimally acceptable number. It actually dipped a little below that. I have the most recent data here [on a notecard], in part driven by the fact that the V-22 fleet is still not back in the air, it’s in the process of getting back in the air. But nevertheless, this is driven by a number of things. It's driven largely by supply chain, driven by, you know, availability of depot for throughput, but it's driven by money, as much as anything… So, we're not where we'd like to be in terms of availability, in terms of current readiness. But it's an acceptable level, because we can meet our commitments around the world. We can do the things we anticipate that the joint- that the joint force may be asked to do, and as far as the air component, particularly in the space components, are concerned. We can't- the point I'm trying to make with what I said in the statement is: we can't go below that, we need to stay there. And that, you know, what happened to us in [FY 2025], in particular, was that our plans were scaled back a little bit because of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. We support that act. It was a- it was acceptable to us, but we're not moving forward with modernization under it as quickly as I'd like to. We are sustaining the current fleet at a level which is acceptable. We have our foundational accounts, weapon systems sustainment, the care of our facilities, our flying hours at levels which we could accept and we could live with, but long-term, they will be problematic for us. So, as we look out over the next few years, we're going to have to try to do better in some of those accounts, but it's acceptable for this year, for [FY 2025] …”

# # #