00:00from Connecticut. Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Rogers, and thank you to all the
00:04witnesses this morning. General Keough, at NORTHCOM posture
00:09hearings in recent years, you and your predecessors have described the
00:13increasing frequency of Russian submarine patrols that have transited
00:17the Atlantic in the vicinity of the homeland. You alluded to the undersea a
00:21number of times in your testimony. It's in your written testimony as well. Can
00:25you tell us, as best you can in an unclassified setting, if that trend is
00:28continuing? Congressman, the trend of approaching our coasts from both Russia
00:36and Chinese submarines is increasing, and we need an expanded undersea detection
00:43capability to ensure that we are aware of these and can properly posture to
00:47defend against submarine-launched cruise missiles or ballistic missiles. And when
00:51you say that undersea detection, you're talking about sensors, right? And I
00:55mean, there's obviously other levels. Yes, sir, I'm talking about sensors. Right.
01:00Anti-submarine warfare, to follow up Mr. Smith's question, is a team sport with
01:06our allies. It starts in Europe in terms of Russian patrols where, again, you know,
01:13UK, France participate with the U.S., and then as it proceeds further west, Canada
01:20is also part of that team sport. Isn't that correct? Congressman, that's correct.
01:25And if you use the last out-of-sea deployment in July as an example, the
01:32nations that you mentioned had first detection. We picked up on those, and
01:36using both Canadian ships and maritime patrol aircraft, tracked those, the
01:42submarine and the surface vessels, all the way until we handed it to Admiral
01:46Halsey's command, and they went into Havana. Thank you. And again, we're
01:53talking about a fleet that, despite the war in Ukraine, Putin continues to
01:58invest. In fact, yesterday he was at a shipyard announcing, again, another
02:03generation of submarine capability for the hydrasonic
02:10missile payload, which, again, I don't know if you've been following that, but I mean,
02:14again, this threat is not sort of stalled out because of Ukraine. That's
02:20right, sir. So the maritime threat and most parts of the air threat have
02:25actually grown over the last several years, despite the activities in Ukraine.
02:29So again, the focus in terms of just what are the most effective ways to
02:36counter that clearly requires a multinational effort. And I mean, the good
02:42news is that we've had good participation in recent years, and I just
02:47want to associate myself with Mr. Smith's remarks, that this trade war
02:52that has started is just a complete, needless impediment in terms of, you
02:59know, having maximum levels of participation. I mean, seeing yesterday
03:03the pictures of South Korea, Japan, and China announcing jointly an anti-U.S.
03:10tariff initiative with the leadership of the three governments shaking
03:14hands, honestly was sickening. And again, we've really got to do more as a
03:23Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, to try and rein in what I
03:27think is just a really negative, you know, dynamic that's being put into place. And
03:33you know, we're all going to find out tomorrow the extent of the next level of
03:39these tariffs, but it's impossible for, I think, anyone to argue reasonably that
03:44it's not impacting the ability of us to interact with our allies when their
03:50governments are being put under such strain and pressure with these
03:54policies that are, again, seem to be cascading out every single day. So,
04:01and again, just Admiral, the General referred to the fact that the Russian
04:07naval presence does make its way into your area of command. Maybe you could
04:11just sort of allude to that in my final minute. Yes, Congressman. Since 2008, we've
04:16had over 40 Russian air-to-air deplorers into the region. So again, working with
04:21us, NORTHCOM, we make sure we do some type of relay to make sure we can keep
04:25pace on those. I would say that we have to continue to have presence, and again,
04:29presence is power. We have to meet presence with presence. If we don't do
04:32that, then we're going to cede the space, right? So we have to make sure we stay in
04:35their face and have assets ready to engage. No, and SOUTHCOM usually has been
04:40the poor cousin in terms of Navy sort of allocation of ships, and so, I mean, I
04:47think your point, I think, is really an important one for us to hear. And with
04:51that, I yield back.
