00:00Okay. Thank you, Senator Sullivan. Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
00:06Thank you both for your dedication and service. I'm very grateful that you're taking on these
00:10jobs at this time. I want to continue the recruiting conversation that Senator Sullivan
00:15started, Mr. O'Keefe. So this committee has for a long time tried to enhance getting the best and
00:21brightest that we possibly can in certain mission areas where we fall short. One of those mission
00:26areas has been cyber. And I don't have to recite for you the litany of cyber attacks on this country
00:32over the last five years that are devastating and ones that could easily undermine our military
00:37readiness to the point that we can't fight a war or respond effectively. So one of the goals of this
00:44committee is to create a cyber academy where we can create a ROTC type program at over 600 schools
00:52and universities across the country from community colleges to elite universities. And that program
00:57has been up and running now for a couple of years and it's working. We are getting recruits from all
01:03across the country. And these are for non-military jobs because obviously in the DOD there's a great
01:07deal of non-military civilian jobs who do cyber specifically. A cyber personnel behind a computer
01:15screen. It doesn't necessarily have to be trained like a marine to be lethal outside of their lethality
01:23on a keyboard, which is why we want to be able to recruit beyond any personnel who would want to come
01:28and serve as an army officer or a marine officer or any enlisted personnel. So the DOGE cuts are
01:36undermining this entire ecosystem. And so the reports we've heard is that these kids are waiting to get
01:44jobs. They actually have done the work we've asked them to do. They've done four years or two years
01:48of training specifically on the mission set that the DOD has given them for cyber and they are waiting
01:55to be employed. And so the data is terrible. We created this program to get more recruits, to enhance
02:00our readiness, and doge cuts are impacting. Right now winter graduates have not been able to obtain jobs
02:06and internships. We're limited to just 25 percent of eligible students. Again, we're going backwards.
02:11In a mission set, we have been desperate to meet. So, Mr. O'Keefe, can you commit to me that you will
02:18work to strengthen the cyber academy, that we will work to get the full complement of 1,000 students
02:23enrolled every year, and that we'll continue to work on campuses across the country to increase the
02:29number of schools that have the curriculum we need, and eventually to create a bricks and mortar academy
02:35so we have the cyber personnel we actually need? Senator, yes, I think this is a, you've hit on a
02:41number of really important topics. One is military and civilians need to work together in this area.
02:47Not everyone, to your point, needs to be military, and the Department of Defense needs to be a better
02:51employer of civilians in this area. There's a number of authorities there. But yes, I think this is a
02:56a very useful focus for the department, not just for cybercom, but across the board.
03:05Mr. Obedel, thank you so much for your decades of service, and thank you for being committed to
03:14this new mission. Now, I want to talk about the drone incursions we've seen over our military bases.
03:19I know you have expertise in this area, and I would like you to talk about it because the publicly
03:27available reports about the drone incursion over Langley is shocking, concerning, and we can further
03:34this conversation in a skiff. But in this open session, what are you going to do to fight for
03:41the authorizations, for the technology investments, for the ability that when we have drone incursions
03:47over highly sensitive military bases that arguably are spying on us with no recourse,
03:53from unknown origins, could be any adversarial nation, what do you propose to the Department
04:01of Defense, to the Secretary of Defense, to this committee about enhancing authorities so we can
04:07take them down over military bases and have the authority to do so, that we can run missions if
04:13necessary to follow drone incursions to their source, to see if they're being launched from
04:18ships nearby, seeing if they've been launched from fields nearby, owned by adversarial nations.
04:25What is your plan?
04:27Well, Senator, thank you for your attention to it. It is a critical problem, as we've seen
04:31growing over the years. And to me, from a strategic standpoint, I see this as defense of the
04:37homeland. And so there are a number of, well, I really put this in two buckets. One is technical
04:45layering of capabilities, which would be different in a place like Syria or Iraq than would be in New
04:52York over a base, because of the ability to use kinetics or electronic means to affect incurring
04:58incursions by drones. But the other is the layering of authorities. And this is where I think it gets
05:05really complicated. The technical part, I am confident in the Army's acquisition capabilities
05:10and industry to be able to bring together solutions. The more difficult part is weaving together the
05:17number of authorities. And you mentioned this, right, because it goes to local and state authorities,
05:23Department of Defense, Department of Justice is involved, and Department of Homeland Defense in
05:27certain areas. This is probably the area that I would, if confirmed, that I would focus on the most,
05:34is, as far as the acquisition community, let them work with industry to figure out what the right
05:39solutions are. But we have to turn the attention of Army leadership to, across the interagency and
05:46down into our local governments to ensure that we're layering all of those authorities to their
05:51maximum effect. Thank you. And I have a bipartisan bill with Senator Cotton that I would like you to
05:57review and give us comments on. Thank you.
06:02Well, thank you, Senator Jill Brand, and thank you for your leadership on the cyber issues,
06:07Cyber Academy and everything. She has been the leader on this committee on that, and it's really
06:12important to follow through on the issues she raised. I want to thank you for your leadership on the
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