Robert Wittman Asks General About China's 'Expansion In South America'

4/8/2025

During last week's House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Robert J. Wittman (R-VA) pressed General Gregory M. Guillot about China's expansion into South America to secure critical minerals.

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00:00Mr. Chairman of Virginia, Mr. Whitman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to thank our witnesses

00:03for joining us today. General Gio, I want to begin with you. We had had some conversations

00:07about what happened December 2023 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, where we had incursion of UASs,

00:14small UASs, for almost a two-month period. We got briefs about what happened there. They came in

00:21well lit. They weren't trying to hide anything. I felt bad for the base commander because he wanted

00:25to do something and wasn't getting backing from folks up the chain of command. We had a bunch

00:29of resources there where we could do things. None of those were used. If it wasn't for NASA

00:36Langley next door, we wouldn't have even had the sensors to be able to sense those unmanned

00:41aerial systems that are there on site. Let me ask this. We have, from a hearing then, asked

00:48for a priority list under 130i. What base is our priority? What's being done to protect

00:53those bases? How do we make sure those things don't occur again? I believe that our adversaries

00:59are probing, trying to figure out what we can do, what we can't do, and that's very telling

01:05to them what they saw that day or what they saw over that month. It was very telling to

01:09them that there wasn't the type of reaction that was necessary. My question is this. What

01:15has been done in the meantime for us to be assured that NORTHCOM and NORAD is doing everything

01:20possible on these bases to protect them from these UAS threats? What's our counter-UAS? Where

01:26are we with prioritizing these bases? Where are we with training our security forces on

01:33base to protect those bases? Where are we with supplying kit to at least the priority bases

01:39or have some network of equipment that's necessary to make sure we're protecting these bases?

01:44Congressman, since the Langley incursions of December 2023, NORAD, or excuse me, NORTHCOM has

01:52requested, and then last November was given the responsibility to synchronize the DOD and,

01:58if necessary, interagency response to counter-UAS incursions. During that time, we've conducted

02:07three assisted responses where we can use our new responsibilities to bring capabilities to

02:14a base, similar to what you saw at Langley, but this time with the authority to operate those

02:20systems based on our headquarters close ties with the interagency and LNOs to get the FAA

02:26and other authorities that are necessary to operate once they land. The responsibility for defending

02:34bases resides with the services and with the installation, but what NORTHCOM has done is proposed a process

02:43where we would bring in flyaway kits to supplement or, in the case where there are no capabilities,

02:51provide the initial capability at that base to defeat that. Now, we don't have those kits yet,

02:57but we're in the process of acquiring those. I would say there's certainly a sense of urgency

03:04there in making sure that we get that done, especially here at the Homeland. Sir, I share that sense of urgency.

03:09Thank you. Admiral Halsey, I want to point to a study being done or project, I should say,

03:17at College of William & Mary called Aid Data. Aid Data is looking at how China has dramatically expanded

03:23its footprint in critical mineral extraction around the world, but specifically in South America,

03:29specifically Peru. There are two large copper mines there that are mining at record pace.

03:35China is putting a significant amount of money into those regions, much the same way they did in Africa

03:42in places like the Democrat Republic of Congo, where they own 16 of the 18 mines. You know,

03:47we in the United States can talk about resurging manufacturing and building all these semiconductor

03:52plants, but if we don't have access to critical minerals and rare earth elements, those things to the left

03:59in the value chain, then we can build all the plants we want, but none of that's going to come to fruition.

04:05Give us your perspective on how you see the Chinese footprint expanding in South America,

04:10specifically as it relates to critical minerals and rare earth elements.

04:14And Congressman, thank you for that question. It's no doubt that China continues to or would like to

04:20control the abundance of resources and rare earth minerals in the region. We know that.

04:24So I think what we have to do is have a solution. Recently, last year, Exxon Bank was able to

04:30finance a copper mine or mine in Peru, but we have to continue to up that, right? So Office of

04:36Use Capital, Development Finance Corporation, we have to continue to raise the profile of companies

04:42willing to go down there. When we go to these regions, they know they have someone who's going to

04:46respect their laws, respect the environmental concerns, right? So we have to continue to get up to that,

04:50sir. Very good. Thank you. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

04:53Mr. Chairman, I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman.

Robert Wittman Asks General About China's 'Expansion In South America'

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