During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) questioned Matthew L. Lohmeier, nominee to be Under Secretary of Air Force, about aviation training capacity.
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00:00Senator Bud. Thank you, Chairman. And again, congratulations to each of you. Thanks for the
00:06families and friends to be here today. Mr. Lohmeyer, are you familiar with the strategic
00:15basing process? Somewhat, Senator. Okay, great. Last month, the Department of Air Force transmitted
00:26its plan to Congress for the sustainment and recapitalization of the Air National Guard
00:32fighter fleet. Now, it was the result of much analysis and careful planning. It's this document
00:40right here. Have you had a chance to read this? I have not, Senator. Selfridge Air National
00:48Guard Base in Michigan. It's receiving 15 EXs, and that is not part of this plan, which I
00:59can guess will change things for the Air Force's frontline units, not the Guard units, but the
01:04frontline units. So, as an example, Seymour Johnson will have to train these A-10 pilots on the
01:12platform of the F-15, and the mission using their F-15E Strike Eagles. You flew the F-15, correct?
01:22C models. Yes, Senator. Yep. Well, that's a large unplanned increase in flying training
01:29compared to the simulator-based differences training for transitioning currently qualified
01:35F-15 pilots to the EX model. So, I want to paraphrase a statement from the Air Force about the training
01:42capacity down at Seymour Johnson. F-15 program flying training requirements will jump by greater
01:51than 50% in fiscal year 27 and 28. And currently, the Air Force has no training-coded aircraft capacity
02:02to meet that requirement without reflow of combat-coded F-15Es. The Air Force is being
02:12forced to examine drastically cutting the F-15 syllabus length to meet those requirements.
02:18This creates risk on both quality and basic course aircrew graduates and on combat Air Forces
02:28that will receive aircrew with potentially subpar combat airmanship skills. And just to be clear,
02:38that statement was given by the Air Force in February. And that's before Selfridge's basing
02:44decision was made. So, if confirmed, what will you do to ensure that the fourth fighter wing
02:52at Seymour Johnson Base has what they need to make ends meet with this additional training requirement?
03:00Senator, I'm really glad you brought all of this up. You have my attention.
03:03I understood everything you've said. It's of great interest. I'll say that I'm very familiar
03:09with the missions being flown out of Seymour Johnson. In fact, I'll just say publicly it matters
03:14a great deal to the Air Force and the American people that we had over 80 drones shot down in
03:19the Middle East this past year over a six-month period by a unit out of Seymour Johnson.
03:23And we have dozens...
03:24It just arrived at that very moment.
03:27And they performed beautifully.
03:27They prevented potentially mass casualty events.
03:30And dozens of these men and women suit up every day out of Seymour Johnson doing an absolutely
03:34critical mission in defense of the homeland. And so, you have my commitment that if confirmed,
03:39I'll look forward to working with Dr. Mink if he's confirmed, to looking at these things in a
03:43nonpartisan way, these basing decisions, and the proper force structure and bed down forces.
03:50But I'm interested in learning more from you about Seymour Johnson in particular.
03:55Thank you for that answer. And just to be clear, if confirmed, you'll be responsible
03:59for assisting the Secretary in organizing, training, and equipping the Air Force, correct?
04:03Yes, thank you. And in fact, as we've mentioned, that's exactly what the role of the
04:09Under Secretary of the Air Force is. But that's our chief prerogative, is organizing,
04:13training, and equipping Air and Space Forces to provide to our combatant commanders.
04:18Thank you for that.
04:18So, if confirmed, I look forward to hearing the plan soon on how the Air Force is going
04:24to solve this issue and at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Thank you all, Mr. Chairman.