▶ 0:01:21>> we convene publicly after a classified session on the posture of U.S. central command and africa command. I want to thank admiral cooper and general anderson for their service to the country and their candid testimony during the closed session. Let me start by addressing the situation in the middle east.
▶ 0:01:43Throughout operation epic fury admiral cooper commanded our highly trained and courageous men and women in uniform as they executed an exceptional military campaign. The campaign rendered the islamic republic of iran a shadow of its former self. The effort has not been without significant losses, though. Certainly we continue to honor the men and women and 14 service members who lost their lives.
▶ 0:02:11As well as the approximately 300 service members who have been injured. Since 1970 nine iran's clerical regime has chosen to make the united states its number one enemy. The motto of iran's ayatollah's has never been god bless you ron or long live iran. They have chanted death to america, death to israel. The regime states its murderous goals plainly.
▶ 0:02:40The entire foreign policy iran evolves around killing others rather than building for its people. As part of iran's war of choice against the united states, the regime has directed its terrorist proxies to kill hundreds of american service members, take dozens of americans hostage, and assassinate senior american officials, including attempts on the life of president trump.
▶ 0:03:07It has also developed a nuclear ballistic missile program that aimed to hold multiple continents and dozens of U.S. partners at risk. Every american president since carter has had to deal with the consequences of iran's war on the united states. Rather than dealing with the problem successive democrat and republican administrations sought so-called de-escalation with iran.
▶ 0:03:35This often afforded around the time and resources to develop its nuclear program, the ballistic missile program and global terrorist infrastructure. I commend president trump for recognizing that the iranian regime cannot be appeased. And for directing action to defeat this threat. Doing so will not be easy.
▶ 0:03:57The iranian threat -- the iranian regime is deeply ideological and insists that it is winning even when it is losing by every conceivable metric. I look forward to admiral cooper sharing his assessment of how close we are to destroy a neuron's military capabilities. I would also like to hear -- destroy iran's military capabilities.
▶ 0:04:22I would also like to hear what he needs from congress so that our men and women in uniform have what they need to complete the job. It would send our adversaries a dangerous signal about our nation' wherewithal and resolve. We would send it that erroneous message to iran and other adversaries around the globe. As we've seen the nature and scope of the threats we face transcendent geographic boundaries. This is particularly true as we look to africa.
▶ 0:04:54That is where general anderson comes in, the continent is not a distant concern for american national security. Rather it is an arena of growing strategic consequence defined by converging threats from adversarial nationstates like china and russia, radical islamic terrorism and instability driven by weak governance. China and russia recognize the strategic importance of africa.
▶ 0:05:24China is leveraging economic coercion, debt diplomacy, and military bases to support president xi's global ambition. Through its mercenaries and other proxies, rush's destabilizing fragile states to bankroll its malign activities in ukraine and elsewhere around the world. I look to general anderson to provide his assessment of chinese and russian objectives in africa.
▶ 0:05:54And to update the committee on how africa command is addressing the threat posed by these nefarious actors. The terrorist threats across africa remained persistent, adaptive, and dangerous, increasingly africa is becoming the epicenter of global terrorism. Al qaeda and isis senior leadership now reside in africa.
▶ 0:06:16They are terrorist -- their terrorist affiliates are expanding in reach. There murderous ambitions are not confined to that continent. These groups remain intent on killing americans around the world and key shortfalls and military capabilities including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance complicate our ability to attract these groups and the threat they pose.
▶ 0:06:45So, we look to general anderson to let the committee know how these resource shortfalls are impacting his ability to combat the terrorist threat and where this committee can be helpful. I have noted in my remarks, africa is of increasing strategic importance to american national security interests. This is why I dedicated combatant command for africa as indispensable.
▶ 0:07:13Africa command was established in two thousand seven because the united states recognized these challenges require sustained and dedicated focus. This committee remains dedicated to ensuring africa command has the authority's and resources and strategic support necessary to protect american interests across the continent. With that, I turned to my partner and colleague, ranking member reed.
▶ 0:07:40Sen. Reed: Thank you very much, chairman. Admiral cooper, general anderson, thank you for your dedication and service with great distinction over many years. Also, I think I express the concerns of all of us that you convey our congratulations and appreciation to the men and women you lead in your areas.
▶ 0:08:05Sen. Reed: I want to also begin by addressing my deepest condolences to the families of the servicemen who were recently lost in africa. We owe them our greatest respect and gratitude. Admiral cooper, we are 75 days into this war with iran and I'm concerned the president does not have a credible strategy to win.
▶ 0:08:28Sen. Reed: Every member of this committee shares the goal of preventing iran from having a nuclear weapon, but there is no purely military solution to this problem. Instead, every president over the past 50 years has used diplomacy, sanctions, and international cooperation to at this point successfully prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. President trump tore up the iran nuclear deal and instead of negotiating a new deal, unilaterally took our nation to war.
▶ 0:08:58Sen. Reed: More than a dozen servicemembers have lost their lives and hundreds more have been wounded. We have suffered significant damages to our bases, dramatically expanded our munitions stockpiles, and sustained billions of dollars in damage. The strait of hormuz is still closed it despite attempts to escort commercial ships.
▶ 0:09:21Sen. Reed: While secretary hegseth and secretary rubio said operation epic fury is concluded, it's unclear what objectives that accomplished. Neuron's regime is intact, its nuclear material remains in place, the majority of its missiles and launches have been recovered.
▶ 0:09:41Sen. Reed: Iran has demonstrated its ability to shut down the strait, and most importantly, or of equal weight, american families are bearing real costs at the gas pump and grocery store for a war they did not want and congress has not authorized. Cooper, the military forces under your command have performed with exceptional skill and bravery and that is your leadership and chain of command.
▶ 0:10:09Sen. Reed: The firepower that we have brought to bear in a iran has been formidable, but we have not yet, I think, articulated a clear strategy going forward. This is continuing to hamper our objectives. I think everyone on this committee would love to see these peace negotiations succeed, and I would be the first one to applaud significant results achieved through diplomacy.
▶ 0:10:40Sen. Reed: But one of the issues we are facing -- and we talked about it in the closed session -- at every turn we are not receiving information we are legally entitled to. We have not seen the legal justification for this operation, nor the execute orders, and the administration's explanation for the path forward have shifted constantly.
▶ 0:11:09Sen. Reed: This week the president said that the cease-fire is on life support and it leaves us a fundamental question. Where are we and where are we going? I hope you can touch on that, admiral cooper. There are two other concerns that sent, I would like to address. First, we withdrew all of our troops from syria, and this has created some adverse consequences.
▶ 0:11:35Sen. Reed: Our modest military footprint there produced significant returns, including a very reliable partner in the syrian democratic forces, a sustained counter-isis mission, and a degree of leverage in a strategically important area of the world. We gave that up very quickly when we withdrew. If you can provide some understanding on the current situation I would appreciate it.
▶ 0:12:04Sen. Reed: The cease-fire in lebanon is fragile, and israel's airstrikes and demolition operations for the south are eroding it. The lebanese armed forces are one of the few genuine stabilizing instruments we have left in the region and we should be seriously investing in it. Admiral, I would like to know what resources you need to make this partnership successful, our partnership with the lebanese military, in displacing hezbollah and establishing a reliable government.
▶ 0:12:37Sen. Reed: General anderson, I am concerned about whether africom should be maintained as an independent combatant command, the same concerns I believe the chairman has. That fight should be not necessary. It really reveals a misunderstanding of the continuing importance of africa and so many different ways. If we were to merge africom that would be a mistake.
▶ 0:13:05Sen. Reed: It would signal africa is not a priority for the united states. Russia and china are not making that mistake. Russia's africa corps has expanded across numerous countries and africa build sports and if a structure across the continent. They are filling a space that america has created for them by our disengagement.
▶ 0:13:28Sen. Reed: In general I would ask you to share your views on the current security situation and how you are working with allies and partners to address the political and economic instability in africa. Finally, I would note that the dismantling of usaid has made the situation worse. More than 12 billion dollars in annual assistance to sub-saharan africa is largely gone. This has translated directly to instability, radicalization, and openings for our adversaries.
▶ 0:13:58Sen. Reed: The administration from aid to trade slogan may be a reasonable long-term aspiration but is not a near-term substitute for what is lost, and our partners on the ground know it. I would like to know what support you need from this committee to effectively partner with the vulnerable nations in africa to keep us from losing more ground to china and russia. Admiral cooper, general anderson, thank you for your leadership.
▶ 0:14:26Chair Wicker: Admiral cooper, you are recognized for your opening statement.
▶ 0:14:30Adm. Cooper: Thank you very much, chairman wicker, ranking member reed, members of this committee, for the opportunity to testify before you today. Thank you all in this committee for your very fast support to the united states military and our men and women deployed today. I'm pleased to be sitting here with my good friend, the commander of U.S. africa command, and I'm joined by fleet command, our enlisted leader.
▶ 0:15:00Adm. Cooper: The events in the central region have shown how quickly the course of history can change. In the last few years, decades-old features of the strategic landscape, once thought immutable, have been upended, bringing challenges and opportunities. I strongly believe that every success we have starts and ends with our people.
▶ 0:15:21Adm. Cooper: In the last seven months, merrick's sons and daughters serving and centcom have played -- america's sons and daughters serving and centcom have played key roles. Degrading the isis threat in syria. Preventing what I would characterize as an isis crisis by conducting a historic prisoner transferred to iraq, creating the most integrated and effective air defense architecture ever seen -- which was decades in the making, and recently addressing the iranian threat.
▶ 0:15:50Adm. Cooper: The performance of our war fighters and combined toward joint task force is particularly noteworthy. In january responding to a rapidly deteriorating security situation, they have executed an extraordinary transfer of more than 5000 700 isis prisoners, all terrorists, from syria to iraqi custody.
▶ 0:16:15Adm. Cooper: The effort prevented a massive prison break that risk large-scale isis reconstitution and acute risk to the american homeland. In parallel they have maintained relentless pressure on isis remnants in syria, hawkeye strike removed 50 isis terrorists and 100 terror infrastructure targets from the battlefield. U.S.
▶ 0:16:37Adm. Cooper: Central command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the islamic republic of iran, and eying the 16th centcom commander to deal with the iranian problem set. For 47 years the iranian regime terrorize the region and made hostility to the united states a core tenet of its rule. They are hostile in lethal track record against the united states is well-documented, but I don't know that it's always well understood. Here is a data point.
▶ 0:17:04Adm. Cooper: In the last 30 months prior to the commencement of epic fury, iranian supported terror groups have attacked U.S. troops and diplomats, more than 350 times. The equivalent of attack every third day wounding nearly 200 more. After more than two years of iranian attempts to october 7, 20 23 to tear the region apart, at the direction of the president united states central command initiated epic fury.
▶ 0:17:33Adm. Cooper: In less than 40 days centcom forces achieved our military objectives, notably we degraded iran's ability to project power outside its borders and threaten the region and threaten our interests. As an example, we can remember april and october of 2020 four, hundreds of iranian ballistic missiles and drones raining down in the middle east. Today, I ran can no longer attack with that mass and scale.
▶ 0:18:00Adm. Cooper: Further, with 90% of its defense industrial base destroyed, iran won't be able to reconstitute those weapons for years. We also all watched iran spend decades and billions and billions of dollars on arming proxies. Today hamas, hezbollah, and the houthis are cut off from weapons of supply and support. This result was not foreordained nor brought by chance.
▶ 0:18:27Adm. Cooper: It is the culmination of months of careful planning build upon decades of experience. These results also do not come without cost. We honor the memories of the 14 servicemembers who paid the ultimate sacrifice during operation epic fury and the two soldiers and one civilian killed in syria. They represent, truly, the very best of all of us. As I sit here we are clear eyed. The situation in front of us is very complex.
▶ 0:18:57Adm. Cooper: High-stakes negotiations continue. Our job is to be ready, and we are. I testified today on behalf of the 50,000 plus servicemen and women deployed to the central region. It's a great honor and the privilege of a lifetime to service their commander. Thank you, I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:19:14Chair Wicker: General anderson.
▶ 0:19:17Gen. Anderson: Chairman wicker, ranking number reed, thank you for the opportunity to provide an update. I'm joined by our senior enlisted leader and I'm proud to sit beside my friend from U.S. central command, admiral brad cooper. We appreciate your support to our war fighters. Before I start I would like to recognize the service of first lieutenant kendrick lamont key jr.
▶ 0:19:47Gen. Anderson: And maria simone collington who lost their lives during african lion and are returning home today. I would like to express my appreciation to our allies and partners, particularly morocco, who stepped forward when it mattered the most. Africa sits at the crossroads of global commerce and security, bridging strategic terrain between the atlantic and indo pacific, the world's supplier of critical minerals for advanced systems and home to 12 of the 20 fastest growing economies.
▶ 0:20:15Gen. Anderson: By 2050 it will account for one third of the global working age population. Today, the epicenter of global terrorism is in africa. Isis leadership is african. Al qaeda's economic engine is in africa. Both of these groups share the will and intent to strike our homeland. Their affiliates, once isolated notes, now show increased connectivity.
▶ 0:20:42Gen. Anderson: Just as concerning is the connection between al-shabaab and the houthis. Africom is prioritizing willing and capable partners and support capabilities that only the U.S. can bring. Isr, targeting, precision strike, these efforts have driven isis leaders in somalia underground, disrupting the command and control of the global isis network.
▶ 0:21:07Gen. Anderson: In west africa, the al qaeda affiliate demonstrated increased capacity to control key terrain by strangling fuel supplies around population centers. The capture of a capital city would provide al qaeda with all of the trappings of a nationstate to sponsor global terrorism. With a 75% reduction in regional posture over the last decade compounded by the drawdown of our allies, we struggle with an intelligence blackhole.
▶ 0:21:33Gen. Anderson: Without sufficient indicators and warnings we risk being blind to the gathering dangers and threats in the region. Africom's lack of capabilities and diminished posture compromise our crisis response. In a crisis we can always surge assets but you cannot surge thrust.
▶ 0:21:52Gen. Anderson: Our reduced presence also allows disruptive actors to drag the agenda, undercutting american interest peer china views africa as a second continent securing control over critical minerals and infrastructure, potentially boxing us out of resources that energize our industrial base. Africa also serves as putin's purse where russia excludes instability to extract resources, to include human lives, to fuel his war machine.
▶ 0:22:17Gen. Anderson: To contend with these threats come africom us to think and operate differently with less than 1/10 of 1% of the department's budget we must maximize every taxpayer dollar to deliver an outsized return on investment. Africom continues to leverage low high-yield activities to amplify our impact on the continent.
▶ 0:22:37Gen. Anderson: Like the international military education and training and state partnership program art reliable force multipliers that forge enduring relationships with african militaries and our proven models for cost-effective burden sharing. The africom exercise program is emerging as a battle lab to test and validate new technologies on behalf of the joint force and our african partners. Finally, africom is focused on the critical convergence of security and economics.
▶ 0:23:03Gen. Anderson: Our efforts span all elements of national power as we coordinate with state, commerce, energy, and treasury. The new economic defense unit has been an invaluable partner. To defend the homeland and U.S. interests and ensure effective crisis response, africom needs targeted investments and layered nontraditional isr, innovative force protection, programs able to -- that enable willing and capable partners, the opportunity to conduct experimentation of emerging technologies, and the ability to
▶ 0:23:35Gen. Anderson: Respond to crisis at the time and point of need. Africa is a continent of opportunities, not only crises. With the continued support of this committee I ensure every dollar you authorize for africom will contribute directly to the security, safety, and prosperity of the united states. Thank you, I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:23:53Chair Wicker: Thank you very much. Let's get right into iran, admiral cooper. I think one of the basic questions is, was this exercise of ours -- this operation of ours a war of choice or necessity? Let me get your military perspective.
▶ 0:24:19Chair Wicker: Did iran have enriched uranium up to 6% prior to operation midnight hammer?
▶ 0:24:25Adm. Cooper: Yes, sir.
▶ 0:24:27Chair Wicker: Is there a civilian use at all for uranium that is enriched to 60%?
▶ 0:24:34Adm. Cooper: There is not, senator.
▶ 0:24:41Chair Wicker: Is it fair to say that iran's nuclear breakout time has been set back thanks to operation midnight hammer and operation epic fury?
▶ 0:24:51Adm. Cooper: Without talking specifics, that is accurate.
▶ 0:24:56Chair Wicker: Has iran been able to curtail its ballistic missile program through negotiations?
▶ 0:25:02Adm. Cooper: They have not, sir.
▶ 0:25:05Chair Wicker: Perhaps you can explain in some detail to what extent operation epic fury has set back iran's ballistic missile program? To what extent you can tell us in this open setting?
▶ 0:25:20Adm. Cooper: Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. Our military mission in operation epic fury was crystal clear from the outset and remained steady throughout. The mission was to degrade iran's ability to project power on its neighbors and U.S. interests. It had three key components.
▶ 0:25:40Adm. Cooper: The great iran's ballistic missiles and the industrial base that supports it, degrade enron's drones and defense industrial base that supports that, and degrade their navy and defense industrial base that supports that. In each of those categories we met all of the achievements. Each of those systems was significantly degraded.
▶ 0:26:04Adm. Cooper: If I give you a couple of examples, the defense industrial base, drones, missiles, navy degraded by 90%, they have about 10% left. My military assessment would be the navy will not begin to rebuild for 5-10 years. Many of you serve in states that built ships. It is complex and specifically complex when you don't have an industrial base to build it. My perspective also is iran with not return to the same level that it had for a generation.
▶ 0:26:35Chair Wicker: The 10% left of drones are they exquisite or the relatively inexpensive drones we have been hearing about?
▶ 0:26:44Adm. Cooper: I would like to use the opportunity to myth bust on drones. The days of 35,000 dollar drones we saw in the last couple of years in the fight against the houthis in yemen are behind us. We face drones that are sophisticated, jet powered, with high-end sensors and electronic warfare that signals intelligence.
▶ 0:27:14Adm. Cooper: Using defenses to shoot down cheap targets is behind us. We have been using our own low-cost one-way attack drones attacking iran making them use more weapons. We flipped the cost curve in many ways, always work to be done, but I like where we are in this regard.
▶ 0:27:33Chair Wicker: There's been a lot of talk about part of the negotiations being giving up the nuclear ambitions. Almost as important to me is the support of terrorist proxies. Has iran been willing to end support for the terrorist proxies houthis, hezbollah?
▶ 0:28:00Adm. Cooper: They have not come senator.
▶ 0:28:04Chair Wicker: To what extent has this exercise denied iran resources for funding terrorism?
▶ 0:28:09Adm. Cooper: This has been a significant priority from the outset, and as we sit here there are no resources and equipment that are flowing from iran to a hamas, or the who these -- or the houthis. Those methods have been cut off.
▶ 0:28:27Chair Wicker: To the extent that that source of support has been cut off, what are the other sources of support that these terrorist groups can look to?
▶ 0:28:38Adm. Cooper: Some of those pieces are best discussed in a more classified environment but I think the key element is the main supplier of resources and training, for decades and billions of dollars, and we seen this before our eyes, those pieces have been completely cut off.
▶ 0:28:57Chair Wicker: We will take another round, but at this point I recognize the ranking member.
▶ 0:29:02Sen. Reed: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Admiral cooper, is iran's military, militarily, still able to inflict significant damage on the of the structure countries in the persian gulf?
▶ 0:29:17Adm. Cooper: In this environment I would tell you the capabilities have been dramatically degraded. That doesn't mean they don't have anything left, but the large-scale volleys we've seen over the last couple of years iran is no longer capable of executing.
▶ 0:29:33Sen. Reed: The large-scale volleys and direct attacks on critical infrastructure, which would set back petroleum production even if the strait of hormuz -- petroleum distribution, I should say, even if the strait of hormuz is open, is that capable?
▶ 0:29:52Adm. Cooper: Capabilities exist at a degraded scale and we have planned accordingly for each of these scenarios if necessary to deal with them from a defensive perspective.
▶ 0:30:02Sen. Reed: So, would you characterize iran is no longer a threat?
▶ 0:30:08Adm. Cooper: Iran has a significantly degraded threat and they no longer threaten regional partners or the united states in ways that they were able to do before across every domain they have been significantly degraded.
▶ 0:30:24Sen. Reed: But they can still threaten their partners?
▶ 0:30:26Adm. Cooper: It is a large country. They maintain some minimal capability. That is correct and accurate. Be accounted for that from the defensive perspective.
▶ 0:30:37Sen. Reed: General anderson, what happened is the administration recalled over 30 career ambassadors in africa, including -- over 30 career ambassadors overall, 12 in africa. The united states has only 14 confirmed ambassadors. 40 posts in africa are vacant. Is it essential to your work to have fully functioning embassies with ambassadors?
▶ 0:31:12Gen. Anderson: Senator, we work closely with all of the embassies across the continent to pursue and further american interests. That relationship with these embassies is critical for africom's active engagements.
▶ 0:31:22Sen. Reed: What about ambassadors?
▶ 0:31:25Gen. Anderson: The ambassadors do enjoy access. It's important to have ambassadors in place because the hierarchical nature of african countries is if you are not an ambassador you don't always get access, so there is obviously benefit that. We coordinate with them closely when we engage.
▶ 0:31:46Sen. Reed: Thank you, sir. You are combating one of the most sophisticated information warfare operations we've seen in a long time from russia. What can we do to improve your ability to withstand this information operation and engage in something on the same level by the united states?
▶ 0:32:11Gen. Anderson: Yes, sir. I appreciate the recognition of this concern, because our adversaries are very active in the information domain. I would say china is also active in these domains. They use this to undercut not only our interests, but undercut and disrupt the democracies in africa.
▶ 0:32:33Gen. Anderson: This is one area where I've talked to several leaders across especially coastal west africa that are concerned about the russian propaganda destabilizing their democracies. For me, we have a limited budget. We are mostly in reactive mode to respond to issues. What would be beneficial, as one of the few entities that look across the entirety of the continent, is a consistent budget that would allow us to campaign in the information space.
▶ 0:33:03Gen. Anderson: We coordinate closely with the state department and others on this and work with embassies, but our ability to look across the continent and highlight this is an area where we could be of benefit to the american interest.
▶ 0:33:12Sen. Reed: Admiral cooper, one more question. Do we maintain a relationship with the syrian democratic forces?
▶ 0:33:20Adm. Cooper: Senator, we do have a decent relationship with them. In the context of evacuating the 57 hundred isis prisoners from predominantly northeast syria to iraq a small number of prisoners, mostly chronically ill and multiple amputees, stayed in the primary prison. Sdf is today serving as the guards.
▶ 0:33:44Sen. Reed: A follow-on question. Do you detect any kind of resentment to our rapid departure from ses?
▶ 0:34:01Adm. Cooper: We have had a long-standing relationship with the sdf. The cease-fire with the government remains in effect and we remain engaged.
▶ 0:34:08Chair Wicker: Senator fischer.
▶ 0:34:12Sen. Fischer: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Welcome, admiral. General, thank you for your service. Admiral, what did the iranians' attempted missile attack on the island of diego garcia tell us about the ballistic missile program and their intent to use it? Did it come as a surprise?
▶ 0:34:36Adm. Cooper: Senator, appropriate to talk in this forum, because there is a classified component to this, I think we've heard publicly what iran described as their self-imposed limitations on the missile force. The execution of that particular attempted strike number which failed, was twice the distance of what they previously of her -- previously advertised they would self constrain two.
▶ 0:35:07Adm. Cooper: -- a self-constrained to.
▶ 0:35:08Sen. Fischer: What lessons have you learned from that and how have you used those lessons thus far to ensure that your command is prepared for the fight that we have today?
▶ 0:35:19Adm. Cooper: Senator, thank you very much for this. It's fair to say we have captured thousands of lessons, mostly tactical. I think there is no military in the world that makes adjustments as well as the united states military does. Whether they were in-stride tactically with a lot of support from organizations back in the united states or more at the operational level, we took a hard look inward to see where can we improve our defenses?
▶ 0:35:47Adm. Cooper: Force protection and protecting our people is my number one priority. We focus on that first. Made a significant number of adjustments to enhance what was already an effective air defense umbrella. That is where we are focused as well as putting ourselves in a position to meet a wide-ranging moving forward. -- wide-range moving forward.
▶ 0:36:10Sen. Fischer: Isis is on the rise in africa and you've been clear about that. How is your command working with our partners to address that?
▶ 0:36:19Gen. Anderson: Senator, you are correct. Isis is putting a concerted effort into establishment on the continent. We have been working very closely with willing partners who have been willing to address this threat.
▶ 0:36:34Gen. Anderson: Two examples of that in northern somalia working with the forces they are to go up in those mountains, what has been key to putting pressure and isolating the isis leadership is the partners' ability to stay in those mountains. Our partnership providing intelligence, training, limited logistics that allows them to state to isolate that leadership known in somalia.
▶ 0:37:00Gen. Anderson: We've been working closely with nigeria who has been in the last few months opening up with a very positive engagement with intel sharing and the ability to go after and target some of these terrorist threats in northern nigeria. That has been a positive area we have seen as well. We would like to reestablish some pragmatic relationships where isis has a stronghold, where they are currently holding an american hostage, in order to gain better access.
▶ 0:37:29Gen. Anderson: That's an area we need to improve, work with those partners for intel sharing and understand with the threat is. We are working carefully, deliberately with our partners to address these common threats.
▶ 0:37:40Sen. Fischer: Do you think you are appropriately resourced to address these threats?
▶ 0:37:45Gen. Anderson: We have the minimum necessary resources in order to address the threats. In order to do this, because of the size of the continent and complexity of the threats, in order to thwart these, we have to shift resources, and that entails taking some risks and the other areas in order to address the primary efforts.
▶ 0:38:08Sen. Fischer: I would like to have you address some of the connections that we see with the drug cartels, with the terror groups. Can you elaborate on those? Especially with regard to the central and south american cartels?
▶ 0:38:25Gen. Anderson: That is an area that is emerging causing us great concern. Two points to that. Recently there was an interdiction based on intelligence that we were able to provide that the spanish interdicted a shipment of cocaine that was 35 tons of cocaine. We believe that it's about $1 billion of street value. We believe that is the largest interdiction and history.
▶ 0:38:50Gen. Anderson: It came out of south america and was transiting along the west coast of africa towards another location I can talk about in a classified environment. We are seeing more drug trafficking coming in and of the terrorist organizations are helping transit that, getting payments through that, and there is a symbiotic relationship that that money comes back to our hemisphere, to the drug cartels, but helps provide fuel for those terrorists.
▶ 0:39:17Gen. Anderson: Another area I think is important to highlight is in the last 18-24 months we have assisted -- or at least tipped off many partner nations to drug activities and labs in their country. This time 11 of the 12 drug labs that have been interdicted have had mexican cartel numbers on site, to include the largest drug lab that had ever been disrupted in south africa, there were sinaloa cartel members on site.
▶ 0:39:48Gen. Anderson: They are doing production in africa as well as the transit across the continent. We are watching this developed and this is concern is this fuels the terrorists and cartels.
▶ 0:39:58Sen. Fischer: What is the destination of those drugs?
▶ 0:40:00Gen. Anderson: Destined for the middle east, europe, but we are seeing them come in through the northern route into america as we have applied pressure on the southern border. They are finding other means to bring those drugs into our nation.
▶ 0:40:15Sen. Fischer: Thank you.
▶ 0:40:16Chair Wicker: Senator blumenthal.
▶ 0:40:20Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you for being here and for your extraordinary service in a difficult time. General anderson I want to express my condolences to you, your team, and the families of kendrick lamar and mariah collington.
▶ 0:40:47Sen. Blumenthal: A dedicated man and woman and I'm certain the recovery mission was difficult. I want to commend your team for bringing closure to the families. Admiral, there has been public reporting that iran continues to have as much as 70 to 75% of its missiles and launchers available to threaten shipping in the strait of hormuz.
▶ 0:41:20Sen. Blumenthal: Those that conform roughly with your estimate as iran's continuing strength?
▶ 0:41:26Adm. Cooper: Thank you for the question and thank you for your time these past few days. It has been meaningful and appreciated. It is important not to discuss specific intelligence perspectives. From my perspective the numbers and open source are not accurate. What is not taken into consideration more than the numbers is command and control has been shattered.
▶ 0:41:52Adm. Cooper: It is a significant degradation in capability and a lack of any ability to produce missiles or drones on the back end. We have to take a holistic look at that.
▶ 0:42:06Sen. Blumenthal: Regardless of what the numbers are, iran continues to pose a significant threat to shipping because it has missiles and fast boats and other assets available to attack shipping in the area? Correct?
▶ 0:42:19Adm. Cooper: Senator, and each of those cases their capability has been significantly degraded. If I use my own professional experience and 100 transits through the strait of hormuz, you typically see 20 to 40 fast boats and lately we've seen two or three.
▶ 0:42:40Adm. Cooper: The degradation means it has been significant, but some are -- some residual capability exists.
▶ 0:42:50Sen. Blumenthal: With respect to the threat that remains your forces were successful in project freedom and allowing ships to go through the strait, correct?
▶ 0:42:59Adm. Cooper: Correct, sir.
▶ 0:43:01Sen. Blumenthal: Project freedom was stopped for what reason?
▶ 0:43:05Adm. Cooper: Senator, I will look back a couple of days ago on the chairman of the joint chief's testimony before the appropriations committee. He characterized it well. The situation in the strait of hormuz is complex these days, and I would offer these quick points. First and foremost, the united states controls via our blockade, which I'm happy to talk about, the overall flow of commerce in and out of iran.
▶ 0:43:35Adm. Cooper: The iranian capability to stop commerce has been dramatically degraded through the strait, but their voice is very loud and the threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and insurance industry. Those are factors. There is factor in energy --
▶ 0:43:50Sen. Blumenthal: I apologize for interrupting, but I will run out of time, as you understand. I think the point that I want to make here is, project freedom could be started again and the voices of the iranians, as large as they are, could be contradicted or reduced in the impact if project freedom were ongoing in the world could see
▶ 0:44:21Sen. Blumenthal: Shipping was going through the strait? Am I off-base in that view?
▶ 0:44:25Adm. Cooper: There is a wide range of contingencies we are prepared to execute and I would defer to the policy makers on anything specific having to do with the strait of hormuz, particularly at this time since it is front and center in the negotiations.
▶ 0:44:41Sen. Blumenthal: Have you seen any progress in those negotiations?
▶ 0:44:44Adm. Cooper: Senator, I would refer to the diplomats and the team engaged in the negotiations.
▶ 0:44:51Sen. Blumenthal: Let me ask you in the time that I have left, one of the objectives that president trump articulated at the beginning of this war, which in my view could not be accomplished with bombing, was to secure the enriched uranium.
▶ 0:45:09Sen. Blumenthal: Would you agree that taking possession of that uranium would require boots on the ground and significant casualties for united states forces?
▶ 0:45:23Adm. Cooper: In this particular forum I think it would be highly inappropriate given the classified nature of indie contingencies to talk about the nuclear program. -- any contingencies to talk about the nuclear program.
▶ 0:45:43Sen. Blumenthal: And a classified setting where we had an earlier conversation, questions and answers. My view is the vast majority of what you told us should also be told to the american people. They deserve to know. Our adversaries know a lot of what me know. -- what we know.
▶ 0:46:10Sen. Blumenthal: The ones who don't know are the american people and they deserve more information, which is not a criticism of you. It is of the system which causes the withholding of this information and the administration, which has refused to provide figures as to the cost of the war and other details that are relevant and important for the american people to know.
▶ 0:46:37Sen. Blumenthal: So, I'm hopeful that we can have a way to make more information available to the american people. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:46:49Chair Wicker: Admiral cooper, during the brief time of project freedom, before it was closed off again, did we -- can you say in this setting whether or not our service, our services were able to open the strait?
▶ 0:47:12Adm. Cooper: Thank you for this. Very much appreciate it. As has been publicly highlighted, the first two ships to flow from the arabian gulf, from the western part into the east through the strait of hormuz, were U.S.-flagged vessels. That was successfully executed. U.S. navy destroyers came into the arabian gulf and operated for a number of days.
▶ 0:47:38Adm. Cooper: As you subsequently saw her, flowed out of the arabian gulf -- subsequently saw, flowed out of the arabian gulf.
▶ 0:47:46Chair Wicker: You could give your judgment as to whether the united states is capable of doing that again?
▶ 0:47:54Adm. Cooper: There is a military component to this and a policy component that I would lead to the policymakers.
▶ 0:48:01Chair Wicker: From the military standpoint we could do that again, could we not?
▶ 0:48:06Adm. Cooper: We just did it last week.
▶ 0:48:09Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator ernst.
▶ 0:48:14Sen. Ernst: . Thank you, Mr. chair, and gentlemen for being here today and to your teams. We appreciate your service and dedication to our nation and I also want to acknowledge the loss of the two individuals in morocco and thank our moroccan partners for their contribution and recovery efforts.
▶ 0:48:36Sen. Ernst: I want to recognize, admiral cooper, those we have lost during this current or former operation, epic fury, as well as the two iowa national guardsmen we lost in syria this last december. Also 380 who have been wounded in this fight. For all the servicemembers who have given so much and their families, they will not be forgotten.
▶ 0:49:03Sen. Ernst: The operations that have been conducted against iran and its proxies across central command day-o are -- central command aor would not have been possible without tremendous partners in the region, and we have seen a large burden borne by israel and jordan. We have seen assistance coming from bahrain and uae, who has taken a significant amount of incoming fire. Saudi arabia, qatar.
▶ 0:49:35Sen. Ernst: They have not all been passive by standa -- passive bystanders. They have been actively engaged and we appreciate them contributing to our successes. We cannot overstate access logistics and intelligence cooperations have meant operationally to us.
▶ 0:49:55Sen. Ernst: Admiral cooper, what is the one or maybe two things that you want all of us to understand as we walk out of this hearing knowing about what our allies have assisted with in this fight?
▶ 0:50:10Adm. Cooper: Senator, first thank you for the question, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for all has been done by the great men and women from your state. They played an outsized role. In terms of our partners, a key feature is, we have enhanced relationships across the board in the middle east.
▶ 0:50:31Adm. Cooper: As we sit here now, we have five specific partner nations who are not just conceptually side-by-side but literally side-by-side with the united states in defense. The united arab and the united arab a emirates, bahrain, kuwait, saudi arabia. Operation epic fury, they defended themselves and americans. In addition to those key allies, everything we accomplished would have been impossible without the kingdom of jordan.
▶ 0:51:01Adm. Cooper: Clearly we are operating closely with the state of israel. I think that in particular should be commended. They didn't just execute missions, they served side-by-side with americans and protected americans.
▶ 0:51:13Sen. Ernst: This takes years to develop, the friendship, the relationships, the work you do?
▶ 0:51:21Adm. Cooper: There is the work, their friendships, it's about bringing these together in the air defense umbrella created that has been in concept for the better part of the decade and a half now fully realized.
▶ 0:51:33Sen. Ernst: I want to reiterate we have such tremendous partnerships with so many of those nations and we thank them for that. I will move to africom, general anderson. Over the past couple of years the U.S. has been withdrawing forces from a number of countries, including nigeria, somalia, and chad. Russia's african core have moved in to fill the vacuum. Where we don't exist others will.
▶ 0:52:04Sen. Ernst: A few weeks ago they retreated from mali under fire. They surrender to the militants they were sent to defeat. So, we have some interesting dynamics going on in that region. Africom is left with the responsibility for a lot more high-risk, high-threat posts than any other in the world.
▶ 0:52:31Sen. Ernst: Walk us through what africom cannot do today that it could five years ago.
▶ 0:52:38Gen. Anderson: Senator, I think there is one very poignant example that I can use quickly. Five years ago I was a commander , special operations command in africa and philip walton was taken hostage in nigeria and transported and prepared to be sold to terrorist organizations. We were able to identify him in 24 hours, pinpoint him in 48, and rescue him in 96. That was due to the partnerships and relationships.
▶ 0:53:10Gen. Anderson: Today, kevin is on day 2 of 5 of captivity because we don't have the relationships necessary and that posture reduction has been difficult. He was also taken. Unfortunately he was sold by the bandits to isis and is being held there today.
▶ 0:53:27Sen. Ernst: Mr. chairman, I want folks to understand the lack of presence that we have in africom and that exact difference. Thank you, general anderson, for a very specific example of what a lack of presence has meant.
▶ 0:53:45Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator ernst. There is a proposal for substantially more funding for your command, right, general anderson?
▶ 0:53:56Gen. Anderson: That is correct. The presidential budget significantly increases our budget and addresses some of these key concerns.
▶ 0:54:05Chair Wicker: The one example you gave, would that be addressed by these proposals?
▶ 0:54:15Gen. Anderson: Not entirely, because the access and relationships were what were key. Because of that lack of posture we need more expeditionary capabilities, and that is being addressed in the proposed budget. But those relationships and maintaining those relationships is critical because you cannot surge trust in the time of need.
▶ 0:54:37Chair Wicker: You have gone back and forth on requirements, so I guess your testimony is that, that's not a matter of funding, it is a matter of relationships?
▶ 0:54:48Gen. Anderson: Senator, that is the matter of relationships, the funding we would ask for that would help us as a continued response capability, expeditionary, and targeted programs to work with key partners who are willing and able to address the threat, to increase their capability and capacity to do that. Those are the investments. Those are included in the proposed budget. Right now I don't have --
▶ 0:55:14Chair Wicker: Very well. Senator kaine.
▶ 0:55:19Sen. Kaine: Thank you, Mr. chair. President trump's decision to unilaterally take the united states into war with iran is deeply unpopular in virginia. We are very pro-military state, very pro-military. As I've traveled around virginia the unpopularity gets crystallized into, have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the region?
▶ 0:55:45Sen. Kaine: 14,000 american troops and contractors died in the war on terror in iraq and afghanistan in 65,000, $8 trillion spent. Virginia watched friends and family deployed over the last quarter century grave concerns over what was accomplished in was the sacrifice worth it? Our troops sacrifice so bravely. One of the 14 who have died in epic fury's from spotsylvania county, virginia.
▶ 0:56:16Sen. Kaine: Our carrier strike group is the longest deployment of any carrier. Folks sacrifice. They want civilian leaders to make the right decisions about whether, when, and how they should sacrifice. There is deep concern in this instance the decision is the wrong one. Part of it is a failure to grapple with history.
▶ 0:56:39Sen. Kaine: In the hearings in this committee I've heard over and over, I've heard the president and secretary of talk about iran's bad actions. Everything said is true, but there is a lot of the story that folks don't talk about. History did not begin in 1970 nine.
▶ 0:56:58Sen. Kaine: Iran and the united states were allies in world war ii, one of the pivotal events was the tehran conference where president roosevelt, winston churchill and joseph stalin met in tehran the guarantee iran independence, stable borders, and sovereignty. Iran loved the united states. The united states led a coup to topple the democratically elected government of iran during the eisenhower administration.
▶ 0:57:26Sen. Kaine: The united states propped up a dictatorship, trained at the secret police that tortured, exiled, imprisoned, killed iranians by the thousands. 26 years after that there was a revolution in 1979 and then it was death to america. The U.S. funding a dictatorship and toppling a democratically elected government led to an iran that has been hostile.
▶ 0:57:53Sen. Kaine: All of the events my colleagues have talked about since then are accurate. Just as iran seized our embassy in violation of international law, then the united states funded saddam hussein for iraq to wage war in the 1980's killing hundreds of thousands of iranians.
▶ 0:58:14Sen. Kaine: As iran funded proxies that bombed a marine barracks in beirut, the uss navy shot down an iranian civilian aircraft in 1989 and killed over 200 civilians. The U.S. invaded iran's next-door neighbors to topple their government and I their government and iranians attracted U.S. troops near their border, we attacked and killed their leadership. I'm not saying iran is good. Iran is horrible. Horrible to its neighbors, the people outside its borders, and even worse to its own people.
▶ 0:58:45Sen. Kaine: But if you ignore the history of the back and forth between the U.S. and iran, you won't get this right. If more war between the U.S. and iran were the answer, we would have found the answer between 1953 and now. Here is something I think is important for my colleagues to know. We did look for a path, diplomatic path to end this hostility that has been going on since 19 53.
▶ 0:59:12Sen. Kaine: President trump tore up a diplomatic deal over the advice of his secretary of defense and secretary of state. Many of us said at the time, if you do this it is likely to lead to americans dying. If you make diplomacy impossible he will make war inevitable. I believe the troops who have been killed in epic fury would be alive today if the united states did not decide to abandon the diplomatic deal.
▶ 0:59:37Sen. Kaine: Admiral cooper, my colleagues on the committee, here is something pretty amazing that we should not settle for. The administration is refusing to allow members of this committee to see the olc opinion stating the legal case for war. We've always had the ability. We are armed services members.
▶ 0:59:58Sen. Kaine: We are being asked to fund a 1.5 trillion dollar budget by the request of the doj to see the opinion justifying this war that they have refused to allow members of the armed services committee to see, U.S. senators, appropriators. We are not allowed to see it. What are they hiding? If they will not allow us to see the legal rationale for the war, what are they hiding?
▶ 1:00:25Sen. Kaine: I will conclude and say, I hope we might come as a committee, whatever our agreements about the wisdom or legality of the war, I hope as a committee we might agree that we should at least in the classified setting be able to read the legal opinion upon which this entire 76-day war is based. Thank you, Mr. chair.
▶ 1:00:45Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator. You have made a statement that raises questions that these two witnesses are unable to answer, because you have asked -- you have raised policy questions. For the benefit of those listening in, we have had the civilian leadership before this committee to answer questions like that.
▶ 1:01:16Chair Wicker: These two gentlemen would have to decline -- if you had formed that -- stated that in the form of question they would've had to decline to answer because that is a matter of policy. Who is next? Senator moody. You are recognized.
▶ 1:01:33Sen. Moody: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Thank you for being here today, admiral cooper, general anderson, and thank you dear leadership for the men and women of africom and a centcom and everything you've done over the course of your careers and are continuing to do to serve our country. There are so many men and women behind you to support these efforts today. To speak with us, meet with us, answer our questions. I know a lot of preparation goes into that, so thank you as well.
▶ 1:02:04Sen. Moody: Admiral cooper, the fight you are leading with centcom under your command, I'm always proud to say that is from my home -- my home county in florida. Hillsborough county, florida is where I was born. 1983, 43 years of commending operations like we are in today. Proud to have you here, sir.
▶ 1:02:30Sen. Moody: Florida is so involved, from space force central, cape canaveral, the command hub and launchpad for most all conflicts. We are proud to be that. Proud to be a stakeholder in everything that's done within the military. On behalf of all of the service members in florida, civilian, and their families, we want to say thank you to them. I'm the newest member of this committee.
▶ 1:02:58Sen. Moody: It's always interesting to me to hear the different perspectives from members on this committee. You would think from some of the questioning previously that the united states willy-nilly abandoned diplomatic efforts, didn't think through that, there was no justification. I am wondering -- if you could tell me, admiral cooper, what is your background working with centcom and the leadership positions you held?
▶ 1:03:25Adm. Cooper: First, thank you for the question and your time yesterday. Thank you for your leadership. Thousands of floridians are serving today in the middle east.
▶ 1:03:35Sen. Moody: What specifically have been your roles with centcom?
▶ 1:03:39Adm. Cooper: I've been focused on the middle east for five years, three years in bahrain as the fleet commander and 16 months as the deputy commander.
▶ 1:03:49Sen. Moody: How long have you been familiar with iran and its leadership attacks against the united states?
▶ 1:03:59Adm. Cooper: I have studied or been part of it for the better part of three decades and acutely in the last five years.
▶ 1:04:05Sen. Moody: Leading up to february 28, months prior to that, what was jarring to you that you saw different than what had been for those many decades you have been involved?
▶ 1:04:17Adm. Cooper: I think it's important to note in the 30 months before epic fury commenced, iran and its proxies had been attacking U.S. service members and diplomats about 350 times. About every third day. Iran and its proxies attacked american service members 350 times in the middle east.
▶ 1:04:37Sen. Moody: I don't think americans were aware that in 30 months that they had attacked americans or service members 350 times. Does that surprise you that I would say that? That I don't believe that the everyday american going to work knew that?
▶ 1:04:53Adm. Cooper: It is disappointing, but between the actions of proxies in iraq and syria and the houthis, that is the fact of what happened.
▶ 1:05:04Sen. Moody: In the months leading up to that serious decision on february 28, what were your concerns regarding the proliferation of missiles or the ability of the united states to do anything if that nuclear threat escalated?
▶ 1:05:17Adm. Cooper: In this venue what I would say is, since our number one priority is to prevent a nuclear-capable iran, always, every day focused on that problem. What we saw in the weeks and months leading up to epic fury was an increase in the production capability of ballistic missiles, which presented a very significant risk to the partners and ourselves.
▶ 1:05:40Adm. Cooper: This is why it was part of our military objectives to eliminate the missiles and equally, if not more important, eliminate the ability for iran --
▶ 1:05:50Sen. Moody: Leading up to that you saw a dramatic escalation inability on iran's part?
▶ 1:05:56Adm. Cooper: In november and at the center you saw an increase in iran's ability and intent to produce more ballistic missiles.
▶ 1:06:04Sen. Moody: If we didn't neutralize that threat diplomatically, does there come a point where that is not an option anymore, slippery slope where we cannot get back to our ability to be effective to quell that threat?
▶ 1:06:16Adm. Cooper: Without crossing into classified lanes, the answer is yes. Iran had a large scale to produce ballistic missiles, beyond which could be defended. That is an important point. The second point is that capability has been virtually eliminated.
▶ 1:06:35Sen. Moody: I believe you said at this point you believe epic fury has satisfied its mission?
▶ 1:06:40Adm. Cooper: We met every military objective.
▶ 1:06:44Sen. Moody: What is the difference between where we are in the 28th of february and now?
▶ 1:06:49Adm. Cooper: The iranian navy went from harassing throughout the region and being a regional power to having no navy.
▶ 1:06:56Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator moody. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. You used the word myth busting and I have to do a little myth busting. It is common rhetoric today that no administration prior to this one has confronted the threats of iran.
▶ 1:07:19Chair Wicker: The most effective confrontation was during president obama's administration with the jcpoa. I would point out that at the time president trump tore up unilaterally the nuclear agreement with iran, iran had zero highly enriched uranium.
▶ 1:07:41Chair Wicker: As you know today, one of the focuses of this enterprise is 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium that is in place in iran that was produced since the unilateral dissolution of the jcpoa. The idea that nobody ever confronted this problem is not true.
▶ 1:08:03Chair Wicker: We are now confronting a problem that was created by the abandonment of the jcpoa, the most comprehensive nuclear-controlled agreement ever and the most highly inspected by the international atomic energy agency in world history. So, we are confronted with a problem now that in many ways this administration created in 2018 by abandoning this agreement. Let me move on.
▶ 1:08:34Chair Wicker: Do we have any clarity now as to who is in charge in iran? Do we know who has the power to negotiate and make agreements?
▶ 1:08:49Adm. Cooper: The negotiations themselves are held via diplomatic channels and I would refer to the diplomats to address that, but from a military perspective the command and control is significantly fractured as a result of our strikes in operation epic fury.
▶ 1:09:01Sen. King: That's another way of saying their leadership. There is a communications difficulty. Is the irgc in charge at this point?
▶ 1:09:09Adm. Cooper: The irgc is exercising significant authority.
▶ 1:09:14Sen. King: General anderson, talk to me about the loss of soft power in africa, our abandonment of usaid and what has happened with the chinese and russians that, my understanding is, are now filling that gap in addition to the other aggressive actions they are taking?
▶ 1:09:36Gen. Anderson: Senator, I would say that we look at all facets of national power and how to bring those to bear on the continent to provide a security outcome.
▶ 1:09:45Sen. King: One facet of our national power off the table unilaterally for no apparent reason. The whim of elon musk.
▶ 1:09:56Gen. Anderson: Senator, we work closely with the state, commerce, energy in order to look at the security environments on the continent. We have a foreign service commercial officer joining staff this summer along with the department of energy --
▶ 1:10:12Sen. King: We have essentially left all of the role that usaid played on the continent. That's gone? Yes or no?
▶ 1:10:21Gen. Anderson: Senator, there are still aid programs that are active on the continent. They are much reduced from what they were before.
▶ 1:10:29Sen. King: Much reduced. That is a fair way to state it. You mentioned earlier al qaeda and isis have resurged in africa. The term epicenter was used. They have the will and intent to attack the homeland. My question is, do they have the capacity?
▶ 1:10:54Sen. King: Are they developing weapons, strategies, other ways to take that will and intent and turn it into something of imminent danger to the american people?
▶ 1:11:05Gen. Anderson: Senator, that is the exact issue that's my top concern. Have the assets necessary to provide the warnings to be able to know, to identify when the shift in the will and intent has the capacity and capability. That's difficult for us to ascertain given our limited posture.
▶ 1:11:27Sen. King: That was my follow-up question. Do we have the capacity to determine their capacity? It sounds like you said we don't have the capacity we should have or need?
▶ 1:11:37Gen. Anderson: Senator, that is why in the president's budget we asked for additional reconnaissance capabilities and are looking at a layered approach to look at everything from surface to space, to look at commercial assets, to look at emerging technologies, open source as well, and use these technologies, especially artificial intelligence, diffuse these layered isr to illuminate
▶ 1:12:08Gen. Anderson: This black hole. We cannot sustainably afford to do that solely with airborne isr so we have to look at a multifaceted approach. There are promising emerging technologies that we are looking into that are affordable and sustainable and can work with our partners. One of the key points to this is, this is not necessarily hours to action. Having the intelligence that we can share with partners so that they can action those on a mutual threat is going to be key to our future.
▶ 1:12:36Gen. Anderson: Being able to understand that is the number one priority of the command and where we are looking at investing with emerging technologies.
▶ 1:12:45Sen. King: You testified that is a very dangerous moment.
▶ 1:12:47Gen. Anderson: That would be a game changer I believe and how they would be viewed internationally and attraction to other adherents.
▶ 1:12:56Chair Wicker: How would that affect americans, general?
▶ 1:13:00Gen. Anderson: That would give momentum to these terrorist organizations that have the will and intent and allow them to start moving towards the capability and capacities senator king has mentioned. That then poses a threat in the long term to the united states as they continue to develop this. We know they have not given up this intent. It's just a matter of having the time and space to develop them.
▶ 1:13:23Chair Wicker: It would be vladimir putin that would be the happiest about this, correct?
▶ 1:13:27Gen. Anderson: What, sir?
▶ 1:13:30Chair Wicker: It would be president vladimir putin who would rejoice at such a contingency? Or would it be xi jinping?
▶ 1:13:39Gen. Anderson: I can't speak to what either one of those leaders would believe, but I think they would be able to parlay that to their interests.
▶ 1:13:47Chair Wicker: Who is financing this contingency if it were to happen?
▶ 1:13:53Gen. Anderson: The terrorists? Through lots of illicit materials. It's not necessarily directly from a state actor they are working with. I mentioned the narco terrorist trafficking, they are doing it through kidnapped for ransom, other smuggling, they are doing it through taxation networks in territories they control where they generate millions of dollars.
▶ 1:14:17Chair Wicker: With regard to the funds that we are not spending more on usaid, it has been supplemented elsewhere, in terms of dollars, U.S.equivalents.
▶ 1:14:40Chair Wicker: How does the food aid, health aid and development aid we are currently delivering in your jurisdiction compare to what china and russia are doing?
▶ 1:14:55Gen. Anderson: Senator, I don't have those exact numbers. I would have to get back to you on those as those are often in other departments, other agencies within the government. We can look into that for you and look at that comparison.
▶ 1:15:08Chair Wicker: If you would supplement that for the record for us because I don't know the answer either. Senator scott.
▶ 1:15:16Sen. Scott: Thank, chairman. Thank you both for your service, all the men and women that work for you. Admiral cooper, I know this is not a classified setting, but can you talk about what other countries have done to help us either with intelligence, military capabilities? Something you would have like to done do have done more?
▶ 1:15:44Adm. Cooper: The most prominent seven countries that have been most helpful and serving side-by-side are five of the six gcc countries, uae, saudi arabia, kuwait, qatar, also indispensable is the kingdom of jordan, israel also which we conducted tracks with. We are always eager to expand partnerships. A couple that I can address in a classified civ classified c setting that have been stellar.
▶ 1:16:11Sen. Scott: Do you feel like we have been a good partner to them, building up their capabilities over the last 20 years or so?
▶ 1:16:18Adm. Cooper: It's been an excellent two way street. If I look at mil-to-mil relationships come it's been very strong. I would highlight years of effort and collaboration and partnership with our partners literally side-by-side with patriot defenses, our partners defending americans. I think that says a lot.
▶ 1:16:37Sen. Scott: Senator wicker ask you some questions about drones. We had a meeting the other day. Individual came in and said ukraine is building 5 million drones a year. They probably are ahead of most people because they have had to because of the war they are in. Are we where we need to be with drone technology, are we using it everywhere we can?
▶ 1:17:05Sen. Scott: Are we where we need to be with regard to drone defense capabilities? Can you talk more about that?
▶ 1:17:12Adm. Cooper: First, I would say the secretary and the department's focus on drone dominance is really kickstarting our capabilities and flowed more capabilities into the region faster than we had seen before. Many of those given abilities have been proven in combat. In a classified setting, I can tell you what that looks like. As we sit here today, we have drone capabilities in the air, on the sea as a result of this legislation.
▶ 1:17:42Sen. Scott: Do you have a feeling about whether the impact on iran is impacting their ability to help russia in their war against ukraine?
▶ 1:17:50Adm. Cooper: Best to discuss that any classified setting. Clearly, iran and russia have had a years long relationship particularly when it comes to drones.
▶ 1:18:00Sen. Scott: What are you most proud of that you have accomplished since you have had this role?
▶ 1:18:05Adm. Cooper: Absolutely number 1, 2, 3, the men and women who executed it, extraordinarily complex mission. The first combat mission in the united states has seen in a generation, establishing the latest generation of american warriors.
▶ 1:18:22Sen. Scott: Same question, general anderson. What are you most proud of that you have accomplished so far?
▶ 1:18:28Gen. Anderson: Senator, I think I would agree with admiral cooper, it is the men and women of the very small footprint, small amount of resources punctuated above their weight class, outsized impacts on the continent. But we did in africa, morocco was significant, largest exercise on the continent, bringing over 40 nations together to include over three dozen african countries and nations as far away as brazil and japan.
▶ 1:18:56Gen. Anderson: That ability to convene is one of the great powers of the united states, differentiates us from many others. I am proud of the fact that we can do that and not just pursue our own readiness but actually bring multiple nations together to address common threats.
▶ 1:19:09Sen. Scott: Thanks to both of you and thanks to all of the men and women that work for freedom.
▶ 1:19:15Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator. We have shaheen and then hirono.
▶ 1:19:22Sen. Shaheen: Thank you for both of you being here and for your service. I wanted to pick up on senator king's questions about the closing of so much of our foreign assistance in africa, general anderson. Senator wicker asked what we are seeing in terms of china. I have a couple examples that I think are worth pointing out, how much that has meant in terms of china's ability to make inroads.
▶ 1:19:53Sen. Shaheen: China has actually eclipsed russia as the largest weapons exporter to sub-saharan africa, which I'm sure you are aware of. 70% of all african armies now operate vehicles from the prc, as opposed to the united states. Beijing is looking to expand military grants, training and joint exercises between the prc and african countries.
▶ 1:20:16Sen. Shaheen: We don't have the kind of foreign assistance soft power that we did before the elimination of usaid. You mentioned, general anderson, that you have taken on a commercial service officer which is a really interesting idea.
▶ 1:20:35Sen. Shaheen: As you are aware, at indopacom, the admiral has used this to good advantage coordinating with the state department, finance corporation, U.S. trade develop an agency, millennium challenge corporation to identify potential projects to work on in that aor.
▶ 1:20:58Sen. Shaheen: Can you talk about how you are identifying developer projects, whether you need any other authorization from congress or support for this effort from us, so that you can help implement the kind of coordination that is going on in indopacom?
▶ 1:21:12Gen. Anderson: Senator, I appreciate your interest here because this is an area that is emerging on the continent. With the demographics of the continent and the growing economies, being able to identify the intersection of security and economics is absolutely vital.
▶ 1:21:29Gen. Anderson: All the agencies you mention are ones that we are coordinating with to make sure those investments go to the continent they the greatest effect but also informed by what are the security implications sometimes it may not have the same economic return but that may come in security.
▶ 1:21:44Gen. Anderson: That is where we convene some of these different agencies as well as private industry to be able to articulate what those security concerns are, what those implications are, also the fact that we can exercise around the continent, helps go into the calculus of those investments and buydown that resource. That is what we are looking to develop.
▶ 1:22:03Sen. Shaheen: Do those agencies routinely check with you if there is a major project they are looking to fund in africa?
▶ 1:22:10Gen. Anderson: Historically, no. That is why we are standing on a small unit in the headquarters in order to have that point where they can facilitate these discussions. Often they didn't know where to have them.
▶ 1:22:21Sen. Shaheen: Is that something congress can be helpful with, trying to encourage that sort of coordination?
▶ 1:22:28Gen. Anderson: There are ways that encouragement coordination would be very helpful, being able to articulate this across the committees, overseeing various agencies, understanding how that interrelation of national power can come together. It is not always the military lever that produces the security outcome. Having that dialogue is critical. The other area that is helpful also is incentive structures help to energize our industrial base to produce the equipment our partners want.
▶ 1:22:58Gen. Anderson: They would much prefer to buy U.S. equipment. Often our systems take so long, so long to deliver because of the incentive structures are not there, they turned to china out of necessity, not because of desire. They see that as inferior equipment. They would prefer to buy american. We need to incentivize the industrial base to meet that demand.
▶ 1:23:20Sen. Shaheen: I agree. As you know, it's an issue not just in that respect but in a whole lot of other areas in terms of the challenges with the industrial base. Admiral cooper, one of the things that has gotten a fair amount of tension in recent weeks has been president zelenskyy working with some of our allies and partners in the middle east in response to the war in iran, the expertise the ukrainians have developed to
▶ 1:23:53Sen. Shaheen: Address counter drone responses. Can you talk a little bit about what you are seeing with respect to that, whether our allies and partners find that kind of support helpful from the ukrainians?
▶ 1:24:06Adm. Cooper: Senator, most significantly, we adopted a large number of taxis and procedures ukrainians have asked us, helped us to defend americans. All of our partners are working in some way, shape, or form. Are they more effective as a result? Yes.
▶ 1:24:24Sen. Shaheen: Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:24:27Chair Wicker: Senator hirono.
▶ 1:24:32Sen. Hirono: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Before I begin my questions, I want to take a moment to highlight the true cost both for the military and everyday americans of the president illegal war with iran, summarize how we got here. 13 brave U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 400 have been wounded. Dod is now estimating that this war has cost over $29 billion, costing more every single day.
▶ 1:24:59Sen. Hirono: The continued closure of the strait of hormuz which somehow cut the president by surprise is directly contributing to the growing affordability crisis that americans are facing. Negotiations are at a stalemate, but it is becoming clear, this president's plan is to attempt to secure an agreement that looks very similar to the 2015 jcpoa which my colleague senator king referred to, which this president recklessly tore up in 2018.
▶ 1:25:30Sen. Hirono: As you recall, the jcpoa, which was in agreement that also included countries, not just us, included france, u.k., germany, china, and russia. The jcpoa put limits on iran's nuclear program with a rigorous inspection and monitoring program run by the iaea, all of which was tossed out by president trump.
▶ 1:25:57Sen. Hirono: While that agreement did have a sunset clause, but we should have done is worked diplomatically with our allies to extend it. Instead, here we are engaged in another endless war in the middle east with no end in sight that is driving up costs, undermining military readiness, and alienating our allies with neither a clear rationale for starting the conflict, which the president originally said, maybe they will be regime change.
▶ 1:26:24Sen. Hirono: Now he seems to have landed on preventing a nuclear capable iran, which was exactly what the jcpoa was intended to do. Admiral cooper, did the president ever explained to you why he tore up the jcpoa?
▶ 1:26:40Adm. Cooper: Senator, that is a policy matter that I wouldn't expect anyone --
▶ 1:26:46Sen. Hirono: He never explained why he tore up the jcpoa? Did he explain it to you? I'm not asking for the actual conversation. Did he happen to explain to you why he did something which led to the very nuclear crisis that we are now confronting? Regarding iran and their enriched uranium?
▶ 1:27:08Adm. Cooper: I was in a complete different assignment when this occurred eight years ago.
▶ 1:27:13Sen. Hirono: Apparently, the president didn't have a discussion with anybody. In fact, it was a unilateral decision he made. You have vast experience, admiral, in the navy sinema. Before we attack iran, did it cross your mind that iran may close the strait of hormuz?
▶ 1:27:37Adm. Cooper: Senator, as you know, one of my response abilities as a combat commander is to generate a wide range of associated risks and opportunities, present those to the secretary and president. I think it will be inappropriate to talk about what -- we always make them very cooperatively.
▶ 1:27:55Sen. Hirono: I'm asking with your experience, the thought, should we attack iran, that they would close the strait of hormuz. Did that cross your mind? Yes or no?
▶ 1:28:08Adm. Cooper: I think of the strait of hormuz virtually every day.
▶ 1:28:13Sen. Hirono: So, is that a yes? You are very aware of the strait of hormuz. The very thing that happened, that is submenu contemplated happening. I hope that is the case. With your experience, I have to conclude that you contemplated the possibility. You did mention that our diplomats are engaged in negotiations. Who are those diplomats?
▶ 1:28:40Adm. Cooper: I would refer to the white house who specifically is engaged.
▶ 1:28:45Sen. Hirono: Apparently the diplomats are jared kushner, who doesn't even work for our country, and steve witkoff, who happens to be -- I don't think he has a lot of experience engaging in these kinds of negotiations. So here we are.
▶ 1:29:05Sen. Hirono: The jcpoa, which was a very -- the result of very intense negotiations among many countries, and for us to act as though the idea of a nuclear iran is just something that occurred to president trump and not to his predecessors is pretty ridiculous. In fact, we had in place a regime that was intended to do that very thing, prevent a nuclear iran. Mr. chairman, thank you.
▶ 1:29:34Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator hirono. Senator cotton.
▶ 1:29:39Sen. Cotton: Gentlemen, thank you for your appearance, your service to our nation, the many troops you represent. Admiral cooper, some critics of operation epic fury have referred to it as another forever war. In your opening statement, the third sentence, you say since 1979, the iranian regime has terrorized the region.
▶ 1:30:02Sen. Cotton: Is it fair to say that the only forevermore here is the war of terror that iran has waged against the united states in the civilized world for 47 years?
▶ 1:30:13Adm. Cooper: I would agree that was sustained effort by iran.
▶ 1:30:18Sen. Cotton: Let's take a look at context since my democratic friends want to talk about the jcpoa, not just about operation epic fury, but midnight hammer as well. Where do we stand today where we were, 11 months ago? Based on your extensive military experience, do you believe iran posed a significant threat to the united states 11 months ago before operation midnight hammer and epic fury?
▶ 1:30:47Adm. Cooper: Senator, they attack U.S. forces 340 times in the months preceding.
▶ 1:30:54Sen. Cotton: Absent midnight hammer and epic fury, do you believe that that was likely to continue to grow?
▶ 1:31:00Adm. Cooper: Yes.
▶ 1:31:04Sen. Cotton: Is iran now less of a threat than it was 11 months ago?
▶ 1:31:09Adm. Cooper: They are significantly less of a threat.
▶ 1:31:12Sen. Cotton: Is it fair to say that the iranian regime is still a revolutionary terrorist regime ?
▶ 1:31:20Adm. Cooper: They are.
▶ 1:31:22Sen. Cotton: Is it fair to say the revolutionary terrorist regime no longer has nearly as much military capability to act on its revolutionary terrorist intentions?
▶ 1:31:32Adm. Cooper: That is fair. It is also fair to say across every element of national power they have been significantly degraded.
▶ 1:31:40Sen. Cotton: You state in your opening statement that sent come forces systematically dismantled when iran spent four decades and tens of billions of dollars building. How long do you assess that it will take them to get back to where they were in terms of their military and other capabilities just 11 months ago before centcom dismantled it all?
▶ 1:32:04Adm. Cooper: I would assess it would take years to reconstitute the navy likely will not get back to its previous size for a full generation.
▶ 1:32:14Sen. Cotton: Is that what you say in your opening statement that centcom assesses iran can no longer project power across the region nor pose a persistent threat to the united states or our partners than it did prior to operation epic fury?
▶ 1:32:29Adm. Cooper: They certainly cannot do it at the level of mass that we saw with hundreds of missiles and drones across the middle east. That doesn't mean that they don't have any capability, but that brought power production capability no longer exists.
▶ 1:32:43Sen. Cotton: The whole world saw that in a number of days after the beginning of your operation, correct? I think in your 90% decline in iran's attacks on the united states and its neighbors in the region.
▶ 1:32:58Adm. Cooper: That's correct. Early on, the attacks were in the hundreds, down to the teens.
▶ 1:33:05Sen. Cotton: I know there's been a lot of questions about the strait of hormuz. To be clear, the strait of hormuz was never a part of our objectives, but we knew, as anyone who knows looking at a map with no, iran has the power to temporarily close the strait of hormuz. Is that correct?
▶ 1:33:24Adm. Cooper: That's accurate.
▶ 1:33:26Sen. Cotton: Is it fair to say that the united states and our partners have the power to permanently open the street?
▶ 1:33:32Adm. Cooper: Without getting into specifics, we have the military power, yes.
▶ 1:33:36Sen. Cotton: Could you talk about what the blockade in the meantime has done to iran?
▶ 1:33:42Adm. Cooper: The blockade was implement it within 24 hours of presidential direction based on a plan we had on the shelf. The blockade itself is designed to prevent any commerce from leading iranian ports going to global distribution, any commerce from coming around the world going back into iran. There has been zero trade into or out of iran in the last month.
▶ 1:34:05Sen. Cotton: Finally, what is iran's current ability, since it maintains its revolutionary terrorist ambitions, to support its terror proxy network in the region versus where it was just 11 months ago?
▶ 1:34:19Adm. Cooper: As we sit here today, they are unable to resource and supply hezbollah, hamas, or the houthis. Chapter two bc know what that looks like in iraq. The new prime minister wants to distance himself from iran but we will see what he is committed to.
▶ 1:34:36Sen. Cotton: They cannot support their terrorist proxies, they are years and years away from reconstituting if at all their missile and drone forces, nuclear program, and a generation away from rebuilding their navy. Seems to me like a little bit better position than we were relative to iran under barack obama and joe biden's disasters nuclear deal. Thank you.
▶ 1:34:59Chair Wicker: Senator slotkin.
▶ 1:35:04Sen. Slotkin: Thank you for being here, gentlemen. I will direct my questions to admiral cooper. I will give a good pass to my fellow michigander. We are happy to see you in service. Thank you for what you are doing. You are always welcome back home when you retire.
▶ 1:35:28Sen. Slotkin: I feel like, whatever feelings I have about the imminence of the threat from iran, or not, we want our military to come through this war as successfully and safely as possible. I'm interested in making sure that we get out of this quickly and safely.
▶ 1:35:55Sen. Slotkin: I have actually no doubt, with all the firepower we have used in this more, we have degraded their nuclear capability, ballistic missile capability, terrorism capability. As someone who served three tours in iraq, I saw that terrorism up close and personal.
▶ 1:36:13Sen. Slotkin: But it is hard to say, sitting here with a strait of hormuz closed, every american feeling a deep, deep spike in the price of gas, and that we're only in the beginning of that, that we cannot say that we are over all off until that strait is opened.
▶ 1:36:35Sen. Slotkin: While I believe we could militarily open the straits, it seems to me the iranians have strategic geography. They have the ability, even though degraded, to protect power on to things like the oil infrastructure in places like saudi arabia or anywhere they want, further heard in world economy, the united states.
▶ 1:37:00Sen. Slotkin: Is that correct, that while militarily we may be able to physically open the straits, that they still maintain the ability to affect infrastructure in the region, and therefore kind of had a veto power over the world economy right now?
▶ 1:37:20Adm. Cooper: From a military perspective, I would characterize iran as having a remnant capability across multiple domains. In terms of veto power, I would defer to policymakers for that characterization.
▶ 1:37:37Sen. Slotkin: Can they strike oil infrastructure across the persian gulf?
▶ 1:37:44Adm. Cooper: They have a moderate but small capability to continue strikes. We are prepared for such a contingency.
▶ 1:37:53Sen. Slotkin: If we have the power to militarily open the straits, and their threat is quote moderate or small, why would we do it?
▶ 1:38:05Adm. Cooper: I would refer to policymakers on this matter. The strait is clearly within the negotiation being undertaken now.
▶ 1:38:14Sen. Slotkin: It may be diminished power but if the U.S. military is not physically opening the straits right now, it is because the iranians have the real capability to affect strikes, drone strikes into the gulf countries, affecting their oil infrastructure, and setting the price of oil worldwide even higher. It may be diminished, but it is real capability, unless I'm missing something.
▶ 1:38:43Sen. Slotkin: I am very sensitive about the way that countries like russia or china may be enabling the iranians to target and kill american forces or to provide intelligence on their locations in real or near real time. Is it fair to say that the chinese are providing intelligence to the iranians to help them target U.S. forces?
▶ 1:39:11Adm. Cooper: Best to talk about anything regarding the intelligence and a classified setting. What I can say is the iranian military is largely made up of russian intelligence agreement.
▶ 1:39:26Sen. Slotkin: It feels like either chinese government and/or chinese companies are helping and aiding and abetting the iranians in providing that information. I understand we don't want to go into the details, but some of this is out in the open press. I personally feel like that crosses a rubicon.
▶ 1:39:49Sen. Slotkin: Anytime we have another country providing the kind of intelligence to an adversary, I think that should play very heavily in our calculus, conversations. I know the president is with the chinese government right now, but I hope no matter what partner we are from, that is just a rubicon that we all believe, once you cross it, we are in a different conversation. I hope that is playing out in beijing. I yield back.
▶ 1:40:13Chair Wicker: Senator banks.
▶ 1:40:16Sen. Banks: Admiral, any update on activities in afghanistan, increased activity from isis, any other groups that concern you, anything that you can tell us?
▶ 1:40:27Adm. Cooper: Thank you for the question. Afghanistan remains on the forefront of what we are watching in terms of terrorist activity. Best to address that in a classified forum. For now, our partnerships in the region are suppressing that threat.
▶ 1:40:41Sen. Banks: Any update for the record? Remains an area of concern for centcom. You are paying attention to it. We are not completely ignoring afghanistan.
▶ 1:40:54Adm. Cooper: We are paying close attention to a variety of partnerships.
▶ 1:40:59Sen. Banks: Thank you for your leadership. I think this is an incredible moment. You are doing an incredible job when it comes to iran, degrading their military, defense industrial base. You cite in your testimony that the U.S.
▶ 1:41:16Sen. Banks: Has delivered a long terminal back iran's ability to protect power in the region and beyond, damaging and destroying over 85% of its ballistic missile, drone, naval industrial base, 82% of its air missile systems. That is pretty damn good. That is a strong statement. I am proud of your efforts.
▶ 1:41:38Sen. Banks: The nds talks about the concept of simultaneity in which our adversaries can undertake simultaneous aggression in multiple theaters. Does operation epic fury's degradation of the iranian military and defense industrial base reduce the problem of simultaneity?
▶ 1:41:59Adm. Cooper: It remains to be seen what happens going forward with iran. What I think we have seen is a combination of ability for the united states to protect power and influence in defeating an adversary very quickly, 38 days. The effects on other theaters, I would really refer to U.S. european commanders in the pacific. Clearly, the united states is agile and we can move from theater to theater.
▶ 1:42:27Sen. Banks: Can you unpack this concept of simultaneity?
▶ 1:42:31Adm. Cooper: United states has significant capacity, forces deployed around the world addressing a variety of issues. We are focused today largely on iran, but clearly, general anderson is actioning critical matters in africa, we are doing it in europe, asia, south america. All at the same time. That is how the united states military works.
▶ 1:42:56Sen. Banks: You also might iran's ability to reconstitute its military capability will depend in large part on decisions we and our partners make. What should we be doing to press our advantage?
▶ 1:43:10Adm. Cooper: I think there is a policy component to this, potentially a legislative component. There are a restrict number of companies -- countries, finite number of countries that historically had trade with iran, addressing those countries and what they are trading, how they are doing it, what that looks like is something that we should take a look at. If they don't have the parts, they will not build the weapons.
▶ 1:43:35Sen. Banks: I was very proud to see the lucas drones deployed and used in centcom. The indiana national guard played a really important role in testing the lucas ground in my state. What, if anything, can be extrapolate from the performance of our lucas drones and other conflicts?
▶ 1:43:53Adm. Cooper: The lucas drones were the united states' first opportunity to use our own one-way attack drones against an adversary. I remember well the training that was happening. I was watching it like a hawk. That training has produced additional capability that we can deploy against an adversary very effectively.
▶ 1:44:12Sen. Banks: What else did we learn?
▶ 1:44:15Adm. Cooper: I would love to take it in a classified setting, given where we are with iran, I would like to keep that in a classified setting.
▶ 1:44:22Sen. Banks: Our war fighters in the middle east were hammered by small drones. How can we ensure that doesn't happen again if combat operations resume?
▶ 1:44:31Adm. Cooper: A little bit of a myth buster on this, iranian drones are significantly capable. The days of $30,000 walmart drones are behind us. Iran has a capable drone force. We have very capably defeated them.
▶ 1:44:48Sen. Banks: Thank you very much. That is all I have.
▶ 1:44:52Chair Wicker: Senator kelly. Senator gillibrand.
▶ 1:44:57Sen. Kelly: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Thank you both for being here today. Admiral cooper, I have a for both of you. I want to talk a little bit about the civilian harm mitigation team at centcom. My understanding is you have gone from 10 down to one as part of a departmentwide reduction.
▶ 1:45:25Sen. Kelly: Their role is to minimize harm to civilians when we are conducting combat operations. Is that correct, going down from 10 to one?
▶ 1:45:35Adm. Cooper: There is a larger component to this over the course of years. We have compliance two civilian casualties from a risk mitigation being a part of the culture. There are dozens if not hundreds of people involved in the process.
▶ 1:45:49Sen. Kelly: What do those nine individuals do who were removed from their jobs?
▶ 1:45:55Adm. Cooper: They are now integrated into other capacities.
▶ 1:46:01Sen. Kelly: What were they doing when they were part of the civilian harm mitigation team?
▶ 1:46:06Adm. Cooper: Playing a key role in helping us move from compliance to culture. Which they continue to do.
▶ 1:46:18Sen. Kelly: How many civilians have been killed or injured over the course of this more?
▶ 1:46:23Adm. Cooper: The investigation on the one incident we had after more than 13,000 strikes, is still underway. Certainly will be transparent when we can. This is a matter that I'm passionate about. I want to invite you come other members of the committee and your staff's, to take a look at what our targeting process looks like.
▶ 1:46:44Sen. Kelly: If you were to find out there was an error in the targeting process, would you reinstate some of those people that were moved from that team?
▶ 1:46:51Adm. Cooper: It's a hypothetical. I'm always looking to organize for purpose.
▶ 1:46:57Sen. Kelly: Are you taking any additional steps now because of the civilian casualties to date?
▶ 1:47:03Adm. Cooper: We have taken additional steps. Our steps have been proactive through operation epic fury. Our staff specifically warned the iranian people, they are being used as human shields. I personally warned the iranian people that they had the potential to be human shields. That communication was very effective. We are moving to not just targeting but proactive measures.
▶ 1:47:28Sen. Kelly: Thank you for doing that. General anderson, china and russia continued to expand their influence across africa. We discussed this with misinformation, disinformation across many african countries. You requested 94 million dollars for information activities operations. This was in fiscal year 26. You were promised $25 million from the department.
▶ 1:47:57Sen. Kelly: You ultimately received only $90 million. Can you talk about the different between $19 million to do the job and 94 million? What would you be able to do if you were fully funded? General anderson, I get it, we see this all the time, the amount of misinformation that come from the chinese and russians. It's a huge problem. But if you could explain to us a little bit about what you could do if you had the full request?
▶ 1:48:21Gen. Anderson: Senator, I think the key point is right now we are in a reactionary mode to propaganda and other information operations to what we can do at the moment. What the fuller funding would do, especially consistent over time, would allow us to build an information campaign and address these issues across the continent. We are one of the few organizations that looks across the entirety of the continent, understand how these propaganda and misinformation plays across borders.
▶ 1:48:51Gen. Anderson: We work closely with the state department, U.S. embassies to make sure our messaging is key. This would help us coordinate that messaging across the regions and across the continent to highlight the issues that come with this misinformation, especially as much of this is destabilizing democracies across the region.
▶ 1:49:08Sen. Kelly: Do you feel that we should be countering their disinformation with this information of our own?
▶ 1:49:14Adm. Cooper: I think the most powerful tool we have is the truth. We are still a beacon of hope and light in the world. I think we should be willing to talk about who we are. This is america's 250th anniversary. There's a long history on the continent, good and bad, but there's a lot of good that we can talk about, what america brings.
▶ 1:49:35Adm. Cooper: The fact that john c robinson founded the tuskegee airmen, two years later founded the ethiopian air force and then ethiopian airlines, which is not only the pride of ethiopia but africa, it is not a story that is well known. There are multiple stories like that across the continent that we need to propagate and talk about. We should focus on the goodness and the positivity of engaging with america, worry less about the disinformation that our partners put out. But we have to engage in this environment can't be active in the information space.
▶ 1:50:05Sen. Kelly: You got about 25% of the request. If you got the full amount, you could put more out there, positive stuff the united states is doing. I know these are challenging times with resources even beyond what dod has, usaid and others. Do you think that would be sufficient to counter chinese and russian misinformation?
▶ 1:50:32Gen. Anderson: Senator, I think information operations is one of the lower cost investments that we can make it have outsized return, help amplify the limited resources we have in the military side, highlight the benefits that those provided. Being able to talk about that probably has outsized proportions. Small investments can have large impact.
▶ 1:50:55Gen. Anderson: This is an area where I think we can make a lot of gains even despite our smaller physical presence that can highlight the totality of what the united states brings.
▶ 1:51:03Sen. Kelly: 100% agree, general. We should look at getting you the resources you need to do this job. Thank you.
▶ 1:51:11Chair Wicker: General anderson, I 100% agree with you. Senator gillibrand.
▶ 1:51:19Sen. Gillibrand: Admiral cooper, we had secretary hegseth here a week ago or so and we did not get satisfactory answers about iran. What is your mission in iran right now?
▶ 1:51:34Adm. Cooper: Senator, with epic fury, ended with the president's notification, we shifted our mission to a blockade mission in the following day, implement thing that mission in accordance with international armed conflict. That is our main mission today, as well as to be ready for a broad range of contingencies.
▶ 1:51:54Sen. Gillibrand: Do you feel president trump's declaration that we have obliterated all of iran's capabilities and their nuclear program, is that accurate?
▶ 1:52:05Adm. Cooper: I will speak from a military perspective. We have significant lead to graded their drone, missile, and naval capabilities, we fractured their command and control. We have eliminated the large preponderance of their space program. By every measure, degraded significantly across all measures of national power.
▶ 1:52:25Sen. Gillibrand: So what is your exit strategy to end the conflict with iran?
▶ 1:52:28Adm. Cooper: That is a policy decision.
▶ 1:52:31Sen. Gillibrand: Don't you have to offer the president various exit strategies so he knows how to get from a to b?
▶ 1:52:37Adm. Cooper: Consistent with my statutory obligations, I provide a broad range of options as well as the risks and mitigations.
▶ 1:52:44Sen. Gillibrand: Given your current mission, how many more days, weeks, months, years are we going to be at war with iran?
▶ 1:52:52Adm. Cooper: As we sit here today, we are in a ceasefire. The way ahead will be determined by policymakers.
▶ 1:52:59Sen. Gillibrand: Currently we are still spending a billion dollars a day on this war with iran. I can tell you, from my new york constituents, they are furious about it. A billion dollars a day could be lowering their housing cost, lowering their food costs, lowering health-care costs, lowering the cost of everyday expenses that continued to go up because of the war in iran. With the price of gas as high as it is, diesel as high as it is, it means everything they have to buy for their families is more expensive.
▶ 1:53:28Sen. Gillibrand: We expect from our military leaders a plan about why and how long we are going to be spending a billion dollars a day. I have not seen that plan or the y from president trump or secretary hegseth. I'm hoping as the military person in charge of operations that you have a plan to end this war and stop spending a billion dollars a day.
▶ 1:53:51Adm. Cooper: We have a broad range of plans and contingencies consistent with what my obligation to provide that advice to the secretary and president, we have done so. Decision will be made by our civilian leadership. My job is to execute them.
▶ 1:54:06Sen. Gillibrand: The second question I have come admiral cooper come is how we have prosecuted the war to date. We have information publicly available, publications like the new york times, that 22 schools have been hit, dozens of hospitals have been hit. We have regulations, the law of war, human rights obligations, we have our own targeting requirements to avoid civilian harm and it.
▶ 1:54:36Sen. Gillibrand: Have you been implement thing all the laws required under current law to minimize civilian debt?
▶ 1:54:42Adm. Cooper: Senator, we have executed every operation consistent with the law of armed conflict leaving the subject to civilian casualties is a passion of mine. We follow all the procedures and have them on above and beyond, in my case, personally morning the iranian people of several instances where they were being used as human targets.
▶ 1:55:03Sen. Gillibrand: If they were warned, how the rebound 22 schools?
▶ 1:55:07Adm. Cooper: There is no indication --
▶ 1:55:10Sen. Gillibrand: How many schools have been bombed?
▶ 1:55:13Adm. Cooper: There is one civilian casualty investigation underway among the 13,000.
▶ 1:55:19Sen. Gillibrand: How do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals?
▶ 1:55:24Adm. Cooper: There is no indication of that.
▶ 1:55:28Sen. Gillibrand: No way that you can cooperate or no indication?
▶ 1:55:32Adm. Cooper: No indication.
▶ 1:55:34Sen. Gillibrand: There is indication. Have you investigated those claims?
▶ 1:55:38Adm. Cooper: We have not. If this is a passion of yours, if you believe civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war, not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence, why have you not investigating these allegations when there are publicly being made on the cover of the new york times?
▶ 1:56:00Adm. Cooper: I'll be happy to look at each instance.
▶ 1:56:03Sen. Gillibrand: I would like a report from you, from your team about whether there have been attacks that have resulted in the destruction of schools and hospitals, and if so why. And how have you managed the 90% cut to the personnel who are supposed to avoid civilian targets?
▶ 1:56:25Adm. Cooper: Happy to provide any report. I would invite you in every staff member to take a look at the process, to see exactly how it works.
▶ 1:56:34Sen. Gillibrand: Thank you, admiral.
▶ 1:56:38Chair Wicker: Senator duckworth.
▶ 1:56:43Sen. Duckworth: Thank you, Mr. chairman, thank you, gentle and for being here. This and received a letter from president trump on friday may first stating that hostilities with iran had ended, and you just stated here that we are no longer operating under operation epic fury. Would you say that we are still engage in hostilities with iran or have they ended?
▶ 1:57:04Adm. Cooper: Consistent with the president's letter, operation epic fury is complete. We are operating under international armed conflict rules and if limitation of the blockade.
▶ 1:57:15Sen. Duckworth: Are we engage with hostilities with iran, yes or no?
▶ 1:57:19Adm. Cooper: We are in a cease-fire.
▶ 1:57:22Sen. Duckworth: The strait of hormuz remains in a blockade. Are you not?
▶ 1:57:26Adm. Cooper: Commerce going in and coming out is the last thing that we would want to do, blockade the strait of hormuz. As we have seen, there are instances of ships coming in and out.
▶ 1:57:37Sen. Duckworth: Under international law, a blockade is an act of war. If you are actively blockading iran, then you are engaged in an act of war with iran under international law. A blockade is one of the definitions of war under international law.
▶ 1:57:56Adm. Cooper: Consistent with the direction we've been given, those categorizations are best through the --
▶ 1:58:03Sen. Duckworth: It is international law. A blockade is an act of war. We have now engaged, the united states and iranian forces are treating fire as they continue to launch missiles, drones. President trump says the cease-fire is on life support, repeatedly threatens to renew U.S. strikes.
▶ 1:58:27Sen. Duckworth: To be clear, no one is disputing the valor and professionalism of our military, but the civilian leaders are abdicating their response ability to craft a clear strategy, and service members are the ones who will suffer under this leadership vacuum. Before operation epic fury began, what desired end state for the operation were you given by your civilian leadership?
▶ 1:58:49Adm. Cooper: I was given crystal clear guidance, our military mission was to degrade iran's ability to project power on his neighbors and U.S. interest, including three specific objectives. Degrade iranian ballistic missiles, defense industrial base, degrade the drones, degrade their navy and defense industrial base. All of those were achieved.
▶ 1:59:12Sen. Duckworth: Because they were achieved, that is why the operation ended, or did the operation and because the president said let's end it?
▶ 1:59:21Adm. Cooper: Operations commencing and ending are made by our civilian leadership, not a military decision.
▶ 1:59:28Sen. Duckworth: President trump has provided many possible and states in only two months including he said unconditional surrender, regime change in iran which has not happened, he has talked about operations will end when there is destruction of iranian nuclear sites, allegedly already accomplished last summer under operation midnight hammer. He also said iran will never have nuclear weapons which cannot be accomplished with only a bombing campaign.
▶ 1:59:56Sen. Duckworth: He said his goal was to destroy the iranian military forces and if a structure completely, which the intelligence community assesses has not happened. Now, he said it is a reopening of the strait of hormuz which was open before the war began. If we don't know what we are fighting for, we certainly don't know how long will be fighting.
▶ 2:00:16Sen. Duckworth: Admiral cooper, have you been given any timeline for how long our forces will be in the strait of hormuz or near iran, blockading iran, whether by a timeline or condition, and state for how long you'll be blockading iran?
▶ 2:00:30Adm. Cooper: I think it's important from a military perspective that my advice related to options be provided to the secretary and president. The decision on timeline execution is civilian leadership.
▶ 2:00:43Sen. Duckworth: You mention the secretary of defense who only talks tactics, and a president who changes his strategy on social media multiple times a day. Secretary hegseth has titled the destruction of tens of thousands of targets across iran. He says the air defenses are flattened, his words, and its industrial base is overwhelming destroyed and claims iran's navy is at the bottom of the sea.
▶ 2:01:08Sen. Duckworth: Every metric the secretary offers is one of destruction, destruction alone is not an end state, especially with reporting that iran has operational access to most of its missile capacity and that iran is still capable of controlling the strait of hormuz. Americans are not safe. Our service members are at risk, prices at home are higher, and iran has more control over the global economy than before this thing started. The american people deserve clear answers.
▶ 2:01:37Sen. Duckworth: We have no strategy as we saw in afghanistan. If you don't have a sound strategy come you keep doing tactics forever. This is not your fault but this is where we are. Admiral cooper, how you been asked for your advice, under what conditions would you advise deploying ground troops for any purpose in iran?
▶ 2:01:53Adm. Cooper: It would be inappropriate to document any contingency planning in this particular forum. It's my obligation as a combatant commander to provide a broad range of options to the secretary.
▶ 2:02:04Sen. Duckworth: Can you answer that question for me in the scif at a later time? Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 2:02:12Chair Wicker: Senator kelly.
▶ 2:02:19Sen. Kelly: No further questions, Mr. chairman.
▶ 2:02:20Chair Wicker: Sorry. Senator peters.
▶ 2:02:27Sen. Peters: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Gentlemen, thank you both for being here. I speak for myself and everybody on the panel, we appreciate the incredible professionalism of the men and women in uniform, the job they do every day with professionalism and heroism. Thank you for doing that. But we do have a number of questions about how we win this war, end it going forward. Those are usually political questions related to political leadership, men and women in uniform execute those orders.
▶ 2:02:59Sen. Peters: They have demonstrated they are certainly the best in the world. Admiral cooper, you mentioned the current mission right now is basically the U.S. blockade of iranian ships, ships transiting the strait of hormuz to iranian ports. That is in response to iran effectively shutting down the street of that.
▶ 2:03:24Sen. Peters: As you know, experts across the political spectrum, multiple administrations have all agreed that a war against iran, their first move would be to mind the strait of hormuz, to threaten tanker traffic. Despite these risks, and repeated claims that the dod has a plan -- I'm sure you have a plan. I served in the navy, there are no shortage of plans that we have. That you have plans to deal with the closing of the strait.
▶ 2:03:57Sen. Peters: We had four minesweepers stationed in the middle east who were just retired last year. Our remaining were either stationed in japan or not pre-positioned in the region. This is despite public reporting that we currently already have, limited capacity.
▶ 2:04:16Sen. Peters: Report from the new york times and borders has also indicated that iran still has hundreds if not thousands of small boats that can lay mines or perform hit and run attacks on top of their existing land missiles and drones which I'm sure they are building at a furious pace right now to restock what they have. This is on top of existing land missiles and drones.
▶ 2:04:41Sen. Peters: The american people, as we know, are already paying higher prices in the united states, inflation is up as a result of the chaotic tariffs president trump has put into place, and now are paying higher gas prices, continue to rise, putting a strain on family budgets.
▶ 2:05:00Sen. Peters: My question for you is if there was advanced planning -- I'm sure there was advanced planning about the strait's closure -- my where the minesweepers not positioned in the region when it was publicly reported that we already have limited capacities? When you have a plan come usually before you execute, you make sure your assets are in place to actually execute the plan. It is curious that those assets were not there. Why?
▶ 2:05:26Adm. Cooper: I think bessie talked specific tactics in a classified environment. What I can say here is we had sufficient and continue have sufficient mind clearing get abilities. Because it was those vessels being decommissioned, interesting point. The support and the ability to conduct counter mining is best to discuss in a classified setting.
▶ 2:05:50Sen. Peters: I understand that totally, you don't want to do that, but it is clear there is a concern about mines. Commercial company do not want to go through the strait, will not put their ships at risk, so they don't feel safe. That speaks volumes as to whether or not it is safe. There is a real concern there. We know the iranians have significant given police to deal with that.
▶ 2:06:15Sen. Peters: I asked a previous question related to strategy, talk about the seminal text on strategy that is taught in all the war colleges. You know it better than I will ever know it. The concept of that is, in order to win the war, you have to know the center of gravity of your enemy. You have to be focused on being able to neutralize that. What is the center of gravity in iran, how are you planning?
▶ 2:06:45Sen. Peters: That is a military decision as to what is the center of gravity. That is the kind of advice that you would give to a president. What is the center of gravity?
▶ 2:06:52Adm. Cooper: I would refer to our policymakers as to what they view as a center of gravity. From a military perspective, we are focused on achieving military objectives. This is when our men and women have done and they have done it extreme really well.
▶ 2:07:06Sen. Peters: Every war plan has a center of gravity that you identify and then you work around that. The more plan that we have for iran would have the center of gravity. Why can't you share what that is? Before, we knew the center of gravity in the persian gulf war, for erect, colin powell said it was the republican guard troops.
▶ 2:07:31Sen. Peters: Obama administration in afghanistan, admiral mike mullen defined the center of gravity as building afghan government support. They made this public, they were not hiding the center of gravity. Our enemy knows what our center of gravity is. We know what there is is. There is no reason to keep that secret because the american people have the right to know. What is it we are trying to accomplish? A part of every military plan that was put forward.
▶ 2:07:57Adm. Cooper: I agree come every war plan has a center of gravity, and those plans are classified. I would be more than happy to talk about in a classified hearing.
▶ 2:08:06Chair Wicker: Fair enough. Senator rosen.
▶ 2:08:11Sen. Rosen: Thank you, chairman wicker, admiral cooper, general anderson for your service and your willingness to continue to serve our nation. Admiral cooper, I want to talk about the international stabilization force. It's been publicly reported that centcom will play a role in the proposed international stabilization force in gaza. We would just call it isf.
▶ 2:08:35Sen. Rosen: Many questions remain on what the isf is, when it will be deployed, and when it will operate. Can you clarify the roles of the U.S. and centcom in the isf, specifically is the vision for centcom to retain command and control or is there a timeline and mechanism for transitioning oversight to a multinational or civilian led structure?
▶ 2:09:01Adm. Cooper: Thank you for the question. Our role can be defined as one of support right now. The international stabilization force commander who's been designated is also dual hatted as a special operations control. He has 45 members working for him. We are at the infancy of forming the international stabilization force. Thus far, four countries have committed to provide forces.
▶ 2:09:29Adm. Cooper: As we look to the future , I'd be happy to talk about what we are working on. We are just in the infancy of the process.
▶ 2:09:37Sen. Peters: Speaking of hitting in a direction, when he talk about munitions sustainment. According to publicly available resources, the U.S. has fired at least 45% of its patriot missile interceptors and more than half of its thadd interceptor so far in operation epic fury, has had to move air defense from other theaters.
▶ 2:10:01Sen. Peters: Can you talk about how this constrains our air and missile defense, those of our regional partners and allies, like israel, uae, and others who are also under attack?
▶ 2:10:09Adm. Cooper: I have all the munitions necessary to both defend our forces as well as the conduct a broad range of contingencies. Our partners also have the sufficient munitions necessary.
▶ 2:10:22Sen. Rosen: Do you have estimates on how long it would take to replenish or rebuild our stockpile?
▶ 2:10:27Adm. Cooper: I would differ to the vote to do this on an everyday basis.
▶ 2:10:32Sen. Rosen: I will continue on you and then we will move over to general anderson in a minute. I want to take a moment to talk about lebanon. I appreciate that you have a plot of the lebanese armed forces for their efforts to disarm hezbollah. While the current effort in conflict has demonstrated the extent to which hezbollah has rearmed, a strong lebanese armed forces remains the best pathway for lebanon there which hezbollah can be disarmed once and for all. We know that these two have been. What can the U.S.
▶ 2:11:01Sen. Rosen: Do to please support the U.S. forces to make sure they have the necessary capacity to disarm hezbollah while also holding them accountable?
▶ 2:11:10Adm. Cooper: Taking on the disarmament of hezbollah is a tall order. They've been funded by iran for decades with billions of dollars. Hezbollah is inculcated in every fabric of the lebanese society. Right now our continued commitment with modest dollars to the lebanese armed forces is helpful. They have in particular several units who can do more. Our commitment could be to provide the funding necessary so that they can do more.
▶ 2:11:40Sen. Rosen: Thank you. I will move over to africom, general anderson. Isis and al qaeda affiliates, we know they span the african continent. Understanding this is an open setting, can you talk about the extent to which these franchises work across borders within local settings to coordinate with one another, the threat this poses to our priorities in the region? Do you think there is a need for a comprehensive ct strategy on the continent?
▶ 2:12:11Sen. Rosen: If so, could you outline again, considering this is an open setting, brother with a strategy might include please?
▶ 2:12:18Gen. Anderson: Senator, I appreciate highlighting the transnational threat that both al qaeda and isis pose. I can say in the setting that isis has several affiliates across the continent that are coordinating more and more, whether that is in the mountains of somalia or the lake chad basin in nigeria, or the sahel, as well as mozambique and others.
▶ 2:12:43Gen. Anderson: This terrace and network has to be addressed holistically, have to look at the entirety of the network, not any single note anymore. We coordinate closely with admiral cooper because isis still has a strong presence in centcom's aor as well as al qaeda. As we look at the strategy to go after this, is to work with our partners, willing and capable partners, enable them to take on this threat. When they are unable to do that, bringing in the unique capabilities that the U.S.
▶ 2:13:12Gen. Anderson: Can bring in order to address those threats. We have seen that in the mountains where we have been able to bring intelligence, limited strike capabilities, been able to disrupt their leadership network. This need to be applied across all of these areas.
▶ 2:13:30Gen. Anderson: Investments in additional isr, expeditionary capabilities such as a forward staging base that allow us to move forward to the point of need at the time of need, and the force protection requirements necessary to protect that force. Not just the force protection as a counter uas, missile defense which are critical, but also investment to the emerging technologies that allow remote medicine, forward medicine, automated.
▶ 2:13:58Gen. Anderson: These types of things allow us to become more expeditionary in order to get after these critical threats. Only the critical threats that pose to the U.S. enable partners to address these common threats. It is a multifaceted strategy. I could go into more but will in this detail.
▶ 2:14:15Gen. Anderson: Maintaining the relationships and engagements are equally important to have that pragmatic approach, opening dialogue with the states and sahel, addressing this in places like algeria and morocco and libya who share these concerns, building those relationships are absolutely vital because we have to have trust.
▶ 2:14:33Sen. Rosen: Could I have a follow-up question on the sahel since you brought it up?
▶ 2:14:38Chair Wicker: Why don't you do that.
▶ 2:14:41Sen. Rosen: You brought up the sahel but local militias and molly coordinate a nationwide offense, seizing key towns, killing the defense minister. These attacks were greater in scale and intensity than any other since 2012 and demonstrate their ability to strike against an expansive geographical area.
▶ 2:15:06Sen. Rosen: You are talking about the sahel the permissive environment is making these attacks possible and what more would you like to add if you want to speak more about instability? >> I can talk to you more in a classified setting that would be highly appropriate to this. There is no effective external counterterrorism effect or effort right now.
▶ 2:15:32Sen. Rosen: Russians have claimed to do that but they had to withdraw and were unable to defend against that threat there. They are providing some limited support but we do not see the same western presence. How do we enable the partners -- the other nations that are there, how do we look at expeditionary capabilities again?
▶ 2:15:50Sen. Rosen: One of the key areas we would need some assistance with is the authorities and ability to bring in an experiment with emerging technologies whether that is in the surveillance and isr technologies or if other over the horizon take capabilities in order to reach when there is a threat that threatens the homeland to be able to reach it and take care of it but more importantly continue to enable the partners to address the threats in their local areas and a lot of that is intelligence sharing.
▶ 2:16:21Sen. Rosen: I would be happy to talk in more depth. >> thank you, chairman. >> thank, senator rosen. I'm glad you brought up lebanon and hezbollah. So I am going to take another round, admiral cooper. And stop me when I am wrong. On march 2 of this year, hezbollah attacked israel in response to operation epic fury.
▶ 2:16:53Sen. Rosen: Is that correct? >> that is correct, sir. >> according to israel's foreign minister hezbollah has fired 10,000 missiles, rockets, and drones in the past two months, is that correct? >> that is correct.
▶ 2:17:17Sen. Rosen: >> in response they issued a ground initiative aiming to create an uninhabited buffer zone on its northern border and to push hezbollah north to the river. Is that correct? >> that is correct, senator.
▶ 2:17:38Sen. Rosen: >> to enable this operation, the israeli military ordered the evacuation of southern lebanon, displacing over one million people and nearly 20 percent of lebanon's population. That is also correct? Like I don't know that that number specifically is correct but the concept of the evacuation is correct.
▶ 2:18:00Sen. Rosen: >> >> while governments of israel and lebanon declared a cease-fire in april of this year, hezbollah's secretary general announced that his organization would not recognize the ceasefire and would never agree to disarm. Is that correct? >> that statement is correct.
▶ 2:18:25Sen. Rosen: >> hezbollah then continue to fire projectiles into israel and israel has continued to strike has below positions in southern lebanon. That is also correct. >> that is correct. >> I think central -- senator rosen would wholeheartedly agree with me that peace between israel -- I cannot ask questions to my friend and colleague but I think we would both agree that peace between israel and lebanon
▶ 2:18:57Sen. Rosen: Would be a wonderful development and a wonderful development for america and for israel. But peace between israel and lebanon depends on the lebanese government having both the capability and the will to disarm hezbollah. Has the united states provided the lebanese armed forces with approximately $3 billion since 2006?
▶ 2:19:25Sen. Rosen: >> I would have to take that specific number of the record and follow-up. >> is it fair to say the primary goal of U.S. support for the l.a. Of the lebanese armed forces was to counter hezbollah? >> yes, sir.
▶ 2:19:46Sen. Rosen: And from 2006 until -- >> from 2006 until 2020 three, was it accurate to say -- 2023, that the arsenal grew from approximately 9000 rockets and missiles to 150,000? >> as a result of decades of support, that is correct.
▶ 2:20:12Sen. Rosen: >> israel's foreign minister alleges that hezbollah fired more than 10,000 projectiles at israel since the beginning of march of this year.
▶ 2:20:30Sen. Rosen: In light of the lebanese armed forces in action was israel -- was israel's offensive into southern lebanon militarily necessary of hezbollah's attacks are going to be countered? Was there another way to do that? >> I would really defer to israel on intent and effectiveness but as a general statement -- it is an option among options of which there are few.
▶ 2:21:01Sen. Rosen: To deal with the hezbollah problem.
▶ 2:21:02Chair Wicker: I appreciate senator rosen bringing this up. And I would just go back to the central point that it would be a tremendous achievement for israel, lebanon, the united states and the middle east if hezbollah could be eliminated and allow the lebanese people and the lebanese government to
▶ 2:21:37Chair Wicker: Resume the happy relations that we once had and strive for between the united states and lebanon. Would senator rosen have any further questions? Then this concludes today's hearing.
▶ 2:21:57Chair Wicker: I would like to thank our witnesses for their testimony and I would acknowledge that many of the arrows aimed at these two witnesses were better aimed at people in the civilian leadership who according to our great constitution and our principles dating back to george washington are in control of
▶ 2:22:29Chair Wicker: Policy and I would commend these two military veterans for adhering to that constitutional principle and with that, we are -- I would inform members that questions of the record be due to the committee within two business days and we are adjourned.