During Tuesday’s House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hearing, U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) confronted Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the likelihood of U.S. service members being shot at when deployed to Gaza, as well as Lockheed Martin’s F35’s issues with reliability.
BREAKING: Secretary Lloyd Austin ADMITS likelihood of shooting warfare between U.S. service members and Gaza forces soon 👇
GAETZ: “This is a very telling moment, Mr. Secretary, because you've said something that's quite possible that could happen. Shots from Gaza on our service… pic.twitter.com/HmS1bfqeWB
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) April 30, 2024
Video of Rep. Gaetz’s interaction with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the HASC hearing on Gaza can be found HEREandon F35s HERE. A rough transcript can also be found immediately below:
Rep. Gaetz: Let’s stay on the same subject, Miss Slotkin just said there’ll be about 1000 U.S. servicemembers operating a peer system off of Gaza. How many of them will have guns? Mr. Secretary?
Secretary Austin: Typically, all of the deployed service member carry servicemembers carry guns and they have the ability to protect themselves if challenged.
Rep. Gaetz: So if someone from land and Gaza shoots at our servicemembers who are on the $320 million pier that we’re building, you’re telling me our service members can shoot back.
Secretary Austin: they have the they have the right to return fire to protect themselves. Now,
Rep. Gaetz: what do we do that’s like so now want to move to the likelihood that we think someone from land and Gaza might shoot at our service members on this pier? Do you think that that’s a likely scenario?
Secretary Austin: That’s possible? Yes.
Rep. Gaetz: This is a very telling moment, Mr. Secretary, because you’ve said something that’s quite possible. That could happen right? Shots from Gaza, on our servicemembers, and then the response our Armed Service members shooting live fire into Gaza. That is impossible outcome here so that we can become the Port Authority and run this period. Right.
Secretary Austin: That’s correct. And I expect that we will always have the ability
Rep. Gaetz: You think that counts as boots on the ground? President Biden told the country that we weren’t going to have boots on the ground in Gaza.
Secretary Austin: and we won’t.
Rep. Gaetz: okay, but you guys parse the distinction between like when Americans think boots on the ground, they think Americans in harm’s way, are engaged actively in a conflict. You guys seem to be sort of saying that boots on a pier, connected to the ground, connected to servicemembers shooting into Gaza doesn’t count as boots on the ground.
Secretary Austin: It does not.
Rep. Gaetz: I they’re gonna find the American people have a different perspective on that. And if we’re gonna have people shoot into Gaza, we probably should have a vote on that pursuant to our war powers, but I want to bring us now closer to home and the F 35. Program is the f 35 program of failure.
Secretary Austin: No, it’s
Rep. Gaetz: So let’s go over how much does an F 35 cost?
Secretary Austin: Well, it depends on the variant but
Rep. Gaetz: 100 million? Safe, safe to say 100 million a copy. Okay, so we just had the Air Force in here. And I said what percentage these F 30 fives are fully mission capable. And they said 29% Do you have any basis to disagree with that assessment?
Secretary Austin: I don’t have any basis to disagree with Secretary.
Rep. Gaetz: At 100 million a copy 29% being fully mission capable. Does that seem low to you?
Secretary Austin: It’s a complex airframe. And again, there are a number of reasons why a platform could be not operational at any one given time. But how many said that? It is? It is probably it is one of the best aircraft and the inventory
Rep. Gaetz: The best aircraft in the inventory. Well, Mr. Secretary, there’s a GAO report that takes a very different view. Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter the GAO report entitled F 35. sustainment costs will continue to rise while planned use and availability have decreased. Without objection so ordered. It reads costs to sustain the F 35 fleet keep increasing from 1.1 trillion in 2018 to 1.58 in 2023. Yet DoD plans to fly the F 35. Less than originally estimated partly because of reliability issues with the aircraft. The F 35 is ability to perform its mission has also trended downward over the last five years is there any of that in the GAO report that you disagree with?
Secretary Austin: I don’t.
Rep. Gaetz: So how many 100 million dollar paperweights Do we own?
Secretary Austin: I would not categorize the F 35 as a paperweight.
Rep. Gaetz: Well if it’s not mission capable. What do we just stare at it and admire?
Secretary Austin: We continue to work to make sure that we we get our aircraft operational and continue to
Rep. Gaetz: Don’t you think at 100 million to clip more than 29% should be fully operational? And if the fact that we can’t get them operational. UN Secretary Kendall said when he was sitting in that chair, he said the core root of the problem is that we had let Lockheed Martin build this thing. And then we gave Lockheed Martin, the full system performance contract and they keep bilking us according to the GAO and we sit around staring at $100 million airplane that can’t fully perform the mission and you’re sitting here telling me it’s it’s not a failure. Just own up to it. Mr. Secretary, just say this airframe has not delivered. It’s too costly. Well, it’s not it’s not being utilized as we should and we should never again make the mistake of doing a full system performance contract with the very person who built the aircraft. Can we agree to that?
Secretary Austin: I agree in the future, we should take it who should have a different approach. I’m sure that
Rep. Gaetz: I think the committee is going to help you move to that approach very quickly.
