Click here or on the photo above to view and download video from today’s hearing.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today participated in the confirmation hearing for General James Mattis, the president-elect’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense. During the exchange, Fischer raised several critical national security issues, including the relevance of our ICBM forces and the risks associated with failing to develop a policy for responding to cyberattacks. She also closed by inviting General Mattis to visit Nebraska following his confirmation as Secretary of Defense. The full transcript of Fischer’s exchange with General Mattis is below:
Fischer:
Thank you General Mattis for your past service to this country and for your willingness to step forward in service once again.
I was happy to see your responses to the advanced policy questions to affirm the importance of nuclear weapons which you described as “fundamental to our nation’s security” and your statement that: “we must continue with the current nuclear modernization plans for all three legs of the triad.”
When we talked in my office about the triad in our meeting last week you brought up, I believe a very good point that bears repeating related to the ICBM force.
There’s a broad recognition that the legs of the triad have different strengths.
The bombers are visible and therefore they have what I call signaling value, the submarines are highly survivable and the ICBMS are the most responsive leg and they can be launched at a moment’s notice.
You mentioned what you called the “targeting challenge” of our ICBM force and what that targeting challenge poses for our adversaries. Could you explain that further?
General Mattis:
Ma’am, in my review of the triad that you brought up here, Senator, I looked at each one of those legs as necessary.
I haven’t had access to all of the classified data but I had a fair amount of background on this and some of the aspects of why we have a triad have not changed.
So in looking at each leg of it, with the ICBM force it’s clear that they are so buried out in the central US that any enemy that wants to take us on is going to have to commit two, three, four weapons to make certain they take each one out.
In other words, the ICBM force provides a cost imposing strategy on an adversary, and again what we’re trying to do is set such a stance with our triad that these weapons must never be used, ever again.
And so the deterrent value of the ICBM force is that an enemy would have to basically use three or four times as many weapons to take out each individual one so that’s the targeting challenge the enemy faces against the ICBM force.
Fischer:
Thank you, and in your answers to this committee’s advanced questions about whether we are deterring hostile activity in cyberspace, you say “no” and you continue on to state: “to be deterred our adversaries must know they will suffer consequences from cyber-attacks that outweigh any gains they hope to achieve.
If they choose to act as adversaries, we will treat them as such.”
I completely agree, and believe that more costs must be imposed on those who are responsible for cyber-attacks.
So, this gets to the issue we’ve discussed in great detail on this committee, which is the lack of an overall policy to respond to cyberattacks.
When we discussed this in our recent meeting, you made a point that I believe is also very important, which is that the lack of a policy is potentially destabilizing because adversaries unaware of our boundaries may take provocative action that forces the United States to act militarily, I believe you characterized is as: “stumbling into a conflict.”
Essentially we don’t want to find out what constitutes an act of war in cyberspace the hard way. Can you elaborate on that point for us?
General Mattis:
Senator, I believe a lot of crises and wars have started from miscalculation.
While it’s important we make clear what we stand for, I think in an area such as you’re bringing up here, cyber, it’s also important that our adversaries know what we will absolutely not tolerate and by making that clear, you’re less apt to have somebody stumble into a situation where now we’re forced to take action.
That said, this putting together a policy, like this, that’s not something the department of defense can do alone.
We certainly have a key role, a fundamental role, but at the same time, from our Treasury Department, to our Commerce Department, to our Homeland Security, we need to get a lot of people in a room and put this policy together.
I realize it’s a new domain, but that doesn’t give us an excuse not to address it on an urgent basis.
Fischer:
Thank you sir, I look forward to working with you on that.
This committee has been focused on cyber and we are looking for a policy and I look forward to developing one with you.
And I invite you to come to Nebraska and visit Offutt and would love to be there when you’re there.
Thank you.
Click here to read Senator Fischer’s recent op-ed in support of General Mattis’s nomination to lead the Department of Defense.
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