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WASHINGTON, D.C. – At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, thanked Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein for their assistance regarding Offutt Air Force Base’s disaster recovery. She also questioned them on the future of Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) and the platforms used by the 55th Wing.

Partial transcript of Senator Fischer’s discussion with Secretary Barrett and General Goldfein:

Senator Fischer: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Barrett, General Goldfein: First of all, thank you so much for your service to this country. I also want to express my appreciation for the robust way this budget funds nuclear modernization. I want to thank you for both for the attention that the Air Force has paid to the rebuilding of Offutt Air Force Base as well. Your teams have been valuable partners as we have worked together to secure the funds necessary to repair, replace, and rebuild following the historic flooding that occurred in Nebraska a year ago. Secretary Barrett, the 55th Wing is the number one provider of large fixed-wing Air Force ISR in the nation. This is a capability that is in constant demand. I hear from our combatant commanders and the newly contested environments that we are faced with now mean that we need to think creatively about integrating these platforms, like the RC-135, into future networks. Given that fact, how are you working to ensure the continued capability of the RC-135 as we look into the future timeframes? 

Secretary Barrett: Thank you Senator. The RC-135 is pivotal to our ISR capabilities and as you know, training capability was lost during the floods at Offutt. So we want to thank you for the funding to help get that back up, so we could renew the training. And the other key thing that is happening with that platform, and others, is the computer connectedness. Building that as an element, a node, on the network for our combatants.

Senator Fischer: The Air Force laid out a future road map for the ISR mission in the ISR Dominance Flight Plan. What progress has been made in implementing the points of that plan, General?

General Goldfein: Thank you, ma’am. The most progress we have done is actually how we have tied the distributed ground system where we do all of the analytical work in the ISR into this battlefield network, this advanced battle management. It used to be that we had platform sensors and weapons from all of our services that were operating independently and then the universal transcript was a phone or a chatroom operating under human speeds. That’s not going to work in the next fight. We have got to be able to work seamlessly at machine speeds, and that’s what advanced battle management system does, and the RC-135 is a significant player in that.

Senator Fischer: You had mentioned the ABMS and the JADC2 and the FY 2021 Budget makes significant investments in that next generation, that working capability. How is the Air Force working to ensure integration of existing platforms with these new capabilities that are coming online?

General Goldfein: Yes, ma’am. That is the foundation of this: how do we take existing capabilities, in addition to new capabilities, and connect them in? When this committee supported our move from joint STARS into a battlefield network solution for the future. We took those savings and we put it into demonstrations and connected capability that is no longer PowerPoint slides with lightning bolts that are aspirational. We turned this into real capability. We’re no longer talking about cloud capability. We actually built a cloud, we contracted with industry, and all the services are connected in. We’re not just talking about common data architecture. We have built a unified data library, and now we are connecting and sharing. Every four months, we connect portions of the enterprise, and we do a demonstration, and we operate at machine speeds. And what we’re learning is that each of the weapons systems that we are connecting now jumps in its capability when you can connect it into a common architecture.

Senator Fischer: Thank you. Secretary Barrett, the Air Force is still conducting an analysis of alternatives. And I believe this is the second study that we have had for that. For the recapitalization of the E-4B. It’s my understanding that the AOA will conclude soon. What is the Air Force’s plan to move forward after the AOA finishes? I ask this because this has been an issue of constant study. And I believe the first AOA was directed back in 2008. The challenges of maintaining that outdated airframe are only getting harder and I think it is vital that the Air Force move forward after this AOA concludes, and this issue should not be studied indefinitely. Can you speak to this please?

Secretary Barrett: We have found that studies are a never-ending process. I can assure you that we will review that study at its conclusion and make a decision based on its recommendations.

Senator Fischer: We always want to make sure that we have all the information available at the time but we do need to move forward. Thank you.