WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned senior intelligence officials today about the changing global threat environment and the growing challenges posed by Russia, China, and ISIS-K.

During the hearing, Senator Fischer questioned the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier about China surpassing the United States in the number of land-based ICBM launchers, reports Russia is supplying enriched uranium to China, and intelligence gathering difficulties in Afghanistan after President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal.

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Following is a transcript of Senator Fischer’s questioning:

Senator Fischer: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you both for being here today. Director Haines, last year you testified that, "China will continue to essentially expand their nuclear arsenal and diversification for a period of time." Has that assessment changed, or does the intelligence community still maintain it?

Director Haines: That assessment has not changed.

Senator Fischer: And, in public reports, we've seen that the DIA has assessed that China will deploy 1,500 warheads by 2035. STRATCOM Commander General Cotton has also publicly confirmed that China has now surpassed the United States in the number of fixed and mobile land-based launchers for ICBMs. General Berrier, do you agree with that assessment still?

General Berrier: I do agree. 

Senator Fischer: Thank you. Director Haines, does the intelligence community assess that China has any interest in pursuing arms control agreements that would restrict their development of nuclear weapons?

Director Haines: No, as a general matter, we have not seen China express interest in arms control agreements in this area.

Senator Fischer: And, General Berrier, we've seen reports that Russia is providing China with plutonium for Chinese fast breeder reactors. In fact, it was reported by a U.K. think tank, they noted that, between September and December of 2022, Russia provided seven times more highly enriched uranium to China than the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have removed over the past 30 years. What are the implications of that increased level of cooperation of their nuclear programs?

General Berrier: The layers of cooperation between China and Russia go very, very deep. I cannot speak to the specifics of the uranium aspect of that, if true. It's an acceleration of programs and development and technology transfer.

Senator Fischer: And, Director Haines, do you have anything to add to that?

Director Haines: No. 

Senator Fischer: Is there any movement within the administration to look at, first of all, to set up agreements, again, with Russia? And, is there any, I would say, false hope by this administration to believe that they could pull in Russia, let alone try to pull in China in those talks?

Director Haines: I couldn't speak to that, just because it's obviously in the policy community. And I'm not sure I would know, frankly, what it is that they're looking at.

Senator Fischer: Okay, thank you. Also, Director Haines, looking at Afghanistan, do you assess that ISIS-K still seeks to conduct external operations against the United States, our forces, and our allies and partners? 

Director Haines: Yes. 

Senator Fischer: Do you agree with the assessment that we had in March from General Kurilla about how long it would take ISIS-K to generate the capability to conduct external operations? He told us at that time that any operation against the United States and Western interests abroad could happen within six months with little or no warning. Would you agree with that?

Director Haines: I'd have to take that back, to be honest. There's been a number of developments — even since General Kurilla apparently testified on this issue — of taking out key external ops folks within ISIS-K. And I think that might affect the timeline. But I'm happy to take that for the record.

Senator Fischer: Do you feel that we've lost information-gathering capabilities and also CT operations in Afghanistan since our withdrawal?

Director Haines: We certainly — the intelligence community has been clear about the fact that we are not able to collect as much information today as we were obviously when the troops were in Afghanistan.

Senator Fischer: How would you, I guess, rate the amount of intelligence that we are able to gather in Afghanistan? Because it's my understanding our CT operations are basically nil. We are looking at hardly anybody on the ground to be able to help. So, how do you rate what we are able to get when we're looking at a threat against not just United States' interests and persons, but also our Western allies, the growing threats that we're facing there?

Director Haines: To be specific, we'd have to do this I think in closed session. But, as a general matter, what we've sought to do is to try to, I'm trying to think how to do this in an unclassified way, but develop enough collection opportunities so that we can monitor the threat. It is definitely, as you indicated, degraded from what we had previously, and we can discuss the details in closed session.

Senator Fischer: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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