they conducted 152 interviews at centcom and reviewed thousands of pages of materials over the course of many months. although the report did not find systemic or intentional distortion of intelligence, or evidence of misconduct, the igd did conclude that centcom intelligence products could have and should have been better. the report also found a very challenging command climate at centcom and identified several process and procedural issues which the ig believed impeded the intelligence analysis process. the inspector g pro authored 29 specific recommendations for improvements and discussed the need to implement corrective action. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses and learning about the changes that have been made in response to the report, and the progress we can expect. i look forward to discussing these issues with the two panels today. before i introduce our first witness, i turn to oversight investigation subcommittee ranking member for any opening remarks that he would like to make. >> thank you, chairwoman hartzler. i would like to just take a quick moment to also

not only centcom but there are other combatant commands in the dod. we also know that many of our recommendations are consistent with what the house of representatives task force recommended. to take these recommendations seriously. and to fully responsive nations which explain in detail what such corrective action is not necessary or warranted. we believe that such actions can further improve intelligence processes and reduce the risk that allegations such as the ones issued in this report will arise in the future. thank you for the opportunity to discuss our investigation with the subcommittee. that includes my statement. i would be glad to answer questions. >> thank you very much mr. fine. we appreciate your very good work. this is the unclassified version with another 500 page classified. you really have put a lot of effort into this and there are a lot of things in here that we can learn from. i guess that is my first question. i've seen another instance of excellent work that is done by the dod ig or the d Ãbut the story seems to never continue

a challenge that we readily accept at centcom. we look forward to working with you as the i and dia in developing and implementing trade craft to ensure our commanders and the nation's policymakers receiving the best. >> thank you, mr. grimes. >> good afternoon. ranking members and members of the committee. >> thank you for the department of defense, investigation on allegations relating to cent co centcom. i am jack grimes. my role is to set a policy foundation that empowers defense analytic components to produce relevant and effective analysis. >> we appreciate the opportunity that it gives us to discuss the steps we are taking to improve intelligence and analysis across defense intelligence enterprise. we and the department holds ourselves to the highest standard and we take great pride who support the full spectrum of dod intelligence customers from the president of the united states to the soldier in the feel. thousands of our intelligence professionals across the globe tire lessly provides insight analysis. our commitment is

certainly centcom. they developed an aggressive action plan which we are currently executing, to be clear, some of these actions are new. but many are actions that have already been implemented. indeed, we are incrementing many -- these were implemented many months ago. but the initial implementation is the easy part. sustainment overtime is the real challenge. a challenge that we readily accept. we look forward to working with you sdi and dia in developing and influencing tradecraft to ensure all policymakers receive the very best intelligence and support. thank you. >> thank you.mr. grimes? >> good afternoon. thank you for the invitation to offer the testimony of the department of defense on inspector general report. investigation on allegations relating to us centcom products. i am jacques grimes, director of defense analysis and partner engagements. i represent the under secretary of defense for intelligence. my role is to oversee defense analysis and to set a policy foundation that empowers defense

spokesman and described as unnamed but apparently official centcom spokesman, the centcom is military central command, the part of the military for which their area of responsibility is the middle east, and so they're quoting this centcom spokesman, military spokesman, but the quotes are a little weird for a military spokesman. i'll show you what i mean. asked by the hill about what else was in the area that was hit by that giant bomb other than these isis fighters. the spokesman said, quote, i can guarantee there's nothing in the area. it's pure enemy. it's pure enemy? military spokesmen in the united states don't talk like this. but then there's this. asked about why they used this bomb, the spokesman said this, quote, we mean business. president trump said prior that once he gets in, he's going to kick the beep out of the enemy. that was his promise, and that's exactly what we're doing. this is a u.s. military spokesman? seriously? actually, no. turns out not. centcom just tonight put up a follow-up press release. look at this. this is actually from centcom and it's got a named per

centcom just put up a follow-up press releases. this is actually from centcom and it's got a named person on it. for immediate release, u.s. media zoirz, sfamts tribute to unauthorized centcom spokesman. they were made by an individual unauthorized to speak on behalf of united states central command, and those statements do not reflect the professionalism of centcom. quote, our media engagement is to provide information to the public and their media representatives worldwide. those inappropriate statements do not reflect the official use of centcom or its leadership. the spokesman added they undermine the comments of the public who expect more respectful and responsible insight. wow. who's the fake spokesman? who was telling the hill newspaper that they were centcom spokesman and they spoke on their behalf and gave all these quotes and it wasn't actually a centcom spokesman? is this something we have to worry about now? fake spokesman? in terms of real, take it to the bank inspection, we don't know much about why they used that bom

centcom just put up a follow-up press releases. this is actually from centcom and it's got a named person on it. for immediate release, u.s. media advisors, statements attributed to unauthorized centcom spokesman. they were made by an individual unauthorized to speak on behalf of united states central command, and those statements do not reflect the professionalism of centcom. quote, our media engagement is to provide information to the public and their media representatives worldwide. those inappropriate statements do not reflect the official use of centcom or its leadership. the spokesman added they undermine the comments of the public who expect more responsible and thoughtful insight. wow. who's the fake spokesman? who was telling the hill newspaper that they were centcom spokesman and they spoke on their behalf and gave all these quotes and it wasn't actually a centcom spokesman? is this something we have to worry about now? fake spokesman? in terms of real, take it to the bank inspection, we don't know much about why they use

centcom later retracted that statement and saying that person was not authorized to speak for centcom. well, okay. happy to clear thaupt, but i would also like to clear up how centcom got a fake spokesman for a day. how did that happen? and how we are supposed to know in the future whether somebody is speaking on behalf of the u.s. military as a real person as opposed to a pro-president trump swearing imposter who we shouldn't trust as far as we can throw. we don't usually have to ask these questions about the u.s. military. we're neither the 100-day benchmark for this new presidency but in a very sensitive, anything can happen time for the world, keep your eyes not just on him as an official. keep your eyes on this government that he is running. because the very serious, important parts of it that wee need and expect to be competent at placing america where we want to be in the world, those parts of government are doing some weird stuff lately. you don't let anything keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strengt

centcom just put out a follow-up press releases. this is actually from centcom, and it's got a named person on it. for immediate release, u.s. central command media advisory. statements attributed to unauthorized centcom spokesman. statements published april 13th attributed to u.s. centcom were made by an individual -- >>> i'm richard lui. we have some breaking news to report for you. this out of north korea. we are hearing from the u.s. military that it is aware of a launch. this coming from our reporter there at the pentagon, courtney kuby of a missile launch coming from north korea. this is breaking news we're just getting in to us here at msnbc. right now it is the very early hour in the morning there in north korea. the missile from what we are hearing came from sinpo, an area in north korea. they are still assessing specifics. this according to, again, what we're hearing from our sources there. the u.s. has initiated their missile launch conference call to assess some of the options to that. you can see on the map here, north

authorized to speak for centcom. that's somebody who shouldn't have been giving quotes in centcom's name and retracting those statements without ever saying how that happened. there is history of the white house, the administration, the government and the military being on different pages in situations like this. but how should we see that interplay between the military as a professional force and decisionmakers at a time like this? >> shouldn't happen this way. you so rightly showed jfk. when kennedy was dealing with a missile crisis, he thought the biggest danger would be that crisis would escalate unnecessarily and it would be a nuclear war with 50 million people dead. that didn't have to happen. so kennedy when he was at the beginning of the crisis he said, i want everyone statement even from middle level officials, i want to clear it personally. i want to know where every plane is, where every ship is, about all these troop movements. i don't want to send a message accidentally to nikita khrushchev and the russi

but across centcom, the department of defense. we could not do what we do on a daily basis without that support. meanwhile, the team at u.s. central command is focus on doing what is necessary to protect our natural interests and those of our partners. our strategic approach is straightforward, prepare, pursue, prevail. we prepare the environment to ensure an effective posture and strong relationships across the region. we actively pursue opportunities to strengthen relationships and support our interest. when we do put our forces into action, we prevail in our assigned missions. i would also point out to you that today, to the credit and professionalism of our armed forces and coalition partners, we are executing campaigns in the central region with significantly fewer u.s. forces on the ground than in previous years. as you are seeing clearly demonstrated in iraq and syria, afghanistan, yemen, and area throughout our area of responsibility, we have adopted an approach that puts a heavy reliance on indigenous forces. well this ap

every single company i had that conversation with centcom, you know we have decided to stay in the united states. it is amazing. and, you would up. they would've said this for years, frankly. and nobody ever said. and, we lost close to 70,000 factories over a relatively short time. 70,000. you would not begin would be possible to lose 70,000 factories. 70,000. look at a map of the united states, how many factories can you lose? 70,000 factories. and, i will tell you that is not happening because now they are all staying here. they are all expenditure. it announced last week a massive expansion of all of its plants. that was not can happen, believe it, if i did not win. so good luck everybody. enjoy yourselves. you are amazing people and i am going to put you to work. thank you. [applause] announcer: tuesday, president remarks at the 2017 association trades legislative conference. he spoke about support from unionized workers in the 2016 election and some of the executive orders he had signed during his 10 weeks in office. this is 25 minutes. ♪

centcom says three were killed in the resulting fire fight. once the battle got started, it wasn't just syrians against syrians or isis against isis. according to multiple reports, that u.s. special operations forces who had hunkered down in the desert to try to avoid whatever retaliation might come from the missile strike, once the fire fight started at their base, they came screaming back out of the desert to try to save that base. and what followed, we're told, was about three hours of an extraordinary close combat fire fight between these 20 to 30 isis fighters and dozens of u.s. special operators who are based at that base in southern syria. apparently the fighting culminated and the u.s. troops calling in multiple air strikes to hit the isis guys and thereby save that outpost. in the end, these u.s. forces were able to take it back. they won that battle they saved that base. but as i mentioned, centcom has now confirmed some of their allies were killed in the fight. the pentagon is calling this a serious fight. they are describing it as

quickly because you do have centcom up and running and same joint chiefs of staff and everyone here has a lot of military experience. on the policy side and on the political side, you're right. we're starting to see more new faces here. that has been a concern to some extent but because you have the professionalism of the military, you don't hear the complaints here as loudly as you might at the state department where they are really looking for policy guidance. guys? >> hans nichols, get back to your reporting. thanks for joining us from the pentagon this morning. >>> another of many stories we're tracking this morning. it's day two of president trump's meeting with china's president xi jinping. for more, we're joined by the former deputy security adviser james jeffrey on the phone. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> i wonder your take on the president's most recent statements about the meeting so far with president xi calling the relationship "outstanding" and saying progress was made. is that significant? >> it sure is because people were expecting, of cours

for that matter, and on tuesday, one of those partnered forces called in an air strike according to centcom. unfortunately, they called in the wrong coordinates, they called in the location of one of their own positions, and when that was bombed, instead of bombing an isis position, centcom says it killed 18 allied forces, effectively friendly fire, as a result of miscommunication. >> richard engel, keeping an eye on all of this for us from our london bureau, thank you. >>> i go to moscow, bill neely. you heard richard talk about how russia, moscow is backing and has backed the assad regime. do you see this interview with bashar al assad changing anything? >> no, hallie, it's doubling down on the syrian and indeed the russian position. we've heard syria's president say things like this before. they simply dispute to give you one example, the civil defense group the white helmets are largely known in the west for going into bombed areas like aleppo and pulling people out of the debris. that's not how the syrian regime sees the white helmets. they have matched faces of some of their members a

i've been speaking to sources both here in the pentagon as well as at centcom, as of right now the u.s. defense department can not confirm russia knew in advance. last friday, melissa, we did have a briefing from two senior u.s. military commanders who spoke to us after the tomahawk strike on the airbase in syria. that is when reporters were told that the pentagon and others, u.s. intelligence were looking into whether russia knew in advance. they laid out a scenario and circumstance evidence that raised eyebrows certainly in the intel community. and that was, two things, number one, there are 12 to 100 russians based at that well-known chemical weapons airbase, the one that was struck by the 59 tom houck missiles. that is where u.s. officials say that syrian warplanes took off. that is where the chemicals were put together and the sarin gas was assembled and placed inside of that barrel bomb according to u.s. officials. so there were russians at that base. it is believed that there are russian experts on chemical weapons based in syria in the past. and also just hours after the chemic

. >> secretary mattis, centcom commander in 2013 when president obama decided not to take action against syria, this is something he was frustrated by in 2013. he's now the secretary of defense. they had plans in place and they've gone ahead with cruz missiles from navy ships in the med titerranean mediterranean. >> this appears to be tomahawk missiles against air fields. what does that say to you? >> it says the president wanted to not risk any u.s. lives and publish a quickly as possible. we think they were launched by two u.s. ships in the eastern mediterranean. they would have flown likely over lebanon low altitude and come in back door and hit targets in syria in assad held terrain. >> john, the president down in mar-a-lago, you're there as well for that summit with president chi, the president surrounded by his entire brain trust. >> he sure is. i'm told we will hear from him shortly confirming these were tomahawk cruz missiles. quite a turn around who as a candidate repeatedly said he was an america fist candidarst cand syria was not his problem but yesterday after seeing the chem

. >> secretary mattis, centcom commander in 2013 when president obama decided not to take action against syria, this is something he was frustrated by in 2013. he's now the secretary of defense. they had plans in place and they've gone ahead with cruz missiles from navy ships in the med titerranean mediterranean. >> this appears to be tomahawk missiles against air fields. what does that say to you? >> it says the president wanted to not risk any u.s. lives and publish assad as quickly as possible. we think they were launched by two u.s. ships in the eastern mediterranean. they would have flown likely over lebanon low altitude and come in back door and hit targets in syria in assad held terrain. >> john, the president down in mar-a-lago, you're there as well for that summit with president chi, the president surrounded by his entire brain trust. >> he sure is. i'm told we will hear from him shortly confirming these were tomahawk cruz missiles. quite a turn around who as a candidate repeatedly an america fist candidarst cand syria was not his problem but yesterday after seeing the chemical

it was nevertheless published as words of a centcom spokesman. he retracted that statement and said that person was not authorize today speak for cent come. happy to clear that up, but i would also like to clear up how they got a fake spokesman for a day. how did that happen? and how are we supposed to know in the future whether someone is speaking on behalf of the u.s. military as a reel person support a pro-trump swearing imposter? we don't usually have to ask these questions about the u.s. military. we are nearing the 100 day benchmark for this new presidency but in a sensitive time for the world, keep your eyes not just on him as an official. keep your eyes on this government that he is running, because the very serious, important parts of it that we need and expect to be basically competent at placing america where we want to be in the world, those parts of government are doing some weird stuff lately. finding time to get things done isn't easy. but we've got the digital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out

centcom and the white house confirming the u.s. military dropped what it called the mother of all bombs on a terrorist tunnel network. the target, islamic state fighters. we don't know the damage it did it. it's the first time the military used in combat. it's the largest nonnuclear weapon in all of america's arsenal, which earned it the name, mother of all bombs. the official title is massive ordinance air burst. the massive is without question. it weighs 21,000 pounds. if you're within a mile of the thing when it detonates, you're in trouble. troops dropped it in the nangahar province east of kabul where an american green beret died days against. he was 37 years old. this afternoon the white house press secretary sean spicer said the strike is a signal of how seriously washington takes the fight against isis. >> we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target u.s. military advisers and afghan forces in the area. the united states takes the fight against

capitol and two months ago, isis leaders set up the bureaucratic government in an outside town where centcom killed a mid-level associate of the isis leader. he was killed in a u.s. air strike. >> isis on the run. thank you, jennifer griffin. quickly, lieutenant colonel michael waltz and a former counter terrorism adviser. thanks for your day. start with russia, the flyovers. with a spy plane what can you see in the islands of alaska? >> they can see a number of things. they can test our radar signatures, the range of them, how quickly they respond when they're painting the birds, they absorb our signatures to see what type and how strong they are. they can see a few things there. bill, i'm not that worried about these bomber tests or these over-flights. this is a lot of russian saber rattling. these build in the 50s. they are no match for our latest fifth jenngeneration fighter je. the thing about russia, what they're doing about proxies on the ground whether the taliban in afghanistan or syria, what they're doing through the propaganda machine and as we've talked about, their cyber capabil

centcom has responded with a statement. this is part of on going efforts to defeat isis in afghanistan. >> remember rex tillerson's response about syria? our strategy is the same removing assad. it starts with getting isis. this is what he said was the beginning of that long range plan. i understand this is afghanistan, but he said our priority is removing isis. >> but you have to sell it to the american people. americans are not necessarily willing to step into all these war hot zone s. it's very important for president trump to send a message and explain -- >> he's in the air flying to florida for easter weekend. i'm sure when he lands, what will he say? how will he character ize? >> james mattis, when will he spoke? we'll have live reaction from the white house press briefing pick it up where you are left off, the massive bomb dropped on afghanistan, calling it the largest nonnuclear bomb to be deployed, welcome to the second hour of "happening now" as we taken that breaking news, i am jenna lee. >> jon: i am jon scott.

we're waiting to here from james mattis and the head of centcom in a matter of minutes. we're waiting for details and the air strike in syria, russia, the north korean threats. there's a lot to get there. we'll have that live as soon as it begins. the gunman at the san bernardino school yesterday was paranoid and possessive. that from a relative of the woman he killed. investigators say the gun man opened fire in the classroom and killed a special education teacher and one of the students. police say the teacher and the gunman were married. the gunman on the right, teacher on the left. investigators say the husband entered the class, opened fire at his wife before shooting himself. but police say the bullets hit two children that were near their teacher. an 8-year-old boy died at the hospital. a 9-year-old survived. the shooting caused panic in san bernardino, which is still recovering from the deadly terror attack less than two years ago. jonathan hunt live outside north park elementary school in san bernardino. what else do we know about the relationship between the gu

now, to the extent to which centcom has made that request, that should be something considered by the president. but there are lots of things that are said and asked for by generals that the commander in chief will demure on because it is going to send us into further war. our engagement in afghanistan has been there for decades now. it is the longest war in our history. and if we're going to step it up again, i have reason to wonder if this is -- the effort is really worth our undertaking at this time. >> because this bomb has been ready to be used, this 22,000 pound moab, this mother of all bombs has been in the inventory since 2003. it was not used during the bush administration in the iraq war or in afghanistan. it was not used during the eight years of the obama administration. all of a sudden it is being used against this aislesic isis targ tunnels and cave along the pakistan border. i want to be precise. do you think it is a mistake, it should not have been used now? >> i'm not in position to evaluate what the generals have said to the president and how he weighed it. i would s

centcom offered condolences and called the deaths tragic. the attack f followed a seririef coalition raids that killed civilians. the journalistic monitoring group airwars cited four separate u.s. airstrikes in april alone that killed 24 noncombatants. meanwhile, syrian president bashar al-assad has denied his forces used poison gas to attack a rebel-held town in idlib, whicich killed 87 people, including more than 30 children. in an interview recorded wednesday with the afp news agency, assad said reports of the attack were 100% fabricated. >> there was noo order to mamake any attack. we don't t have any chemical weapons. we gave up our persosonal years ago. even if we had them, weweould not use them. we h have never used are chemicl arsenal in our history. amy: assad suggested that children seen in widely-circulated video of the incident were in fact child actors pretending to be dead. assad's interview was broadcast as inspectors with the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons said thursday samples taken from the site tested

it is a big question pure just want to mention as well in the statement put out by centcom about the dropping of this bomb, the u.s. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties, but also want to point out this is a very rural mountainous area between afghanistan and pakistan. often referred to in these tribal areas where there is some way not a lot of infrastructure, and not a lot of government, but a lot here's sean spicer at the white house. >> press secretary spicer: there is some news breaking out of afghanistan, so i want to give it quick update. around 7:00 p.m. local time in afghanistan, last night, the u.s. military used a gbu-43 weapon in afghanistan. the gbu-43 is a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon. we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target u.s. military advisors in and afghan forces. the united states takes the fight against isis very seriously and in order to defeat the group, we must deny them operational space which we did. the u.s. took all precautions necess

things like that but my point of the affordable care act was an increasing the number of uninsured centcom only make the problem bigger. not better if. >> so with this last question i worked very hard if you're going to make a t-shirt in have a phrase or word that describes the current state of health care for the future state what would it be? but, . [laughter] actually it is a theme that has emerged already if we're going to make the change we're talking about that is what it will take this benefit on the back of the shirt i would say the future is bright and i think we have to remember the democracy of great and the passionate debate been different directions over time and i don't think washington will map out the details. and their guard rails that help us innovate and develop solutions that our concerned on patients and people in the employer's and that is where the solutions lie. i am confident talking about general makes and there are other trends with cancer therapies in a immunotherapies with an unbelievably bright future in health care over the next 10 years that we will realize

if you watch what's happening overseas in the centcom theater, with the use of lethal uavs and the use of uavs for surveillance, i'm concerned those same uavs could be employed against our nuclear weapons storage facilities. so just in the last week i've signed out guidance to my forces to give them kind of parameters on how they should respond to, if they see a threat uav or a surveillance uav, and to give them specific guidance, so a young marine at kings bay or an airman at fe warren doesn't have to worry about what should i be doing when i see that. so i provided very specific guidance. it's classified guidance, but i would be glad to share that the with committee. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, general hyten, for your leadership and for your generosity with your time yesterday, visiting my office. i just quickly want to ask you about the importance of our nonmilitary foreign assistance and other civilian instruments of national power to your mission. general, is it accurate to say that you work with the state department and other civilian partners on nuc

the spotockpile of bombs, we se them to the fight we're in, and rightfully so to centcom, central command. that's the fight we're in and they need them. so we send them there. and they use them. which is a good thing. that means they're going to be short again and we'll send some more. that's the fight we're in. we're also short in aaw anti-air warfare weapons like aim 9 x. these are weapons that our fighter aircraft use in air to air. i can use more of those. and in a bigger sense, the submarine issue itself. i think our submarine numbers are low and getting smaller. and so the number of submarines, without going into precise detail here, the navy can only meet 50% of my stated requirement for attack submarines, these are ssn's. by the end of the 2020's -- that's based on a submarine force today of 52 ssn's. by the end of the 2020's, that number will be down to 42. the requirement i have is not going to get smaller, but the percentage against the total number of submarines we have is going to be exacerbated because of that. and so those are the kinds of munitions i worry about. also, mac

, you know, a real strategic shift in thinking which results in additional flexibility given to our centcom commander and general nicholson and secretary mattis and we're using an asset that causes a whole lot of destruction to tunnels and caves relied on by isis fighters, death delivered to isis fighters, giving a greater chance of success in afghanistan. it was a great move. charles: so, i mean, to boil it all down, there's a mission statement right there. before, it felt like a rudderless ship under president trump, so feckless, no one knew what was going on and already i know we're all hearing about a surge in morale amongst our military men and women. >> yes, before, where would you be, what do you need to have a low risk, medium risk, or a high risk of not losing. now, you know, you have requests coming from general nicholson what he needs in rules of engagement, of assets and personnel and it's not much more that general nicholson is asking for, but what he's able to do is to provide greater assistance to the afghan government. our military around the world were able to bolster our e

the day that centcom game up with the plans, they were approved by president trump. this is taking from overhead, a lot of sources go into this. 20 to 26 syrian aircraft were taken out. and 58 to 59 cruise missiles that were successful. might have been 59 to 60. one missile might have failed, one of the tomahawks. importantly, officials here at the pentagon say that deconfliction line, that line they use to warn the russians several times that these strikes were coming. in a line from the u.s. side is remaining open. they say it's still operational. and they plan to perform their russian counterpart whence u.s. planes are up in the air, taking shots at isis. matt? >> hans nichols at the pentagon. thanks. >>> the syrian and russian governments are condemning the u.s. air strikes. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent, and in a mitchell, has that story. you're fluent in diplomacy. how do you read the statements? >> they're more muted than you might expected we're going to hear from russia, the criticisms. not as harsh as it might have been. and this set up a test f

48 years average they're being used and as the air component commander deployed forwarded working in centcom we talk about what we do with these aircraft relative to the ground fight. but lie tell you they're as equally important to the maritime domain and what we do for admiral richardson and his forces as well. so these are critical aircraft. right now, a five-month continuing resolution would delay the contract vehicle that we're working on on the risk reduction on the radar to be able to move that forward. and it's not a linear. we don't pick it up again because back to industry. going back to industry, they will have to manage that workforce and may walk and picking it up again, there's no telling that the long-term impact of delaying our ability to be able to recapitalize that critical weapons system. >> general, i'm also concerned about the loss of the weapon system when they go in for -- i mean, they're going to be overdue for major overhauls. and not in the air flying and certainly seems to me better to put that money into new aircraft with new technology than to rebuild 50-year-old