Markwayne Mullin Questions Top Military Officials About China’s Impact On Russia-Ukraine War

Markwayne Mullin Questions Top Military Officials About China’s Impact On Russia-Ukraine War

sen a Mullen please thank you Mr
chairman and to the both of you all
thank you so much for taking the time uh
to come visit with us uh I uh I know
it’s it’s important to us and I know we
give you an important mission to carry
out every day and um I don’t take it
lightly that you take the time to come
up here and visit with us uh General van
over ises that how you say it van over
okay I’m I’m sorry from we don’t
pronounce that that often from Oklahoma
uh I understand you’re familiar with
Altus Air Force Base and uh we really
appreciate that they speak very highly
of you um you know as someone who’s
commanded various aspects of maining
training um equipping and and mission of
air Mobility I just want to know are you
getting what you need from the Air Force
to carry out that mission still yeah
thank you I uh first of all alus is a
really important base for us it’s a home
of mobility of all of our training uh
and of course you have our assets there
to include our new KC 46 which is really
critical when I think about
transitioning and the future of Aer
fueling uh in that type of airplane uh
so I support uh the Air Force where we
are on a journey uh to try to ensure
that our assets are able to communicate
they have battle space awareness and
they’re survivable in the environment we
we are expected to go into uh and so as
we as we Embark upon that Journey uh we
are providing the requirements to the
Air Force to ensure that we can continue
to maintain credible capacity is there
anything we need to be doing on our
behalf from Congress uh to help with
that certainly supporting the Air
Force’s budget with respect to uh
modernization and recapitalization it’s
just not of Aer fueling but also of the
airlift Fleet uh we have 275 strategic
airlift aircraft and we will consume all
of that should we have to go into a
large scale combat operation so the work
done there to modernize those and
frankly to think about the future and
where we’re going with that we’re
supporting the Air Force as they look
into the future of strategic airlift so
specifically dialing down on that when
we’re looking towards possible conflicts
and God forbid that actually happens but
you know we’re doing what we can to
prevent it however we need to be
strengthened and preparing for it um
what what’s the what’s the biggest hold
back is it or is it our is it the dod
defense contractors um is it
requirements if is it regulations is the
slow flow of money what is it that
you’re it’s the biggest hiccup I think
the the biggest thing we think about is
the Aging fleets that we have and we
have to modernize them to ensure that
they can survive uh out into the future
so you just looking at the capacity
ensuring that it remains credible and
that is it is uh it is an ability to
fund it and have a stable funding that
we know that we can count on to lay in
those contracts to gain the capability
moving forward if something comes up
that we can um be assistance please
Aller at us and let us know how we can
help um sir looking looking towards you
know some of our biggest adversaries
especially in geopolitics you know China
is obviously playing a big role in that
um and ever strengthening their
relationships with Russia and uh
obviously
Iran how we seeing that play out in
Ukraine uh thank you very much Senator
um yeah so we see direct military
support from some of those countries um
that goes to Russia and then the
Russians deoy that material in combat a
great example is the uh Shahed 136 drone
um it’s a one-way attack drone it was
created by Iran it was developed by Iran
it was produced by Iran it was given to
Russia it was used with great effect and
Iran helped Russia build a factory for
them in Russia and Russia now produces
them and they call them the Gant 10 and
those are used every they were used uh
early this morning uh to strike Ukraine
that’s just one example sir I could go
into dozens of examples like this in
closed session with you some of what we
know about this is classified um but
some of it’s very visible right out
there just like the 136 are you able to
talk about the cost of what what it in
this session what it cost them to
produce one of those
drones um sir I could probably talk
about it in this session but I don’t
have the money figure right off the top
of my head I can take that for the
record gladly
um but generally speaking the cost of
the drones is far less than the cost of
defending them which which might be your
deeper question it is that the defense
that we’re using defend them plus
looking at what we’re what we’re um
producing in the United States and the
cost of what it cost us uh because
obviously what they have is being you
know fairly
effective and the cost ratio it to me I
see that Russia
they’re
adapting and uh and I I don’t I mean
we’ve got sanctions on Russia I don’t
see that they’re being effective I’d
love to hear your comment on that it
seems like their economy is growing it
said their economy is going to maybe
grow by 2.4% which is a full percentage
higher than it was last year um it it
seems like they’ve they’ve actually
adapted to their techniques uh and as
you’re saying they’re almost back to
full capacity so the sanctions were
having
that we put on uh or not we’re having
but we put on Russia are they are they
seem to be
effective um so obviously this is
outside my field of expertise Senator
the the the sanctions how they work and
and how effective they are in some
things as noted previously during the
discussion today um uh there have been
instances where clearly um sanctioned
components have still gotten into Russ
of Weapons Systems with regard to the
overall cost ratios between you know the
sorts of drones we produce and the sorts
of drones that we see else there it’s a
complicated question I’m not the expert
on it but I can certainly talk to you
about it yes sir absolutely thank you so
much thank you sen m

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) questioned military officials about China’s impact on the Russia-Ukraine war.

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