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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing today to discuss the nomination of General Ken Wilsbach, former Air Combat Command (ACC) leader and fighter pilot, to be the 24th U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff. Upon confirmation, General Wilsbach will be responsible for the organization, training and equipping of 689,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian forces serving both in the United States and abroad.

During the hearing, chair of the SASC Airland Subcommittee U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) thanked General Wilsbach for answering the call to serve.

“I have to say, I can’t imagine a person better prepared and equipped than you are for this job,” said Cramer. “I’m really grateful you said yes, and I’m really grateful you got the call.”

Cramer, co-chair of the Senate Defense Modernization Caucus, began with comments on the Sentinel program, which was established to replace the 50-year-old Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) weapon system with the LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM. Minot Air Force Base (AFB) in North Dakota is the only base in the nation to house two legs of the nuclear triad, including B-52 bombers and Minuteman III ICBMs.

“Thank you for your commitment to the Sentinel program,” said Cramer. “It’s really important to us in Minot, having two of the three legs [of the nuclear triad], to know that we’re going to see it all the way through. We’re not going to stop two-thirds of the way. In fact, I maintain that if you’re going to stop anywhere along the way of developing Sentinel and putting those new missiles in the ground, you shouldn’t start. […] I really appreciate your commitment to Sentinel.”

Cramer then questioned General Wilsbach about his plan for maintaining or acquiring airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities as “space catches up to the demand.” For the last two years, Cramer has sent a bipartisan letter to the Secretary of Defense in both the Biden and Trump administrations, highlighting concerns over the Air Force’s escalated retirement of airborne ISR capabilities and emphasizing the necessity of the platforms. The letter echoes concerns expressed by combatant commanders on the need for airborne and the insufficiency of space-based ISR alone.

“You’re exactly right,” said General Wilsbach. “The RQ-4, the MQ-9, both are really important to us, especially prior to the conflict. Admittedly, if they go into a high threat environment, they could be shot down. But, if it’s not a high threat environment, we can get great value out of those platforms to do missions that if we didn't have them, and you didn’t have that capability on space, you would have to go without. So as we go forward into the future, we need to balance that. And frankly, it’s a simple math problem, right? You take the entirety of the collection that you wish to have, and you determine what you’re actually collecting. And if you have a big gap, then you can easily make decisions, resource decisions, on what you want to keep and what you can afford to get rid of, because you have, you know, have that capability to collect elsewhere.”

General Wilsbach joined Cramer in visiting Grand Forks Air Force Base and the North Dakota Air National Guard in Fargo to tour the state’s ISR missions, including its unmanned aerial systems. Grand Forks Air Force Base operates the high-altitude, long-endurance RQ-4 Global Hawk while the North Dakota Air National Guard is home to the MQ-9 Reaper for reconnaissance and strike missions.