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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) questioned General Charles Q. Brown Jr., President Biden’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the continual need for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities across the combatant commands and the importance of private sector telecommunications advancements to the military.
Senator Cramer began by highlighting the department’s responsibility to be fiscally responsible and whether combatant commanders are receiving enough ISR from the air.
“As Air Force Chief, you were making tough calls and asked for some cuts to airborne ISR, sometimes with the hope or the promise of replacing with space capabilities. How do you plan to bridge that gap? As you view the needs of the combatant commanders versus the needs the services want to provide, specifically, in this case, the Air Force with eyes in the sky. How do you see that moving forward in your decision making?” asked Senator Cramer.
“It's the information that's being provided from the ISR. There’s one aspect of the platform—how you're getting the information back to command headquarters so they can make decisions. With a stamp of Space Force and access to space based ISR, it's the combination of the two. It’s going to drive us to change some processes about how we provide information and how we work with the combatant commands,” responded General Brown. “I've had this conversation with General Saltzman, the Chief of Space Operations, on how we lay out a different approach in some areas—to be able to get to all the information that's available and not just what's reliable on an airplane airborne ISR that may not be there 24/7, 365, and that's what the focus has to be on.”
Senator Cramer then addressed opportunities for the military to engage with the private sector to partner and leverage commercial telecommunications, especially 5G and NextGen wireless technology.
“I’m going to talk more about the private sector in general. What we don't talk about enough on the committee is the role technology companies or telecommunications industry, particularly in 5G, are all important to these discussions. What role has the private sector played in the advancement of technological tools that are at your disposal both in the Air Force and now, perhaps, hopefully, the Joint Force?” asked Senator Cramer.
General Brown confirmed the private sector plays a significant role in the advancement of technological tools and explained the necessity of understanding how they contribute to our national security.
“There's an economic aspect that supports our economic security, but there's national security and we got to have the same conversation, those conversations in the same room because it has an impact in some form or fashion. That’s why it's important we build those relationship, have that dialogue, and ensure we're doing what's right for the nation,” responded General Brown.