CENTCOM and AFRICOM Posture Review for FY27 Authorization and Future Program

right on time

We convened publicly after a classified session on the posture of US Central Command and US Africa Command. At the outset, I want to thank Admiral Cooper and General Anderson for their distinguished service to their country, as well as for their uh, candid testimony during the closed session. Let me start by addressing the situation in the Middle East. Throughout Operation Epic Fury, Admiral Cooper commanded our highly trained and courageous men and women uniform as they executed an exceptional military campaign. The campaign has rendered the Islamic Republic of Iran a shadow of its former self. The effort has not been without significant losses, though, and certainly we continue to honor the memory of the fourteen service members who lost their lives in this campaign, as well as the of approximately three hundred service members who have been injured. Since nineteen seventy-nine, Iran's clerical regime has chosen to make the United States its number one enemy. The motto of Iran's ayatollahs has never been " God bless Iran" or " Long live Iran". They have chanted " Death to America, Death to Israel". The regime states its murderous goals plainly. The entire foreign policy of Iran revolves around killing others rather than building for its people. As part of Iran's war of choice against the United States, the regime has directed its terrorist proxies to kill hundreds of American service members, take dozens of Americans hostage, and assassinate senior American officials, including attempts on the life of President Trump. It has also developed a nuclear and ballistic missile program that aimed to hold multiple continents and dozens of U. S. partners at risk. Every American president since Carter has had to deal with the consequences of Iran's war on the United States. Yet rather than dealing with the problem, successive Democrat and Republican administrations sought so-called de-escalation with Iran. This often afforded Iran the time and resources to develop its nuclear program, the ballistic missile program, and global terrorist infrastructure. I commend President Trump for recognizing that the Iranian regime cannot be appeased, and for directing action to defeat this threat. Doing so will not be easy. The Iranian threat, um, uh, the Iranian regime is deeply ideological and insists that it is winning, even when it is losing, by every conceivable metric. I look forward to Admiral Cooper sharing his assessment of how close we are to destroying Iran's military capabilities. I'd also like to hear um what he needs from Congress, to ensure our men and women in the uniform have what they need to finish the job. Failing to complete the Iran mission would send our adversaries a dangerous signal about our nation's wherewithal and resolve. Would send that erroneous message to Iran and to other adversaries around the globe. As we've seen, the nature and scope of the threats we face transcend geographic boundaries. This is particularly true as we look to Africa. And that's where General Anderson comes in. The continent is not a distant concern for American national security. Rather, it is an arena of growing strategic consequence, defined by converging threats from adversarial nation-states like China, and Russia, radical Islamist terrorism and instability driven by weak governance. China and Russia recognize the strategic importance of Africa. China is leveraging economic coercion, debt diplomacy, and military basing to support President Xi's global ambition. Through its mercenaries and other proxies, Russia is destabilizing fragile states and extracting resources. in order to bankroll its malign activities in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world. I looked to General Anderson to provide his assessment of Chinese and Russian objectives in Africa and to update the committee on how Africa command is addressing the threat posed by these nefarious actors. The terrorist threats across Africa remain persistent, adaptive and dangerous. Increasingly, Africa is becoming the epicenter of global terrorism. Al-Qaeda and ISIS, senior leadership now reside in Africa. And their terrorist affiliates are expanding in size, capability, and geographic reach, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa. Their murderous ambitions are not confined to that continent. These groups remain intent on killing Americans around the world, yet significant shortfalls in key military capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, complicate our ability to track these groups and the threat they pose. So we looked to General Anderson to let the committee know how these resource shortfalls are impacting his ability to combat the terrorist threat, and where this committee can be helpful. I have noted in my remarks, Africa is of increasing strategic importance to American national security interest. This is precisely why a dedicated combatant command for Africa is indispensable. Africa command was established in two thousand seven because the United States recognized that these challenges require sustained and dedicated focus this committee remains committed to ensuring Africa command has the authorities resources and strategic support necessary to protect American interest across the continent. with that i turn to my partner and colleague ranking member reed

well thank you very much mr. chairman and admiral cooper general and thank you for your dedication and service uh with great distinction over many years thank you and also uh i think i express the concern to all of us or the hope so is that you convey our congratulations and appreciation to the men and women that you lead in your areas. uh i wanna also begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the families of the service members who we recently lost in the middle east and africa and we owe them our greatest respect and gratitude and we are seventy five days into this war with iran and i am concerned the president does not have a credible strategy to win every member of this committee shares the goal of preventing iran from having a nuclear weapon but there is no purely military solution to this problem instead every president over the past fifty years has used diplomacy sanctions and international cooperation to this point successfully prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon president trump tore up the iran nuclear deal and instead of negotiating a new deal unilaterally took our nation to war more than a dozen service members have lost their lives and hundreds more have been wounded we have suffered a significant damages to our bases dramatically expended our munition stockpiles and sustained billions of dollars of damaged equipment the state of humus is still close despite attempts to escort commercial ships while secretaries and rubio have said operation epic fury is concluded it is unclear what objectives have been accomplished iran's regime is intact it's nuclear material remains in place the majority of its missiles and launchers have reportedly been recovered iran has demonstrated its ability to shut down the strait and most importantly or certainly of equal weight american families are bearing real course at the gas and the grocery store for war they did not want and congress has not authorized and rukufu the military forces under your command have performed with exceptional skill and bravery and that is attributable to your leadership ship and your chain of command the firepower that we have brought to bear in iran has been formidable but we have not yet i think articulate a clear strategy going forward and uh this is uh continuing to hamper our objectives. Um, I don't, I think everyone on this committee would love to see these peace negotiations succeed. Uh, and I'd be the first one to applaud significant results uh achieved through diplomacy. Uh, but one of the issues we're facing, and we've talked about it in the close session, is at every term, we are not receiving the information that we are legally entitled to. Um, we've not seen the legal justification for this operation, nor the execute orders, and the administration's explanations for course and the path forward have shifted constantly. Uh, this week the president said that the cease-fire is on life support, and um, it leaves us a fundamental question where are we and where are we going and i hope you can touch on that admiral cooper there's two other concerns in centcom i'd like to address first uh we withdrew all of our troops from syria and this has created some uh adverse consequences in my view our modest military footprint there produced significant returns including a very reliable partner in the syrian democratic forces a sustained counter-ISIS mission which we conducted and a degree of leverage in strategically important area of the world and we gave that up very quickly when we withdrew and if you could provide some understanding of the current situation i'd appreciate it uh second the cease-fire in lebanon is fragile and and israel's continued airstrikes and demolition operations to the south are eroding it the lebanese armed forces are one of the few genuine stabilizing instruments we have left in the region and we should be seriously investing in it and again i'm i'd like to know what resources you need to make this partnership successful our partnership with the lebanese military in displacing hezbollah and establishing a reliable uh government general anderson i'm concerned by discussions about whether africom should be maintained as an independent baton command, the same uh concerns I believe the chairman has. That fight should be not necessary. And it really I think reveals a misunderstanding of the continuing importance of Africa in so many different ways. Uh, if we were to merge AFRICOM with UCOM, I think that would be a mistake. It would signal to our allies and adversaries that Africa is not a priority for the United States. Uh, Russia and China are not making that mistake. russia's africa core has expanded steadily across numerous countries and china continues to build ports infrastructure and relationships across the continent both nations are filling a space that america has created for them by our disengagement in general i would ask you to share your views on the current security situation and how you are working with allies and partners to address the political and economic instability in africa Finally, I would note that the dismantling of USAID has made this situation worse. More than twelve billion dollars in annual assistance to sub-Saharan Africa is largely gone. This has translated directly into instability, radicalization and openings for our adversaries. The administration's from aid to trade slogan in Africa may be a reasonable, long-term aspiration, but it's not a near-term substitute for what has been lost. and our partners on the ground know it. i'd like to know what authorities and support you need from this committee to effectively partner with vulnerable nations in Africa to keep us from losing more ground to china and russia. Admiral Cooper, General Hanson, thank you for your leadership, your outstanding service, and I look forward to your testimony. Thank you.

Admiral Cooper, you are now recognized for your opening statement, sir.

well thank you very much. chairman wicker, ranking member reed, members of this committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today, and thank you all in this committee for your very steadfast support to United States military and to our men and women deployed today. I'm pleased to be sitting here today with my good friend, the Commander of US Africa Command, General Dog Anderson, and I'm joined by Fleet Command Master Chief Lateef Compton, our Senior Enlisted Leader at Central Command. Events in the central region have shown how quickly the course of history can change. In just the last few years, decades-old features of the strategic landscape, once thought immutable, have been upended, bringing both challenges and opportunities. I strongly believe that every success that we have starts and ends with our people. In just the last seven months, America's sons and daughters, serving in CENTCOM, have played key roles in world events, implementing the President's twenty-point peace plan in Gaza, degrading the ISIS threat in Syria, preventing what i would characterize as an isis crisis by conducting a historic prisoner transfer to iraq creating the most integrated and effective air defense architecture ever seen which was decades in the making and most recently addressing the iranian threat the performance of our war fighters in combined joint task force operation inherent resolve often referred to as cjtf oir is particularly noteworthy in january responding to a rapidly deteriorating security situation. They executed an extraordinary transfer of more than five thousand seven hundred ISIS prisoners all terrorists from Syria to Iraqi custody. Their effort prevented a mass prison break that risked large-scale ISIS reconstitution and acute risk to the American homeland. In parallel, OIR has maintained relentless pressure on ISIS remnants in Syria, most recently Operation Hawkeye strike. removed over fifty ISIS terrorists and a hundred terror infrastructure targets from the battlefield. US Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. And I am the sixteenth CENTCOM commander to deal with the Iranian problem set. For forty-seven years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United States, a core tenet of its rule. Their hostile, lethal track record against the United States is well documented, but I don't know that it is always well understood. Here's a data point. In just the last thirty months prior to the commencement of epic fury, Iranian-supported terror groups have attacked US troops and diplomats more than three hundred and fifty times, the equivalent of attack more than every third day, killing four US service members and wounding nearly two hundred more. After more than two years of Iranian attempts to leverage October seventh of twenty twenty-three, to tear the region apart, At the direction of the President, United States Central Command initiated Operation Epic Fury. In less than forty days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives. Most notably, we degraded Iran's ability to project power outside its borders, and threaten the region and threaten our interests. As an example, we can all remember April and October of twenty twenty four, hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones raining down in the Middle East. Today, Iran can no longer attack with that mass and scale. And further, with ninety percent of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won't be able to reconstitute those weapons for years. We also all watched Iran spend decades and billions and billions of dollars arming proxies today Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are all cut off from Iran's weapons supply and support. This resort this result was not foreordained, nor was it brought by chance. It's the culmination of months of careful planning, built upon decades of experience. These results also do not come without cost. We honor the memories of the fourteen service members who paid the ultimate sacrifice, during Operation Epic Fury, and the two soldiers and the one civilian killed in Palmyra, Syria. They represent truly the very best of all of us. As I sit here, we are clear-eyed, the situation in front of his, uh, front of us is very complex. High stakes negotiations continue. Our job is to be ready, and we are. I testify today on behalf of the fifty thousand plus servicemen and women deployed to the central region, it's a great honor and privilege of a lifetime to serve as their Commander and thank you very much and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you very much, General Anderson.

Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Reed, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide you an update on US Africa command. I am joined today by Command Sergeant Major Garrick Banfield, our Senior Enlisted Leader, and I'm proud to sit beside my friend from US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper. We both appreciate your unwavering support to our nation's war fighters. Before I start, I'd like to recognize the service of First Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Junior and Specialist Mariah Collington. who lost their lives in a tragic accident during African lion in our returning home today. I would also like to express my appreciation to our allies and partners, particularly Morocco, who stepped forward when it mattered most. Africa sits at the crossroads of global commerce and security, bridging the strategic terrain between the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific. It's the world's supplier of critical minerals for advanced defense system, and home to twelve of the world's twenty fastest growing economies. By two thousand fifty, it will account for a third of the global working age population. Today, the epicenter of global terrorism is in Africa. ISIS leadership is African. Al-Qaeda's economic engine is in Africa. Both of these groups share the will and intent to strike our homeland. Their affiliates, once isolated nodes, now show increased connectivity. Just as concerning is the nexus between Al Shab- Al Qaeda's Al Shabab and the Iranian-sponsored Houthis. AFRICOM is prioritizing willing and capable partners. We support partners with capabilities that only the US can bring. ISR, targeting precision strike. These efforts have driven ISIS leaders in Somalia underground, disrupting their command and control of the global ISIS network. In West Africa, Al Qaeda affiliate Jane M has demonstrated increased capacity to control key terrain in the Sahel, most notably by strangling fuel supplies around population centers. The capture of a capital city would provide Al-Qaeda with all the trappings of a nation state to sponsor global terrorism. With a seventy-five percent reduction in our regional posture over the past decade, compounded by the drawdown of our allies, we struggle with an intelligence black hole. And without sufficient indicators and warnings, we risk being blind to the gathering dangers and threats in the region. AFRICOM's lack of expeditionary capabilities and diminished force posture compromise our comp- our crisis response. In a crisis, we can always surge assets, but you cannot surge trust. Our reduced presence on the continent also allows disruptive actors to drive the agenda, undercutting American interests. China views Africa as its second continent, securing control over critical minerals and infrastructure, potentially boxing us out of resources that energize our d- industrial base. Africa also serves as Putin's purse, where Russia exploits instability to extract resources to include human lives, to fuel its war machine. To contend with these threats, AFRICOM must think and operate differently. With less than one tenth of one percent of the department's budget, we must maximize every taxpayer dollar to deliver an outsized return on investment. AFRICOM continues to leverage low-cost, high-yield activities to amplify our impact on the continent. Programs like the International Military Education and Training, and the State Partnership Program are reliable force multipliers that forge enduring relationships with African militaries and are proven models for cost-effective burden sharing. The AFRICOM exercise program is emerging as a battle lab to test and validate new technologies on behalf of both the joint force and our African partners. And finally, AFRICOM is focused on the critical convergence of security and economics. Our efforts span all elements of national power as we coordinate closely with State, Commerce, Energy, and Treasury. The Department's new Economic Defense Unit has been an invaluable partner. To defend the homeland and promote US interests, and ensure effective crisis response, AFRICOM needs targeted investments in layered, non-traditional ISR, innovative force protection, programs that are able to enna- that enable willing and capable partners, the opportunity to conduct experimentation of emerging technologies, and the ability to respond to crisis at the time and point of need. Africa is a continent of opportunities, not only crises. With the continued support of this committee, I can assure you that every dollar you authorize for AFRICOM will contribute directly to the security, safety, and prosperity of the United States. Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

Well, thank you very much. Um, let's get right into, um, iran admiral cooper um and and i think one of the basic questions is was uh this exercise of ours um was this operation of ours a war of choice or war of necessity um let me get your military perspective um did iran have enriched uh uranium up to six percent prior to operation midnight hammer

Yes, sir, they did.

And, um, is there a civilian use at all for uranium that is enriched to sixty percent?

There's not, Senator.

Um, is it fair to say that Iran's nuclear breakout time has been set back then, thanks to Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury?

Without talking specifics, uh, that's accurate, Senator.

Alright, and has Iran ever been willing to curtail its ballistic missile program, ballistic missile program, through negotiations?

They have not, sir.

Um. And, and then perhaps you can explain in some detail to what extent Operation Epic Fury has set back Iran's ballistic missile program. To what extent, you can tell us in this open setting.

yes sir senator thank you thank you very much for that question uh our military mission in operation epic fury was crystal clear from the very outset and remained steady throughout the mission is to degrade iran's ability to project power on its neighbors and us interests it had three key components degrade iran's ballistic missiles and the defense industrial base that supports it degrade iran's drones and the uh and the defense industrial base that supports that and degrade their navy and the defense industrial base that supports that in each of those categories we met all of the achievements each of those systems uh were significantly degraded if i give you just a couple of examples the defense industrial base for their drones and their missiles in their navy were degraded by ninety percent they have about ten percent left for the navy my military assessment uh would be uh the navy will not begin to rebuild for five to ten years many of you are uh serve in states that build ships it's complex it's particularly complex when you don't have an industrial base to build it my professional uh uh perspective on this also is that iran would not return to the same level of navy that it had for a generation

now this ten percent of drones left are are they exquisite or are they the sort of relatively inexpensive drones we've been hearing about

senator thank you for this question i think uh i'd like to use the opportunity to to myth bust on drones

ok

the days of thirty five thousand dollar drones that we saw in the last couple couple of years particularly in the fight against the hoothis in yemen those days are behind us today we face uh an increased threat from drones that are highly sophisticated they're jet powered they have high-end uh sensors they have electronic warfare they have signals intelligence so those days of using high value defenses to shoot down cheap targets or behind us. Quite the contrary, what we have been doing lately is using our own uh low-cost one-way attack drones, uh attacking uh attacking Iran, making them use higher and more expensive weapons. So I can confidently tell you we have flipped the cost curve in many ways, always work to be done, uh but I like where we are in this regard.

OK. And you know there's been a lot of talk about uh uh part of the negotiations being, giving up the um um nuclear ambitions. Um, but, almost as important to me is, is um, the support of terrorist proxies. So, um, has Iran ever been willing to end the support for the terrorist proxies, Hamas, Houthis, um, Hezbollah?

They have not, Senator.

So, to what extent has this exercise, uh, this operation denied Iran resources for funding terrorism?

senator this is a has been a significant priority uh from the outset and as we sit here today uh there are no resources and equipment uh that are flowing from iran to hamas hezbollah or the houthis that those uh transfer paths and methods methods have been cut off

to the extent that that um source of support has been cut off what are the other sources of support that these terrorist groups can uh look to

i think some some of those pieces are best uh discussed in a more classified environment but i think the key element of this is uh the the main supplier of resources and training for decades and billions of dollars and we've seen all this uh before our very eyes those pieces have been completely cut off today

thank you very much we'll take another round but at this point i'll recognize the ranking member

thank you very much mr. chairman uh admiral cooper uh you just around uh militaries militarily still able to inflict significant damage on infrastructure of the surrounding countries in the persian gulf

senator in this environment what i would tell you is their capabilities have been dramatically degraded that certainly doesn't mean that they don't have anything left but the large scale volleys that we have seen over the last couple of years uh are no iran is no longer capable of executing those

uh this would be less large scale volleys than on critical infrastructure which would set back petroleum production even if the straight-of- or petroleum distribution, I would say, even if the straight-of-mose is opened, does that capability still exist?

Capabilities across the board inside Iran still exist at a degraded scale. We've also, uh, planned accordingly, uh, for each of these scenarios, uh, if necessary, to deal with them on a, from a defensive perspective.

So, uh, would you characterize iran as no longer a threat

iran has a significantly degraded threat and they no longer threaten regional uh uh uh regional partners or the united states in ways that they were able to do before across every domain they have been significantly degraded

mmm but they can still threaten their partners

it's a very large country they have they have they retain some uh mineral capability that that's correct and that's accurate and of course

thank you sir

we've accounted for that from a defensive perspective.

uh general anderson um what's happened is that the administration recalled over thirty career ambassadors in africa um including excuse me over thirty career ambassadors overall twelve in africa in the united states there is only fourteen confirmed ambassadors in other words forty ambassadorial posts in africa are vacant or filled by shahid shahid fares is it essential to your work uh to have fully functioning embassies with ambassadors

senator we work very closely with all the embassies across the continent to pursue and uh further american interests and so the that relationship with these embassies is critical for africom's effective engagements

but but what about the ambassadors

uh yes sir so the uh ambassadors do enjoy access i think that that's important to have ambassadors in place because uh the hierarchical uh nature of many of the african countries is that if you're not an ambassador you don't always get access and so there is obviously benefit to that uh and we we uh coordinate with them quite closely when we engage

uh thank you very much sir uh you are combating one of the most sophisticated information warfare operations uh we've seen in a long time from russia uh what can we do to improve your ability to withstand this information operation and also to engage in something on the same level by the united states

yes sir i i appreciate the uh recognition of this concern because the our adversaries are very active in the information domain as you highlighted russia i'd also say china is also very active in these domains they use this to undercut not only our interest but undercut and disrupt the democracies that are in in africa this is the one area that i've talked to several of the leaders across especially coastal west africa they're very concerned about the russian propaganda that is destabilizing their their uh democracies for me we have a limited budget that we are mostly in a reactive mode to respond to issues what would be beneficial as one of the few entities that looks across the entire of the of the continent is a consistent budget that would allow us to campaign in the information space. Uh, we coordinate very closely with state department and others on this and work with the embassies but our ability to look across the continent and highlight these things I think is an area where we could be of benefit to the American interest.

Thank you, sir. Uh, Admiral Cooper, one more question. Uh, do we still maintain a relationship with the Syrian democratic forces?

Senator, we do have a nascent relationship. uh with them uh in the context of evacuating the more than fifty seven hundred isis prisoners from uh predominantly northeast syria to iraq a small number of prisoners mostly uh chronically ill and with multiple amputees stayed in the in the primary prison known as hasakah and sdf is uh today serving as the guards

uh just a follow on question uh do you detect any uh sort of kind of uh resentment or um to our rapid departure from s. e. f.

I think, uh, Senator, we've had a long, uh, standing relationship with the s. d. f. Uh, the cease-fire that they have in place, uh, today with the Syrian government, uh, remains in effect and we remain engaged.

Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Fischer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, welcome, Admiral. General, thank you for your service. Admiral, uh, what did the Iranians, um, attempted missile attack on the island of Diego Garcia tell us about the ballistic missile program and um and their intent to use it did it come as a surprise

senator uh uh appropriate to talk in this forum there's clearly because there's clearly a classified uh component to this i think we've all heard publicly what uh iran described as their self imposed limitations on their missile force uh the execution of of that particular attempted strike uh which failed was twice the distance of what they previously advertised, that they said that they would self constrain themselves to.

Thank you. And um as you look at the uh total operation, the conflict there, what lessons have you learned from that? And how have you used those lessons thus far to ensure that your command is prepared for the fight that we have today?

Yeah, Senator, thank you very much for this. Uh, it's fair to say that we have captured thousands of lessons, mostly tactical. I think there's no military in the world that makes adjustments as well as the United States military does. Uh, and whether they were in stride tactically with a lot of support uh from organizations back in the United States, or they were more at the operational level. We took a very hard look inward to see where can we improve our defenses. Force protection and protecting our people is my number one priority. We focused on that. uh, made a significant number of adjustments to to enhance what was already a very effective uh air defense umbrella. And that's where we are predominantly focused, as well as putting ourselves in a position to meet a wide range of contingencies going forward.

Thank you, sir. Uh, General An- Anderson, ISIS is on the rise in Africa, and you've been very, very clear about that. How is your command working with our partners in order to address that?

senator you are are correct is uh put in a concerted effort in this establishment on the continent uh we have been working very closely with willing partners who have been uh willing to address this threat so two examples of that in northern somalia working with the somali and the putland forces there to go up into those mountains uh what has been key there to putting pressure and isolating the isis leadership there is the partner's ability to stay in those mountains And so our partnership to provide them in the intelligence, some training and some limited logistics that allow them to stay, is isol- helping isolate that leadership node in Somalia. We've also been working very closely with Nigeria, who is in the last few months opened up, uh, with a very positive, uh, engagement with intel sharing and, and ability to go after and target some of these terrorist threats that are in northern Nigeria. And so that has been a positive area that we've seen as well. we would like to re-establish some pragmatic relationships in the Sahel, where ISIS also has a stronghold, where they are currently holding an American hostage, uh, in order to gain better access. And that's an area we need to continue to improve, to work with those partners for a intel sharing and understanding of what that threat is there. But we are working very uh, deliberately with our partners to address these common threats.

Do you feel that you are appropriately resourced to address these threats?

We have the uh minimum necessary uh resources in order to address the threats. Uh in order to do this because of the size of the continent and the complexity of those attacks or of those threats, uh in order to thwart these we have to shift resources and that entails uh taking some risk in those other areas in order to address the the primary efforts.

I'd like to, I'd like to have you address some of the uh connections that we see the drug cartels uh with the terror groups. Can you elaborate on those uh especially with regards to the Central and South American cartels?

Uh, yes, Senator, that's an area that is emerging that is uh causing us great concern. So, two points to that, uh, recently there was a interdiction based on uh some intelligence that we were able to provide that the Spanish interdicted a shipment of cocaine that was thirty-five tons of cocaine. We believe that's about a billion dollars of street value. We believe that's the largest interdiction in history. That came out of South America, it was transiting along the west coast of Africa, uh, towards another location that I could talk about in a, uh, classified environment. Uh, the, and so we're seeing more of that drug trafficking coming in, and the, the terrorist organizations are helping transit that, they're getting payments through that, and there's a symbiotic relationship that that's, money then comes back to our hemisphere to those uh drug cartels, but also helps uh provide fuel for those terrorists. Another area that I think is important to highlight is that uh in the last eighteen to twenty-four months, we have assisted in uh, or at least tipped off many partner nations to drug activities and labs in their country. In this, in this time, eleven of the twelve uh drug labs that have been interdicted have had uh Mexican cartel members on-site to include the largest drug lab that had ever been uh disrupted in South Africa, that there were Sinaloa cartel members on-site. And so they are actually doing production now in Africa as well as the transit of that across the continent. So we're watching this uh develop and it's of concern as this fuels both the terrorists and the cartels.

What's the destination of those drugs?

Uh those drugs are destined for uh the Middle East, for Europe, but we're also seeing them then come in through the Northern in back into america as we have applied pressure on the southern border they are finding other means to bring those drugs into our nation

thank you

uh thank you senator fisher uh senator blumenthal

thanks mr. chairman thank you both for being here thank you for your extraordinary service in a difficult time uh general anderson i wanna express my condolences to you and your team and the families of lieutenant general uh lieutenant uh kendrick lamont and specialist maria collington uh the army's lost two young patriots and dedicated man and woman and i'm certain that the recovery mission was difficult and uh i wanna commend your team for bringing closure to their families uh admiral uh there's been public reporting that iran continues to have uh as much as seventy to seventy five percent of its missiles and launchers available to threaten shipping in the straight of hormuz uh does that reporting conform roughly with your estimate as to iran's continuing strength

senator thank you for the question and first thank you for your time uh these past few days it's been meaningful i'm very much appreciated uh i think it's appropriate in this forum not to discuss specific intelligence assessments what i would say from my perspective is the numbers that i've seen in open source are not accurate i think what also uh is not taken into consideration it's more than just the numbers it's the command and control that's been shattered it's a significant degradation uh in capability and it's the lack of any ability to then produce uh any missiles or drones on the back-end i think we have to take a whole look at that and that's what we've done

but regardless of what the numbers are iran continues to pose a significant threat to shipping because it has missiles and fast boats and other assets that are are available to attack shipping in the area correct

senator uh all uh in each of those cases their capability have been significantly degraded if i just used my own professional experience uh in a hundred transits through the state of hormuz typically see twenty to forty uh fast boats and and lately we've seen two or three so the degradation means uh it's been super it's been significant uh but some residual capability does exist

with respect to the threat that remains your forces were successful in project freedom in enabling ships to go through the strait correct

uh that's correct sir

and project freedom was stopped for what reason

so i think uh i'll look back a couple of days ago on uh the chairman of the joint chiefs testimony before the senate appropriations committee i think he he characterized it well the situation in the state of hormuz is is rather complex these days and i would offer just just these uh quick points uh first and foremost uh the united states controls uh via our blockade which i'd be happy to talk about the overall flow of commerce going into and out of iran the iranian capability to stop commerce has been dramatically degraded uh through the straits but their voice is very loud and those threats are clearly heard uh by the merchant industry and the insurance industry those are factors they're certainly factors in energy and on top of all that

but project project i and i apologize for interrupting but i'm gonna run out of time as you understand um i i think the point that i wanna make here is that project freedom could be started again and the voices of the iranians large as they are could be contradicted or reduced in impact if project freedom were ongoing and the world could see that shipping was going through the straits am i off base in that view

senator there's a wide range of contingencies that we are prepared to execute uh i would defer to the policymakers on anything having to do specifically with straight-ahead moves particularly during this time of sensitive negotiations where it's it's front and center in the negotiations

and have you seen any progress in those negotiations

uh senator i'd i'd refer to the diplomats uh in the team uh engaged in the negotiations

let me ask you uh in the time that i have left uh one of the objectives that president trump articulated at the beginning of this war which in my view could not be accomplished with bombing was to secure the enriched uranium would you agree that taking possession of that uranium would require boots on the ground and significant casualties for united states forces

senator in this particular form i think it's it would be uh highly inappropriate uh given the classified nature of of of any contingencies to talk uh about the nuclear program

well let me just finish by making the observation that you have i think sought to be forthcoming to the committee in the classified setting where we had an earlier conversation with questions and answers my view is that the vast majority of what you told us should also be told to the american people they deserve to know and our adversaries know a lot of what we know the ones who really don't know are the american people and they deserve more information which is not a criticism of you it is of the system which causes the withholding of this information and the administration which has refused to provide figures as to the cost of the war and other details that are relevant important for the american people to know so i'm hopeful that we can have a way to make more information available to the american people thank you mr. chairman

admiral cooper um during the brief time of project freedom before it was closed off again did did we can you say in this setting whether or not um our service uh um our services were able to open the strait

senator uh thank you for this uh very much appreciated uh as uh as been publicly highlighted uh the first uh two ships uh to flow from the arabian gulf uh from from the western uh part into the east through the straight of hormuz uh were us flag vessels uh that was successfully executed uh and us navy destroyers then came into the arabian gulf operated for a number of days and then as you subsequently saw uh flowed out of the arabian gulf

OK, so Senator Blumenthal's question presumed that, that you could give in public your judgment as to whether uh, uh, whether the United States is capable of doing that again.

Senator, there's a, there's a military component of this, and then there's also a policy component that I believe to the policy makers,

But from, from the military standpoint,

because we saw it just last week.

we could, we could do that again, could we not?

Uh, we just did it last week.

Thank you. Um, Senator Ernst, I believe.

Thank you, Mister Chair, and gentlemen, thank you for being here today and to your teams as well. We truly appreciate your service and dedication to our nation. And I also want to acknowledge the loss of, uh, the two individuals in Morocco, and thank our Moroccan partners as well, uh, for their contribution in the recovery efforts. Uh, I do want to recognize Admiral Cooper, We have lost uh during this current operation or the former operation, Epic Fury, uh as well as the two Iowa National Guardsmen that we lost in Syria this last December. Uh we have also more than three hundred and eighty who have been wounded in this fight. Um so for all of those who are service members that have given so much and to their families uh they will not be forgotten. Uh the operations that have been conducted against Iran and its across the central command aor wouldn't have been possible without some really tremendous partners in that region. And we have seen a large burden borne by Israel and Jordan. Uh, we've seen assistance coming from Bahrain and UAE, who has taken a significant amount of incoming fire, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Um, they haven't all been passive bystanders. They've been actively engaged. So, uh, they have contributed to every line of effort and we appreciate them contributing to our successes. Uh, we can't overstate what their basing access, logistics, their networks, and intelligence cooperations have meant operationally to us. So, Admiral Cooper, what is the one, or maybe two things, uh, that you want all of us to understand as we walk out of this hearing, uh, knowing about what our allies have assisted with in this fight.