Fischer to Hegseth: We Must Improve Our Ability to Defend the Homeland

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine on the new management of the Department of Defense's Sentinel Program and Golden Dome.

Fischer also pressed Hegseth on how the president's budget request supports modernizing the nuclear triad.

Download video of Fischer's questioning here

Download audio of Fischer's questioning here

Fischer's exchange on Sentinel and Golden Dome :

FISCHER: Over the last several months, I've worked closely with some of the new Direct Reporting Program Managers, and I've been encouraged by how they are approaching the Department's most complex acquisition systems.

General White has pulled forward the next milestone for the Sentinel Program by at least six months. General Guetlein has completed the initial blueprint for the Golden Dome architecture and is beginning to build it out.

For years, this committee has known that we must improve our ability to defend our homeland against a wider variety of threats - and we finally have a partner with the full backing of the Department to lead the charge.

Mr. Secretary, what's the advantage of this new type of program management structure?

HEGSETH: Well, thank you for the question, Senator. It's acquisition authority, technical authority, contracting authority. It's consolidating decision making in one place under a highly screened, highly capable General - General White and General Guetlein - who know that terrain extremely well and understand what mistakes have been made in the past in programs of that magnitude, and then are given the authority to cut through the red tape.

That's the key. Success or failure lands with them, and they know it. And as a result, they're incentivized and then given every dollar and authority needed to move it as quickly as possible. So whether it's Sentinel, whether it's F-47, whether it's Golden Dome for America, these critical strategic assets, the direct report construct, along with Deputy Secretary Feinberg, who is a national treasure and is changing the way we do business at this Department, is giving us a chance to ensure these critical systems are delivered.

FISCHER: General Caine , why must Golden Dome receive the requested 17 billion dollars of funding in Fiscal Year 2027?

CAINE: Well, Senator, it's, as you know, an essential part of our homeland security layered defense, and as General Guetlein begins to do the work that you're asking about, and frankly, helping to advance, the insurance around that down payment, charging the defense industrial base with those capital allocations will allow them to get after it much, much quicker. We appreciate the help.

Fischer's exchange on nuclear triad :

FISCHER: Secretary Hegseth, I agree with your statement on nuclear deterrence: "Nothing else matters if we don't get this right - so we will." We need a modernized nuclear triad - and NC3 architecture - that can credibly deter multiple adversaries, instead of an insufficient nuclear force structure based on fundamentally flawed assumptions made sixteen years ago.

Our presidents must also have a more diverse set of options to effectively manage more complex nuclear escalation dynamics.

Mr. Secretary, how does this budget request achieve those objectives?

HEGSETH: Well, thank you for your leadership on this issue for a very long time. First and foremost, it invests in it. $71 billion in our nuclear triad and NC3, understanding that if you get that wrong, you get everything else wrong.

Frankly, it's why the Iran effort is so important. Imagine what the situation in the region would look like if Iran also wielded a nuclear weapon, and the limits it would put on our capabilities in those situations.

Our adversaries have to deal with that dilemma because of the strength of our nuclear triad, so that $71 billion investment, the DRPMs that have been put over top of it to move those systems left, as you acknowledged, it's just been a priority since we came into the building, and we're funding it accordingly.

###