Jack Bergman

WASHINGTON DC – Yesterday, U.S. Representative Jack Bergman (R-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, delivered the following remarks at a joint Readiness and Tactical Air & Land Forces subcommittee hearing on the Army’s efforts to modernize and increase the capacity of the organic industrial base.

“The organic industrial base is the heart of our Army’s ability to generate combat power, and any inadequacies in the industrial base directly impact the mission-capable rates of our ground forces.

Unfortunately, the Army’s readiness trends over the last decade are particularly troubling.

Since 2015, almost all Army vehicles experienced declines in mission-capable rates.

Additionally, the Army’s maintenance costs are increasing with an average cost increase of over 50%.

According to GAO, the lack of parts and challenges related to technical data negatively affected the availability and costs of the entire ground forces.

These declining mission capability rates and increasing costs are directly related to an underperforming acquisition system.

Our inability to adequately secure the parts and determine the technical data rights at the beginning of our acquisition process undermines the ability of our organic industrial base to adequately maintain our ground vehicle fleet.

Additionally, I think that we are sitting on the precipice of a new dawn where advanced manufacturing revolutionizes our vehicle maintenance approach.

I am not confident that our military is keeping pace with the commercial sector in delivering timely and cost-efficient products.

As to the Army’s organic industrial base to generate munitions capacity, our Army arsenals stand at the epicenter.

I think using our arsenal’s ability to assemble and build munitions necessary for our combat forces and maintain excess capacity in times of need is a good model to maintain operational readiness.

I also think the organic industrial base needs to be utilized before additional commercial options are pursued.

That is why I am particularly surprised that we continue to sustain foreign munition manufacturers when idled American capacity is available to support munitions production.

We need to be more realistic as to our nation’s munition goals and build capacity to meet our needs in times of conflict.

At the same time, it is important that our partners and allies also retain sufficient capacity to support their needs.

It is hard for me to understand why the United States should size our industrial base to meet an apathetic international consortium that has the time but lacks the will to make strategic investments to support their own national security interests.

There is much we need to do to better align our industrial base for the future, and I look forward to working with the administration and our esteemed witnesses to make this a reality.”