Good afternoon, Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Kaine, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the invitation to testify today on the readiness of our Army.
In the face of an unpredictable, competitive global environment, our Army stands ready to compete, deter, and win tonight. While there are challenges facing our Army, we remain poised to accomplish our essential mission: to fight and win our nation's wars.
We appreciate Congress' efforts to end the draw-down and to increase Army end-strength, and we are grateful for the bi-partisan budget agreement which will fund Army readiness recovery efforts through FY19.
The demand for Army forces remains high. The Army currently supports combatant commands with more than 178,000 Soldiers globally. Simultaneously, recognizing that we cannot fight tomorrow's war with yesterday's weapons and equipment, we've enacted sweeping modernization reforms. The establishment of Cross-Functional Teams focused on the Army's six modernization priorities, and introduction of the Army Futures Command will increase unity-of-effort, agility, and accountability while building a more agile, lethal force. We need your continued assistance to provide timely, predictable, sustained funding to ensure our Army maintains our competitive edge and remains the best-trained, best-equipped, and best-led fighting force in the world.
Thank you for your time this afternoon, and thank you for your support of our men and women in uniform. I look forward to your questions.
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