 Chief Naval Operations Admiral Greenert Thank You Chairman Durbin vice chairman Cochran Thanks for the invitation to discuss the future of naval aviation here this morning Today's topic for me the F-35C is a really a key part of our future It provides a unique and essential set of capabilities for our air wing and for our carrier strike group and effectively for the fleet And it will dramatically enhance the near term and the future air wing capability immediately upon its integration Now as we prepare to integrate this this aircraft We're focused on three things one to ensure that the F-35C delivers on the requirements that we validated that we need To to make sure that integrating the F-35 Charlie into our air wing Is effective and that it conforms to the carrier. It has to fit into the air wing Understand and third to understand the concepts required for affordable operations and sustainment Now with regard to capability we need the stealth we need their advanced electronic warfare sensors the weapons and Perhaps more importantly the command and control capability that there's this aircraft brings with its stealth and its EW Capability effectively enables us to be closer to the threat you can fuse targets That means as you as you detect targets you can bring them together Determine what is what what is the threat and build a common operational picture and you can engage first Perhaps just as important the F-35 Charlie is designed to share this operational picture with other F-35s other tactical aircraft including our super Hornet and the other aircraft in the air wing other ships other Platforms via our tactical data lengths So it really is a force multiplier in addition to be an incredibly capable aircraft with regard to integrating the F-35 C Into their carrier and into the air wings our top challenges to reconcile that we need to get done before our IOC We need to get the software plow program the block 3f capability Certified it brings us weapons the EW systems that I just mentioned and an aircraft that meets the operational envelope Certification we need an arresting hook that is durable reliable and precise and we need the helmet mounted display system Which is being worked right now with some deficiencies We need that certified and as I mentioned before before to integrate We need it to be carrier compatible if you will and that that's the evaluation will start next year Based on the joint program office projections We are on track for this with some risk particularly in the software certification now with regard to understanding and addressing Our operations and sustainment we have a lot of work to do But I think we have adequate time to prepare to integrate the F-35 We are conducting Business case analysis on the level of repair Effort the logistics the maintenance schemes that we'll use and we are have we have tri-service meetings That means I meet with my service chief counterparts quarterly And we meet with the joint program office quarterly to go over these sorts of things the con ops We'll need a concept of operations to be have been established to settle what the flying hour Cots is going to be in other words What are my flying habits for this type of aircraft? Simulation which is very advanced versus training versus proficiency flying I need to determine what is the best estimate for the cost to fly this aircraft and we'll work through that We have a mandate that mr. Kendall was giving us and right now we we look and project will meet this mandate But this is something we have to focus on we the fleet our Sustainment challenges are to be able to maintain this aircraft in a maritime environment salt water moving ship in a carrier Human environment. It's hot. It's dusty and how do we maintain this aircraft in that hangar bay? We need to be able to repair the aircraft in my view and that requires the right parts and and that the correct scheme And we need train sailors to do that and if we're going to repair it then we need logistics And we got to have an affordable logistics train and one that is responsive So to me mr. Chairman the F-35c is designed to provide the capability we need and I look forward to working with this committee with The congress and with the program office to bring it into the to the fleet at an affordable rate. Thank you. Thanks, Admiral