WEBVTT

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Good morning . Welcome distinguished

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guests , elected officials , community

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members , and concerned citizens . My

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name is Doctor Jennifer Zelle , and it

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is my privilege to serve as a

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superintendent president of Antelope

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Valley College . As a college focused

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on service , we are so pleased to host

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today's forum , and we recognize the

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serious duty that comes with the

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privilege of service . We are here

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today to discuss the importance of

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preparedness and begin a crucial

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community conversation . I once read

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fear could mean two things , forget

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everything and run , or face everything

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and rise . The choice is ours .

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Uh I want to thank Brigadier

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General Wickert and Edwards Air Force

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Base Civilian Military Support Group

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for their vision in bringing this

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conversation to the fore , so that in

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an emergent situation we will rise on

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behalf of the board of trustees of

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Antelope Valley College and the

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students , classified professionals ,

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faculty , and administrators who make

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this a vibrant community , I welcome

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you to today's conversation and look

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forward to partnerships that deepen and

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strengthen our community . Welcome . So

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today , uh , we'll begin our ceremony

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with the Blue Eagle Honor guard from

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Edwards Air Force Base . Please rise

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and for the presentation of the colors

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and please remain standing until the

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flags are retired .

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Prisons .

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Today our national anthem will be sung

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by senior Airman Francis Francis Anne

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Sampang .

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Oh say

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can you see

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by the

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light . What's so

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we

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Lights last gleaming .

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Whose stripes and bright

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stars

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fight . Or the

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we watched .

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On the streaming .

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The bonds .

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the

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was still there .

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Oh say does that

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star spangled .

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Yeah .

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Or the

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And

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Yeah .

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Please be seated .

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Now it is my privilege to introduce to

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you Mr . Matthew Windheim . Matthew

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Windheim is a dedicated STEM

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educational leader , Air Force veteran ,

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and 2025 California State Teacher of

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the Year with a master's degree in

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mathematics education . Mr . Windheim

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has a passion for promoting innovation

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in the classroom and beyond . His

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expertise spans over 20 years in public

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education . He has deep experience in

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curriculum , instruction , assessment

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and professional development . Mr .

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Windheim has years of firsthand

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experience . Equipping educators with

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tools and strategies needed to inspire

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students in science , technology ,

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engineering , and mathematics . Outside

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the classroom , Matthew is a private

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pilot and all around aviation

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enthusiast . He serves as president of

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the Edwards Air Force Base Civilian

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Military Support Group , a local

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nonprofit 501c3 that supports this

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community's active duty military

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personnel . His commitment to both

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education and service reflects a deep

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dedication to empowering others whether

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through strengthening STEM learning or

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contributing to the well-being of those

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who serve . Mr . Windheim remains a

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passionate advocate for combining

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education , leadership , and community

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outreach to make a lasting impact .

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Please welcome Mr . Matthew Windheim .

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Thank you very much . Thank you . Thank

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you very much , everybody . And good

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morning .

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The Edwards Air Force Base Civilian

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Military Support Group or SIV MMIL , as

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we are called . Our organization in

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recent years . Has been supporting our

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active duty military in the following

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ways . We sponsor dorm dinners . We

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collaborate with first sergeants and

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chaplains . We give about $5000

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annually for holiday giving for

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programs like Adopt a Family and Angel

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Tree . We've recently given over $9500

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toward dorm reservation renovations ,

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over $11,000 for the first term Aman

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course facility renovation , excuse me .

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And $10,000 in support of renovation of

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the study center at Ellington Airman

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Leadership School , over $11,000 in

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scholarships and annual sponsorship of

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family events on base . The purpose and

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general nature of SIMil is to establish

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a friendly and benevolent association

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of civic leaders and base personnel at

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Edwards Air Force Base to act as a host

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group whenever needed and to consider

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an annual service project to Benefit

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Edwards Air Force Base . I could go on .

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I could go on . It gives me great joy

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to brag about this organization and

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today , however , uh , we are here

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because SIMill was asked to assemble an

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event of leaders of community members

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in our aerospace Valley , the home of

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the 412 Test wing , Edwards Air Force

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Base . That's right . That's right .

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This is the base that makes history .

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It's the home of firsts , as General

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Wicker likes to say , and it's the

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center of the aerospace testing

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universe . Once again , on behalf of

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our organization , I'd like to thank

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you all for being here , for making the

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time and also for indulging us with a

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brief group photo . Thank you so much

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for doing that . All right , I'd like

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to recognize a few dignitaries who are

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in the room . We are in a room full of

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VIPs . So thank you all again for

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making that time . From Congressman

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Whiteside's office , we have Jasmine

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Hernandez . From

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Supervisor Barger's office , Chuck

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Boswick . From

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Supervisor Parlier's office , Karen

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Sanders .

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From the California Highway Patrol , we

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have Captain James Richards . And

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Officer Jordan Church .

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Superintendents of local educational

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agencies , the high school district ,

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Greg Neehan . Palmdale School District

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Superintendent Doctor Raul Maldonado .

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And board members , thank you so much

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for being here . California City

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council members are here in the room .

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California City council members . There

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we go . Thank you so much . Thank you

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so much . Mojave Air and Spaceport CEO

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Doctor David Smith .

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AV edge , Liddy .

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And Palmdale Water District , we have

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Kathy McLaren .

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Now on to our first speaker .

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Congressman Vince Fong was elected to

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serve the United States House of

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Representatives on May 21 , 2024 with

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great pride to serve the 20th

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Congressional District of California ,

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which encompasses parts of Fresno ,

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Kern , Kings , and Tulare Counties ,

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including Bakersfield , Clovis ,

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Hanford , Lamour , Ridgecrest ,

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Rosamund , Springfield , Taft ,

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Tehachapi , Tulare , and Visalia . In

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2016 , Vince was elected to the

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California State Assembly . In

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Sacramento , Vince helped to lead a

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conversation on energy independence in

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California . Improving our

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transportation infrastructure , supply

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chains , and to enhance job

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opportunities for local residents in

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Congress , Vince was appointed to the

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Transportation and Infrastructure

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Committee and the Space Science and

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Technology Committee . Congressman Fong

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works to strengthen the critical supply

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chain in in the Central Valley , the

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breadbasket of America . As well

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as he prioritizes tech technological

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advancements in aeronautics and

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commercial space flight in East Kern ,

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communities like China Lake , Lamour ,

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and Edwards . Ladies and gentlemen ,

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please join me in a warm welcome for

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Congressman Vince Fong .

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Well , good morning everybody . Uh ,

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it's great to be back home in Aerospace

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Valley . Uh , thank you , uh , to , uh ,

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uh , I want , I want to thank General

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Wicker . I want to thank his team at

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Edwards . I want to thank Siv Mi and uh

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and and Eve College for putting this

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together . This is an important

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gathering and it's going to be an

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ongoing conversation . Uh , I'm sure ,

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I'm sure General Wicker will get into

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more specifics , but we are dealing

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with some serious challenges , uh ,

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overseas and , and , um , and the work

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being done at Edwards Air Force Base is

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is is the tip of the spear . And so

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this conversation about how we deal

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with this great powers competition with

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China and their collusion with Russia

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and Iran , um , these are , these are

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real threats . And so we have to

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maintain our our readiness and so

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making sure that Air Wars Air Force

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base . I is operationally prepared and

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uh and uh can continue to to do the job

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they do in the midst of whatever is

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going to occur , whether it's a natural

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disaster or something else , is

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critically important and for our

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community to come together and to be

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prepared , that is key . And so , The

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Alo Valley needs to come , we needs to

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work together and seeing all the

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stakeholders here . I think this is

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something that the Annalope Valley does

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very well . The fact that we are , we

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are used to just the operational side

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of what Edwards Air Force , what

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Edwards does . Uh , we know they're

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importance , but I think , uh , as , um ,

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are these threats , uh , potential

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threats increase , uh , we need to

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ensure that we're ready for any type of

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emergency . And so we need to have

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those emergency preparedness plans in

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place and we need to help support our

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local military resilience and having

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our facilities stay operational in the

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event of these occurrences . So

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supporting Edwards Air Force Base

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operationally is critically important ,

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um . And , and , and that's on every

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single level , on whether it's on

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telecommunications , whether it's on

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electricity , whether it's on water ,

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um , you know , we , these are all

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components that we don't talk about

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probably on a daily basis , but we

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can't continue to silo those things off .

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We need to break down those barriers

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and have those , those challenges .

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We've learned our lessons um through

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what happened with the earthquakes that

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affected Rich Ridgecrest and China Lake .

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And when the , when , when you have 2

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7.9 earthquakes that occur , you know ,

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how do we stay operational ? How do we

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ensure that the research , development

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and evaluation and , and the

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developments of these new platforms

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that support the war fighter overseas .

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How do we ensure those things occur ,

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those things they continue ? But then

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if a if a natural disaster were to

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occur , how do we rebuild ? And so , um ,

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these are all part of the conversation .

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I think that the general worker and his

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team are going to present to you , uh ,

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to ensure that we're ready . We're

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ready for anything . And so , uh , I

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just want to say that my office is , is

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here to assist and help . Uh , this

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isn't , this is not going to be the

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first the only conversation . This is

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the first of many conversations and

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planning uh uh efforts underway .

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To ensure that we put the plans in

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place that we execute any plan is only

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as good as our ability to execute and

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make sure that uh that we can uh we can

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deliver . So again , I want to thank

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you all for , for spending a Friday uh

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together . Uh , this is going to be an

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enlightening and necessary conversation

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because um the threats are real . Uh ,

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I , you know , I don't want to end on a

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downer , but at the , at the end of the

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day , we should be proud of the work

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being done at Awards Air Force Base and

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and and the people that are there . But

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making sure that that work can continue

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in the face of any threat that were

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were to happen , uh , that's why ,

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that's why we're here . So thank you

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all for being here and uh I'll turn it

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over to Tom to to to uh Tom Lackey , uh ,

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to discuss what's going to happen on

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the state side . But having the federal

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state local partnership in , in , in ,

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in conjunction with , with supporting

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Edwards , that's why we're here . So

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thank you and God bless you all . Thank

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you so much . And Congressman Fong

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is also a new father of 3 weeks . So

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congratulations , Congressman .

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Assemblyman Tom Lackey , Tom has

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represented California's thirty-fourth

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Assembly District since 2014 . Before

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joining the Assembly , Tom served the

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Palmdale Elementary School Board of

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trustees in the city of Palmdale . He's

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a teacher , a law enforcement officer ,

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and a politician currently serving in

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the California State Assembly . A

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Republican representing the

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thirty-fourth district encompassing

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parts of the Antelope Valley , Victor

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Valley , and San Bernardino Mountains ,

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the high desert , including Barstow ,

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29 Palms , all the way to the Nevada

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state line . Ladies and gentlemen ,

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would you please welcome Tom Lackey .

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Well , good morning , everybody . It's

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certainly a great privilege to have

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everybody here and especially , uh ,

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Brigadier General Wickert . We're proud

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to have him here . He's no stranger to

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this region . We're very . Lucky to

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have somebody who believes in

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communication and open communication .

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I'm very excited , uh , because I ,

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in this new configuration and

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redistricting , I have some pretty

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major military installations . I have

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not only Edwards Air Force Base , a

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little bit of China Lake , and I also

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have Fort Irwin and 29 Palms .

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So consequently , the governor

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appointed me to his military council

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and we meet quarterly and it's very

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exciting because I get to be surrounded

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by a bunch of retired generals and .

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Very , very informed people . And one

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thing that's very clear is the world is

18:19.819 --> 18:23.449
not stable . And uh it's very , very

18:23.449 --> 18:26.280
important that we communicate together

18:26.609 --> 18:29.579
and understand the real threats that

18:29.579 --> 18:32.599
are very present and so I'm excited

18:32.930 --> 18:36.300
that we have partnerships like the the

18:36.300 --> 18:38.569
uh SIMill group that has organized this

18:38.569 --> 18:41.329
uh educational experience today because

18:41.329 --> 18:43.273
it's really important that we stay

18:43.273 --> 18:45.440
informed . It's one of the differences

18:45.440 --> 18:47.662
between us and the rest of the world as

18:47.662 --> 18:49.885
we believe in having an informed public

18:49.885 --> 18:51.940
and I'm very thankful for that . And

18:51.940 --> 18:54.051
this is a great example of that , and

18:54.051 --> 18:56.051
we live as what has been called the

18:56.051 --> 18:58.162
aerospace Valley that the legislature

18:58.162 --> 19:00.385
tried to deny us . um , I don't know if

19:00.385 --> 19:02.329
you know that , but , uh , we , we

19:02.329 --> 19:04.385
tried to make it a real thing and so

19:04.385 --> 19:06.551
people . Objected to that because they

19:06.551 --> 19:08.718
thought they were aerospace designated

19:08.718 --> 19:10.940
but nonetheless , we'll keep we'll keep

19:10.940 --> 19:12.996
battling because we , we clearly are

19:12.996 --> 19:15.107
the aerospace valley whether they let

19:15.107 --> 19:17.329
us use that official designation or not

19:17.329 --> 19:19.551
very proud of that . I spent most of my

19:19.551 --> 19:21.699
life out in this region and I'm very

19:22.150 --> 19:24.372
excited to have the chance to represent

19:24.372 --> 19:26.539
this region . I'm very excited for the

19:26.539 --> 19:28.594
way that we're all engaged and we're

19:28.594 --> 19:31.119
all partners together , so . I'm

19:31.119 --> 19:33.230
looking forward to this event and I ,

19:33.230 --> 19:36.780
I'm proud to represent you at the state

19:36.780 --> 19:40.459
assembly and uh . Enjoy this experience .

19:40.630 --> 19:41.852
Thank you very much .

19:45.880 --> 19:48.047
Ladies and gentlemen , Assemblyman Tom

19:48.047 --> 19:50.750
Lackey , thank you so much , sir . All

19:50.750 --> 19:54.459
right . Onto the man of the hour ,

19:55.250 --> 19:58.130
Brigadier General Douglas P . Wicker .

19:59.109 --> 20:01.331
He's the commander of the 412 Test wing

20:01.331 --> 20:03.609
at Edwards Air Force Base , California .

20:04.599 --> 20:07.000
He leads a wing of nearly 8000

20:07.000 --> 20:09.599
personnel in the developmental test and

20:09.599 --> 20:12.910
evaluation of . KC

20:12.910 --> 20:16.910
46 , KC 135 , KC 10 , C 17 ,

20:17.109 --> 20:20.099
C5 , F35s , F22s , F

20:20.099 --> 20:23.040
16s . T 7

20:23.040 --> 20:26.140
RQ4s . B1 , B2s ,

20:26.199 --> 20:30.160
B52s , and yes , there , there it

20:30.160 --> 20:33.349
is , there it is , and the B21 raider .

20:34.239 --> 20:38.229
Yeah . Brigadier General Wickert

20:38.229 --> 20:39.896
is the installation commander

20:39.896 --> 20:42.300
responsible for base operations support

20:42.300 --> 20:44.420
for active duty , reserve , civil

20:44.420 --> 20:46.650
service , and defense industrial based

20:46.650 --> 20:50.349
contractors . The largest airfield

20:50.619 --> 20:54.589
in the world . Comprising a workforce

20:54.589 --> 20:56.709
of more than 1 , excuse me ,

20:57.829 --> 21:00.150
19,000 , I know place value , I'm a

21:00.150 --> 21:03.949
math teacher , 19,500 personnel

21:04.189 --> 21:07.109
at Edwards Air Force Base . Including

21:07.109 --> 21:09.869
operating plant 42 in Palmdale ,

21:10.119 --> 21:12.319
California . In addition to these , he

21:12.319 --> 21:15.010
is a highly accomplished aviator , a

21:15.010 --> 21:17.959
professor , a former head of

21:17.959 --> 21:20.439
aeronautics at the United States Air

21:20.439 --> 21:22.680
Force Academy in Colorado , and he has

21:22.680 --> 21:25.079
served our nation faithfully for nearly

21:25.079 --> 21:27.301
30 years . Ladies and gentlemen , a big

21:27.301 --> 21:29.449
warm welcome for Brigadier General

21:29.449 --> 21:30.449
Douglas Wickert .

21:36.260 --> 21:38.619
thank you so much . Thanks a lot , Matt .

21:38.660 --> 21:40.938
Excellent . All right , thank you . Uh ,

21:41.140 --> 21:44.459
so this is , uh , this is an important

21:44.459 --> 21:46.626
conversation and that's what I want to

21:46.626 --> 21:48.570
do . I , I'll spend , I'll spend a

21:48.570 --> 21:50.737
little bit of time just , uh , kind of

21:50.737 --> 21:52.681
putting into context the time that

21:52.681 --> 21:54.903
we're in right now , uh , but then this

21:54.903 --> 21:57.015
is really , you know , as Congressman

21:57.015 --> 21:59.237
Fong said , this is really the start of

21:59.237 --> 22:01.403
a conversation , um . Siv Milt , thank

22:01.403 --> 22:03.719
you so much for really pulling this all

22:03.719 --> 22:05.441
together . This is a very , as

22:05.441 --> 22:07.640
Congressman Fong said , as Assemblyman

22:07.640 --> 22:09.807
Tom Locke said , this is an incredibly

22:09.807 --> 22:12.160
important conversation to have . This

22:12.160 --> 22:14.160
is a time of consequence that we're

22:14.160 --> 22:16.880
living in . Uh , this is probably the

22:16.880 --> 22:19.030
decisive decade of all of our lives

22:19.520 --> 22:21.742
that we're living through . So Siv Mi ,

22:21.742 --> 22:23.798
thank you for organizing this . um .

22:24.310 --> 22:26.366
Alo Valley Community College . Thank

22:26.366 --> 22:28.532
you . This is just a beautiful venue ,

22:28.532 --> 22:30.780
and I can't think of a better place .

22:31.739 --> 22:33.800
To have a conversation about the

22:33.800 --> 22:36.022
community and about community readiness

22:36.022 --> 22:38.356
than our premier community college here .

22:38.356 --> 22:40.078
So thank you , Antelope Valley

22:40.078 --> 22:43.849
Community College . And I don't know if

22:43.849 --> 22:45.849
she's still in the back or if she's

22:45.849 --> 22:47.849
already escaped , but , uh , airman

22:47.849 --> 22:50.969
Sampang . Wow , again , amazing . Oh ,

22:51.089 --> 22:54.810
there she is in the back . So this is

22:54.810 --> 22:56.930
the 2nd time that I've heard her do

22:56.930 --> 23:00.010
that and I've heard the national anthem

23:00.010 --> 23:02.209
many , many , many times in the course

23:02.209 --> 23:05.339
of 30 years of wearing the uniform and

23:06.670 --> 23:08.837
The top two are both the ones that she

23:08.837 --> 23:11.660
has sung , so brilliant , brilliant job .

23:12.180 --> 23:14.236
Congressman Fong , thank you so much

23:14.236 --> 23:16.291
for being here . This is a , uh , as

23:16.291 --> 23:18.402
you , as you underscored an important

23:18.402 --> 23:20.979
conversation and suddenly been lackey ,

23:21.099 --> 23:24.020
uh , this is , as you said , a , a

23:24.020 --> 23:26.260
federal , state , and local

23:26.260 --> 23:28.316
conversation . It's a very important

23:28.316 --> 23:31.910
one , So

23:31.910 --> 23:33.966
that's that's Edwards Air Force Base

23:33.966 --> 23:36.550
right there . We couldn't do what we do

23:36.550 --> 23:39.800
without . Without this , and I wish I'd

23:39.800 --> 23:42.022
zoomed out a little bit further on this

23:42.022 --> 23:44.189
photo so that we could have , we could

23:44.189 --> 23:46.189
have captured Bakersfield in all of

23:46.189 --> 23:48.467
Congressman Fong's district . But this ,

23:48.467 --> 23:50.633
this really is the aerospace Valley is

23:50.633 --> 23:52.856
incredibly important . If you go to the

23:52.856 --> 23:54.633
next slide for me , please , we

23:54.633 --> 23:56.633
couldn't do what we are doing up at

23:56.633 --> 23:58.744
Edwards Air Force Base . With without

23:58.744 --> 24:01.078
the community , you know , the majority ,

24:01.078 --> 24:03.244
the vast majority of our folks live in

24:03.244 --> 24:05.244
the Yellow Valley . We are , we are

24:05.244 --> 24:07.467
partnered together that that photo that

24:07.467 --> 24:09.522
we had before just shows how tightly

24:09.522 --> 24:11.522
coupled that we are . And , and the

24:11.522 --> 24:13.689
picture that I'm gonna paint for you ,

24:13.689 --> 24:15.911
the context that I want to put the time

24:15.911 --> 24:17.911
of consequence that we're currently

24:17.911 --> 24:20.359
living in . We play a very important

24:20.359 --> 24:23.680
role we always have , so we are , we

24:23.680 --> 24:26.119
are preventing World War II .

24:27.540 --> 24:30.410
With the B-21 . It's , it's actually

24:30.410 --> 24:32.632
very easy . My job is incredibly easy ,

24:32.632 --> 24:34.854
you know , part of my role is to , to ,

24:34.854 --> 24:36.854
you know , Chief Stoltz and I is to

24:36.854 --> 24:39.132
motivate the workforce to come to work ,

24:39.132 --> 24:38.949
but they know that they're working on

24:38.949 --> 24:42.209
this . In order to prevent the next war ,

24:42.260 --> 24:44.609
deter the next war , or if worse comes

24:44.609 --> 24:46.665
to worse and it happens that we have

24:46.665 --> 24:48.831
the capability that we need to prevail

24:48.831 --> 24:50.887
in that war , but hopefully we won't

24:50.887 --> 24:53.053
get there . It's worth taking a little

24:53.053 --> 24:55.165
bit of tour before we dive in , so go

24:55.165 --> 24:57.331
on to the next slide for me , please .

24:57.331 --> 24:59.498
So here's Edwards and let's zoom out ,

24:59.498 --> 25:01.719
go and go next . We're going to take a

25:01.719 --> 25:03.880
little tour . It turns out that the

25:03.880 --> 25:06.047
People's Republic of China also has an

25:06.047 --> 25:08.729
Edwards Air Force Base . It is also in

25:08.729 --> 25:11.062
a desert . Ours is in the Mojave Desert ,

25:11.062 --> 25:13.340
our little corner of the Mojave Desert .

25:13.340 --> 25:15.451
Uh , if we go over to the Gobi Desert

25:15.451 --> 25:18.339
and , uh , zoom in , Dingxing Airfield

25:18.680 --> 25:22.630
is China's version of Edwards . Uh , I

25:22.630 --> 25:24.797
am proud to say we have more runways .

25:24.797 --> 25:27.019
Our airfield is the biggest airfield in

25:27.019 --> 25:30.729
the world . But the

25:30.729 --> 25:32.562
People's Republic of China , the

25:32.562 --> 25:34.507
People's Liberation Army , and the

25:34.507 --> 25:37.260
Chinese Communist Party is in a , they

25:37.260 --> 25:40.349
are modernizing and growing at a

25:40.349 --> 25:43.550
staggering pace , uh , but they're

25:43.550 --> 25:45.869
doing more than just that . Uh ,

25:45.949 --> 25:48.270
they're actually actively preparing for

25:48.270 --> 25:50.381
something . So go ahead and build for

25:50.381 --> 25:54.020
me . So they're on Dingxin Airfield .

25:56.479 --> 25:58.510
There's this interesting little

25:58.510 --> 26:00.732
structure right here you're like , OK ,

26:00.732 --> 26:00.709
that looks like a target or whatever .

26:00.790 --> 26:03.839
Go and build for me . That is actually

26:03.839 --> 26:06.189
Taichung International Airport in

26:06.189 --> 26:08.189
Taiwan , in the northwest corner of

26:08.189 --> 26:11.119
Taiwan . They have a model , one for

26:11.119 --> 26:14.650
one scale model . Of the

26:15.680 --> 26:18.439
On Taiwan . It's kind of clear what

26:18.439 --> 26:21.890
their intent is . Let's , uh , zoom out

26:21.890 --> 26:24.112
a little bit further . Uh , so go ahead

26:24.112 --> 26:26.279
and build for me . So if we were to go

26:26.279 --> 26:28.390
from , uh , Dingxin Airfield and then

26:28.390 --> 26:30.810
take a , go a couple 100 miles to the

26:30.810 --> 26:34.579
west . A deeper into the Gobi Desert ,

26:34.619 --> 26:36.730
so this is kind of like us going over

26:36.730 --> 26:38.563
to Nevada to the Nevada Test and

26:38.563 --> 26:40.786
training range and zooming in there and

26:40.786 --> 26:42.897
taking a look at what targets do they

26:42.897 --> 26:45.063
put out there in the Gobi Desert . Now

26:45.063 --> 26:44.979
there's a target . That's interesting .

26:46.199 --> 26:47.255
And build for me ?

26:51.160 --> 26:54.390
Next slide . There we go . So that is

26:54.390 --> 26:57.589
the , uh , a silhouette of the one for

26:57.589 --> 27:00.770
one silhouette of the . 4 class

27:00.770 --> 27:03.270
aircraft carrier . It's kind of clear

27:03.270 --> 27:05.650
what their target is . Go and build for

27:05.650 --> 27:08.609
me . Next slide . We'll zoom out again .

27:13.349 --> 27:15.571
Now , there's a frigate . These are our

27:15.571 --> 27:17.500
railroad tracks . There's another

27:17.500 --> 27:21.489
carrier The railroad tracks

27:21.489 --> 27:23.739
curve around the desert . Those are

27:23.739 --> 27:25.906
evasive maneuvers that the ships would

27:25.906 --> 27:28.930
take as the ballistic missiles , DF-17s

27:28.930 --> 27:31.041
and other missiles are coming in from

27:31.041 --> 27:33.729
above . So they have a range that

27:33.729 --> 27:36.530
actively targets our ability to project

27:36.530 --> 27:39.890
power into the Pacific . Go and build

27:39.890 --> 27:41.890
one more time for me , uh , because

27:41.890 --> 27:44.280
there's more . This little range there

27:44.280 --> 27:46.800
is just filled with filled with targets .

27:46.880 --> 27:50.680
There's a destroyer . And uh so

27:50.680 --> 27:52.959
it's , it's pretty clear what China's

27:52.959 --> 27:55.589
intent is . So not only are they , they

27:55.589 --> 27:58.560
modernizing and increasing the size of

27:58.560 --> 28:00.449
the People's Liberation Army at a

28:00.449 --> 28:02.504
staggering pace , uh , but they're ,

28:02.504 --> 28:04.671
they're not trying to hide the fact of

28:04.671 --> 28:06.893
what , of what they're doing . The next

28:06.893 --> 28:09.030
slide . And so uh

28:10.670 --> 28:13.359
President Washington , 90 at the very

28:13.359 --> 28:15.581
first what we now call the State of the

28:15.581 --> 28:17.748
Union address . This is the very first

28:17.748 --> 28:19.581
one in New York . This is before

28:19.581 --> 28:21.803
Washington DC was , was built , uh , go

28:21.803 --> 28:23.760
and build . And in that very first

28:23.760 --> 28:25.439
annual message to Congress .

28:27.560 --> 28:29.727
President Washington made a case for a

28:29.727 --> 28:31.727
standing army . If you want peace ,

28:31.727 --> 28:33.949
prepare for war . This is an adage that

28:33.949 --> 28:36.520
goes back to the Roman Republic , and

28:36.520 --> 28:38.576
it's probably even older than that ,

28:38.576 --> 28:40.576
you know , from the day when we had

28:40.576 --> 28:42.798
caves that we defended with stones , we

28:42.798 --> 28:45.076
probably said , hey , if we want peace ,

28:45.076 --> 28:47.353
if we don't want that rival , you know ,

28:47.353 --> 28:49.520
cave clan to come , we should probably

28:49.520 --> 28:49.390
have a pile of stones at the ready . If

28:49.390 --> 28:52.040
you want peace , prepare for war , and

28:52.040 --> 28:54.207
that's what we do . We do want peace .

28:54.280 --> 28:56.447
Next slide , Eisenhower also made that

28:56.447 --> 28:59.640
case . So Eisenhower was a general in

28:59.640 --> 29:01.584
World War II and lived through the

29:01.584 --> 29:04.949
devastation of , of , of World War ,

29:05.680 --> 29:07.847
and he recognized that , you know , we

29:07.847 --> 29:10.239
really don't want that . And so he was

29:10.239 --> 29:12.479
the president and despite the fact that

29:12.479 --> 29:15.599
he was concerned from , from 52 to 1960 ,

29:15.660 --> 29:17.827
despite the fact that he was concerned

29:17.827 --> 29:20.049
about the military industrial complex ,

29:20.049 --> 29:22.271
he oversaw go go to the next slide . Of

29:22.271 --> 29:26.099
the buildup . If you , the only

29:26.099 --> 29:28.790
way to win the next war is to prevent

29:28.790 --> 29:30.957
it from happening in the first place ,

29:30.957 --> 29:32.957
and that's why the technology , the

29:32.957 --> 29:36.709
capability that we are that this

29:36.709 --> 29:38.820
community , the aerospace valley here

29:38.820 --> 29:41.042
is a part of is so important is because

29:41.042 --> 29:43.153
we are trying to prevent World War II

29:43.153 --> 29:46.359
from happening . The reason this is a

29:46.359 --> 29:48.239
decisive decade and probably the

29:48.239 --> 29:50.461
decisive decade of our lives , and most

29:50.461 --> 29:53.599
of us grew up in the Cold War . This is

29:53.599 --> 29:56.819
even probably more significant . And I

29:56.819 --> 29:58.930
can remember how significant the Cold

29:58.930 --> 30:01.170
War seemed . Chairman Xi

30:02.599 --> 30:04.655
He likes to call himself president ,

30:04.655 --> 30:06.877
but he , he , he , he was not elected .

30:06.877 --> 30:08.766
He is the chairman of the Chinese

30:08.766 --> 30:10.780
Communist Party , so I insist on

30:10.780 --> 30:12.558
calling him Chairman Xi and not

30:12.558 --> 30:14.724
President Xi as he wants to legitimize

30:14.724 --> 30:16.836
himself with that title . So Chairman

30:16.836 --> 30:19.058
Xi is actively pushing back against the

30:19.058 --> 30:21.113
international rules-based order that

30:21.113 --> 30:23.336
has kept the relative peace despite the

30:23.336 --> 30:25.669
threat of the Cold War , kept the peace ,

30:25.669 --> 30:27.724
the relative peace and prosperity of

30:27.724 --> 30:29.947
the global world order since the end of

30:29.947 --> 30:32.169
World War II . And Chairman Xi , in his

30:32.169 --> 30:34.502
mind , the West is in long term decline .

30:35.109 --> 30:38.060
And China is an ascendancy , and it is

30:38.060 --> 30:41.339
now is the decade in Chairman Xi's mind .

30:42.369 --> 30:46.020
When when China will realize it's 6000

30:46.020 --> 30:49.910
year . Rightful legacy to be

30:49.910 --> 30:51.966
the sole dominant power of the world

30:51.966 --> 30:54.550
and write the rules-based order on its

30:54.550 --> 30:57.280
terms . In its mind , after World War

30:57.280 --> 30:59.224
II , the international rules-based

30:59.224 --> 31:02.239
order that exists . Those rules were

31:02.239 --> 31:04.295
written by the West in Chairman Xi's

31:04.295 --> 31:06.572
mind to our own advantage , and it was ,

31:06.839 --> 31:08.950
and they're designed to keep China in

31:08.950 --> 31:11.117
this , in this box , and that is by no

31:11.117 --> 31:13.172
means the case , but that's , that's

31:13.172 --> 31:16.010
how he sees the world . And , and he's

31:16.010 --> 31:17.880
actively , he has created ,

31:17.930 --> 31:21.089
aggressively created a force to be able

31:21.089 --> 31:23.689
to insist on their way of seeing the

31:23.689 --> 31:26.640
world . And , and we're trying to deter

31:26.640 --> 31:29.550
that and counter that . So the , uh ,

31:29.880 --> 31:32.050
you know , here , here's the era where

31:32.050 --> 31:34.106
Eisenhower is the president . If you

31:34.106 --> 31:36.439
want peace , prepare for war , you know ,

31:36.439 --> 31:38.106
relatively peaceful , great ,

31:38.106 --> 31:40.161
prosperous time . uh , Brezhnev came

31:40.161 --> 31:42.599
into power of the Soviet Union here and

31:42.599 --> 31:44.766
that's where you really start to see ,

31:44.766 --> 31:46.920
uh , the vast build up , uh , great

31:46.920 --> 31:50.880
expansion of the Soviet Union's , uh ,

31:51.989 --> 31:54.790
Armed capability , military capability

31:55.150 --> 31:57.349
through the 70s and 80s to the peak in

31:57.349 --> 31:59.829
the late 80s where we finally prevailed

31:59.829 --> 32:01.996
at the , uh , the end . This is , this

32:01.996 --> 32:04.162
is not a direct parallel to what we're

32:04.162 --> 32:07.780
living through right now . The scale of

32:07.780 --> 32:10.058
growth of the People's Liberation Army .

32:10.560 --> 32:14.189
It exceeds what the Soviet Union did

32:14.189 --> 32:16.430
and the Warsaw Pact did during the Cold

32:16.430 --> 32:18.979
War , but there's rough parallels there .

32:18.989 --> 32:20.989
And how do we successfully navigate

32:20.989 --> 32:23.322
that ? Go to next slide for me , please .

32:23.510 --> 32:25.510
So if you look at the , this is the

32:25.510 --> 32:27.621
report 1988 on the status of forces ,

32:27.621 --> 32:29.788
go to the next slide . Here's a figure

32:29.788 --> 32:31.954
from that report which just shows kind

32:31.954 --> 32:34.121
of the order of battle comparison . We

32:34.121 --> 32:34.030
were never going to be able to with the

32:34.030 --> 32:36.739
Warsaw Pact on numbers . Depending on

32:36.739 --> 32:38.961
which weapon that you looked at , which

32:38.961 --> 32:40.683
category divisions , number of

32:40.683 --> 32:44.329
airplanes , etc . etc . The Soviets in

32:44.329 --> 32:48.329
Warsaw Pact axis outnumbered us by 2 to

32:48.329 --> 32:51.630
13 to 1 , in some cases 8 to 1 on a

32:51.630 --> 32:54.109
force ratio . We were not going to

32:54.109 --> 32:57.910
compete on numbers . We made a decision

32:57.910 --> 33:00.270
in the 1980s and it happened here in

33:00.270 --> 33:02.103
the aerospace Valley . We made a

33:02.103 --> 33:04.270
decision that we were going to compete

33:04.270 --> 33:06.492
on technology . Next slide please . And

33:06.492 --> 33:08.492
so we invested what we now call the

33:08.492 --> 33:10.714
second offset . We invested in a series

33:10.714 --> 33:13.810
of tech technological leaps . In order

33:13.810 --> 33:16.032
to counter the strength in numbers that

33:16.032 --> 33:18.819
the Soviets had . So that's where we

33:18.819 --> 33:21.020
saw the investment in stealth in

33:21.020 --> 33:24.949
precision navigation GPS . Laser guided

33:24.949 --> 33:27.171
bombs , command and control , all these

33:27.171 --> 33:29.005
capabilities were developed here

33:29.005 --> 33:31.227
largely . I mean they were developed in

33:31.227 --> 33:33.393
a lot of places . The vast majority of

33:33.393 --> 33:35.393
those efforts and those development

33:35.393 --> 33:37.560
efforts happened here in the aerospace

33:37.560 --> 33:40.410
Valley . And this is why the Cold War

33:40.410 --> 33:43.560
ended . The Soviets could not keep up

33:43.560 --> 33:46.810
with us . And so we successfully

33:46.810 --> 33:49.869
navigated . You know , World War II

33:49.869 --> 33:52.036
could have been with nuclear weapons ,

33:52.036 --> 33:54.091
and nuclear exchange would have been

33:54.091 --> 33:56.147
likely civilization ending , and the

33:56.147 --> 33:58.258
fact that we're here today is because

33:58.258 --> 34:00.313
we successfully navigated the end of

34:00.313 --> 34:02.536
the Cold War . The difference now is we

34:02.536 --> 34:04.869
in the 1980s , as we ended the Cold War ,

34:04.869 --> 34:06.980
we had a technological advantage over

34:06.980 --> 34:09.147
the Soviet Union . The Soviets did not

34:09.147 --> 34:12.959
have this . We no longer call the

34:12.959 --> 34:14.681
People's Repub or the People's

34:14.681 --> 34:16.820
Liberation Army . We no longer call

34:16.820 --> 34:20.009
them a near peer adversary . They are a

34:20.009 --> 34:22.629
pure adversary . Next slide please .

34:23.948 --> 34:26.208
Uh , and so if we look at , uh , what

34:26.208 --> 34:28.375
has happened since the end of the Cold

34:28.375 --> 34:30.264
War , uh , well there's , there's

34:30.264 --> 34:33.329
really been 3 , epochs of time , you

34:33.329 --> 34:35.329
know , so we had the Cold War , the

34:35.329 --> 34:37.440
Cold War ended . And then we had this

34:39.129 --> 34:41.351
It was the end of history . There was a

34:41.351 --> 34:44.479
book by a Japanese historian , Fukuama ,

34:44.560 --> 34:46.616
I think it was his name , I might be

34:46.616 --> 34:48.449
butchering his name , The End of

34:48.449 --> 34:50.393
History . So there was this , this

34:50.393 --> 34:52.393
unipolar moment . Where we took the

34:52.393 --> 34:54.560
peace dividend . This is the time that

34:54.560 --> 34:56.616
I was at the Air Force Academy . The

34:56.616 --> 34:58.782
Air Force was downsizing and the armed

34:58.782 --> 34:58.669
forces were downsizing because we

34:58.669 --> 35:00.780
didn't need it anymore . And it was ,

35:00.780 --> 35:03.058
it was actually a great momentary time ,

35:03.058 --> 35:05.002
another period of great growth and

35:05.002 --> 35:07.770
prosperity through the 90s . That ended

35:07.770 --> 35:10.010
on 9/11 . And so we see these three

35:10.010 --> 35:12.129
epochs were separated by two

35:12.129 --> 35:14.729
culminating events . The Berlin Wall ,

35:14.810 --> 35:16.866
the end of the Cold War , was one of

35:16.866 --> 35:18.810
those culminating events . Another

35:18.810 --> 35:20.977
culminating event was 9/11 . The world

35:20.977 --> 35:23.949
changed on September 11 , 2001 . And

35:23.949 --> 35:25.838
that's where we entered this this

35:25.838 --> 35:28.750
period of violent violent extremism .

35:29.479 --> 35:32.370
And we had the global war on terror to

35:32.370 --> 35:35.060
counter . That violent extremism .

35:36.689 --> 35:39.610
That is now over , thankfully . But

35:39.610 --> 35:41.777
unfortunately we are entering this new

35:41.777 --> 35:44.959
era of great power competition . We

35:44.959 --> 35:47.239
have not had a culminating event that

35:47.239 --> 35:50.449
has defined the start . Of that period

35:50.449 --> 35:53.510
of great power competition . At least

35:53.510 --> 35:56.899
not yet . And that's the question , is ,

35:57.020 --> 35:58.964
is there going to be a culminating

35:58.964 --> 36:00.964
event that wakes us up ? And that's

36:00.964 --> 36:03.131
part of the reason I want to , I , I'm

36:03.131 --> 36:05.353
so grateful for the willingness we have

36:05.353 --> 36:05.030
got all the right players here to start

36:05.030 --> 36:08.110
to have this . This discussion ,

36:08.679 --> 36:10.840
uh , with the community because it

36:10.840 --> 36:12.507
could very likely be that the

36:12.507 --> 36:15.310
culminating event is here , uh ,

36:15.600 --> 36:18.020
attacks on our infrastructure that

36:18.030 --> 36:21.679
affects everything . Next slide . Uh ,

36:21.800 --> 36:24.078
and so it's worthwhile going back , uh ,

36:24.078 --> 36:26.189
as we're talking comedy events , just

36:26.189 --> 36:27.967
to go back and take a look at a

36:27.967 --> 36:29.856
historical come event since we're

36:29.856 --> 36:31.633
taking a peek at history . Uh ,

36:31.633 --> 36:33.633
everybody probably recognizes Pearl

36:33.633 --> 36:35.856
Harbor . This is 18 months before Pearl

36:35.856 --> 36:39.500
Harbor . Interestingly enough , 18

36:39.500 --> 36:41.444
years prior to that , go and build

36:41.444 --> 36:43.556
twice for me . So that's uh Brigadier

36:43.556 --> 36:45.760
General William Billy Mitchell , a

36:45.760 --> 36:48.530
staunch early advocate of air power .

36:49.290 --> 36:52.540
Uh , in 1924 , he wrote a report and

36:52.540 --> 36:55.500
you can read what he wrote there . 18

36:55.500 --> 36:57.979
years before Pearl Harbor happened , he

36:57.979 --> 37:01.949
did Pearl Harbor . He

37:01.949 --> 37:04.171
was off by a little bit . He was off by

37:04.171 --> 37:07.389
18 minutes . The actual attack , it was

37:07.389 --> 37:09.611
on a Sunday morning . He says the , the

37:09.611 --> 37:11.445
attack didn't happen on a Sunday

37:11.445 --> 37:13.989
morning at 7:30 a.m. The first bombs

37:13.989 --> 37:16.211
actually dropped and the torpedoes were

37:16.211 --> 37:18.045
dropped at 7:48 a.m. on a Sunday

37:18.045 --> 37:20.669
morning . He actually got closer with

37:20.719 --> 37:23.080
with Clark Field in the Philippines ,

37:23.159 --> 37:25.570
different time zone . He said 10:40 was

37:25.570 --> 37:28.229
actually 10:30 , and he did it just by

37:28.239 --> 37:30.699
by based on geography and math , you

37:30.699 --> 37:32.921
know , how long do airplanes fly . They

37:32.921 --> 37:34.866
want to take off of the carriers ,

37:34.866 --> 37:37.032
launch from carriers at sunrise . They

37:37.032 --> 37:39.032
need to fly . Um , he predicted the

37:39.032 --> 37:42.310
targets . We kind of ignored him He was

37:42.310 --> 37:44.477
a bit of a zealot . He was an airpower

37:44.477 --> 37:45.866
zealot . He was actually

37:45.866 --> 37:47.921
court-martialed by the army . He was

37:47.921 --> 37:51.469
ultimately given , uh , there's , it

37:51.469 --> 37:53.429
was misreported once it's the

37:53.429 --> 37:55.318
Congressional Medal of Honor . It

37:55.318 --> 37:57.651
wasn't the Medal of Honor , but he , uh ,

37:57.651 --> 37:57.310
he did receive very high honors

37:57.310 --> 37:59.540
posthumously , uh , for kind of his ,

37:59.590 --> 38:03.379
uh , his airpower advocacy , um , but

38:03.629 --> 38:05.796
we didn't listen to him . Go ahead and

38:05.796 --> 38:07.851
get into the next slide . And , uh ,

38:07.851 --> 38:10.073
and of course , that's what happened on

38:10.073 --> 38:12.240
that Sunday morning in 1942 . December

38:12.240 --> 38:14.351
7th , 1942 , that day that we'll live

38:14.351 --> 38:16.462
in infamy . And we didn't listen . 18

38:16.462 --> 38:18.685
years prior , he told us , with only 18

38:18.685 --> 38:20.840
minutes of air . If Admiral Hirohito

38:21.409 --> 38:24.239
had said , hey , on Sunday morning at

38:24.239 --> 38:26.560
7:30 , we're gonna bomb Pearl Harbor .

38:27.659 --> 38:29.548
We might have listened to Admiral

38:29.548 --> 38:32.560
Hirohito . Uh , or the , or actually ,

38:32.679 --> 38:34.901
uh , Admiral Yamamoto , uh , it was the

38:34.901 --> 38:36.735
Emperor Hirohito . We might have

38:36.735 --> 38:38.846
listened to the Emperor of Hirohito ,

38:38.846 --> 38:40.957
if the , you know , if Hirohito , the

38:40.957 --> 38:40.689
emperor of Japan , had said , we're

38:40.689 --> 38:43.909
going to bomb Japan , just so you know .

38:45.360 --> 38:47.582
We might have listened What if Chairman

38:47.582 --> 38:49.582
Xi tells us what he's going to do ?

38:50.330 --> 38:52.959
Would we pay attention ? Next slide .

39:04.520 --> 39:06.939
So this date of 2027 .

39:08.409 --> 39:10.465
Actually , the closer we get to it ,

39:10.465 --> 39:12.631
the less worried that I am . The state

39:12.631 --> 39:14.742
has changed significantly over time .

39:14.742 --> 39:17.076
So when Chairman Xi first came to power ,

39:17.389 --> 39:19.111
First seize power and he's now

39:19.111 --> 39:21.222
rewritten the constitution . Normally

39:21.222 --> 39:23.333
chairman can only serve for a 10-year

39:23.333 --> 39:23.110
term . He has rewritten the

39:23.110 --> 39:25.332
constitution so he can serve as long as

39:25.332 --> 39:27.554
he wants to . And his father lived into

39:27.554 --> 39:29.499
his 90s , if I'm not mistaken . So

39:29.499 --> 39:31.666
Chairman Xi could be around for a long

39:31.666 --> 39:34.399
time . And he's also systematically

39:34.399 --> 39:36.189
eliminated all of his political

39:36.189 --> 39:38.189
opposition in the Chinese Communist

39:38.189 --> 39:40.889
Party , so he has a lock hold . And so

39:40.889 --> 39:43.000
I don't , we don't talk about China .

39:43.409 --> 39:45.631
As a nation , we talk about the Chinese

39:45.631 --> 39:47.576
Communist Party . There's a single

39:47.576 --> 39:49.409
authoritarian rule that dictates

39:49.409 --> 39:51.187
everything . It's authoritarian

39:51.187 --> 39:53.076
dictatorship . And by the Chinese

39:53.076 --> 39:55.076
Communist Party , since there is no

39:55.076 --> 39:57.298
political opposition , it's pretty much

39:57.298 --> 39:57.239
what Chairman Xi thinks . So that's why

39:57.239 --> 39:59.128
we can talk about what one person

39:59.128 --> 40:01.239
thinks , and that's why we're , we're

40:01.239 --> 40:03.295
often trying to communicate directly

40:03.295 --> 40:05.517
with him , um , that look , don't start

40:05.517 --> 40:07.628
World War 3 because we got the B-21 .

40:07.628 --> 40:10.600
Um , but , so originally in 2013 , he

40:10.600 --> 40:12.656
want , he gave the PLA , he says , I

40:12.656 --> 40:15.280
want a modern , I want a modern

40:15.280 --> 40:18.760
military . And then about the 2019 time

40:18.760 --> 40:22.560
frame he gave it 2035 and then he

40:22.560 --> 40:25.479
moved that date up to 2032 . And then

40:25.479 --> 40:27.560
he's , he's moved it forward , so he

40:27.560 --> 40:29.560
has moved it back in time to give a

40:29.560 --> 40:31.671
more aggressive target because he's ,

40:31.671 --> 40:34.810
he is afraid . Of an inability and so

40:34.810 --> 40:37.840
that 2027 date is the latest date and ,

40:37.899 --> 40:40.530
and I'm gonna show you the growth that

40:40.530 --> 40:43.080
China has made towards that 2027 and it

40:43.080 --> 40:45.302
is absolutely staggering . So go to the

40:45.302 --> 40:47.469
next slide for me , please . So here's

40:47.469 --> 40:49.939
the , uh , uh , and it's also , it's ,

40:50.000 --> 40:53.280
it's a bit incorrect historically to

40:53.280 --> 40:55.510
talk about a reunification of Taiwan ,

40:56.040 --> 40:58.040
except for a brief period of time ,

40:58.040 --> 41:00.318
Taiwan has been an independent country .

41:00.318 --> 41:02.318
It's actually spent more time under

41:02.318 --> 41:05.250
Japanese control . Then it has mainland

41:05.250 --> 41:09.110
China control . It was

41:09.110 --> 41:11.277
the only reason it came on our chain .

41:11.277 --> 41:14.320
It was actually part of the negotiated

41:15.060 --> 41:17.739
treaty at the end of World War II that

41:17.739 --> 41:19.820
China got . But then of course when

41:19.820 --> 41:22.590
China had their revolution , Mao Zedong ,

41:22.939 --> 41:25.219
and then they , you know , the

41:25.219 --> 41:27.379
nationalist China fell back onto the

41:27.379 --> 41:30.209
island of Formosa . So it's not correct

41:30.209 --> 41:32.376
to talk about a reunification . That's

41:32.376 --> 41:34.542
the language that Chairman Xi wants us

41:34.542 --> 41:36.870
to use . It's actually a forced

41:36.870 --> 41:40.060
unification . It would be a more proper

41:40.060 --> 41:42.393
way to talk about it , but , but here's ,

41:42.393 --> 41:44.560
here's the challenge . It's only about

41:44.560 --> 41:47.260
90 miles across the strait here . So

41:47.260 --> 41:49.316
there's a , you know , we don't talk

41:49.316 --> 41:51.371
about , you know , normally you have

41:51.371 --> 41:53.593
international airspace or international

41:53.593 --> 41:55.538
you have waters exclusive economic

41:55.538 --> 41:57.427
zones out to 200 nautical miles .

41:57.427 --> 41:59.427
You've got 12 miles off the coast .

41:59.427 --> 42:01.482
There's an AI that's typically , you

42:01.482 --> 42:03.538
know , out there several 100 miles .

42:03.538 --> 42:03.250
You don't have that territory there ,

42:03.260 --> 42:05.316
so we talk about the median line and

42:05.316 --> 42:07.038
I'll show you the stats of how

42:07.038 --> 42:09.300
frequently . The People's Liberation

42:09.300 --> 42:12.280
Army is violating that line , but

42:12.280 --> 42:15.020
here's the challenge is how do you get

42:15.020 --> 42:17.298
all your forces from here over to here ?

42:17.298 --> 42:19.464
That's why Taichung Airport sits right

42:19.464 --> 42:21.939
there . Uh , and this is a translation .

42:22.129 --> 42:23.929
So this is a screenshot from an

42:23.929 --> 42:26.810
internal People's Liberation Army plan .

42:26.929 --> 42:29.629
can you see all these ports here . Um ,

42:29.979 --> 42:32.312
you know , that's part of the challenge .

42:32.312 --> 42:34.423
There's only 5 deepwater ports on the

42:34.423 --> 42:36.479
island of Taiwan . Of course they're

42:36.479 --> 42:38.646
heavily defended . You know , which is

42:38.646 --> 42:40.979
a good idea , right , if you want peace ,

42:40.979 --> 42:42.979
prepare for war , but China's got a

42:42.979 --> 42:45.201
plan for that next slide . So you don't

42:45.201 --> 42:47.879
need a deep water port . So this is a

42:47.879 --> 42:50.070
new satellite imagery from just a

42:50.070 --> 42:51.870
couple of weeks ago . These are

42:51.870 --> 42:54.037
relocatable piers . Go ahead and go to

42:54.037 --> 42:56.969
the next slide . Uh , so these are each

42:56.969 --> 42:59.191
independent ships , these little gantry

42:59.191 --> 43:01.909
things here , so you can actually sail

43:01.909 --> 43:04.187
across the 90 miles . You link them up .

43:05.030 --> 43:07.086
And you can go about 1 mile out into

43:07.086 --> 43:09.308
open water , so you actually don't need

43:09.308 --> 43:11.474
a deep water port , and you just bring

43:11.474 --> 43:13.641
up a roll on roll off , and tanks just

43:13.641 --> 43:15.641
roll right off there onto the beach

43:15.641 --> 43:15.300
wherever you want .

43:19.629 --> 43:22.060
They're actively doing this right now .

43:23.030 --> 43:24.899
In plain sight . Next slide .

43:29.850 --> 43:31.628
This is their shipping building

43:31.628 --> 43:34.199
capacity . They have 200 , there's

43:34.199 --> 43:37.580
dozens . State-owned

43:37.580 --> 43:40.270
yards . In China

43:43.040 --> 43:46.159
We have 4 They have 230 times the

43:46.159 --> 43:50.090
capacity . Just one shipyard .

43:51.520 --> 43:55.330
In China last year alone in 2024 .

43:56.229 --> 43:58.451
Built more tonnage of ships than the US

43:58.451 --> 44:01.669
did since the end of World War II .

44:02.449 --> 44:05.199
In one year they built more ships than

44:05.199 --> 44:08.120
we have built by tonnage . Which is

44:08.120 --> 44:10.176
what matters that we built since the

44:10.176 --> 44:12.969
end of World War II . Next slide .

44:14.939 --> 44:16.995
And they're not just , you know , we

44:16.995 --> 44:19.439
used to count law just cheap China

44:19.439 --> 44:20.995
technology . We've got that

44:20.995 --> 44:22.995
technological advantage like we had

44:22.995 --> 44:25.161
with the Soviets . It's not . China is

44:25.161 --> 44:27.328
now a modern force . This is a stealth

44:27.328 --> 44:29.439
frigate . They just commissioned this

44:29.439 --> 44:32.629
ship in January . This is a frigate .

44:32.659 --> 44:34.492
It's designed for anti-submarine

44:34.492 --> 44:36.215
warfare , so that's one of the

44:36.215 --> 44:38.437
advantages that we still have over over

44:38.437 --> 44:40.492
the People's Liberation Army Navy is

44:40.492 --> 44:41.992
our submarine technology .

44:41.992 --> 44:44.103
Unfortunately , the streets of Taiwan

44:44.103 --> 44:46.610
are very , very shallow , pretty easy

44:46.610 --> 44:48.850
to find submarines , and if you want to

44:48.850 --> 44:50.961
go after submarines , this is how you

44:50.961 --> 44:53.017
do it . These are stealth frigates ,

44:53.017 --> 44:55.128
specifically designed for area denial

44:55.128 --> 44:57.389
anti-submarine warfare . Very , very

44:57.389 --> 44:59.611
modern . Next slide . And they have the

44:59.611 --> 45:01.722
capacity to build lots of these . And

45:01.722 --> 45:04.070
so , this is , this was the order of

45:04.070 --> 45:06.750
battle in the Pacific , uh , uh , where

45:06.750 --> 45:08.972
April now , so this was two years ago .

45:08.972 --> 45:11.580
This is in March of 23 . And already

45:11.580 --> 45:13.358
you can see , you know , just a

45:13.358 --> 45:15.469
comparison , these are not all of our

45:15.469 --> 45:18.020
forces , this is just our forces across

45:18.020 --> 45:19.798
the Air Force and Navy that are

45:19.798 --> 45:22.620
deployed to the Indo-Pecom theater . So

45:22.620 --> 45:24.919
this is what is underneath the , uh ,

45:24.929 --> 45:27.439
the PACO commander . Uh , but we are

45:27.439 --> 45:30.709
vastly outnumbered , uh , by the , uh ,

45:30.719 --> 45:32.989
by the People's Liberation Army . Uh ,

45:33.120 --> 45:36.870
next slide . This is what is projected

45:36.870 --> 45:38.537
the intelligence unclassified

45:38.537 --> 45:41.969
intelligence prediction for 2027 . So

45:41.969 --> 45:44.820
go ahead , Mary , go back for me . And

45:44.820 --> 45:47.209
they go forward And do it one more time .

45:50.780 --> 45:53.002
And for there we go . And the important

45:53.002 --> 45:55.169
thing is that you know these are fifth

45:55.169 --> 45:59.050
gen so these type 055 , these are These

45:59.050 --> 46:01.272
are stealth destroyers . Those are what

46:01.272 --> 46:03.439
are designed to go out and protect the

46:03.439 --> 46:05.606
aircraft carriers now , uh , that , so

46:05.606 --> 46:09.090
the J-35 is a , is a stealth 5th gen

46:09.090 --> 46:11.850
stealth carrier capable fighter that

46:11.850 --> 46:14.199
the People's Liberation Army has , uh ,

46:14.409 --> 46:16.242
advanced submarines , hypersonic

46:16.242 --> 46:18.353
missiles . This force is specifically

46:18.353 --> 46:21.949
designed to counter our strengths . And

46:21.949 --> 46:24.229
for them to be for Chairman Xi , when

46:24.229 --> 46:26.340
he makes , when he wants to , when he

46:26.340 --> 46:28.285
says , well , now's the time , and

46:28.285 --> 46:30.229
China is going to emerge from 6000

46:30.229 --> 46:32.070
years of history and exert its

46:32.070 --> 46:34.126
dominance , its regional dominance ,

46:34.126 --> 46:36.199
and then rewrite the rule order . It

46:36.199 --> 46:38.199
has the capability to do that if it

46:38.199 --> 46:41.600
wants to . Next slide . And

46:42.840 --> 46:46.189
They're aggressively doing that . So

46:46.199 --> 46:49.610
this is the largest naval

46:49.610 --> 46:52.699
operation in the Pacific since World

46:52.699 --> 46:55.600
War II happened last December over 3

46:55.600 --> 46:59.350
days . It was the island of Taiwan

46:59.350 --> 47:02.620
was completely encircled . There were

47:02.620 --> 47:05.100
picket lines set out out here by the

47:05.100 --> 47:06.878
People's Liberation Army Navy .

47:09.629 --> 47:11.796
Normally , so for example , when we do

47:11.796 --> 47:14.320
RIMPAC , we announce years in advance ,

47:14.389 --> 47:16.445
hey , we're about to do RIMPAC , you

47:16.445 --> 47:19.310
know , big exercise , coalition allies ,

47:19.350 --> 47:21.572
we're all gonna to partner together and

47:21.572 --> 47:23.683
it's , it's gonna happen 3 years from

47:23.683 --> 47:23.469
now . We plan for it , everybody knows

47:23.469 --> 47:25.691
it's gonna happen , people steer out of

47:25.691 --> 47:27.840
the way . China just did this without

47:27.840 --> 47:30.007
telling the world what it's doing . It

47:30.007 --> 47:32.118
could have been the start , in fact ,

47:32.118 --> 47:31.800
for a while there it looked like the

47:31.800 --> 47:34.540
invasion had started . Because because

47:34.550 --> 47:36.383
the navy just showed up and they

47:36.383 --> 47:38.272
surrounded Taiwan , did they just

47:38.272 --> 47:41.320
blockade the island ? So that was the

47:41.320 --> 47:43.487
largest naval operation , close to 100

47:43.487 --> 47:46.949
navy ships in coordination . Uh , here

47:46.949 --> 47:49.449
are , uh , all of the , uh , the events

47:49.449 --> 47:53.010
since 2021 , all the operations to

47:53.010 --> 47:56.649
include just last month as well , all

47:56.649 --> 47:58.770
these dots right here . Again ,

47:58.929 --> 48:00.949
unannounced until it started , the

48:00.949 --> 48:03.171
People's Liberation Army and Navy put 3

48:03.171 --> 48:05.393
ships between Australia and New Zealand

48:05.393 --> 48:07.505
and started launching live missiles ,

48:07.505 --> 48:09.629
doing live fire exercises . Now they

48:09.629 --> 48:12.560
did tell Australia . When they started

48:12.560 --> 48:14.727
firing , they said , hey , oh , by the

48:14.727 --> 48:16.893
way , we're going to be out here doing

48:16.893 --> 48:19.116
a live fire exercise . Australia had to

48:19.116 --> 48:19.040
reroute commercial air traffic that was

48:19.040 --> 48:21.889
already in the air . To avoid the area .

48:22.080 --> 48:24.399
Again , no warning whatsoever . After

48:24.399 --> 48:26.399
they got done firing those missiles

48:26.399 --> 48:28.399
there , uh , those 3 ships actually

48:28.399 --> 48:30.121
then sailed all the way around

48:30.121 --> 48:32.343
Australia before they went home . Again

48:32.343 --> 48:34.177
sending a very , very deliberate

48:34.177 --> 48:37.899
message . Again , I , I don't

48:37.899 --> 48:40.066
like that . It's not a reunification ,

48:40.080 --> 48:42.379
it's a forced unification . Next slide .

48:43.929 --> 48:46.300
And so if we look at , you know , in

48:46.300 --> 48:48.919
the really the just just since 2022 ,

48:49.000 --> 48:51.000
this is the number of incursions so

48:51.000 --> 48:52.556
that again that air defense

48:52.556 --> 48:54.611
identification zone . Uh , so in the

48:54.611 --> 48:56.833
case of Taiwan , it's the median line .

48:56.833 --> 48:58.833
So 90 miles across , we drew a line

48:58.833 --> 49:01.111
right down the middle and we said , OK ,

49:01.111 --> 49:02.889
over here , that's the People's

49:02.889 --> 49:04.944
Republic of China , over here . It's

49:04.944 --> 49:07.159
the island of Taiwan's and it's just

49:07.159 --> 49:09.479
they're what they're trying to do is

49:09.479 --> 49:12.709
desensitize us from incursions . Into

49:12.709 --> 49:14.820
that . So we're into hundreds and you

49:14.820 --> 49:17.010
can see that China does it , uh , in

49:17.010 --> 49:19.121
response or provocatively as they see

49:19.121 --> 49:20.899
fit . You know , this little uh

49:20.899 --> 49:23.121
decrease right here was right after the

49:23.121 --> 49:26.709
election . And then they can ramp back

49:26.709 --> 49:29.750
up any time they want . Next slide .

49:31.729 --> 49:33.951
And so this is where I'm going to bring

49:33.951 --> 49:36.062
it back to the airspace Valley . Um ,

49:36.062 --> 49:38.173
you know , it's , it's really easy to

49:38.173 --> 49:40.396
say , OK , well , all right , so that's

49:40.396 --> 49:42.285
Taiwan . Uh , even if they're not

49:42.285 --> 49:44.451
ethnic Chinese or , you know , there's

49:44.451 --> 49:44.310
a different heritage and they're not

49:44.310 --> 49:46.310
quite Chinese , they're , they're ,

49:46.310 --> 49:48.588
they're still Eastern Asian , and , uh ,

49:48.588 --> 49:50.643
you know , it's , so maybe we should

49:50.643 --> 49:52.810
just kind of let that go and not start

49:52.810 --> 49:55.088
World War II over the island of Taiwan .

49:55.088 --> 49:57.620
95% of the advanced microchips . are

49:57.620 --> 50:01.020
built in Taiwanese fabs by TRMC .

50:02.500 --> 50:04.611
TSMC TRMC is something different than

50:04.611 --> 50:08.149
we do up at Edwards . TSMC 95% of the

50:08.149 --> 50:09.371
advanced microchips .

50:12.070 --> 50:14.348
Now we're in the process of , you know ,

50:14.348 --> 50:16.570
building some some fabs here . We don't

50:16.570 --> 50:16.350
have them . So one of the , one of the

50:16.350 --> 50:18.294
things that we have tried to do as

50:18.294 --> 50:20.406
artificial intelligence , again we're

50:20.406 --> 50:22.461
one of those inflection points , you

50:22.461 --> 50:24.517
know , a decisive decade for another

50:24.517 --> 50:26.669
reason . is we are denying the export

50:26.669 --> 50:28.959
export controls on advanced microchips

50:28.959 --> 50:32.790
to China . Do you think

50:32.790 --> 50:34.679
Chairman Xi would have any qualms

50:34.679 --> 50:36.790
whatsoever if they took over Taiwan ?

50:36.790 --> 50:38.901
of denying access to those microchips

50:39.139 --> 50:41.889
now that they are writing the rules to

50:41.889 --> 50:45.639
the US . So it

50:45.639 --> 50:48.669
does matter for , for lots of reasons .

50:49.040 --> 50:53.040
Um , China is , has , has built a ,

50:53.199 --> 50:55.366
you know , at a staggering speed . The

50:55.366 --> 50:57.588
rate at which they've they've built all

50:57.588 --> 50:59.588
those ships and built that navy and

50:59.588 --> 51:01.477
built that air force , built that

51:01.477 --> 51:03.477
rocket force , built the hypersonic

51:03.477 --> 51:06.959
missiles has been staggering . But they

51:06.959 --> 51:08.848
do more than that . They are also

51:08.848 --> 51:11.360
targeting . Our critical infrastructure

51:11.360 --> 51:14.719
right here . We know that the Chinese

51:14.719 --> 51:18.139
have infiltrated . Our electrical grids .

51:18.260 --> 51:20.260
There is Chinese malware on all the

51:20.260 --> 51:23.050
scalar systems that control electric

51:23.050 --> 51:25.250
power communications . The first

51:25.250 --> 51:27.780
indication that we have that the

51:27.780 --> 51:29.669
invasion of Taiwan has started is

51:29.669 --> 51:31.780
probably that the lights go out . And

51:31.780 --> 51:33.947
that the cellular network doesn't work

51:33.947 --> 51:36.113
anymore . If it did work and you could

51:36.113 --> 51:38.280
still log into your bank account , you

51:38.280 --> 51:40.502
might not actually see anything because

51:40.502 --> 51:39.810
all the records might be , might be

51:39.810 --> 51:41.754
scrambled and might be confusing .

51:42.409 --> 51:44.409
There's a way to actually attack us

51:44.409 --> 51:47.610
without attacking us . Next slide .

51:48.780 --> 51:51.058
And so just as an indication , it just ,

51:51.058 --> 51:53.336
and it , it wouldn't be that easy . So ,

51:53.336 --> 51:55.558
uh , if you remember that a blackout in

51:55.558 --> 51:57.447
2003 that affected the , uh , the

51:57.447 --> 51:59.502
entire Northeast , um , and so we're

51:59.502 --> 52:01.502
talking about the , the Eastern air

52:01.502 --> 52:03.724
connect . There's 3 different regions .

52:03.724 --> 52:05.613
Uh , when you , uh , when you put

52:05.613 --> 52:07.836
current down wires , they tend to sag .

52:07.836 --> 52:07.250
So during the summertime when the

52:07.250 --> 52:09.919
wind's not blowing . Uh , the

52:09.919 --> 52:12.719
electrical wires can sag , and if it

52:12.719 --> 52:14.886
turns out that there's trees there and

52:14.886 --> 52:17.239
you they sag into a tree , you can

52:17.239 --> 52:19.239
actually short out a line . So that

52:19.239 --> 52:21.461
actually happened in Ohio . This little

52:21.461 --> 52:23.760
line going up to Cleveland sagged into

52:23.760 --> 52:27.080
the line . So that one came off , got

52:27.080 --> 52:29.191
was kicked offline because it shorted

52:29.191 --> 52:31.524
out . Not a big deal , pretty resilient ,

52:31.524 --> 52:33.691
right ? But then the next one sagged .

52:33.879 --> 52:36.046
Because it was carrying more current .

52:36.070 --> 52:38.340
It kicked offline , so now more current

52:38.340 --> 52:40.562
is flowing this way . That one sagged ,

52:40.580 --> 52:43.209
that one sagged . Now all of this power

52:43.209 --> 52:45.709
is flowing just from there . That

52:45.709 --> 52:48.790
actually sets off a chain reaction of

52:48.790 --> 52:51.030
reactive power being out of sync with

52:51.030 --> 52:53.659
the rest of the grid . And leads to a

52:53.659 --> 52:57.449
rapid Domino effect of

52:57.449 --> 53:00.810
the entire grid going down . It's it's

53:00.810 --> 53:03.090
fairly balanced , finely balanced all

53:03.090 --> 53:05.969
the time , and if you disrupt it , the

53:05.969 --> 53:08.290
entire system can collapse , and that's

53:08.290 --> 53:11.010
exactly what happened . Ultimately , 55

53:11.010 --> 53:14.070
million people lost power . 100 people

53:14.070 --> 53:16.459
died during this from the power loss ,

53:16.469 --> 53:18.691
and it was only for a couple of hours .

53:18.691 --> 53:20.913
Think about if the electrical grid goes

53:20.913 --> 53:23.840
down for 6 months . Because that could

53:23.840 --> 53:26.159
happen . Now the system is not as

53:26.159 --> 53:28.929
fragile as it was in 2003 . But that

53:28.929 --> 53:31.870
was , that was a treat . That was just

53:31.870 --> 53:34.110
a natural warm summer day . Everybody

53:34.110 --> 53:36.277
turned their air conditioners on , the

53:36.277 --> 53:38.443
lines going now we don't have a lot of

53:38.443 --> 53:40.277
trees around here , but there is

53:40.277 --> 53:42.443
Chinese malware in the skar systems on

53:42.443 --> 53:44.332
our grid . They are in all of our

53:44.332 --> 53:46.499
critical infrastructure . Next slide .

53:47.840 --> 53:50.939
So China has

53:51.310 --> 53:54.709
more cyber operators than the rest of

53:54.709 --> 53:56.876
the world combined . There was , there

53:56.876 --> 53:58.931
was an article in The Economist last

53:58.931 --> 54:01.098
week tracking the hacking is what it's

54:01.098 --> 54:03.389
titled that overviews all of the

54:03.389 --> 54:05.111
operations that China has done

54:05.111 --> 54:07.000
everywhere that they are and by a

54:07.000 --> 54:09.111
person for person . In fact , earlier

54:09.111 --> 54:11.278
it is actually at the start of March ,

54:11.278 --> 54:13.111
we're now in April , but we just

54:13.111 --> 54:15.333
indicted 12 named . People's Liberation

54:15.333 --> 54:17.556
Army cyber operators , uh , we indicted

54:17.556 --> 54:19.889
them in federal court . Now , of course ,

54:19.889 --> 54:21.889
they're living in China . So unless

54:21.889 --> 54:23.945
they ever come here , we're probably

54:23.945 --> 54:25.889
never actually going to , uh , but

54:25.889 --> 54:28.000
we've identified them . Uh , go ahead

54:28.000 --> 54:30.179
and bill for me . So this is a list

54:30.179 --> 54:32.919
since 2024 of all the cyberattacks ,

54:33.080 --> 54:35.302
named cyberattacks , known cyberattacks

54:35.302 --> 54:38.120
from China originating from China . The

54:38.120 --> 54:40.280
designation that we use typhoons are

54:40.280 --> 54:42.280
attacks that originate from China .

54:42.280 --> 54:44.280
Dust storms are ones that come from

54:44.280 --> 54:46.391
Iran . Blizzards are cyber operations

54:46.391 --> 54:49.219
that start from Russia . These are the

54:49.219 --> 54:51.330
named operations . Go ahead and build

54:51.330 --> 54:53.441
for me and I'll mention just a couple

54:53.441 --> 54:55.663
of them . So Volt Typhoon , we've known

54:55.663 --> 54:58.050
about since 2019 , 2020 time frame .

54:58.379 --> 55:01.219
This is Chinese malware in all of our

55:01.219 --> 55:03.108
critical infrastructure , water ,

55:03.108 --> 55:05.959
electrical , communications , oil .

55:07.439 --> 55:10.169
Air traffic control They're in the sca

55:10.169 --> 55:12.502
of systems . We know that they're there .

55:12.530 --> 55:15.370
We can't actually get them out . So

55:15.370 --> 55:18.290
that's Volt typhoon . Uh , we've known

55:18.290 --> 55:20.457
about that one for several years now .

55:20.457 --> 55:23.719
What just emerged , uh , late last fall .

55:24.459 --> 55:28.310
A salt typhoon . Salt Typhoon , it's ,

55:28.699 --> 55:31.060
we know it's been going on since 2021 .

55:31.139 --> 55:33.580
This is 9 different US telecoms

55:33.580 --> 55:36.479
companies . Uh , have been acknowledged

55:36.479 --> 55:38.368
that the Chinese have have gotten

55:38.368 --> 55:40.201
access to their servers and have

55:40.201 --> 55:42.257
complete phone records of all of the

55:42.257 --> 55:43.535
phone calls from those

55:43.535 --> 55:45.368
telecommunications to include my

55:45.368 --> 55:48.290
government phone . To include when he

55:48.290 --> 55:51.580
was candidate for president . Candidate

55:51.580 --> 55:54.340
Trump , Mr . Trump . They have all of

55:54.340 --> 55:57.979
his records for the last 4 years . Vice

55:57.979 --> 56:00.669
President Kamala Harris' records . They

56:00.669 --> 56:02.836
had the vice presidential candidate at

56:02.836 --> 56:04.947
the time , uh , Mr . Vance , they had

56:04.947 --> 56:07.350
his phone records . So they know every

56:07.350 --> 56:09.350
single person that every government

56:09.350 --> 56:11.572
phone as well as everybody else's has ,

56:11.572 --> 56:14.959
has had . That's That is deeply

56:14.959 --> 56:17.181
concerning , particularly as you look ,

56:17.181 --> 56:19.348
you know , just how , how often we are

56:19.348 --> 56:21.570
using messaging apps and other types of

56:21.570 --> 56:23.515
things , uh , you know . There's ,

56:23.515 --> 56:25.626
there's concern about , you know , if

56:25.626 --> 56:27.681
they , if they're CIA operatives and

56:27.681 --> 56:29.848
who have they called and who have they

56:29.848 --> 56:32.070
called in China and so maybe that we've

56:32.070 --> 56:34.237
just uncovered , you know , human . So

56:34.237 --> 56:36.237
that is a salt typhoon and we still

56:36.237 --> 56:38.181
can't kick them out . We know that

56:38.181 --> 56:40.348
there's 9 telecommunications companies

56:40.348 --> 56:42.181
that are affected . We know that

56:42.181 --> 56:44.459
they're still in the system , you know ,

56:44.459 --> 56:44.280
once you have admin privileges , it's

56:44.280 --> 56:46.502
very , very easy to hide . This is what

56:46.502 --> 56:49.040
is known as advanced persistent .

56:50.159 --> 56:53.260
Incursions And it's something that all

56:53.260 --> 56:55.593
those cyber operators in China are very ,

56:55.593 --> 56:58.379
very adept at doing . Uh , the newest

56:58.379 --> 57:00.929
one was just named , uh , last month .

57:01.379 --> 57:04.689
Typhoon . This is China's cyber

57:04.689 --> 57:07.110
operations targeting our cloud services .

57:07.459 --> 57:09.300
Anybody use Microsoft Teams for

57:09.300 --> 57:12.570
anything ? Amazon Web Services

57:13.280 --> 57:15.336
All these cloud services that we are

57:15.336 --> 57:17.224
becoming reliant on , this is the

57:17.224 --> 57:19.113
targeted operations against cloud

57:19.113 --> 57:21.113
services . China is doing it . Next

57:21.113 --> 57:24.770
slide . And there's a lot of them

57:25.209 --> 57:29.169
doing it . Next slide . So

57:29.449 --> 57:31.671
I , I do want to be very , very clear .

57:31.671 --> 57:33.949
I've been picking a lot on Chairman Xi ,

57:33.949 --> 57:36.979
and I think he deserves it . We do not

57:37.060 --> 57:40.979
have a beef though . With the

57:40.979 --> 57:42.979
Chinese people , with the people of

57:42.979 --> 57:46.979
China . There is a

57:46.979 --> 57:50.610
very , very long and rich . Heritage

57:50.610 --> 57:52.830
and cultural history , 6000 years ,

57:52.979 --> 57:54.701
probably the oldest continuous

57:54.701 --> 57:56.780
civilization on the planet is the

57:56.780 --> 57:59.820
Chinese civilization . We have no , we

57:59.820 --> 58:02.270
have no disagreement . With the people

58:02.270 --> 58:04.479
of China , they are actually probably

58:04.479 --> 58:07.090
suffering just as much under

58:07.090 --> 58:10.350
authoritarian dictatorship as we will

58:10.800 --> 58:13.520
if Chairman Xi decides now is the time

58:13.520 --> 58:15.560
for China to emerge as the sole

58:15.560 --> 58:17.727
dominant superpower of the world , and

58:17.727 --> 58:19.949
oh by the way , I got the army to do it

58:19.949 --> 58:22.580
if I want to . So again it's just it's

58:22.580 --> 58:24.691
very , very important , I think as we

58:24.691 --> 58:26.802
as we talk . I try to be very careful

58:26.802 --> 58:28.747
and I think we all should as we're

58:28.747 --> 58:30.858
doing this is that we don't say , you

58:30.858 --> 58:30.100
know , China's doing this or the

58:30.100 --> 58:32.250
Chinese this or that because it's not

58:32.250 --> 58:34.679
about the Chinese people . I mean , I

58:34.679 --> 58:36.512
consider ourselves we're , we're

58:36.512 --> 58:38.346
probably on the same side . They

58:38.346 --> 58:40.457
probably don't like living underneath

58:40.457 --> 58:42.512
authoritarian communist , you know ,

58:42.512 --> 58:44.846
Chinese Communist Party leadership . Um ,

58:44.846 --> 58:46.929
it is specifically we are trying to

58:46.929 --> 58:49.151
change Chairman Xi's calculus with what

58:49.151 --> 58:51.151
we're doing up at Edwards Air Force

58:51.151 --> 58:53.151
Base with the capability that we're

58:53.151 --> 58:55.580
developing and , and it's also A dire

58:55.580 --> 58:57.780
picture . I , I am actually optimistic

58:57.780 --> 59:01.750
still . Next slide please . There are

59:01.750 --> 59:03.917
two books I'd go and build for me . So

59:03.917 --> 59:06.139
if you , if you want to read more about

59:06.139 --> 59:08.028
kind of the just the geopolitical

59:08.028 --> 59:10.194
situation that we're in , here's two ,

59:10.194 --> 59:12.250
you know , so the one on the on your

59:12.250 --> 59:14.194
left by Branson Beckley , they are

59:14.550 --> 59:16.828
professors at Johns Hopkins University .

59:16.828 --> 59:18.939
They are both fellows of the American

59:18.939 --> 59:20.828
Enterprise Institute , which is a

59:20.828 --> 59:22.883
conservative think tank , apolitical

59:22.883 --> 59:24.772
but you know , conservative , the

59:24.772 --> 59:26.994
danger zone , they paint a , you know ,

59:27.550 --> 59:31.439
no end of scenarios . It's very easy to

59:31.439 --> 59:34.590
imagine a series of scenarios that just

59:34.590 --> 59:37.850
result in World War II to include . You

59:37.850 --> 59:39.739
know , kind of the attacks on our

59:39.739 --> 59:41.906
critical infrastructure here . So this

59:41.906 --> 59:43.739
is a war . When it , if this war

59:43.739 --> 59:45.850
happens , it's going to happen here .

59:45.850 --> 59:48.072
It's going to come to us . We are going

59:48.072 --> 59:50.239
to feel the effects . This is not just

59:50.239 --> 59:52.183
the people of Taiwan . This is not

59:52.183 --> 59:51.969
going to be like us watching the news

59:51.969 --> 59:54.247
and seeing what's happening in Ukraine .

59:54.247 --> 59:56.136
This is something that's going to

59:56.136 --> 59:56.060
happen here and that's why we're having

59:56.060 --> 59:59.469
this conversation . So this one is , is

59:59.469 --> 01:00:01.525
probably , you know , scenario , you

01:00:01.525 --> 01:00:03.691
know , kind of scary . This one is a ,

01:00:03.691 --> 01:00:06.929
is a hopeful , optimistic . So Kevin

01:00:06.929 --> 01:00:10.040
Rudd . Um , he paints a picture of an

01:00:10.040 --> 01:00:12.096
avoidable war . So Kevin Rudd is the

01:00:12.096 --> 01:00:14.096
Australian ambassador to the United

01:00:14.096 --> 01:00:16.151
States right now . He was previously

01:00:16.151 --> 01:00:18.318
Prime Minister of Australia , and then

01:00:18.318 --> 01:00:18.280
after that he was actually Foreign

01:00:18.280 --> 01:00:20.719
Minister . He studied in China . He's a

01:00:20.719 --> 01:00:23.159
fluent Mandarin speaker . He , he knows

01:00:23.159 --> 01:00:25.479
China very well . He understands

01:00:25.479 --> 01:00:27.590
Chairman Xi . He's actually written a

01:00:27.590 --> 01:00:29.812
second book on just on Chairman Xi . He

01:00:29.812 --> 01:00:31.868
also knows the US very well . He has

01:00:31.868 --> 01:00:34.090
spent time in school here in the United

01:00:34.090 --> 01:00:35.868
States as well and has been the

01:00:35.868 --> 01:00:37.868
ambassador here . So he understands

01:00:37.868 --> 01:00:39.923
both of these countries . And so the

01:00:39.923 --> 01:00:42.146
the avoidable war is , is his prognosis

01:00:42.146 --> 01:00:44.201
on how do we avoid World War 3 , you

01:00:44.201 --> 01:00:46.368
know , potentially civilization ending

01:00:46.368 --> 01:00:48.550
war between the United States and the

01:00:48.550 --> 01:00:51.320
Chinese Communist Party . Uh , so ,

01:00:51.879 --> 01:00:53.768
next slide . The other reason I'm

01:00:53.768 --> 01:00:55.709
optimistic . It's because we're

01:00:55.709 --> 01:00:57.820
actually talking about it right now .

01:00:57.830 --> 01:01:00.052
So just like those cavemen , you know ,

01:01:00.052 --> 01:01:02.500
even before the Roman Republic where

01:01:02.500 --> 01:01:04.500
they were stacking up their , their

01:01:04.500 --> 01:01:06.667
stones at the , at the entrance to the

01:01:06.667 --> 01:01:06.500
cave , just in case that other , you

01:01:06.500 --> 01:01:10.239
know , cave clan came by . We are

01:01:10.239 --> 01:01:12.919
preparing for war right now , and

01:01:12.919 --> 01:01:14.975
that's part of the conversation that

01:01:14.975 --> 01:01:17.141
we're gonna have here . And that we're

01:01:17.141 --> 01:01:19.141
going to continue to have and and I

01:01:19.141 --> 01:01:21.252
love the way Congressman Fong said it

01:01:21.252 --> 01:01:23.419
and assemblyman lackey is like this is

01:01:23.419 --> 01:01:23.229
just the first conversation about

01:01:23.229 --> 01:01:25.340
ongoing dialogue that we need to have

01:01:25.340 --> 01:01:27.969
about how do we be ready . Because the

01:01:27.969 --> 01:01:29.929
more ready that we are , the more

01:01:29.929 --> 01:01:32.040
likely we are to change Chairman Xi's

01:01:32.040 --> 01:01:34.318
calculus . If we were an easy pushover ,

01:01:34.318 --> 01:01:37.810
if we weren't prepared at all . It's a

01:01:37.810 --> 01:01:40.032
whole lot easier if I'm Chairman Xi and

01:01:40.032 --> 01:01:42.254
I'm going through my calculus of like ,

01:01:42.254 --> 01:01:44.366
oh , do I start World War II or not ?

01:01:44.366 --> 01:01:46.588
If we were an easy pushover , it's much

01:01:46.588 --> 01:01:46.489
more likely to happen . And so we've

01:01:46.489 --> 01:01:49.290
got to be strong enough , resilient

01:01:49.290 --> 01:01:51.360
enough , ready enough , and prepared

01:01:51.360 --> 01:01:55.010
enough that we change his mind about is

01:01:55.010 --> 01:01:57.121
today the day to start World War II .

01:01:57.550 --> 01:02:00.850
And because next slide . Because we are

01:02:00.850 --> 01:02:02.961
developing this which is specifically

01:02:02.961 --> 01:02:05.949
designed . For that , for those very ,

01:02:05.989 --> 01:02:08.267
very long endurance , this is the B-21 .

01:02:10.250 --> 01:02:12.689
This is one of the platforms that we

01:02:12.689 --> 01:02:16.530
know . Chairman X is

01:02:16.530 --> 01:02:18.586
worried about . And guess where it's

01:02:18.586 --> 01:02:21.040
being built and developed and tested

01:02:21.040 --> 01:02:22.984
and evaluated and guess where it's

01:02:22.984 --> 01:02:25.207
going to be delivered ? That capability

01:02:25.207 --> 01:02:27.207
is going to be delivered to the Air

01:02:27.207 --> 01:02:29.419
Force . is coming from here . The fact

01:02:29.419 --> 01:02:31.586
that we're ready , the fact that we're

01:02:31.586 --> 01:02:34.080
doing this . is why I am optimistic .

01:02:34.959 --> 01:02:37.015
That we are not going to fight World

01:02:37.015 --> 01:02:39.330
War III . We are prepared for war . We

01:02:39.330 --> 01:02:41.497
want peace . We are prepared for war .

01:02:41.610 --> 01:02:45.360
Next slide . Next

01:02:45.360 --> 01:02:49.159
slide . And we're in it together .

01:02:50.419 --> 01:02:52.699
So I have no idea how long I spent

01:02:52.699 --> 01:02:56.090
talking . Um , the , uh , what I , what ,

01:02:56.219 --> 01:02:58.330
I mean this is on the calendar , this

01:02:58.330 --> 01:03:00.608
is or on the schedule this is like Q&A .

01:03:00.608 --> 01:03:02.775
This is actually , I want this to be a

01:03:02.775 --> 01:03:04.941
discussion . This is the we've got the

01:03:04.941 --> 01:03:06.886
right leaders in the room with the

01:03:06.886 --> 01:03:06.100
right ideas . I want this to be

01:03:06.100 --> 01:03:08.100
brainstorming like , hey , maybe we

01:03:08.100 --> 01:03:10.267
should go and do this or maybe we need

01:03:10.267 --> 01:03:12.044
to do that . Our , our critical

01:03:12.044 --> 01:03:14.100
infrastructure is targeted . We know

01:03:14.100 --> 01:03:16.267
that that's part of the picture that I

01:03:16.267 --> 01:03:15.850
wanted wanted to paste .

01:03:20.250 --> 01:03:22.583
We know , I mean , the very first place ,

01:03:22.583 --> 01:03:24.806
you know , if I was , if I was chairman

01:03:24.806 --> 01:03:27.889
chief . And it's time to go I'm going

01:03:27.889 --> 01:03:29.833
to guess where I'm going to target

01:03:29.833 --> 01:03:33.149
first and so . Whether you like it or

01:03:33.149 --> 01:03:35.149
not , you're in this , we're all in

01:03:35.149 --> 01:03:39.120
this together . So , so I think we have

01:03:39.120 --> 01:03:42.000
a microphone if if anybody has things

01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:44.000
that they want to say or ideas they

01:03:44.000 --> 01:03:46.056
want to share or questions that they

01:03:46.056 --> 01:03:48.111
want to ask , this is , this is what

01:03:48.111 --> 01:03:50.389
this portion is for . Yes sir , I need ,

01:03:50.389 --> 01:03:52.790
hold on , hold on , here you go . Yeah ,

01:03:52.909 --> 01:03:55.550
General , do we have a Plan B if we

01:03:55.550 --> 01:03:57.717
know our infrastructure is going to be

01:03:57.717 --> 01:03:59.606
targeted ? We know that there's a

01:03:59.606 --> 01:04:02.830
possibility of either China , a natural

01:04:02.830 --> 01:04:05.850
disaster , or another earthquake .

01:04:06.909 --> 01:04:08.909
We're going to be cut off . So what

01:04:08.909 --> 01:04:11.139
kind of plan B do we have in place for

01:04:11.439 --> 01:04:14.510
power , water ? And survival .

01:04:14.669 --> 01:04:16.909
Excellent question and one that I , I

01:04:16.909 --> 01:04:19.020
hope all of us are asking ourselves ,

01:04:19.070 --> 01:04:21.292
like what is our and this is actually ,

01:04:21.292 --> 01:04:23.348
you know , I've painted a picture of

01:04:23.348 --> 01:04:25.514
what happens when China starts the war

01:04:25.514 --> 01:04:25.270
or when Chairman Xi starts the war .

01:04:25.310 --> 01:04:27.532
See , I , we got to be careful . We got

01:04:27.532 --> 01:04:29.754
to police ourselves again . We're not ,

01:04:29.754 --> 01:04:29.310
we're not picking a fight with the

01:04:29.310 --> 01:04:31.199
Chinese people . When Chairman Xi

01:04:31.199 --> 01:04:33.310
starts the war , um , you know , what

01:04:33.310 --> 01:04:35.366
is our , what is our plan , but it's

01:04:35.366 --> 01:04:37.366
also that same type of preparedness

01:04:37.366 --> 01:04:39.421
that we do . It actually , it's what

01:04:39.421 --> 01:04:41.366
happens when the San Andreas fault

01:04:41.366 --> 01:04:43.699
decides to do its thing , or , you know ,

01:04:43.699 --> 01:04:45.921
wildfires or whatever . So , you know ,

01:04:45.921 --> 01:04:45.169
we happen to live in a community where

01:04:45.169 --> 01:04:47.169
emergency preparedness and disaster

01:04:47.169 --> 01:04:49.850
preparedness is hand in hand with , you

01:04:49.850 --> 01:04:52.017
know , Chairman Xi being a bad actor ,

01:04:52.129 --> 01:04:55.300
uh , type of preparedness . Um , so the ,

01:04:55.330 --> 01:04:57.108
this is a question . I love the

01:04:57.108 --> 01:04:59.163
question and it's , it's the perfect

01:04:59.163 --> 01:05:01.163
first question because it's the one

01:05:01.163 --> 01:05:03.441
that I want all of us to ask ourselves .

01:05:03.441 --> 01:05:03.199
And so I'll show you a little bit of

01:05:03.199 --> 01:05:05.320
insight what we've done up at Edwards

01:05:05.320 --> 01:05:07.376
as an installation and , and some of

01:05:07.376 --> 01:05:09.487
you were , were partners in this . So

01:05:09.487 --> 01:05:12.360
last December , we actually did a , a

01:05:12.360 --> 01:05:14.959
week-long exercise that exercised

01:05:14.959 --> 01:05:18.669
exactly this . The war has started . Uh ,

01:05:18.870 --> 01:05:21.189
China has attacked our electrical grid .

01:05:21.270 --> 01:05:23.159
We have persistent communications

01:05:23.159 --> 01:05:25.381
problems . How are we going to keep the

01:05:25.381 --> 01:05:27.492
test mission going ? Because once the

01:05:27.492 --> 01:05:29.548
war starts , we know we are going to

01:05:29.548 --> 01:05:31.659
have joint urgent operational needs .

01:05:31.659 --> 01:05:33.826
We're going to have capability , rapid

01:05:33.826 --> 01:05:33.629
reprogramming . There's things that

01:05:33.629 --> 01:05:35.851
we're going to need to keep the mission

01:05:35.851 --> 01:05:38.073
going up there . And so how do we fight

01:05:38.073 --> 01:05:40.296
through that ? And so we did that for a

01:05:40.296 --> 01:05:44.139
week . And and And then we

01:05:44.139 --> 01:05:46.028
followed that and we learned some

01:05:46.028 --> 01:05:48.250
things , right , you know , so you know

01:05:48.250 --> 01:05:50.472
I can't reveal the vulnerabilities that

01:05:50.472 --> 01:05:52.750
we uncovered , but we uncovered things .

01:05:52.750 --> 01:05:52.260
We're like , oh , we should probably

01:05:52.260 --> 01:05:54.979
fix that . Ooh , that doesn't work , we

01:05:54.979 --> 01:05:58.300
should probably fix that . We followed

01:05:58.300 --> 01:06:00.659
that up with a tabletop exercise with

01:06:00.659 --> 01:06:02.826
the local community and so if you were

01:06:02.826 --> 01:06:05.179
part of the tabletop , I know some of

01:06:05.179 --> 01:06:07.512
you in here were go and raise your hand .

01:06:08.070 --> 01:06:10.810
Uh , that we did , uh , the , yeah ,

01:06:10.899 --> 01:06:13.260
there are a couple , yep . Um , so we

01:06:13.260 --> 01:06:15.659
had , uh , City of Lancaster , Palmdale ,

01:06:15.780 --> 01:06:18.002
we had the , uh , Kern County Sheriff ,

01:06:18.002 --> 01:06:20.169
we had Southern California Edison , we

01:06:20.169 --> 01:06:22.002
had , uh , some of the emergency

01:06:22.002 --> 01:06:24.113
managers from the local community all

01:06:24.113 --> 01:06:26.280
come when we sat down around the table

01:06:26.280 --> 01:06:28.391
and said , OK , we just lived through

01:06:28.391 --> 01:06:30.613
this for a week and it was kind of , it

01:06:30.613 --> 01:06:32.836
was really difficult . Now imagine that

01:06:32.836 --> 01:06:34.891
it's 6 months into the future and we

01:06:34.891 --> 01:06:33.899
talked through a couple of different

01:06:33.899 --> 01:06:37.030
scenarios . In terms of like breakdown

01:06:37.030 --> 01:06:39.620
of civil society , uh , you know ,

01:06:39.780 --> 01:06:41.840
martial law , you know , we would

01:06:41.840 --> 01:06:44.118
expect that if martial law is declared ,

01:06:44.118 --> 01:06:46.229
um , you know , it's the , you know ,

01:06:46.229 --> 01:06:48.451
the , you know , it would , it would be

01:06:48.451 --> 01:06:50.507
Edwards Air Force Base would be this

01:06:50.507 --> 01:06:52.729
region , would be the , uh , A military

01:06:52.729 --> 01:06:54.784
commander would have , you know , in

01:06:54.784 --> 01:06:56.896
partnership with the , uh , the civil

01:06:56.896 --> 01:06:58.896
governance , uh , how do we do that

01:06:58.896 --> 01:07:00.951
from a command and control and a law

01:07:00.951 --> 01:07:00.429
enforcement ? So we talked through that

01:07:00.429 --> 01:07:02.560
and , and under uncovered like , OK ,

01:07:02.639 --> 01:07:04.861
well we probably need to go figure that

01:07:04.861 --> 01:07:07.195
out , figure that out , figure that out .

01:07:07.195 --> 01:07:07.159
We don't have a solution , but we

01:07:07.159 --> 01:07:09.590
started the dialogue and so I think

01:07:09.600 --> 01:07:11.711
that's what we need to do . There's ,

01:07:12.080 --> 01:07:14.191
we do have some fortunate things , so

01:07:14.191 --> 01:07:16.413
you know , you can see it right there ,

01:07:16.413 --> 01:07:19.840
um . That is a very , very large solar

01:07:19.840 --> 01:07:22.989
farm , uh , about 430 megawatts of

01:07:22.989 --> 01:07:25.156
generating capacity , 980 megawatts of

01:07:25.156 --> 01:07:27.267
storage capacity . So it's possible ,

01:07:27.267 --> 01:07:29.489
uh , that we can actually isolate large

01:07:29.489 --> 01:07:31.600
portions of this from the rest of the

01:07:31.600 --> 01:07:33.669
grid that goes down and maybe bring

01:07:33.669 --> 01:07:36.669
smaller grids back up . Um , but these

01:07:36.669 --> 01:07:38.725
are the things that we need to think

01:07:38.725 --> 01:07:40.836
about , uh , and think through . Um ,

01:07:40.836 --> 01:07:42.780
water , you know , water is one of

01:07:42.780 --> 01:07:42.679
those things that only , you know ,

01:07:42.870 --> 01:07:44.949
particularly in a very , very hot

01:07:44.949 --> 01:07:47.050
environment like this . Um , could

01:07:47.050 --> 01:07:49.106
become critical . But again , that's

01:07:49.106 --> 01:07:50.883
also one of those things from a

01:07:50.883 --> 01:07:52.939
disaster preparedness . Um , there's

01:07:52.939 --> 01:07:54.828
probably , you know , a community

01:07:54.828 --> 01:07:57.106
public service message that , you know ,

01:07:57.106 --> 01:07:59.272
we can all help reinforce , uh , about

01:07:59.272 --> 01:08:01.439
just . Having a couple of days' supply

01:08:01.439 --> 01:08:03.606
worth of water , um , available , some

01:08:03.606 --> 01:08:05.889
food , some staples , you know , by no

01:08:05.889 --> 01:08:07.889
means do I recommend that everybody

01:08:07.889 --> 01:08:10.689
turn into a , um , A prepper , is that

01:08:10.689 --> 01:08:12.745
what they're called , I think , um ,

01:08:13.100 --> 01:08:15.211
but you know , there's some , there's

01:08:15.211 --> 01:08:17.433
at least , you know , a couple of days'

01:08:17.433 --> 01:08:19.211
worth , um , of , of supplies ,

01:08:19.211 --> 01:08:21.489
medication , those types of things are ,

01:08:21.489 --> 01:08:23.711
um , but that's the conversation . So I

01:08:23.711 --> 01:08:25.878
love the question , um , and , and I ,

01:08:25.878 --> 01:08:27.933
and I wish I had the complete answer

01:08:27.933 --> 01:08:30.156
for what a Plan B is . Uh , there are ,

01:08:30.156 --> 01:08:32.267
um , emergency response type things .

01:08:32.267 --> 01:08:34.211
So , you know , you know , FEMA is

01:08:34.211 --> 01:08:36.322
there . We have , um , you know , the

01:08:36.322 --> 01:08:38.156
DOD has a services type of thing

01:08:38.156 --> 01:08:40.433
primarily for disaster standpoint . Um ,

01:08:40.433 --> 01:08:42.544
the , the challenge with all of those

01:08:42.544 --> 01:08:44.433
types of emergency services is we

01:08:44.433 --> 01:08:46.600
typically when we have , say we have a

01:08:46.600 --> 01:08:48.767
hurricane or we have wildfires down in

01:08:48.767 --> 01:08:51.479
LA . They're isolated to that region

01:08:51.479 --> 01:08:53.590
and the rest of the country can pitch

01:08:53.590 --> 01:08:56.899
in and help . If this war

01:08:56.899 --> 01:08:59.180
starts , this is going to affect the

01:08:59.180 --> 01:09:01.740
entire nation , and so we're going to

01:09:01.740 --> 01:09:03.859
be kind of probably on our own for a

01:09:03.859 --> 01:09:06.640
little bit . And so that's why again

01:09:06.640 --> 01:09:08.807
having these conversations , knowing ,

01:09:08.807 --> 01:09:10.918
knowing who to call and who to get to

01:09:10.918 --> 01:09:13.520
and who to talk to is is why we're

01:09:13.520 --> 01:09:15.576
having this conversation right now .

01:09:15.576 --> 01:09:17.631
Great , great question . Thank you .

01:09:17.631 --> 01:09:21.459
She didn't hear . Yeah , I

01:09:21.459 --> 01:09:23.919
do believe China is obviously our long

01:09:23.919 --> 01:09:26.086
term threat , but what about our short

01:09:26.086 --> 01:09:28.399
term threat like Iran ? Iran is an

01:09:28.399 --> 01:09:30.359
immediate threat right now , and I

01:09:30.359 --> 01:09:32.470
don't know if you could speak to that

01:09:32.470 --> 01:09:32.459
at all , but I would like to hear

01:09:32.459 --> 01:09:35.169
something . Yes , sir . Yeah , so it's ,

01:09:35.339 --> 01:09:37.395
yeah , there's the usual 4 kind of .

01:09:37.918 --> 01:09:40.238
Suspect and and they're also , they're

01:09:40.238 --> 01:09:42.238
not friends , see that's one of the

01:09:42.238 --> 01:09:44.127
another reasons I'm optimistic is

01:09:44.127 --> 01:09:46.127
because our friends are a whole lot

01:09:46.127 --> 01:09:48.238
better than . Chairman Xi's friends ,

01:09:48.238 --> 01:09:50.294
you know , we got Australia , we get

01:09:50.294 --> 01:09:52.079
Japan , we get England .

01:09:55.069 --> 01:09:58.129
Chairman Xi gets North Korea . You know ,

01:09:58.209 --> 01:10:00.431
so I will take our friends any day over

01:10:00.431 --> 01:10:02.653
their friends , uh , but that kind of ,

01:10:02.879 --> 01:10:05.919
um , North Korea , Iran .

01:10:06.729 --> 01:10:09.790
People's Republic of China . Russia

01:10:10.600 --> 01:10:12.711
They , you know , they are , they are

01:10:12.711 --> 01:10:14.767
sharing technology . North Korea has

01:10:14.767 --> 01:10:17.044
troops . Fighting in Ukraine right now ,

01:10:17.044 --> 01:10:20.709
helping Russia out . Um So there are

01:10:20.990 --> 01:10:22.657
more near immediate threats .

01:10:22.839 --> 01:10:24.895
Assemblyman Lackey , you are exactly

01:10:24.895 --> 01:10:27.680
right . Iran is a concern right now .

01:10:27.720 --> 01:10:30.720
They don't have the , you know , their

01:10:30.720 --> 01:10:33.640
missiles are regional missiles , so our

01:10:33.640 --> 01:10:36.839
forces that are in the Middle East are

01:10:36.839 --> 01:10:40.439
threatened by Iranian missiles . The US

01:10:40.439 --> 01:10:42.750
is not , but guess what ? It's pretty

01:10:42.750 --> 01:10:45.979
easy . To put a nuclear warhead

01:10:47.240 --> 01:10:50.319
A nuclear bomb in a container . And

01:10:50.319 --> 01:10:52.375
bring it into it and bring it into a

01:10:52.375 --> 01:10:54.700
port . Uh , and it would be very easy

01:10:54.700 --> 01:10:56.919
for , for Iran to do that or North

01:10:56.919 --> 01:10:59.259
Korea to do that . Um , so those are

01:10:59.259 --> 01:11:01.500
very real threats , um .

01:11:03.819 --> 01:11:06.097
I wish I had a clean answer . Um , yes ,

01:11:06.097 --> 01:11:08.319
uh , you know , that's , that's part of

01:11:08.319 --> 01:11:10.430
why we exist . Um , you know , why we

01:11:10.430 --> 01:11:12.652
have a strong armed services is to help

01:11:12.652 --> 01:11:14.652
prevent that , why we have a strong

01:11:14.652 --> 01:11:16.763
intelligence community to kind of get

01:11:16.763 --> 01:11:18.486
those , you know , those early

01:11:18.486 --> 01:11:20.486
indicators that , hey , something's

01:11:20.486 --> 01:11:22.708
happening and then to prevent it before

01:11:22.708 --> 01:11:22.450
it happens . You know , we've been

01:11:22.450 --> 01:11:24.589
fortunate , you know , for the 80+

01:11:24.589 --> 01:11:26.589
years since the end of World War II

01:11:26.589 --> 01:11:29.240
that , you know , um , something really ,

01:11:29.279 --> 01:11:31.501
really bad hasn't happened aside from .

01:11:31.750 --> 01:11:33.972
You know , 9/11 , which on the scale of

01:11:33.972 --> 01:11:36.139
something , you know , kind of some of

01:11:36.139 --> 01:11:38.194
those other scenarios is , is much ,

01:11:38.194 --> 01:11:41.640
much smaller in scope and scale . Mr .

01:11:41.649 --> 01:11:44.850
Windheim , sir , thank you so much .

01:11:45.620 --> 01:11:47.787
I was wondering if you could inform us

01:11:47.787 --> 01:11:49.787
or advise us what we would see as a

01:11:49.787 --> 01:11:51.842
local community as far as the base's

01:11:51.842 --> 01:11:54.009
reaction should the lights go out from

01:11:54.009 --> 01:11:56.120
things that you can share . Um , what

01:11:56.120 --> 01:11:59.140
would we be aware of beforehand so that ,

01:11:59.240 --> 01:12:01.184
you know , we can let folks in our

01:12:01.184 --> 01:12:03.073
areas know that's OK , that's how

01:12:03.073 --> 01:12:05.184
they're planning to , to react . Uh ,

01:12:05.184 --> 01:12:07.240
great , great question . Um , it's ,

01:12:07.240 --> 01:12:09.462
it's gonna be very scenario dependent .

01:12:09.462 --> 01:12:12.299
Um , there , the , one of the

01:12:12.299 --> 01:12:14.729
challenges with these cyber operations

01:12:14.729 --> 01:12:18.720
is , is attributing them . And

01:12:18.720 --> 01:12:20.942
so there could be some advanced type of

01:12:20.942 --> 01:12:22.942
things that happen that we actually

01:12:22.942 --> 01:12:22.830
don't know , you know , so , you know ,

01:12:22.850 --> 01:12:25.350
the Northeast blackout in 2003 .

01:12:26.620 --> 01:12:28.731
Um , you know , this was before there

01:12:28.731 --> 01:12:30.898
was , you know , there , you know , we

01:12:30.898 --> 01:12:32.842
had . The cyber operations that we

01:12:32.842 --> 01:12:35.120
exist , you know , that we have now is ,

01:12:35.120 --> 01:12:34.919
you know , the internet of things and

01:12:34.919 --> 01:12:36.641
how everything is connected to

01:12:36.641 --> 01:12:38.890
everything else . You know , that was a

01:12:38.890 --> 01:12:41.112
that was a failure . So if there were ,

01:12:41.112 --> 01:12:42.946
there were failures that started

01:12:42.946 --> 01:12:45.057
happening that just appeared random ,

01:12:45.057 --> 01:12:47.168
you know , what would we know that it

01:12:47.168 --> 01:12:47.149
was actually something that was , was

01:12:47.149 --> 01:12:49.260
going on ? There was anybody remember

01:12:49.260 --> 01:12:51.316
the ice storm 2022 ice storm , or it

01:12:51.316 --> 01:12:53.482
wasn't even an ice storm , it was just

01:12:53.482 --> 01:12:55.538
cold weather in Texas . So there's 3

01:12:55.538 --> 01:12:57.205
different grids , 3 different

01:12:57.205 --> 01:12:59.205
interconnects . There's the Western

01:12:59.205 --> 01:13:01.149
interconnect , there's the eastern

01:13:01.149 --> 01:13:03.205
connect , and then there's Texas . I

01:13:03.205 --> 01:13:02.819
guess Texas is doing that just in case

01:13:02.819 --> 01:13:04.930
they want to secede someday , go back

01:13:04.930 --> 01:13:07.180
to the , uh , going back to the Lone

01:13:07.180 --> 01:13:09.124
Star State , but Texas has its own

01:13:09.124 --> 01:13:11.299
standalone grid , uh , which actually

01:13:11.299 --> 01:13:13.410
made it more vulnerable when they had

01:13:13.410 --> 01:13:16.060
very cold weather and , and it upset

01:13:16.060 --> 01:13:18.299
the balance of power generation and it

01:13:18.299 --> 01:13:20.299
took them 2 weeks to bring the grid

01:13:20.299 --> 01:13:22.060
back up . That was not a cyber

01:13:22.060 --> 01:13:24.740
operation , but it , it could be . And

01:13:24.740 --> 01:13:26.851
so there's also scenarios where there

01:13:26.851 --> 01:13:29.959
could be something like a um There

01:13:29.959 --> 01:13:31.903
could be a window of opportunity ,

01:13:31.903 --> 01:13:34.015
right ? Let's say that there was some

01:13:34.015 --> 01:13:36.015
type of natural disaster or natural

01:13:36.015 --> 01:13:38.126
thing , you know , it's , it's been a

01:13:38.126 --> 01:13:39.959
while , but we occasionally have

01:13:39.959 --> 01:13:42.181
experienced rolling brownouts , right ,

01:13:42.181 --> 01:13:44.237
as , as electricity demand peaks and

01:13:44.237 --> 01:13:44.120
maybe there's a power plant that's

01:13:44.120 --> 01:13:46.919
offline and so they have to , you know ,

01:13:47.000 --> 01:13:48.833
in order to control the reactive

01:13:48.833 --> 01:13:51.000
capacity and the reactive load on the

01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:53.056
grid , you know , they have to , you

01:13:53.056 --> 01:13:55.990
know , do some rolling power outages ,

01:13:56.399 --> 01:13:58.621
uh , in order to keep the grid stable .

01:13:58.709 --> 01:14:00.931
Uh , so there could be a scenario where

01:14:00.931 --> 01:14:03.153
there's some like natural type of thing

01:14:03.153 --> 01:14:05.265
coupled with a couple of power plants

01:14:05.265 --> 01:14:07.320
that are out that we're doing that ,

01:14:07.320 --> 01:14:09.320
that that is like , oh , there's an

01:14:09.320 --> 01:14:11.487
opportunity , and we'll take advantage

01:14:11.487 --> 01:14:13.899
of that . So it'll be difficult . I , I

01:14:13.899 --> 01:14:15.955
would expect that what we would do ,

01:14:15.955 --> 01:14:18.066
how our response to actually get to ,

01:14:18.066 --> 01:14:20.121
to answer your question . Is that we

01:14:20.121 --> 01:14:23.279
would be as transparent and candid with

01:14:23.279 --> 01:14:25.390
what we know it's , what's going on .

01:14:25.390 --> 01:14:27.390
If we , if we suspect that there is

01:14:27.390 --> 01:14:29.612
some nefarious something going behind ,

01:14:29.799 --> 01:14:32.799
um . And if , uh , you know , we would

01:14:32.799 --> 01:14:35.160
communicate to the community . So if we

01:14:35.160 --> 01:14:37.520
changed our threat con level , uh , so

01:14:37.520 --> 01:14:39.950
we are continuously monitoring , uh ,

01:14:39.959 --> 01:14:42.399
the installation and , and there's a

01:14:42.399 --> 01:14:44.839
threat condition level , uh , and we

01:14:44.839 --> 01:14:47.172
would , we would , we would adjust that ,

01:14:47.172 --> 01:14:49.006
modify it , and so that would be

01:14:49.006 --> 01:14:51.117
announced , you know , those types of

01:14:51.117 --> 01:14:50.830
adjustments would be announced through

01:14:50.830 --> 01:14:53.052
our public affairs in the tower and the

01:14:53.052 --> 01:14:56.040
local community would know , um , again ,

01:14:56.160 --> 01:14:58.438
hopefully there's some advanced notice .

01:14:58.438 --> 01:15:00.439
Uh , you know , it , in order to

01:15:00.439 --> 01:15:03.910
mobilize an entire army and move them

01:15:03.910 --> 01:15:07.250
from mainland China over to Taiwan

01:15:07.560 --> 01:15:09.782
would take a fairly significant buildup

01:15:09.782 --> 01:15:12.330
that would be noticeable . Um , and so ,

01:15:12.419 --> 01:15:14.979
you know , not unlike the D-Day

01:15:14.979 --> 01:15:17.359
Normandy invasion . You know , there

01:15:17.359 --> 01:15:19.192
were , there were some months of

01:15:19.192 --> 01:15:21.248
indication that hey , something is ,

01:15:21.248 --> 01:15:23.359
something's afoot , something's going

01:15:23.359 --> 01:15:25.359
to happen . And so there would be a

01:15:25.359 --> 01:15:27.470
steady buildup that I think the local

01:15:27.470 --> 01:15:27.000
community could , could feed off of ,

01:15:27.040 --> 01:15:28.929
but we would , we would commit to

01:15:28.929 --> 01:15:31.262
sharing as much information as we could ,

01:15:31.262 --> 01:15:33.939
um . But it could also be a surprise ,

01:15:34.149 --> 01:15:37.430
like the morning of December 7th , 1942 .

01:15:40.270 --> 01:15:42.709
I think I'm uh my name is Donna and uh

01:15:42.709 --> 01:15:45.589
I'm speaking on behalf of the medical

01:15:45.589 --> 01:15:48.990
community ma'am um we all have , as you

01:15:48.990 --> 01:15:50.990
know , uh , we're Palmdale Regional

01:15:50.990 --> 01:15:53.270
Medical Center we do participate with

01:15:53.270 --> 01:15:55.214
you guys , but one of the things I

01:15:55.214 --> 01:15:58.479
observed . it from COVID learning and I

01:15:58.479 --> 01:16:00.560
was at the Northridge earthquake in

01:16:00.560 --> 01:16:02.919
Northridge and what we learned is that

01:16:02.919 --> 01:16:05.399
we're very reactive and then we have

01:16:05.399 --> 01:16:07.399
subsets , right ? So the hospital

01:16:07.399 --> 01:16:09.566
associations are doing something , the

01:16:09.566 --> 01:16:11.343
emergency managements are doing

01:16:11.343 --> 01:16:13.566
something . The hospital's readiness is

01:16:13.566 --> 01:16:15.399
doing something , but we're very

01:16:15.399 --> 01:16:17.399
fragmented , you know , um , it was

01:16:17.399 --> 01:16:19.621
based on reactivity with COVID that you

01:16:19.621 --> 01:16:21.859
built the big , you know , outdoor 50

01:16:21.859 --> 01:16:25.020
bed hospital at Antelope Valley , but

01:16:25.020 --> 01:16:27.419
we are as a group not connected very

01:16:27.419 --> 01:16:29.689
well like we do a command center when

01:16:29.689 --> 01:16:31.633
we have an internal or an external

01:16:31.633 --> 01:16:33.745
disaster , but if we have a community

01:16:33.745 --> 01:16:36.839
disaster . I don't know if we're set up

01:16:36.839 --> 01:16:39.830
properly to handle all of that . Yep ,

01:16:40.240 --> 01:16:42.720
I would , I would , uh , I share your

01:16:42.720 --> 01:16:45.080
perspective . One of the things that we

01:16:45.080 --> 01:16:47.399
have , we have discussed , and I'm very

01:16:47.399 --> 01:16:49.455
interested and we have the community

01:16:49.455 --> 01:16:51.677
leaders here , um , the next time we do

01:16:51.677 --> 01:16:54.080
a big exercise , uh , it would be nice

01:16:54.080 --> 01:16:57.479
to actually do a A partnered exercise .

01:16:57.609 --> 01:16:59.776
So we are , we are running an exercise

01:16:59.776 --> 01:17:02.850
on base to , you know , assess our , um ,

01:17:03.169 --> 01:17:06.049
awareness , our readiness , um , and to

01:17:06.049 --> 01:17:08.399
involve the local community in some way .

01:17:08.830 --> 01:17:10.997
Uh , we've , we've tried that a couple

01:17:10.997 --> 01:17:13.163
of times and , and , and often we just

01:17:13.163 --> 01:17:15.330
run into the challenge of , you know ,

01:17:15.330 --> 01:17:17.552
so most recently , I'll , I'll share an

01:17:17.552 --> 01:17:19.830
example , uh , we had a major aircraft ,

01:17:19.830 --> 01:17:22.052
uh , incident response . Uh , so we had

01:17:22.052 --> 01:17:24.274
an exercise where we simulated , we had

01:17:24.274 --> 01:17:26.386
two aircraft that collided . Um , and

01:17:26.386 --> 01:17:28.552
we had casualties . They were off base

01:17:28.552 --> 01:17:28.450
and originally we were going to work

01:17:28.450 --> 01:17:31.140
with , uh , Kern County and Cal City ,

01:17:31.430 --> 01:17:34.229
um . But it turned out that they had

01:17:34.229 --> 01:17:36.451
real world operations going on and they

01:17:36.451 --> 01:17:38.173
couldn't spare the staff and I

01:17:38.173 --> 01:17:40.285
completely understand that we run the

01:17:40.285 --> 01:17:42.507
same thing , same challenges , but what

01:17:42.507 --> 01:17:44.507
that would do is expose exactly the

01:17:44.507 --> 01:17:44.149
problem that you've identified that .

01:17:45.500 --> 01:17:48.129
The radios that my defenders use aren't

01:17:48.129 --> 01:17:50.185
necessarily the same frequencies and

01:17:50.185 --> 01:17:53.359
the same channels that the sheriffs use .

01:17:53.770 --> 01:17:55.826
Now they do have ways to communicate

01:17:55.826 --> 01:17:57.992
with each other and they routinely , I

01:17:57.992 --> 01:17:59.992
would say actually probably our law

01:17:59.992 --> 01:18:02.103
enforcement and our defenders on base

01:18:02.103 --> 01:18:04.103
probably have that's probably where

01:18:04.103 --> 01:18:06.214
we're best right now in terms of like

01:18:06.214 --> 01:18:08.437
connection and discussion , but they're

01:18:08.437 --> 01:18:10.603
still not seamless . Um , and that's ,

01:18:10.603 --> 01:18:12.826
that's something that , uh , we've also

01:18:12.826 --> 01:18:15.103
discussed with our defense support for ,

01:18:15.103 --> 01:18:17.214
uh , civil authorities , uh , DISCA ,

01:18:17.214 --> 01:18:19.270
um , is that , again , the DOD is

01:18:19.270 --> 01:18:22.120
organized to go fight away games . We

01:18:22.120 --> 01:18:24.064
don't , I mean , we've never had ,

01:18:24.064 --> 01:18:26.064
except for the Civil War . We never

01:18:26.064 --> 01:18:27.842
really had to fight in , in the

01:18:27.842 --> 01:18:30.064
American Revolution and momentarily for

01:18:30.064 --> 01:18:32.009
the War of 1812 . So there's three

01:18:32.009 --> 01:18:34.064
examples , but they're all , none of

01:18:34.064 --> 01:18:33.640
them are the 20th century or post .

01:18:34.140 --> 01:18:36.251
We've never had to fight here . We've

01:18:36.251 --> 01:18:38.418
always fought away games , and we like

01:18:38.418 --> 01:18:42.370
that . What we do , um , when we did

01:18:42.370 --> 01:18:45.049
the disasters it was never , um ,

01:18:45.089 --> 01:18:48.770
including the military , so we , we

01:18:48.770 --> 01:18:51.048
learned from the Northridge earthquake .

01:18:51.048 --> 01:18:54.529
So when we had the DWP blow up and the

01:18:54.529 --> 01:18:57.819
whole we went all on generators in San

01:18:57.819 --> 01:19:00.319
Fernando . Yep . And we learned that

01:19:00.319 --> 01:19:02.541
somebody came from emergency management

01:19:02.541 --> 01:19:05.080
and was speaking on behalf of all of

01:19:05.080 --> 01:19:07.450
the area , so we did learn , but we're

01:19:07.450 --> 01:19:09.672
still not going fast enough . Yes . I ,

01:19:09.672 --> 01:19:11.783
I would wholly agree we have a lot of

01:19:11.783 --> 01:19:14.061
work left to do and that's why , again ,

01:19:14.061 --> 01:19:16.080
why I'm so grateful , uh , and

01:19:16.080 --> 01:19:18.136
encouraged , uh , that we're , we're

01:19:18.136 --> 01:19:20.358
having this discussion right now . So ,

01:19:20.358 --> 01:19:22.469
you know , our public affairs is , is

01:19:22.469 --> 01:19:24.691
the lead for the wing , uh , in Edwards

01:19:24.691 --> 01:19:26.524
Air Force Base for the community

01:19:26.524 --> 01:19:26.339
engagement , the community outreach ,

01:19:26.970 --> 01:19:29.339
um . I am committing Edwards Air Force

01:19:29.339 --> 01:19:32.330
Base to partnering as much as our local

01:19:32.330 --> 01:19:34.274
leaders , and we have a lot of the

01:19:34.274 --> 01:19:36.330
local leaders here , and I , and I ,

01:19:36.330 --> 01:19:38.274
and I suspect everybody here is on

01:19:38.274 --> 01:19:40.552
board as well . Uh , I think the state ,

01:19:40.552 --> 01:19:42.774
um , you know , would , would encourage

01:19:42.774 --> 01:19:44.663
this . It's like , yes , you guys

01:19:44.663 --> 01:19:44.129
should do that . It's something that I

01:19:44.129 --> 01:19:47.250
am getting direction from the

01:19:47.250 --> 01:19:49.417
Department of the Air Force , uh , and

01:19:49.417 --> 01:19:51.694
the office of the Secretary of Defense .

01:19:52.509 --> 01:19:55.729
Form strong bonds with your local

01:19:55.729 --> 01:19:58.120
community , um , because you're exactly

01:19:58.120 --> 01:20:00.120
right , when the disaster happens ,

01:20:00.120 --> 01:20:02.342
when the event happens , that's not the

01:20:02.342 --> 01:20:04.453
time . To meet somebody for the first

01:20:04.453 --> 01:20:06.731
time . So I , so we are committed , uh ,

01:20:06.731 --> 01:20:08.787
and we'll engage and partner as , as

01:20:08.787 --> 01:20:11.669
much as we can , um , and , and let's .

01:20:12.370 --> 01:20:14.259
Let's try to figure out where the

01:20:14.259 --> 01:20:16.259
things are and then just make , you

01:20:16.259 --> 01:20:18.426
know , every , you know , every year ,

01:20:18.426 --> 01:20:20.203
every exercise , let's move the

01:20:20.203 --> 01:20:19.680
football a little bit further down the

01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:22.189
field and make progress and get better .

01:20:22.600 --> 01:20:25.279
Wholly agree . OK , we have a question

01:20:25.279 --> 01:20:27.399
over here and then I will go down to

01:20:27.399 --> 01:20:29.399
you after . All right , and I think

01:20:29.399 --> 01:20:31.343
those , I'm getting the uh the the

01:20:31.343 --> 01:20:33.566
signal that those are probably the last

01:20:33.566 --> 01:20:35.843
two that we'll ask , but this is again ,

01:20:36.029 --> 01:20:38.140
that doesn't mean the conversation is

01:20:38.140 --> 01:20:42.069
over . Actually , both of you ran into

01:20:42.069 --> 01:20:44.509
the question that I had , and the

01:20:44.509 --> 01:20:46.589
question is not even necessarily for

01:20:46.589 --> 01:20:50.240
you , sir . I think the question or the

01:20:50.240 --> 01:20:53.910
thought is for all of us here . Two

01:20:53.910 --> 01:20:56.021
points , you and I have talked in the

01:20:56.021 --> 01:20:59.350
past . Yeah , we have not had conflict

01:20:59.350 --> 01:21:03.250
on our soil . In ,

01:21:03.330 --> 01:21:05.608
in , you know what since the Civil War ,

01:21:05.608 --> 01:21:08.169
and that was internal . Um , the last

01:21:08.169 --> 01:21:10.280
time I think we were , shall we say ,

01:21:10.280 --> 01:21:14.220
prepping . I was a kid having exercises

01:21:14.220 --> 01:21:16.553
to go under the desk in case , you know ,

01:21:16.553 --> 01:21:18.609
I had neighbors that , that , that ,

01:21:18.609 --> 01:21:21.549
you know , had had a cave under their

01:21:21.629 --> 01:21:25.020
their house just in case , but then

01:21:25.020 --> 01:21:26.853
there is also , yes , it is this

01:21:26.853 --> 01:21:30.339
communication and Most of the people

01:21:30.339 --> 01:21:32.629
upholding the mission at Edwards Air

01:21:32.629 --> 01:21:36.299
Force Base , vast majority live outside

01:21:36.299 --> 01:21:39.979
of the fence . So my question or the

01:21:39.979 --> 01:21:42.090
thought that I want to leave everyone

01:21:42.090 --> 01:21:45.459
with is how do we build that

01:21:45.459 --> 01:21:47.895
communication ? And how do we , without

01:21:47.895 --> 01:21:50.404
causing panic , but just so that we're

01:21:50.774 --> 01:21:53.165
we're we're getting people to at least

01:21:53.294 --> 01:21:55.854
think about it , how do we

01:21:55.854 --> 01:21:59.694
mentally prepare ourselves for the what

01:21:59.694 --> 01:22:01.975
if we do a really good job about

01:22:01.975 --> 01:22:04.895
preparing for earthquakes .

01:22:06.040 --> 01:22:08.640
How do we now prepare for this and

01:22:08.640 --> 01:22:11.089
maybe there's some ideas in here as to

01:22:11.089 --> 01:22:13.200
who we should include . And I'm going

01:22:13.200 --> 01:22:15.367
to leave it with one . There is the AV

01:22:15.367 --> 01:22:17.533
communicators network , which might be

01:22:17.533 --> 01:22:19.645
an interesting place to start . Thank

01:22:19.645 --> 01:22:22.330
you . Great . I mean , Spot on message .

01:22:22.439 --> 01:22:25.819
You're exactly right . Hello , yes , my

01:22:25.819 --> 01:22:28.209
name is Jackie . Thank you for inviting

01:22:28.209 --> 01:22:31.080
me to this . Yes , ma'am . Um , for

01:22:31.080 --> 01:22:33.024
almost the last 20 years I've been

01:22:33.024 --> 01:22:35.191
actively participating in transmission

01:22:35.191 --> 01:22:37.247
system design proceedings before the

01:22:37.247 --> 01:22:40.370
Public Utilities Commission . And , um ,

01:22:40.700 --> 01:22:43.330
I just want to point out and start a

01:22:43.330 --> 01:22:45.560
conversation on this , um , the Sanborn

01:22:45.560 --> 01:22:47.393
project that you talked about on

01:22:47.393 --> 01:22:49.616
Edwards , the Estrela project , all the

01:22:49.616 --> 01:22:51.616
projects , the Lancaster projects ,

01:22:51.616 --> 01:22:53.782
they all feed to the Antelope Valley ,

01:22:53.782 --> 01:22:56.004
the antelope substation . And you don't

01:22:56.004 --> 01:22:58.171
need a cyberattack to take that down .

01:22:58.171 --> 01:23:00.227
It could be taken down for 5 minutes

01:23:00.227 --> 01:23:02.450
for 500 bucks , and it'll stay down for

01:23:02.450 --> 01:23:04.561
at least 6 months because of how long

01:23:04.561 --> 01:23:06.172
it takes to get a new 500 kV

01:23:06.172 --> 01:23:08.339
transformer . Yes , ma'am , and Edison

01:23:08.339 --> 01:23:10.450
has very few spares on their system ,

01:23:10.649 --> 01:23:12.930
so they're , um .

01:23:14.339 --> 01:23:17.060
I have been trying for over 3 years now

01:23:17.060 --> 01:23:20.350
to elevate this issue to electeds ,

01:23:20.649 --> 01:23:23.660
to uh utilities to the public utilities

01:23:23.660 --> 01:23:25.810
commission . You can't give too much

01:23:25.810 --> 01:23:27.921
information because you don't want to

01:23:27.921 --> 01:23:30.254
give people ideas , obviously . So , um ,

01:23:30.254 --> 01:23:32.939
and there are solutions and so I guess

01:23:32.939 --> 01:23:35.140
I would like to find a way to start

01:23:35.140 --> 01:23:38.359
engaging some of these groups and the

01:23:38.359 --> 01:23:40.415
solutions aren't going to be popular

01:23:40.415 --> 01:23:43.750
with . Edison and other utilities

01:23:43.750 --> 01:23:46.660
because they , their bread and butter

01:23:46.660 --> 01:23:48.438
is transmission systems and the

01:23:48.438 --> 01:23:51.259
solution involves non-transmission . So

01:23:51.259 --> 01:23:53.426
I guess I would like to point that out

01:23:53.426 --> 01:23:56.240
and uh because plant 42 Edwards , all

01:23:56.240 --> 01:23:58.459
of you are fed by the antelope

01:23:58.459 --> 01:24:00.620
substation and when that goes and it

01:24:00.620 --> 01:24:03.020
can be done like that , it's a

01:24:03.020 --> 01:24:06.419
permanent or it's 6 months the war's

01:24:06.419 --> 01:24:08.641
over by then , but who knows . Anyway ,

01:24:08.700 --> 01:24:11.033
so I would like to engage with somebody .

01:24:11.350 --> 01:24:13.830
On that and have that conversation . So

01:24:13.830 --> 01:24:16.790
thanks . Yes , ma'am . The , I , I ,

01:24:17.430 --> 01:24:19.486
that , that was a great , you know ,

01:24:19.486 --> 01:24:21.597
kind of vignette just to , you know ,

01:24:21.597 --> 01:24:23.652
showcase and highlight exactly the ,

01:24:23.652 --> 01:24:25.708
the challenge that we face , um , as

01:24:25.708 --> 01:24:27.874
well as kind of the like , let's solve

01:24:27.874 --> 01:24:29.930
this . Let's figure out , you know ,

01:24:29.930 --> 01:24:32.041
let's brainstorm some ideas and let's

01:24:32.041 --> 01:24:35.140
get after it and solve it . All right ,

01:24:35.209 --> 01:24:37.487
I think , uh , we're over to , uh , Mr .

01:24:37.487 --> 01:24:40.569
Windheim for uh . Ladies , ladies and

01:24:40.569 --> 01:24:42.625
gentlemen , how about a big round of

01:24:42.625 --> 01:24:44.291
applause for General Wicker .

01:24:46.930 --> 01:24:49.041
Sir , thank you so much for your time

01:24:49.041 --> 01:24:51.041
for making this briefing for us . I

01:24:51.041 --> 01:24:53.263
know your schedule is incredibly busy .

01:24:53.263 --> 01:24:55.263
Um , love seeing the picture of the

01:24:55.263 --> 01:24:57.208
Raider and the picture of Palmdale

01:24:57.208 --> 01:24:59.430
Plant 42 right behind it , right ? It's

01:24:59.430 --> 01:25:01.652
built , made and designed by people who

01:25:01.652 --> 01:25:01.410
live and work here in our area and and

01:25:01.410 --> 01:25:03.299
thank you so much for making that

01:25:03.299 --> 01:25:04.799
happen , sir . Thank you .

01:25:08.009 --> 01:25:11.950
And as we wrap up . Well , in

01:25:11.950 --> 01:25:13.894
our minds right now we're thinking

01:25:13.894 --> 01:25:16.061
about things like next steps , right ?

01:25:16.061 --> 01:25:18.228
Um , what's the next event like this ?

01:25:18.228 --> 01:25:20.394
And , and really this is a local and a

01:25:20.394 --> 01:25:22.339
community activity , right ? We're

01:25:22.339 --> 01:25:24.561
thankful that the base leadership would

01:25:24.561 --> 01:25:24.560
come and give us this address , but

01:25:24.560 --> 01:25:26.560
really this is a local conversation

01:25:26.560 --> 01:25:28.782
starter . So those , those next steps ,

01:25:28.782 --> 01:25:30.782
those next events , we , we need to

01:25:30.782 --> 01:25:33.004
determine that . And so I'm so thankful

01:25:33.004 --> 01:25:32.870
that the Edwards Air Force Base

01:25:32.870 --> 01:25:35.092
Civilian Military Support Group had the

01:25:35.092 --> 01:25:37.203
opportunity to host this , this event

01:25:37.203 --> 01:25:39.203
to kick things off . One , And your

01:25:39.203 --> 01:25:41.203
team , thank you so much for all of

01:25:41.203 --> 01:25:43.148
your planning efforts to make this

01:25:43.148 --> 01:25:45.203
happen . We greatly appreciate you .

01:25:45.203 --> 01:25:47.426
Thank you very much . One more round of

01:25:47.426 --> 01:25:49.314
applause also for Dr . Zealot and

01:25:49.314 --> 01:25:51.537
Antelope Valley College and their staff

01:25:51.537 --> 01:25:53.537
for for hosting us . Thank you very

01:25:53.537 --> 01:25:55.426
much . And ladies and gentlemen ,

01:25:55.426 --> 01:25:55.899
that's a wrap . Thank you .