Courtney Presses Army Official On Message Canceled Troop Deployment Sends To Allies, Adversaries

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Pediquette, Mr. Courtney.

[00:00:01]>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Driskill, on May 1st, 4,000 Army soldiers of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team attended a color casing ceremony, a send-off ahead of deployment to Eastern Europe that the Army had announced last March. At the ceremony, Major General Tom Felty, who's the head of the 1st Cavalry Division, gave some very stirring remarks where he said, "Make no mistake, our adversaries are paying attention when an Armored Brigade Combat Team deploys forward, it sends a clear and unmistakable signal. The ABCT is the embodiment of American ground combat power." Given the fact [clears throat] that the administration just canceled this deployment a couple days ago, we had people actually already over there right now. I guess the the question sort of begs itself, which is does is the opposite true? If our adversaries are paying attention, is the cancellation of a deployment of a Brigade Combat Team sending again the opposite signal in terms of our commitment to our allies in Eastern Europe?

[00:01:06]I sure thank you for the question. We we uh the COCOM Commander, General Grinkevich, you know, received the instructions on the the force reduction. I've I've worked with him in close consultation on what that force unit would be.

[00:01:21]Uh and it was made the most sense for that Brigade to to not do its its deployment in theater.

[00:01:30]Um we can still continue to work closely with General Grinkevich and his team on ensuring that he has the right forces from us, the Title 10, you know, headquarters here that mans, trains, equips, and gets the units ready for their deployments.

[00:01:46]So, we worked with him on what would be the the unit that would would not execute the mission.

[00:01:53]Well, >> [clears throat] >> again, I think General Felty is right that our adversaries are paying attention and that I mean I appreciate the answer but frankly I don't think that really rises to the moment in terms of just again the the situation that exists in Europe and frankly it's not just our adversaries that are paying attention.

[00:02:10]It's our allies. Poland which is apparently where the deployment was at least going to uh you know begin and originate has is an ally that's spending 4.8% of GDP in terms of their defense budgets and all the other Baltic countries are up in that range as well and given the fact that the administration also canceled or is pulling back 5,000 troops out of Germany.

[00:02:34]I'm sorry I just think this is a horrible message that again our adversaries and allies are paying attention to. Mr. Secretary um Chairman Rogers talked about the fact that this committee is laser focused on the industrial base which again I think there's bipartisan lockstep unity on that question. Your budget cuts aviation fixed wing aviation rotary wing aviation at to historic levels. A couple days ago Secretary Hexeph appeared before the House Armed Services Committee. My colleague from Connecticut Ms. DeLauro raised the point about you know you are decimating the industrial base with that radical reduction in investment which by the way the Army National Guard is was requesting 24 Black Hawks in their 2027 statement that's there.

[00:03:31]Secretary Hexeph actually said he agreed that we need to take another look at that quote unquote during the the hearing and I just would ask you whether you agree with Secretary Hexeph that that um you know the the the impact in terms of the industrial base requires a second look.

[00:03:47]Um uh Congressman from your reference to his remarks I don't know all the depth of what was implied, but I absolutely agree that we will take a hard look with the office of the secretary of war and make sure that we are synced with their strategy and their plans as they look across the joint force and balance their war requirements and needs of the military as a whole.