Recruitment and personnel are uniquely key to readiness and deterrence

Personnel is the most important aspect of readiness, but there is much more. The Army, George said, must focus on warfighting and training for battle in which all domains are contested. The service must support combatant commands with ready formations around the world. "Right now, we have 137,000 soldiers in over 140 countries," the vice chief said. The Army is working with the defense industry to modernize the industrial base to increase productivity and ensure that the service has the stocks to fight when called upon. "We are deterring the pacing challenge, China, by exercising and campaigning across the Indo-Pacific, holding the line in the European theater alongside our NATO partners," George said. The service is also adapting the lessons learned in Ukraine and incorporating new tactics into Army doctrine and training. Franchetti said the Navy's readiness is based on people. "We are committed to improving their quality of service and personal resilience, investing in initiatives such as quality housing and childcare, access to the full continuum of mental health care, improved education and an environment free of sexual harassment and sexual assault," she said. "In this 50th anniversary of the all-volunteer force, we continue to focus on recruiting, retention and reducing gaps in our billets at sea." The admiral also spoke of gains in ship readiness and improvements in maintenance. She told the panel that the fiscal 2024 budget request fully funds public and private ship maintenance, aviation depot maintenance, increases parts and spares and continues to grow the highly skilled public shipyard workforce. Gen. Eric Smith, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said the service is ready to deter enemies or defeat them should deterrence fail. The Marine Corps is modernizing, and Smith said that effort is bearing fruit, especially regarding training and education. He said the corps is producing "an even more lethal Marine. From our basic rifleman training to our service level training exercises, we are becoming more lethal." Marine training integrates joint and organic fires, improved communications and updated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to sense, track and destroy targets at ranges and complexities never seen before, he said. Readiness is important in relation to the challenges. "Events of the past year remind us that global actors have the capability and intent to challenge peace and stability," Allvin said. "In the case of the pacing challenge the People's Republic of China, the speed at which they are developing advanced capability and capacity should serve as a warning for us to act with a greater sense of urgency. "We must maintain the necessary advantage to deter them from violent pursuit of objectives at odds with our national interests. Your Air Force is laser focused on this task."