Yes, indeed.
My colleague, Mrs. Block, indicated that she had been on this committee previously. This is my first time on this committee, but I feel as though this subject has been around since the first Top Gun movie.
As a former diplomat, I have a lot of interest in your comments and responses to my colleague, Mrs. Block. I wanted to expand upon them a little further. You said, “The F‑35 cannot come soon enough, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the dangers of hypersonic weapons and suicide drones.”
Perhaps you can explain to the committee what we have been deprived of in terms of capability by not currently having the F‑35 and therefore not having this technology and the comparative capability to share with other nations to defend democracy versus Russia or China.
What have we been deprived of and what could we have contributed had we had this capability?