We want our armed forces to be self-sufficient. We do not want to depend upon other governments or commercial enterprises to lift our forces in a strategic manner. If we go to other governments and are proposing to lift our forces to do something they don't appreciate or don't support, we won't get the support from them.
And when it comes to leasing commercial aircraft, essentially strategic airlift is under the control of the Russian government. We already know of incidents when the Russian government has refused the use of aircraft because they don't agree with its use.
The British, for example, eventually bought C-17s because they had trouble with the leased aircraft, because the Russian government refused to allow them to land where they wanted to land them.
We are not going to be hostage to any foreign government and are not going to be hostage to any foreign company. This country and its armed forces are going to be as self-reliant as can be.
If you look at our geography, we are surrounded by three oceans, and when we have to move anywhere, we have to move great distances. One of the problems we've had in the past is that we have been employing our tactical aircraft—our Hercules aircraft—as strategic aircraft, and we are burning up the hours. The reason we have the oldest Hercules aircraft on the planet is that we've been using our Hercules aircraft in a strategic lift mode.