Yellowhammer Times

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama held a discussion with General Christopher J. Mahoney, the nominee for Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on September 11, 2025. The conversation covered topics such as artificial intelligence in warfare, military housing conditions, acquisition reform, and financial audits within the Department of Defense.

During their exchange, Tuberville raised concerns about the United States' approach to quantum computing models and asked whether it was wise to use only one model while adversaries used another. He stated: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General, thanks for your service. Congratulations. Let’s follow-up on Senator Rosen’s talk on AI. We know the direction we’re headed. Future conflicts will be dominated by artificial intelligence emerging technologies like quantum computing. There’s basically two quantum computing models—gate and annealing. We only use one of them basically, and our adversaries use the other. Do you think that’s a smart way to handle this?”

Mahoney responded by emphasizing the growing importance of artificial intelligence in military operations: “Senator, thanks. Artificial intelligence, algorithmic-derived systems, are, again, if cyber has just become part of the normal war fighting domain, artificial intelligence is not too far behind. And we don’t need to look too far to see how it’s being applied, especially in the Russia, Ukraine example. We have to bring that in and make it a normal part of our programmatics.”

Tuberville also highlighted issues with military housing infrastructure despite significant defense spending: “Thank you. Let’s go to a more simple topic here. I’m getting calls all the time—we’ve spent trillions of dollars on these wars over the years. But we can’t house our people on military bases. We have mold, roofs are falling in, kids are getting sick. But we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on another country. We’re an all-volunteer army. Will you commit to helping solve this problem? I know it’s not just your problem, but it is a huge problem, probably, in recruiting. And again, our phone rings off the wall when it comes to this.”

Mahoney committed to addressing these issues based on his experience in Marine Corps leadership: “Senator, I commit to you […] to do just that. And I’ll go on my recent experience in the Marine Corps and the Commandant’s emphasis on our Barracks 2030 initiative...we have to get back into the installations and resilience business...Two primary reasons...First...expectation among Soldiers,...Marines,...Guardians,...Airmen,...Sailors...Secondly...a power projection platform....we have to invest in that Senator.”

The conversation turned toward acquisition reform following recent directives from Secretary Hegseth regarding dismantling parts of existing procurement systems: “Thank you—an investment in our soldiers...Recently Secretary Hegseth has directed the dismantling of the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System...In your role as Vice Chairman...How will you ensure this rapid and agile system provide combat capabilities...?”

Mahoney outlined his priorities if confirmed: “Senator, you hit it right on the head....as Chairman of JROC,...one of my goals and priorities will be to make sure that we have end-to-end systems treatment of requirements to meaningful resources....We need to quicken all those gears requirements acquisition resources and sync with them so that we get a good product....I think we ought to move it to schedule or speed cost and performance....And I will make that a priority Senator.”

Finally, Tuberville asked about lessons learned from successful Marine Corps audits: “Great....Organization is key to winning....what lessons do you bring from Marine Corps that will help Department achieve clean audit for first time many years?”

Mahoney replied: “Senator,...organization is key victory,...Marine Corps had two clean opinions....We’ll have third one....to extent I can influence it I will press move Department along coming out disclaimer getting clean audit.”

Senator Tuberville serves Alabama as a member of several Senate committees including Armed Services.