WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, spoke at the Air Force Association Chapter Meeting in Meridian, Mississippi. He highlighted the history of refueling airplanes in Meridian, a particularly relevant topic amid the U.S. Air Force’s ongoing KC-46 basing decision process. Chairman Wicker also discussed his plan to rebuild the American military, which he had published a year to the day earlier in his landmark report, 21^st Century Peace Through Strength. Below are excerpts from his speech, lightly edited for clarity.  

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On Being Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Implementing Peace Through Strength:

“I'm the first Chairman of the Armed Services Committee from Mississippi since John C. Stennis was Chairman of Armed Services. It is a dream for me to be able to do that, and particularly at a time like this. We need to be ready to defend ourselves against the axis of aggressors – China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran – that I talk about in my paper, 21st Century Peace Through Strength. Three of those powers have nuclear weapons. One of them is days, perhaps weeks, away from having a nuclear weapon. I absolutely stand with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu that our policy should firmly be: Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Iran hates the United States. They hate the West, they hate democracies, and their aim is to destroy us. They don't get a nuclear weapon. We can stop it, or we can do as other administrations did and take them at their word that they're only trying to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Do you know how much oil is in the Middle East, and how little they need nuclear power in the Middle East, in Iran, to power themselves? There is no reason in the world for them to want enriched uranium other than to create a nuclear bomb. It would mean the destruction, almost certainly, of our ally Israel.”

On the KC-46 Basing Decision and Meridian’s History of Refueling:

”Let's talk about some of the things that we're doing for KC-46 here at the 186. Six point seven million dollars in the last National Defense Authorization Act to accelerate the planning and design of a corrosion control hangar. One million dollars to update the fuel hydrant system, $5.6 million to support planning and design of a maintenance hangar, $1.9 million to support the planning and design of a base supply warehouse at Key Field. There’s more to come, and there's more we're doing. I, along with Senator Hyde-Smith and Congressmen Michael Guest and Trent Kelly are going to do the best we can to bring the KC-46 to Meridian. 1971, I was in ROTC, and I'm at field training at Grissom Air Force Base. In 1972, we had dinner with Al Key, mayor of Meridian. His brother Fred had set the record - 27 days in air flight without ever landing. Let me tell you, folks, we invented air refueling in Meridian, Mississippi, and I think that ought to give us a leg up for the KC-46. One man was flying the plane for 27 straight days, and when his brother would come up in another biplane to refuel with a hose, the pilot would get out on the wing of that plane, leaving the cockpit, and they would refuel that plane. They did that for 27 days.”

On the One Big Beautiful Bill and the Golden Dome:

“There is one piece of legislation that just passed the House and is now being considered in the Senate called the One Big Beautiful Bill, which includes funding for the Golden Dome. I was talking to Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office, and I was advocating for Iron Dome for America. We think the technology is there to do it for the entire continent. He said, “I think we ought to call it the Golden Dome.” It's going to be expensive, but I think we have to do this, and we've got the technology to do that. North Korea can get a missile to the continental United States right now. China can get a missile to the United States right now, and Russia can. We need that protection. What we had to worry about 15 years ago does not compare to what we have now. A cyberattack is a part of national defense now. It is the next quantum leap of what we're worried about, and that's why I'm going to vote for this One Big Beautiful Bill. It's got $150 billion for defense. The President of the United States is behind the Armed Services Committee of the Senate and the House on putting at least $150 billion in this. It will just get us started. But we are behind. We need to be at 5 percent of our national economy. We are in a position now, with the help of this One Big Beautiful Bill, of getting us back to 5 percent of our economy and having the ability to prevent war. There has never been a war started against a country because that country was too strong. Wars start because the victim country is not strong enough. We are determined to get us back to the point where we are so strong that we never have to send these people into combat. That's the way to stay out of war, and the opposite is the way we've always gotten into war.”