U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is concerned that the military is not ready to fight the next war because of issues with the supply chain in the weapons industry.

During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Tuberville (R-Auburn) said he’s seen the problems first hand.

“[Y]ou talk about the issues with the supply chain,” Tuberville said. “I was in Huntsville last week at some of our missile motor factories, and huge problem of getting parts. And we think we’re going to fight a war? It’s ridiculous.”

The senator pointed to a specific issue that could affect the military readiness in the Indo-Pacific.

“We need tankers that are gonna be able to haul longer and carry more fuel,” he said. “And unfortunately, we’ve got a contract out there that we can’t get a decent refueler finished and it seemed like it takes forever, but that’s what happens up here. We give out contracts and we can’t fulfill them.”

Tuberville said he’s also troubled by the shortage of skilled labor as well.

“In Alabama we build submarines, ships, airplanes, missiles, you name it we build it, and we’re having to go out and hire people from McDonald’s to train them themselves,” he said. “And that’s how bad our education system got. I did it for 40 years so I’ve seen the decline in our education system. And a lot of the universities teach degrees that they should never even think about teaching. We should teach people how to work and how to make a living, all of those things.

“It really concerns me.”

He also believes part of the problem is the Biden administration has the wrong priorities when it comes to national security.

“I keep hearing that our number one threat is not nuclear, which we all could be wiped out, it’s climate change,” he lamented. “Listen, I’m all for our climate, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for our climate, but we’re printing hundreds of thousands of dollars up here. Our dollar is devaluating. And we’re thinking about building a new nuclear arsenal. And again, I’m an educator, but you’ve got to find somewhere to find this money and we’re going to have to find it somewhere. We’ve spent over a trillion, maybe $2 trillion on climate change. You could build a pretty good nuclear arsenal with $2 trillion I would think.

“So we got to get our priorities right, and it absolutely amazes me how we don’t look at priorities.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee