to me. . (13) During a March 2017 hearing of the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives on nuclear deterrence requirements, Air Force General Paul Selva, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also endorsed the treaty, saying New START is a bilateral, verifiable agreement that gives us some degree of predictability on what our potential adversaries look like . (14) Lieutenant General Jack Weinstein, the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, asserted that New START was of huge value to United States security. (15) The Nuclear Posture Review states that arms control agreements can foster transparency, understanding, and predictability in adversary relations, thereby reducing the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation . (16) New START strengthens United States nuclear security and strategic stability by reducing the number of strategic systems in Russia's nuclear arsenal and provides the United States with the inspection and monitoring tools necessary to confidently verify Russian compliance with New START. (17) New START does not restrict United States nuclear modernization programs or limit United States missile defense efforts. (18) During a September 2018 hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy David Trachtenberg stated that the transparency and verification requirements of the New START Treaty are a benefit to United States security and, in response to a question regarding missile defense, asserted that New START had no effect on limiting our missile defense capabilities. (19) In a March 2017 hearing of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, Retired Air Force General and former commander of U.S. Strategic Command Robert Kehler stated I think that we have gotten tremendous benefit out of those kinds of agreements with the Russians over the years, provided that the Russians comply regarding the importance of