Lawmakers questioned the timing and the reasons, lambasting the order that Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said sent a “terrible message to Russia and our allies.”
The military must wait for manufacturers to fix or upgrade equipment, leaving them with outdated capabilities as technology evolves quickly, they said.
The helicopter’s altitude-measuring instrument was also inaccurate, investigators said at the first of three days of hearings examining the January crash.
Tuesday was the first time Waltz faced lawmakers since mistakenly adding a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss sensitive military plans.