In a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), U.S. Senator from Maine Angus King (I) invoked 13th century Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan to push for increased Defense Department spending on new weapons technology.

Chair of the National Defense Commission Jane Harman appeared before the Senate Committee on Wednesday to discuss a report published by the Commission on the United States’ defense strategy, weapon procurement, nuclear deterrence and other threats to national security.

In an exchange with Harman, Sen. King questioned why the Department of Defense has reduced spending on directed energy weapon research while highlighting technology’s role in historical conflicts.

“The first country to adapt new technologies generally wins wars; Genghis Khan and the stirrup, the long bow at the battle of Agincourt, the tank in World War I, radar in World War II,” Maine’s junior Senator told Harman. “We are systematically missing technologies—it is one of the great failures of the last 10 or 15 years in our defense structure.”

King, 80, said that the U.S. is “woefully behind” in several areas of weapons technology, including directed energy, hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence.

“We are shooting down $20,000 Houthi missiles with $4.3 million missiles of our own—that’s ridiculous,” King continued.

“The budget for directed energy in the defense department has fallen by half in the last three years. Representative Harman, is it systematic legacy thinking? What is the problem? Why did we miss these obvious technologies?” he asked Harman.

In response to King’s questions, the National Defense Commission chair told King that the Pentagon is “moving at the speed of bureaucracy.”

“I think it is legacy systems, old think, and I think congress is somewhat–” Harman said.

“I think it’s legacy thinking,” King interrupted.

“Legacy thinking, fine, but I think congress is somewhat complicit in the way the budget process doesn’t work and this insistence on requirements and oversight rather than what is the problem set we are solving for which is how the tech sector thinks,” said Chair Harman.

Harman agreed with King’s sentiment that “it’s technologies that win wars,” adding that a partnership between the Pentagon, other government agencies, and the tech sector “will win the next war.”

In another SASC hearing earlier this year, King made similar comments to U.S. Navy officials, asking them ““What in the hell are you guys thinking?” when probing the Navy’s directed energy weapon budget.