Pentagon digs in for long haul in battle with Tommy Tuberville

“We are currently facing an indefinite, blanket hold on the Senate confirmation of all U.S. military general and flag officers,” Austin wrote. “This unprecedented, across-the-board hold is having a cascading effect, increasingly hindering the normal operations of this department and undermining both our military readiness and our national security … The department must make every effort to limit the damage caused by this hold, including the disruption that it is causing our military families.”

SHELTER IN PLACE: Under Austin’s plan, current three and four-star officers will be considered on a “case-by-case basis” for retention in their current job, “taking into account any hardship that may result from remaining in place.”

“It’s really situation-dependent, depending on the position,” said spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in a briefing for Pentagon reporters. “Largely speaking, if it’s a Senate-confirmed position, for example, three to four-star, there would be a lot of situations where you would hold in place until you’re confirmed unless there’s permission to act in an acting capacity.”

“Officers who would assume the roles as the head of the organization due to normal succession, such as a deputy or a vice, may assume the head role in an acting or temporary capacity, regardless of whether they have been or will be nominated for the head position,” the memo stated. “Officers in … grades tied to nominative positions, may not vacate the position for which they have been confirmed while waiting to be confirmed for another.”

“In extraordinary cases, officers in a grade of [two-star] or below who are not in the normal line of succession may be assigned to head organizations in an acting capacity, provided they have not been or will not be nominated for the head position.”

TUBERVILLE’S RETORT: While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said it would be impractical and take weeks, if not months of floor time to take up each nomination individually, Tuberville has insisted that’s the only way out of the impasse.

Tuberville has scoffed at the idea that his holds are preventing anyone from being confirmed, are having any effect on readiness, have anything to do with the ability of servicemembers to get abortions, or inflict any financial hardship on veterans or military families.

“No military positions go unfilled as long as the hold is in place. Existing officials remain in place while their replacements’ promotions remain unconfirmed,” Tuberville’s office argued in a fact sheet released last month.

“Senator Tuberville’s hold does not prevent any nomination from being confirmed,” the release said. “Tuberville’s hold forces the Senate to consider and vote on the nominations by regular order (i.e. a floor vote) instead of approving them in batches by unanimous consent.”

The hold “is well within his rights as a senator,” is “not unprecedented, unlike the Pentagon’s abortion policy,” and “reflects the majority view of the American people that taxpayers should not fund abortion,” the release insisted.

“Senator Tuberville continues to rebuff hypocritical and inaccurate attacks from Democrats, reiterating why he believes the DoD’s new policy that expands taxpayer-subsided abortions circumvents the role of Congress and blatantly violates the law,” the senator’s office argued.

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MARINES ARRIVE TO COUNTER IRAN: More than 2,000 Marines have arrived in the Middle East on two ships, the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall.

The Navy announced yesterday that the ships are now in the Red Sea as part of a “pre-announced deployment” to bring “additional aviation and naval assets” and “greater flexibility and maritime capability” to the U.S. 5th Fleet.

The ships of Bataan Amphibious Ready Group come as the U.S. is considering placing small numbers of Marines on commercial ships in the region to deter Iran from harassing or seizing them.

Stars and Stripes reported last week that roughly 100 Marines were “training in Bahrain for specialized defensive teams that would travel briefly with commercial ships through and near the Strait of Hormuz,” quoting a U.S. official.

“I’m aware of the press reports speculating that that’s something we may be looking at doing,” said Ryder. “Again, I don’t have anything to announce, and when and if we do, we’ll be sure to let you know.”

NIGER DEADLINE PASSES: Niger’s military junta has so far ignored an ultimatum to restore democracy and free ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or face military intervention from ECOWAS, a block of West African nations.

Acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met for more than two hours with several coup leaders in Niger’s capital of Niamey yesterday but told reporters there was little progress in finding a diplomatic resolution.

“I will say that these conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult because, again, we were pushing for a negotiated solution,” Nuland said in a telephone briefing. “It was not easy to get traction there. They are quite firm in their view on how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the constitution of Niger.”

The U.S. has some 1,100 troops in Niger at two bases, but for now, they are not going anywhere. “We’re still continuing to monitor the situation in Niger. At this time, there’s been no change to U.S. military force posture in the country,” said Ryder at the Pentagon. “We remain focused on force protection and on cooperating with Nigerien military on the bases there to keep those bases functioning.”

Nuland said she asked to meet with Bazoum but was refused. “We also asked for some gestures of health and welfare; he is in a very difficult situation under virtual house arrest, along with his son and his wife,” Nuland said. “We’ve talked to him on the phone, but we haven’t seen him.”

NIGER COUP: US EMISSARY ‘EXPRESSES GRAVE CONCERN’ WHILE SPEAKING TO RULING JUNTA

PENTAGON: CHINESE-RUSSIAN FLOTILLA NO THREAT: The Pentagon downplayed the flexing of maritime muscle by China and Russia, whose ships are conducting an unprecedented military exercise off the coast of Alaska near the Aleutian Islands.

“They were in international waters. At no point in time were they deemed to pose a threat,” said Ryder at yesterday’s briefing. “And so, like any country, they are free to conduct exercises in international airspace, international waters.”

“I think that it’s no surprise to anyone that China and Russia continue to look at ways to cooperate, and we’ll continue to monitor this situation and act appropriately,” he said.

“While I am glad the U.S. Navy deployed four destroyers and a P-8 aircraft to monitor the fleet, the exercise serves as a stark signal that generational investments in U.S. shipbuilding and ship maintenance to maintain deterrence are more necessary than ever,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who called the “scale and complexity” of the joint Russian and Chinese deployment “unprecedented.”

CHINA AND RUSSIA SEND ‘STARK SIGNAL’ TO UNDERSIZED US NAVY, WICKER SAYS

ZELENSKY ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Ukraine has taken into custody a woman it says is suspected of helping Russia in a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky last month.

A statement on the website of the SBU, Ukraine’s state security service, said, “The SSU has detained an informant of Russian intelligence services who on the eve of the visit of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv oblast was collecting information on the planned events. Primarily, the woman tried to establish time and list of locations of the Head of State’s tentative itinerary in the region.”

“The spy had been instructed to identify the location of the AFU’s electronic warfare systems and ammunition depots near Ochakiv, Mykolaiv oblast,” the statement said. “Occupiers planned to use these data to prepare a new massive air strike on the region. The SSU apprehended the traitor ‘red-handed’ when she was trying to pass intelligence to the invaders.”

WALTZ: RETRY BERGDAHL: Former Green Beret Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) is pressing the Pentagon to explore options to retry Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl’s conviction was vacated by a federal judge last month because the military judge presiding over the court-martial failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest.

“For those of us who were deployed at the time, the vacated case not only reopened old wounds from a forgotten war but highlighted the grave injustices surrounding Bergdahl’s grossly lenient sentencing,” Waltz wrote in an opinion piece on the Fox News website. “I led a task force of Green Berets, who along with every unit in the eastern half of the country, searched for Bergdahl to no avail. Instead, an estimated eight Americans were killed and dozens seriously wounded in militant-occupied areas attempting to locate the deserter.”

Last month, Waltz and four other lawmakers urged Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Attorney General Merrick Garland to review options for a new trial.

“We are concerned that the political leadership in the Biden administration — many whom served in the Obama Administration — will have little interest in pressing forward with a new trial to avoid rehashing the embarrassing mistakes of 2014 and have every political interest in allowing the case to fade away as we head into an election year,” Waltz said.

“We will not allow this case to be swept under the rug,” he wrote. “That starts by appealing for a retrial for this traitor.”

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The Rundown

Washington Examiner: China and Russia send ‘stark signal’ to undersized US Navy, Wicker says

Washington Examiner: China warns US over Taiwanese presidential candidate’s visit

Washington Examiner: Why China’s dangerous Second Thomas Shoal escalation matters

Washington Examiner: Putin gives Navalny the gulag and Prigozhin a five-star pass

Washington Examiner: Kremlin aide floats canceling presidential election, citing ‘costly bureaucracy’

Washington Examiner: Niger coup: US emissary ‘expresses grave concern’ while speaking to ruling junta

Washington Examiner: Arizona woman accused of trying to poison Air Force husband for months

Washington Post: China Hacked Japan’s Sensitive Defense Networks, Officials Say

Reuters: China Repeats Call For The Philippines To Remove Grounded Warship

Navy Times: How Adm. Paparo Will Lead The U.S. Military In The Indo-Pacific

Breaking Defense: Why A U.S. Navy Admiral Says China Won’t Pick Up The Military Hotline

The War Zone: Japan Eyes Turning C-2 Cargo Jets Into Standoff Missile Carriers

Newsweek: Russia’s ‘Superior’ Air Force Keeps Failing in Ukraine

CNN: First batch of US Abrams tanks officially approved for shipment to Ukraine

AP: Belarus begins military drills near its border with Poland and Lithuania as tensions heighten

AP: Death toll rises to 7 after Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city’s downtown area

AP: Carcinogens found at Montana nuclear missile sites as reports of hundreds of cancers surface

Military.com: Watchdog Warns Recruits Are Not Being Properly Vetted for Extremism Ties

Bloomberg: Pentagon Withholds Payments of $7 Million a Piece on Upgraded Lockheed F-35s

Defense News: Emerging Tech-Focused Firms Could Reshape the Top 100

Air & Space Forces Magazine: USAF Plan: Keep B-1 Credible Through New Pylons, Stress Testing, and More

Air & Space Forces Magazine: KC-46 Update: Where Things Stand With Every Deficiency

Task & Purpose: Air Force Combat Controllers Might Not Attend Dive School Anymore

Breaking Defense: South American Militaries Take Aim at Narco Trafficking with New Radars, Exercises

Air Force Times: Expeditionary Air Base Teams to Begin Deploying in October

Space News: Lockheed Martin’s Data-Transport Satellite Clears Design Review

Air & Space Forces Magazine: New Rules to Speeding Up Mental Health Care Referrals for Airmen, Guardians

Defense One: Joint Chiefs to Get Taste of Marine Modernization with New Senior Enlisted Advisor

Forbes: Leidos-Microsoft Partnership Is Latest Sign AI Is Taking The Defense Industry By Storm

Calendar

TUESDAY | AUGUST 8

9:20 a.m. Huntsville, Alabama — National Defense Industrial Association three-day “Space & Missile Defense Symposium,” with Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command; Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command; William Nelson, deputy to the commanding general at the Army Futures Command; Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commanding general of U.S. Army Reserve Cyber; Lt. Gen. Jon Braga, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command; Royal Air Force Air Commodore Adam Bone, head of operations, plans, and training at the U.K. Space Command https://smdsymposium.org/registration

10 a.m. — Defense One virtual “DOD Cloud Workshop,” with E.P. Mathew, Defense Intelligence Agency deputy chief information officer; and Lily Zeleke, DOD deputy chief information officer for Information Enterprise https://events.defenseone.com/dod-cloud/

2 p.m. — Intelligence and National Security Alliance virtual discussion: “Space Resiliency: Leveraging Commercial Innovation to Advance the Mission,” with Jeremy Leader, acting deputy director for the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office; Pete Muend, director of the National Reconnaissance Office’s Commercial Systems Program Office; and Bishop Garrison, INSA vice president for policy https://register.gotowebinar.com/register

5 p.m. Sierra Vista, Arizona — House Judiciary Committee Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee; and House Oversight and Accountability Committee National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee joint field hearing: “Biden’s Border Crisis and its Effect on American Communities,” with testimony from Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies; Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Dannels; and John W. Ladd, rancher http://judiciary.house.gov

WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 9

9:20 a.m. 700 Monroe St. SW, Huntsville, Alabama — National Defense Industrial Association “Space & Missile Defense Symposium,” day two, with Coast Guard Rear Adm. Sean Regan, director of training, exercises, and wargaming at the U.S. Northern Command; Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, director of the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office; Keith Krapels, director of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center; Dayna Ise, deputy director at the NASA Science and Technology Office; Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, SMDC commanding general; Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Foley; and Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering https://smdsymposium.org/registration

11 a.m. — Washington Post Live virtual discussion: “Putin and the War in Ukraine,” with exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, founding editor of TV Rain and author of War and Punishment; and Shane Harris, Washington Post intelligence and national security reporter https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live

1 p.m. — Washington Post Live virtual discussion: “Jan. 6 indictment and American democracy,” with federal Judge J. Michael Luttig; and David Shipley, Washington Post editorial page editor https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live

THURSDAY | AUGUST 10

8 a.m. 2941 Fairview Park Dr., Falls Church, Virginia — Potomac Officers Club “Integrating for Mission Success Forum,” with Schuyler Moore, CTO of the U.S. Central Command; and Bob Ritchie, CTO of SAIC https://potomacofficersclub.com/events

9 a.m. — Intelligence and National Security Alliance virtual discussion: “Reflections on Six Decades of Service to the Nation,” with Navy Rear Adm. Michael Studeman, commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence; and retired Navy Adm. William Studeman, former deputy director of the CIA and director of the National Security Agency https://www.insaonline.org/detail-pages/event

9 a.m. 700 Monroe St. SW, Huntsville, Alabama — National Defense Industrial Association “Space & Missile Defense Symposium,” day three with Gen. Charles Hamilton, commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command; and Lt. Cmdr. Joe Mroszczyk, commander of the first Multi-Domain Task Force Missile Defense Executive Board https://smdsymposium.org/registration/

10 a.m. — Hudson Institute virtual book discussion of: Russia, China and the Revisionist Assault on the Western Liberal International Order, with author Gerlinde Groitl, assistant professor of international politics and trans-Atlantic relations at the University of Regensburg, Germany https://www.hudson.org/events/russia-china-revisionist-assault

10 a.m. — Arab Center virtual discussion: “China’s Growing Role in the Middle East: Regional Geopolitics and U.S. Policy,” with Chas Freeman, former assistant defense secretary for international security affairs; Abdullah Baabood, visiting professor at Waseda University; Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Maria Papageorgiou, associate lecturer at University College London; and Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register

12 p.m. — Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments virtual discussion on new report, Extending Deterrence by Detection: The Case for Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, with co-author Thomas Mahnken, CSBA president and CEO; co-author Travis Sharp, CSBA director of defense budget studies; co-author Tim Sadov, CSBA research assistant; Whitney McNamara, CSBA nonresident senior fellow; and Sameer Lalwani, CSBA nonresident senior fellow https://csbaonline.org/about/events/report-release-webinar

10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies in-person and virtual conversation: “A Front Row View of the NSA: Reflections from Gen. Paul Nakasone,” with Glenn Gerstell, CSIS senior adviser and former NSA general counsel; April Doss, NSA general counsel; and Tom Bossert, president, Trinity Cyber, Inc., and former White House homeland security adviser https://www.csis.org/events/front-row-view-nsa-reflections-general-paul-m-nakasone

2 p.m. — Atlantic Council Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center event: “A conversation with Alicia Barcena, Mexico’s newly confirmed Secretary of Foreign Affairs,” with Jason Marczak, senior director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/a-conversation-with-alicia-barcena

TUESDAY | AUGUST 15

8 a.m. 2401 M St., NW — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security Defense Writers Group conversation with Bob Hale and Ellen Lord, chairman and vice chair Congressional Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform. RSVP: Thom Shanker at [email protected]