Democrats vision of defense bill giveth, and taketh away

SOS RECEIVED: If there was one universally unpopular provision in the Biden defense budget, it was the proposal to put off buying a second Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer until next year, thus incurring a $33 million breach-of-contract penalty but saving $1.7 billion this year.

The plan landed with a resounding thud on Capitol Hill, quickly drawing the ire of lawmakers from shipbuilding states, including Maine, Virginia, and Mississippi, who argue by scuttling a multiyear procurement deal, the Navy was setting a terrible precedent and sending the wrong message America’s industrial base. Not to mention falling behind China in building a bigger Navy.

“Destroyers are the workhorse of the Navy, eyes and ears around the world, a very important part of our assets,” said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, questioning the rationale for the delay, which he said, “sent a shudder through the industrial base.”

The draft House bill restores the second destroyer and provides $23.5 billion ($915 million above the DOD request) to buy eight Navy ships, including two Virginia-class attack submarines and one frigate.

PROTECTS LCS: The bill would also block the Navy from decommissioning three Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships, which all have design problems.

“None of the funds made available by this Act may be obligated or expended for the purpose of decommissioning the USS Fort Worth, the USS Detroit, or the USS Little Rock,” the language reads.

The ships are less than five years old, but the Navy believes keeping them would just throw good money after bad.

“We spent over $2 billion on four ships — $2 billion on four ships with significant service life,” said California Rep. Ken Calvert, ranking Republican on the subcommittee, who noted the committee rebuffed the Navy’s request last year.

“Congress reviewed the request and was very clear that we opposed the decommissioning,” Calvert said at a hearing in May. “In my opinion, this is little more than a budget gimmick to allow the Navy to spend more money elsewhere.”

“We’re looking at this battle force 2045,” said Virginia Democrat Elaine Luria, “a plan that’s far off at a 355-ship goal that we’re never going to get to when we decommission more ships every year than we actually build.”

REQUIEM FOR A DEADWEIGHT: THE SAD SAGA OF THE ‘CRAPPIEST’ SHIP IN THE NAVY

DEFUNDS SLCM-N: When word leaked out that the acting Navy secretary had suggested defunding plans for a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, known as SLCM-N, the blowback was fierce. Especially because the Biden Pentagon has not yet finished its nuclear posture review, which is supposed to be the basis on which weapons decisions are made.

Nevertheless, the House bill eliminates all funding for the project, which Biden once said on the campaign trail was a “bad idea,” even though funding for initial development was in this year’s request.

OTHER NOTABLE PROVISIONS: 

• Removes restrictions on relocating detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and prohibits funds from being used to operate the facility after Sept. 30, 2022.
• Provides $25 million to provide transport and safe passage to Afghans who have provided faithful and valuable service to the United States and who are under serious threat. 
• Prohibits funds to establish permanent bases in Afghanistan or Iraq.
• Prohibits funds for the Taliban.
• Prohibits funds to support or facilitate offensive military operations conducted by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis in the war in Yemen.
• Limits the transfer of military equipment and DOD property to state or local law enforcement agencies.
• Requires for-profit contractors to pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour.
• Provides $1 million to the Army for the renaming of installations, facilities, roads, and streets that bear the name of Confederate leaders.

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Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Victor I. Nava. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.

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NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Defense will not publish on Monday, July 5, as we observe the long Independence Day holiday weekend. Back on Tuesday, July 6.

HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has a private meeting this afternoon at the Pentagon with Uzbekistan Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov. There is no press coverage.

REMEMBERING RUMSFELD: In a statement released after news of the death of Donald Rumsfeld at 88, Austin called the former two-time defense secretary a man of “boundless energy, probing intellect, and abiding commitment to serve his country.”

“On behalf of the Department of Defense, I extend my deep condolences to his family and loved ones,” the statement said.

ESPER TO THE DEFENSE: Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper took to Twitter yesterday to defend Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley against criticism by former President Donald Trump, who called for Milley “to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.”

“Personal attacks on GEN Mark Milley and calls for him to resign are completely unwarranted. He and I worked together for 3+ years to advance America’s security and strengthen our armed forces. He is an officer and person of impeccable integrity and professionalism,” Esper said in a two-part tweet. “GEN Milley is a decorated veteran who has served our great country for 4+decades. His patriotism & commitment to the Constitution are without question. Attempts to denigrate him & politicize our military are wrong. I will always stand with/for him and the US military.”

TRUMP URGES JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN MILLEY TO RESIGN

‘YOU CAN’T F’ING TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!’: Trump was reacting in part to Milley’s defense of West Point cadets learning about critical race theory, and in part to an account from a new book by Michael Bender, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

The book recounts a purported heated confrontation between Milley and Trump last year over Trump’s desire to have the military disperse protesters in Lafayette Square across from the White House and put Milley in charge, apparently unaware that the chairman of the joint chiefs doesn’t command any troops.

According to the book excerpt obtained by Axios, it went like this:

Seated in the Situation Room with [Attorney General Bill] Barr, Milley, and [Secretary of Defense Mark] Esper, Trump exaggerated claims about the violence and alarmed officials … by announcing he’d just put Milley “in charge.”

Privately, Milley confronted Trump about his role. He was an adviser, and not in command. But Trump had had enough.

“I said you’re in f***ing charge!” Trump shouted at him.

“Well, I’m not in charge!” Milley yelled back. 

“You can’t f***ing talk to me like that!” Trump said. …

“Goddamnit,” Milley said to others. “There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?”

“He’s right, Mr. President,” Barr said. “The general is right.”

Although the account comes from a book based on sources, Trump accused Milley of making up the story.

“When Black Lives Matter rioters were threatening to destroy Washington, D.C., he practically begged me not to send in the military to stop the riots,” Trump said. “This is totally Fake News. If he had displayed such disrespect for his Commander-in-Chief I would have fired him immediately.”

INDUSTRY WATCH: Switzerland has chosen Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II as its next-generation fighter jet, beating out competing bids from Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Rafale from France’s Dassault, and the four-nation Eurofighter built by Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

“The F-35A achieved the best result because it has a marked technological advantage over the other candidates: it includes entirely new, extremely powerful and comprehensively networked systems for protecting and monitoring airspace,” said a statement from the Swiss government. “The F-35A is able to ensure information superiority; this means pilots benefit from a higher situational awareness in all task areas when compared with the other candidates.”

The $5.5 billion deal makes Switzerland the 15th nation to adopt the F-35 as its go-to fighter jet.

RUMINATIONS ON RUMMY: What to say about the man who was arguably the most consequential defense secretary of our time? Books have been written, including an exhaustive and meticulously annotated memoir by Donald Rumsfeld himself, Known and Unknown:

I covered Rumsfeld for his entire six years at the Pentagon. Traveled with him, had long discussions with him both on and off the record. I had many friendly but contentious dust-ups with him in the Pentagon briefing room. In one encounter, I confronted Rumsfeld about why he would admit that U.S. forces were facing an entrenched insurgency in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. You can see a clip of that on YouTube.

I have to confess, like a lot of reporters, I liked him. He was charming, intelligent, and anxious to engage in intellectual debate. There were many traits of his that I admire: organization skills, interpersonal skills, depth of knowledge of history. And for whatever reason, he liked me, too. I think he saw me as a reporter who was trying to be fair and would possibly show some promise if he could just disabuse me of some of my mistaken beliefs.

After he retired and would occasionally host a reunion of his old Pentagon staff, I would often get an invitation. I’d be the only reporter there among a group of loyalists.

There are so many stories I could tell about my interactions with Rumsfeld — like the time I sang to him on a rooftop terrace in Istanbul a little ditty to the tune of “Unforgettable.”

It went something like this:

It’s unknowable, that’s what he’ll say

It’s unknowable, how long we’ll stay

It could be a year, or maybe eight

Just how long, he won’t speculate

It’s unknowable, that’s what Rumsfeld will say.

But if I had to pick one moment that sticks in my mind, it was near the end of his tenure, and we were flying back to Washington from Europe, and someone on his staff put a movie on the inflight entertainment system. I don’t usually watch movies on a plane, but I looked up, and I saw the aging visage of Robert McNamara.

The movie was a documentary by Errol Morris, Fog of War, and I became fascinated as I heard McNamara explain the mistakes he and others made during the Vietnam War. The parallels to Rumsfeld were eerie. The glasses, the squinting. Both men were brilliant. Both came to the Pentagon after success in business. McNamara as president of Ford Motor Company and Rumsfeld as CEO of G.D. Searle. Both had assembled “the best and the brightest” to do their best by America.

But McNamara, in his reflective memoir In Retrospect, came to a realization that Rumsfeld never did, namely that smart people, with all the best intentions, can make disastrous decisions. After watching the movie, we reporters gathered in Rumsfeld’s forward cabin for an off-the-record discussion, and I asked Rumsfeld if he had watched the movie. He hadn’t. I presumptuously suggested he make time to watch, noting the parallels between himself and McNamara. He politely brushed me off.

Nevertheless, Rumsfeld had a maxim in his 2013 book Rumsfeld’s Rules that recognized the flawed decision-making that otherwise smart people can fall prey to. “It is possible to proceed perfectly logically from an inaccurate premise to an inaccurate and unfortunate conclusion.”

But Rumsfeld went to his grave believing that he got most things perfectly right.

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The Rundown

Washington Examiner: Donald Rumsfeld, youngest and oldest US defense secretary, dies at 88

Washington Examiner: Japanese official warns US of potential surprise attack on Hawaii — from Russia and China

Washington Examiner: Putin: Russia could sink United Kingdom warship without triggering ‘world war’

Washington Examiner: Putin hints at new Ukraine escalation

Washington Examiner: Trump urges Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley to resign

Navy Times: Maritime Service Chiefs Push Back On Criticism That The Military Is Becoming ‘Too Woke’

Reuters: China’s Xi Pledges ‘Reunification’ With Taiwan On Party’s Birthday

Seapower Magazine: Pacific Fleet Commander Says He Has a Duty To Prevent Seizure of Taiwan

Financial Times: US And Japan Conduct War Games Amid Rising China-Taiwan Tensions

Bloomberg: Xi Warns China’s Foes Will Break Against ‘Steel Great Wall’

Washington Post: China is building more than 100 new missile silos in its western desert, analysts say

Washington Post: China marks a century of its Communist Party with pageantry, propaganda and an iron grip

AP: Putin Says U.S. And UK Were Behind Black Sea ‘Provocation’

Washington Times: Pentagon, Allies Drill In Black Sea As Russia Fumes

Air Force Magazine: Kendall Nomination Held Without Explanation by Three Senators

USNI News: CNO Gilday: Tight Budgets Require Balance Between Readiness, Modernization

Air Force Magazine: Space Force Selects First 50 Officers to Transfer from Other Services

Defense One: Swiss Pick F-35 to Replace F-5 Fighter Jets

Air Force Magazine: DOD Concerned About Spread of COVID-19 ‘Delta’ Variant

Washington Examiner: Opinion: The Iraqi refugee fraud is just one of many scandals

Calendar

THURSDAY | JULY 1

11 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion on “Critical Race Theory in the Military,” with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Dakota Wood, senior research fellow for defense programs at heritage. https://www.heritage.org/defense/event

11 a.m. — National Press Club Newsmaker Program with House Foreign Affairs ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas; and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas urging the Biden Administration to work to free Austin Tice, a freelance journalist that was abducted in Syria in 2012. https://www.press.org/events/npc-headliners

3:30 p.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “Fight and Flight in Modern Air Warfare,” with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.; Vivian Salama, national security reporter at the Wall Street Journal; Michael Andersson, head of strategic partnerships and international affairs at Saab; and former Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, vice chair of the Atlantic Council’s Center for Strategy and Security https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event

FRIDAY | JULY 2

1 p.m. 16th St. and Constitution Ave. N.W. — UFO Activists rally on the Ellipse to protest “the secrecy regarding extraterrestrial life.” https://www.eventbrite.com/e/world-ufo-day-2021