SEA-AIR-SPACE EXPO STARTS TODAY: Ahead of the Navy League’s three-day confab at National Harbor, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus sat down with us for a wide-ranging interview on the size of the fleet, why it’s frustrating that he has to stay out of the politics of the race for the White House and what will become of his green energy initiatives when he leaves his post as head of the Navy in January.
“It’s the new normal. It is because it makes us better warfighters,” Mabus said about the energy initiatives. “I don’t think any secretary would say I want to be worse as a fighting force.”
Our pre-show coverage also includes a run down of the threats facing the Navy, and a look at the changing roles and expectations of carrier-based drones.
Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense. Jamie is off today and tomorrow, so National Security Writer Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24) are running the show in his absence. Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here.
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HOUSE BEGINS DEFENSE DEBATE: The House this week will begin its full-floor conversation on the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House Armed Services Committee last month. Lawmakers have introduced nearly 400 amendments, but the House Rules Committee hasn’t yet decided which can be debated.
One possible amendment comes from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and would require the Pentagon to conduct a report on how the Metro reconstruction plan would impact Defense Department employees and local military installations.
Other amendment topics: an Islamic State-specific war authorization, new Gitmo rules and requiring women to sign up for the draft — a proposal that’s now included in both the House and Senate committees’ bills that Roll Call says it may be “impossible” to stop.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Services committee released some details of its version of the defense policy bill on Friday after wrapping up its mark up earlier in the week. You can find a list of the major proposals it address here. Some of the highlights? The bill would get rid of the Pentagon’s top acquisition job, currently held by Frank Kendall, and spliit it into two positions. The bill would also allow Gitmo detainees to come to the U.S. for medical care, a provision that’s been in previous bills but has always been stripped out in conference with the House.
THAT LOVIN’ FEELING: Happy #TopGunDay! That classic 80s movie came out 30 years ago today. Expect a full day of Twitter references to F-14s, volleyball and Kenny Loggins.
SHIP-KILLER MISSILE: The Navy awarded a $321 million contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control for R&D involving the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile’s integration and test phase, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The State Department announced a possible sale of $476 million worth of Lockheed Martin Hellfire III missiles to the United Arab Emirates and $143 million worth of Boeing Harpoon missiles to Egypt.
BENGHAZI INFIGHTING: Members of the committee investigating the terrorist attacks at Benghazi are accusing the panel’s chairman of ignoring statements that the military acted properly that night, AP reports. “Reps. Elijah Cummings and Adam Smith said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., omitted the lawyer’s comments when he fired back at the Defense Department for criticizing the GOP-led investigation into the attacks that killed four Americans. Gowdy’s actions, coupled with delays that have pushed the 2-year-old inquiry into the heat of the 2016 presidential race, ‘have damaged the credibility of the Select Committee beyond repair,’ Cummings and Smith wrote Sunday in a letter to Gowdy.”
CHINA REPORT: The Pentagon released its annual report on China on Friday, which found that the country has grabbed or created 3,200 acres of land off its coast. “China continues to focus on preparing for potential conflict in the Taiwan strait, but additional missions such as contingencies in the East and South China Seas and on the Korean peninsula are increasingly important to the PLA [People’s Liberation Army],” said Abe Denmark, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, on Friday.
Beijing retorted on Sunday that the report distorted facts and “severely damaged” relations between the two countries, Agence France-Presse reported.
NATO’S SHORTCOMINGS: A year-long study by a team of Army War College students has concluded that NATO’s conventional military forces are insufficient to deter Russian aggression in Europe. The five lieutenant colonels and one colonel concluded that NATO’s readiness has eroded to the point where it “lacks the capability to defeat a surprise Russian conventional attack into the Baltic States or Eastern Europe.”
REFUGEE PROBLEMS: Donald Trump on Sunday said he expects refugees coming to the U.S. to launch 9/11-style attacks, Keith Koffler reports. “Bad things will happen — a lot of bad things will happen. There will be attacks that you wouldn’t believe,” Trump said on the National Border Patrol Council’s “Green Line” radio show. “There will be attacks by the people that are right now coming into our country, because, I have no doubt in my mind.”
You can count former Defense Secretary Robert Gates among those worried about Trump’s foreign policy comments, Nicole Duran reports. “I worry a little bit about his admiration for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Gates told CBS in an interview aired Sunday. “You can’t have a trade war with China,” which if Trump’s China rhetoric became policy could happen, he warned.
But Gates also wasn’t a fan of President Obama’s red line in Syria, Duran writes. Commanders in chief “should be extraordinarily careful about issuing ultimatums or drawing red lines, because when a president of the United States does that, the rest of the world must know it is fatal to cross it — that when the United States makes a threat, it is not an empty threat,” Gates said during an interview that aired on CBS.
President Obama also took shots at Trump during a commencement address at Rutgers over the weekend, Duran reports. “In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” he stressed. “It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not ‘keeping it real’ or ‘telling it like it is.’ It’s not challenging political correctness,” he said. “That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about.”
SPOOKY VIDEO: Today on “What You Never Want to See if You’re the Enemy,” the Air Force has video of Army AH-60D Apaches lighting up a target on a training range. At the 3:08 mark, watch the Air Force’s AC-130U Spooky do what it does so well. The strikes are called in by members of the 24th Special Operations Wing.
THE RUNDOWN
The Atlantic: Is There a Hillary Doctrine?
Task & Purpose: How Does The Military Community Really Feel About Trump?
New York Times: Long Emphasis on Terror May Hurt U.S. in Conventional War, Army Chief Says
Defense News: Tactical Rocket Motor Business Takes Fight to Congress
New York Times: For Obama, an Unexpected Legacy of Two Full Terms at War
UPI: Lockheed contracted for retrofit kits for Marine Corps F-35B
Army Times: Chaplain resigns via letter to Obama, rips drone policy
Defense One: The Lessons of the Littoral Combat Ship
Breaking Defense: Carter Details Cyber, Intel Strikes Against Daesh At NORTHCOM Ceremony
Military.com: Carter: Transgender Troops Can Succeed in the US Military
Washington Post: Disagreements slow Pentagon’s plan to allow transgender service members
CNN: Aircraft carrier mystery revealed
Defense One: Pentagon To Harden US Military Bases Against ISIS Attacks
Military.com: Crowds Line Streets to Honor US Navy SEAL Killed in Iraq
Fox News: Al Qaeda magazine calls for targeting American business leaders
AP: IS attack and bombings leave 29 dead across Iraq
CNN: ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Baghdad gas plant
Marine Corps Times: Commander details U.S. Marines’ role in taking back Ramadi from ISIS
Military Times: Inside the Pentagon personnel feud that’s roiled the military’s most senior leaders
Military.com: Carter: Transgender Troops Can Succeed in the US Military
Calendar
MONDAY | MAY 16
8:45 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., Oxon Hill, Md. The Navy League’s three-day Sea-Air-Space Exposition gets underway at National Harbor. seaairspace.org
2 p.m. 1150 17th St. NW. Think tank experts look at rethinking the map of the Middle East 100 years after the agreement that served as the foundation for the border lines in the region. aei.org
5 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Retired Adm. Michael Mullen, the former chairman of the joint chiefs, speaks about the national security implications of the Trans-Pacific partnership. atlanticcouncil.org
TUESDAY | MAY 17
9:30 a.m. 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, Va. Greg Zacharias, the chief scientist of the Air Force, will talk about the future of autonomous systems. mitchellaerospacepower.org
9:30 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. A panel of experts discusses how drone proliferation may change the national security landscape of the future. stimson.org
10 a.m. Rayburn 2154. The House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform hosts a hearing on White House narratives about the Iran nuclear deal. oversight.house.gov
10:30 a.m. Rayburn 2359. The full House Appropriations Committee marks up the fiscal 2017 defense appropriations bill. appropriations.house.gov
11 a.m. Dirksen 419. Think tank experts testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on war in Syria. foreign.senate.gov
1:30 p.m. 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. White House national security advisor Ben Rhodes will speak about U.S. policy in Southeast Asia at an event, following a profile of him in the New York Times Magazine that sparked backlash among the media and on Capitol Hill. cnas.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Justin Siberell, the acting coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, will testify at a hearing on the department’s fiscal 2017 budget request. foreignaffairs.house.gov
WEDNESDAY | MAY 18
11 a.m. 529 14th St. NW. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will speak at a World War I Centennial Commission event. press.org
4 p.m. 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Analysts will discuss the social and economic long-term viability of the Islamic State. cato.org
THURSDAY | MAY 19
8 a.m. 300 1st St. SE. Rep. Jim Bridenstine speaks about Congress’ perspective on space national security. mitchellaerospacepower.org
