Administration weighing changes that would loosen battlefield rules of engagement

The Guardian newspaper has a similar story, which describes the proposed changes as a plan to “designate various undeclared battlefields worldwide to be ‘temporary areas of active hostility.’” If approved, the paper says, it would give U.S. military commanders “the same latitude to launch strikes, raids and campaigns against enemy forces for up to six months that they possess in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.”

Both reports say the plan has yet to be presented to President Trump, and both say it would essentially override Obama’s Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) on drone strikes, changing the threshold for authorizing a strike from “near certainty” that no civilians will be killed to “reasonable certainty” that civilians will not be harmed.

The Wall Street Journal focuses on how the changes would affect the CIA’s paramilitary operations. It reports that Trump has already given the agency “secret new authority” to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists, and says the changes reopen “a turf war between the agency and the Pentagon.”

NORTH KOREA: U.S. military planners are taking “defensive measures” to hedge against the threat of an attack from North Korea, a message Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to deliver while traveling in Asia this week, Joel Gehrke writes. “These are very clearly defensive measures that we’re taking in response to an increasingly worrying, concerning threat from North Korea,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Monday. Tillerson is expected to leave Washington this afternoon, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues to freak out over the massive U.S.-South Korean exercise that continues through next month. Today, North Korean state media warned the U.S. of “merciless” attacks if the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group, which is joining the exercises, infringes on its “sovereignty or dignity.” Pyongyang said the arrival of the carrier strike group was part of a “reckless scheme” to attack the North, according to Reuters. “If they infringe on the DPRK’s sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater,” the North’s state news agency said, according to the Reuters report.

ATTACK DRONES TO KOREA! That’s the way the story played in many news organizations, based on an announcement from U.S. Forces Korea that the U.S. will deploy Gray Eagle drones to Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The Army’s MQ-1C system, made by General Atomics, is a follow-on to the MQ-1 Predator, which is being retired. Most accounts emphasized the unmanned aircraft’s offensive capabilities, noting correctly it can be armed with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided smart bombs. But the actual announcement said the primary mission will be to add “significant intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability.” At the Pentagon, spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the deployment won’t actually happen until early 2018, and noted it was part of a wider plan to add one Gray Eagle company to each division in the Army. “I would emphasize that this is not unique to Korea,” Davis said. “This something that is being done throughout the Army to assign this capability to every infantry division.” According to the Army, a Gray Eagle company consists of nine unmanned aircraft and five ground control stations, operated by 128 soldiers. Even though the drones won’t arrive until next year, the announcement now does send a signal of resolve to the North.

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). 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. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll be sure to add you to our list.

HAPPENING TODAY: Snow! In the nation’s capital many events set for today have been canceled, and the federal agencies in the Washington area are opening on a three hour delay.

SASC BRIEFED ON MARINE SCANDAL: Assuming the snow doesn’t delay or postpone the hearing, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller is scheduled to be joined by acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green to brief the Senate Armed Services Committee about the investigation into Marines who have circulated photos of military women and disparaged them online in private chat rooms. Some, but not all of the photos, involve nudity, and many are simply shots taken from Facebook or other websites and shared for the purpose of demeaning and denigrating the women. The public testimony is scheduled to be following by a closed session with the senators. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m.

FY17 SUPPLEMENTAL: The Pentagon is making tentative plans to hold a briefing Thursday on the fiscal 2017 supplemental budget request that could go to the Hill this week, again depending on a number of factors including the weather. The top line for the supplemental to this year’s spending plan has not been officially announced, but it’s expected to be about $30 billion and is designed to address the most immediate and pressing readiness shortfalls, including restocking ammunition inventory and restoring pilot flying hours.

DON’T CUT THE COASTIES: A bipartisan group of almost 60 lawmakers wrote a letter to appropriators on Monday asking them to undo $1.3 billion of cuts to the Coast Guard proposed by Trump’s 2018 budget request. “It’s nonsensical to pursue a policy of rebuilding the Armed Forces while proposing large reductions to the U.S. Coast Guard budget,” the letter says. “Without question, OMB’s proposed cut targeting the Coast Guard directly contradicts the president’s stated goals and should be dismissed.”

DEADLINE EXTENDED, SUBPOENAS THREATENED: The House Intelligence Committee is threatening to subpoena the Department of Justice for refusing to answer questions about Trump’s claim that his predecessor was using surveillance tactics on him during the campaign, Susan Ferrechio reports. The Department of Justice has asked the committee for more time to produce information relating to Trump’s claim about Obama, which the president made in a Saturday morning tweet this month.

The Intelligence Committee, which deals mostly with classified information, will hold a rare public hearing on March 20 and Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes wants the information by then. “The Department of Justice has asked for more time to comply with the House Intelligence Committee’s request for information related to possible surveillance of Donald Trump or his associates during the election campaign,” an intelligence panel spokesman said. “We have asked the department to provide us this information before the committee’s open hearing scheduled for March 20. If the committee does not receive a response by then, the committee will ask for this information during the March 20 hearing and may resort to a compulsory process if our questions continue to go unanswered.”

KEEP ANTI-SEMITISM MONITOR: Key House lawmakers warned Trump on Monday that he should not cut an office that monitors anti-Semitism when he proposes deep cuts to the State Department this week, Joel Gehrke writes. “We view U.S. leadership on combating anti-Semitism and promoting human rights as pivotal components of American diplomacy and foreign policy,” Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Eliot Engel wrote in a Monday letter to the president.

A combination of factors could put the office on the chopping block. Trump is expected to cut the State Department budget by as much as 37 percent in order to help pay for military spending increases. Those prospective spending cuts lend urgency to Tillerson’s desire to reform the department’s bureaucracy in ways that might make it more efficient.

MERKEL VISIT DELAYED: The snow has delayed the arrival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was scheduled to arrive in Washington today for her first meeting with Trump. The White House now says Merkel may come on Friday. After meeting with Merkel, the president is scheduled to spend another weekend at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida.

ALSO AT MAR-A-LAGO: Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet next month at Trump’s Florida club in their first meeting since Trump took the White House. Axios reported Monday Trump and Xi will meet at Mar-a-Lago in April. While Xi and Trump have not yet met in person, they did speak by phone shortly after Trump was inaugurated. The report stated the meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 6-7.

HEY COMRADE! U.S. and Russian troops are within shouting distance of each other in the northern Syrian city of Manbij, but they are not actually communicating directly, according to the Pentagon. Just under 100 U.S. Army Rangers are standing by to “reassure and deter” with the aim of keeping rival factions from fighting each other instead of ISIS. Those factions include forces backed by U.S. ally Turkey, and Kurds backed the U.S. But if the Americans want to communicate with the Russians, they have to call back to headquarters, and pass a message through the “deconfliction” channel set up to avoid confrontations in the skies between U.S. and Russian pilots.

MORE TROOPS FOR AFGHANISTAN: Senate Armed Services Committee colleagues and close friends John McCain and Lindsey Graham are out with a joint op-ed this morning laying out the case for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. “The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 16 years. Weary as some Americans may be of this long conflict, it is imperative that we see our mission through to success,” the senators write in the Washington Post. “We have seen what happens when we fail to be vigilant. The threats we face are real. And the stakes are high — not just for the lives of the Afghan people and the stability of the region, but for America’s national security.”

52 OF 53 TOP DoD JOBS STILL OPEN: Coming up on two months into the Trump administration, only one of the 53 “politically appointed, Senate confirmed” positions at the Pentagon have been filled, and that’s Jim Mattis, secretary of defense. The Pentagon says it’s interviewing and vetting, and hopes that “multiple announcements [are] coming very soon.” Meanwhile, we look at the pros and cons of the civilian leadership vacuum at the Pentagon, which seems relatively unaffected by the absence of civilian overseers. “The secretary very much wants to get these positions filled with qualified capable candidates as soon as possible,” said spokesman Davis. “He’s put a lot of names forward that are currently going through the final stages of vetting.”

THE LOBBY BAN COUNTS FOR FLYNN: Mike Flynn, former national security adviser to Trump, is likely bound by an administration ethics rule that prevents him from lobbying for five years and never again lobbying for a foreign government, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday, Sarah Westwood writes. “That would be correct,” Spicer said when asked if the president’s lobbying ban would apply to Flynn, who was fired last month.

“I’d have to check and actually figure out when he signed or if he signed the form,” Spicer added. “But yes, all administration officials who come in are required to sign that ethics pledge banning them from lobbying for five years and then a lifetime ban on lobbying on behalf of any foreign government.”

BELIEVE WHAT TRUMP SAYS, WHEN HE’S NOT JOKING: Americans should trust that Trump’s statements are accurate — unless he makes them in jest, Spicer said Monday, Sarah Westwood writes. “If he’s not joking, of course” his claims are reliably true, Spicer said in response to questions about the veracity of the president’s recent statements on wiretapping and economic data.

Trump’s recent claim that job numbers during the Obama administration were “phony,” but that the encouraging jobs report made public last week was real, had sparked criticism from some who questioned why his faith in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report had changed. That report — the first of Trump’s presidency — showed the 235,000 new jobs created in February had exceeded expectations for economic growth.

THE RUNDOWN

Defense News: Here’s how the Air Force is fixing the F-35’s moving target problem

UPI: Lockheed Martin wins $64M contract for F-35 work

Defense One: I Ran Intel at the Pentagon. Here’s My Advice on Insider Threats

Wall Street Journal: NATO Chief Says Allies Still Fall Short of Fair Sharing of Defense Burden

Reuters: Top South Korean presidential candidate demands China stop retaliation over THAAD

San Diego Union-Tribune: North Korea Amps Up Worries About Potential Threat To The U.S. Power Grid

Breaking Defense: Aircraft Carrier: The Nation’s Trump Card Reborn

Defense News: US Navy submarine program loses some of its shine

New York Times: Why Our Nuclear Weapons Can Be Hacked

UPI: Boeing to sustain South Korea’s F-15 fleet

Military Times: Vets group calls on first lady to condemn the Marine Corps nude photo scandal

USA Today: Marine Corps commandant must go: Retired Air Force officer

Task and Purpose: On National K9 Veterans Day, Salute Some Of America’s Finest Military Working Dogs

Calendar

TUESDAY | MARCH 14

10 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Gen. Robert Neller testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Marines United scandal. armed-services.senate.gov

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 15

9 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. A panel discusses the defense budget and emergency war spending. aei.org

10:30 a.m. Senate Visitor’s Center 217. Vice Adm. James Syring, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, provides a closed briefing to lawmakers. appropriations.senate.gov

11:30 a.m. 1667 K St. NW. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments releases a new report on the defense strategy in the Middle East. csbaonline.org

4:15 p.m. Rayburn 2118. The House Armed Services Committee hosts a hearing on a strategy to counter propaganda in today’s environments. armedservices.house.gov

3:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. A panel of experts testifies on all arms warfare in the 21st century. armed-services.senate.gov

THURSDAY | MARCH 16

7:00 a.m. Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch from the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition speaks at an Air Force Association breakfast event. afa.org

8 a.m. Rayburn 2118. A panel of Navy witnesses testifies on the current state of the service. armedservices.house.gov

9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Rep. Seth Moulton and Rep. Brad Wenstrup talk about America’s place in the world and foreign policy strategy. atlanticcouncil.org

2 p.m. Rayburn 2212. A panel of nuclear experts testify at an oversight hearing on the nuclear security enterprise. armedservices.house.gov

2 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft delivers his annual State of the Coast Guard address. press.org

FRIDAY | MARCH 17

8:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks at the Atlantic Council about America’s role in the world. atlanticcouncil.org