ARMY SECRETARY PICK COMING: First there was billionaire Vinnie Viola, who withdrew because of his complicated finances. Then there was Mark Green, who pulled out while under fire for his controversial comments regarding Muslims and transgender people. But now sources say the Trump administration has it right with a nominee for Army secretary whose resume includes an active-duty Army career, along with Capitol Hill and Pentagon experience. His name, we are told, will be announced by the White House this week, perhaps in time for President Trump’s planned visit to the Pentagon tomorrow.
POTUS TO PENTAGON: That’s right. It will be hard to get into the Pentagon through the VIP River entrance tomorrow morning because, when the commander in chief arrives, the already tight security becomes even more difficult to navigate. Trump will deliver remarks about the fight against the Islamic State, a White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner last night.
No word on whether Trump will be updated on the new strategy for Afghanistan, which as of last week Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said was still being massaged to incorporate State Department input. Yesterday, the president had lunch at the White House with four Afghanistan veterans to get the perspective of U.S. troops who have been actually fighting the war. “We have plenty of ideas from a lot of people, but I want to hear it from people on the ground,” the president said. “It’s our longest war. We’ve been there for many years. We’ve been there for now close to 17 years, and I want to find out why we’ve been there for 17 years, how it’s going, and what we should do in terms of additional ideas.”
For the record, the U.S. went into Afghanistan in October 2001, one month after the 9/11 attacks. That makes America’s longest war 15 years, nine months long.
WE HAVE A DEPSECDEF: No word on whether he’ll be on hand to greet the president tomorrow, but former Boeing VP Patrick Shanahan won full Senate approval yesterday by a comfortable 92-7 margin. Shanahan replaces Robert Work as deputy defense secretary, and the No. 2 civilian will be leading the daily business of the Pentagon. Shanahan will be charged with shepherding the Trump administration plan to embark on a “historic military buildup” beginning in fiscal 2019.
It was a rocky road through the Senate for Shanahan, who helped rescue Boeing’s troubled 787 Dreamliner program, earning the nickname “Mr. Fix-It.” Republicans blamed Senate Democrats for a weeks-long delay in the confirmation and Sen. John McCain, who was sidelined from the vote due to treatment for a blood clot, had at one point threatened to hold up Shanahan’s nomination over vague testimony answers. In the end, his confirmation was opposed by a small group of Democrat senators: Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Ed Markey and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Last week, Mattis, who has been anxiously awaiting Shanahan’s arrival on the Pentagon’s third deck, said he had a long to-do list waiting for his new deputy. “There’s a top tier of tasks,” Mattis said “and then there’s an enduring or secondary timeline for some others.” Mattis has been unable to discuss business with Shanahan, because until the Senate has signed off, it is improper for the anyone to presume the nominee will be confirmed.
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) 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 add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.
HAPPENING TODAY: House Republicans may vote on a massive fiscal 2018 spending bill before leaving for the August recess, Susan Ferrechio writes. Lawmakers have been surveying the GOP conference to determine if they have the 218 votes needed to pass the measure, which would combine all 12 appropriations measures needed to fund the federal government next year. The House whip team surveyed lawmakers returning to the Capitol Monday evening.
“I think having a consolidated appropriations bill is something we’ve talked about doing and looked at, and actually it was pretty well received,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a member of the House GOP whip team, said Tuesday.
LOCKHEED MARTIN EARNINGS: An upbeat Marillyn Hewson, chairman, president, and CEO of the Pentagon’s No. 1 weapons supplier, reported Lockheed Martin had strong results for the second quarter 2017. The firm had net sales of $12.7 billion and net earnings of $942 million, or $3.23 per share. The 4.7 percent increase in profits was the result of continued demand for the company’s F-35 joint strike fighters, and did not include two big events that happened after the second quarter results were tabulated.
The Pentagon announced on July 10 that it would add 13 jets to its planned purchase of F-35s, bringing the number for the next batch of F-35s (low-rate initial production lot 11) to 91 planes. And Lockheed’s Sikorsky division secured a five-year deal to supply 257 Black Hawk helicopters to the U.S. Army and Saudi Arabia worth $3.8 billion.
In the last batch of F-35s (Lot 10, which is the one Trump got involved in) an F-35A cost $94.6 million, F-35B $122.8 million and F-35C $121.8 million. The Pentagon is negotiating the price of the next lot, and expects the per-plane cost to be lower. But the Air Force, in submitting its latest Selected Acquisition Report to Congress, reduced its maximum annual rate of aircraft procured from 80 per year down to 60 per year, which the Joint Program Office says will add six years to the production line, and result in an additional $11 billion in base year 2012 dollars to the cost of the program.
Still, Hewson told reporters on a conference call yesterday that in her discussions with the Air Force, “There is a desire to buy as many as they can as quickly as they can.” And CFO Bruce Tanner said the company expected the next three lots to be about 150 planes each, for 440 to 450 planes over the next three years.
U.S. STILL THE TOP EXPORTER: The Global Defence Trade report, released today by IHS Markit, said the U.S. was still the top exporter of military hardware in 2016, even as the group is forecasting a decline in the global export market in 2018.
“For the first time we are forecasting a decline in our expectations for the global defence export market. This is happening for a number of reasons including falling energy prices, increasing domestic production and the world simply pausing for breath after such a long run of increases,” Ben Moores, senior analyst, Jane’s by IHS Markit, said in a release.
The release added: “The US remained the highest exporter in 2016, increasing its relative market share at the expense of Russia to supply $23.3 billion worth of goods and equipment in 2016, compared with $21.5 billion in 2014. Its primary export strength is in its aerospace products; set to continue with strong orders in place for its F-35 program.”
SELVA ON THE PHILIPPINES: Trump has decided to keep Gen. Paul Selva as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but that meant facing the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the first step in winning consent to be reconfirmed. During his testimony, Selva told Sen. Joni Ernst that the United States should consider restarting a named military operation in the Philippines in order to counter the rise of the Islamic State. Militants aligned with the group have fought Philippine forces backed by the U.S. for control of the southern city of Marawi. Selva, echoing Mattis in June, said a new operation would give the “Pacific Command commander and the field commanders in the Philippines the kinds of authorities they need” to help the country defeat the insurgency. The U.S. ended its 9/11-era Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines in 2014.
SPLIT ON TRANSGENDER SCIENCE: Selva also shined a light on Mattis’ decision late last month to delay the beginning of transgender military recruitment by six months. Service chiefs are divided on the science behind using mental health care and hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria, the medical term for the condition of transgender troops, Selva said. He said the delay was largely based on the split, along with other issues of basic training facilities and curricula.
Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a transgender rights group, shot back with a statement saying the military was “misrepresenting the science about transgender troops in a disingenuous way that reflects the old Pentagon tactic of distorting the data about gays and lesbians.”
DIUx IN THE RED: Also at the Senate hearing, Selva confirmed the Defense Department’s Silicon Valley operation aimed at speeding up commercial technology transfer to the military is running out of money. The Defense Innovation Unit Experimental will need a cash infusion to make it through the next couple of months. “We have a repromming proposal that is in staff as we speak that will address the balance of their requirements for this fiscal year,” Selva told Sen. Jack Reed, the top Armed Services Democrat.
DIUx Director Raj Shah notified Selva early last week about the cash crunch. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter touted DIUx as a way to innovate defense tech. Reed said the program is working on small, inexpensive spy satellites to keep eyes on North Korea and others. “I would think this would be an urgent need,” Reed said.
TIME NOT RIGHT FOR SPACE CORPS: Selva was in line with Mattis on the wisdom of creating a whole new military service to deal with space. “I do not believe now is the right time to have a discussion about developing a space force, with all of the leadership and infrastructure that would go with it,” Selva testified. “It would also complicate the command and control of the space constellation, which is critical to our military operations. So I believe the time is not right for a conversation about a separate Space Corps or space force.”
MORE NOMINEES TESTIFY: Armed Services also held a relatively placid hearing with testimony from four more Trump Pentagon nominees: Matthew Donovan to be Air Force undersecretary; Lucian Niemeyer to be assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment; Ellen Lord to be defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics; and John H. Gibson II to be deputy chief management officer of the Defense Department.
MESSY, HIGH-RISK PAST: It was not all easy going for Gibson, who faced questions about financial troubles at his past companies from Reed. Until last month, Gibson was CEO of XCOR Aerospace, the Texas-based developer of rocket engines and the Lynx suborbital space plane that hit hard times and laid off its employees over the past year. “It was messy, it was high-risk, as often many small companies are,” Gibson said.
Gibson said he was asked by the board to turn the company around and that the subcontractor had interest from both the Air Force and NASA for its products. But the company’s fortune’s changed abruptly despite assurances of security from its prime contractor. “With less than 30 days notice, we were told that funding was terminated,” Gibson said. “We had to do hard things.”
GROUNDED GALAXY: The Air Force has grounded all 18 of its C-5 Galaxy cargo planes at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, after a second incident in which the giant plane’s nose gear malfunctioned. The stand-down of C-5 flying operations was ordered by Gen. Carlton Everhart, Air Mobility Command commander.
The order affects only the 18 C-5s based at Dover, not the entire 56-strong C-5 fleet. All the C-5s at Dover will be inspected to ensure the proper extension and retraction of the C-5 nose landing gear, an Air Mobility Command statement said.
IRAN SANCTIONED: Trump’s team imposed sanctions on 18 Iranian entities and individuals on Tuesday, as the administration looks to punish an array of aggressive actions by the regime beyond the scope of the recently-negotiated nuclear deal. “Iran’s continued malign activities outside the nuclear issue undermine the positive contributions to regional and international peace and security that the deal was supposed to provide,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.
The administration unveiled sanctions that crack down on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, ballistic missile development and the procurement of other military equipment for the regime. The State Department in particular targeted IRGC entities working to research and test ballistic missile technology.
Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday the reimposition of sanctions was a violation of the nuclear deal, according to the New York Times. “It is not clear what the administration is trying to do,” Zarif said. “They have been talking about ‘scrapping the deal.’ Then they came to realize that would not be globally welcome. So now they are trying to make it impossible for Iran to benefit.”
McCAIN’s MOSCOW SALVO: McCain may be home recuperating from surgery, but that doesn’t mean he’s not watching Russia’s every move. In a statement yesterday, the Arizona Republican delivered another broadside against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who McCain says is behind the move by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donetsk region to proclaimed the independent state of “Little Russia.”
“This illegal proclamation of a Russian puppet state in eastern Ukraine also adds to Russia’s serial violations of the Minsk agreements,” McCain said. “Russia has demonstrated it does not seek the peace the Minsk agreements were designed to achieve. Instead, Vladimir Putin is calculating that the more Ukrainians his forces and his proxies kill, the more Ukrainian territory they will be able to seize.” McCain is calling on Congress to send a strong Russia sanctions bill to sent to Trump and to provide Ukraine the lethal assistance it needs to defend itself.
RUSSIA THREATENS RETALIATION: Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has threatened “retaliation measures” against the United States if the Trump administration does not return two Russian diplomatic compounds seized last year. “Such unacceptable and illegal actions cannot go unanswered,” Sergei Ryabkov, Russian deputy foreign minister, told the state-run media organization TASS on Tuesday. “Nothing is to declare on the issue yet, but we have warned Americans that we need any unconditional return of the property; otherwise, retaliation measures will follow.”
ABOUT THAT SECOND PUTIN MEETING: Trump insists what he calls the fake news media is portraying an innocuous routine spouses’ dinner at the G-20 summit this month as a nefarious secret sit-down with Putin. “The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!” Trump tweeted last night. “Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!”
Trump’s previously undisclosed conversation with Putin was either an hour long or just a brief conversation, depending on whether you believe Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, who appeared on Charlie Rose Monday night, or the official White House account. Bremmer said he talked to two people who were at the dinner. A White House official said last night that Trump took a seat next to Putin, because first lady Melania Trump had been assigned a seat beside the Russian president at the official dinner. The president joined his wife at the end of the meeting, and spoke only briefly to Putin, who had his translator with him.
“Chancellor Merkel hosted a dinner for leaders and spouses only, and the German government set the seating arrangements,” the official said after reports of a second meeting between Trump and Putin surfaced yesterday. “The concert [earlier that evening] and dinner were publicly announced on both the president’s schedule and the G-20 schedule, with the clear understanding that all visiting leaders would be present.
“At the dinner, President Trump was seated between Mrs. Abe, wife of the Prime Minister of Japan, and Mrs. Macri, wife of the President of Argentina. Mrs. Trump was seated next to President Putin,” the official explained. “During the course of the dinner, all the leaders circulated throughout the room and spoke with one another freely. President Trump spoke with many leaders during the course of the evening. As the dinner was concluding, President Trump went over to Mrs. Trump, where he spoke briefly with President Putin.”
TOMAHAWK SHOTS: The Navy for the first time fired two Tomahawk cruise missiles from new payload tubes aboard the Virginia-class attack submarine North Dakota, Raytheon announced yesterday. From the release: “The tests, in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, proved the submarine’s ability to load, carry and vertically launch Tomahawk missiles from the new Block III Virginia Payload Tube. The upgraded tubes feature fewer parts and will be even more reliable.”
THE RUNDOWN
Washington Post: Trump to nominate Jon Huntsman as ambassador to Russia
Roll Call: GOP leaders want vote on national security appropriations bills
USNI News: Navy report: Submarine industrial base can maintain 2-attack boat construction rate, bolstering lawmakers’ plans
Daily Beast: Revealed: Trump’s still-secret plan to ‘crush’ ISIS
Defense News: Clearing the air: F-35s to get upgrade for oxygen generating system over hypoxia concerns
New York Times: Duterte seeks to extend martial law in Marawi as militants hold ground
Defense News: Space Corps could ‘disrupt’ DoD capabilities, warns Selva
War on the Rocks: Cyber-attacks: Who’s keeping score?
Stars and Stripes: 2nd Infantry Division gets new commander amid rising tensions with N. Korea
Defense One: U.S. Army seeks Internet-of-battlefield-things, distributed bot swarms
Foreign Policy: NATO, Russian troops rattle swords along hundreds of miles of borderland
Washington Post: How the Pentagon ending its deal with immigrant recruits could hurt the military
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | JULY 19
1800 Jefferson Davis Hwy. Special topic breakfast series with Joel Szabat, executive director of the U.S. Maritime Administration.
9 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. A 21st century Truman Doctrine? U.S. foreign policy discussion with Sen. Tim Kaine. brookings.edu
9 a.m. Hart 216. Nomination of Susan Gordon to be principal deputy director of national intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Robert P. Storch to be inspector general of the National Security Agency. intelligence.senate.gov
12:15 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. South Asia’s evolving strategic doctrines. stimson.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2200. Subcommittee markup of the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2017. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2:15 p.m. Rayburn 2200. Saudi Arabia’s troubling educational curriculum. foreignaffairs.house.gov
3:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Russia sanctions revisited panel discussion with retired ambassadors Daniel Fried and Richard Morningstar. atlanticcouncil.org
4:15 p.m. Dirksen 419. The collapse of the rule of law in Venezuela and what the United States and the international community can do to restore democracy. foreign.senate.gov
THURSDAY | JULY 20
9:30 a.m. Dirksen 419. Kay Bailey Hutchison to be the permanent U.S. representative on the NATO council. foreign.senate.gov
10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The dangers of the looming constituent assembly in Venezuela and why the international community must act. csis.org
FRIDAY | JULY 21
8:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Venezuela on the edge and the time for new international action. atlanticcouncil.org
9:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Examining the geopolitical impact of the 4th Estate. csis.org
MONDAY | JULY 24
2 p.m. 1152 15th St. NW. Release of the report “Higher, Heavier, Farther, and Now Undetectable? Bombers: Long-Range Force Projection in the 21st Century” with Jerry Hendrix. cnas.org
TUESDAY | JULY 25
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Future of vertical lift and forging a new paradigm with David Dowling of Northrop Grumman; Keith Flail with Bell Helicopter; Richard Koucheravy with Sikorsky; Dave Schreck of Rockwell Collins Government Systems; H. Eric “Delta” Burke of Harris Corporation; and Col. Robert Freeland with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. csis.org
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Lessons from Rome: Civic virtue and the empire’s decline with Hugh Liebert, associate professor at the United States Military Academy. heritage.org
2:30 p.m. Russell 222. Options and considerations for achieving a 355-ship Navy from naval analysts. armed-services.senate.gov
TUESDAY | JULY 25
2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. History of U.S. alliances in the Asia-Pacific region. csis.org
4:30 p.m. 800 17th St. NW. 2017 Women In Defense HORIZONS Scholarship celebration. ndia.org
