CARTER’S WARNING TO TRUMP: Defense Secretary Ash Carter takes the stage at the Pentagon auditorium one last time this morning to deliver what is being billed as his “final remarks” to an audience of Defense Department workers. In an interview yesterday, Carter had some parting advice for President-elect Trump: Tread carefully in dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia has made it progressively more difficult to align its interests with our interests,” Carter said in an exit interview with Politico. “The scope has narrowed of areas where they see their interests as similar enough to ours to be able to cooperate — and vice versa. If they define their interest as being in opposition to ours and the success of their policy in terms of frustrating the success of our policy, it’s very difficult to build a bridge.” Carter’s farewell speech to civilian and military workers will be live streamed at defense.gov
NO RUSSIA RESET REDUX: Obama’s top diplomat to the United Nations is also giving advice to Trump on her way out, urging him not to repeat Obama’s attempt to “reset” relations with Russia, Joel Gehrke writes. “Similarly flawed is the argument that the United States should put recent transgressions aside and announce another reset with Russia,” said U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, in her last major speech before leaving office. “Yes, the Obama administration tried this approach in our first term,” Power said, “But 2017 is not 2009.”
Power cited three factors — the Russian invasion of Ukraine, attacks on Syrian civilians, and the cyberattacks conducted against the Democratic Party in 2016 — as reasons Trump should not try to repeat the reset that Obama pursued. But she defended Obama’s reset attempt, by saying it allowed the U.S. and Russia to work together “on issues such as counterterrorism, arms control and the war in Afghanistan.”
PUTIN DEFENDS TRUMP: Meanwhile, the Russian says he believes President Obama and U.S. intelligence officials are trying to undermine Trump’s legitimacy. Putin said at a press conference yesterday that Obama’s administration is spreading lies against Trump through the unverified dossier made public last week, according to the AP. That dossier alleged Trump and Putin worked together to defeat Hillary Clinton. Putin said the unverified dossier released last week is “fake” and said those who spread it are “worse than prostitutes.”
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HAPPENING TODAY: Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein speaks this morning at the American Enterprise Institute about revitalizing squadrons, multi-domain command and control, space and how many airmen the service needs to meet its missions. You can watch live here at 9 a.m.
INDUSTRY BEHIND MCCAIN’S BUILD-UP PLAN: David Melcher, the head of the Aerospace Industries Association, said Sen. John McCain’s blueprint for spending $640 billion in fiscal 2018 ($54 billion more than what Obama had projected for that year) to reinvest in the military is “overdue.” “AIA believes it is critical that Congress appropriate adequate funds, achieve an appropriate balance among accounts funding force modernization as well as readiness and operations, and do so both consistently and on time,” he continued. “The spending levels proposed by Senator McCain are a strong first step in that direction.” In case you missed it, here’s a full rundown of McCain’s white paper from Monday.
OVERCOMING STICKER SHOCK ON AF1: Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg met with Trump yesterday for the second time since the election and said the two men discussed both Air Force One and fighter jets during the hour-long meeting. “We discussed Air Force One, we discussed fighter aircraft, we made some great progress on simplifying requirements for Air Force One, streamlining the process, streamlining certification by using commercial practices,” he told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. “All of that is gonna provide a better airplane at a lower cost.” The phrase “simplifying requirements” could mean many things. Of course, the requirements are the reason the aircraft are so expensive to develop and maintain. So does it mean the Air Force will decide there are bells and whistles they can do without?
The meeting happened not longer after Trump tweeted that the American people should get ready for some “big stuff” with respect to the auto industry and defense contracts.
FIRST DO NO HARM: Congress’ focus on reforming the Pentagon’s acquisition system has hurt as often as it has helped, Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of acquisition, technology and logistics, said in his last public remarks. Laws passed on Capitol Hill in reality often boost bureaucracy by putting new requirements into statute. “To be honest, I believe that as often as not what they do doesn’t help. In some cases, it has the opposite effect,” Kendall said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “What it does do almost inevitably is create more bureaucracy and create more regulation.”
Kendall also said he does not support Congress’ decision to split his job into two positions that passed in the fiscal 2017 defense authorization act, but said he was more worried that those serving in these types of positions don’t have a background in defense industry under the next administration. “It was a bit like saying a surgeon is a surgeon. If I need brain surgery and I hire someone who’s an internist, it doesn’t work,” he said.
F-35 VS. F/A-18: The F-35 is critical to the Navy’s ability to complete its missions and is “on a completely different level” from the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said at a Defense One event. While he stressed the two planes will work together in the Navy’s air fleet, he said the service needs the F-35. Right before Christmas, Trump asked Boeing to price out a Super Hornet that is comparable to Lockheed’s joint strike fighter.
MCCAIN DEFENDS NATO: Reactions are still coming in to Trump’s comments over the weekend that NATO was “obsolete.” McCain says NATO is needed more than ever, and said Trump would do well to remember all the young Europeans who died fighting in Afghanistan under NATO’s command after the United States asked for their help following the Sept. 11 attacks. Speaking on CNN, McCain said Trump’s comments and his occasional consideration of withdrawing from the alliance is disrespectful to NATO troops who fought in Afghanistan. McCain said they went because the U.S. was attacked, not because their countries were attacked.
“The advantage that we have held for the last 70 years is now being eroded as the Russians and Chinese have increased their capabilities,” McCain said. “We need NATO more than ever, and we’re facing a long-term battle against Islamic extremism, which we clearly have not won.” (For the record, in that same interview, Trump also said NATO is “very important to me.”)
DUNFORD IN BRUSSELS: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford is in Brussels, Belgium, today attending a meeting of NATO’s military committee. After a review of NATO’s command structure and other routine business, the last item on the agenda for the alliance generals is a discussion of “Russia and its relationship to NATO,” according to Gen. Petr Pavel of the Czech army, the committee’s chairman.
CHELSEA’S COMMUTATION CONTROVERSY: President Obama’s decision to shorten the 35-year prison sentence handed to the transgender soldier who gave an enormous trove of secret U.S. documents to WikiLeaks has provoked furious condemnation from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Chelsea Manning, who was Bradley Manning in 2010, was a low-level Army intelligence analyst whose leak of 700,000 documents endangered U.S. lives, undermined U.S. diplomatic efforts, and put WikiLeaks on the map. Manning will be released in May after serving seven years in a military prison.
“President Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence is a grave mistake that I fear will encourage further acts of espionage and undermine military discipline. It also devalues the courage of real whistleblowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountable,” McCain said. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry issued a similar statement. “The President’s commutation of Manning’s sentence sends a terrible message to the world that the penalties for damaging our security can be swayed by politics.”
Critics were also quick to point out that the commutation is an odd move for Obama after imposing sanctions on Russians over their involvement in hacking Democratic operatives and the role WikiLeaks played in the affair.
NO PARDON FOR SNOWDEN: The White House says the other high-profile leaker, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, will not be getting any forgiveness from the president, because Snowden has neither admitted his crime, nor faced justice. “Mr. Snowden should return to the United States and face the serious crimes with which he’s been charged,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “The crimes that he’s accused of committing are serious. And we believe that he should return to the United States and face them rather than seeking refuge in the arms of an adversary of the United States that has their own strategic interests in disseminating harmful, or disseminating information in a harmful way.” Snowden, who tweeted his praise of Manning’s crime, has been told by Russia he can stay in Moscow at least another two years.
IS JULIAN ASSANGE’S WORD GOOD?: Last September, WikiLeaks said if Obama granted Manning clemency, “Assange will agree to U.S. prison in exchange.” But White House officials insist that tweet from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had no bearing on Obama’s decision. It not clear how or when Assange might make good on the promise, but Wikileaks tweeted a statement from his lawyer, saying that “Everything that he has said he’s standing by.” Said one White House official. “I have no insight into Mr. Assange’s travel plans. I can’t speak to any charges or potential charges he may be facing from the Justice Department.”
DOING RIGHT BY CARTWRIGHT: Completely different is the case of former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright, who was facing two years in prison for lying to the FBI, but was also pardoned by Obama yesterday. Although his case is often described as “leaking,” what Cartwright actually did was talk to two reporters who already had confirmed the story of the Stuxnet virus used to disable Iranian centrifuges. In urging the journalists not to disclose some of the sensitive details, Cartwright in effect also confirmed the accuracy of the report, but his motivation seemed to be to protect U.S. secrets, not disclose them. His crime was denying everything to the FBI, fearing he would be seen as the source. Life lesson: NEVER lie to the FBI. But Cartwright will not go to jail. He received a full pardon from the president.
VETS AREN’T PLEASED: A veterans service organization slammed Obama Tuesday night for commuting the sentence of felons while not pardoning those who had been kicked out of the military for behavior linked to post-traumatic stress disorder. John Rowan, the president of Vietnam Veterans of America, said in a statement that the group hopes that the president will pardon veterans who received other-than-honorable discharges related to PTSD before leaving office on Friday.
“As pardons are being issued to people who have been convicted of serious felonies, veterans who served their country in combat wait to be offered the same clemency,” Rowan said.
GITMO TRANSFERS CONTINUE: The prison population at Guantánamo is now down to 45, with the announcement from the Pentagon late yesterday that 10 more detainees have been shipped out to Oman. Obama, thwarted by Congress in his desire to bring the diehard “forever prisoners” to the United States for incarceration, is intent on leaving around only about three dozen detainees in the prison camp on the eastern tip of Cuba by Friday.
THE RUNDOWN
CNN: Pentagon readies aggressive ISIS proposals for Trump
War on the Rocks: The role of the Pentagon in the Trump administration.
Breaking Defense: If Trump Wants Lower F-35 Costs, He Should Compete F135 Engine
UPI: BAE Systems providing digital head-up display for F-22
Defense News: Graham Won’t Chair Cyber Subpanel After All
Defense One: The Complicated Relationship Between John McCain and Frank Kendall
AP: Top NATO general echoes Trump’s ‘obsolete’ criticism
Wall Street Journal: Senior NATO General Says Alliance Working on Modernization, Efficiencies
Military.com: Air Force Agency Reports $8.1B in Foreign Military Sales
Military.com: Purple Heart Would Receive More Protection With New Law
AP: Iraq military: Troops have ‘full control’ of eastern Mosul
Military Times: U.S. forces team with Turkey again to attack ISIS in Syria
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 18
9 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, speaks about the future of American air power. aei.org
10 a.m. Dirksen 419. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers the nomination of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be the U.S. representative to the United Nations. Foreign.senate.gov
11 a.m. Pentagon Auditorium. Defense Secretary Ash Carter provides final remarks to Pentagon workers. Livestreamed on www.defense.gov.
THURSDAY | JANUARY 19
11:30 a.m. 1667 K St. NW. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments releases a new report titled “Preserving the Balance—A Eurasia Defense Strategy.” csbaonline.org
MONDAY | JANUARY 23
10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. A panel of think tank experts talks about prospects for the defense budget in the Trump administration. csis.org
TUESDAY | JANUARY 24
5:30 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Reporter Graeme Wood talks about his first-hand encounters with the Islamic State. aei.org
WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 25
9:30 a.m. Senate Visitor’s Center 203. The Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace releases a new study on the value of ICBMs and the new ground-based strategic deterrent. mitchellaerospacepower.org
3:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. A panel of experts predicts what relations with Iran will look like under the Trump administration. atlanticcouncil.org
