CERTAIN SUCCESS IN SIRTE? The Pentagon is signaling high confidence that the Islamic State will soon be pushed out of its stronghold in Northern Libya, by fighters aligned with the country’s fledging unity government. “Spectacularly successful” is how Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis described the advance of government-backed troops, who he said just need a little “help to get across the finish line.” The level of bombing by U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft in Libya is modest in comparison to what the U.S.-led coalition is doing in Iraq and Syria, but Davis said the five strikes Monday, and two on Tuesday have been enough to turn the tide of battle at key choke points. Davis predicted Sirte, which the Islamic State established as a stronghold last year, will be cleared of Islamic State fighters in “weeks not months.”
It has a name: The Pentagon says the name of the operation to support Libyan Government of National Accord forces in retaking Sirte is “Operation Odyssey Lightning.”
POTUS TO PENTAGON: President Obama on Thursday makes another of his semi-annual visits to the Pentagon ostensibly to get an update on the effort to defeat the Islamic State directly from his top civilian and military commanders. The routine National Security Council meeting could be held anywhere, but the Pentagon provides a backdrop for the president to deliver another defense of his strategy, and make the case that it is working, albeit slowly. Obama’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford will be just back from meeting with Turkish officials, and making an inspection of operations at the vital Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
NORTH KOREA AT IT AGAIN: U.S. Strategic Command reported last night that it detected a simultaneous launch of two “No Dong” intermediate range ballistic missiles near the western city of Hwangju. STRATCOM says one missile exploded immediately after launch, while the second was tracked over North Korea and fell into the Sea of Japan. The U.S. recently announced it will deploy upgraded missile defenses to the South in response to what it says are provocative North Korean missile tests, which violate U.N. resolutions. This latest launch comes after North Korea warned of unspecified “physical counter-actions,”
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F-35 MILESTONE: The Pentagon’s most-expensive weapons program ever, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter took another big step toward silencing its critics, when Air Combat Commander Gen. Hawk Carlisle declared the Air Force version of the 5th generation fighter, ready for combat. The plane still has some bugs that need to be ironed out, but Carlisle says as pilots fly the planes those systems will be made fully functional. This milestone is what’s known as IOC or Initial Operational Capability. “What that means,” Carlisle says, “is if a combatant commander comes to the United States Air Force, and asks for a capability that the F-35 has, I would deploy it in support of operations.” Sen. John McCain put the Air Force on notice that his Armed Services Committee will “continue to exercise rigorous oversight,” and warned “the road ahead remains long.”
ANOTHER F-18 TRAINING CRASH: A Navy F/A-18C Hornet crashed during a routine training mission yesterday afternoon about 10 miles from Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada, David Wilkes reports. The pilot ejected safely and was treated at a nearby medical center.
The crash is the latest in a series of deadly training accidents. Just last week, a Marine pilot was killed in another F/A-18C Hornet crash. In June, a Blue Angels pilot died in a crash when the demonstration flight team was practicing for its show.
FIVE YEARS OF THE BCA: The Budget Control Act may have become law five years ago on Tuesday, but Todd Harrison, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it’s still the biggest issue the next president will face on day one of his or her administration. Harrison said either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will have to deal with how to buy all the new platforms the Pentagon is preparing to ramp up on, like the F-35, KC-46 tanker and the bomber, while budget caps remain in place through fiscal 2021. “That’s a tough choice, but something the next team will have to deal with,” he said.
While some may say that anything can happen in this far-from-normal campaign cycle, Harrison said the untraditional votes won’t trickle down enough to congressional races to actually change the makeup of Capitol Hill. As a result, the gridlock we’ve seen in recent years that’s led to only short-term budget deals will likely continue, he predicted.
UNDERMINING CLINTON’S NATSEC RECORD: Less than a week after speaking on her behalf at the Democratic National Convention, President Obama lumped Clinton in with the government officials who failed to adequately plan for the aftermath of airstrikes in Libya, Susan Crabtree reports. “All of us collectively were not sufficiently attentive to what had to happen the day after and the day after that” to ensure “basic security and peace inside Libya,” Obama said.
He also disagreed with Clinton over her lack of support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal he negotiated among Pacific Rim nations. “Well, right now, I’m president and I’m for it and I think I have the better argument,” he said.
And her natsec staff: Sen. Tom Cotton questioned whether some of Clinton’s staff would be able to get the security clearance required to serve in the White House if she is elected because of their mishandling of classified information, Rudy Takala reports. “It’s a real question whether Jake Sullivan, Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, and some of Hillary Clinton’s other senior State Department advisers could get a security clearance going through the traditional background checks based merely on what we know from the publicly released emails that they sent and received from Secretary Clinton on that server,” the member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a Tuesday interview with Hugh Hewitt.
OVERBLOWN: Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., Tuesday defended his father amid calls for the GOP nominee to apologize for criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who spoke at the DNC about their Muslim son who died while serving in the military. “I think this is something that was honestly blown hugely out of proportion,” Trump Jr. explained on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday morning. “My father’s simple message is not an anti-Muslim message, it’s an anti-terror message. We have ISIS and they’re running rampant around the world, and we have to do something about it.”
Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., criticized Trump for another flap that critics said showed a lack of respect for military sacrifices. A veteran supporter who had been wounded in Iraq gave Trump his Purple Heart at a rally in Ashburn, Va., prompting Trump to say that he has “always wanted to get the Purple Heart … This was much easier.” Duckworth, who herself earned a Purple Heart when her helo was shot down over Iraq, released a fundraising email saying that “It’s no surprise Donald Trump accepted a Purple Heart the ‘easier’ way today because that’s the story of his life. He never sacrifices. He always has things handed to him.”
Duckworth is challenging Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., for his Senate seat, widely seen as one of the closest races in the upper chamber where Democrats are trying to regain control.
MEANWHILE IN YEMEN: The Pentagon revealed yesterday that the U.S. killed seven al Qaeda operatives in Yemen last month, in two separate airstrikes. The strikes were conducted solely by the United States under the presidential authorization to go after terrorists whenever and wherever they can be found. Both strikes targeted members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or “AQAP,” near central Yemen.
NEW GENERAL JOINS THE CHIEFS: Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph Lengyel will be promoted to general as he steps up from vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, to the top spot, replacing outgoing chief Army Gen. Frank Grass. The Chief of the Guard is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which means that big group portrait hanging outside the secure briefing room known as “The Tank” on the Pentagon’s E-ring will have to be redone again.
KINDA COOL VIDEO: You have to know what you’re looking at as you watch this video of a V-22 Osprey taking off. It shows the future of 3-D technology. Not 3-D video, but 3-D printing. The video shows the first demonstration flight of an aircraft using a critical part built using additive manufacturing techniques. It’s how parts will be made in the future. A second video shows a titanium link part of the fitting assembly secure a V-22’s engine nacelle to the primary wing structure.
THE RUNDOWN
Defense News: Tata Technologies Plans Major Acquisitions Push
Breaking Defense: Modernization: Army Leadership Must Seize Initiative
UPI: Bravura receives $305 million aerostat support contract
New York Times: Muslims in the Military: The Few, the Proud, the Welcome
Defense One: Keep Your Politics Private, My Fellow Generals and Admirals
Washington Post: Generals have waded into presidential elections for decades. Their colleagues still hate it.
Stars and Stripes: Bergdahl lawyers want charges dropped over McCain comments
Navy Times: Sister of SEAL trainee who drowned says family was ‘misled’ by Navy officials
CNN: South China Sea: Beijing vows to prosecute ‘trespassers’
Defense News: Japan Warns China Over ‘Territorial Aggression’
Reuters: Erdogan says Turkey’s coup script was ‘written abroad’
Washington Post: How the U.S. military scrambled in Turkey to keep working during the coup attempt
War on the Rocks: What Turkey can learn from Russia about coup-proofing the military
Military Times: The PTSD marijuana study is now recruiting veteran volunteers
CNN: Reports of chemical gas attacks in 2 Syrian cities
USNI News: State Department Looks to Combat African Terrorism with Prevention Program
Task and Purpose: Meet The 17 Service Members Joining Team USA At The Olympics
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 3
11:00 a.m. Pentagon Auditorium Defense Secretary Ash Carter hosts a change of responsibility ceremony between Army Gen. Frank Grass, outgoing chief, National Guard Bureau, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph Lengyel, vice chief, National Guard Bureau
TUESDAY | AUGUST 9
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, to discuss maritime security. csis.org
THURSDAY | AUGUST 11
12:30 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. Stimson hosts Gen. Mark Milley to discuss U.S. foreign policy and national security policy. stimson.org
