After the fall: Mattis, Tillerson discuss life after ISIS in Iraq

US TROOPS SHOULD STAY: Both Mattis and Dunford agreed under questioning from Graham that the United States should leave a residual force behind in Iraq to prevent a repeat of the vacuum left in 2011 that allowed the rise of ISIS. “I don’t see any reason to pull out again, and find the same lesson,” Mattis said. “I believe it’s in our national interest that we keep the Iraqi Security Forces in a position to keep our enemies on their back foot, our mutual enemies on their back foot,” Mattis testified. Dunford added, “I agree with that, Sen. Graham. I believe that the Iraqi Security Forces clearly are gonna need that kind of support for some time to come…We need to remain decisively engaged in Iraq and in the region.” And Tillerson was saying much the same thing across town at the summit.

IT’S NOT A PLAN, YET: In his testimony, Mattis also told Congress the new Trump administration strategy has not been fully fleshed out, and it may be a month, or two or more before it is ready for its close up. “We’ve got the skeleton plan put together. We’re fleshing it out. It’s an interagency-developed report, where it embraces economic, diplomatic, military, covert means,” Mattis said. “And we should have this done in the next couple of months, if that long. It may not even take us another month. But we’re still putting it together.”

IT’S OUR OIL, THANK YOU: In addressing the counter-ISIS coalition, Abadi was talking about the progress he says the government has made in the battle against corruption, which is vital to restoring the confidence of the Iraqi people. “The citizens have every right to know where the wealth of the people is going,” Abadi said. But the Iraqi leader might just as well have been aiming his comments at President Trump, who on more than one occasion has lamented the failure of the U.S. to take Iraq’s oil as payment for services rendered. “The oil of the Iraqi people and the wealth of the Iraqi people is for the Iraqis, not for other place, not for other region, not to other countries,” Abadi said. “This wealth is for all Iraqis regardless of other affiliations, other beliefs.”

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HAPPENING TODAY: Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also commander of U.S. European Command, is on the hill this morning to talk about Russia, Ukraine and other NATO issues. His testimony begins at 9:30 a.m. before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

SEQUESTRATION FRUSTRATION BOILS OVER: Also at the Senate hearing yesterday, it seemed as if Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense were asking Mattis, “What part of sequestration don’t you understand?” Ranking member Democratis Sen. Dick Durbin grilled Mattis over what the OMB was thinking when it submitted a $30 billion fiscal 2017 supplemental request, of which $25 billion would bust the budget caps imposed by Congress in 2011. “If we give you $25 billion more in the Department of Defense in the supplemental request, the Budget Control Act will require the Department of Defense to do a 5 percent across-the-board cut in order to make up for that $25 billion that’s being sent to you,” Durbin said. “That, of course, makes no sense whatsoever.”

Mattis was at a loss to explain why the Trump administration was ignoring the need for Congress to first repeal or at least raise the the spending limits. “The mechanism for how to actually address this is, as you point out, complicated,” Mattis said. “And I would take no issue with how you characterize the Budget Control Act and the effect of sequestration. I’m aware of it, senator. It’s not something I can give you a solution for from my position in the executive branch at the Department of Defense.”

Sen. Jack Reed, who also serves as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the lack of any attempt to deal with the issue of sequestration “undermines the proposal, I think, in terms of its credibility and seriousness.” Reed also complained about the administration proposal to offset the part of the $30 billion with $18 billion unspecified cuts elsewhere. “How can we make a decision if we don’t know what the specific cuts will be?” Reed said. “I don’t assume you know either, but that’s something that we would have to know before we could thoughtfully make a judgment.”

BUDGET WARNINGS: The Marine Corps would be forced to halt all its flights by July if Congress passes a full-year continuing resolution, the head of the House Armed Services Committee warned on Wednesday. Rep. Mac Thornberry and Senate Armed Services Chairman Sen. John McCain said Congress must focus on passing three things to take the first steps to rebuild the military: a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill, a fiscal 2017 supplemental and a fiscal 2018 budget that fully funds the military’s readiness accounts.

The government is operating under a continuing resolution through the end of April, at which point lawmakers will have to either pass a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill, pass another continuing resolution or shut down the government. Thornberry, who leads the House Armed Services Committee, said another continuing resolution would have dire effects on the military. All but one Army unit set to deploy would have to stop all training after July 15, meaning some troops heading to South Korea or Europe may not be fully trained. In addition, the Marine Corps would cease all flight operations in July and be forced to get rid of about 2,000 troops, he said.

ANSWERS ON FLYNN: The House Oversight Committee is demanding documents and information related to ousted national security adviser Mike Flynn’s “communications with and payments from Russian, Turkish or other foreign sources, including the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT,” Susan Ferrechio writes.

Chairman Jason Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings sent similar letters asking for the information to FBI Director James Comey, Mattis and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats. The letter was also sent to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

NUNES REPORTS, DEMS DECRY: The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes revealed yesterday that new intelligence reports show some conversations involving members of Trump’s transition team were collected by intelligence officials, but Nunes said those conversations appeared to be collected “legally” in the course of “normal, foreign surveillance.” “I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show that the President-elect and his team were, I guess at least monitored and disseminated out in intelligence, in what appears to be raw — or, I shouldn’t say raw — intelligence recording channels,” Nunes said. “From what I know right now, it looks like incidental collection,” Nunes added. “We don’t know exactly how that was picked up, but we’re trying to get to the bottom of it.”

That resulted in the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff immediately crying foul. Schiff says he has “grave concerns” after Nunes shared that information with Trump but with withheld it from his own committee. Schiff said Nunes’ actions show that an independent commission is needed to investigate Trump’s connections to Russia. During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Schiff complained about not being kept in the loop, which he said prevents the committee from evaluating the “merits” of the information Nunes shared.

TALIBAN OFFENSIVE: In Afghanistan, the Taliban have captured the strategic district of Sangin in the southern province of Helmand, the New York Times reports this morning. But the chief U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan tells us this morning that what happened was more of a strategic retreat. “The Government, the [Afghan Army and Police] are still in Sangin,” said Navy Capt. Bill Salvin in an email. “They repositioned the district center and ANP HQ just over two kilometers south because the enemy had destroyed so much of the infrastructure in and around the center over the last several months and made it difficult for the people to reach the district governance. This move to a new district center has been planned for some time.”

Salvin further explained: “Excessive damage by the Taliban to the area in the Bazaar made it impossible for the people to see the government leaders and made it difficult to provide necessary services. US Forces assisted the repositioning with airlift to the new district center. All forces were moved there safely. Once that was complete, the US assisted in destroying the buildings that were no longer usable and also destroyed INOPERABLE vehicles that were left in place so that they would not be a safety hazard.”

THE EAGLE COULD BE LANDING: A trio of Air Force generals dropped a bit of a bomblet in an appearance yesterday before House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, revealing that the service is seriously considering retiring the venerable F-15C, once the world’s premier air-to-air fighter. The idea is to save money by reducing the number of planes that do the same thing, but using the cheaper F-16, which would be upgraded with a better radar. At the hearing, Maj. Gen. Scott West, director of current operations, was quick to say there was no final decision. “Is it official? I don’t think so,” West told former A-10 driver Rep. Martha McSally. Was it pre-decisional, McSally offered. “Pre-decisional would be a good way to word that,” he said. The action if taken would retire the single-seat F-15C Eagle next year, but would not affect the two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle, which has an air-to-ground mission.

MISSING MAN FORMATION: The picture released by South Korea yesterday looked like it was straight out of an air show. A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer is flanked by a pair of F-15s and F-16s as the the five warplanes fly in perfect formation over South Korea in a “show of force.” But at that same House subcommittee hearing on Air Force readiness woes, it was revealed by Chairman Rep. Joe Wilson that the “show” was supposed to include a second B-1, but maintenance issues grounded the aging bomber. “I understand that just this morning two B-1 aircraft were scheduled to respond to a clear and present danger in North Korea, but only one aircraft was able to be successfully launched,” Wilson said. West blamed the age of the aircraft “and the fact that older aircraft tend to fail in newer ways.”

TANK WORRIES: U.S. tanks are now roughly on par with Russian tanks, according to a top general, and the American military doesn’t have the technology to recover its former advantage, Joel Gehrke writes. “I would not say that we have the world class tank that we had for many, many years,” Lt. Gen. John Murray said during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on modernizing the Army. “I’ll be the optimist and say that we’re at parity with a lot of different nations.”

That was one example of what the Army calls a loss of “overmatch” — the technological advantage over potential adversaries that has ensured U.S. preeminence among world militaries in recent decades. Murray warned that “our most capable enemies are closing quickly” in a variety of areas, due to recent budget cuts to military spending, but the prowess of what the military calls heavy armor is particularly worrisome.

THE RUNDOWN

Defense News: Lockheed still weighing light attack plane offering, but T-50 is likely out

Defense Daily: $3.4B Multi-Year Apache Contract Expedites Future Foreign Military Sales, Saves Army 10 Percent

USNI News: Moran: Navy Needs As Much As $150B Extra to ‘Jump-Start’ Path to 355 Ships; Would Buy Mostly DDGs, SSNs, Carriers

UPI: U.S. Army emphasizing mobility for next combat vehicle

Reuters: Iranian navy endangering international navigation in Gulf: U.S. commanders

CNN: US Officials: Info suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians

Defense One: What One Joint Chief Of Staff Thinks of Trump

Military.com: Marines, Navy Eye Mandatory Separation Review for Online Offenders

Wall Street Journal: Egyptian President Sisi to Visit Trump in April

New York Times: Major Assault Opens A New Frontier In Syria

Washington Post: ISIS’s killer drones are a threat, but the Pentagon is bracing to face more-advanced ‘suicide’ aircraft

Washington Post: U.S. investigates airstrike in Syria that activists say killed civilians

Calendar

THURSDAY | MARCH 23

9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.S. European Command, testifies on U.S. strategy in Europe. Armed-services.senate.gov

10 a.m. 1030 15th St. N.W. A panel of experts discusses strengthening Atlantic-Pacific partnerships. atlanticcouncil.org

10:30 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Three acting government officials testify about the U.S. policy toward countering weapons of mass destruction in fiscal 2018. armedservices.house.gov

2 p.m. Hart 219. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence holds a closed briefing. intelligence.senate.gov

2:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. Former defense officials testify about reforming civilian personnel. Armed-services.senate.gov

3 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. Experts discuss “A Roadmap for U.S.-Russia Relations.” csis.org

MONDAY | MARCH 27

10:30 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Experts discuss Islam in France. brookings.edu

1 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Experts discuss regional collaboration in the Arctic. wilsoncenter.org

TUESDAY | MARCH 28

9:30 a.m. 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, Va. William Roper, the director of the strategic capabilities office at the Pentagon, speaks at a Mitchell Institute event. mitchellaerospacepower.org

10:30 a.m. Dirksen 419. Two think tank experts testify on U.S. policy toward Iran. foreign.senate.gov

4 p.m. 1030 15th St. N.W. Experts discuss the Russian military in the Ukraine and what the U.S. can learn from the situation. atlanticcouncil.org

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 29

2:15 p.m. Dirksen 419. Former Rep. Randy Forbes and Georgetown University’s Robert Gallucci testify on Asia-Pacific security issues. foreign.senate.gov

2:15 p.m. Russell 232-A. Systems command senior officers from the four services testify on the defense industrial base. armed-services.senate.gov

3:30 p.m. Russell 222. Three Air Force generals testify on Air Force modernization. armed-services.senate.gov