BREAKING: Third U.S. combat death in Iraq. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the death in Stuttgart, Germany, where he had just presided at a change of command ceremony. Carter extended his condolences, but had few details. Our sources indicate the U.S. service member was killed when Islamic State fighters overran a Peshmerga position in Northern Iraq. The U.S. was in an “advise and assist” role two to three miles behind the forward line of troops. No other casualties reported. See our video of Carter’s announcement.
Carter is in Stuttgart to confer with his new European commander about how the U.S. and its NATO allies can move to more of a wartime stance as a way to send a strong signal to Russia. The U.S. wants NATO brigades to begin rotating “heel to toe” in Eastern Europe so there is no gap in forward deployed forces. One senior official felt compelled to explain to us that the “arrival of our rotating forces and their ‘warfighting’ equipment. That does not mean we are preparing to fight a war with Russia.”
See our video report here.
His friends call him “Scap.” Carter says Gen. Curtis “Mike” Scaparrotti, who became the new head of U.S. European Command today in Germany, is particularly well-suited to take up the challenge of confronting a revanchist Russia, because of his tour of duty in Korea. “Scap knows the practicalities of land combat,” Carter says. That’s one reason he nominated him for the EUCOM/NATO command. Scaparrotti took over for Gen. Philip Breedlove.
Carter also has to keep an eye on the unstable political situation in Baghdad, as he chairs a meeting of anti-Islamic State nations tomorrow. So far he says, in an answer to our question on the flight over yesterday, that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has enough support in Iraq to win the day.
Leaders will have to pull up another chair at the table for Norwegian Prime Minister Edna Solberg. Carter released a statement saying he had invited her to Wednesday’s meeting in Stuttgart after Norway stepped up its involvement in the campaign against the Islamic State, including sending ground forces to Jordan to train vetted Sunni fighters.
Good Tuesday morning from Stuttgart, home of U.S. European Command, (motto: Noch ein Bier, bitte!) 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). Send tips, suggestions and anything else to [email protected]. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here.
Want to learn more about Daily on Defense? See our introductory video here.
EXTENDED CRUISE: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson visited the Pentagon press office on Monday to tell reporters why the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group’s deployment in the Middle East was extended for an additional 30 days.
The extended tour comes at a “critical time” in the campaign against the Islamic State. And while about a quarter of the U.S. anti-ISIS airpower comes from the Truman, Richardson said it’s about more than just airpower. Instead, having a carrier stay longer in the region is also a show of force and helps with intelligence collection.
The Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition, however, didn’t miss the opportunity to use the extended deployment as a case for why the Navy needs 11 carriers instead of 10. The coalition represents 1,110 businesses of all sizes that are involved in all facets of carrier construction, supply and maintenance.
The announcement comes the same day that the Government Accountability Office dropped a report showing the Navy struggling to keep up with its maintenance needs, Defense News reported.
While Richardson’s visit with reporters was to talk about the Truman, reporters got him on the record on a host of other issues, including the Navy’s recent run-ins with Russia in the Baltic.
The chief said the three recent incidents with Russia show that the Kremlin is trying to “send a signal” that they see the U.S. operating in the Baltic, but said he hopes to stop these sort of incidents that only serve to increase tensions, and the chance that a tactical miscalculation goes too far.
And what about the status of the Navy’s investigation into Iran’s detention of 10 U.S. sailors in January? Richardson says they are wrapping it up this month and will be publicly releasing it, though it’s far overdue based on the March 1 deadline set by McCain.
HOLDING STEADY ON IRAQ: The White House said the unrest in Baghdad won’t force a shift in military strategy on Iraq, Susan Crabtree reports. “Based on the briefings I have received this morning, our national security professionals have not detected any impact on our efforts to go after ISIL,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday.
DEFINING BOOTS ON THE GROUND: The Associated Press is out with its own Q&A over the issue of troops, combat and Iraq and Syria. “The semantic arguments over whether there are American ‘boots on the ground’ muddy the view of a situation in which several thousand armed U.S. military personnel are in Iraq and Syria. Obama has said more than a dozen times that there would be no combat troops in Iraq and Syria as the number of service members in those countries grows; last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged the military personnel there were in combat and ‘we should say that clearly.’”
SYRIA MEETING ON THURSDAY: Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he’ll be meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, this week to discuss the Syria situation, Pete Kasperowicz reports. “We’ve got a meeting standing up a stronger center here in Geneva that will work on the enforcement of the cessation, and I think we’re recalibrating and reinstituting this cessation,” Kerry said. “And so I feel like in the next 24 hours to 48 hours, we can get something out there that really puts this back together again with a greater level of adherence for a period of time.”
Meanwhile, the AP reports that more violence killed at least nine in Aleppo.
TRACKING GITMO KILLS: The House Intelligence Committee wants the administration to release the number of people killed by Guantanamo prisoners before they’re allowed to be transferred, Rudy Takala reports. “The provision is primarily a response to an effort by the White House to transfer the facility’s 80 remaining detainees to U.S. soil before the end of Obama’s term in office. However, it would apply to any who have been held there since the president signed a 2009 executive order mandating the base’s eventual closure.”
RUBBER STAMP? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 100 percent of requests for surveillance from the government last year, Rudy Takala reports. “The court, which handles requests from the National Security Agency and FBI to engage in surveillance, approved all 1,457 requests that it received from those agencies in 2015. That represented a roughly 5 percent increase over the 1,379 requests approved in 2014. The court ‘modified’ 80 applications, slightly changing their terms to comply with the law, up from 19 in 2014.”
F-35 CONTRACT: The Defense Department announced yesterday that Lockheed Martin received a $1.2 billion contract for the 13 F-35s added in the fiscal 2016 budget deliberations. The 13 breaks down to six for the Marines, three for the Air Force and four for the Navy.
HELLFIRES TO FRANCE: The State Department has approved a possible sale of $30 million worth of Hellfire missiles to France. The missiles are made by Lockheed Martin, but the request from France would be met with existing U.S. Army stocks. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said France plans to fire the missiles from its Tigre helicopters in Mali and North Africa.
SNEAKER SNUB: The Pentagon is being accused of favoring tennis shoes made in Vietnam or Malaysia over footwear made in Lawrence, Massachusetts, according to a report in the Eagle-Tribune. “I’m definitely not a defense appropriation or procurement expert, but in the seven years I’ve been working on this, I’ve seen nothing but a bureaucratic nightmare, where middle managers at the Pentagon are making decisions that affect real jobs and real lives in America,” said Matthew LeBretton, a New Balance vice president. “There’s something really wrong with the system.”
‘GO BACK TO THE BAY OF PIGS’: Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had some choice words for the U.S., which operates in the Persian Gulf, the Associated Press reported. “They sit together, scheme and say that Iran must not hold war games in the Persian Gulf. What a foolish remark! They come here from the other side of the globe and stage war games. What are you doing here? Go back to the Bay of Pigs. Go and hold exercises there. What are you doing in the Persian Gulf? The Persian Gulf is our home,” Khamenei said in the speech broadcast on government TV.
Hillary Clinton, Kerry and Obama took markedly different approaches toward the Iran nuclear deal, according to a New York Times report. “The behind-the-scenes story of Mrs. Clinton’s role is more complicated than her public account of it. Interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials paint a portrait of a highly cautious, ambivalent diplomat, less willing than Mr. Obama to take risks to open a dialogue with Iran and increasingly wary of Mr. Kerry’s freelance diplomacy. Her decision to send her own team, some officials said, was driven as much by her desire to corral Mr. Kerry as to engage the Iranians.”
STENNIS BARRED: Meanwhile, USNI News reported about another unwelcome ship, the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, which wasn’t allowed to visit Hong Kong last week. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and it was probably due to Carter’s visit to the Stennis this year.
THAT’S A MOUTHFUL: Rep. Walter Jones promised to fight “like a bulldog” to rename the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps, Marine Corps Times reports. Jones’ proposal, which he’s introduced several years running, is included in the House Armed Services Committee-passed defense bill. In the past it has been killed in the Senate by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain.
WHAT ARE YOU READING? Carter interrupted his own inflight news conference en route to Germany when he spotted a book next to the seat of Washington Post reporter T.M. Gibbons-Neff. “What are you reading?” he interjected. Carter seemed fascinated with the thin paperback, “The Boys’ Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944 – 1945,” by Paul Fussell. After initially borrowing the book from T.M., Carter quickly brought it back explaining he didn’t want to run afoul of any gift rules. Presumably he’ll pick up his own copy.
And what are those rules again? U.S. government officials are generally prohibited from accepting anything of significant value. If they want to keep something given to them in their official capacity, they have to buy it from the government at fair market value. Carter explained he recently received a gift of a plate bearing his likeness. It was judged he could keep it without reimbursement because, well, it was deemed to have no commercial value, that no one would buy it. We don’t know. Maybe if it was part of full set of collectible dinnerware featuring defense secretaries past and present.
WHO WAS HE WEARING? Carter and his wife Stephanie attended the big White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend. Carter joked about being confronted with classic red-carpet query, “Who are you wearing?” A rental, he confessed. That’s right, the Secretary of All Defense apparently doesn’t own a tux. Unless he was kidding us.
CANADA BRINGS THE MUSCLE: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knocked out a pushup in support of the upcoming Invictus games, calling out both President Obama and the British royal family. The Invictus Games allows wounded warriors to compete in a series of sports and takes place later this month in Orlando.
FOLLOW YOUR GUT: The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring studies that are looking at how microbes in the gut can help increase resilience among troops who suffer from dietary changes, sleep loss, or changes in circadian rhythm, like those on deployments or living on submarines. The research operates off the premise that gut microbes have a strong effect on mood and behavior. As part of their studies, scientists have fed anxious mice healthy microbes collected from the feces of calm mice to help control their moods. Scientists suggested that “stress biomarkers” in someone’s feces could be used to diagnose a service member with post-traumatic stress disorder — and help treat it with probiotics or antibiotics to change the make up of the gut.
THE RUNDOWN
Associated Press: Military tests unmanned ship designed for seafaring missions
CNN: New White House video from the time of the bin Laden raid
Reuters: Islamic State breaches peshmerga defenses north of Mosul
Defense News: McSally Wants To Tie A-10 Retirement To F-35 Flyoff
UPI: Lockheed Martin, Daewoo partner for combat ships
Daily Beast: The Marines Are Running Out of Fighter Jets
Breaking Defense: Jammers, Not Terminators: DARPA & The Future Of Robotics
Defense News: Use of US Army, Contract Aircraft Maintainers Out of Whack
War on the Rocks: Successful signaling at Scarborough Shoal?
Defense News: Pentagon No. 2: How to Keep Third Offset Going in the Next Administration
Air Force Times: ISIS-linked hackers claim to release personal information of U.S. drone pilots
NextGov: Feds have found ‘unbelievable’ amounts of child porn on national security computers. Is this the solution?
Washington Post: No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius’
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | MAY 4
11 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, talks about the future of war. csis.org
THURSDAY | MAY 5
3:30 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The Brookings Institute hosts an event where analysts will look at America’s role in the world’s foreign policy. brookings.edu
FRIDAY | MAY 6
9 a.m. 1150 17th St. NW. Scholars from the Army War College discuss how to make the Army organizational structure less bloated and more efficient. aei.org
MONDAY | MAY 9
2:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. The airland subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee holds a closed mark up of its portion of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
TUESDAY | MAY 10
9:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. The Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee holds a closed mark up for the fiscal 2017 NDAA. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, talks about the state of defense acquisition. csis.org
11 a.m. Dirksen G-50. The SASC Personnel Subcommittee holds an open mark up for its piece of the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill. Armed-services.senate.gov
2 p.m. Dirksen G-50. The SASC Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support holds an open mark up for its piece of the fiscal 2017 NDAA. armed-services.senate.gov
3:30 p.m. Dirksen G-50. The SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities holds an open mark up on the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill. armed-services.senate.gov
5:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. The SASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee holds a closed mark up on its piece of the NDAA. armed-services.senate.gov
