DEFENSE BUDGET SHOWDOWN: There is deep bipartisan dissatisfaction on Capitol Hill with President Trump’s Pentagon budget, as evidenced yesterday when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry unveiled his counterproposal, a $705 billion spending package that defense hawks insist is the minimum to reverse years of spending limits that have hamstrung the U.S. military as the world grows more dangerous by the day. Thornberry is seeking a $640 billion national defense base budget, along with another $65 billion in overseas contingency operations funds for Iraq and Afghanistan.
That’s $37 billion above Trump’s official request, which Thornberry dismissed as a legacy of the Obama administration rather than a true reflection of the new administration’s policies. “When the budget came up here on May 23rd, there were exactly two Trump-appointed, Senate-confirmed appointees at the Department of Defense, one of whom had been there a week,” Thornberry, a Texas Republican, told reporters Thursday. “It’s the Obama budget request, because there wasn’t anybody at DoD to write a Trump request.”
On Fox News Channel last night, Republican Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s sole House member and daughter of former Defense Secretary and Vice President Dick Cheney, noted that both Thornberry and his Senate counterpart John McCain agree on what is needed to begin digging out of the “hole” the U.S. military is in. “That number is $640 billion in the base defense budget,” Cheney said. Cheney called Trump $575 billion request for the Defense Department a “tread water number” that “doesn’t begin to get us back on the path.
“They cut a billion dollars out of the Navy shipbuilding budget when the chief of naval operations says we need 355-ship Navy. This budget doesn’t put us on that path,” Cheney said. “They cut $300 million out of missile defense, you know, at a time when the North Koreans are very threatening and making alarming progress, the last thing we ought to be doing is cutting missile defense.”
In markup sessions for the National Defense Authorization Act this week, House subcommittees began addressing those concerns, adding weapons and funding that are missing from the Trump plan. The Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces added authorization for five more warships including one additional destroyer, two littoral combat ships, one amphibious dock landing ship, and one expeditionary support base. Trump’s budget requested eight ships, including one aircraft carrier, two destroyers, two submarines and one littoral combat ship, although the Navy said it plans to add a second LCS, which would bump up Trump’s request to nine ships. So if the House subcommittee markup sticks, that’s 14 new ships for the Navy.
SPACE CORPS WAR: It’s getting ugly between the chairman of the House subcommittee on strategic forces and the secretary of the Air Force over the committee’s plan to establish a U.S. Space Corps as a separate military service and a U.S. Space Command as a new sub-unified command within U.S. Strategic Command led by a four-star general. Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers pronounced himself “shocked” and “outraged” when the idea was dismissed out of hand by Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson as adding unneeded bureaucracy. (In his prepared remarks released by the committee Rogers used the word “pissed” instead of “outraged.”)
“Yesterday, the secretary of the Air Force stated that, ‘This will make it more complex, add more boxes to the organization chart, and cost more money … I don’t need another chief of staff and another six deputy chiefs of staff.’ Well, the secretary should tell me where in this proposal it says she needs to add six more deputy chiefs of staff?” Rogers fumed in his opening rant at the subcommittee’s markup of the NDAA. “If she can’t implement this proposal without creating six new deputy chiefs of staff, that’s on her. Maybe we need a Space Corps secretary instead of leaving it to the secretary of the Air Force.
“The Pentagon always resists change,” Rogers said. “It resisted the creation of the Air Force itself – the great irony here.”
Good Friday 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: As Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is declaring the liberation of Mosul is only days away, and U.S.-backed fighters have now completed the encirclement of the Islamic State in Raqqa, we’ll get an operation update at 11 a.m. from Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad for the counter-ISIS campaign. Iraqi forces are still battling the remnants of ISIS fighters holed up in the old city section of West Mosul. “It’s a matter of a few days and we will announce the total liberation of Mosul,” Abadi said yesterday, according to Baghdad-based Sumaria TV.
RUSSIAN CRUISE MISSILES FLY: The Russian Defense Ministry says its ships in Mediterranean Sea, including a submarine, fired a half-dozen cruise missiles into Syria to attack ISIS targets. “The Russian Navy once again demonstrated opportunities for effective strikes with high-precision weapons systems ‘Calibre’ in the shortest possible time after receiving military orders,” the ministry said on its Facebook page. “From the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea by the frigate ‘Admiral Essen’, ‘Admiral Grigorovich’ and the submarine ‘Krasnodar’ Russia’s Navy launched six cruise missiles … at the ISIS terrorist grouping in Syria. Submarine ‘Krasnodar’ has carried out launches of cruise missiles from a submerged position,” the statement said.
SENIOR AL-QAEDA EMIR KILLED: Three al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorists were killed in an airstrike in Yemen last week, including one of the group’s top leaders, according to U.S. Central Command. Abu Khattab al Awlaqi, considered a senior leader with AQAP, and two of his associates were killed in the strike, which the U.S. conducted with the backing of the government of Yemen.
Al Awlaqi planned and conducted terror attacks against civilians, and had “significant influence” throughout AQAP’s stronghold, according to the Central Command statement. He was also said to have had ties to AQAP’s other senior leaders and was believed to have planned and led efforts to “exacerbate instability” in southern Yemen.
MORE F-35 WOES: First there were the problems with the oxygen systems on Air Force F-35As being flown out of Luke Air Force base outside Phoenix this month. Now comes word that Marine Corps F-35Bs at another Arizona base have been temporarily grounded. “I was concerned to learn that the Marine Corps has suspended F-35B operations at MCAS Yuma due to problems with the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System,” Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain said in statement. “I am in close communication with the Marine Corps and Joint Program Office as they work to identify the root cause of these issues and resolve them as quickly as possible.”
NORTH KOREA’S WORDS: An opinion piece published in a North Korean newspaper Thursday refers to Trump as a “psychopath” who may launch a preemptive strike on the country to distract from his “tough situation” at home. The commentary was published in the state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, and reported by the Washington Post. The article suggests the U.S. is suffering from its own domestic problems, which may include the “impeachment of Trump.” It goes on to say Trump is considering a preemptive strike against North Korea because of his own situation — an apparent reference to the investigations into ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia — and points to action taken by past U.S. presidents who were also trying to distract from problems in the U.S.
NORTH KOREA’S ACTIONS: Meanwhile, North Korea has reportedly tested a new rocket engine the U.S. believes could be part of its program to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. Reuters first reported the rocket engine test, which comes after North Korea conducted three other similar tests in March and other ballistic missile tests over the course of the year.
REFUGEES’ GOALS: Syrian refugees who have fled their war-torn country don’t want their next stop to be the United States, according to the top American at the United Nations. “Out all the refugees I spoke to, in and out of the camps, not one of them said they wanted to come to the United States,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said Thursday during a national security forum on Capitol Hill.
“What they said was ‘we want to go home, we don’t care if we have to start over, we don’t care if we have to build it ourselves, we want to go home’ and their family members are there,” Haley continued. “And they literally look at the mountain where Syria is on the other side and there is such a hope and amazing motivation for them to go home.”
LAVROV SHRUGS OFF SANCTIONS: Trump and U.S. lawmakers need to learn that the use of sanctions to punish Russian policies is “pointless,” according to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov delivered the rebuke to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by phone after canceling a high-level diplomatic summit in Moscow that had been scheduled for Friday. The Russians canceled the meeting after the Treasury Department updated existing sanctions related to the Ukraine crisis to target Russian government officials and separatist fighters who were circumventing the punitive measures.
“Lavrov pointed out that attempts to exert pressure on Russia through sanctions were pointless, though Washington once again used this tool on June 20,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a summary of the phone call carried by state-run media. “Such steps put Russian-U.S. ties at serious risk, while bilateral relations are already going through a tough period.”
CANADIAN SNIPER CLAIM: A Canadian sniper has reportedly set a new world record for the longest kill shot in history, hitting an Islamic State fighter in Iraq from the top of an apartment building two miles away. The unnamed Joint Task Force 2 sharpshooter is a member of Canada’s elite special forces and is said to have made the shot from a high-rise building sometime in the past 30 days, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The bullet from the soldier’s American-made McMillan Tac-50 rifle flew the two miles in 10 seconds. “The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh (Islamic State) attack on Iraqi security forces,” a military official told the paper. “Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far away, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.”
“R” IS FOR REMOTE: In a sign of the times, the Air Force is now allowing drone pilots, cyber warriors, and ISR Airmen to wear an “R” device, denoting their contribution in “remote” combat. “The ‘R’ device, which may be affixed to non-combat performance awards, was established to distinguish that an award was earned for direct hands-on employment of a weapon system that had a direct and immediate impact on a combat or military operation,” an Air Force statement said. “Airmen assigned to cyber operations and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operators would be examples of those eligible for the ‘R’ device,” said Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, the deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services. “These members create direct combat effects that lead to strategic outcomes and deliver lethal force, while physically located outside the combat area.” The new regs also make clear the “V” device is for valor only, to ensure “unambiguous and distinctive recognition of distinguished acts of combat heroism.” A new “C” device was created to distinctly recognize those service members performing meritoriously under the most difficult combat conditions.
THE RUNDOWN
New York Times: Fears Grow That U.S. Is Inching Toward Bigger Role In Syria War
Wall Street Journal: Militaries huddle to head off Islamic State in Southeast Asia
Defense News: China Deploys New Anti-Submarine Aircraft To Fringes Of South China Sea
San Diego Union-Tribune: Navy Struggles With Shortage Of Aircraft Carriers
AP: Qatar’s neighbors issue steep list of demands to end crisis
Reuters: House Of Saud Unites Behind King’s Son – For Now
USA Today: ISIS spreads fake news about destroyed al-Nuri mosque
DoD Buzz: Leonardo’s T-X submission already training pilots to fly F-35
New York Times: U.S. sends civilian team to Syria to help the displaced return home
CNN: How Boeing got on Trump’s good side
War on the Rocks: Washington might feel the chill of a more united European defense
Defense One: America’s best partner in Middle East HUMINT needs help
USNI News: Marines operate amphibious combat vehicles from ship in first-ever launch and recovery testing
Foreign Policy: Is Trump preparing for a conflict with Iran?
Reuters: Venezuelan troops fire on protesters at airbase, one killed
Washington Post: Army busts another general for improper relationship with woman
Military Times: Trump Nominates VA Insider As Next Department Deputy Secretary
Calendar
FRIDAY | JUNE 23
11 a.m. Pentagon Briefing Room. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman, Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve briefs the media live from Baghdad.
11 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Opportunities and challenges of a nuclear posture review. heritage.org
1:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Poland’s new defense concept with State Undersecretary H.E. Tomasz Szatkowski, of Poland’s Ministry of National Defense. atlanticcouncil.org
MONDAY | JUNE 26
10:30 a.m. The western Balkans: A delicate balance. wilsoncenter.org
12:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Rising Chinese FDI in Latin America and the implications for the United States. atlanticcouncil.org
2 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Korean War, the “forgotten war,” remembered. wilsoncenter.org
4 p.m. Russell 232-A. Closed hearing by Subcommittee on Airland to markup the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
5:30 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Foreign Service: Five decades on the frontlines of American diplomacy. brookings.edu
7 p.m. House 140. Closed subcommittee markup of 2018 defense appropriations. appropriations.house.gov
TUESDAY | JUNE 27
8 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Integrating Strike and Defense with Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, and former Rep. Randy Forbes. csis.org
8:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Big data and the Twenty-first Century arms race. atlanticcouncil.org
9:30 a.m. Russell 232-A. Closed hearing by Subcommittee on Readiness to markup the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
11 a.m. Russell 232-A. Closed hearing by Subcommittee on Cybersecurity to markup the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
12:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. Luncheon with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. press.org
1 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The future of Mosul and Iraq after the ISIS flag falls with Rep. Adam Kinzinger. heritage.org
2 p.m. Dirksen G-50. Closed hearing and webcast of Subcommittee on Personnel markup of the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Allies under attack and the terrorist threat to Europe. foreignaffairs.house.gov
3:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. Closed hearing by Subcommittee on Seapower to markup the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
3:30 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Book launch for Water, Security and U.S. Foreign Policy. wilsoncenter.org
4:30 p.m. Dirksen G-50. Closed hearing and webcast of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats markup of the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
5:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. Closed hearing by Subcommittee on Strategic Forces to markup the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
WEDNESDAY | JUNE 28
8 a.m. 1201 M St. SE. Systems engineering division meeting. ndia.org
9:30 a.m. 1127 Connecticut Ave. NW. 2017 Annual Conference: Navigating the Divide. cnas.org
9:30 a.m. Russell 222. Full committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. Dirksen 342. Nominations of Claire M. Grady to be under secretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security and Henry Kerner to be special counsel in the Office of Special Counsel. hsgac.senate.gov
10 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Closed full committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. armedservices.house.gov
10 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Strategic cyber deterrence: The active cyber defense option with author Scott Jasper. heritage.org
10 a.m. Rayburn 2172. Advancing U.S. interests at the United Nations with Ambassador Nikki Haley. foreignaffairs.house.gov
10 a.m. Senate Visitor Center 212-10. Study release, Consolidating the Revolution: Optimizing the Potential of Remotely Piloted Aircraft, with author retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula. mitchellaerospacepower.org
11:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Rebalancing U.S. force posture in Europe and beyond. atlanticcouncil.org
THURSDAY | JUNE 29
9 a.m. 1030 15th Street NW. Conference on the threat of Russian influence in Europe, the next frontier in digital disinformation, and how to strike back. atlanticcouncil.org
9:30 a.m. Russell 222. Closed full committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The power of the president to shape U.S. relations in the Middle East and North Africa. brookings.edu
10:30 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. India-Japan strategic cooperation and implications for Washington and Beijing. wilsoncenter.org
FRIDAY | JUNE 30
9:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. South Sudan: When war and famine collide. csis.org
