MESSAGE TO NORTH KOREA: All last week, Pentagon officials privately played down the idea that the U.S. cruise missile strike in Syria, or the massive bomb dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan were meant as messages to North Korea. But that spin was undercut by a pair of public statements from senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence arrived in South Korea early yesterday, just hours after North Korea’s latest missile test failed, exploding shortly after lift-off. Speaking from the DMZ, the world’s most dangerous border, Pence warned North Korea that “any use of nuclear weapons will be met with overwhelming and effective response,” and made specific reference to the recent U.S. military actions on the other side of the world. “Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan. North Korea would do well not to test his resolve,” Pence said.
In an appearance from Afghanistan, national security adviser H.R. McMaster delivered a similar message on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think what you saw last week with the president’s decisive response to the Assad regime, to mass murder of innocent people, including children, with chemical weapons, that this national security team is capable of rapidly responding to those sorts of crises or incidents and events and providing the president with options. And our president is clearly comfortable making tough decisions and responding.”
McMaster said options are still being drawn up for North Korea, which includes the possible use of military force. “All our options on the table [are] undergoing refinement and further development,” he told ABC.
MISSILE FIZZLE: So after days of buildup and ominous warnings, North Korea’s missile launch failed spectacularly. U.S. Pacific Command tracked the launch from the port city of Sinpo on the east coast, where North Korea has a submarine base, and reported the missile blew up almost immediately. While the type of missile is still being assessed, it appears it was a run-of-the-mill medium-range ballistic, the same type North Korea has tested before.
A statement from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was restrained. “The president and his military team are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment,” he said. It is unusual for the defense secretary to be issuing statements on behalf the of the president.
The launch was planned to cap off a weekend of celebrations marking the 105th birthday of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea paraded its newest intercontinental ballistic missiles in a massive military display in central Pyongyang on Saturday as Kim looked on with apparent delight. Or the new missiles could have been mock-ups, nobody over here knows. The parade also featured missile canisters, which might have held new weapons, or could have been empty. Kim did not speak during the annual parade, but a top North Korean official warned that Pyongyang would stand up to any threat posed by the United States.
CYBER SABOTAGE? Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain on Sunday said he doesn’t buy claims that the U.S. interfered in North Korea’s nuclear missile test and was the reason for the failed launch. “I don’t think” the U.S. sabotaged the test by using cyberwarfare, McCain told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on NBC. “But I wouldn’t rule it out,” he added.
Former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind was quoted saying the U.S. could have been behind the flop, citing a “strong belief.”
The New York Times reported last month that President Obama ordered a covert cyber campaign against the North Korea’s missile launches three years ago. “It is unclear how successful the program has been, because it is almost impossible to tell whether any individual launch failed because of sabotage, faulty engineering or bad luck,” the Times reported in the wake of the latest failure, but noted “the North’s launch-failure rate has been extraordinarily high since Mr. Obama first accelerated the program.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The last defense secretary to draw up plans to attack North Korea says there is still time for diplomacy. William Perry, who drew up options for President Clinton to bomb the north nuclear facility at Yongbyon in 1994, told CNN Friday that unlike Islamic extremists, Kim has no desire to die for his beliefs. “The regime in North Korea, while they’re evil, are not crazy. … They are not seeking martyrdom. They’re not suicidal,” Perry said. “Therefore, I do not believe that they are going to be conducting an unprovoked nuclear attack against Korea or Japan or the United States. I don’t think that’s in the cards at all. The danger is that we’ll get into some kind of a military conflict with them, and it could escalate into nuclear war.”
Perry gives Trump credit for forging a new alliance with China’s President Xi Jinping, which he believes could be the difference this time after years of failed efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. “I think they are willing now to work with us in a serious way to try to prevent that war. Therefore, a diplomatic action with China, which we had never succeeded in the past, we now have a possibility of doing that.”
Good Monday 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: Mattis departs for Saudi Arabia, his first stop of a Middle East and Africa trip. His meetings with the Saudis will focus on their security partnership with the U.S. and will no doubt involve discussions of the war in Yemen, where the Trump administration has been aggressively targeting AQAP terrorists, while a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Houthi rebels. As former U.S. Central Command chief, Mattis will be on familiar ground meeting many people he already knows well, but he will now be meeting as the civilian head of America’s military, not as a uniformed four-star commander.
From Saudi Arabia, Mattis travels to Egypt and then to Israel to talk about regional security and participate in wreath-laying ceremonies. In Israel, he is to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman. The trip wraps up April 23 in Djibouti, where Mattis will meet with President Ismail Omar Guelleh.
GREEN UNDER FIRE: After opposition from gay and transgender rights groups, Trump’s nominee for Army secretary is now being called an Islamophobe by a prominent Muslim advocacy group. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is opposing the nomination of Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green for remarks he made while addressing a Tea Party group last year. Green blamed textbooks for indoctrinating Tennessee students with Islam. Teaching the core tenets of the faith and how Muslims pray “is over the top and we will not tolerate that in this state,” he said. Two other civil rights groups oppose Green for comments to the same crowd opposing gay and transgender rights. He compared infanticide to “two guys getting married” and urged Tennessee to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The allegations could complicate Green’s confirmation in the Senate, which will likely consider his nomination in May.
F-35s TO EUROPE: The Air Force is deploying its high-tech, fifth-generation F-35A fighter jets to Europe as part of an effort to assure U.S. allies there who are worried about Russian aggression, the Pentagon announced Friday. The deployment includes a “small number” of the Lockheed Martin-built Lightning II fighters, which are being rolled out by the services after a long and costly development, to train for several weeks with other U.S. and NATO aircraft in Europe.
The Pentagon noted that the deployment had been long planned, meaning it was not a reaction to recent increasing tensions between the United States and Russia over a chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria and a subsequent cruise missile attack launched by two Navy ships.
STRONGER EVERY DAY? Trump continued a stream of tweets on Easter morning by saying the U.S. has “no choice” but to build up its military. “Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!” Trump tweeted. The president alternately praises the U.S. military as unsurpassed, and decries it as “depleted.” While Trump’s budget proposal released in mid-March calls for the Pentagon to get an additional $52.3 billion next year, and an extra $30 billion this year, so far Congress hasn’t acted and the U.S. military hasn’t seen a penny more. U.S. military officials have already warned that unless fresh funding is approved soon, combat planes will have be grounded for lack of money.
MOAB’S DEATH TOLL: The number of militants killed in an attack by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military has risen to 94, an Afghan official said Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, said the number of Islamic State group dead was up from the 36 reported a day earlier. A Ministry of Defense official had said Friday the number of dead could rise as officials assessed the bomb site in Achin district but said there are still no reports of civilian casualties.
NO NEW AUTHORITY: It turns out that no new authority was sought or granted for the top U.S. commander to drop the massive ordnance air blast bomb on ISIS. In fact, Pentagon sources confirmed Friday the MOAB was moved into theater well before President Trump’s inauguration, and was used under expanded authority given to Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson by Obama. “He didn’t ask permission. He didn’t have to,” a senior defense official said. Sen. Jack Reed, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said as much on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “These authorities have been a given over the last several years,” Reed said. “I assume that this was not a new authority, this was something that he was authorized, deploying a particular weapons system.” It remains unclear if Trump knew about the “Mother of All Bombs” ahead of time, or found out after the fact. Either way, the president was clearly pleased with the decision.
SUCCESSFUL TEST: Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are claiming success with the first in a new series of flight tests of the new, upgraded version of B-61 nuclear bomb that has been part of the U.S. arsenal for decades, the AP reported. Work on the B61-12 has been underway for years, and the latest tests are focused on the new bomb’s non-nuclear functions, including a new tail-fin guidance system that can make the bomb more accurate. An F-16 from Nellis Air Force Base dropped an inert version of the weapon over the Nevada desert last month to test not just new systems, but also the plane’s ability to carry the bomb. In previous tests the B-61 was dropped by F-15s.
BACK IN THE AIR: The Navy will begin flying its T-45C training jets again on Monday, the service announced over the weekend. But it still has not solved or found the cause of the problem with the aircraft’s oxygen systems, which led to a boycott by hundreds of pilots and a grounding of the T-45s this month. Instructors and trainees will instead stay below 10,000 feet and use a mask that circumvents the aircraft’s onboard oxygen generator system. Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of Naval Air Forces, said the Navy will be able to conduct 75 percent of its flights while teams are working with urgency to diagnose and fix the oxygen systems.
HIGH FLIGHT: Rep. Joe Wilson spent one of the first days of the congressional recess getting a first-hand preview of what could be the Air Force’s next trainer jet. Wilson, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, rode in a T-50A during a demonstration in South Carolina last week, yielding some video of Wilson soaring through the blue skies over Greenville.
THE RUNDOWN
The Daily Beast: New Power Center in Trumpland: The ‘Axis of Adults’
Washington Post: Trump’s deputy national security advisor won’t say whether she’s being redeployed to Singapore
Reuters: In Afghanistan, Trump aide promises coordinated response to enemies
CNN: Video shows Syria bus blast
New York Times: Video: Examining North Korea’s missiles
USA Today: North Korean crisis averted, but tensions remain dangerously high
Wall Street Journal: Erdogan’s referendum victory puts Turkey on collision course With Europe
Task and Purpose: The U.S. military bombed ISIS in Afghanistan, but the Taliban are winning the war
New York Times: Indian army ties Kashmiri man to jeep and parades him through villages
USA Today: Residents and tourists in S.Korea react to N.Korean missile test
Stars and Stripes: Japan responded to record number of Chinese, Russian aircraft in fiscal year 2016
New York Times: Hacking group claims NSA infiltrated Mideast banking system
Calendar
MONDAY | APRIL 17
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave, NW. Sergey Denisentsev, a senior research fellow at the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, discusses Russia’s arms exports. csis.org
TUESDAY | APRIL 18
7 a.m. 7525 Colshire Drive. The beginning of a three-day annual summit on systems engineering cyber-resilient and secure weapon systems. ndia.org
7 a.m. 300 5th Ave. SW. The National Defense Industrial Association kicks off its three-day science and engineering technology conference. ndia.org
6:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. A premiere screening of Danger Close film and Q&A with war reporter Alex Quade. press.org
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 19
5 p.m. 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW. How scholars can affect Trump’s foreign policy with Steven Weber, director of Bridging the Gap; Matt Kroenig, associate professor at Georgetown University; Ryan Evans, editor-in-chief of War on the Rocks; Mira Rapp Hooper, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security; and Sameer Lalwani, a senior associate at the Stimson Center. cato.org
9 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. The difficult road toward stabilizing Iraq and the Gulf region. stimson.org
THURSDAY | APRIL 20
9:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Italian Prime Minister H.E. Paolo Gentiloni discusses security in the Mediterranean as a cornerstone of global stability and the common engagement of Italy and the United States. csis.org
10 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Experts discuss next steps in dealing with the South China Sea, a regional flashpoint. heritage.org
1 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The implications of Iran aircraft sales and how they could complicate U.S. efforts to contain its expanding influence in the Middle East. heritage.org
3 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The provincialism and internationalism of an America First policy in U.S. foreign relations. wilsoncenter.org
FRIDAY | APRIL 21
11 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The growing cyber threat and how the United States can prepare. brookings.edu
MONDAY | APRIL 24
9 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Reflecting on President Trump’s first 100 days. brookings.edu
10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. China’s growing interests in the Middle East, and the United States’ enduring interests in the Middle East. csis.org
12:30 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The long war in Afghanistan and the Trump administration. brookings.edu
