THE ‘ANTI-WOKE’ NDAA: The Senate is expected to take up, as soon as this week, the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual “must-pass” policy bill that passed the House Friday by a narrow 219-210 margin, with all but four Democrats voting against it.
The Senate version of the NDAA is not expected to include many of the hot-button social issues that triggered a revolt by Democrats, the majority of whom usually vote with Republicans to pass a bipartisan bill. But once the bill hit the House floor, hard-right GOP lawmakers passed “anti-woke” amendments, including a ban on funding travel for abortions, transgender surgeries and hormone treatments, and diversity programs.
“The open amendment process gives anti-woke legislators the chance to defund and eliminate radical-far left programs in the federal government,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN). “This year’s NDAA is the most conservative I’ve seen since I got to Congress, and members of the Anti-Woke Caucus played a leading role in that victory.”
“The bill as amended has allowed an extreme and narrow contingent to bring their culture war to what was a bipartisan process and advance an agenda rooted in racism, misogyny, bigotry, ignorance, and hatred,” said Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “I and my Democratic colleagues will redouble our efforts going forward, and look forward to working with our Senate Colleagues in conference.”
HOUSE PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL NEARLY ALONG PARTY LINES
THE ALL-IMPORTANT CONFERENCE COMMITTEE: Lawmakers on both sides say the victories of the “anti-woke” caucus may be short-lived once the Senate and House versions are reconciled in a conference committee, if history is any guide:
“We saw this actually when the Democrats had the majority,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) on CBS. “They passed a very partisan NDAA bill. It went over to the Senate. We did the conference committee. And, traditionally, the more partisan [measures] get stripped out. At the end of the day this always ends up as a bipartisan bill.”
“I hope all these measures stay in there,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Fox News Sunday. “The military should not be paying for abortion tourism or for diversity consultants or sex change operations. They should be buying the weapons that we need to defend our nation and to support our troops.”
The Republican opposition to the Pentagon’s policy of giving paid leave and reimbursing travel expenses for military members and dependents to obtain abortions is the most contentious issue in the NDAA and the one motivating Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) to maintain his blockade on all senior officer promotions.
“Every single one of these kind of holds, 99 percent of them get resolved through compromise. And what needs to happen, the secretary of defense, Senator Tuberville, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) need to sit down and have that path,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) on NBC. “We’re going to be debating the NDAA in the Senate the next two weeks … think there’s going to be opportunities to get to that compromise like we have on all these kind of holds that happen regularly in the Senate.”
CONSERVATIVE NDAA AMENDMENTS UNLIKELY TO MAKE IT INTO THE SENATE’S VERSION
THE ABORTION DEBATE: The Democrats’ primary argument in favor of the Pentagon abortion travel policy is that without it, women in uniform would be treated differently depending on where they are based. Women in states with restrictive abortion laws would be forced to use their vacation time and pay for travel to obtain abortions or other reproductive services, while those in states with liberal abortion laws would not.
“This is a Pandora’s box of political issues,” argued Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL). The policy “is really opening up the military to question, circumvent or give individual soldiers, sailors, Marines a say on state and local political issues.”
“In terms of Florida state law versus California … if a soldier doesn’t feel like he can adequately protect his family, say, in downtown Chicago, where 30 to 40 people are being shot a week because he doesn’t like the gun restrictions … Should the Pentagon then just pay for him to go out to a more gun-friendly state?” Waltz said on CNN last week.
“A young airman at Little Rock Air Force Base could walk in and demand three weeks of uncharged paid leave, and get travel and meals and lodging paid for to go get an elective abortion,” said Cotton on Fox, while he argued a request for bereavement leave “comes out of their annual allotment and they will get no expenses paid.
“If they want to take that step, they have 30 days of annual leave. It shouldn’t be taxpayer funds, giving them three weeks of paid uncharged leave and then also paying for travel and lodging and meals.”
“Well, this legislation is never getting to the president’s desk,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan on CNN. “What you have seen from an extreme group of Republicans is to put forward a set of amendments that try to mix domestic social debates with the needs, the security needs, of our nation.
“Historically, year after year, you have seen the Defense Authorization Act pass with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. We should not walk away from that. This should be an area where politics stops and national security starts,” Sullivan said. “We believe that, at the end of the day, after the Senate has done its work, after the Senate has come back together with the House, we will end up in a place where there is a broad bipartisan bill that can go to the president’s desk that he can sign.”
WOMEN VETERANS IN CONGRESS WEIGH IN ON PENTAGON ABORTION POLICY DEBATE
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HAPPENING THIS MORNING, DEVELOPING STORY: The Russian bridge over the Kerch Strait linking Russia to occupied Crimea was rocked by explosions today, damaging sections of the12-mile bridge that carries automobile traffic, reportedly killing two people.
Video images and still photos showed several sections of the bridge deck collapsed, halting traffic on the only supply route from Russia to Crimea. Moscow blamed Kyiv for carrying out a drone attack.
CNN, quoting a source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), reported the attack was a joint operation of the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces.
CAN TUBERVILLE BE TURNED? If, as some Democrats are predicting, the provision in the House version of the NDAA which bars travel funds for abortions is killed, the problem of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) stranglehold on military promotions and confirmations will still need to be resolved.
Tuberville has said that he might lift his hold on more than 200 senior officer promotions if the Senate takes a straight up or down vote on the issue, but Democrats insist that offer rings hollow.
“We’ve given him many options for a vote, and he’s turned them all down,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on NBC. “[Sen.] Joni Ernst (R-IA) has a bill that goes even further than where Senator Tuberville is, and he declined that vote. Republican leadership had offered him multiple off-ramps to this, and he’s backed himself into a corner.”
The only option, aside from changing long-standing Senate rules, would be to vote on each nomination individually, a process that Duckworth said would take months. “We can vote on each individual nominee, but that would take well into next year. The process is very slow,” she said. “There are so many promotions that we’re going to fall further and further behind, and we could never get any other business done.”
Tuberville has yet to feel any real pressure from his party to end his hold, which is causing increasing angst at the Pentagon, where the Marine Corps is without a confirmed commandant, and the Army chief of staff and Joint Chiefs chairman’s job will soon be vacant.
“Every senator has the right to place holds on nominees on an issue of policy importance. I certainly have done this myself,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) on NBC. “Senator Duckworth has had the exact same hold that Tommy Tuberville does, a couple years ago, on generals to be promoted.”
“He’s right. This is something that is done often in the Senate but not to the extent that Senator Tuberville is doing it,” said Duckworth. “I only held it for 14 days, and that was over Alexander Vindman being retaliated against by the Trump White House.”
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER BLASTS TUBERVILLE’S HOLD UP ON MILITARY PROMOTIONS: ‘DEEPLY IRRESPONSIBLE’
YOU DON’T SAY: When politicians are trying to score political points, they often leave out salient facts that might undercut the strength of their argument.
Take, for example, Sullivan’s statement on NBC’s Meet the Press that “the biggest national security issue … is the Biden administration is continuing to put forward defense budget cuts.”
“The budget for next year is going to take us below 3% of GDP spending. That’s the lowest level in almost 70 years. So, to me, that’s the biggest national security threat and readiness threat we have facing us. And that’s something the president needs to address directly,” Sullivan said.
What he didn’t say was that it was the debt ceiling deal negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that locked in the Biden budget numbers and tied the hands of Congress, preventing the additions of billions of dollars to the White House request, as has been done in recent years.
And McCarthy on Friday blasted House Democrats for failing to support the military by voting against the NDAA.
“Four Democrats voted with us. Are the rest of the Democrats against the pay raise for the veterans? Are they against deterring China for a safe future? Are they against rooting out wasteful spending? Because they all voted against it,” McCarthy said at a news conference. “They voted for [it] just last year. It’s a good thing the Republicans are in the majority.”
What McCarthy didn’t say is that Democrats voted for all those things in the Armed Services Committee, but were opposed to the amendments on social issues.
MACE DEFENDS NDAA VOTE AFTER SAYING GOP NEEDS TO ‘STOP BEING A**HOLES TO WOMEN’
WHO WERE THE OUTLIERS? The House Democrats who voted for the House NDAA were Reps. Don Davis (NC), Jared Golden (ME), Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (WA), and Gabe Vasquez (NM), all from competitive swing districts facing stiff challenges from GOP competitors.
The Republicans who broke ranks with their party and voted against were Andy Biggs (AZ), Ken Buck (CO), Eli Crane (AZ), and Thomas Massie (KY).
UK MoD WALLACE STEPS ASIDE: One of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters is giving up his career in politics, citing the stress of the job. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced Sunday he would resign his cabinet post and not run again as a member of parliament in the next general election.
Wallace was promoted by the British government as the top candidate to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary-general, but NATO members instead decided to extend Stoltenberg’s term until October 2024.
Wallace caused a bit of stir at the Vilnius summit when he grumbled to reporters off-camera that NATO was not an “Amazon-style delivery service,” suggesting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in constantly asking for more weapons, was insufficiently grateful for the aid the U.K. and other Western allies have already provided.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to Zelensky’s defense, saying he had “expressed his gratitude for what we’ve done on a number of occasions.”
BRITISH DEFENSE MINISTER BEN WALLACE WILL NOT RUN FOR REELECTION
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: House passes defense spending bill nearly along party lines
Washington Examiner: Conservative NDAA amendments unlikely to make it into the Senate’s version
Washington Examiner: ‘Very difficult to see’ Biden signing House version of NDAA, White House says
Washington Examiner: Women veterans in Congress weigh in on Pentagon abortion policy debate
Washington Examiner: Mace defends NDAA vote after saying GOP needs to ‘stop being a**holes to women’
Washington Examiner: Democratic lawmaker blasts Tuberville’s hold up on military promotions: ‘Deeply irresponsible’
Washington Examiner: Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll use new committee spot to push against Ukraine aid
Washington Examiner: Jake Sullivan says Russian Black Sea interference could be ‘enormous diplomatic cost
Washington Examiner: Iran and Russia working to push US out of Syria, Pentagon official says
Washington Examiner: Jake Sullivan defends sending of cluster munitions: ‘Not going to leave Ukraine defenseless’
Washington Examiner: British Defense Minister Ben Wallace will not run for reelection
Washington Examiner: China wavers in rejecting security talks with US
Washington Examiner: Wagner Group ‘does not exist,’ Putin insists following short-lived mutiny
Washington Examiner: Opinion: The Left was wrong, wrong, wrong on cluster munitions
AP: Russia halts wartime deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain. It’s a blow to global food security
CNN: US Gives ‘Green Light’ to European Countries to Train Ukrainians on F-16 Fighter Jets
Reuters: Ukraine Says Fighting In East Has Intensified
Washington Post: The biggest obstacle to Ukraine’s counteroffensive? Minefields.
New York Times: After Suffering Heavy Losses, Ukrainians Paused to Rethink Strategy
AP: U.S. Sending F-16 Fighter Jets To Protect Ships From Iranian Seizures In Gulf Region
Wall Street Journal: Europeans Get Bolder In Backing Kyiv Victory
Breaking Defense: UK Official Sees ‘Unique’ Partnership Chances for Next-Gen Fighter
Breaking Defense: ‘An Absolute Folly’: UK Lawmakers’ Scathing Report on E-7 Wedgetail Acquisition
AP: US Military Chief Praises Japan’s Defense Funding Boost as a Buttress Against China and North Korea
Financial Times: Typo Leaks Millions Of U.S. Military Emails To Mali Web Operator
DefenseScoop: Task Force 99 Drone Was ‘Very Effective’ in Secretive Spy Missions, Senior DOD Official Says
AP: China Accuses U.S. Of Militarizing Space Following Protest Over Navy Plane’s Taiwan Strait Transit
Air & Space Forces Magazine: F-16s Join A-10s to Deter Iran from Seizing Oil Tankers
Air & Space Forces Magazine: A-10s, Space Force Join in on South American Exercise for First Time
Space News: Space Force to Select Three Providers of National Security Launch Services
Defense News: Senators Eye Electronic Warfare Capability Demonstration in Western US
19fortyfive.com: China’s Shipbuilding Capability: A Threat to the U.S. Navy?
USNI News: Senate Bill Sets Up AUKUS Sub Buy As U.S. Industrial Capacity Questions Linger
19fortyfive.com: ‘Annihilated’: Watch a Ukraine Javelin Missile Destroy a Russian Tank
The Cipher Brief: White House Unveils Road Map for National Cybersecurity Strategy
The Cipher Brief: The Only Thing Worse than Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight
The Cipher Brief: Opinion: Netanyahu: Israel’s Renowned Statesman Lost on the International Stage
Wall Street Journal: Option: Sen. Roger Wicker: The U.S. Navy Needs More Attack Submarines
Calendar
MONDAY | JULY 17
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program 30th Anniversary Conference with Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau; Air Force Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville, vice chief of the National Guard Bureau; Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, homeland security adviser at the White House; Lt. Gen. Dan Cain, associate CIA director for military affairs; Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. Livestream at https://vimeo.com/event/3563169
12 p.m — Washington Post Live virtual discussion: “China, NATO and War in Ukraine,” with House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live
12:45 p.m. — Foundation for Defense of Democracies virtual discussion: “The United States and Palau’s Strategic Partnership: A Conversation with President Surangel S. Whipps, Jr.” https://www.fdd.org/events/2023/07/17
TUESDAY | JULY 18
8 a.m. 7920 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, Virginia — Potomac Officers Club 2023 Air Force Summit with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall; and Andrew Hunter, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, delivering morning keynote remarks https://potomacofficersclub.com/events/poc-2023-air-force-summit
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program 30th Anniversary Conference with Romanian Chief of Defense Gen. Daniel Petrescu; Navy Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler, director for strategy, plans and policy at the Joint Staff; Madeline Mortelmans, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities; Army Maj. Gen. William Zana, director for strategy, plans, and policy, and international affairs at the National Guard Bureau; Wisconsin Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp; Ethan Rosenzweig, deputy assistant secretary of state for academic programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; Deputy Undersecretary for International Trade Diane Farrell; and North Carolina Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt; Navy Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, director of plans and policy at the U.S. Cyber Command; JeeYoung Oh, director for threat management and operational coordination at the State Department; Army Maj. Gen. W. Joe Hartman, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force; Illinois Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Richard Neely; Sharon Burke, former assistant defense secretary for operational energy plans and programs; Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant defense secretary for Arctic and global resilience; Kenyan Air Force Maj. Gen. Bernard Waliaula, director of Kenyan Defence National Security Industries; Virginia Adjutant General Brig. Gen. Jim Ring; and Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau. Livestream at https://vimeo.com/event/3563169
9 a.m. 5000 Seminary Rd,, Alexandria, Virginia -— National Defense Industrial Association JADC2 All Domain Warfare Symposium, with Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI); Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA); Pentagon Comptroller Kathleen Miller; former Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist; Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshall David Arthurton director of military digitisation, for Defense Digital at the U.K. Defence Ministry; and retired Navy Vice Adm. Dave Johnson, vice president of L3Harris Technologies. RSVP: [email protected]
11 a.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: “The Biden Administration and the Middle East,” with Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/07/18/carnegie-connects
12 p.m. — Association of the U.S. Army “p.m. Report” virtual discussion: “The state of the Army,” with chief of staff Gen. James McConville; and Retired Gen. Robert Brown, AUSA president and CEO https://www.bigmarker.com/ausaorg/AUSA-p.m.-Report
12 p.m. 1957 E St. NW — George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs discussion: “Building Taiwan’s Soft Power: Media, Democracy, and Global Image,” with Shu-ling Ko, visiting fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy; Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Tiffany Ma, senior director at BowerGroupAsia; and Deepa Ollapally, associate director of GWU’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies https://calendar.gwu.edu/event/taiwan_roundtable
1 p.m. 2154 Rayburn — House Oversight and Accountability Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee hearing: “Getting Nowhere: DoD’s Failure to Replace the Defense Travel System,” with testimony from Jeff Register, director of the Special Operations Division, Defense Human Resources Activity in the Office of the Defense Undersecretary for Personnel & Readiness; and Elizabeth Field, director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/getting-nowhere-dods-failure-to-replace-the-defense-travel-system/
1 p.m. G-50 Dirksen — Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe hearing: “Russia’s Alpine Assets: Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion in Switzerland,” with Bill Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign; Drew Sullivan, co-founder of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project; and Olena Tregub, secretary general of the Independent Defense Anti-Corruption Committee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxX98XQmGvQ
2 p.m. HVC-210 — House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe hearing: “Stability and Security in the Western Balkans: Assessing U.S. Policy,” with testimony from Gabriel Escobar, deputy assistant secretary, State Department Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/stability-and-security-in-the-western-balkans
2 p.m. — Foundation for Defense of Democracies virtual and in-person discussion: “: “Iran’s Terror Proxies on Israel’s Borders,” with retired Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, former international spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces; Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research, FDD; Joe Truzman, research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal; and moderated by Enia Krivine, senior director, FDD Israel Program https://www.fdd.org/events/2023/07/18/irans-terror-proxies-on-israels-borders
3 p.m. — Center for a New American Security virtual book discussion: By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy, with author Michael Vickers, former defense undersecretary for intelligence; and former Defense Undersecretary for Policy Michele Flournoy, chairwoman of the CNAS board of directors https://www.cnas.org/events/virtual-book-launch
WEDNESDAY | JULY 19
8:55 a.m. 400 Courthouse Sq., Alexandria, Virginia — Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Veterans Affairs Healthcare Summit with Angela Billups, executive director of the Veterans Affairs Office of Acquisition and Logistics https://www.idga.org/events-veteransaffairshealthcare
9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion: “How can the U.S. counter normalization with Assad in the Middle East,” with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC); and Mohammad Alaa Ghanem, policy chief of the Syrian American Council https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
9 a.m. London, U.K. — International Institute for Strategic Studies virtual discussion: “Russia and the Arctic maritime challenge,” with Michael Petersen, founding director of the U.S. Naval War College’s Russia Maritime Studies Institute; and Rebecca Pincus, director of the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute https://www.iiss.org/events/2023/07/russia-and-the-arctic
9 a.m. — German Marshall Fund of the U.S. virtual discussion: “The Impact of the War in Ukraine on the Political Situation in Belarus: Three Short-Term Scenarios,” with Wojciech Przybylski, editor-in-chief of the Visegrad Insight and president of the Res Publica Foundation; Maryna Rakhlei, senior program officer at the Fund for Belarus Democracy; Artyom Shraibman, founder of Sense Analytics; Katsiaryna Lozka, GMFUS fellow; and Nicolas Bouchet, GMFUS visiting fellow https://www.gmfus.org/event/impact-war-ukraine
9 a.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technology, and Innovation Subcommittee hearing: “Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield,” with testimony from Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI; Klon Kitchen, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Haniyeh Mahmoudian, global AI ethicist for DataRobot https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings/citi-hearing
9 a.m. 5000 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, Virginia — National Defense Industrial Association 2023 JADC2 All Domain Warfare Symposium, with Young Bang, principal deputy assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology. RSVP: [email protected]
9:30 a.m. 2301 Constitution Ave. NW — U.S. Institute of Peace discussion: “Russia in Africa: The Wagner Group, Russia-Africa Summit and Beyond,” with Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies; Amaka Anku, director of the Eurasia Group’s Africa Practice; and Catrina Doxsee, associate director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’s Transnational Threats Project https://www.usip.org/events/russia-africa-wagner-group
11 a.m. House Chamber, U.S. Capitol — U.S. Congress hosts an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog
1 p.m. 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Cato Institute forum: “Thawing a Frozen Conflict: The Korean War Armistice at 70 Years,” with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) https://www.cato.org/events/thawing-frozen-conflict
2 p.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing: “Admissions, Curriculum, and Diversity of Thought at the Military Service Academies,” with testimony from Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point; Vice Adm. Sean Buck, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy; and Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings
2 p.m. 310 Cannon — House Homeland Security Committee hearing: “Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America.” https://homeland.house.gov/media-advisory
THURSDAY | JULY 20
10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “The Department of Justice’s Implementation of the Biden Administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy,” with Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite https://www.csis.org/events/department-justices
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE — Heritage Foundation discussion: “Renewing America’s Compacts in the Pacific,” with Joseph Yun, State Department special presidential envoy for compact negotiations https://www.heritage.org/asia/event/renewing-americas-compacts
FRIDAY | JULY 21
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Intelligence and National Security Summit, with Julian Gewirtz, deputy coordinator for China global affairs at the State Department; Rear Adm. Thomas Henderschedt, intelligence director, J2, at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Lt. Gen. Robert “Bob” Ashley Jr., CEO of Ashley Global Leadership and Security and former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, G2, at the Army; Aastha Verma, chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Division; Rachel Grunspan, AI lead for the intelligence community in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Lakshmi Raman, CIA director of artificial intelligence innovation; and Jason Wang, technical director of the National Security Agency’s Computer and Analytic Sciences Research Group; and Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser https://www.insaonline.org/detail-pages/event
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies in-person and virtual event: “Acquisition for Decision Advantage: The Role of the CDAO in Scaling Software Solutions,” with Margie Palmieri, deputy chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Department of Defense; and Cynthia Cook, director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, and senior fellow, International Security Program https://www.csis.org/events/acquisition-decision-advantage
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I hate to say it but I think this is going to go on for a long time. There’s not enough advantage on either side. I don’t think Russia will gain much land, if any, and I think the going is so slow to get across this danger zone, this killing field, that it will take a year or two. Now, of course, there could be breakthroughs … but at the moment, it’s much more balanced than the marketing says.”
Eric Schmidt, former chairman, Defense Innovation Board, on the daunting task facing Ukraine in breaching Russian defenses, speaking on CNN Sunday.
