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‘ANIMAL ASSAD’ WILL PAY: Following President Trump’s Sunday tweet calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, and labeling Syrian president Bashar Assad an “animal” after a chemical weapons attack that killed 40 or more people in Syria, the likelihood of a punitive U.S. strike is high. “Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad,” Trump tweeted yesterday. “Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!” PENTAGON DENIAL: An airstrike was carried out overnight, but not by the U.S. “At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting airstrikes in Syria,” said spokesman Chris Sherwood, who was the duty officer last night. “However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable.” STAY TUNED: The key words in that Pentagon denial are “at this time,” and White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said nothing should be taken “off the table.” The National Security Council is scheduled to meet today. It’s John Bolton’s first day as Trump’s new national security adviser, and the U.N. Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting today. RUSSIA BLAMES ISRAEL: Russia — which claims the graphic video showing the aftermath of the chemical attack Saturday night in a suburb of Damascus is a hoax perpetrated by rebels to provoke Western intervention — said Israel carried out the missile strike on the same Syrian base near Homs it attacked in February after an Iranian drone violated Israeli airspace. “Two F-15 aircraft of Israel’s Air Force delivered a strike with eight guided missiles on Syria’s T-4 airfield, the Russian Defense Ministry said,” according to the Russian News agency Tass. “The Syrian air defenses destroyed five guided missiles. Three missiles reached the western part of the airfield. No Russian advisers are among the casualties.” DEFINING MOMENT: Sen. Lindsey Graham called Trump’s response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria a “defining moment” as commander in chief. “They see our determination to stay in Syria waning. And it’s no accident they used chemical weapons,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But President Trump can reset the table here. To me, I would destroy Assad’s air force. I would create safe zones in Syria where people can come back to their country from the surrounding area and live a better life. Train up Syrians to take on Assad so we can negotiate in Geneva from a position of strength,” Graham said. “If it becomes a tweet without meaning, then he has hurt himself in North Korea. If he doesn’t follow through and live up to that tweet, he’s going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran.” McCAIN BLAMES TRUMP: Sen. John McCain says it was Trump’s loose talk about withdrawing the U.S. military from Syria that gave Assad the green light to unleash chemical agents almost one year to the day after a U.S. cruise missile attack in response to the use of the banned weapons. “President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria,” McCain said in a statement. “Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children, this time in Douma.” NORTH KOREA READY TO DEAL: North Korea’s government has quietly told the U.S. that Kim Jong Un is ready to discuss denuclearization, without specifying what exactly denuclearization means to them. A Trump administration official on Sunday told the AP the U.S. had “confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization with President Trump, while a second official said the confirmation had come through direct contact between American and North Korean officials.” Neither officials would say when or how the contact took place, nor in what location. And there is still no word on whether the Trump-Kim meeting is still expected to come off before the end of next month, nor has there been any indication of exactly where the historic summit would take place. BORDER DEPLOYMENT UNDERWAY: Texas has deployed some 250 National Guard troops to the Mexico border, and the Pentagon says there could be 500 troops there within days, the vanguard of a force that eventually could number as many as 4,000. “National Guard troops are deploying to support border security missions along the U.S. southwest border,” said a joint statement issued by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen late Friday night. “Working closely with the border governors, the Department of Homeland Security identified security vulnerabilities that could be addressed by the National Guard.” Video and photos retweeted on the official account of Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, show a series of meetings between Guard troops and Customs and Border Patrol officials discussing what the reinforcements will be doing. “Always Ready, Always There! Moving up to 500 #NationalGuard troops immediately on the SW border security mission. Vehicles, equipment & helicopters on the way tonight,” Lengyel tweeted. Technically, under the Title 32 duty authority invoked by Mattis, the Guard troops under the command of the states could perform law enforcement activities. But they will not be on the front lines or interact with migrants or other individuals detained by border agents, according to the Pentagon. “We’ve got a leaking boat on our border and we’re all quibbling with how much water’s in the boat and how fast we’re bailing it out. I think at this point the president’s been pretty clear,” Bossert said. “Enough is enough, fix the actual problem and stop that leak.” Meanwhile, Graham said troops are not enough to achieve border security. “[It] makes some sense to send soldiers to the border, but you’re not going to secure a border just by adding National Guard troops. You got to go to the root cause of this.” 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. |
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REPAIRING RELATIONS WITH QATAR: Mattis will welcome Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, emir of Qatar, to the Pentagon at 9 a.m. The emir will be meeting with Trump tomorrow at the White House. High on the agenda is ending the squabbling between Gulf nations that got out of hand last year when Trump sided with Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar, which he accused of financing terrorists. Qatar remains a key ally in the region and is home to U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters at the sprawling Al Udeid air base in Doha. SEA-AIR-SPACE: Today marks the opening of the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition. The three-day event at the Gaylord National Convention Center in Maryland has panels with Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard leaders, as well as 275 exhibits showcasing the latest military technology. Adm. Bill Moran, the vice chief of naval operations, will be giving a keynote at a 12:15 p.m. lunch. A full schedule of events is here. FUTURE OF WAR: Also today New America and Arizona State University will host a full-day conference on the future of war to explore questions of international security and defense. Among the speakers are Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, and Michael Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. A full speaker list and agenda here. TOP IS-K COMMANDER KILLED: U.S. Forces-Afghanistan announced this morning that an airstrike killed senior IS-K commander Qari Hikmatullah along with his bodyguard last week. Hikmatullah was identified as the main facilitator of IS-K fighters into northern Afghanistan, in a U.S. military press release. “IS-K in Jowzjan province is the main conduit for external support and foreign fighters from Central Asian states into Afghanistan. Hikmatullah was the key leader for those operations,” according to the statement, which credited Afghan Special Security Forces and U.S. Special Operations Forces for depleting IS-K of viable leadership options in Jowzjan. “ASSF and U.S. counter-terrorism forces killed Hikmatullah and they will kill any successors,” said Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. “IS-K will be eliminated.” MATTIS, DUNFORD TO TESTIFY: Hearings geared toward the 2019 defense budget are in full swing this week. The House and Senate armed services committees will be looking at the Army budget, cybersecurity, nuclear weapons and the industrial base. Both the House and Senate appropriations committees will also examine missile defense funding. But all eyes will be on the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday morning when Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify about the National Defense Authorization Act. Expect wide-ranging questions from the large committee on issues such as the war in Syria and National Guard troops on the Mexico border. PILOTS IDENTIFIED: The two soldiers from the Army 101st Airborne Division’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade killed Friday night when their AH-64E Apache helicopter crashed at Fort Campbell, Ky., have been identified. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ryan Connolly was an instructor pilot, who joined the U.S. Army in 2001 and arrived at Fort Campbell in 2016. Warrant Officer James Casadona, 28, was a pilot who joined the Army in 2012 and had just arrived at Fort Campbell this year. AVIATION ACCIDENT RISE DOCUMENTED: The Military Times has crunched numbers going back to the beginning of sequestration and plotted a disturbing long-term trend of the rise in aviation accidents over the past five years. “Through a six-month investigation, the Military Times found that accidents involving all of the military’s manned fighter, bomber, helicopter and cargo warplanes rose nearly 40 percent from fiscal years 2013 to 2017. It’s doubled for some aircraft, like the Navy and Marine Corps’ F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets. At least 133 service members were killed in those fiscal year 2013-2017 mishaps,” Military Times reported. CORRELATION AND CAUSATION: The implication of the numbers is that the impact of the mandatory spending caps reduced readiness over time by cutting training hours and increasing maintenance backlogs, and that in turn put pilots and their crews at risk. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry said in a statement, “The readiness of our military is at a crisis point.” But it’s not always easy to draw a straight line from deadly crashes to readiness. When a U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk helicopter pilot hits a power line in a combat zone, is that because of a lack of training? When a pilot of the elite Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team crashes in the desert, is it for a lack of training? What is clear is that when training doesn’t take place on a regular and consistent schedule, proficiency drops and accidents increase. SHANAHAN’S SAFETY MESSAGE: In what Pat Shanahan called a “message to the DoD team,” the deputy defense secretary noted more DoD personnel die from accidents than war. “I begin this month’s message with a sobering statistic: Monday through Thursday every week in our department, we experience a non-combat fatality,” Shanahan wrote. “While we know combat will always carry inherent risks, we must commit to achieving zero non-combat fatalities. Zero is possible when we believe it is possible. Safety is a mindset. This is a collective and individual responsibility, and I ask all hands to help their own.” DAMNED AUTO CORRECT: A correction issued by the Pentagon Press Office Friday: “Please note the correct spelling of the Secretary of Homeland Security is K-I-R-S-T-J-E-N Nielsen.” Could happen to any of us. THE RUNDOWN Business Insider: ‘This is a dangerous period’: Trump is finally calling out Putin by name, and experts are anxiously watching what he’ll do next CNN: Video shows Syrians affected by chemical attack New York Times: Burning Eyes, Foaming Mouths: Years of Suspected Chemical Attacks in Syria Reuters: Iran tells Trump he would regret dropping nuclear deal Defense News: Some (rare) good news for military aviation: Army helicopter accidents on the decline AFP: Loneliness of the long distance runners in North Korea Washington Post: Ronny Jackson, Trump’s pick for Veterans Affairs, may pass up $1 million to join the Cabinet AP: 6 detained amid ‘vague indications’ of attack at Berlin race Stars and Stripes: Air Force moving to address F-35 spare-parts problems The Hill: US conducts successful test to integrate missile-defense systems |
CalendarMONDAY | APRIL 9 7:50 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Future of War Conference 2018 with Gen. James McConville, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. newamerica.org 9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St. Opening day of Sea-Air-Space, the Navy League’s global maritime exposition. seaairspace.org 10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Russian Way of Warfare. csis.org 12:30 p.m. 1777 F St. NW. U.S.-North Korea Relations: Any Progress on Nonproliferation Efforts? A discussion with Victor Cha and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former Joint Chiefs chairman. cfr.org TUESDAY | APRIL 10 7 a.m. 6715 Commerce St. 2018 Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference and Exhibition. ndia.org 9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St. Sea-Air-Space, the Navy League’s global maritime exposition with Adm. Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the Coast Guard. seaairspace.org 9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Posture of the United States Transportation Command with Gen. Darren McDew. armed-services.senate.gov WEDNESDAY | APRIL 11 7:30 a.m. 900 S Omre St. Air Force Association Breakfast Series with Gen. Robin Rand, of Air Force Global Strike Command. afa.org 8 a.m. 2401 M St. NW. Defense Writers Group breakfast with Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. 9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St. Sea-Air-Space, the Navy League’s global maritime exposition with Thomas Modley, Under Secretary of the Navy. seaairspace.org 9:30 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. The UN’s New “Sustaining Peace” Agenda. stimson.org 10 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Hearing on Cyber Operations Today: Preparing for 21st Century Challenges in an Information-Enabled Society. armedservices.house.gov 10 a.m. House 140. Hearing on Fiscal Year 2019 Budget of U.S. Strategic Command with Gen. John Hyten. appropriations.house.gov 10 a.m. Dirksen 192. Subcommittee hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2019 budget request for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency with Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves. appropriations.senate.gov 11 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Book discussion of “Zbigniew Brzezinski: America’s grand strategist” with author Justin Vaïsse. brookings.edu 12 noon. Iran’s Ballistic Missiles: Capabilities, Intentions, and the Evolving Threat (invitation only event). defenddemocracy.org 1:30 p.m. Rayburn 2118. House Armed Services “Member Day.” armedservices.house.gov 1:30 p.m. Discussion on the Defense Department’s new Close Combat Lethality Task Force with Robert Wilkie, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. ausa.org 2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Subcommittee Hearing on North Korea’s Diplomatic Gambit: Will History Repeat Itself? foreignaffairs.house.gov 2:30 p.m. Russell 222. Subcommittee Hearing on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy, Programs, and Strategy with Guy Roberts, Assistant Secretary Of Defense; Robert Soofer, Deputy Assistant Secretary Of Defense; Gen. Robin Rand, Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command; and Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, Director of Navy Strategic Systems Programs. armed-services.senate.gov 2:30 p.m. Russell 232-A. Subcommittee Hearing on the Health of the Department of Defense Industrial Base and its Role in Providing Readiness to the Warfighter with Lt. Gen. Edward Daly, Deputy Commanding General of Army Materiel Command; Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, Commander of Naval Air Systems Command; Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command; Lt. Gen. Lee Levy, Commander of the Sustainment Center at Air Force Materiel Command; and Maj. Gen. Craig Crenshaw, Commanding General of Marine Corps Logistics Command. armed-services.senate.gov 3:30 p.m. Rayburn 2212. A Review and Assessment of the Department of Defense Budget, Strategy, Policy, and Programs for Cyber Operations and U.S. Cyber Command for Fiscal Year 2019 with Adm. Mike Rogers, Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, and Kenneth Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense. armedservices.house.gov 4 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Reflections on US Policy in Syria and Beyond: A Conversation with Amb. Fred Hof. atlanticcouncil.org 5:30 p.m. 1667 K St. NW. Sustaining the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent: The LRSO and GBSD. csbaonline.org 6 p.m. 1777 F St. NW. Historical Perspectives on the Middle East. cfr.org THURSDAY | APRIL 12 9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Posture of the Department of the Army with Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chief of staff. armed-services.senate.gov 10 a.m. Rayburn 2118. The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the Department of Defense with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. armedservices.house.gov 10 a.m. House 140. Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget National Guard and Reserve with Gen. Joseph Lengyel. appropriations.house.gov 10 a.m. Dirksen 419. Nomination hearing for Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State. foreign.senate.gov 1 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Contested Seas: Maritime Challenges in Northern Europe. csis.org 1 p.m. 1777 F St. NW. A Conversation With Gen. Joseph Votel, Commander of U.S. Central Command. cfr.org 1:30 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. America’s Coast Guard: A National Asset for Security and Prosperity with Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft. heritage.org 2 p.m. Rayburn 2212. Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request for Combat Aviation Programs. armedservices.house.gov 3:30 p.m. Rayburn 2118. Subcommittee Hearing on a 355 Ship Navy: Delivering the Right Capabilities with Vice Adm. William Merz, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations; James Geurts, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; and Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command. armedservices.house.gov 6:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. NPC Headliners Book Event: “Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines Are Trained.” press.org FRIDAY | APRIL 13 9 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Subcommittee Hearing on Military Personnel Posture: FY 2019 with Vice Adm. Robert Burke, Chief of Naval Personnel; Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower; Lt. Gen. Michael Rocco, Deputy Marine Corps Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, Army Deputy Chief of Staff. armedservices.house.gov 9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Regaining the Strategic Advantage in an Age of Great Power Competition: A Conversation with Michael Griffin, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. hudson.org 2:30 p.m. 2301 Constitution Ave. NW. Ending Civil Wars: How Can We Succeed with Limited Opportunities? usip.org MONDAY | APRIL 16 9:30 a.m. 900 S Orme St. Mitchell Hour on Allied Aerospace Power: A Conversation with Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff. mitchellaerospacepower.org 1:30 p.m. 2301 Constitution Ave. NW. Hidden Wounds: Trauma and Civilians in the Syrian Conflict. usip.org 4 p.m. 740 15th St. NW. The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War. newamerica.org 7:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. The Kalb Report – Putin’s Trump Card. press.org |
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