CHIEFS UNDER QUARANTINE: Two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have had a brush with the coronavirus and are exercising an abundance of caution until they are declared virus-free.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday, who was absent from a Saturday meeting of the chiefs at the White House, was revealed to be self-isolating after possible exposure to an infected relative.
“The CNO, Admiral Gilday, had contact with a COVID-positive family member and, although testing negative, will be quarantining this week,” the Pentagon said in a statement late yesterday.
In addition, Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, initially tested positive, but a second test suggested it may have been a false positive. “Lengyel tested positive for COVID Saturday afternoon, but a subsequent test Saturday was negative,” said the Pentagon statement. “He will undergo a third test on Monday morning to confirm his negative status.”
Lengyel also did not attend Saturday’s White House meeting.
PENCE NOT ISOLATING: Meanwhile, a spokesman for Vice President Mike Pence denied a report that he was quarantining in his home at the U.S. Naval Observatory after his spokeswoman Katie Miller tested positive for COVID-19 Friday.
“Vice President Pence will continue to follow the advice of the White House Medical Unit and is not in quarantine,” Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said in response to the reports. “Additionally, Vice President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House [Monday].”
RELATED:
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EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY: Pence also skipped the Saturday meeting, which included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the top uniformed military leaders, but not Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
The official White House photo of the meeting shows President Trump flanked by the Joint Chiefs, with Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to his right and Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten to his left.
No one in the room wore a mask or face cover, and the chairs crowded around the table appeared to be at most two or three feet apart.
During a visit to the U.S. Northern Command last week, Esper stressed the importance of face coverings in enclosed spaces. “So here, you know, in the open air, it’s not as essential. In a room, we’re wearing masks. We flew out here today: Everybody on my team was wearing — and myself — we were wearing face coverings.”
‘FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH’: The Navy’s top admiral may be in a precautionary lockdown, but that didn’t stop him from tweeting a message of U.S. Naval superiority over the weekend.
“#ICYMI – the @USNavy has 6 carriers underway right now. Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Nimitz, Lincoln, and Ford all operating where ships belong … at sea,” Gilday tweeted on his official account. “We are a #ForcetobeReckonedWith.”
With the USS Harry S.Truman being kept at sea so it is not contaminated by COVID-19 and the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, heading out for sea trials, the U.S. Navy has six of its 11 carriers at sea.
Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by David Sivak and Tyler Van Dyke. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. 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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19 IRANIAN SAILORS ‘MARTYRED’: Iran’s Fars News Agency is reporting that 19 people were killed and 15 wounded when an anti-ship missile hit a Navy support vessel in a training accident in the Gulf of Oman.
The anti-ship missile was reportedly fired from an Iranian frigate and hit the support vessel Konarak off the southern coast of Iran near the port of Jask.
“The Navy’s public relations declared in a statement that 19 Navy personnel have been martyred and 15 injured, adding that rescue teams were quickly deployed to the site where they evacuated the wounded,” said Fars. “The Navy said the vessel has been towed to the port for further investigations.”
The Associated Press reported the Konarak had been putting targets out for other ships and was too close.
The deadly accident comes four months after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane with two missiles, killing 176 on board, and as the country grapples with a massive coronavirus epidemic.
BLISTERING CRITIQUE: Writing in the National Interest, Former Navy Secretary Jim Webb was sharply critical of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s plan to reshape the Marine Corps to fight a future war with China.
“If authorized, appropriated and put into place, this plan would eliminate many of the Marine Corps’ key capabilities. It could permanently reduce the long-standing mission of global readiness that for more than a century has been the essential reason for its existence as a separate service. Its long-term impact would undo the value of the Marine Corps as the one-stop guarantor of a homogeneous tactical readiness that can ‘go anywhere, fight anybody, and win,’” argues Webb, a highly decorated Marine Corps officer who served in Vietnam as a rifle platoon and company commander. “And after the centuries it took to establish the Marine Corps as a fully separate military service, it could reduce its present role by making it again subordinate to the funding and operational requirements of the Navy.”
“History tells us that in the future there will be other engagements in other places, sometimes littoral, sometimes not. If so, the Marine Corps that will be called upon to respond will be bringing with them only the weapon systems, logistics, technologies and people that our top leaders are now deciding to fund and to build and to train.”
NOT THE LAST WORD: In an interview with NPR that aired Friday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley took issue with a memo from the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command that said that individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 would be “permanently disqualified” from enlisting, even if they recovered.
Milley says the memo, which was first reported by Military Times, was just a draft and “got out there by accident, as sometimes documents do.”
“That has not been approved,” he said. “It hasn’t been rigorously thought out and reviewed by the service secretaries, the chiefs, or the secretary of defense.”
“We’ll have to, with the doctors, take a very, very hard look at the medical standards of recruits and how COVID, or if you’ve been infected by COVID — how that applies,” he added.
A later revision of the guidance said the ban would only apply to recruits who were hospitalized for COVID-19.
INDUSTRY WATCH: The State Department has approved the potential sale of 60 AIM-120C-7/C-8 AMRAAM-ER missiles made by Raytheon to NATO ally Hungary. The sale would be worth an estimated $230 million, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: DOD says no demand for test kits while states and military lag far behind in testing
Washington Examiner: With case dropped, Michael Flynn could get security clearance back
Washington Examiner: China adopts Russian dezinformatsiya tactics to undermine US
New York Times: U.S. to Accuse China of Trying to Hack Vaccine Data, as Virus Redirects Cyberattacks
Washington Examiner: Protesters and police killed in Afghanistan clashes over food aid during coronavirus pandemic
Washington Post: ISIS exploits Iraq’s coronavirus lockdown to step up attacks
Reuters: China’s Wuhan Reports First Coronavirus Cluster Since Lifting Of Lockdown
Wall Street Journal: South Korea’s Early Coronavirus Wins Dim After Rash of New Cases
Task & Purpose: Iraq puts US-supported general in charge of elite counter-terrorism force
Washington Post: Venezuela raid: How an ex-Green Beret and a defecting general planned to capture Maduro
Military Times: Military Families Caught In COVID-19 Financial Straits Could See Relief Under This Proposal
USNI News: U.S. Sends Warships on Patrol Near South China Sea Standoff
The Economist: America And Britain Play Cold-War Games With Russia In The Arctic
Bloomberg: F-35’s Image as $428 Billion Bundle of Flaws Improved by Fixes
Seapower Magazine: Submarine USS Boise Set For Long-Delayed Overhaul
Military.com: Pandemic Delays Industry Day for Marine Corps Light Armored Vehicle Replacement
Military.com: Marines Hire Falconer To Thwart Seagulls That Are Hazing Recruits At Boot Camp
Calendar
NOTE: Most events in Washington have been moved online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Pentagon has been conducting frequent daily briefings, which are often announced after 9 a.m. Check https://www.defense.gov for updates to the Pentagon’s schedule.
MONDAY | MAY 11
12 p.m. — Atlantic Council webinar: “United States’ Withdrawal from Iran Nuclear Deal Two Years On: Assessing Policy Outcomes of ‘Maximum Pressure’ and a Look Ahead,” with former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, fellow at the Atlantic Council; and David Mortlock, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. https://atlanticcouncil.org/event
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute webcast: “Dialogues on American Foreign Policy and World Affairs: Discussing the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security,” with Walter Russell Mead, fellow in strategy and statesmanship at Hudson; and Jake Sullivan, former director of policy planning at the State Department and adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden. https://www.hudson.org/events
1 p.m. — Government Executive Media Group webcast: “Digital Defense: How Identity Management Supports Secure, Agile Mission Delivery,” with Air Force CTO Jason Howe; Michael McDonnell, senior cloud architect at CDO Technologies; Andrew Whelchel, principal solutions engineer at Okta; and Sam Jackson, senior content producer at Government Executive. https://www.govexec.com/feature/digital-defense
TUESDAY I MAY 12
11 a.m. — Woodrow Wilson Center Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies webcast: “Russian Independent Media During the Coronavirus Pandemic,” with Roman Badanin, founder and editor-in-chief at The Project (Proekt); Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of TV Rain (Dozhd); Galina Timchenko, CEO of Meduza; Grigory Yudin, professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences; and Sergey Parkhomenko, senior adviser and journalist at “Echo of Moscow” Radio and former editor-in-chief of Itogi, Vokrug Sveta. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/webcast
11:15 a.m. — The Asia Society Northern California webcast on efforts to achieve stability in Afghanistan and the prospects for lasting peace, with former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. https://asiasociety.org/northern-california/events
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute webcast: “Maximum Pressure on the Assad Regime for its Chemical Weapons Use and Other Atrocities,” with Thomas DiNanno, deputy assistant secretary of State for defense policy, emerging threats and outreach; James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS at the State Department; David Asher, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute; and Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. https://www.hudson.org/events
5 p.m. — George Mason University National Security Institute “NatSec Nightcap” event with Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas; and Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute. https://nationalsecurity.gmu.edu
5:30 p.m. — Institute of World Politics webinar: “How Might the Coronavirus Pandemic Influence U.S.-China Relations?” with Ali Wyne, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. https://www.iwp.edu/events
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “So here, you know, in the open air, it’s not as essential. In a room, we’re wearing masks. We flew out here today: everybody on my team was wearing — and myself — we were wearing face coverings.” Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaking to reporters during a visit to the U.S. Northern Command last week, on the importance of face coverings.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“So here, you know, in the open air, it’s not as essential. In a room, we’re wearing masks. We flew out here today: Everybody on my team was wearing — and myself — we were wearing face coverings.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaking to reporters during a visit to the U.S. Northern Command last week on the importance of face coverings.
