MAKING GOOD ON A THREAT: The Pentagon announced late yesterday it is suspending all “deliveries and activities” associated with Turkey’s acquisition of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters unless and until the NATO ally reverses its decision to buy an advanced Russian air defense system that the United States says would compromise the F-35’s advanced stealth features.
U.S. officials have been warning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for more than a year that purchasing S-400 anti-aircraft missiles would force the United States to end Turkey’s participation in the program.
Officials say the S-400s are not only incompatible with NATO systems, but operating the F-35 alongside an advanced Russian system designed to shoot it down would be tantamount to handing over classified F-35 flight profile information to the Russians.
The United States has offered to sell Turkey Patriot missiles instead, but Erdogan favors the Russian missiles, which are cheaper and come with a co-production agreement that would help Turkey expand its defense manufacturing base.
IT’S COMPLICATED: Turkey is not just a customer of the F-35, it’s one of eight national partners that help build the jet, producing parts of the fuselage and cockpit. Last year, then-defense secretary Jim Mattis warned dropping Turkey from the program would delay production of F-35s, as other sources of those key parts would have to be brought online.
But the Pentagon says it’s now developing “secondary sources of supply” for roughly 100 Turkish-produced parts and has initiated steps to ensure “prudent program planning and resiliency of the F-35 supply chain.”
“We very much regret the current situation facing our F-35 partnership with Turkey, and the DoD is taking prudent steps to protect the shared investments made in our critical technology,” acting chief Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers said in a statement yesterday. “Our important dialogue on this matter will continue, however, until they forgo delivery of the S-400, the United States has suspended deliveries and activities associated with the stand-up of Turkey’s F-35 operational capability.”
TWO TURKISH F-35s AT LUKE AFB: Technically, Turkey has already bought and received its first two F-35As, which are at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where Turkish pilots are being trained to fly them. But the planes will remain in the United States unless Turkey cancels the S-400 deal, the Pentagon says.
“Should Turkey procure the S-400, their continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk,” Summers said yesterday.
RELATIONS AT A LOW POINT: The issue is coming to a head just as NATO foreign ministers are gathering in Washington to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the transatlantic alliance. Among those ministers is Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu, who just last week insisted that the agreement to buy the S-400 was “a done deal,” after he met with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
The imbroglio comes as the United States also remains at loggerheads with Turkey over establishment of a safe zone in northern Syria to ensure U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters are not attacked by Turkish troops after America withdraws the bulk of its forces from Syria. And as President Erdogan’s ruling party has suffered a setback in local elections, losing control of the capital Ankara and trailing in the race for Istanbul’s mayor.
NATO SEC-GEN: ‘ALLIES DISAGREE ON MANY ISSUES’: NATO is an alliance that operates on consensus, but before leaving Brussels for Washington yesterday, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it’s clear that the 29 member nations have many differing opinions. “We see serious disagreements on issues like trade, energy, climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, and also on other issues,” he said. “The strength of NATO is that despite these differences we have always been able to unite around our core task, and that is to protect and defend each other.”
Stoltenberg meets today with President Trump at the White House, where he expects Trump’s favorite topic, “burden sharing,” will come up. “I expect that the message from President Trump will be that the United States is committed to NATO, that NATO is important for our shared security, but at the same time, that we need fairer sharing of the burden,” Stoltenberg said. “This has been a very consistent message from President Trump … and my message will be that I agree.”
Good Tuesday 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 Kelly Jane Torrance (@kjtorrance). 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 NATO ministers arrive in Washington, they may want to keep an eye on Capitol Hill, where the next Supreme NATO Commander is testifying at his Senate confirmation hearing at 9:30 a.m. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters has been tapped to be both the U.S. European Command head and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. He appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning alongside Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, who has been nominated to lead U.S. Africa Command.
ALSO TODAY: Army Secretary Mark Esper, Army Chief Gen. Mark Milley, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, and Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein testify before the House Armed Services Committee this morning. Then Wilson and Goldfein have an encore performance before the House Appropriations Committee this afternoon.
NATO’S BIG WEEK: All the NATO foreign ministers have been invited to attend a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow in which Stoltenberg will deliver a speech on behalf of the 29 allies. Then tomorrow night, they gather in the Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue, where the original 12 members signed the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949.
“This will be an opportunity to celebrate seven decades of peace and prosperity for our nations. And it will be an opportunity to look to the future together,” Stoltenberg said yesterday.
NORTH KOREA WATCH: Put August 1 on your Korea countdown calendar. The North Korea monitoring site Beyond Parallel says based on its analysis of past practice, “North Korea will engage in provocative acts on average within five months of the breakdown of bilateral diplomacy with the United States.”
“North Korea has retreated into a shell and been unresponsive to entreaties to continue working-level talks,” notes the site, and with that in mind, Beyond Parallel says it is tracking activity at the Yongbyon nuclear complex through commercially available imagery.
“Commercial satellite images of North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Research Facility acquired on March 28, 2019 show that normal operations are ongoing with a low level of activity throughout the complex,” it finds. You can see the overhead pictures here.
MINIMUM ‘MAX’ PRESSURE: Over at Heritage, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA Korea deputy division chief, writes that the Trump administration is undercutting its own “maximum pressure” strategy on North Korea and making it “harder for Washington to induce other nations to fully implement U.N. sanctions.”
“President Donald Trump has overturned the Treasury Department’s plans to impose sanctions against an unspecified large-scale’ number of North Korean entities violating U.S. laws,” says Klingner. “The Trump administration, like its predecessors, has talked tough about imposing pressure on North Korea but instead engaged in timid incrementalism in upholding U.S. laws.”
BUILDING UP, NOT SCALING BACK: Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan repeated the Pentagon’s claim that despite the cancellation of two longtime annual spring joint military exercises with South Korea, the level of training is actually increasing. Shanahan was speaking to reporters at the Pentagon before meeting with Korean defense minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, along with U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Robert Abrams.
“I don’t think we’re scaling back exercises. I think we’re building capability up,” Shanahan said. “That’s why we have Gen. Abrams here. He’s a master of readiness.”
Abrams told Congress last week that there have been more than 80 combined field training exercises with South Korean military forces since he took over four months ago. “The biggest difference is that we just don’t talk about it publicly.”
Another thing Abrams said is that it does not appear North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is taking any significant steps to give up his nuclear arsenal. “Their activity that we have observed is inconsistent with denuclearization,” he testified before the House Armed Services Committee.
Yesterday, reporters asked if Shanahan had anything to say about that, and he deferred to Abrams. “Gen. Abrams is here. He can talk for himself,” Shanahan said. “Do you have any comments about your comments?” he said, turning to Abrams. The general declined, according to a pool report.
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Afghan VP warlord who fought with US forces and CIA after 9/11 survives another assassination attempt
Washington Examiner: White House staffer says dozens of security clearance denials overturned during Trump administration
CNN: WH Official: ‘Anyone’s guess’ whether Trump will close border
AP: Simmering South China Sea heats up
Washington Times: Russian Fleet On Alert As NATO Warships Deploy To Black Sea For Drills
Stars and Stripes: NATO Approves Spending At U.S. Forces Support Site In Poland, Eyes Expanded Presence In Black Sea
New York Times: A Political Quake in Turkey as Erdogan’s Party Loses in His Home Base of Support
USNI News: Officials: Chinese Economic Charm Offensive Losing Steam
Military.com: Army to Kill Marksmanship Test Shortcut that Made Soldiers Less Deadly
Seattle Times: Former ambassador to Afghanistan shares strategy to combat extremism
Defense News: 99 House lawmakers push for more F-35s
Air Force Magazine: F-22 Fleet Holds Record-Breaking Elephant Walk in Alaska
The Diplomat: After U.S. Missile Defense Salvo Test Against ICBM, China Warns of Proceeding ‘Carefully’
Army Times: Alaska soldier killed in live-fire training accident
Calendar
TUESDAY | APRIL 2
9 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave N.W. Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies host a conference: “The Future of Statecraft.” Keynote by former national security adviser Susan Rice. Panel discussions all day examine the future of great power cooperation, international institutions, and economic statecraft. www.csis.org/events
9:30 a.m. SD-G50 Dirksen. Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Gen. Tod Wolters to be commander, U.S. European Command, and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and Gen. Stephen Townsend to be commander, U.S. Africa Command. www.armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. Army Secretary Mark Esper, Army Chief Gen. Mark Milley, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, and Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein testify before the House Armed Services Committee on their respective FY 2020 budgets. armedservices.house.gov/hearings
10 a.m. Pentagon River Entrance. Acting Defense Secretary Parick Shanahan welcomes Mongolian defense minister Nyamaagiin Enkhbold to the Pentagon. www.defense.gov
12 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave N.W. Hudson Institute event: “Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technology: Implications for U.S. National Security.” Speakers: Nadia Carlsten, Department of Homeland Security; Arthur Herman, Hudson Institute; Elsa Kania, Center for New American Security; John Kelly, president, Florida Atlantic University; Aaron VanDevender, chief scientist, Founders Fund. Register here.
2 p.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee on the role of the commander in sexual assault prosecutions. Witnesses: Army Judge Advocate General Lt. Gen. Charles Pede, Navy Judge Advocate General Vice Adm. John Hannink, Air Force Judge Advocate General Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Rockwell, and Marine Corps Staff Judge Advocate Maj. Gen. Daniel Lecce. Live streamed at www.defense.gov.
3 p.m. 232-A Russell. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland hearing on Army modernization. Witnesses: Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff; Lt. Gen. James Richardson, deputy commander, Army Futures Command; and Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics, and technology. www.armed-services.senate.gov
3 p.m. H-140 Capitol. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein testify on the FY 2020 budget. appropriations.house.gov
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 3
1:45 p.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. Witnesses: Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security; Gen. John Raymond, Air Force Space Commander; Christina Chaplain, Government Accountability Office. armedservices.house.gov
2:30 p.m. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities on countering weapons of mass destruction. Witnesses: Guy Roberts, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs; Theresa Whelan, under secretary of defense for policy; Vice Adm. Timothy Szymanski, deputy U.S. Special Operations commander; and Vayl Oxford, director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. armedservices.house.gov
2:30 p.m. SR-232A Russell. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower hearing on Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Programs. Witnesses: Vice Adm. Michael Moran, principal military deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition; Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, deputy commandant for aviation, headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps; Rear Adm. Scott Conn, director, air warfare, office of the Chief of Naval Operations. www.armed-services.senate.gov
2:30 p.m. SR-222 Russell. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on Missile Defense Policies and Programs. Witnesses: John Rood, under secretary of defense for policy; Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander, U.S. Northern Command; Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director, Missile Defense Agency; Lt. Gen. James Dickinson, commander, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. www.armed-services.senate.gov
THURSDAY | APRIL 4
8 a.m. 1030 15th Street, N.W. The Atlantic Council’s “Conversation on Water Security in Asia and the Implications for the Continent’s Peace and Security,” featuring remarks by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Open to open to the public and press. Register at www.atlanticcouncil.org.
9:30 a.m. SD-G50 Dirksen. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on posture of the Department of the Air Force. Witnesses: Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. www.armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. Witnesses: Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 Program Executive Officer; Rear Adm. Scott Conn, office of the chief of naval operations; Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation; Lt. Gen. David Berger, Marine Corps Combat Development Command; Daniel Nega, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition – air; and Jimmy Smith, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition – expeditionary programs and logistics management. armedservices.house.gov
10:30 a.m. 2212 Rayburn House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness hearing on “Mismanaged Military Family Housing Programs.” Witnesses: Thomas Modly, under secretary of the Navy; Robert McMahon, assistant secretary of defense for sustainment; John Henderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment, and energy; and Alex Beehler, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and environment. armedservices.house.gov
12 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Hudson Institute event: “Making Military Cloud a Success: Critical Next Steps for DoD’s IT Strategy.” Speakers: Fred Schneider, professor, Cornell University, and founding chairman, National Academies Forum on Cyber Resilience; William Schneider, senior fellow, Hudson Institute; and Arthur Herman, senior fellow and director, Quantum Alliance Initiative, Hudson Institute. www.hudson.org/events
TUESDAY | APRIL 9
9 a.m. 1152 15th Street N.W. Center for a New American Security briefing on “NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting and 70th Anniversary of the Alliance.” www.cnas.org/events
11:45 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. Hudson Institute event: “Risks and Opportunities of Emerging Technologies: A Conversation with Congressman Mike McCaul,” ranking Republican, House Foreign Affairs Committee. www.hudson.org.
TBA: President Trump welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sissi to the White House.
THURSDAY | APRIL 11
9:00 a.m. 1667 K Street N.W. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments releases a report, “An Air Force for an Era of Great Power Competition,” which recommends creating a future aircraft inventory that would be more lethal and better able to operate in future contested and highly contested environments compared with today’s force. Experts include: Mark Gunzinger, Carl Rehberg, Jacob Cohn, Timothy Walton, Lukas Autenried. Register at www.csbaonline.org.
10:30 a.m. United States Naval Academy. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., delivers keynote address at a “National Discussion on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at America’s Colleges, Universities, and Service Academies.” Hosted by the secretaries of the Navy, Army, and Air Force. www.usna.edu
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“As long as I am younger than the NATO alliance, I feel young. So it will remain like that for a long time.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking in Brussels as NATO prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary.
