BEGGING FOR WAR: U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley is accusing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of “begging for war” with his “abusive use of missiles, and his nuclear threats.” Haley called for a vote by Monday in the Security Council for even more punishing sanctions, to be hammered out in the next few days. “Only the the strongest sanction will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy,” Haley said. Among the options: a ban on oil imports, freezing the assets and barring travel of top North Korean officials, barring the North’s national airline from international airports, and restricting the ability of North Koreans to work outside the country.
Haley rejected as “insulting” a Chinese and Russian proposal to suspend joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises in return for the North suspending its nuclear and missile tests. “When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an ICBM pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard. No one would do that. We certainly won’t,” Haley said. “North Korea has basically slapped everyone in the face in the international community that has asked them to stop,” she added. “War is never something the United States wants. We don’t want it now. But our country’s patience is not unlimited.”
MATTIS THREATENS ‘TOTAL ANNIHILATION’: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis still favors a diplomatic resolution to the growing crisis, and tends to cast military options mostly as defensive, aimed at shielding the U.S. and allies South Korea and Japan from any attack. But after meeting with President Trump Saturday, Mattis made a point of saying the president was briefed on all options, which would presumably include a preemptive attack, if it appeared a North Korean weapon posed an imminent threat. “Any threat to the United States or its territories — including Guam — or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming,” Mattis said. “We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country — namely, North Korea. But, as I said, we have many options to do so.”
RUSSIA ON EDGE: Russia’s deputy foreign minister is warning the situation is so fragile on the Korean Peninsula that the slightest error from any of the major parties could lead to war. “There should be no room for escalation,” Sergei Ryabkov told reporters, according to Russia’s state-owned news service Tass. “Those who are smarter and stronger should show restraint,” he said. “Given the current situation, any miscalculation may lead to a political or military outbreak, rather than to a nuclear test like the one recently conducted, which actually reflects the deteriorating situation in Northeast Asia.”
TACTICAL NUKES: North Korea’s detonation of its most powerful nuclear device to date, which it claims was a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, small enough to be mounted atop a missile that could reach the U.S., has South Korea rethinking its nuclear posture. South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said yesterday it was worth considering deployment of U.S. smaller-yield tactical nuclear weapons, which were removed from the peninsula in the 1990s. The latest version of the B-61 nuclear bomb, which can be dropped from F-15s and F-35s, has a variable yield feature that can be dialed down to a scale that could make it a tactical or “battlefield” nuke.
Song is also asking for more U.S. aircraft carriers, submarines and strategic bombers moved closer to the region, and an increased U.S. footprint was also discussed in a phone call between Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday. A White House statement said the two leaders pledged to strengthen joint military capabilities, and committed in principle to deeper joint military cooperation. “The two leaders agreed to maximize pressure on North Korea using all means at their disposal,” the statement said.
ANOTHER ON THE WAY? South Korea’s government said it has seen evidence that North Korea is preparing more missile launches, and may test another intercontinental ballistic missile. Chang Kyung-soo, a South Korean defense ministry official, told parliament: “We have continued to see signs of possibly more ballistic missile launches. We also forecast North Korea could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile,” according to the BBC.
South Korea’s Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported today that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile toward its west coast. The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, according to Reuters.
KNOW YOUR NUKES: The latest North Korean test, which occurred Sunday Korea time, was monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey as having a magnitude equivalent to a 6.3 earthquake. That makes yield in the neighborhood of 100 kilotons, roughly five-to-10 times greater than the last test a year ago. The order of magnitude difference lends credibility to North Korea’s claim to have detonated a thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb. Previous tests seemed to be smaller yield atomic bombs that use fission to create the nuclear blast, while hydrogen bombs use a two-stage process in which a fission reaction is used to trigger a larger fusion explosion. More analysis by the U.S. will likely be able to confirm Sunday’s test was indeed an H-bomb, but what won’t be known is whether the test was of the small warhead that Kim posed with beforehand, or if the test involved a much large device that would not actually fit on a missile.
Good Tuesday 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: Congress is back, and buckle up, it could be a bumpy ride to the end of the month. The Pentagon’s budget is just one of the unresolved issues as lawmakers get back to work. There’s Hurricane Harvey relief, raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a government shutdown with a continuing resolution that will likely fund operations through December.
Republicans are set to meet with Trump at the White House today to discuss tax cuts, and then tomorrow the president meets with congressional leaders of both parties.
RETURN TO REGULAR ORDER: Sen. John McCain is also back after beginning chemo treatment for brain cancer, and trying to use his role as elder statesman to urge his colleagues to break the gridlock. “We lurch from one self-created crisis to another.” McCain wrote in an op-ed last week. “We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to routine duties. Our national political campaigns never stop. We seem convinced that majorities exist to impose their will with few concessions and that minorities exist to prevent the party in power from doing anything important.”
The Armed Services Committee chairman said it’s time for Republicans to compromise with Democrats to boost defense spending, and end the stranglehold of sequestration. “A compromise that raises spending caps for both sides’ priorities is better than the abject failure that has been our achievement to date,” McCain wrote. “We all know spending levels for defense and other urgent priorities have been woefully inadequate for years. But we haven’t found the will to work together to adjust them.”
SECDEF ON THE HILL: Mattis said he will head to Congress tomorrow, following his order to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and amid growing concerns lawmakers are set to punt on the annual defense budget. New Afghanistan expenses and a delayed budget could create hardships for Pentagon finances this fall and Mattis said he will meet with lawmakers on troop numbers and a plan to fund the military beginning in October. “We will work with [Congress]. We’ve already got meetings scheduled to sit down with them and talk with them about the way forward,” Mattis said last week.
Congress appears poised to pass a continuing budget resolution, or CR, at the end of this month instead of an annual defense budget, temporarily locking in current funding levels that do not include the increased operations in Afghanistan. Mattis and the Pentagon may look to request supplemental funding for Afghanistan as part of any CR legislation considered by Congress this month, said Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “If I saw that I could get this [Afghanistan] element funded now, I would want to seize that opportunity,” she said.
SIKORSKY INKS HELO DEAL: Lockheed Martin has netted a $300 million contract to begin producing CH-53K King Stallions, a helicopter that the military claims will revolutionize battlefield logistics. The defense giant’s company Sikorsky will build two of the King Stallions in Connecticut and deliver them to the Marine Corps by 2020 as part of the initial production contract. The CH-53K has three times more lift and more cabin room than its predecessor, the CH-53E Super Stallion, making it more capable of moving cargo, supplies and troops. “We have just successfully launched the production of the most powerful helicopter our nation has ever designed,” said Col. Hank Vanderborght, the program manager at Naval Air Systems Command. The Pentagon plans to eventually buy 200 of the King Stallions.
NEW ANTI-ISIS COMMANDER: In Baghdad today, Army Lt. Gen. Paul Funk assumed command of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve from Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend. Funk comes from Fort Hood, Texas, where he was III Corps and Fort Hood commander.
ISIS CONVOY STRANDED: The U.S. military says it continues to block a convoy of buses carrying Islamic State fighters and their families from moving to an ISIS-held town near the Syrian border with Iraq. The convoy, which initially consisting of 17 buses and other vehicles, has been stalled in the Syrian desert east of Sukhnah, according to a news release from Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve. Last week, the U.S. bombed a road to prevent the buses from continuing eastward, and has been flying air patrols overhead to reinforce the warning that it will not allow the movement of ISIS fighters near the border or onto sovereign Iraqi soil.
The U.S. says the coalition has not bombed the convoy, and has allowed food and water to reach the stranded women and children. “The coalition will continue to take action against ISIS whenever and wherever it is able to do so without harming noncombatants,” officials said. Over the past week, six of the 17 buses have returned westward toward Palmyra, back in Syrian regime territory. The U.S. continues to monitor the remaining 11 buses.
TRUMP’S GENERALS: A year ago, Trump said the nation’s military leaders had been “reduced to rubble,” and were “embarrassing” the country. Now the generals are exerting tremendous influence behind the scenes, and the president seems willing to defer to their judgment, even when it goes against his gut. Granted two of his generals, Mattis, and White House chief of staff John Kelly are retired generals who Trump hand-picked to bring back into government, but their steady hands have drawn praise from even Trump’s sharpest critics. Read more here.
THE PERIPATETIC SENATOR: McCain, who just turned 81, and who is receiving radiation and chemotherapy for brain cancer, shows no signs of slowing his frenetic schedule. Over the weekend he traveled to northern Italy for the Ambrosetti economic and policy forum, along with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Sen. Lindsey Graham. It was the first overseas trip for the six-term senator since his cancer diagnosis.
“I realize that I come to Italy at a time when many are questioning whether America is still committed to remaining engaged in the world, to upholding our traditional alliances, and standing up for the values we share. I also realize — and there is no point in avoiding a little straight talk here — that this doubt has much to do with some of the actions and statements of our president,” McCain said in opening remarks. “It is true that there is a real debate underway now in my country about what kind of role America should play in the world. And frankly, I do not know how this debate will play out. What I do believe, and I do not think I am exaggerating here, is that the future of the world will turn, to a large extent, on how this debate in America is resolved.”
But McCain also sounded a hopeful note: “This is why I have come to this forum: to tell you that I believe that Italy, and our other NATO allies and European partners, can still count on America.”
THE RUNDOWN
War on the Rocks: Welcome to the H-Bomb Club, North Korea
Reuters: United Tech to buy Rockwell Collins for $30 billion, combine aerospace operations
Wall Street Journal: Pentagon Faces Delays in Shift Away From Russian Rocket Engines
Wall Street Journal: Mosul emerges from Islamic State, one business at a time
New York Times: Allies for 67 years, U.S. and South Korea split over North Korea
Navy Times: Lawmakers to grill Navy officials over fatal mishaps
Military.com: South Korea ready to complete THAAD missile deployment
Task and Purpose: U.S.-led coalition takes Raqqa’s Great Mosque away from ISIS
Foreign Policy: Iran, Turkey and Russia aren’t natural friends. It’s up to the U.S. to keep it that way.
Daily Beast: States of mind: Photographs of North Korea by Carl De Keyzer
Calendar
TUESDAY | SEPT. 5
9:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Republic of Korea and U.S. strategic forum 2017: Now and the future of the alliance with Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, Rep. Stephanie Murphy and Mark Lippert, former U.S. ambassador to Korea. csis.org
10:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. A discussion on BRAC and responsibly adjusting DoD’s infrastructure to meet current and future needs with Lucian Niemeyer, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. heritage.org
11 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Online event on considerations of U.S. policy toward Iran with Ambassador Nikki Haley. aei.org
WEDNESDAY | SEPT. 6
7 a.m. 1250 S. Hayes St. Defense News conference on defining the military agenda with Rep. Mac Thornberry, Rep. Kay Granger, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer, and DoD Comptroller David Norquist. defensenews.com
8:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. How to organize military space with Rep. Mike Rogers and former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. csis.org
10 a.m. 529 14th St. NW. Headliners newsmaker: CIA analysis of Soviet navy. press.org
10:30 a.m. 419 Dirksen. Priorities and challenges in the U.S.-Turkey relationship. foreign.senate.gov
2 p.m. 124 Dirksen. Subcommittee markup of the Fiscal Year 2018 state and foreign operations appropriations bill. appropriations.senate.gov
3 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Launch of the State Department reform report with Rep. Ed Royce. atlanticcouncil.org
THURSDAY | SEPT. 7
9:30 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Asia’s reckoning: China, Japan, and the fate of U.S. power in the Pacific century. wilsoncenter.org
10 a.m. 2172 Rayburn. The Fiscal Year 2018 budget for maintaining U.S. influence in South Asia with Alice G. Wells, acting assistant secretary of state. foreignaffairs.house.gov
10:30 a.m. 106 Dirksen. Full committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2018 state and foreign operations appropriations bill. appropriations.senate.gov
2 p.m. Rayburn 2118. Navy readiness and the underlying problems associated with the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain with John H. Pendleton, director of defense force structure and readiness issues at the Government Accountability Office, and Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, commander of Naval Surface Forces. armedservices.house.gov
2 p.m. 2172 Rayburn. The Fiscal Year 2018 budget of the State Department’s counterterrorism bureau with Nathan Alexander Sales, the department coordinator for counterterrorism. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2 p.m. House Visitor Center 210. The challenges of recruiting and retaining a cybersecurity workforce. homeland.house.gov
2 p.m. House Visitor Center 210. Subcommittee hearing on the challenges of recruiting and retaining a cybersecurity workforce. homeland.house.gov
FRIDAY | SEPT. 8
10:30 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. National security imperative of addressing foreign cyber interference in U.S. elections. brookings.edu
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The current state of Islamist terrorism 16 years after 9/11. heritage.org
3:30 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A world history of the Cold War with author Odd Arne Westad. wilsoncenter.org
MONDAY | SEPT. 11
1 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. A group of 9/11 family members and technical experts call on Congress to launch new World Trade Center investigation. press.org
TUESDAY | SEPT. 12
7:15 a.m. 1700 Army Navy Dr. Washington, D.C. chapter defense leaders forum with Gen. Glenn Walters, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. ndia.org
5:30 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. How cyber, robots and space weapons change the rules for war with John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general. aei.org
