Presented by
With Paul McLeary
IMPORTANT PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Defense will cease daily publication on July 19 for those who do not subscribe to POLITICO Pro. To better serve our readers as well as our POLITICO Pro subscribers, we are creating a new free daily newsletter named "National Security Daily" that will take the place of Morning Defense. Learn more here.
Quick Fix
— Several hundred troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide diplomatic security following the U.S. withdrawal.
— A trio of senators is holding up confirmation of the pick to be the Air Force’s top civilian.
— House appropriators consider boosting the Pentagon’s request for military construction by $1 billion.
HAPPY FRIDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE. We're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected] and follow on Twitter @connorobriennh, @morningdefense and @politicopro.
Afghanistan
SOME TROOPS TO STAY: About 650 U.S. troops are slated to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats following the completion of the withdrawal of the main forces, The Associated Press reports.
"In addition, several hundred additional American forces will remain at the Kabul airport, potentially until September, to assist Turkish troops providing security, as a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation is in place, the officials said.
“Overall, officials said the U.S. expects to have American and coalition military command, its leadership and most troops out by July Fourth, or shortly after that, meeting an aspirational deadline that commanders developed months ago."
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden meets today with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the chair of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, at the White House. The Afghan leaders will also meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.
Evacuating Afghans: The White House and Pentagon intend to evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters and their families to a third country as they await U.S. visa processing, POLITICO's Paul McLeary, Betsy Woodruff Swan and Nahal Toosi report.
The issue of Afghan interpreters and translators who worked side by side with U.S. troops has become a major sticking point in the rush to move thousands of American troops and tons of equipment out of the country by September, an effort that's more than 50 percent complete.
The plan, first reported by The New York Times, is to use the Special Immigrant Visa category to process the interpreters once they’re moved to a third country, likely to happen in August. Some of the interpreters have languished in government bureaucracy for years and are still waiting to receive their visas. The U.S. government has identified a group of these applicants already in the SIV pipeline for lift out of the country.
Related: A 'Saigon moment': Biden feels political heat as chaos looms in Afghanistan, via POLITICO's Nahal Toosi and Andrew Desiderio.
On the Hill
AIR FORCE PICK JAMMED UP: A trio of senators is holding up the confirmation of Frank Kendall, Biden's pick to be Air Force secretary, Inside Defense reports.
Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Gary Peters — both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — and Republican Mike Lee have placed procedural holds on Kendall. Warren is seeking additional ethics pledges from Kendall, a former Raytheon employee who has done consulting work with defense companies and sits on the board of directors of Leidos. At the same time, Peters opposes the Air Force's decision to pass over Michigan's Selfridge Air National Guard Base as the location for a new international training center for the F-35 fighter.
Flashback: At a budget hearing this month, Warren warned Austin that she'd oppose nominees who don't make similar commitments that the defense chief made during his confirmation process, though she didn't name any concerning nominees then. Kendall had already cleared the committee by then.
Austin, a former Raytheon board member, agreed to extend his recusal for four years, well past the one-year requirement. He also said he won't seek employment as a lobbyist or with a contractor after leaving the Pentagon.
Austin stopped short of endorsing those commitments for others, saying he had no concerns about any nominees' ethics.
MILCON BOOST: House appropriators are set to consider legislation this morning that would hike spending on military construction projects by more than $1 billion above the administration's budget request.
The House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations panel marks up its annual spending bill at 9 a.m. The full Appropriations Committee takes up the bill next week.
The highlights: The bill would dedicate $10.9 billion to the Pentagon for construction, family housing and other facilities needs. That's up from the $9.9 billion the Pentagon requested in its budget and up $2.9 billion from the current year.
The measure carves out $100 million for military climate change and resiliency projects, up $86 million from what lawmakers allocated for this year. It would also dedicate $475 million to projects in the Navy's long-term plan to modernize its public shipyards, a boost of $379 million from the current level.
Read up: Text of the MilCon-VA bill
FIRST LOOK — 'WITHOUT DELAY': A pair of lawmakers is putting pressure on congressional leaders to quickly reimburse the National Guard for its monthslong deployment to the U.S. Capitol before the budget shortfall severely impacts training, readiness and maintenance.
Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos and Republican Rep. Steve Womack, both members of the House Appropriations Committee, are organizing a letter to House and Senate leaders in both parties urging them to cover the $521 million cost of the deployment. The pair echoed concerns voiced by uniformed and civilian leaders that, if the shortfall isn't covered in the coming weeks, the Guard won't fully recover its readiness for years.
"We must reimburse them without delay for their months-long mission," Bustos said in a statement to POLITICO about the bipartisan effort.
"When our democracy was under attack, the National Guard swiftly responded to protect the Capitol and preserve our form of self-government," Bustos said. "If we fail to repay them for their courageous efforts, we will be directly impacting our Citizen warriors and hindering our ability to respond to future emergencies."
Pentagon
NO TIME The Army’s budget chief doesn’t like what he sees when it comes to getting full Pentagon funding through Congress by the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Director of the Army budget Maj. Gen. Paul Chamberlain said at an AUSA event Thursday that "we do expect to start fiscal year 2022 under a continuing resolution authority. … The earliest a bill would be enacted is probably December."
With Biden’s first budget delayed and congressional action pushed back, a stopgap funding measure is all but assured to kick off the fiscal year. The military loathes the congressional funding patches, which carry over the prior year’s funding levels and block the services from launching any new programs or ramping up existing ones.
Related: Cotton nominated to run Air Force’s nuclear enterprise at pivotal time, via Air Force Times.
Also: Top US general rejected Trump suggestions military should 'crack skulls' during protests last year, new book claims, via CNN.
Industry Intel
CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER: Word will come on June 30 who’ll win Switzerland's $6.5 billion fighter plane competition, which is pitting the biggest names in combat aircraft against one another to build 30 to 40 new planes, a Swiss military spokesperson confirms. The contract, approved by Swiss voters in September by a 50.1 percent margin, will replace the F-5 Tiger and F/A-18C/D Hornet jets being flown by the Swiss Air Force.
In the running are two American-built planes: Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, along with the Airbus Eurofighter made in Germany, and Dassault’s Rafale fighter, made in France.
Boeing, Lockheed and Dassault are also locked in a competition to provide the same planes to Finland, in an $11 billion contest that also includes the British-made Eurofighter Typhoon and the Swedish Saab Gripen E/F. The government in Helsinki has said it wants to phase out its F-18s between 2025 and 2030, meaning an award should come relatively soon.
Meanwhile, the State Department on Thursday approved a $2.4 billion sale of 12 F-16s to the Philippines, should the Manilla government choose the Lockheed Martin-made aircraft over the Saab Gripen in a competition with big implications for the balance of air power around the South China Sea. Included in the deal are Sidewinder Missiles for $42.4 million, and $120 million worth of air-launched Harpoon missiles.
Speed Read
— Pelosi announces select committee will investigate Jan. 6 attack: POLITICO
— U.S. House committee due to consider sweeping China bill next week: Reuters
— Military sexual assault debate broadens to tackle racial inequities: Roll Call
— U.S. may rethink Iran approach if no deal in foreseeable future: Reuters
— Naval Academy identifies midshipman who died on leave: Navy Times
"some" - Google News
June 25, 2021 at 09:00PM
https://ift.tt/3jeqLkI
Some troops to stay in Afghanistan after pullout - Politico
"some" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37fuoxP
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Some troops to stay in Afghanistan after pullout - Politico"
Post a Comment