U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III delivers the keynote address. Topics included Russia and Ukraine, the alliance with Israel and protecting civilians, strengthening alliances, among others. (Breaking Defense/Brendon Smith)
REAGAN NATIONAL DEFENSE FORUM — The US military’s top civilian came to a meeting of US defense leaders and members of Congress in Simi Valley with a message: The country is at an inflection point, and lawmakers need to come together to pass spending bills for America’s military and legislation with billions in aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“We’re living through challenging times. That includes the major conflicts facing our fellow democracies, Israel and Ukraine; bullying and coercion from an increasingly assertive China; and a worldwide battle between democracy and autocracy,” Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said today.
“From Putin to China, from Hamas to Iran, our rivals and foes want to divide and weaken the United States — and to split us off from our allies and partners,” he later added. “So at this hinge in history, America must not waver.”
Austin and the chairman of Joint Chiefs, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, separately addressed audiences filled with defense and industry officials, as well as lawmakers attending this weekend’s annual Reagan National Defense Forum. The event comes as Congress has yet to passed the fiscal 2024 defense spending bill, the GOP-led House has not moved on the White House’s $105 billion supplemental budget request, and wars between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas, rage on.
“So while I’ve got you here, let me urge you to pass a full-year appropriation. That’s the single best thing that Congress can do to strengthen our national defense,” Austin said during his keynote.
“You know, our competitors don’t have to operate under continuing resolutions. And doing so erodes both our security and our ability to compete,” he continued. “And I also urge you to pass our urgent supplemental budget request to help fund our national security needs, to stand by our partners in danger, and to invest in our defense industrial base.”
The defense supplemental championed by the Biden administration provides north of $60 billion for Ukraine-related spending, more than $14 billion for Israel and hundreds of millions for other initiatives. It also, Brown said, provides an “opportunity,” not just for Kyiv and Jerusalem but also for the US, since the spending package “goes back into our defense industrial base to build up capability not only for allies and partners but also for us.”
Getting a yearly budget done on time in lieu of long-running continuing resolutions, as well as passing the annual National Defense Authorization Act, ensures that “we fight from an advantage, and that we can put the capabilities into the hands of our warfighters much more quickly than we do today,” he added.
Austin: Protecting Civilians Is ‘Strategic Imperative’
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the US has been pulling weapons out of its stockpile to send Jerusalem, while also expediting weapon deliveries the country previously placed.
Pentagon leaders have asserted that there are no constraints on how Israel uses those weapons and that US support for its Middle East ally is unwavering, with Austin calling America’s commitment “ironclad.”
But after reports that approximately 15,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since early October — and the expiration of a short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — Austin spent part of his time on centerstage today drawing an urban combat comparison between the fight against ISIS and Israel’s war.
If “you drive civilians into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” he warned.
“I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative,” Austin said, while also emphasizing that Israel must “prevent violence by settlers in the West Bank.”
As the administration works behind the scenes to minimize Palestinian civilian deaths, some lawmakers have begun calling for more transparency, and possible limits, about Israel’s use of US weapons.
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat on the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations committees, told reporters on Nov. 18 at the Halifax International Security Forum that one option could involve making sure that the federal branch is adhering to laws on the books aimed at monitoring weapon sales.
“My hunch is that you’ll see more reporting and more expectation of clarity about exactly how humanitarian relief is being delivered, and there are conversations about balancing that with military aid reporting,” Coons said, adding that he didn’t expect Congress would pass additional laws creating restrictions.
Such reporting could be triggered by enforcing provisions like the Leahy Law and the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, as well as the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG) established by the Biden administration earlier this year.
While members of Congress disagree to what extent those laws are being applied to Israel, one State Department official told Breaking Defense on Nov. 30 that when it comes to the Leahy Law, which places humanitarian-focused restrictions on US military aid, it applies to all countries including Israel. The State Department is “fully committed to fulfilling its obligation under the law,” the official said.
Regarding proposed arms transfers, including to Israel, the official said they are reviewed on a case-by-case basis consistent with the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy to include assessments of the diplomatic, security, economic, human rights and civilian protection considerations associated with a given sale.
As for CHIRG, which was established as a means for responding to incidents where foreign forces are suspected of using American-made weapons to injure or kill civilians, the official said they could not comment on ongoing or potential internal deliberative processes.
“But, we are constantly monitoring the situation on the ground, including reports of potential civilian harm, and examine facts as they develop,” the State Department official added.
Ukraine Support
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is inching closer to the two-year mark, with questions mounting about allies’ will and ability to continue sending military aid Kyiv’s way. Those questions have grown, as US lawmakers have dawdled on the $105 billion supplemental request since October.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Breaking Defense at the Halifax International Security Forum that he fully expects that package to pass with Ukraine funding. But, it might also need additional dollars to “defend” America’s southern border to garner enough Republican support.
Today, Sen. Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appeared confident that both chambers would pass Biden’s proposed supplemental package, though he said “somewhat peripheral issues” have been thrown into the mix and are delaying the process.
“We’re going to come to the end of the trail and have to get it done, and I think we will,” he said during a panel discussion.
Department of Defense spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told Breaking Defense on November 17 that no funds remain for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), about $1.1 billion is left in direct military and other defense support remaining, and about $4.8 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) funds that previously were “recaptured.”
When it comes to that last pot of money, Sherwood noted that this is only “authority and not funding.”
“It can be used to provide Ukraine defense articles and services from DoD stocks,” he wrote, adding that the $1.1 billion figure is what’s left to buy weapons to replace US stockpiles.
Military ‘Cash Flowing’ In The Middle East
While Austin focused on the importance of a fully funded military, he didn’t specifically broach a narrow but critical question of the potential for increased funding US military operations in the Middle East in the wake of the hostilities in Israel.
The proposed supplemental package, for instance, includes dollars to support Israel’s war against Hamas but not the expanded US military footprint in the region that has included the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. Instead, the Pentagon and Biden administration are working though just how to pay for its enhanced military presence.
“The military departments and US Central Command are currently assessing new requirements that support current and future operations within the [area of responsibility] AOR against previously planned requirements,” Department of Defense spokesperson Cmdr. Tim Gorman told Breaking Defense on Nov. 17 in an emailed response to questions.
However, since lawmakers have not yet passed a FY24 budget and are operating under a continuing resolution, that is actually benefiting US Central Command (CENTCOM) operations.
More specifically, for FY23 CENTCOM received $25.8 billion for operation and activities with plans to have 54,697 military personnel in the region. The administration outlined a plan to strip $4.9 billion from those CENTCOM coffers in its FY24 budget request, only asking for $20.9 billion. That plan, unveiled in March, also included a cut to the military presence in the region and orders to keep 48,461 personnel there.
“Current events have revised some of the operational assumptions used to develop the FY 2024 President’s budget request,” Gorman wrote. “Specifically, neither the base budget request nor the FY 2024 supplemental request included funding for US operations related to Israel.”
Instead, the services are “cash flowing” new CENTCOM requirements from existing accounts with funding provided by the CR. However, Gorman noted that the CR has largely stopped the department from pulling dollars from other coffers and directing them to CENTCOM operations.
In an interview with Breaking Defense today, Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo confirmed that this remains a problem.
