Pentagon Press Briefing on 9/17/24

Marks the three-year anniversary of AUKUS, the historical Trilateral security partnership between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, aimed at bolstering each country’s security and defense interests and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

(00:15)
In the past year, our nations have made significant strides towards ensuring Australia possesses conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine capability. Notably, last month over 30 Royal Australian Navy sailors performed maintenance on the USS Hawaii, a US nuclear-powered submarine, for the first time in Australian waters. And beyond submarines, AUKUS is advancing next-generation technologies, from un-crewed maritime systems to AI-enabled sensing systems, that enhance our ability to detect, decide, and respond to threats more effectively. We in the Department of Defense are excited about the progress that has been made to date regarding AUKUS and we’ll keep you updated on new developments as we move forward.

(01:00)
In shifting gears, Secretary Austin spoke by phone today with his Israeli counterpart to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel to include the Houthi missile attack over the weekend. The Secretary reiterated the need for a ceasefire and hostage deal and the importance of reducing tensions through diplomacy to prevent the potential for a wider regional conflict.

(01:23)
Secretary Austin also spoke by phone today with his Ukrainian counterpart, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, to discuss Ukraine’s battlefield dynamics and security assistance priorities. Minister Umerov provided an update on Ukraine’s operations and capability needs, and the leaders discussed the successful 24th Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting held at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on September 6th. Secretary Austin reaffirmed the US commitment to working with allies and partners to ensure Ukraine has the tools it needs to prevail in its fight against Russian aggression. The two leaders pledged to remain in close contact.

(02:00)
And I’ll conclude with two important items for recognition. This month, the Department of Defense celebrates national Hispanic heritage by recognizing the contributions of Americans who trace their origin or descent to Mexico, Puerto, Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Spanish cultures. As we honor their heritage and contributions, we also recognize the vital impact these teammates have made to the safety and security of our nation.

(02:25)
And finally, on behalf of the Department of Defense, I want to wish the United States Air Force an early happy birthday. Tomorrow, September 18th, the Air Force turns 77 in that 77 years of delivering on our mission and defense of our great nation to fly, fight, win air power anytime, anywhere. So to my fellow airmen, congratulations and happy birthday. And finally, before I close, I want to welcome the Marine cohort from the Defense Information School. I’ve asked them to be here today to help provide backup in case you ask any really tough questions. So with that, we’ll start with AP, Tara.

Thank you. General Ryder, just a little privilege from the podium, a shout-out to the Air Force.

That’s right.

All right.

Holy Poly.

So the pager attack, has the Defense Department reached out at all to Israel? Has Israel let you know at all if they had a role in this attack? And given that this pager attack is exposing a vulnerability, are there any members of the Defense Department still using pagers?

Last question, I don’t think so. In terms of the reports on the attacks, Tara, certainly seen that. I just don’t have anything to provide in that regard. Obviously something that we’re continuing to monitor but don’t have any information to provide.

Separately, there’s been, I think up to 28 different incursions by Russian and Chinese aircraft around Alaska in the last several weeks, an uptick. And just wondering, are you concerned about this? What is going on from your point of view?

Well, as I think you heard my colleague Sabrina mention yesterday, I mean, we’re certainly aware of that. To my knowledge, those aircraft did not enter into US airspace, and it’s not the first time that we’ve seen the Russians and the Chinese flying in the vicinity, and that’s something that we obviously closely monitor. And it’s also something that we’re prepared to respond to. But in this particular case, it did not pose a threat to US national security. And I’d refer you to the Russians in terms of why they feel compelled to want to look at the United States a little bit closer.

But the numbers are certainly on the rise. There’s been many more incursions than over past years.

Yeah. Again, look, I’m not going to speak for the Russians. You know they’ve had an exercise recently. We’ve talked about that. But in terms of why those numbers are what they are, again, I’d refer you to them. Other than to say, again, over the years you see those numbers fluctuate. Something that we’ll continue to keep an eye on, but doesn’t pose a threat from our perspective. Laura.

Thank you. Just following up on the pagers question, does DOD assess that this was an attack by Israel? And do you consider this an escalation of the tensions on the northern border?

(05:13)
Yeah, as far as what it is, again, I just don’t have anything to provide. And as far as escalation, broadly speaking in the Middle East, I mean, this is something that we’ve been paying attention to for more than almost a year now since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th, and so we’ve been very, very focused. The Secretary has been very, very focused on ensuring that the tensions in the region do not escalate into a wider regional conflict. And as I highlighted at the top, that’s something that continues to stay top of mind.

(05:46)
Given the rhetoric just coming from Israel in the last couple of days, does DOD assess that some kind of incursion, invasion by Israel into Lebanon is more likely now, or is imminent?

Well again, as I highlighted, I mean, we strongly believe that the best way to reduce the tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border is through diplomacy and that will continue to be our focus. I know beyond the Department of Defense, the US Government has most recently sent delegations to include Ambassador Hochstein over there to discuss ways to resolve these tensions, and so that will continue to be our focus. As far as any potential Israeli military operations, I’m not tracking anything in terms of ground incursions at the moment, but I’d refer you to the IDF to talk about their operations. Let me go to Carla.

Thank you. Pat. Reaction to Russia’s announcement about trying to scale up to 1.5 million members of their armed forces. What are the concerns of the Pentagon? Is that a realistic possibility? And just in general, has Russia improved or has the war in Ukraine given them a lot of blows as a military writ large?

Yeah. Well, without, again speaking for the Russian Ministry of Defense, I mean, we certainly have to take the rhetoric seriously. I think, and you’ve heard many throughout the US, to include Secretary Austin, talk about the incredible negative impact that Russia’s war in Ukraine has had on the Russian military. I mean, the rates of casualties that they’re experiencing are staggering. The estimate earlier this month that the Secretary provided was over 350,000 casualties. So certainly in that regard, it’s not surprising that the Russians would be looking at ways to augment their force going forward. Whether or not that’s sustainable from an economic standpoint, from a readiness standpoint, those are all good questions, but best addressed by the Russian military itself. Let me go over here, Warren.

Did the pager attack, regardless of who was responsible, come up in the call between Secretary Austin and his Israeli counterpart.

Yeah, I appreciate the question, Warren. I just don’t have anything to provide beyond what I gave you at the top.

When was the call scheduled? Was it scheduled in advance of the attack, or only afterwards?

I don’t provide details on when calls are scheduled or when they happen. I’ve given you information here in terms of the nature of that call, and that’s all I’m going to be able to provide.

Has there been a change to US force posture after the attack?

There’s been no change to US force posture. Tom.

Thank you, General. The supposedly hypersonic missile attack on Israel on Sunday, has the Pentagon come to any assessment about what exactly that projectile was?

What I would tell you, Tom, is that we’ve seen the Houthis employ cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, but we’ve not seen anything to this stage which we would term as a hypersonic missile.

So you categorize it as a cruise missile?

I believe in this case it was a ballistic missile, but …

Okay. And then separately, Prime Minister Al Sudani of Iraq yesterday told Bloomberg that there’s going to be an announcement soon of US troop withdrawals from Iraq. Is there any update you can give us from the podium about the state of those talks, or when we might be able to expect an announcement?

Yeah, I certainly don’t have an announcement to make today and not going to get in the business of providing timelines from the podium here. As we’ve talked about in the past, the United States and Iraq at the most senior levels, from the Prime Minister and the President, have highlighted the fact that we are in discussions to look at how we transition from the global coalition to an enduring US-Iraq bilateral security cooperation relationship. And so, don’t have anything to announce today, but certainly when we do, we’ll make sure to keep you informed. Yes, sir.

Thank you, General. So, Hamas leaders are aiming to open their offices in Baghdad, being protected by Iraqi Hezbollah fighters. How does a strengthened Islamic resistance in Iraq and in the region?

Let me make sure I understand. How does opening a Hamas office affect ISIS?

[inaudible 00:10:09] oo open their offices in Baghdad that are protected by Iraqi Hezbollah fighters? Do you think it’ll escalate the region and further strengthen the Islamic resistance?

What I would say is the commonality here is, the common denominator is Hamas, of course, is a terrorist organization, as is ISIS. I’ll refer you to the Iraqi government to address the issue of Hamas opening up an office in Iraq. Our focus as it relates to our relationship with Iraq and on the regional security situation is on the enduring defeat of ISIS. That’s why we have forces there at the invitation of the government of Iraq to help advise and train Iraqi forces.

(10:57)
But as I just mentioned to your colleague, we’re having those discussions about what the transition looks like, recognizing that ISIS remains a persistent threat broadly speaking, particularly in Syria, and so we’ll continue to stay focused on working with our Iraqi partners to ensure regional security and stability. Oh, by the way, of which Iraq plays a very prominent role in the region in that regard. Thank you. Joseph.

Got one on the Houthis and one on the Lebanon-Israel border. Yesterday, the Houthis said they’ve shot down, I think, three U.S drones over the past week or so, bringing what they claim the total to be 10 since I would think around October. You guys have referred to us to CENTCOM, CENTCOM referred-

Referred you to me.

Sorry?

They referred you to me?

No, they just haven’t had any … they’ve been aware of reporting and that’s about it. So can you confirm anything, any details in terms of the number of drones that have been taken down, if any have been shot down over the last week?

Yeah, what I would tell you, Joseph, broadly speaking for operation security reasons, I’m not going to be able to provide a specific number. I can tell you that that number is not accurate. It’s too high. I will say that we can confirm that yesterday an MQ9 did crash in the vicinity of Yemen. That is being investigated, but I don’t have any additional details to share.

Just a second one. Does the Secretary or this department believe that an Israeli military campaign would help achieve their stated goal of returning displaced Israelis to the northern border?

I’m not going to stand up here and provide an analysis or my perspectives on Israeli operations. We’ve been very clear on several things. One, we support Israel’s right to self-defense. We believe that they face a significant number of threats in the region to include Lebanese Hezbollah who started rocket attacks on October 8th after Hamas attacked. So, we’re committed to ensuring that Israel has what it needs to defend itself. But we also have been very clear that we do not want to see the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalate into a wider regional conflict. And so that continues to be a key focus of this department and the broader US government.

(13:17)
Let me go to the phone here real quick. Phil Stewart, Reuters.

Hey, thank you. Just a couple questions on the Lebanon pager blasts. First of all, was the United States involved in any way in those blasts? Secondly, do you believe that it’s had an impact material impact on Hezbollah and its capabilities? And lastly, do the pager blasts fit into the US goals of de-escalation and seeking a resolution with Lebanon through diplomacy? Thanks.

Yeah, thanks, Phil. Again, I don’t have any details to provide on the reports of the pager blasts. I can tell you, to my knowledge, there’s no US involvement in this at all. Again, something that we’re monitoring. And in terms of potential escalation, I go back to what I said earlier in terms of a key focus for this department and the US government writ large is on working with partners in the region to include Israel to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spiraling into a wider conflict. ,And that includes the tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border. So we’ll continue to strongly advocate for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, and we’ll continue to strongly advocate for a diplomatic resolution to the tensions that we’re seeing along the Israel-Lebanon border. Ellie.

Were there any US raids or strikes against ISIS over the weekend?

Ellie, I’m tracking that there was an operation, a partnered operation in Syria to go after ISIS targets. We’ll have more information to provide on that in the near future.

Were there any injuries to US service members? Not to my knowledge, no. Joe.

Thank you. Could you confirm if Secretary Austin is going to the region next week and mainly to Israel?

Yeah, I don’t have anything to announce today, Joe, in terms of future travel. When and if we do, we’ll certainly let you know.

Another thing, if you could confirm as well, do you know if this building is conducting direct or indirect communications with the Houthis?

I don’t have anything to provide from the podium in terms of DOD communication with the Houthis. Certainly there are interlocutors that the United States works with to communicate with various actors in the region to include Iran. I’ll just leave it there. Yes, sir.

Thank you, General. Regarding to the recently call between Secretary Austin and his Israeli counterpart, Secretary Austin reaffirmed that Israel should give diplomatic negotiations time to succeed. So do you have concerns that Israel maybe take steps that could lead to a wider war? And what does that mean?

Well, I think the concerns are that the tensions in the region could spiral into a wider war, and of course that involves all parties. So, as we see Israel continue to be threatened by groups like Lebanese Hezbollah, as we highlighted in that readout, the secretary believes that Israel needs to allow time for the negotiations and the public diplomacy, excuse me, diplomacy to work in order to ease those tensions.

(16:55)
So again, taking a step back here, we again fully recognize that there are significant tensions right now in the region, and we’re going to do everything we can both from a deterrent standpoint, but also from a diplomacy standpoint to try to ensure that that does not become a wider regional conflict. Louis.

Going back to Tara’s question, I apologize. I was focusing on something else.

[inaudible 00:17:19].

I guess. #77 all the way. Can I get rights to that, by the way? [inaudible 00:17:28].

You got it.

When she asked whether this is a capability that the US has, what was your answer? I wasn’t quite sure what your response-

Which capability.

When she was talking about pager-

[inaudible 00:17:38].

Yeah, I just don’t have anything on the pager explosions.

Is this a capability that the United States has?

I just don’t have anything on that, Louis.

Okay. As a follow-on independent of all of this, ethically speaking as a military officer, is this a capability that falls within the ethical conduct of a war?

I’m not a lawyer. I am not, again, going to do a spot analysis on something that we’ve seen in press reports. I just don’t have any information to provide on that. Sorry. Let me go over here to Konstantin.

Thanks, Pat. Following up on the MQ9 that crashed, are you able to say how many MQ9 drones the US has lost over Yemen to date?

I am not

Could you–

Again, for operation security reasons. I’m just not going to be able to provide a number. I just have to leave it there.

Thanks.

Thanks. Time for a couple more. Go to Mike and then Jared.

Sorry. Sorry for that. The chairman and vice chair of the commission on the National Defense Strategy, Representative Harmon and Ambassador Haldeman, are going to be testifying about their report that’s just coming out before the HASC tomorrow. It makes pretty grim reading. I’ve been going through it today. It says, one of their things to say is that the military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat among another variety of happy news from them. I was wondering, is the Secretary aware of this report, and does the department have a statement [inaudible 00:19:06] about this?

Yeah, thanks, Mike. I don’t have anything to provide from the Secretary on the report itself, other than to say that as should be abundantly clear, he comes to work every day focused on the nation’s defense and on implementing the National Defense Strategy. And that includes working with important partners like Congress to ensure that we have the funding and the resources and the personnel that we need to defend our country and deter attacks against the homeland.

(19:32)
And I would go back to comments that he’s made, that we have the most combat-credible experience military in the history of the world. And every single day, the men and women who put on our uniform and our DOD civilians come to work focused on making sure that our nation’s safe. And so, certainly we always welcome feedback from a variety of stakeholders and parties on how we can do things better. But in the meantime, we’re going to stay focused on defending the nation. Thanks, Jared.

Sir, yesterday the secretary encouraged the Israeli Defense Minister Gallant to give more time for diplomacy. I mean, since the incident today in Lebanon, I know you don’t have any details on it itself, but is the Secretary more concerned or is he less concerned about the potential for tensions spiraling into wider conflict?

Well, again, this is something that he’s been focused on since Hamas’ attack on October 7th. And so it’s something that he’s going to continue to stay focused on as well as the broader US Government. Thanks. Noah. And then we’ll close it out with Goyal.

I’m sorry if I missed this, but could you give us an update on where the TR is and where its destination is? Also secondarily on whether a two-carrier posture is again going to be necessary in this?

Yeah, I don’t have anything to announce in terms of broader carrier movements. The TR is in the Indo-Pacific Theater. I’d refer you to the Navy for any details on that front. And close us out, Goyal.

Thank you, sir. Two questions, please. One, two-plus-two meetings or summit going on in India just finished between the U.S and India, two-plus-two from here, two from India. So any comments on those meetings what fruits will be for the future at the highest level meetings will take place maybe here in Washington. And second, sir-

No, go ahead. [inaudible 00:21:19]

Second, also, Quad meeting, quad Summit is coming up in Delaware between those four countries, Quad under the leadership of President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, of course.

Yeah, I appreciate the question. I don’t have any updates to provide in terms of the two-plus-two agenda. And I’d refer you to the White House for any questions regarding the Quad meeting other than to say, as we’ve talked about before, we very much appreciate the relationship that we have with India and we look forward to continuing to look for other opportunities to work together. Okay.

So my question is, sir-

[inaudible 00:21:56] you had a question.

Sorry. As far as this Quad meeting is going on, because threats are going on around the globe, including in the Middle East and war between Russia and Ukraine, and also tensions by China in the South China Sea, among others. And are we expecting or maybe there is a peace in these nations from Quad meetings? Or are we going for a bigger war, or World War Three?

Wow, that’s a big question. Well, certainly no one wants to see World War Three. And I’d point you back to my earlier comments, that’s why the department remains very, very focused on deterring aggression, whether it be from the Iranians or the Russians or the Chinese. But also importantly, trying to prevent a wider conflict, particularly in the Middle East from happening. There is a lot going on in the world right now, and the United States works very closely with our allies and partners to include India to try to ensure regional security and stability and peace. And India, of course, plays an important role in the community of nations. So we’ll continue to work closely with our Indian partners in that regard. Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.