Subject: POLITICO's Morning Defense, presented by BAE Systems: Two defense bills on tap this week — The Democrats' secretary of war — 30-year shipbuilding plan falls short of Navy goal
From: Morning Defense <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 06:33:02 -0600

By Jeremy Herb | 05/09/2016 08:30 AM EDT

With Louis Nelson, Austin Wright and Connor O'Brien

DRIVING THE WEEK - TWO DEFENSE BILLS MOVING IN CONGRESS: Defense watchers will try not to get whiplash moving between the House and Senate this week, as defense bills are marked up in both chambers. In the House, the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is marking up its defense spending bill in closed session - an earlier date than prior years - while the Senate Armed Services Committee is marking up its National Defense Authorization Act all week - and mostly behind closed doors. Here's a rundown of what to watch for:

- WHAT WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR NDAA IN THE SENATE, our preview with Connor O'Brien: "In what could be his final year wielding the gavel he long coveted, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is poised to pursue another round of far-reaching reforms in the annual defense policy bill, setting up major conflicts with the House version awaiting floor action. ... With McCain facing a competitive reelection fight back home in Arizona and control of the Senate up for grabs, the legislation will surely bear the distinct mark of the Republican senator: pushing back against the administration's defense budget topline, taking a hardline on the effort to replace the Russian RD-180 rocket
 engine and pursuing aggressive reforms of the military's command structure and health system.

"McCain's eagerness to enact sweeping reforms is a contrast to the incremental approach pushed by his House counterpart, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas). And the differing approaches and priorities are likely to give the chairmen a slew of issues to hammer out in the end during a House-Senate conference committee." A full breakdown of the biggest differences is here, for Pros.

- THE SASC SCHEDULE: Markups get underway this afternoon, with the Airland Subcommittee considering up its portion of the bill in closed session. The rest of the subcommittees are on Tuesday: with Personnel, Readiness and Emerging Threats and Capabilities open and Seapower and Strategic Forces closed. The full committee begins on Wednesday until it's finished, likely Thursday evening or Friday.

- HAC-D GETS MOVING, TOO: The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee will holds its markup on Wednesday, with the bill text likely released Tuesday. The big question is whether Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) goes along with Thornberry's proposal to only fund war operations through April in order to boost the base budget topline.

- ONE WEEK AWAY - NDAA ON THE HOUSE FLOOR: The NDAA will is expected on the floor the week of May 16. That's a week longer break than usual, giving lawmakers more time to propose amendments. There's already a handful submitted, which can be found here.

HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we hope Mother's Day and the Kentucky Derby gave everyone something to celebrate over the weekend. Keep the tips, pitches and feedback coming at [email-masked], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

ASH CARTER - THE DEMOCRATS' SECRETARY OF WAR: Our colleagues Austin Wright and O'Brien examine the defense secretary's war footing following his trip to Germany last week: "After a Navy SEAL died in Iraq last week in an Islamic State attack, Defense Secretary Ash Carter was quick to hail him as a warrior who 'died in combat.' An ocean away, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest offered a different take. While characterizing Carter's remarks as 'accurate,' Earnest said Special Warfare Officer 1st Class Charles Keating IV 'was not in a combat mission, but he was in a dangerous place.'

"The twin reactions to the latest U.S. casualty in the Middle East demonstrated once again that President Barack Obama and his more hawkish defense secretary aren't completely in sync on the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a war the White House is trying to downplay if not constrain. Carter's worldview puts him more in line with Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton than with Obama - and several analysts said Carter could be in the running to remain in his post should Clinton win in November, at least for a time. Others shot down the prospect as unlikely.

"By all accounts, though, Carter is now in his dream job, the pinnacle of a career at the Pentagon that began in the early 1980s when he was a physicist working on nuclear weapons issues. And his status as Obama's fourth Pentagon chief - the White House almost certainly wants to avoid having a fifth - gives him some room to stake out positions that might be more in line with the potential next administration than the current one."

NORTH KOREA SAYS IT WILL STRENGTHEN NUCLEAR PROGRAM, though Kim Jong Un says the focus is on defensive weapons, writes Reuters: "Secretive North Korea said it will strengthen self-defensive nuclear weapons capability in a decision adopted at a congress of its ruling Workers' Party congress, its KCNA news agency reported on Monday, in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

"The congress, in its fourth day, is the first to be held in 36 years and North Korea granted visas to scores of foreign journalists from 12 countries, whose movements are closely monitored. One BBC journalist, not reporting directly on the congress, was detained over the content of his broadcasts and was being expelled from the country. ... The congress's decision formalizes a position previously held by North Korea, which declared itself 'a responsible nuclear weapons state' and disavowed the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms."

** A message from BAE Systems: At BAE Systems, our engineers have created the technology to transform an unguided munition into a precision laser-guided rocket-the perfect low-cost, surgical strike solution. Learn more at www.baesystems.com/SAS. **

TOP DOC - NEW 30-YEAR SHIPBUILDING PLAN FALLS SHORT OF NAVY GOAL, reports POLITICO's Wright: "The Navy's new 30-year shipbuilding plan projects a fleet of 292 ships in 2046 - a fleet that is short of the service's 308-ship goal, is down from the 305 ships projected last year and raises questions about the Obama administration's vision of a larger Navy. The projected 292 ships would be a 20-ship increase from today's battle-force fleet of 272. But the shipbuilding plan - obtained by POLITICO ahead of its planned delivery to Congress in the next few days - acknowledges that getting to that number would require 'funding that exceeds levels the Navy has historically committed to new ship
 construction.'"

WAR REPORT - AL QAEDA CHIEF TELLS JIHADISTS TO UNITE OR DIE IN SYRIA, via Reuters: " Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged rival jihadist fighters in Syria to unite or risk death but again decried fellow Sunni Muslim militants Islamic State as 'extremists' in an audio recording posted online on Sunday. As successor to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri has the allegiance of al Qaeda branches in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. But the group's dominance is being challenged by Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and followings in Libya and Yemen.

"In Syria, al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front and Islamic State are the two most powerful groups fighting government forces. Once a single group, they split in 2013, largely due to a power struggle among leaders. ... The authenticity of the recording, the first since January, could not be immediately verified, but it had the hallmarks of previous Zawahri tapes. In January, the Egyptian former doctor called for revenge after Saudi Arabia executed dozens of militants."

2016 WATCH - McCAIN SAYS TRUMP COULD BE 'CAPABLE LEADER, via POLITICO's Wright: "Sen. John McCain said in an interview aired Sunday he believes Donald Trump 'could be a capable leader' and reiterated his stance that he will 'support the nominee' of the Republican Party. The Arizona Republican seemed more resigned than ever to the fact that that nominee will be Trump. 'You have to listen to the people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party,' McCain said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'I think it would be foolish to ignore them.'"

SPEED READ

- Boys freed from fighting for Al Qaeda-backed militants in Somalia were then forced to work for the Somali government's intelligence agency: The Washington Post

- Hurdles on and off the battlefield in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State raise concerns the rate of success against the militant group can't be sustained: The Washington Post

- The blurry U.S. role in Afghanistan turns again to combat, as evidenced in the firefight that led to the U.S. bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, a Pentagon report on the incident shows: The New York Times

- Twitter cuts off U.S. intelligence agencies from using a service that mines the entire output of its social media postings: The Wall Street Journal

- Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris turns heads in Beijing and Washington with language starker than any coming from the president: NYT

- Two wars appear to being waged at CENTCOM: one against the Islamic State and the other an internal fight between whistleblowers and commanders: The Daily Beast

- Taliban attacks in Helmand Province in Afghanistan end the weeks of relative calm there during the annual opium harvest: Reuters

- Syrian warplanes attack Islamic militants in Aleppo, pushing back against an advance there: Reuters

- Turkish artillery fire at Islamic State militants across the border in Syria, killing dozens of militants, according to Turkey's state-run media: The Associated Press

- Saudi Arabia's King Salman replaces the kingdom's longtime oil minister as part of a larger government restructuring: NYT

- The U.S. struggles to convince many Iraqis they are allied in the fight against the Islamic State: AP

- A U.S. soldier with the Washington state National Guard dies in a non-combat incident in Iraq: USA Today

- More than 50 people are killed in southeastern Afghanistan when two buses collide with a fuel truck: NYT

- The number of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter pilots who report oxygen issues in the cockpit is on the rise: Military Times

- Booz Allen Hamilton and CACI file pre-emptive protests over a Defense Department IT contract worth up to $17.5 billion: Inside Defense

- The president needs to be honest with the American public that U.S. troops are in combat in the Middle East, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) says in an op-ed: The Washington Post

** A message from BAE Systems: At BAE Systems, we work relentlessly to stay ahead of any challenge our customers may face. Our passion and dedication shows in everything we do-from advanced electronic systems to cyber operations and intelligence analysis, from combat vehicles and naval weapons, and from ship maintenance and modernization to vehicle upgrades and services. Knowing that our work makes a difference inspires us to push ourselves and the technologies we create to new levels. That's BAE Systems. That's Inspired Work. Learn more about our technologies, systems and services at www.baesystems.com/US. **

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