1 00:00:01,209 --> 00:00:06,060 - [Announcer] Defense News is proudly sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. 2 00:00:06,060 --> 00:00:11,720 If you're a member of our nation's armed forces, the Department of Defense, or if your family 3 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:15,480 is we'd be proud to serve you too. 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,519 - On this episode of Defense News Weekly, we check out the Navy School for the size 5 00:00:19,519 --> 00:00:20,699 of the surface fleet. 6 00:00:20,699 --> 00:00:26,210 The Department of Defense antes up a quarter of a billion dollars for COVID research and 7 00:00:26,210 --> 00:00:28,939 hear the latest on arm sales to Saudi Arabia. 8 00:00:28,939 --> 00:00:33,920 We'll also get an update on veterans unemployment numbers and hear from a groundbreaking female 9 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:38,090 fighter pilot and what it was like to smash a glass ceiling in the Air Force. 10 00:00:38,090 --> 00:00:43,230 Finally, we'll take a look at the newly confirmed VA Secretary's priorities and whether a series 11 00:00:43,230 --> 00:00:47,620 of 60 day standouts will actually have an impact on extremism in the ranks. 12 00:00:47,620 --> 00:00:51,770 With the latest news and analysis from the Pentagon to the platoon. 13 00:00:51,770 --> 00:01:00,250 This is Defense News Weekly. 14 00:01:00,250 --> 00:01:23,100 Let's get started. 15 00:01:23,100 --> 00:01:24,960 Welcome back to the Defense News Weekly. 16 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:26,390 I'm Andrea Scott. 17 00:01:26,390 --> 00:01:28,060 It's another full week here on the show. 18 00:01:28,060 --> 00:01:31,689 So let's jump right in with some insight from the fleet. 19 00:01:31,689 --> 00:01:36,850 The Navy is constantly evaluating at schools for how many shifts it keeps on the water, 20 00:01:36,850 --> 00:01:41,320 weighing everything from strategic posture to the cost of construction and maintenance. 21 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:48,229 For a look at how the Navy chose its fleet size, Defense News Daniel Woolfolk has more. 22 00:01:48,229 --> 00:01:51,750 - At the end of the Obama administration, the secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, made 23 00:01:51,750 --> 00:01:55,079 lofty fleet size goal, this being pursued to this day. 24 00:01:55,079 --> 00:01:58,690 In this week's actionable intelligence Defense News Editor, Aaron Mehta speaks to Naval warfare 25 00:01:58,690 --> 00:02:03,630 reporter David Larter about why and how the Navy is moving to 355 ship fleet. 26 00:02:03,630 --> 00:02:07,110 - All right, well Dave, thanks for joining us to talk about the Navy. 27 00:02:07,110 --> 00:02:09,840 I know it's something you hate doing. 28 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:14,210 Look, one of the biggest things that the Navy is dealing with the question of fleet size, 29 00:02:14,210 --> 00:02:17,960 this is an ancient issue but it's kind of taken on an extra energy in the last couple 30 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:18,960 of years. 31 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,260 Walk us through how we got to the point where he 355 ship Navy is a legal requirement from 32 00:02:23,260 --> 00:02:24,260 Congress. 33 00:02:24,260 --> 00:02:28,990 - So during the Obama administration, the Navy had come down from its post cold war 34 00:02:28,990 --> 00:02:34,740 high of about 600 ships to just under 280. 35 00:02:34,740 --> 00:02:39,350 And that turned out to be way too few ships. 36 00:02:39,350 --> 00:02:45,490 And the reason they got there is they had started trading the number of ships that they 37 00:02:45,490 --> 00:02:52,320 had or capacity to fulfill the missions that they were given for high-end capabilities. 38 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,910 And when we were the only Navy on earth that worked, right? 39 00:02:55,910 --> 00:03:00,070 So we didn't really need a high-end next generation cruiser. 40 00:03:00,070 --> 00:03:01,110 It was too expensive. 41 00:03:01,110 --> 00:03:05,960 We didn't really need this stealth destroyer, had a mission that we didn't think we needed 42 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:12,030 anymore but we did need to sort of keep going with the Arleigh Burke class destroyer which 43 00:03:12,030 --> 00:03:17,950 focuses on air defense, sort of defending the aircraft carrier and ballistic missile 44 00:03:17,950 --> 00:03:18,950 defense. 45 00:03:18,950 --> 00:03:25,350 And so over the years we traded away a lot of the low end ships that we'd had forgets 46 00:03:25,350 --> 00:03:30,670 the conventional destroyers that didn't have the Aegis Combat System. 47 00:03:30,670 --> 00:03:36,470 And we use that to invest in the these high-end capabilities, the SeaWorld submarine and followed 48 00:03:36,470 --> 00:03:39,690 by the Virginia class submarine. 49 00:03:39,690 --> 00:03:46,700 That became unsustainable and it became very clear it was unsustainable in the Obama administration 50 00:03:46,700 --> 00:03:52,480 when the Navy was being pushed well beyond its current limits and capacity. 51 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:59,090 They had ships going out on nine, 10 month deployments and the maintenance cycles were 52 00:03:59,090 --> 00:04:00,090 broken. 53 00:04:00,090 --> 00:04:05,180 These ships needed to go out, deploy, come back and then go into deep maintenance like 54 00:04:05,180 --> 00:04:11,110 any car or any machinery that it needs to be worked on and needs to be fixed, needs 55 00:04:11,110 --> 00:04:12,110 to be maintained. 56 00:04:12,110 --> 00:04:15,700 Change the oil, the whole nine yards before it goes back out. 57 00:04:15,700 --> 00:04:18,030 We got way behind on that. 58 00:04:18,030 --> 00:04:23,310 So the push at the end of the Obama administration was to really boost the fleets numbers to 59 00:04:23,310 --> 00:04:28,819 start meeting the demand that is placed on the Navy for day-to-day presence. 60 00:04:28,819 --> 00:04:35,400 So on his way out the door made us put down 355 ship Navy plan. 61 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:41,120 Trump had actually run on a 350 ship Navy and they obviously embraced that, Congress 62 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:42,490 was excited about it. 63 00:04:42,490 --> 00:04:44,849 So they put it in a National Defense Authorization Act. 64 00:04:44,849 --> 00:04:46,660 That that is how many ships the Navy must have. 65 00:04:46,660 --> 00:04:49,069 - One of the things that's been interesting with the Trump administration over its four 66 00:04:49,069 --> 00:04:54,550 years was how involved at the highest levels the president or national security advisors 67 00:04:54,550 --> 00:04:57,169 were getting involved in actual numbers like this. 68 00:04:57,169 --> 00:05:02,880 The 355 ship Navy was like a big deal for the national security advisors but for Trump 69 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:03,880 himself. 70 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,050 He said it, it was mentioned on the campaign trail. 71 00:05:06,050 --> 00:05:07,630 It's pretty unusual, isn't it? 72 00:05:07,630 --> 00:05:08,630 - It is. 73 00:05:08,630 --> 00:05:10,380 Trump really saw this through the lens of jobs. 74 00:05:10,380 --> 00:05:13,460 And I'm not trying to say that he was trying to steer contracts to certain places. 75 00:05:13,460 --> 00:05:17,169 But what I am saying is he viewed these things as jobs. 76 00:05:17,169 --> 00:05:20,430 I think the Pentagon started getting there as well. 77 00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:28,219 They really saw this as a strategic pivot towards sea power. 78 00:05:28,219 --> 00:05:35,070 And that is a different type of diplomacy and a different type of projection than what 79 00:05:35,070 --> 00:05:36,470 we'd been doing recently, right? 80 00:05:36,470 --> 00:05:42,729 So big land wars in Asia had been our main sort of form of power projection. 81 00:05:42,729 --> 00:05:46,889 The Trump administration ideologically did not like that. 82 00:05:46,889 --> 00:05:50,949 They wanted to end endless wars as they sort of harped on endlessly. 83 00:05:50,949 --> 00:05:57,749 And the pivot was we can't just retreat from the world but we don't want troops committed 84 00:05:57,749 --> 00:06:02,500 all over the world and these big land conflicts that costs an enormous amount of money. 85 00:06:02,500 --> 00:06:07,300 The reason sea power is attractive is you kind of meld the two, right? 86 00:06:07,300 --> 00:06:13,449 You get to hire lots of people and create lots of jobs building ships and in key battleground 87 00:06:13,449 --> 00:06:18,050 states that you want to win in elections and you get to project power overseas and that 88 00:06:18,050 --> 00:06:20,039 was kind of the one-two punch. 89 00:06:20,039 --> 00:06:24,129 That was very attractive to the Trump administration. 90 00:06:24,129 --> 00:06:25,599 - And we're talking about sea power projection. 91 00:06:25,599 --> 00:06:28,789 Of course, we're talking about Pacific everything's about China right now. 92 00:06:28,789 --> 00:06:32,080 I wanna take you to quickly to Mark Esper the former Secretary of Defense. 93 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:36,610 He actually put together a plan which called for something like over 500 ships. 94 00:06:36,610 --> 00:06:38,810 Some of those would be mentioned as unmanned. 95 00:06:38,810 --> 00:06:44,650 Now that Esper is gone, the demonstration itself has gone with Biden team coming in. 96 00:06:44,650 --> 00:06:48,110 What do you think happens to that 500 plus ship plan? 97 00:06:48,110 --> 00:06:49,139 - Right. 98 00:06:49,139 --> 00:06:52,610 So it was always a rhetorical 500 ship Navy. 99 00:06:52,610 --> 00:06:59,940 I don't think anyone would count a kind of single purpose unmanned vessel that just goes 100 00:06:59,940 --> 00:07:05,430 out into a choke point to do ASW as a ship per se. 101 00:07:05,430 --> 00:07:09,099 This past year was a bad year for their unmanned plans. 102 00:07:09,099 --> 00:07:14,380 Congress smashed it, smashed their plans into little pieces and told them to sweep up and 103 00:07:14,380 --> 00:07:16,909 come back with another one essentially. 104 00:07:16,909 --> 00:07:22,960 Part of that is this large unmanned surface vessel which was designed to hold missiles 105 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:31,229 and kind of tag along like that fateful wing man with other ships with maybe larger capacity, 106 00:07:31,229 --> 00:07:34,360 this would act as an external missile magazine. 107 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:35,669 Congress didn't like that. 108 00:07:35,669 --> 00:07:40,909 So basically we were they're going to do this year is do a whole year study of how else 109 00:07:40,909 --> 00:07:44,250 can we put missile magazines in the fleet? 110 00:07:44,250 --> 00:07:47,249 Should we do that on commercial vessels that we've repurposed? 111 00:07:47,249 --> 00:07:54,189 Should we do that by throwing them on Military Sealift Command ships which has some Geneva 112 00:07:54,189 --> 00:07:57,490 Convention sort of downsides to it? 113 00:07:57,490 --> 00:08:03,050 But so this year as we get into 2021 then that's what the Navy is gonna be thinking 114 00:08:03,050 --> 00:08:04,050 about. 115 00:08:04,050 --> 00:08:06,080 How do we get unmanned into the fleet? 116 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,919 How do we boost the number of missiles that we have in the fleet to combat what is now 117 00:08:10,919 --> 00:08:13,610 the largest Navy in the world, and that's China? 118 00:08:13,610 --> 00:08:15,250 - All right, well, we gotta leave it there. 119 00:08:15,250 --> 00:08:17,710 Dave, thanks for joining us actionable intelligence. 120 00:08:17,710 --> 00:08:20,009 As always you can find more about these stories @defensenews.com. 121 00:08:20,009 --> 00:08:22,190 - Thank you, Aaron. 122 00:08:22,190 --> 00:08:25,330 And now for defense industry headlines. 123 00:08:25,330 --> 00:08:29,289 The Biden administration has indefinitely paused two precision guided munitions sales 124 00:08:29,289 --> 00:08:35,010 to Saudi Arabia worth as much as $760 million as part of a new policy aimed at curtailing 125 00:08:35,010 --> 00:08:36,360 violence in Yemen. 126 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:41,520 However, that policy announced by President Joe Biden left the possibility open for future 127 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:45,970 sales that are considered vital for Saudi Arabia's national defense-a fine line that 128 00:08:45,970 --> 00:08:49,010 would mean send munition sales will continue. 129 00:08:49,010 --> 00:08:54,760 The two deals included foreign military sales case for 3000 Boeing made GBU 39 small diameter 130 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:59,380 bomb which was cleared by the State Department and late December with an estimated price 131 00:08:59,380 --> 00:09:00,800 tag of $290 million. 132 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:04,720 That's according to two sources familiar with the matter. 133 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,760 The second is a direct commercial sale for Raytheon Technologies munition likely the 134 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,720 reported $478 million sale of 7,000. 135 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:14,540 Paveway for smart bombs. 136 00:09:14,540 --> 00:09:19,550 The US Department of Defense announced that it awarded a $231.8 million contract to Ellume 137 00:09:19,550 --> 00:09:24,870 LLC to pump up production of its COVID-19 home test for use in the United States, you 138 00:09:24,870 --> 00:09:31,930 effort will allow Ellie to increase its production capacity to 640 tests per day by the end of 139 00:09:31,930 --> 00:09:32,930 the year. 140 00:09:32,930 --> 00:09:35,530 Ellie's test was the first fully at-home test to receive Federal Drug Administration emergency 141 00:09:35,530 --> 00:09:39,070 use authorization for people with or without symptoms. 142 00:09:39,070 --> 00:09:42,790 The test is performed with a nasal swab and the results are displayed on a nap in about 143 00:09:42,790 --> 00:09:44,760 15 minutes. 144 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:49,350 The French DGA procurement agency announced on Monday that France will acquire his first 145 00:09:49,350 --> 00:09:53,870 joint tactical signals intelligence system from Thales and Airbus. 146 00:09:53,870 --> 00:09:58,340 SIGINT systems gather intelligence from such sources as enemy radio or radar. 147 00:09:58,340 --> 00:10:02,740 The new systems will modernize and complete the current tactical signet capabilities taking 148 00:10:02,740 --> 00:10:06,770 into consideration new communication technologies used by ad research. 149 00:10:06,770 --> 00:10:11,880 It'll also standardize the systems across France's military services. 150 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:16,820 The $193 million contract was signed on December 31st early capabilities of the new system 151 00:10:16,820 --> 00:10:22,000 will be delivered in 2023 and is expected to have full capabilities by 2025. 152 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,490 And that's it for headlines in the defense world. 153 00:10:24,490 --> 00:10:29,149 When we come back, we'll hear about the Biden administration's pick for VA Secretary and 154 00:10:29,149 --> 00:10:33,800 get an interview with a groundbreaking woman fighter pilot and later analysis of the top 155 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:46,460 news of the week from the Military Times team of journalists and editors. 156 00:10:46,460 --> 00:10:47,460 - Welcome back. 157 00:10:47,460 --> 00:10:51,140 In your military headlines this week we start with veterans issues. 158 00:10:51,140 --> 00:10:55,820 First stop President Joe Biden's pick for VA Secretary Denis McDonough was confirmed 159 00:10:55,820 --> 00:10:57,280 early in the week. 160 00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:02,370 McDonough became just the second non-veteran to assume the role following David Shulkin, 161 00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:05,000 who served under President Donald Trump. 162 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:09,570 McDonough previously served as White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama and 163 00:11:09,570 --> 00:11:16,560 takes the reins of the departments $243 billion budget and sprawling bureaucracy. 164 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:19,930 And new numbers show that many veterans are struggling in the job market. 165 00:11:19,930 --> 00:11:25,650 A recent report showed that the unemployment rate for veterans worsened slightly in January, 166 00:11:25,650 --> 00:11:32,170 especially for younger veterans, even as the overall national rate continued to improve. 167 00:11:32,170 --> 00:11:35,720 Estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that veterans unemployment rate tick 168 00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:38,960 up from 5.3 to 5.5%. 169 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:43,450 It was the second time in the last four months the rate has increased. 170 00:11:43,450 --> 00:11:47,890 And the Department of Defense has its first ever female Deputy Director. 171 00:11:47,890 --> 00:11:51,430 Kathleen Hicks was confirmed by the Senate on February 7th. 172 00:11:51,430 --> 00:11:56,660 She previously served as a deputy under secretary at the Pentagon under the Obama administration. 173 00:11:56,660 --> 00:12:00,290 That's it for military headlines this week. 174 00:12:00,290 --> 00:12:05,140 But up next, we hear from a female fighter pilot about the experience of breaking barriers 175 00:12:05,140 --> 00:12:09,270 in the air force and what it was like to be one of the first female fighter pilots to 176 00:12:09,270 --> 00:12:10,480 fly in combat. 177 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:14,690 Lieutenant Colonel Christina Hopper talked to Military Times at a Veterans Conference 178 00:12:14,690 --> 00:12:19,910 late last year. 179 00:12:19,910 --> 00:12:21,190 - I'm Christina Hopper. 180 00:12:21,190 --> 00:12:25,240 I'm a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve. 181 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:31,330 I served 10 years in the active duty and then I had a five-year break in service and I've 182 00:12:31,330 --> 00:12:35,550 been serving in the reserve for just a little over seven years now. 183 00:12:35,550 --> 00:12:40,750 I didn't find flying, flying found me but once we were married, it was a match made 184 00:12:40,750 --> 00:12:41,750 in heaven. 185 00:12:41,750 --> 00:12:47,390 Rochelle Kimbrell is the first female, black female fighter pilot to go into combat but 186 00:12:47,390 --> 00:12:48,840 I'm the first one to go into war. 187 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:50,920 I was the first one into Iraqi Freedom. 188 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:55,730 So I was among the first generation of women to fly in fighters. 189 00:12:55,730 --> 00:13:00,100 And so at the time there were so few of us there were only 50 of us in the entire air 190 00:13:00,100 --> 00:13:01,440 force. 191 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:06,490 So when I showed up to my first operational assignment I was the first female to be in 192 00:13:06,490 --> 00:13:07,490 that squadron. 193 00:13:07,490 --> 00:13:11,660 So we were in Kuwait flying missions into Iraq and we were there for about five and 194 00:13:11,660 --> 00:13:12,660 a half months. 195 00:13:12,660 --> 00:13:18,630 And one of my supervisors whom I deeply respected pulling me aside when we were about halfway 196 00:13:18,630 --> 00:13:19,700 through that deployment. 197 00:13:19,700 --> 00:13:24,430 And he said Thumper, when they first told me that women were gonna be allowed to fly 198 00:13:24,430 --> 00:13:28,870 in combat and to fly in fighters, he said, I was totally against it. 199 00:13:28,870 --> 00:13:31,840 And he said, but you have changed my mind. 200 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:37,930 And so I definitely see that we are now starting to see more women come through T-38 training 201 00:13:37,930 --> 00:13:38,930 to go to fighters. 202 00:13:38,930 --> 00:13:44,300 I think as we start to gain more women we will get some momentum and start to see an 203 00:13:44,300 --> 00:13:47,690 exponential growth over time. 204 00:13:47,690 --> 00:13:51,870 I give talks on unconscious bias. 205 00:13:51,870 --> 00:13:59,490 I think that it's really important for us to approach diversity talks with non accusation 206 00:13:59,490 --> 00:14:04,010 because I think when people feel judged they automatically become defensive and then they 207 00:14:04,010 --> 00:14:06,670 don't hear anything that you say after the judgment. 208 00:14:06,670 --> 00:14:11,160 And so what we want to do is get people to understand that we all have unconscious bias. 209 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:12,730 It's a part of humanity. 210 00:14:12,730 --> 00:14:16,450 And so if we can then now get to that point where we're all on the same page and acknowledging 211 00:14:16,450 --> 00:14:21,780 okay yes, I have bias, so now let me dig a little deeper and find out what are my biases 212 00:14:21,780 --> 00:14:25,390 so that I can now effectively combat them. 213 00:14:25,390 --> 00:14:29,570 When we're looking at it at skillsets and abilities we should be looking at the whole 214 00:14:29,570 --> 00:14:30,570 person. 215 00:14:30,570 --> 00:14:33,890 I think that that's what we should be doing in the military. 216 00:14:33,890 --> 00:14:38,570 And from at least from my local base perspective that's what I see us doing. 217 00:14:38,570 --> 00:14:43,750 Study after study shows that with increased diversity comes increased innovation, increased 218 00:14:43,750 --> 00:14:49,320 decision-making, and we see that in corporations and companies it makes them more productive, 219 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:50,590 more prosperous. 220 00:14:50,590 --> 00:14:54,320 So we absolutely in the military want that. 221 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:57,200 My first encounter with racism was when I was in kindergarten. 222 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:00,930 My dad was in the Air Force and he was serving overseas with NATO. 223 00:15:00,930 --> 00:15:02,100 So we had just moved back. 224 00:15:02,100 --> 00:15:08,040 We were in a all white neighborhood KU Klux Klan was very prevalent the activity there 225 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:09,040 at the time. 226 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:13,360 And my first day of kindergarten I was ostracized for the color of my skin. 227 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:18,960 And so what I tell people that are struggling whether it be because they're female or because 228 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,720 they're a minority and they're struggling with their identity or they're struggling 229 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:28,570 with how other people treat them and see them, my message to them is other people don't get 230 00:15:28,570 --> 00:15:29,950 to determine your worth. 231 00:15:29,950 --> 00:15:31,660 That worth is inherent. 232 00:15:31,660 --> 00:15:37,740 And so once you realize that, then yes it hurts when people say unkind things but it 233 00:15:37,740 --> 00:15:40,960 doesn't face you, it doesn't steal your joy. 234 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,430 So that's my advice to them. 235 00:15:44,430 --> 00:15:46,910 - That's all for your military news this week. 236 00:15:46,910 --> 00:16:00,990 When we come back, we'll get tips for military members looking to reduce housing costs. 237 00:16:00,990 --> 00:16:02,530 On this edition of money minute. 238 00:16:02,530 --> 00:16:07,030 Navy Federal Credit Union personal finance expert, Jeanette Mack gives her advice on 239 00:16:07,030 --> 00:16:10,790 how to reduce housing costs. 240 00:16:10,790 --> 00:16:13,630 - There's a reason why they say home is where the heart is. 241 00:16:13,630 --> 00:16:18,160 It's where you and your family live out your every day, especially right now. 242 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:21,740 So of course you want to do everything you can to hold on to it. 243 00:16:21,740 --> 00:16:25,500 If you're having a tough time, keeping up with mortgage or rent payments, it can take 244 00:16:25,500 --> 00:16:27,560 a toll on your wellbeing. 245 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,620 Your lender should be there to help you stay in control and in your home. 246 00:16:31,620 --> 00:16:36,030 But first you have to have that honest conversation with them. 247 00:16:36,030 --> 00:16:40,850 They can find mortgage assistance, relief options or perhaps suspend payments. 248 00:16:40,850 --> 00:16:46,030 They may also help you refinance your mortgage to get a lower interest rate or monthly payment. 249 00:16:46,030 --> 00:16:50,370 You can also downsize or relocate to a more affordable neighborhood. 250 00:16:50,370 --> 00:16:54,590 Moving to a different area of town, a new city or state could make a big difference 251 00:16:54,590 --> 00:16:56,370 in housing costs. 252 00:16:56,370 --> 00:17:01,500 Or if you can move in with a friend or relative until you get back on your feet. 253 00:17:01,500 --> 00:17:06,000 In this challenging time it's important to take care of not only of your financial wellbeing, 254 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,220 but your mental health as well. 255 00:17:08,220 --> 00:17:12,329 Find your support systems where you can and take advantage of the options your bank or 256 00:17:12,329 --> 00:17:16,829 credit union can offer to get you through the rough patch and onto the better days that 257 00:17:16,829 --> 00:17:18,579 are indeed ahead. 258 00:17:18,579 --> 00:17:20,509 - Thanks Jeanette. 259 00:17:20,509 --> 00:17:21,880 We'll see you next week. 260 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:25,779 To get more of our coverage be sure to visit our websites at Army, Navy, Air Force, and 261 00:17:25,779 --> 00:17:28,580 Marine Corps times.com and defensenews.com. 262 00:17:28,580 --> 00:17:34,429 For our curated top stories in your inbox every day, subscribe to our Early Bird Brief. 263 00:17:34,429 --> 00:17:38,710 And to keep up to date with all our coverage be sure to visit our Facebook, Twitter, and 264 00:17:38,710 --> 00:17:39,809 YouTube pages. 265 00:17:39,809 --> 00:17:44,301 And it's time to nominate your fellow soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine for our annual Service 266 00:17:44,301 --> 00:17:46,120 Members of the Year award. 267 00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:51,240 Head to servicemembersoftheyear.org/nominee to enter someone you feel has gone above and 268 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:56,460 beyond, and also submit for veteran of the year and Coast Guardsmen of the year. 269 00:17:56,460 --> 00:18:00,330 And when we come back, we'll break down this week's top stories with Military Time's team 270 00:18:00,330 --> 00:18:11,950 of editors and journalists. 271 00:18:11,950 --> 00:18:18,259 A 60 day standout to help root out extremism or review of forces overseas and more details 272 00:18:18,259 --> 00:18:22,139 on what might be to come from the new VA Secretary. 273 00:18:22,139 --> 00:18:26,309 Military Times as journalists and editors dig into the week's top stories on this week's 274 00:18:26,309 --> 00:18:36,399 reporters round table. 275 00:18:36,399 --> 00:18:40,110 - Welcome back to the Military Times reporters round table where each week we bring you the 276 00:18:40,110 --> 00:18:42,039 biggest headlines in the military community. 277 00:18:42,039 --> 00:18:45,990 I'm Leo Shane, Capitol Hill Bureau Chief at Military Times. 278 00:18:45,990 --> 00:18:50,450 With me again this week is Howard Altman our Managing Editor, Meghann Myers, our Pentagon 279 00:18:50,450 --> 00:18:53,320 Bureau Chief and Andrew Tilghman, our Executive Editor. 280 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,259 Thank all three of you for coming back again. 281 00:18:55,259 --> 00:18:58,669 Meghann, I want to start with you because we just got some big news out of the Pentagon 282 00:18:58,669 --> 00:19:04,581 a 60 day stand down to look at extremism in the ranks ordered by the new Secretary of 283 00:19:04,581 --> 00:19:05,581 Defense. 284 00:19:05,581 --> 00:19:08,830 What's going on here, explain what's happening? 285 00:19:08,830 --> 00:19:14,049 - So this is a response, a little bit to the Capitol riots on January 6th, but most of 286 00:19:14,049 --> 00:19:19,950 it is because of these ever, this ever growing kind of pile of stories of service members 287 00:19:19,950 --> 00:19:23,270 or recent veterans who have gotten involved in extremist groups. 288 00:19:23,270 --> 00:19:26,879 So the 60 day stand down isn't really a two month stand down. 289 00:19:26,879 --> 00:19:32,410 It's sort of a two month period where commands can pick a day where they will shut down what 290 00:19:32,410 --> 00:19:35,419 they're doing, and basically have conversations. 291 00:19:35,419 --> 00:19:38,749 It's up to commanders to figure out how they're going to facilitate this. 292 00:19:38,749 --> 00:19:43,480 But basically to talk about what they've seen what they think some of the solutions are 293 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:49,740 and then to try to collect some data where they can about the instances of extremist 294 00:19:49,740 --> 00:19:53,140 or extremist activity or extremist rhetoric. 295 00:19:53,140 --> 00:19:56,350 - Howard, is this going to do anything? 296 00:19:56,350 --> 00:20:01,769 - There is a lot of skepticism in the ranks, people saying, hey Tom's gonna call everybody 297 00:20:01,769 --> 00:20:04,500 into a conference room and yell at him for an hour. 298 00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:10,450 Everybody signs a sheet and get shut up a chain a hundred percent participation to the 299 00:20:10,450 --> 00:20:16,919 point where Pentagon spokesman John Kirby had address reporters earlier this month and 300 00:20:16,919 --> 00:20:22,250 talked about how the Secretary of Defense realizes that this is not a panacea. 301 00:20:22,250 --> 00:20:26,709 He said that he realizes that a one day stand down doesn't solve anything. 302 00:20:26,709 --> 00:20:30,750 - Yeah, it's really gonna be interesting to see just how far down they get and how much 303 00:20:30,750 --> 00:20:32,659 of this is just top-level lectures. 304 00:20:32,659 --> 00:20:36,980 Andrew, you and I have worked together on the Military Times poll over the last few 305 00:20:36,980 --> 00:20:37,980 years. 306 00:20:37,980 --> 00:20:42,340 when we've asked about this issue of extremism and some of this white supremacist ideology 307 00:20:42,340 --> 00:20:43,340 and the ranks. 308 00:20:43,340 --> 00:20:47,980 I mean, what do you think they're gonna find if they do start to really dig down into these 309 00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:50,589 units and ask folks what they're seeing? 310 00:20:50,589 --> 00:20:55,580 - Well, the results of our reader survey have been pretty consistent over the past several 311 00:20:55,580 --> 00:21:01,860 years, about one in three service members report seeing some signs of extremist behavior 312 00:21:01,860 --> 00:21:02,860 in the ranks. 313 00:21:02,860 --> 00:21:04,960 You know, that's a voluntary survey. 314 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:10,250 I'm not sure how scientific it is but I think this is a concern for a lot of service members. 315 00:21:10,250 --> 00:21:16,529 And I think the question is, what will the Defense Department be looking for? 316 00:21:16,529 --> 00:21:17,940 How will they be defining this? 317 00:21:17,940 --> 00:21:22,899 You know, does someone have to be an office holder and the proud boys orientation or to 318 00:21:22,899 --> 00:21:27,779 raise a red flag or can a nasty Facebook post from six months ago, raise a red flag. 319 00:21:27,779 --> 00:21:32,610 I think that they're gonna have a tough time defining this. 320 00:21:32,610 --> 00:21:37,289 And that'll be really the question as to how far reaching the impact of this. 321 00:21:37,289 --> 00:21:40,700 - I know lawmakers are watching this very closely too. 322 00:21:40,700 --> 00:21:47,389 So this really could define the early tenure of Secretary Austin at the Pentagon. 323 00:21:47,389 --> 00:21:50,860 Meghann this isn't the only issue that's going on down at the Pentagon here. 324 00:21:50,860 --> 00:21:55,659 Talk about some of the other things we've seen from the Biden administration already? 325 00:21:55,659 --> 00:21:59,389 - So right off the top of the first few days of the Biden administration the President 326 00:21:59,389 --> 00:22:04,540 overturned President Trump's ban on transgender troops serving in uniform. 327 00:22:04,540 --> 00:22:07,190 So that was one of the first things. 328 00:22:07,190 --> 00:22:14,470 And then from there we've seen an end to the US helping Saudi Arabia and Yemen and those 329 00:22:14,470 --> 00:22:19,249 airstrikes and that sort of like proxy war that we had been involved in. 330 00:22:19,249 --> 00:22:24,120 And we've also seen there's gonna be a global force posture. 331 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:29,110 That's gonna decide overview basically, which is not unlike the one that was done under 332 00:22:29,110 --> 00:22:33,160 the Trump administration kind of looking at where troops are around the world and where 333 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:34,520 they need to be going forward. 334 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:38,610 - Right, but the results of this global of view might be very different than what we 335 00:22:38,610 --> 00:22:40,090 saw under the Trump administration. 336 00:22:40,090 --> 00:22:44,429 Because as we saw, he was talking about moving folks out of Germany, moving folks out of 337 00:22:44,429 --> 00:22:49,721 the Pacific, possibly just because of some grudges because some things, so Andrew, I 338 00:22:49,721 --> 00:22:54,220 know that's that's an issue you've watched especially Eastern Europe for years. 339 00:22:54,220 --> 00:22:56,250 What do we make of this review? 340 00:22:56,250 --> 00:23:01,210 I mean, do you think that we'll end up seeing some of the radical suggestions that we saw 341 00:23:01,210 --> 00:23:03,169 proposed under the Trump administration? 342 00:23:03,169 --> 00:23:07,641 Do you think they'll stay or do you think maybe we'll see a calming of some of these 343 00:23:07,641 --> 00:23:08,641 opinions? 344 00:23:08,641 --> 00:23:14,350 = Yeah, I think that Trump's order to get so many troops out of Germany is something 345 00:23:14,350 --> 00:23:17,830 that was definitely not supported by the senior military leadership. 346 00:23:17,830 --> 00:23:21,799 The idea of moving the Yukon headquarters to Belgium is not something they were really 347 00:23:21,799 --> 00:23:22,799 embracing. 348 00:23:22,799 --> 00:23:28,429 So I would expect some reversal or backpedaling on that under the Biden administration. 349 00:23:28,429 --> 00:23:32,990 But then again, under the Trump administration they had talked a lot about moving some troops 350 00:23:32,990 --> 00:23:37,700 to Poland which is a perfectly logical thing to do the Polish government's very supportive 351 00:23:37,700 --> 00:23:38,700 of. 352 00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:44,029 So we may see some of those discussions continue and there may be some shifting from troops 353 00:23:44,029 --> 00:23:45,600 to Germany... 354 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,589 From Germany over into Poland, nevertheless. 355 00:23:48,589 --> 00:23:52,440 - Well with all that Pentagon news, I don't want to leave out the Department of Veterans 356 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,399 Affairs which also got a new secretary in the last few days, Howard you and I have been 357 00:23:56,399 --> 00:23:57,649 tracking to learn about Denis McDonough. 358 00:23:57,649 --> 00:23:59,580 He's a former White House, Chief of Staff. 359 00:23:59,580 --> 00:24:03,799 Talk a little bit about his background and what he brings to the department. 360 00:24:03,799 --> 00:24:10,610 - Well, he was Chief of Staff for President Obama during that administration. 361 00:24:10,610 --> 00:24:16,480 He becomes only the second VA Secretary not to have prior military experience. 362 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:21,299 The former one was David Shulkin. 363 00:24:21,299 --> 00:24:25,690 Whether that becomes an issue remains to be seen because it's a large, massive organization. 364 00:24:25,690 --> 00:24:30,809 You have to deal with healthcare of veterans as well as their benefits. 365 00:24:30,809 --> 00:24:36,950 Under Obama, McDonough had some experience dealing with the aftermath of the 2014 wait 366 00:24:36,950 --> 00:24:37,950 time scandal. 367 00:24:37,950 --> 00:24:43,179 So he is aware of the bureaucratic challenges as you well know this is an organization it's 368 00:24:43,179 --> 00:24:48,690 the a $243 billion a year budget larger than any single service. 369 00:24:48,690 --> 00:24:51,549 So, you know, well, the challenges that presents, 370 00:24:51,549 --> 00:24:57,970 - Yeah I found it interesting in what McDonough said so far that he doesn't seem focused on 371 00:24:57,970 --> 00:25:03,679 just that inter-agency cooperation maybe some of the more boring bureaucratic stuff but 372 00:25:03,679 --> 00:25:10,070 he's really been emphasizing the issues of diversity, the issues of helping more women 373 00:25:10,070 --> 00:25:11,649 veterans, that kind of outreach. 374 00:25:11,649 --> 00:25:15,119 McDonough said that he's still going to stay focused on the suicide issue, focused on the 375 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,600 homeless issue plenty of news to follow in VA. 376 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:20,630 So look, we'll be tracking those stories in VA. 377 00:25:20,630 --> 00:25:22,840 We'll be tracking the stories down the Pentagon. 378 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:28,409 Stayed tuned to militarytimes.com and we'll see you next week. 379 00:25:28,409 --> 00:25:30,179 - And that's all we have time for this week. 380 00:25:30,179 --> 00:25:35,059 Please visit us on militarytimes.com and defensenews.com for more coverage. 381 00:25:35,059 --> 00:25:45,479 Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week.