Situation Report: State and Pentagon talk; tough day on Capitol Hill; Air Force wants lasers; Islamic State targets Europe; and lots more

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley

Between the lines. Secretary of State John Kerry is coming to the Pentagon Thursday afternoon to meet with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, where presumably the subject of Russia will come up. It’ll have to, since Kerry has been in pretty regular contact with his counterpart in Moscow, while Carter has yet to speak with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu since taking office in February.

Kerry, of course, has been in a back-and-forth with Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over a number of issues like Iran, Ukraine, and Syria over the past year. But Carter and his staff have decided that talking with Shoigu wouldn’t do much good, pointing to then-SecDef Chuck Hagel’s series of mostly fruitless calls to Moscow throughout 2014.

Call me maybe. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters earlier this week that even though military-to-military cooperation with Moscow has been on hold since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, there’s nothing preventing Carter from picking up the phone. “Right now, Secretary Kerry is taking the lead with regard to discussions with Russia. And we’re going to leave it at that,” Cook said. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has also not had a conversation with his military counterparts in Moscow since July 2014.

Voices carry. Just last week, officials in Moscow began calling for some kind of military-to-military cooperation with the United States to avert “unintended incidents” as Russian ships and planes pour into Syria to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The speculation is that Russia is trying to join the international coalition against the Islamic State in Syria and curry favor with the U.S. by trying to help corrode the group there in exchange for U.S. acquiescence to its wishes in Ukraine.

Fatal flaw. Briefly, ever so briefly, it sounded like a top U.S. military official had confirmed the presence of American Special Operations forces on the ground in Syria. In trying to explain all of the ways the U.S. was doing the right thing in what is widely seen as a faltering mission in Syria, Gen. Lloyd Austin head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate panel Wednesday morning that U.S. commandos in northern Syria “began to engage elements like the [Kurdish] YPG and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield.”

Pretty dramatic stuff. Boots on the ground.

About three hours later, however, an email follow-up popped into journalists’ inboxes, offering a “Clarification for the Record.” There are no U.S. forces in northern Syria. Austin was actually referring to communications and planning links between the U.S. and the Kurds. “There are no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any U.S. military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria,” the note said.

Tuff gnarl. The clarification wrapped up a rough day for Gen. Austin, who was grilled for about two hours by Senators over the wars in Iraq and Syria, and his insistence that real progress is being made in defeating the Islamic State. He was also forced to admit that only about “four or five” U.S.-trained Syrian rebels remain on the battlefield to take on the Islamic State, after the Defense Department spent over $41 million to train and equip a group of about 60 earlier this year. For those keeping score, that comes to a little more than $8 million per trainee. And the senators were not happy. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) told the general, “let’s not kid ourselves, that’s a joke.” And Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) charged that “this is just a total failure.”

T.V. party. Did you watch the Republican debate last night? There wasn’t much new to chew over, but FP’s John Hudson and Yochi Dreazen flag some of the moments that stuck out, like the near-universal praise for George W. Bush’s foreign policy chops, the calls to confront Russia, and the general agreement that the most powerful military that the world has ever known just isn’t big, strong, or lethal enough.

Good morning! Thanks for joining us yet again. As always, please pass along any tips, notes, or otherwise interesting bits of information that you may have at your disposal. Best way is to send them to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley.   

Craving more Foreign Policy news and updates? Look no further! FP Podcasts, launched last week, provide analysis of today’s most important issues in global affairs. Check out our two newest programs, The E.R.–for a look at American power at a crossroads–and Global Thinkers-for a conversation with Malala. Listen and subscribe here.

On the dock

We received a note last night from the Pentagon press shop that on Thursday, the U.S. Army will kick off hearings at Fort Sam Houston, Tx., to determine if Army Sgt. Robert Bowe Bergdahl will face a court martial. Back in March, Bergdahl was charged with one count of “Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty,” and one count of “Misbehavior Before The Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place.” The charges stem from his having walked off his post at Combat Outpost Mest-Lalak in Paktika Province, Afghanistan in June 2009.

Who’s where when

1:00 p.m. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook will hold an on-camera press briefing.

2:00 p.m. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Paul Selva will present awards to the three Americans who tackled an armed gunman on a train in France last month. Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, Spc. Alek Skarlatos from the Oregon National Guard, and Anthony Sadler in the Pentagon courtyard will get pinned.

Islamic State in France

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that intelligence pointing to a fresh campaign by the Islamic State to target Europe in general, and France in particular, was a major factor in France’s recent decision to begin carrying out airstrikes over Syria. French intelligence officials told the Journal that they learned over the summer that the group had been planning to train recruits with European passports whom they could send back to carry out attacks. France has been the subject of a number of recent terrorist plots connected to or inspired by the Islamic State, including the attempted attack on the passenger train disrupted by visiting American servicemen, and a June attack on a chemical plant by a gunman.

Air Force

Air Force generals have one simple request, and that is to have some aircraft with frickin’ lasers attached to them. Air Force special ops chief Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold said that he’d like to see lasers on AC-130J gunships by 2020, National Defense Magazine reports. Having a laser on board, Heithold said, would help the aircraft defend itself against incoming missiles while en route to a target, and then stealthily zap enemy targets on the ground and in the air. Air Combat Command commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle would also like to see directed energy weapons attached to a fighter jet by that time, too.

The Air Force is gearing up to select a contractor to build its high-tech next generation bomber, and its acquisition chief promises the service will release the development costs for the aircraft. Defense News reports that assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition William LaPlante says the service will provide the figures just as soon as it picks the team which will build the aircraft. Representatives in Congress are still smarting from the Air Force’s seriously bungled attempt to provide them with consistent numbers for the bomber’s 10-year cost estimates.

From Tehran, With Love

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says that Iran’s support in providing weapons to the regime throughout the civil war has been “essential.” Speaking to Russian reporters, Assad admitted that Iran provides arms and advisors to Damascus, saying Tehran “sends us military equipment, and of course there is an exchange of military experts between Syria and Iran.” The Syrian leader still wouldn’t admit to the widely-reported participation of Iranian troops in combat operations on behalf of the regime, but Iran already admits as much, periodically acknowledging the deaths of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in Syria.

Kiss and make up

It’s all good, we’re cool now. That’s the message that the Taliban is sending out after senior leaders in the group had a heated and public dispute over who should succeed deceased former leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, according to Agence France Presse. The group published a statement on its website saying that Mullah Omar’s family has cast its support behind his successor Mullah Akhtar Mansour after previously objecting to his leadership. Omar is believed to have died sometime in 2013 but the Taliban did not announce his passing until Afghan intelligence revealed it this summer.

Navy

Think the bombing runs against the Islamic State are an adrenaline-pumping, dog fighting thrill ride? Well, negative, Ghost Rider. The New York Times’ Helene Cooper files from aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and reports that life for fighter pilots carrying out those missions consists of lots of boredom punctuated by moments of anxiety. The Islamic State lacks air defense weapons capable of reaching the jets, so the threats to pilots are different than they may have been in past wars. Rather than dodging MiG-28’s, pilots from the Roosevelt have to worry about the very real risk inherent in taking off and landing from a floating carrier and the mechanical difficulties that can develop over long flights.

Missile Defense

Breaking Defense reports that, in advance of a forthcoming report by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff on missile defense options, the military is increasingly looking at options to take out incoming missiles before they’re incoming — hitting them left of launch or before they take off. Lt Gen. David Mann, head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command says he’s seeing more willingness to discuss options including taking out missile threats before they’re launched.

South Korea

North Korea is reportedly prepping a forthcoming rocket launch which the Hermit Kingdom claims will launch a satellite into orbit, but which officials in the region say is a thinly-disguised attempt at testing out its long range missiles. In advance of any launches, Yonhap News Agency reports that the U.S. has deployed a ship off South Korea’s coast equipped with the Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense systems just in case Pyongyang decides to aim the rocket somewhere that doesn’t include a low Earth orbit.

Tweet of the day

Russia’s U.K. embassy trolls so hard.

RT ‏@RussianEmbassy Moscow appreciates that US actions against IS are conducted in a way that doesn’t harm Syrian govt forces’ capability