Defense reform proposals coming this week Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Louis Nelson, Austin Wright and Ellen Mitchell

A WEEK OF DEFENSE REFORMS: The conversation in Washington turns to defense reform this week — starting with House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry’s acquisition reform proposal, which he plans to unveil in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday. It’s the Texas Republican’s second year of reforms to the Pentagon’s oft-criticized system of buying weapons. And, like last year, he plans to unveil draft legislation to solicit feedback, with the intention of putting his final plans into the House version of the new National Defense Authorization Act.

In the Senate, Thornnberry's counterpart in the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain, is working on reforms of his own, including a potential overhaul of the Pentagon’s combatant command structure established in the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act. The Arizona senator hasn’t tipped his hand yet, but the Center for Strategic and International Studies will discuss potential reforms at an event this morning, which includes a former Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe, former U.S. Central Command chief retired Adm. William Fallon and former Air Force Chief of Staff retired Gen. Norton Schwartz.

— CSIS SURVEY ON DoD REFORMS: Maintaining civilian authority and ensuring quality military advice are the two most important guiding principles to new Pentagon reforms, according to results of a CSIS survey to be released this morning. The survey’s ranking of principles, shared with Morning D, found that improving personnel management and balancing military “supply” and demand are the least important principles. That question and more from the survey are broken down by respondents in the legislative branch, executive military and civilian military.

CSIS is also releasing a letter on today signed by more than two dozen former top military and civilian Pentagon officials, who say “the time is right to reexamine the Goldwater-Nichols Act and national security reform more generally.” The former officials point to both the speed and complexity of the security environment and the inefficiencies of the Defense Department as key reasons for tackling reforms and pledge to offer their own help with the efforts at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.

VIOLENCE AROUND THE GLOBE — MORE THAN THREE DOZEN KILLED IN ANKARA BOMBING, The Associated Press reports this morning that Turkey has launched airstrikes in response to the attack: “Turkey's air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq Monday, hours after a car-bombing that killed 37 people in the Turkish capital, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Anadolu Agency says nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK in the northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group's leadership is based.

“Police meanwhile carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the agency reported. The private Dogan news agency said at least 36 suspects were taken under custody. … A senior government official told The Associated Press that authorities believe the attack was carried out by two bombers — one of them a woman — and was the work of Kurdish militants. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.”

— AL QAEDA GUNMEN KILL 16 IN IVORY COAST ATTACK, via Reuters: “Gunmen from the North African branch of Al Qaeda killed 16 people, including four Europeans, at a beach resort town in Ivory Coast on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly attacks across West Africa. Six shooters targeted hotels on a beach at Grand Bassam, a weekend retreat popular with westerners about 40 km (25 miles) east of the commercial capital Abidjan, before being killed in clashes with Ivorian security forces, the government said. ‘Six attackers came onto the beach in Bassam this afternoon,’ Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said during a visit to the site. ‘We have 14 civilians and two special forces soldiers who were unfortunately killed.’”

— AL QAEDA AFFILIATE ATTACKS WESTERN-BACKED REBELS IN SYRIA, reports The Wall Street Journal: “Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria attacked a Western-backed rebel faction, taking over bases and seizing U.S.-supplied weapons in a sign of rising tension among regime opponents, members of the rebel faction and residents said Sunday. The attack began Saturday and ended Sunday, a day before United Nations-brokered peace talks between the regime and an opposition delegation were to get under way in Geneva.”

HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we wish all of our readers best of luck in their March madness picks. W — we’re just hopeful our bracket won’t be busted by Friday. Keep the tips, pitches and sleeper picks coming at [email protected], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

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WILL THE SYRIAN PEACE TALKS MAKE ANY HEADWAY THIS WEEK? U.N.-led peace talks are set to get underway again, but there are still plenty of fundamental problems to solving the civil war in Syria, Reuters writes: “Syria peace talks due to begin in Geneva this week look set to struggle with the sides showing no sign of compromise over the issue at the heart of the five-year-long conflict: the future of President Bashar al-Assad. The U.N.-led talks getting underway on Monday with U.S. and Russian support are part of the first serious diplomatic effort toward ending the conflict since Moscow intervened last September with air strikes that have tipped the war Assad's way.

“With the crisis approaching its fifth anniversary this week, Western states seem more determined than ever to bring an end to a war that has driven hundreds of thousands of refugees toward Europe and helped the rise of Islamic State. But while recent cooperation between the United States and Russia has helped to reduce the level of violence and brought the parties to Geneva, the positions of the government and opposition reveal little ground for a negotiated settlement.”

TOP TALKER — ISIL PUSHES BIRTH CONTROL TO MAINTAIN SUPPLY OF SEX SLAVES, The New York Times reports on one of the most heinous elements of the Islamic State’s rule: “Locked inside a room where the only furniture was a bed, the 16-year-old learned to fear the sunset, because nightfall started the countdown to her next rape. During the year she was held by the Islamic State, she spent her days dreading the smell of the ISIS fighter’s breath, the disgusting sounds he made and the pain he inflicted on her body. More than anything, she was tormented by the thought she might become pregnant with her rapist’s child.

“It was the one thing she needn’t have worried about. Soon after buying her, the fighter brought the teenage girl a round box containing four strips of pills, one of them colored red. … It is a particularly modern solution to a medieval injunction: According to an obscure ruling in Islamic law cited by the Islamic State, a man must ensure that the woman he enslaves is free of child before having intercourse with her. … To keep the sex trade running, the fighters have aggressively pushed birth control on their victims so they can continue the abuse unabated while the women are passed among them.”

2016 WATCH — RUBIO’S FOREIGN POLICY TEAM MISSING BIGGEST NAMES, writes POLITICO’s Michael Crowley: “One of Marco Rubio's core arguments against his primary rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is his claim to be a foreign policy heavyweight ready for the job of commander in chief. But one problem with Rubio's argument: the most senior members of the GOP foreign policy establishment don't have his back. The Florida senator this week announced an 18-member ‘national security advisory council,’ including at least seven former officials in George W. Bush's administration.

“But the top echelon of the foreign policy establishment — including every living former GOP secretary of state, secretary of defense and national security advisor — have declined to endorse Rubio, or join the organized opposition to Donald Trump. ‘I strongly believe they are horrified by Trump,’ says a former senior George W. Bush administration official with ties to some of the people in question. ‘I don't have a good idea of why they're not coming out now and saying so. It may have to do with the fact that he looks unstoppable.’”

— A ‘POLITICS-IN-UNIFORM PRIMER’ FOR SERVICE MEMBERS: Military Times has an interactive graphic to help active-duty service personnel stay within Defense Department rules when participating in this year’s political campaigns.

NAVY SAYS NEW OILERS VULNERABLE TO ATTACK, our colleague Austin Wright writes on a Navy report sent to Congress on the vulnerabilities: “The Navy’s new fleet of oilers will be vulnerable to torpedoes and missiles, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The oilers, known as T-AO(X) until Mabus announced in January the first ship in the class would be named for Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), ‘will only have a limited capability to defeat a submarine launched torpedo attack and no capability to defeat a missile attack,’ says Mabus's February report, obtained by POLITICO.”

MAKING MOVES — SCAPARROTTI NOMINATED TO BE NATO COMMANDER: President Barack Obama has tapped Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti to succeed Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander and head of the U.S. European Command. Scaparrotti is now the head of U.S. Forces Korea. Breedlove has been in his post since May 2013. His nomination still must be confirmed by the Senate.

SPEED READ

— Support for Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen has entangled the U.S. in the conflict there: NYT

— How the initial revolt in Syria five years ago spiraled into the five-year Syrian civil war that has left hundreds of thousands dead: The Washington Post

— U.S. and European powers threaten sanctions against Libyans who block forming a unified national government: WSJ

— The Air Force hopes that Pratt and Whitney’s engine work on the new B-21 bomber will help bring costs down for the F-35 engine: POLITICO Pro

— A U.S. sailor is accused of rape in Okinawa, Japan, where there’s been resistance to relocating a U.S. military base: USA Today

— Sixteen ships that participated in relief efforts in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster remain contaminated with low levels of radiation: Stars and Stripes

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