 look again what we're focused on is preventing the crisis in Israel as it relates to the conflict between Israel and Hamas from expanding into the broader region so far it's our assessment that that has been contained Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza now that's not to say that there aren't elements you know in Iraq and Syria that are attempting to exploit the situation as you've seen with these rocket and drone attacks oh by the way it's not the first time these groups have done these sorts of things so as they again try to use this situation to advance their broader objective which is to expel us forces from Iraq and Syria again we have a very important mission there focused on the defeat ISIS mission it's the only reason our forces are there they will stay focused on that and we're going to stay focused on protecting them as it relates to the Houthis again I've highlighted that that we will continue to consult with international allies and partners on an appropriate way to protect commercial shipping going through that region and at the same time ensuring we do what we need to do to protect our forces you've been following this region for a long time you know that the Houthi forces Houthi rebels have been engaged in conflict throughout that region for a while now just in this case now they're targeting international shipping and so the United States along with many countries in the region have provided a presence there to ensure international security and stability we will continue to play an important role in that effort all right good afternoon everyone have quite a bit to share at the top today so thank you in advance for your patience then we'll get right to your questions this morning the air force announced that the search and rescue effort for the air force special operations command osprey aircraft mishap in japan has transitioned to a search and recovery effort of the eight airmen on board the aircraft at the time of the mishap the remains of three airmen have already been recovered and the remains of another three airmen have been located and are in the process of being recovered the recovery operation will now focus on locating and recovering the remaining two airmen and aircraft debris all families have been contacted about and notified about the loss of their loved ones and our deepest condolences go out to the families friends and colleagues of these eight American airmen who are impacted by this tragic mishap and the immeasurable loss of life we want to thank the government of japan for all of their assistance air force special operations command is investigating this mishap and i'd refer you to them for any further questions separately secretary austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general brown will join other senior leaders from across the interagency today in a closed session to all members of congress to brief on the urgent need to pass the administration's supplemental budget request as secretary austin has said the supplemental request must be passed to fund our critical national security requirements to stand by our partners in their moment of need and to invest in our defense industrial base notably without additional funding the department may soon reach a point where it cannot sustain the current level of security assistance support to ukraine the situation underscores the importance of continued congressional support for ukraine at a pivotal moment in their campaign to defend their freedom as they push back on russia's war of aggression also on ukraine senior leaders from do d to include secretary austin and undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment dr william will plant will participate in a ukraine industrial base summit tomorrow here in washington dc alongside our ukrainian partners and interagency counterparts from the departments of state and commerce the summit will reinforce our shared commitment to enhance ukraine's defense industrial base and to further security cooperation between our two nations of note on thursday dr will plant will convene the eighth meeting of the national armament directors under the auspices of the ukraine defense contact group the meeting will be held here at the pentagon the first time the forum is convened in the united states the session is a vital forum that brings together more than 40 nations nato and the e you and is aimed at collaboratively solving industrial base and sustainment challenges in support of ukraine both to meet immediate requirements while also supporting ukraine's long-term defense and national security needs we will post additional details of both of these important uh events on defense dot gov after their conclusion in the middle east united states continues to support us a id and un humanitarian relief operations in gaza at the request of us a id the department of defense airlifted another 16.3 metric tons or 36 000 pounds of vital supplies to the people of gaza today providing more vitally needed medical supplies warm clothing and food and nutrition as in our previous airlift these supplies were delivered via a us air force c 17 to egypt to subsequently be transported via ground into gaza and then distributed by un agencies today's delivery follows the november 28th delivery by dod of 54 000 pounds of supplies to the people of gaza additional flights are expected in the coming days and for more information on these ongoing efforts i would refer you to us a id and other updates the secretary will host swedish minister of defense pal johnson at the pentagon later today to discuss key defense and security topics during the meeting secretary austin and minister johnson will sign the first ever us sweden defense cooperation agreement the agreement will enable enhanced defense cooperation such as the legal status of deployed us military personnel access to deployment areas and prepositioning of military material the dca also creates the conditions necessary for us military support when requested and is therefore an agreement of great importance to both countries shared security objectives we'll post a readout of the meeting to the defense department website afterwards and earlier today principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs tressa guanoff joined the u.s. department of state to lead the department of defense delegation to the 50th anniversary session of the u.s. portugal standing bilateral commission in angra do here ismo azores to discuss key bilateral defense priorities including transatlantic security and to recognize 80 years of defense partnership at lodges field finally more than three dozen national guardsmen from the arkansas international guard are in guatemala this week to work alongside guatemalan physicians to provide free medical care for civilians in guatemala city these guard airmen have been treating as many as 500 patients a day providing dental optometry family medicine and orthopedic care since 2002 arkansas and guatemala have been joined as part of the national guard state partnership program and take part in 20 to 30 military to military exchanges per year for more information about the state partnership program and its important impact on supporting allied and partner nations worldwide you can reach out to the national guard bureau public affairs and with that happy to take your questions we'll go to associated press lita thanks pat can you give us the secretary's reaction to senator tuber bill lifting his hold on the vast majority of the nominations and also what impact does it have on the department that he has suggested he would continue to hold four star nominations what what problems does that create well certainly we're encouraged by the news and we'll continue to stay engaged with senator tuber bill and the senate directly to urge that all the holds on all our general flag officer nominations be lifted to include those nominated for four star as you know there have been upwards of 455 nominations concerning 451 general and flag officers at the senate for consideration in terms of the number of four stars there what there would be at least 11 four stars that would be impacted by those continued holds and and all of those positions obviously are key senior leadership positions to include the vice chiefs of the various services the commander of us pacific fleet the commander of pacific air forces commander of air combat command as well as the commander of united states northern command cyber command and space command so clearly vital and critical organizations all of which require experienced senior leaders in those positions create any complications as some of the people move up into the three star jobs and and some move up into other positions or because this create complications with people in the same post or what and what happens with those who are nominated yes sure so that that is something that we will continue to work through you know this is obviously developing but clearly something that the department has experienced in in terms of managing general and flag officers but to your point it's not just flicking a switch and suddenly everyone moves into these new positions you have to consider things like when people can move where the the people that are moving out of the positions are going and so all that has to be carefully orchestrated and done in a way that enables us to continue to conduct the operations without having significant impact not only on the mission but also on the individual family members so that will that will be something clearly that will continue to work through and have more information on in the coming days Jennifer Pat what was accomplished by Senator Tuberville's hold I'd have to refer you to Senator Tuberville to talk about that I mean clearly from a Department of Defense standpoint we have an mission to do and we require senior leaders in key positions to help lead and conduct the operations of the Department of Defense and so I'll just leave it at that can you be more specific about the impact it actually had in terms of the officers and their families what what impacted it yeah well clearly again as evidenced by everything that's going on in the world right now we have a very important mission in terms of defending this nation and anytime you add a level of uncertainty into the chain of command it creates an unnecessary friction it has an impact on readiness as we try to stay focused on the mission which we are going to do and so this department is very focused on a daily basis on getting that mission done but when it's unclear whether or not your senior leaders are going to be in place at the time in place they're needed that of course creates unnecessary friction and does have impact on readiness any agreement made with Senator Tuberville what changed I'd have to refer you to Senator Tuberville for that Matt I have a question about Iraq and Syria so we know about the AC 130 that struck it ran back to militants in Syria after an attack on American forces last month and we know about the U.S. drone that preempted an attack by militants in Iraq over the weekend can you tell us how many of these sort of unplanned swift either counter-battery or preemptive strikes the U.S. has launched in the region since October 17th yeah thanks Matt I don't I don't have anything else to read out to you clearly we have and always have had the inherent right of self-defense and so if our forces on the ground are attacked it is certainly within their right to take appropriate action and respond and so in those cases obviously you know we we were able to highlight that information for you but I don't have any additional updates to provide for troop safety in the region that you've talked about in the past should we expect more of these kind of preemptive strikes against these militants going forward so I'm not going to telegraph what we may or may not do other than to say we're going to do what's necessary to protect our forces in this particular case again you know it's what I would consider a dynamic strike in the sense that they saw this attack about to happen took appropriate action to to eliminate the threat and so the bottom line is we will do what we need to do to protect our forces thank you very much let me go over here to Fadi and then I'll come back to Joseph I have two separate questions first on the Secretary's speech in in California where he talked in length about the war in Gaza and he said that the only way to win an urban warfare is to protect civilians and he personally pushed as he said Israeli leaders to protect to do more to protect civilians since the end of this pause on Friday health authorities in Gaza are saying that more than 1200 civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes how satisfied is the Secretary from the way Israel is going about protecting civilians in Gaza yeah thanks Fadi so I can't comment on the numbers that Hamas the Hamas health ministry is is putting out so I can't verify those numbers but what I can say what I can't can I answer your question what I can say is that the Secretary work his words speak for themselves and we will continue to consult with our Israeli partners on the importance of taking civilian safety into account as he highlighted not only is it a moral obligation but it's a strategic imperative at the same time again we do recognize that Israel is engaged in a very difficult fight when it comes to preventing Hamas from conducting the kinds of attacks they did on October 7th in a very dense urban environment in which Hamas has intertwined itself among the civilian population in effect using them as human shields so again I'm not going to speak to Israel's operations per se other than to say that again we will continue to talk with our Israeli partners and expect them to conduct their operations in accordance with the law of on conflict thank you on the numbers just just want to note that the UN is using those numbers and even the US government and we saw that in a hearing in congress where US officials said there are more well what you said was that since the operations started again on Friday that the Hamas ministry of health has said to and I just can't vouch for those numbers but what I'm saying is even the US government is acknowledging that these numbers are accurate but on the second thing issue amnesty international new investigation has said that 43 Palestinian civilians have been killed in two unlawful airstrikes by Israel using US made weapons and amnesty is saying these are apparent war crimes does US have any or this apart department any understanding of how many civilian Palestinians have been killed by weapons provided to Israel by the US yeah thanks fatty so as far as the report goes we're reviewing that report as you know as a general matter we don't offer public evaluation or we don't offer evaluations of public reports that are by outside groups but again I'd go back to what I said earlier is that we are going to continue to consult closely with our Israeli partners on the importance of taking civilian safety into account and conducting their operations let me go to Joseph thanks today earlier today the Lebanese army announced that the Israeli strike and the Lebanese base killed one Lebanese soldier injured three others it seems like it's the first of this kind and without speaking to Israeli operations it also comes on the heels of last week's call between general brown and the Lebanese army chief and general brown reiterated the the need to restore calm along the blue line so does the department have any any comment or response to the attack today which the Lebanese army until today says they're not involved in any of these combat operations yeah thanks Joseph I I don't have any information on on that particular report clearly the Lebanese armed forces are an important partner in the region but I just don't have any insight into that again as the chairman highlighted we do not want to see an escalation of the conflict along the the northern border of Israel and so I'll just leave it at that just to follow up on a question this last week dr carlin a few weeks ago said that there's a civ cas office here the department's tracking civilian casualties in Gaza do you have any can you elaborate at all and what what exactly they're doing are there any reports that are expected to come out I'll have to take that question I don't have any further information let me go back here to wafa and then Nancy general uh the Israeli defense secretary said uh or predicted that the war and its current intensity uh may last for at least another two months does the pentagon share this assessment and will the united state be providing or continue to provide Israel with the security assistance as long as this war would take yeah so I I can't put a timeline on an Israeli operation that's really a question for the Israelis to address I can tell you what we're focused on and you've heard me talk about this before number one is protecting us forces and citizens number two is ensuring that Israel has what it needs to defend itself from future terrorist attacks by Hamas we're also continuing to work closely with Israel in terms of hostage recovery and then also ensuring that this crisis does not escalate into a broader regional conflict so that will continue to remain our focus so you you continue to provide the military assistance as long as this war will take we will continue to consult closely with Israel to ensure that they have what they need to defend themselves to prevent a future terrorist attack one more thing uh can you confirm that the us is flying is our flights over Lebanon and also if you can tell us if you resume the is our flights over reza off to take that question I don't have that Nancy thank you I wanted to follow up on some of the comments that secretary awesome made over the weekend in his speech he warned that um that there was the possibility that in that Israel could replace tactical victory with a strategic defeat and so I'd like to understand is if he is if that worry is leading to any changes in terms of the types of weapons that the united states provides Israel or or how it advises Israel to prevent the strategic defeat that he warned us yeah thanks Nancy so I'm not going to get into the the specifics um other than to say again we uh consult closely with Israel secretary Austin speaks as counterpart on a near daily basis uh and part of those discussions includes the kind of security assistance Israel needs to prevent a future terrorist attack uh in the future um those conversations also include a robust discussion as he highlighted in his remarks of ensuring that civilian safety uh is taken into account as well as the importance of ensuring that humanitarian assistance is being provided to the people of Gaza so I'll just leave it at that thank you very much ma'am um so the Wall Street Journal actually they reported um yesterday that the Israelis are weighing a plan to flood uh Gaza's tunnels used by Hamas with seawater and I'm just wondering if that's something that US defense officials have been told about by the Israeli counterparts a plan that they've been consulting on and or something they would support yeah I'd have to refer you to the IDF to talk about their operations thanks Natasha let me go to the phone here before I get in trouble uh let's go to Lara Seligman Politico hi yes thanks Pat sorry I hope you can hear me I'm in kind of a loud space but I'm just wondering um if the secretary has uh had any discussions or presented any options about whether to about striking back potentially um on any of the Houthi targets um in in Yemen or the Houthis that have been launching attacks at commercial shipping yeah thanks Lara so again I'm not going to telegraph or or speculate on potential strikes in the future as you've heard us say we're going to do what's necessary to protect our forces now let's take a step back here and talk about the situation in the Red Sea um as as you've heard uh yesterday most likely from uh the White House in terms of the uh or the national security advisor talked about the fact that we are in discussions uh with our partners and our allies about a maritime task force it's important to highlight that the Houthi uh strikes against commercial vessels in international waters underscore the fact that this is an international problem all three of these ships were sailing in international waters representing a variety of countries in terms of where they were flagged and who they were crewed by so those talks are ongoing I don't have any specifics to announce but I would highlight we already have the framework in place to enable such a task force through the combined maritime task force now the important thing to understand about that task force it's an international task force made up of 38 nations it is a coalition of the willing and it does not prescribe a specific level of participation from any member nation so those contributions are determined from each country and so therefore can vary depending on its ability to contribute assets and its availability to provide those assets at any given time so uh we are definitely uh looking to take action here uh as it relates to working with with partners and allies throughout the region oh by the way something that we've been doing for years thank you amya go to jeff shogle task and purpose thank you uh you had mentioned some of the uh four star positions that remain vacant including the head of air combat command uh cyberspace northern command how is the department affected or how is it limited by these uh continuing vacancies yeah thanks jeff well to be clear uh there are people uh in a lot of those positions uh in some cases though they've been extended or in some cases there's uh an acting role in the case of the vice chief positions to your point currently there there would be no vice chief so it's a combination um and then again in terms of the impact we've got a lot of work to do uh and you you need to have the right leaders in place uh in order to carry out those operations oh by the way in some cases when you're in an acting capacity you don't have the full authorities necessary to sign off on policies or to make decisions uh or by virtue of uh statutes that may exist that require a senate confirmed leader uh to be able to carry out certain duties so again um we've talked about this ad nauseum and the importance of making sure uh that all holds are lifted and that nominations can make their way through the senate chris thanks pat there were many uh elected leaders at the reagan forum secretary austin was there um did secretary austin discuss um the hold issue with any senators or their staff um at the reagan forum um has yet any recent conversations either in person by phone letter other beings that may have put a renewed sense of uh urgency on this issue yeah thanks chris so i'm not going to get into the private conversations uh that he had other than to say he did have the opportunity to engage with congressional leaders uh at the reagan defense forum but but look he's been very clear on this both publicly and privately for a very long time now and the importance of lifting these holds thanks very much joe thank you general rider uh i want to go back to what you have said about the maritime task force uh does the pentagon believe that the gcc should and egypt should play a role in this uh international yes international effort thanks joe again i don't have anything to announce today in terms of the specifics other than to say we do have a framework in place as it relates to the combined maritime force so when we have additional details to provide we certainly will do that thank you very much sir thank you very much general um regarding to the new york times airport yesterday um ahmas missile struck an idf facility um housing israel's nuclear capable missiles so do you have any um knowledge about that attack that attack will be uh that's happened already on 7th of october last october and how much does the doti concerns about impact on us strategic stack pile in israel because of this war yeah thanks uh as it relates to that that news report i don't have anything on that i'd refer you to israel clearly though when you take a step back uh and to your point there are missiles being launched into israel which again highlights the threat uh that hamas does pose to israel jj uh sir you you mentioned three things that were part of the objective for sending the added presence to the region um since the october 7th uh massacre in israel and the third one which was to prevent the crisis from expanding um to other parts of the region given the frequency and the types of attacks and the those that have been involved is depending on satisfied that this conflict hasn't already expanded yeah look again uh what we're focused on is preventing the crisis uh in israel as it relates to the conflict between israel and hamas from expanding into the broader region so far it's our assessment that that has been contained israel is fighting hamas in gaza now that's not to say that there aren't elements uh you know in iraq and syria that are attempting to exploit the situation as you've seen with these rocket and drone attacks oh by the way it's not the first time these groups have done these sorts of things so as they again try to use this situation to advance their broader objective which is to expel us forces from iraq and syria again we have a very important mission there focused on the defeat isis mission it's the only reason our forces are there uh they will stay focused on that and we're going to stay focused on protecting them as it relates to the hoothies again i've highlighted uh that that we will continue to consult with uh international allies and partners on an appropriate way to protect commercial shipping going through that region um and at the same time ensuring we do what we need to do to protect our forces you've been following that this region for a long time you know that the hoothy forces hoothy rebels have been engaged in conflict throughout that region for a while now just in this case now they're targeting international shipping and so the united states along with many countries in the region have provided a presence there to ensure international security and stability we will continue to play an important role in that effort let me go back to the phone and i'll come back to jennifer here let me go to howard warzone hey thanks back um the idea of saying that about uh two civilians for um killed to every Hamas fighters are you tracking that that that level of casualty figure uh look again i i don't have any uh information to provide on specifics of casualties howard other than we know uh and you've heard me say before uh that thousands of civilians have been killed in this fighting we regret any loss of life uh and and any loss of life is tragic uh which is why you see us working so hard to make sure that not only does civilians uh or humanitarian assistance get in but also that we're continuing to consult closely with the israelis on the importance of mitigating any civilian harm jennifer just a quick follow-up in terms of the freedom of navigation operations what message should the chinese be taking from the us reaction in the red sea you had ballistic missiles and drones fired at us vessels would this be the same response in the pacific and what message should china take from us yeah so a couple things so first of all uh just to clarify um in in the case uh of what we saw over this weekend with the drones um those drones were coming in the direction of the carney which is why you know they took it down i can't stand here and tell you that we know definitively that they were headed towards the carney but they were within the threat ring and the commanders took the appropriate action to ensure that they were defending themselves um every single time you're in one of these situations you have to judge it on your own merit which is again why it's important to have qualified experienced people in command uh in order to make sure that you're not taking actions that could potentially escalate the situation so to your question as it relates to uh inappropriate unprofessional behavior in the south china sea again a lot of times it's target identification uh or aircraft identification and knowing what you're dealing with here uh same thing if you're flying over syria and you are interacting with any russian assets uh you you need to make appropriate decisions on um on on that situation and what the appropriate action is going to be all that to say all of our forces always maintain the inherent right of self-defense uh and if there is a threat perceived they could take appropriate action and we'll do so ballistic missiles were fired at three international ship ships and they hit those ships if the same thing happened in the south china sea would the u.s still not respond i'm not going to get into hypothetical situations other than again we'll take appropriate action based on the situation jenny thank you general excuse me why not the national security advisor so libon said uh united states budget to support to ukraine around is excuse me i got really husky voices ukraine has run i'm sorry i'm going to do all over again why does national security advisor so libon said that the united states budget to support ukraine has run out and he also said that uh south korea had supplied large quantities of artillery shells to ukraine so how will the budget be covered and should the south korea more artillery shells support to increase yeah so um just to kind of underscore what mr selvin said you know time is really of the essence when it comes to congress passing the supplemental uh request uh or else we will find ourselves in a position where we're not able to support ukraine's security assistance requirements much longer and so we will as i highlighted at the top of this briefing secretary austin general brown will both be on the on the hill today to again speak with members of congress and to highlight again we want to work closely with them to have this supplemental pass so that we can continue to support ukraine and meet their urgent security needs to prevent further russian aggression time for a few more tony do you have the current figure of how much pdf about presidential drawdown authority is still available and once that's exhausted do the services have other sources they could tap for ukraine yeah so um right now uh there is roughly 4.8 billion dollars in restored uh presidential drawdown authority still available um and there is uh 1.1 billion in existing resources available to backfill us stocks so in terms of funding as i as i highlighted without funding we will not be able to provide ukraine with the critical security assistance it needs to protect its cities its people its critical infrastructure um and we may reach a point where we can't sustain the current level of security assistance support to ukraine uh and our our spending decisions are going to be informed by multiple factors which include ukraine's immediate needs their equipment availability and our capacity to replenish our resources ensuring that our aid is both strategic and sustainable so again we would just continue to urge congress to pass the supplemental circle back on the amnesty international issue and you said we're looking at the report is the civilian mitigation and response force uh unit that's in the policy shop are they the ones actively looking at that report is is this the kind of uh report that that unit would be is looking at to advise senior leadership here in their discussions with israel yeah so kind of similar to what uh joseph was asking so i'll i'll take that question back and and we'll look at that holistically sir can't because that's of use to the public to know that you got it thank you very much sir i still working on determining how much military assistance has been sent to israel so because you've been working on that for a couple weeks yeah so um what what i would tell you here because again i you know i think we've talked about previously in terms of why are you able to provide information on ukraine but you're not able to provide information on israel and so i have dug into this a little bit further and i would say that it's it's important to differentiate the security assistance we're providing to ukraine uh in israel the department of defense budgeted for ukraine uh which is trackable via the presidential drawdown authority announcements that we've made but the situation in israel is different so do d has not received appropriated funds or drawdown authority for israel so instead israel is using its own funds to pay for us defense articles and services to include state department provided foreign military financing for some items that are sold through foreign military sales uh as well as direct commercial sales uh and so um if you know congress acts on the supplemental budget and funds are appropriated then certainly there will be an ability to track those funds but congress has yet to act on a supplemental budget request for ukraine and israel and as i highlighted it's essential that they they do so so at this time do d has not been provided any funding for support to israel and our previous funding for ukraine is nearly exhausted so again we would just call on congress to pass it now that israel has resorted to a military campaign this administration said that no red lines are drawn and also no preconditions on the usage of the u.s ammunition and weapons is that still the case can you confirm well again i just go back to how we got here right on october seventh when hamas attacked israel killed over 1200 people took over 200 hostages um half of which are still being held so we understand fundamentally israel's right to defend itself from these kinds of attacks um but again as i highlighted earlier we also expect that israel will conduct its operations in accordance with the law of armed conflict and we'll continue to have those conversations uh for all the reasons i've highlighted and as secretary austin highlighted in his remarks uh at the reagan national defense forum let me take just a couple more from the phone james uh messenger uh thanks for the question um on pda funding i'm going to answer the first question uh part of the question that i had on that on on pda funding uh and i understand if you can't talk about this because you don't want to yeah i understand you're a man who doesn't like the telegraph but um i was wondering when we talk about that the pda funding is about to run out we're not able to replenish our stocks we're talking weeks we're talking months is there any sort of timeline that's you know and again i understand you don't want to telegraph to the russians but what does soon mean james um again you know part of this i i don't want to get into a specific date since a lot will depend on the size of upcoming pda packages uh and again those spending decisions are informed by the the factors that i highlighted um but the bottom line is it's going to be sooner rather than later and so this is why again uh the department to include secretary austin has made clear that we need congress's support now to provide ukraine with the capabilities uh we need congress's support now so that we can provide ukraine with the capabilities that they urgently need to defend themselves okay take one more from the root here sir hi thanks for doing this um human rights watch reported i believe this morning that satellite imagery that they reviewed showed that the israeli military destroyed extensive farmland in the northeast gaza strip including during the uh recent truce when the idf was in control of the territory in which the farmland was destroyed um does the department see a tactical reason to do this when the idf is already in control of that territory and does the department support uh this proposition that israeli officials have thrown out there about creating a buffer zone inside the border of gaza yeah thanks i i don't have any information on that jared so i'd refer you to the israelis to talk about their operations thanks thanks very much everybody