 All right, good afternoon, everyone. A few things here at the top. I'll get right to your questions. First, I'd like to take a moment to echo some of the points made earlier today by Secretary Austin during his remarks at Senate testimony. As the secretary said, the department has submitted an urgent supplemental budget request to help fund America's national security needs to stand by our partners and invest in our defense industrial base. We're requesting $10.6 billion to help Israel defend itself, $44.4 billion to help Ukraine continue to defend itself against Russia's ongoing aggression, and $3.3 billion to meet US military requirements and our submarine industrial base and to fulfill our AUKUS commitments. During his testimony, the secretary thanked the senators for their bipartisan support to ensure that we can defend America and stand by the allies and partners who magnify our strength. Now, when it comes to the situation in the Middle East, Secretary Austin highlighted that first and foremost, we will continue to protect American forces and our citizens in the region. Second, we will continue to flow critical security assistance to Israel. Our focus is on providing air defense capabilities, precision guided munitions, and more interceptors for the Iron Dome system. Third, we're coordinating closely with the Israelis to help secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens. Secretary Austin highlighted that we immediately provided US military advisors to offer best practices for integrating hostage recovery into Israel's operations. And finally, we've strengthened our force posture across the region to deter any state or non-state actors from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza to include the presence of two carrier strike groups currently in the region. Moving to other updates, today I can announce the decision to deploy an additional 300 troops to the US Central Command region from home stations in the continental United States. These additional troops will provide capabilities and explosive ordinance disposal, communications, and other support enablers for forces already in the region. Please note that we will not discuss specific deployment locations for these forces, but I can confirm they are not going to Israel and that they are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities. Separately, Secretary Austin continues to remain in close contact with his Israeli counterpart. He spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yov Galant yesterday by phone and received updates on Israel's phased operations in Gaza. The Secretary commended the Israel Defense Forces commitment to hostage recovery and re-emphasized the importance of conducting operations in accordance with the law of war. He also stressed the imperative to protect innocent civilians and allow unfettered humanitarian aid into Gaza. We have posted a readout of the call on the DOD website. Shifting gears later this afternoon, Secretary Austin will welcome his Australian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Richard Marles, to the Pentagon to discuss the United States-Australia Alliance and review progress on defense initiatives following the 2023 Australia-US ministerial consultations earlier this summer. We will share a readout following the meeting. Also this afternoon, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the Director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or ARRO, will be discussing the status of the ARRO website and the next phase of the secure mechanism for contacting ARRO to report on unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP. Additional details can be found in the press advisory published earlier today. And I would encourage any media interested in asking questions on this topic to take part in Dr. Kirkpatrick's briefing. And separately tomorrow, a pre-scheduled operational test launch of a US Air Force Global Strike Command on our redundancy and reliability of our strategic deterrence system while sending a visible message of assuring allies. For any further questions, I'd refer you to Air Force Global Strike Command. And finally, I'd like to take a moment to send General Eric Smith, Commandant of the Marine Corps, well wishes and a speedy recovery on behalf of Secretary Austin and the entire Department of Defense. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. And with that, I'll be happy to take your questions. We'll go to Tara Kopp, associated for us. General Roder, in the days since the loosened shooting, it's come to light that the Army determined that the main reservist shouldn't have had a gun at the time. And there's been numerous other warning signs about him. Is the Pentagon looking at all at maybe something that was missed or a way to maybe further tighten reporting to law enforcement in the wake of this attack? Yeah, thanks, Tara. So I'm not aware of any specific departmental efforts as it relates to this individual case. What I would say is that for service members who are departing the service or service members who are even still in the service, but in particular those departing, we do offer a wide variety of services as part of that transition process to include medical and mental health care services. Once a service member leaves, he or she is, of course, a private citizen. And when appropriate, certainly the DOD would consult with local law enforcement. In this particular case, the individual, of course, was in the Army Reserve, so I'd refer you to them for any further questions. All right. And further, can you give us an update? Has there been any additional attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria in the last 24 hours? Is the total still 23, I think? So, again, we'll continue to keep you updated. What I'm tracking right now is since our self-defense strikes on 26 October, there have been six additional, what I would consider, small-scale attacks, three in Iraq, three in Syria. Right now, we're tracking a total of 27 attacks, 16 in Iraq, 11 in Syria. Again, as we see the data minor alerts pop up, we check each of those with CENCOM, go back to verify the information. And as that information is either verified or batted down, we'll make sure to let you know. Did any of those actually hit the bases or are they all intercepted? In some cases, they just didn't strike anything. Yeah. Again, to my knowledge, no injuries, no damaged infrastructure. OK, thanks very much. Yes, sir. General, you have discussed about these attacks, the need to keep the response specifically to them isolated to the anti-ISIS coalition and how that's separate from what's going on in Gaza. But we have seen such an increase over the past couple of weeks. Does the Department acknowledge at least a link of what's spurring these attacks? Is the US's support for Israel? Yeah, so I think it's important to differentiate between what Iranian proxies and Iran might be saying and the perspective that we bring to this, which is our forces are in Iraq and Syria for one purpose, which is the enduring defeat of ISIS. That's why they're there. That's what they'll stay focused on. So this is separate and distinct from the situation in Israel between Israel and Hamas. And so, again, our message is we will take whatever necessary actions to protect those forces, to deter future attacks. And if and when we need to respond, we would do so at a time and place of our choosing. If they are separate, what has led to the increase in attacks over the past couple of weeks? Well, certainly this is not the first time we've seen these Iranian proxy groups do these kinds of things for a multitude of purported various reasons. So that in and of itself is not unusual. And again, we'll do what we need to do to protect our troops. And you said you're going to hold them accountable. Do you have a sense of how involved the Iranian government is in these attacks or are they simply just not communicating for these groups to hold off or do they even have that power? Yeah, we know that these groups are funded, trained, sponsored by the Iranian government and we hold the Iranian government responsible for that. Let me go to the phone here, Tony from Bloomberg. Quick, I'm going to slow them on you. Two quick questions. Roughly how much presidential drawdown authority do you have left now for Ukraine? And I had a second question about the Persian Gulf. Yeah, sure. So right now we have a little more than $5.4 billion in restored PDA authority that remains available for Ukraine. And Persian Gulf is the United States increasing its force posture or protection measures in the Gulf to protect international shipping from Iranian small boat harassment attacks if in fact they occur. Well, Tony, we have those forces in the region for a variety of things to include helping to protect the shipping lanes and free flow of commerce through the region. And we've been doing that for a very long time. So certainly that is a capability that we can provide working alongside our partners in the region. We'll continue to do that. Thank you. John. Thanks for your writer. You mentioned that the US is providing munitions to Israel. Does that include ordering munitions like the switch blades or Phoenix goes that the US is providing to Ukraine? Yeah, so beyond what I've already provided, I don't have any additional support to announce. Again, we're focused on artillery, ammunition, precision guided munitions, and air defense capabilities. And with regard to air and missile defense in the Middle East, is the US providing any directed energy air and missile defense systems to US troop locations in the Middle East that have come under attack to kind of augment their traditional air defense capabilities? So I don't want to go into the specific capabilities that we're using to protect our forces other than to say we have a wide variety, which does include directed energy capabilities. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, General. I have two questions. Under clarity of the US extended deterrence to South Korea, what is the Pentagon's assessment of the US in South Korea? Join research report on the strengthening nuclear guarantees for South Korea, which aims to redeploy US nuclear weapons in a feasible way if North Korea refuses to freeze nuclear weapons production. I'm sorry, Janie. Can you repeat that last part I didn't fully understand? I want to make sure I get your question right. I mean, which aims to redeploy US nuclear weapons in a feasible way if North Korea refuses to nuclear product weapons? Yeah, so I don't want to get into hypotheticals. We've been very clear in terms of our commitment to extended deterrence, working very closely with our Republic of Korea allies, our Japanese allies, and others in the region to deter. And we continue to stay very focused on that. We'll continue to consult closely to make sure that we have the forces in theater to be able to prevent any type of issue like you highlight, so I'll just leave it at that. Thank you very much. The Defense Ministers of China and Russia present military cooperation between the two countries at a recent conference in Beijing. And they branded the United States for the Middle East crisis, saying that it was due to US 40 diplomacy. Why do China and Russia say that the war between Israel and Hamas is because of the United States? I'll let China and Russia speak for themselves. I think their record speaks for itself. Vadi. Thank you, General. So on the US assistance to Israel, can you date us on how many shipments you have delivered at the price tag of these shipments so far? I cannot. I don't have that information in front of me. As you know, we continue to provide assistance to Israel pretty much on a daily basis, and we'll continue to stay focused on communicating them as far as what their needs are. In the future, if we have that information and we're able to provide it, we certainly will. But as of right now, I don't have that. I mean, is it an issue of collecting how much you sent, or is it something else? Because in the case of Ukraine, whenever there's a new package of assistance, the Pentagon announces what's in it and the price tag. So this is being offered in the name of American taxpayers and American people. Yeah, no, very, yeah. You know what's been offered. Again, I don't have that information in front of me. As appropriate, we'll provide it. Certainly, right now, there's an element of operation security and the mechanisms by which we're providing assistance to Israel from a policy and a legal standpoint are a little bit different. And from a budgetary standpoint, a little bit different than the way we're providing aid to Ukraine. And so, you know, again, we will make sure that we're as transparent as possible, while also recognizing that there are operation security aspects to this. But like I said, if at an appropriate point in time, we have that information to provide and we're able to, we will. So you'll try to offer the information when if. Yeah, but I mean, we've been very clear in terms of the kinds of capabilities we're providing in terms of the types of munitions, medical support, air defense support and those kinds of things. And if I may, the IDF spokesperson on CNN with Wolfritzer minutes ago acknowledged that Israel targeted Jabalia refugee camp where scores of civilians have been killed. The IDF spokesman said, this is the tragedy of war. What we've been saying for days moves out. Your own department is saying there are no restrictions on Israel how to use weapons provided by the U.S. The secretary today in his tweet about his phone call with Mr. Galan said he re-emphasized the safety of civilians. Wouldn't the idea of putting some restrictions on how Israel used the weapon actually achieve the target of making sure civilians aren't being killed the way we're seeing it? I mean, the other way is saying, this is a quote, Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. Yeah, thanks, Fadi. So I can't speak to individual Israeli strikes. I've seen the repressed reports on that. I don't have any information on that. You heard Secretary Austin say today that taking civilian safety into account is both a moral and a strategic obligation. And we do care about civilian casualties and we've made it both clear publicly and privately about our concern for the protection of innocent life and the respect for the law of war. And that's not gonna change. But I also think it's important to not forget about the common denominator here, which is Hamas, which is a terrorist organization that has taken a page out of the ISIS playbook in terms of brutality and wanton disregard for civility and for human rights. And not only did they commit a horrific slaughter of Israeli civilians and take more than 200 hostages to use as bargaining chips, but they've willfully and deliberately integrated their operations, their command and control nodes, armories, rockets targeting Israel among the innocent, Gaza population, thus in effect employing them as human shields. And so it's Hamas using Palestinians as human shields that is creating this extra challenge for Israel as they conduct their operations. And we're gonna of course continue to talk to our Israeli partners about the importance of taking civilian safety into account as they conduct their operations. But we also recognize that they have a responsibility and a duty to their citizens to protect their citizens from future Hamas attacks. And we're gonna continue to support them in that effort. And as you heard, Secretary Austin and Secretary Blinken talk about today, the US government is also going to continue to work very closely with other partners as well as vetted NGOs to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, to the Palestinians, because again, no one wants to see innocent people suffering whether they be Palestinian or Israeli. Thank you. Yes, Joe. Thank you, General. I wanna go back to the Houthis attack against Israel. Do you have any additional information in regards to this attack? You could share it with us. Was it a missile or a UAV? And also, does the Pentagon consider the Houthis activities right now as a threat to Israel or it could be extended to the whole region? Yeah, thanks, Joe. So I'll tell you what I know. Right now, we are aware that the Houthis did fire a medium range ballistic missile or cruise missile to targeting Israel. Israel did take it down. The IDF did take it down. And so I certainly refer you to the IDF to talk about that in particular. This is something that we will continue to monitor as we've said before. We want to prevent a broader regional conflict. We will continue to stay in close contact with our partners in the region to make sure that we continue to do that. That's all I've got on that at this point. Thank you very much. The big difference between a ballistic missile and a cruise missile, which did you say? This was a, I'll have to come back to you, David. I don't want to get it wrong. But we know that they have missile, as I've mentioned before, they have missiles that can range approximately 2,000 kilometers. So clearly within range of Israel. Yes, sir. Thank you. So today, Secretary Carson said that if you guys stop supporting Ukraine Russia will succeed in Ukraine. Do you have additional options for supporting Ukraine's military in case if Congress does not approve new funding now or in the future? Yeah, so at this point, I appreciate the question. I don't want to get into the hypotheticals. We will continue to work closely with Congress to get the funding that we need. We're confident that we can continue to support both Ukraine and Israel. Go on more in Ukraine. Could you provide us with the updates on the training in Arizona on F-16s and how long approximately can it take for the pilots to complete the course? Sure, let me just double check here. So right now, what we expect graduation completion will be dependent on the individual proficiency of pilots themselves, but we can estimate about five to nine months for them to complete that training. Five to nine? Five to nine. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you very much, General. The United States has been providing military guidance and assistance and also lethal assistance to Israel. And you made it very clear that you're talking to your counterparts about they have to be mindful of what's real in life. But also there are statements coming from both the Secretary of State and also the White House that there's no conditions set on the use of ammunition and the U.S. is not drawing any bread lines, quote unquote. Would you say that it's basically a blank check to the Israeli military to do whatever they want because there is support from the United States and there's no conditions set? And would you say that it's time to perhaps stop warning about warning them about consequences rather than recommendations? Well, I think Secretary Austin did talk about his consultation with his Israeli counterpart and again across the board about the importance of taking civilian safety into account in order to think through the second third order effects here, right? And so again, we're providing these munitions to Israel to support their efforts to protect their civilians from further terrorist attacks. The Israeli Defense Forces are a professional military. They're engaged in a campaign to defeat ISIS and prevent them from doing what they did on October 7th. And as we've said, we support their right to defend themselves against terrorism but in a way that upholds the laws of war and protects civilians. And so again, as I highlighted earlier, the challenge in all of this is the fact that you see Hamas embedding themselves among the Ghazan population. And so again, we're gonna continue to relay to our Israeli partners that they must distinguish between terrorist and innocent civilians as they root out Hamas and they've acknowledged that. Thank you. Sounds like a valid point that Hamas is using these civilians as human shields. That's why there are these casualties but we're talking about thousands of civilians. So are you able to pick out the ones that the Israelis are saying, okay, I mean, they're right. They've been used as human shields and in disaster strikes specifically, no, they actually haven't upheld the laws of war. Is the DOD able to make that differentiation? Well, look, I'll let the Israelis speak to their own specific operations. We know that they're not deliberately targeting civilians unlike Hamas which did deliberately target civilians and is deliberately using civilians as human shields. And so again, this is what creates a very challenging operational environment. And again, for our part, we will continue to communicate the importance of taking the laws of war into account as well as protecting civilians. Let me go to the phone here, Jared from Elmonator. Hey, sir, just wondering if you can confirm the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Amphibious Ready Group. Are they in the Eastern Med yet? So Jared, what I can tell you right now is they're still in the U.S. Central Command AOR, Air Responsibility. Beyond that, I don't have any updates to provide. If and when there are, we'll certainly let you guys know when we can. Thank you. Let me go to Lara Seligman, Politico. Hey, Pat, thanks for this. Two questions. First of all, has Secretary Austin spoken with the new House Speaker? Yet, there's a couple of things I imagined he'd be wanting to talk about including aid for Ukraine and then I have a follow-up. Yeah, thanks, Lara. I will have to get back to you on that. Certainly, the Secretary's on the Hill today. I do not know if he had the chance while he was there to engage with the House Speaker. So we'll come back to you on that one. Okay, thank you. And then a different question. There was just a story from the New York Times saying that Chris Mayer said that there were U.S. Special Operations Forces currently in Israel trying to help locate the hostages. I'm just wondering if that is accurate or are the Special Operations Forces the ones that were just offering advice to the Israelis and are not gone? Right, my understanding is that these forces are there supporting the advice and intelligence support as it relates to hostage recovery. Thank you. Ro. Thank you very much. One quick question on North Korea. North Korea said that they will conduct military satellite launch by the end of October, but they didn't. So does the Pentagon assess their technical issues that North Korea has to resolve for successful satellite launch or do you see indications that North Korea is still preparing to conduct satellite launch in the near future? Yeah, thanks, Ro. I appreciate the question. I'm not going to go into intelligence on what we may or may not know as it relates to that. Certainly something we will continue to monitor. Thank you very much. Time for a few more. Wafa, and then we'll come here, yes, sir. Yesterday, a junior defense official said that the administration is asking tough questions. Of course, asking Israel tough questions. If you can elaborate on this, and especially that doesn't seem like Israel is taking these advices and I have another question. Sure. As I highlighted, I mean, we are asking in our consultations, like good friends do, and highlighting the importance of being methodical in terms of targeting, taking into account civilian safety, thinking through second, third order effects, as I've highlighted. Again, at the end of the day, these are Israel's operations that they are taking to defend themselves against a future terrorist attack, like the one they experienced. And they're the ones that are gonna make decisions. We're not directing, advising them on any of that. But again, we'll continue to have those conversations going forward. Yes, ma'am. So Hamas is not a conventional army, as you know. And in fact, it's part of the population in Gaza. And it's unlike ISIS and Al Qaeda is considered, Hamas is considered as a resistant movement by a majority in the Arab world. My question is, from a military point of view, how is it possible to destroy or eliminate Hamas without eliminating an entire population in Gaza? Yeah, so we don't see the Palestinians as Hamas and as Hamas as the Palestinians. And again, I'd go back to October 7th when a terrorist organization essentially killed in cold blood, 1400 people and took 200 hostages. Again, using those hostages today as a bargaining chip, preventing people from leaving Gaza. So if you're so-called governing these people, but preventing them from leaving Gaza, you know, again. So it is a terrorist group like ISIS. And it is the kinds of thing you saw in places like Raqqa and Mosul, where there was a population that was being held by an ideological captor. And so again, we are very focused on making sure that not only does Israel have what it needs to defend itself, but also making sure that Palestinian, innocent Palestinians can get the aid that they need. And looking forward, and again, from this podium, Department of Defense, I'm not gonna get into the diplomatic or political realm, but we are interested in what does this look like afterwards and how do we get to a two-state solution so that Palestinians and Israelis can live safely and securely without the threat of being subjugated by a group like Hamas. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Two questions. One, as far as Hamas attack, a surprise attack against Israel on October 7th. They didn't care who they were killing, civilians or non-civilians. Now, Israel have a challenge, as you said, that how to separate civilians from these terrorists. Another thing is that where is the Palestinian government in this war, as far as Israel's war against terrorists on their land. And whenever they're attacked by terrorists, whether it's against the U.S. or India or Israel, those nations, except the East or the West, we call them terrorists, but they call them they are freedom fighters. So where is it? So as it relates to the Palestinian Authority, I'd refer you to them to talk about where they stand on this issue. And in terms of the definition between freedom fighter and terrorist group, I get what you're saying. But any moral high ground was lost on October 7th, when 1400 innocent civilians, many of them innocent civilians killed, hostages taken, and so again, that's not the conduct of a professional military that's looking to defend a population. And let me go ahead and move on to the phone here. Patty, task and purpose. I guess it's kind of a bigger question. How is the Pentagon seeing the operations in the Middle East? I mean, are we, what's the operational threshold for us being considered at war? We're seeing movement of troops, movement of military assets, and threats on U.S. troops. So I guess where, how does the Pentagon see all this? Yeah, thanks Patty. So again, I think if we take a step back here, right now we see this conflict in Israel contained to Israel between Israel and Hamas. We do recognize there are broader tensions in the region as a result of that, which is why we have deployed additional capabilities into the Eastern Mediterranean and into the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility to provide us with the options necessary to respond to a wide variety of contingencies. So those forces are really there for two things. One, to deter any escalation of a broader regional conflict, which no one wants national security work like the Defeat ISIS mission, like keeping the lanes of shipping open and with regional partners on air defense and things like that. So again, right now we are working very hard to prevent this from becoming a broader regional conflict. We're working very hard to make sure that our forces can continue to stay focused on their mission, while at the same time supporting Israel and their fight to defend themselves from terrorism. All right, that time for just a couple more. Mike. Yes, sir, thanks, Pat. You said that the IDF is a professional military. You know they're not deliberately targeting civilians. Yet it seems like every time somebody from the Pentagon calls Israel, they have to sort of stress not to target civilians and not to, or feel the need to remind them to act in accordance with the law of war. Has Israel done anything that would lead this building to assume that it's an alien concept to them? I mean, they've been around as a standing army for 70 something years. And also, I don't recall this emphasis on any of this military support for Ukraine. That he has, did he have to constantly remind his Ukrainian counterpart to follow the rule of law of war in Ukraine? Yeah. Or is it just Israel? Thanks, Mike. So I'm not gonna compare and contrast the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. I think we've all watched how those have played out. I think at the risk of coming across is, and I don't mean this to come across like I don't understand what you're asking. Clearly, everyone's watching the television and seeing the situation as it plays out in terms of humanitarian situation in Gaza. We recognize that. So you and other members of the press can ask very legitimate questions in terms of what is the Department of Defense saying and doing as it relates to that situation. So that is why we're highlighting the fact that these conversations are taking place because it is a topic on people's minds. And it's a legitimate topic. And again, as I mentioned, we recognize the complexity of this conflict. We recognize the emotion surrounding this conflict, but we also think it's important to have a broader understanding of why we're supporting Israel, why it's important to support Israel, but at the same time, why it's important to also help with the humanitarian situation in Gaza and to sort of see through the smoke screen here that Hamas is attempting to put up when it comes to the situation. So that's what I would have to offer you on that. All right, let me go to the last question. We'll do John and then actually we'll go to Jim. Thanks, I just want to get a quick clarification on something. You said that U.S. air and missile defenses in the Middle East include directed energy weapons. Were those systems that had already been deployed there? I said we have a wide variety in our inventory of the U.S. military that includes directed energy weapons. I didn't say specifically what we've got employed and where. So you won't say whether they're in the Middle East? Yeah, at this time, I'm just not going to go into what we're using and how we're using it. I mean, you and I have both been over there quite a few times. You've seen we've got a variety of capabilities to include sea whiz and things like that. So I'm just not going to go through a breakdown, especially while we have forces that are over there right now. So last question, Jim. General, I'd just like to go over to Ukraine a little bit. It's winter in Ukraine now. Are operations slowing down? What are the Ukrainians selling you? And the training that the United States and the coalition put together for the Ukrainian units in Germany and in other places. Is that contingent on the supplemental being passed also? I'm just curious. Yeah, thanks, Jim. So again, when it comes to providing an operational update, I'd refer you to the Ukrainians. I would say, largely speaking, what we see are the Ukrainians making some incremental gains. They are making forward progress. We are seeing, in some places, the Russians attempting offensive operations with limited effect. I think NSC provided a briefing the other day that talked about some of the issues there. All that to say, though, you do see the Russians attempting to move forward in some areas. And so again, right now, we continue to stay focused on making sure that Ukraine has what it needs in order to capitalize on the situation, have the battlefield effects that are necessary to not only preserve territory, but take back sovereign territory. As in regards to training, we are continuing to conduct training at Grafenvere. I will have to get back to you, though, in terms of the specifics on how far out that training will go. But certainly, the supplemental funding will support those efforts for the long term. I think the last thing I'd say on this, and it's an important point, is we're not only focused on the near term. We are focused on the long term defense cooperation and relationship with Ukraine and ensuring that they have what they need to be able to deter future attacks from Russia and maintain their sovereignty long term. So thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.