Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III holds a news conference at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, July 24, 2021. This is the first stop on a multi-day trip to visit allies in Asia.

Transcript

Well. It’s been a terrific day and I want to thank Senator Senator Sullivan for accompanying me today. I know how committed he is to our national security and to keeping our capability sharp here in Alaska. I think the only thing that he cares about more than those capabilities are the men and women serving here and their families and we had a chance to speak with some of them today, thanking them for their service and for what they do every day to help defend this nation. It is impressive. They are impressive. Now. I also come away from this visit with a few takeaways first, is a keen reminder of just how strategically important Alaska is to our national security into homeland defense. We are in indo pacific nations and we are an arctic nation. And here in Alaska, those two critical regions intersect. This is where we can project power into both regions and where we must be able to defend ourselves from threats coming from both places. It’s also where we can better posture ourselves and prepare for climate changes that will impact our future. And when we talk about strategic competition, well, the arctic is one of those places. That is right for you. As the permafrost melts, the arctic will increasingly become a theater for resource competition and even instability and we need to stay ahead of that. I was impressed by the army’s arctic strategy and thinking that they are applying to operational concepts here. I also came away with a better understanding of the capabilities that we deploy and permanently based here. And you can see many of those capabilities as you look around here from fifth generation strike aircraft too, integrated air and missile defense and the exceptional training ranges to include the joint pacific Alaska range complex. There’s a diverse set of options that we can employ and I intend to make sure that we keep them as lethal and as ready as we can. And that’s really the last impression that I took away from my time here, the need for continued readiness and modernization. I was impressed by the training that goes on from missile defense exercises to the red flag exercise, to the cold weather and mountain warfare training that the army conducts at the Northern Warfare Training Center Center. It goes without saying that this is a harsh environment. But as I said, it’s a critically important region and we must continue to hone. The skills are soldiers and airmen learn in Alaska’s unique training environment. You must also invest appropriately in the infrastructure needed to keep them ready and to keep them vigilant. And I’m committed to doing that and to working with the services to make sure that we adapt and modernize our training and the tools that we give our troops up here. And that’s really the last thing that I like to address our people. I’m mindful of the stress that they’re often under. And I’m deeply concerned about the suicide rates, not only here but across the force. You’ve heard me say before, 1, 1 loss by suicide is too many. And while we’re working hard on this problem, we have a lot more to do. And I believe that has it has to start with removing the stigma attached to mental health issues. Mental health is health period. And we have to approach it with the same energy that we apply to other any other health issue with compassion and professionalism and resources. And so if you’re hurting there are resources available. And I know that our leaders here are committed to making those resources even more accessible in available. My first priority is to defend this nation. And I’ve seen a lot of things today that help us accomplish that goal. But key to achieving it is taking care of our people, taking care of each other. And that was one of my messages to the men and women that I spoke with today. We need to look out for one another. As I promised I would be looking out after them in every way possible. So with that I’ll take some of your questions Greece basically that’s it. First reporter was trying to system and saw that yeah, parts of the country and locations you think that’s going to stop means me being made by the Taliban. And secondly, if you could play as an update patient, so you’ve you’ve correctly describe what the afghan leadership is doing right now. They are consolidating their forces around the key population centers in terms of whether or not it will stop the taliban. I think the first thing to do is to make sure that they can uh slow the momentum. Uh and then and then be able to put themselves in a position where they can retake some of the games that the Taliban, uh some of the ground that they’ve lost. So I think I think from my engagements with the Afghan leadership, they are committed to that. And and so uh we look forward to uh to they’re making progress. They have they have the capabilities they have the capacity to to make progress and and to and to really begin to blunt some of the taliban’s advances. But we’ll see what happens. This idea of things any progress. Well we continue to work on on the S. I. Ve. Issues. Uh We’ve also heard me say that I believe it’s more one of our moral obligations to to help the people who have helped us. D. O. D. Is fully in support of the of the State Department’s effort to uh to address this issue. And of course our focus has been on identifying places where we can we can house S. I. Ve. Applicants as they go through the process. Our immediate focus is on making sure that we set up all the things that are necessary to support the parolees that are coming to very soon to Fort lee Virginia. We’re well on the way to having all the pieces in place to support that. And uh and I truly believe that that will be a very successful and smooth operation for good in your lost. Yeah. Yeah. What is it work last the last? Well thanks. I think you heard me say in my statement that uh this is a very critical place on the on the globe. It is the intersection of the areas of responsibility of a couple of combatant commands. You know the indo pacific command which is really important to us as well as the Northern Command. It it truly is a place where we think that as we continue to to develop our capabilities here, it will certainly help us in our efforts to two create capacity and capability that allows us to do what we set out to do in increasing the competitive edge with the adversary’s like uh like china and Russia. Yeah, wow, business. Well, you’ve you’ve seen us increase our capability up here recently with the arrival of additional f 30 fives uh and we’re in the process of building out the capabilities to support that effort. And uh and of course we’ve already announced that and and I don’t have any further announcements to make the day. I will just point to the fact that I’m really proud of, the people that are up here working hard every day to create a world class training environment and a world class capability. Again, that gives us additional capabilities to protect this nation and also to, to increase our competitive edge against some of our adversaries without. Yeah, yeah. Now, mm, well, as you know, um, Prime Minister koizumi is in Washington as we speak. He will meet with the President on on monday. I won’t get a ahead of any discussions that he and the President will have. I would just remind you that we are there at the invitation of the Iraqis, uh, and that, and were there for a specific person and that is to help train of advice and equipped them to uh, to to do things such as countering ISIS, which has been a threat throughout. And we certainly don’t want to see ISIS uh redevelop additional capability. You’ve heard Prime Minister Academies say that, you know, he is very grateful for the for the support that we’ve given them in the past and he certainly uh looks to benefit from that that support going forward and then the body, do you think Right? Yes, that darling and then, okay, we’ve noticed There was a six month gap strike. Yeah. Mhm. Stop. Okay, this is strikes stretch that just started. Uh huh. Do they mean they won’t work until he strikes against al Shabaab and for that. So I’ve lost count. Is that two questions or three questions uh in in terms of the types of troops that we have in uh in Iraq, you know, all of our troops are capable of doing multiple things. And certainly, you know, we uh task our combat troops, our troops that are capable of conducting combat operations with training, advising and assisting. Uh and so, so we’re capable of doing a number of things and and uh it’s been that way throughout. You’ve seen us do that around the globe. And so I think trying to trying to make that distinction is very difficult. But I would say that the key is will be, you know, what we’re purpose, what were tasked to do at any one point in time. In terms of the strikes in Somalia, General, Townsend has always had the authority to employ force to protect our forces and also to protect our partner forces. As you may know, we’ve been working with with partner forces in Somalia to counter uh the activities of Al Shabaab, which is an Al Qaeda affiliate. Uh and uh and most recently what’s happened is our partner forces have increased their their optempo and uh and they have been pushing back on Al Shabaab in a more significant way. And the result of that is uh some engagements that were fairly intense and we conducted those strikes to support our partner forces here, john one of the things I really am anticipated is the out the friends, not just in yes, there isn’t, it goes right. Does your four trips, just wondering why why should african american care of this has, you’re in Mhm outreach the pretty and and that out potential at well, as you know, jim we have everything that we have done in the past has been a part of a as a part of a team, a coalition, it’s who we are. It’s how we fight. It increases our capability and capacity in in ways that are very difficult described to describe, but it magnifies our capabilities and it’s something that we’re very, very proud of. And you know, we uh we look to continue to develop our relationships with like minded partners and allies, those that share our values, those that that look to do things like ensure that we have that we follow and an international rules based order, which which I think is very, very important to us. Uh and so it is our strength. And I would point to the fact that others don’t have those kinds of don’t enjoy those kinds of partnerships and alliances. If you look at china or Russia, they don’t have the the ability to to uh to align themselves with uh with like minded partners to the degree that the United States does. It magnifies our capability uh in uh in ways that are really difficult to describe because they are so significant. No, you’re right over here. Yeah. Australia f 35. It’s an american. There was it’s absolutely encouraging. Um, it’s the way that we operate. We train with each other. We share common practices and and policies uh and it’s how we’re going to fight going forward. And again, it really increases our capability by orders of magnitude. Last question. I want to right, carrying. Got it. Yeah, I’m sorry. Because of the background noise. I didn’t okay with the recent prize area housing more recent speaking like uh, like uh, like the rest of our leadership, like the rest of the world, I remain very concerned about uh, the most recent variants. It is highly transmissible. And and I would point to the fact though, that we have worked hard to continue to vaccinate our force. We We have at least 70% of the force that’s uh gotten at least uh you know, one dose of the of the vaccine. We’re going to continue to push push hard to uh ensure that we’re making the vaccine available to the force. And we’re going to encourage people our troops to uh to take the vaccine. It’s a very important force protection measures. Thanks very much. Yeah. Why? Uh right now it remains voluntary. Our focus is going to continue to be on making sure that our troops have uh the right information, factual information that they can talk to their doctors. They have the ability to talk to their families about about this uh this vaccine. You know, if you just look at what the vaccine has done across across the globe, it’s incredibly powerful. And so we think, you know, I think the right thing to do is to make sure that we continue to encourage our troops to take it. Thanks so much everybody. Yeah.