DEFENSE SECRETARY LLOYD AUSTIN: Well, again, let me echo Sabrina's thanks there. I really appreciate you coming along. It's always good to come out and take a look at what's happening with some of the initiatives we've worked hard to put into place. And of course, universal pre-K is one of those initiatives. We think it's really important.
And you get a chance to see some of that firsthand, and also see some of our DoDEA professionals in action as well. They are truly impressive, and they're committed. You've heard me talk about my three priorities, defending this nation, taking care of people and succeeding through teamwork.
And these are not just catch words, catch phrases. Together with the staff, we push pretty hard to ensure that we're actually doing things to provide benefit to our troops and families. And we've done a number of things over the three and a half years. The announcements today were the latest installment on the things that we've done.
And I think we've added real value to our families and to our troops, and we're not finished. We're going to continue to push because it's important. Over the short period of time that I was in the military, equipment changed, uniforms changed. What didn't change was the fact that we take some of the best people in the world and work with them to develop them into better people.
And again, you see evidence of that as you visit this installation and so many other installations around our country. I could talk about our people for hours. We don't have hours. We just got a couple of minutes, so I'm going to stop there, and Sabrina, turn it back over to you.
SABRINA SINGH: Tara, can you kick us off?
Q: Mr. Secretary, thanks for doing this. So first on Ukraine, it sounds like there won't be a policy change on giving Ukraine any sort of additional long range strike right now. Have you been working with the White House and State Department in the last couple of days to explain the Pentagon's reasoning on why now is not the time to do this with the ATACMS?
And then secondly, on the Syria raid, did the Israelis give you advance notice that they were going to conduct this raid? And do you think there's any sort of implications for any sort of escalated violence in the region as a repercussion? And then I have one more. Sorry, I know you don't like them all packaged up, but you have spoken a lot today about taking care of people.
And we just passed the 23rd anniversary of 9/11. And some of the troops that you commanded when you were at Fort Drum back then, are actually some of the very first responders to 9/11 that are still waiting for radiation exposure to be covered by the VA. And I'm just wondering if you're committed to getting this coverage for them before your time as secretary is over?
LLOYD AUSTIN: Tara, on the last one, I think you know me well enough to understand that I truly believe that we should do everything we can to take care of our troops. And so I know there are a number of questions about, K2 is what you're referring to. And we're going to turn over every rock till we get answers.
We haven't denied provision of health care benefits to troops, to my knowledge. This is an issue of uh, of other types of benefits going forward. But nonetheless, this is important to me. I know it's important to the secretary of the VA. We're partnering with Johns Hopkins to examine, you know, what was there and what could be the possible causes of this. We'll be complete with that work later this year and then we'll provide that information back to the VA so they can determine what benefits are available to our troops.
But it's important to support those who have sacrificed for this country. On long range strike, first of all, a lot of people, a lot of countries are talking about long range strike. Only a couple of countries in the inventory actually have that capability. So there are a lot of ideas, a lot of thoughts about what should happen, but there are only a couple of countries that have that capability. There are a number of things that go into the overall equation as to whether or not you want to provide one capability or another.
You heard me say the other day that there is no silver bullet when it comes to things like this. One thing doesn't determine the end of the end of a conflict or the transition in that conflict. It's a combination of different things that create the effects that you want to create. But I think as you make those decisions, the goals and objectives need to be clear, what are you trying to accomplish as you employ those weapons systems?
And another thing that goes into that equation is what's in the inventory, how much do you have in your magazine, what kind of risk do these countries accept as their inventory gets lower and lower? And then again, are there other types of capabilities that you can employ to accomplish those objectives?
Ukrainians have been very impressive in their ability to create things like long range drones that they've employed effectively to go significant distances to engage targets. And they continue to develop those capabilities. Other countries are investing in their ability to do that.
And so there's more capability out there than just what's being talked about with these long range strike capabilities that the US and the UK have. But again, we're going to stay focused on doing everything we can to help Ukraine be successful in defending its sovereign territory.
Q: How worried are you that a missile with a US serial number would be used to strike Moscow and then be used as propaganda for a wider war?
SECRETARY AUSTIN: I don't want to speculate. A lot of things can happen. Certainly, we do not want to see a wider war and I want to emphasize that the United States of America is not in a fight with Russia. It's been one of our objectives from the very beginning to not get engaged in a fight with Russia, and the president's been very clear about that. But Tara, that's two of your three questions there, so I think we should stop there.
SABRINA SINGH: I'm going to go to Chris next.
Q: OK. And thank you, Mr. Secretary, for doing this. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has left the Middle East. Does this mean that the threat from Iran has eased? And how will you continue to deter Iran long term, while keeping your eye on the pacing challenge of China?
SECRETARY AUSTIN: Well, it does not mean that there is not a threat from Iran and that we should no longer be concerned. I think you have to take them at their word when they advertise their intent to do something, whether it's today or in the future. So I think it's important to remain at the ready, especially for Israel to remain at the ready.
And as we said, we're going to do what's necessary to continue to help Israel protect itself. But I think you have to remember, I mean, that's an aircraft carrier. I still have an aircraft carrier in the region, and I still have a lot of other capability in the region, and I know you guys track what's there and not there on a daily basis.
But again, when you saw us do what we did on the 13th of April, we didn't have two aircraft carriers in the region, then. We actually still have more capability in the region than we had on the 13th of April.
SABRINA SINGH: Corie.
Q: First of all, thank you for the initiatives. As a military spouse, I really do think that they're going to make an impact. There were some good ones that you announced today. Why don't you tell us who you are and what you do?
I'm Corie Weathers. I'm a mental health clinician by trade, but I'm a consultant that works with a lot of military leaders, doing a lot of leadership development and study the culture as a whole. So I have a cultural question for you. Considering, talking mental health that trust is do the right thing for the right reason for a really long time, so considering trust is on a decline for institutions as a whole and we have generational differences in our force where they are waiting to earn trust or wanting the institution to earn trust before they outright give it, what would you say or what would you like to see the DOD do to earn trust with the force, especially for those who are struggling, who have served a good portion of GWOT?
SECRETARY AUSTIN: Well, I think we have to continue to do the kinds of things we are doing. We got to stay with it. We're investing in telehealth care. We're investing in spending more money on mental health care or access to mental health care.
Year to year, you hear me engage Congress on that when I testify about our budge, I think it's really important. Mental health is health period. You've heard me say that a number of times. And then I think there are things that we need to do better in terms of making sure that we don't lose people in the transition.
As you transition from active duty to becoming a veteran or serving in the reserves or whatever, sometimes people can get lost there, especially if they're undergoing some type of treatment as an exit. Are we doing the right things to make sure that their needs are provided for throughout?
I think we can do better at that. And Dennis McDonough, the Secretary of the VA and I are really close friends and we both recognize the challenges and we both recognize that we need to do more, and we will do more.
SABRINA SINGH: We're going to do two more, Konstantin and then [inaudible].
Q: Thanks. Thank you for doing this, Mr. Secretary. Staying with the topic of the TCOP changes that you've rolled out, some of them are immediate, some of them are, we're going to study a thing and in a year's time roll out a new benefit. The WiFi sort of comes to mind. Some of the problems that you're looking to address are more acute. So, I guess my question very, very broadly is, do you feel like you're moving fast enough with some of these changes?
SECRETARY AUSTIN: Well, I mean a generic answer to that is you can never move fast enough but I do think we are moving — we are getting things done. I mean if you consider that our troops in three years will get over a 14 percent increase in their pay, the increase in a basic allowance for housing, that's been very meaningful.
You heard me tell the troops a story today of when we first put that initiative into play. I didn't want folks to apply for things. I wanted them to wake up the next day, look at their leave and earnings statement and see that they had already had money in the bank.
It's those kinds of things that I think help to maintain that trust between the institution and our troops and our families. But yeah, I would like to take a big chunk of money and knock all the barracks that have challenges down today and rebuild them today, but our appropriation system, it doesn't work like that – And so you have to operate within the rules and the confines of that system. But having said that, I think Congress is very much interested in making sure that our troops have what they need. You've seen Congress promote an initiative to pay lower ranking enlisted force more money.
And I think that's good. So it would be ideal to move faster, but I think we have done a lot of things to provide a lot of benefits, things like the commissary cost. We drove that down in a matter of days and not weeks or months. It's about making a decision, here's what we're going to do and it's about leadership.
Old guys like me saying, I want to see prices lower in the commissary, not two months from now, I want to see it right now. And we saw that. Some things will take longer, but I would tell you that many of the things that we're discussing are happening or have already happened.
Q: I appreciate that. Thank you.
SABRINA SINGH: Noah, if you could close this out.
Q: Thank you for doing this. A couple of things here. Kurt Campbell said that China's support for Russia's defense industry has gone from dual use equipment to more direct support. I'm wondering if you can comment on what that means exactly and when that changed? Secondarily, also in regard to the Middle East, we were together on the Subic Bay trip when the retaliations from Israel happened both in Lebanon and then also in Iran.
Iran has not responded yet and I know in part that's due to the surge in forces from the US to the region. How much do you credit that lack of a response to the capability that's been brought to CENTCOM and EUCOM?
LLOYD AUSTIN: On your last question, I think it has mattered a lot, but it's not just the capability of being there. It's the messaging associated with that. It's the active engagement of leaders. It's making sure that as we endeavor to manage the crisis, what we're doing on both sides of the fence to make sure that we don't allow something to unnecessarily escalate out of control.
But to answer your question, the force posture does matter. In some cases, Iran can see everything, all the capabilities or many of the capabilities that we have available. In many cases, they can't. And so in terms of how much support the PRC is providing to Russia, we have seen that support increase.
We don't see the direct shipment of tons of munitions and weapons to Russia, but as companies continue to try to circumvent sanctions, we see efforts, those kind of efforts increasing there. But something that we're going to continue to watch.