Austin Pressed On Russian And Chinese Bombers Spotted Off Alaskan Coast: Is There A Threat Growing?

3 months ago

During a press briefing on Thursday, Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin answered reporter questions on bombers seen off the coast of Alaska.

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00:00Secretary, Russian and Chinese bombers were off Alaska yesterday. I'm wondering if you could

00:08talk to us about what threat you think that growing cooperation is to the U.S. and also

00:15particularly to the allies in Asia who were very concerned with this growing activity.

00:22And for you, Mr. Chairman, the President himself expressed some disappointment in

00:28the peer and the aid that it was able to bring into Gaza. Now that that is gone,

00:34what, if any, military involvement do you see, U.S. military involvement, do you see as necessary

00:41or not in helping to get continued aid into that area where obviously Palestinians are still

00:47starving? Thanks, Leah. Regarding the Russian and Chinese aircraft that flew together

00:58in the north here recently, this was not a surprise to us. We closely monitored

01:07these aircraft, tracked the aircraft, intercepted the aircraft, which demonstrates that our forces

01:16are at the ready all the time and we have very good surveillance capabilities. And of course,

01:23I won't discuss any intelligence issues here at the podium. But again, it's the first time that

01:31we've seen these two countries fly together like that. They didn't enter our airspace.

01:40I think the closest point of approach was about 200 miles off of our

01:46coast. But this is a thing that we tracked very closely. We were able to intercept. And

01:53if it happens again, if there's any kind of challenge from any direction, I have every

02:00confidence that NORTHCOM and NORAD will be at the ready and will be able to intercept.

02:06In terms of the relationship between Russia and China, this is a relationship that we

02:14have been concerned about throughout, mostly because we're concerned about

02:20China providing support to Russia's illegal and unnecessary war in Ukraine. And we've seen

02:28evidence of that. And we would hope that that would cease going forward. But again,

02:40we'll see what happens and how this relationship continues to develop.

02:44We will remain focused on protecting the homeland here. And again, I applaud the

02:48efforts of NORTHCOM and our great airmen who are always at the ready.

02:53Let me just echo the applause, really, for the nearly 1,000 service members that

02:58operated J-LOTs over the course of—since the time they've been operating there in the

03:04Mediterranean. And so what I would tell you is that the 20 million pounds of humanitarian assistance

03:11to help the citizens of Gaza, you know, we moved all that forward. At the same time,

03:18the elements that we would be able to put in place, some of the coordination elements,

03:22and the flow from Cyprus, also the ground movement through Jordan, many of those things

03:30we'll continue to work on. And so the coordination elements that we're putting in place that we'll

03:34continue to sustain and support as we transition this capability of humanitarian assistance

03:41through other means, whether it's through land means through Jordan, but also through

03:44the Port of Ashdod there and Israel. MODERATOR Okay. Next question, we'll go to Fox. Jennifer.

03:49QUESTION Secretary Austin, just to follow up on the Chinese and Russian warplanes,

03:54the Chinese and Russians put out video bragging about this mission, so clearly it was a propaganda

04:00effort. The leader of the Houthis also bragged overnight that the drone that struck near the

04:04U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv flew 1,400 miles undetected. Are you concerned that the raucous

04:12political turmoil and election and the decision of the President to step aside

04:16is leading to adventurism and miscalculation by America's adversaries? Are they testing the

04:22U.S. right now? And General Brown, yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he wants

04:28the U.S. to deliver weapons to Israel faster. He also said that the ratio of civilian casualties

04:34to Hamas combatants killed in Gaza is the lowest in the history of urban warfare. Is that true?

04:40GENERAL BROWN Thanks, Jennifer. As to whether or not our adversaries are testing us at this

04:49particular time, they're always testing us, and that's no surprise to any of us. We see activity

04:57in the north on a number of occasions, and we are always at the ready to address that activity.

05:05And in terms of the Houthis, as you know, they have – they've been focused on

05:13successfully launching an attack on Israel, and this one drone that was able to get through

05:23is something that – it happened, but again, it – when you consider the fact that they have

05:32tried to attack Israel some 200-plus times and this one got through, I think it speaks to the

05:40remarkable air defenses that Israel has. But again, we will see challenges from adversaries

05:47throughout, and I don't think that this particular point in time is any different. I think we'll

05:56continue to see this going forward. It's just the nature of who they are and what they do.

06:03But again, we have the world's greatest military, most capable military,

06:08and we will continue to protect this nation.

06:10SECRETARY TILLERSON GENERAL, I'll tell you, we've – as a nation and as a military,

06:15we've provided capability for Israel to defend itself before 7 October but also after 7 October.

06:22And after 7 October, we rushed a number of capabilities into the Israelis, save recently

06:31one shipment of 2,000-pound weapons. And we'll continue to support the Israelis with munitions.

06:39To the prime minister's comments on the ratio, I have not seen the numbers to validate or

06:44invalidate what he said. But I will tell you, in every one of my conversations with my counterpart,

06:49I do talk about the aspect of minimizing the finishing casualties and pushing humanitarian

06:54assistance into Gaza as they conduct their military operations.

06:59QUESTION So you're not withholding or slowing weapons to Israel right now?

07:02SECRETARY TILLERSON We're not.

07:02MODERATOR Okay. Let's go.

Austin Pressed On Russian And Chinese Bombers Spotted Off Alaskan Coast: Is There A Threat Growing?

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