Remarks By Acting Secretary Shanahan Prior to an Enhanced Honor Cordon Ceremony Welcoming Japan's Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya to the Pentagon

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PATRICK SHANAHAN:  What's that?

Q:  Can you -- can you now confirm, now that it's been longer, that it was components of an anti-tank weapon that was tested by North Korea?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  I'm just saying what Barbara was reporting this morning, so I'm going to defer to our expert.

(Laughter.)

Q:  Can you confirm it?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  What's that?

Q:  That it was components?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  When you say "components," I --

(CROSSTALK)

Q:  Of -- of an anti-tank weapon --

Q:  (inaudible) weapon.  It was components of something.

SEC. SHANAHAN:  Yeah, I don't have the details on -- I just haven't been chasing it.  There's been a few other priorities.  So that gives you kind of a sense of where it ranks, okay?

What do you think?  Good day?

Q:  Are you worried the Chinese might find the missing Japanese F-35A?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  No, I'm not, okay?  We're supporting the investigation there, or the incident -- whatever you want to describe it as.  The Japan -- the Japanese have the lead there, and we're working very collaboratively with them, and we've got a lot of capability if what they have doesn't prove to be sufficient, okay?

Q:  How many more U.S. troops are going to the border?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  I don't have a finite number there.

But maybe just to get ahead of that one, I haven't received an RFA (request for assistance), but I'm working without one.  And so we're going through and looking at anticipating what they'll need in terms of -- you know, where DHS loses its capacity is in the migrant family processing.  It's really that when you think about their finite ability to do apprehensions, they're really kind of trapped back in the -- the processing side of things.  So work -- (inaudible) so working with the Joint Staff, we're finding a way to, how do we do more monitoring and detection for them?  We may take that on as a mission.

(CROSSTALK)

Q:  Can you rule out that U.S. troops will be detaining migrants that are at those camps?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  Would we do what?

Q:  Will U.S. troops be detaining --

Q:  Detained -- you can be involved in detention...

SEC. SHANAHAN:  We don't do law enforcement.

Q:  Have you heard from the I.G. (Inspector General)  yet?

SEC. SHANAHAN:  Not yet.

All right, thanks, guys.

Q:  Thank you, sir