STAFF: Ma'am, good afternoon. Sir.
So we will have a couple of opening statements from both Deputy Secretary Hicks and General Wolters followed by about 20 minutes or so of questions. We'll just go back and forth since there are only two reporters, all on the record.
Ma'am, over to you.
DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE KATHLEEN HICKS: Sure, great. Thanks.
So, good afternoon. I first want to thank General Wolters for hosting me here at EUCOM. It's an incredibly important time for the command for our country and as he looks ahead to his retirement in a few weeks time, I just want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your leadership, General Wolters, at EUCOM, and your long-standing service to the United States and the United States Air Force.
U.S. European Command has been at the forefront of the U.S. military response to Russia's unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine. It has taken a central role in reassuring Allies and partners by effectively executing rapid force posture adjustments, by extending or repositioning the already robust military capabilities the United States maintains in the region, and deployed additional air, maritime, land, space and cyber capabilities. We responded robustly and quickly.
With cumulative deployments ordered by Secretary Austin, by early March the United States reached over 100,000 military personnel either stationed in, or deployed to, Europe and its waters. EUCOM has also taken a central role in coordinating and transporting security assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces. My visit today to EUCOM's coordination cell and the UK-led international deconfliction and coordination cell have highlighted the great work the United States and our Allies are doing side by side to provide timely and effective security assistance to Ukraine. This coordination was also visible in Monday's virtual Ukraine Defense Contact Group hosted by Secretary Austin, during which several countries announced new security assistance packages to Ukraine. This includes critically-needed artillery ammunition, coastal defense systems, tanks and other armored vehicles as well as new commitments for training Ukraine's forces.
This gathering built on the success of the initial meeting of the UDCG held at Ramstein Air Base in April. The UDCG will meet again, in person, on June 15 on the sidelines of the NATO Ministerial Conference in Brussels. My discussions with EUCOM leadership have been, and will continue, to be focused on the continuing adoption of enabling data and analytic tools, supported in part by our AI and Data Acceleration or ADA initiative. Through ADA, we've provided EUCOM with a team of data scientists to augment their growing data capability. It's clear that the ADA initiative has already had meaningful impact on EUCOM's operations to support Ukraine, but we know that we have work to do to ensure we are fully supporting our ADA data scientists in growing an organic data and AI capability here at EUCOM.
I look forward to continuing to work with EUCOM to improve the infrastructure and tools needed to ensure we're able to provide the kind of decision support that our mission demands. Looking ahead, Russia's unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally altered the European security landscape. It is the greatest threat to European security in decades, but I am confident that the United States, working alongside our NATO Allies and partners is well-positioned to continue safeguarding our shared interests and values as we build a secure and stable Europe. And let me turn it to General Wolters.
GENERAL TOD WOLTERS: Well, first let me start off by thanking Secretary Hicks and her team for the troop visit. As Secretary Hicks just mentioned, the data exchange is very high on all of our report cards, and when it's all said and done, as a military organization looks to improve, they must always improve in command and control, and as we all know, data and working at speed in order to make better decisions certainly enhances, sort of, our over all command and control. And I've never found a commander in the history of the United States military that's ever satisfied with his or her current disposition in command and control, so we always want to get better and this visit will certainly help with that.
I'd just like to make a couple of quick comments that are centered around the support to Ukraine and the defense of the Alliance. Ukraine is resisting this aggression with courage and great, great determination.
Nations are providing light and heavy equipment, helping Ukraine defend its people, its territory, and its free and democratic future. The United States leads these efforts with nearly $4 billion in lethal assistance since the start of the invasion at the end of February. We'll sustain our support for as long as necessary.
With respect to the defense of the Alliance, we've responded in all domains, all regions to shield all Allies of NATO alliance. We've deployed elements of the NATO response source, eight battle groups under NATO command to strengthen our forward defense. Under my authorities as the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, we've over 42,000 troops positioned in eastern Europe. We've got 120 jets at high alert and we've got over 20 ships ready to respond.
In the land domain, we've seen a 10-fold increase in the number of soldiers available to support serving to defend our territory. The air domain has seen a 50 percent increase of fighters patrolling over the skies, and in the maritime domain, we've filled the standing naval forces to 100 percent. All of this is made possible, quite possibly and quite honestly to the biggest adaptation of NATO strategic concepts since the Cold War and that's the inception of the concept for the deterrence and defense of the Euro-Atlantic area. It's improving capabilities. It's improving our command structure and it's increasing our overall readiness. Thank you.
Q: I’ll just start. You obviously visited the logistics center—could you just broadly sort of talk about, sort of, your thoughts about it and just both of you generally having this sort of joint center, because three months ago even, that was conference center, and the fact they're all in one room how important that is, how beneficial that is on a, sort of, tactical level as well.
DR. HICKS: Yes. I think I'll just step back a little bit to what I said about the UDCG, just because I think these connect in many ways.
So you have down here as we saw today, a more operational to tactical level this incredible cross-European and Trans-Atlantic effort that's demonstrating and moving in real time capability to Ukrainians.
And it's doing it in constant contact with the Ukrainians and then, of course, in what probably began as simple deconfliction but now I think really in terms of optimizing the capability that the international community can bring to bear, and I tie it to the UDCG because now I think you have married to that operational to tactical level more of the strategic to operational connection at the political military level of how nations are thinking about, again international communities.
So Europe, the United States, Canada and then elsewhere in the world, all these countries coming together to provide their support to the defense of Ukraine and thinking through those commitments over time.
Q: On a tactical level how helpful it is to --
GEN. WOLTERS: Number one, I'll just add it's there to support Ukraine and because there are requirements that the tactical, operational and strategic level the organization that we have here has to be a good listener and we have to be prepared to iterate, so that we can continue to receive inputs from Ukraine and find ways at the end of the day to do everything within our power as nations to support Ukraine.
And the organization has changed tremendously as you were able to see in your background exposure, and my suspicion is over the course of the next weeks and months it will change more. But again, at the end of the day, we have to ensure that we don't forget what our goal is, and that is to support Ukraine.
Q: Yes. I wanted to ask since the support to Ukraine started at the Javelins, Stingers, hand-held systems you're now talking about potentially more NATO-grade systems, artillery coming in. What are the challenges you're seeing to bringing in more supplies and sort of, some of the gaps that remain for them now as we reach month three of the conflict?
DR. HICKS: I can start. The key here is to ensure, just as General Wolters was saying, that we're in constant contact with the Ukrainians and we're talking to them about what they see as their battlefield requirements, and those requirements evolve.
And just as he said, we should expect them to continue to evolve, and our support will likewise do so. So, as we look at, she referenced capability gaps so to speak, it really is a reflection of where the Ukrainians see they have needs, and trying to marry that to what we across that community, to include the United States, will be we can help provide help fill in those capability gaps.
So I don't want to get in front of where those next levels of the conversation go, you've seen a very steady drumbeat just in the west’s sense of commitments. We have the new supplemental package. We're putting together that next tranche now and it will be reflective of what we think is needed today and on the horizon for the next week or so.
GEN. WOLTERS: And I'll just add, there's a supply and demand aspect to this equation, what we didn't have several months ago inside the cell that you were able to see earlier, was a large planning cell.
So of military experts from many nations that are taking into account the supply and demand as it currently exists, the requirements to support Ukraine, and the thinking that has to take place with respect to the campaign that is ongoing to support Ukraine, and attempting to the max extent practical to anticipate what is coming next.
And being prepared to accommodate as many options as possible again to support Ukraine, and having a robust planning cell with military members from different functional areas and from different nations is very, very helpful to make sure that we have a diverse set of lenses on this challenge set again to support Ukraine. And we'll continue to iterate with that and it will be important that we keep pace with what Ukraine needs in their minds to get better, and we'll accommodate that to the best we can.
Q: Okay. You, sort of, mentioned the more than 100,000 troops that are now in the EUCOM theater, how sustainable do you think it is to have these sort of temporary deployments given that obviously the main focus still remains to be China. How sustainable is this model? How long do you think this can be kept up? I know the rotations have started for some of them, but at what point does it start dictating readiness for troops?
DR. HICKS: I wouldn't look at the issue that way for the following reason. Just as we are adapting our support to Ukraine, we will adapt, of course, what we think is needed for the U.S. contribution of regional security and we're doing it at a time when the European nations, our NATO Allies most notably and new -- possibly new entrance from Finland and Sweden are looking to increase their security commitments in the region.
So I think coming out of Madrid this summer, I think we'll have a stronger sense of that enduring European commitment is, what makes sense for the United States, and we'll know at least more than we do today, about the direction of the Ukraine campaign and its pace and what their support needs are. So, I've very confident the United States has the military wherewithal to focus on the pacing challenge of China at the same time that we're working alongside Allies and partners here in the European theater. In fact, that's what our defense strategy calls for us to be able to do.
GEN. WOLTERS: Well, I just couldn't agree more with Secretary Hicks and Secretary Austin, they both continue to promote the flexible U.S. DOD is able to adapt to achieve the appropriate sustainability, whether it's a rotational forces that rotate based off service-set rules or rules set forth by the secretaries. We're able to adapt to that, but again, we now at this point, have had no sustainability challenges as a result of the flexibility of USDOD and it's my suspicion based off what's taken place up to this point, that that won't be a problem in the future.
Q: I sort of had two separate questions. One, General Wolters, I'm curious, we've seen the Russian makes some gains in the Donbas region, south of Izyum, Popasna, of course the taking of Mariupol. I'm wondering if you're concerned about this development. If you see the Russians still taking losses and not being able to sustain it, and then for Secretary Hicks, just curious- is the expectation for the security assistance this new package will still last four to five months, and I'm curious about, sort of, after that what the game plan is at this point. Is that, sort of, going to be figured out down the road?
GEN. WOLTERS: Well, I'll just start, the United States and many of the European nations are very impressed with the daily occurrences that occur in the environment with respect to Ukraine and certainly the battlespace.
And we take into account each and every one of the battles, and look to see what trends are arising in the future. I would characterize what is taking place right now as you probably heard from the Chairman, it's a grinding phase, and there's still a long ways to go. There are some tactical battles that will continue. We'll continue to observe. We'll continue to support Ukraine, and we'll probably be in a position to where this grinding phase will continue for several more weeks. And our key is to keep abreast with it and keep communication lines open with Ukraine and be prepared to support Ukraine to the max extent practical.
Q: And just briefly, I'm sorry, is there a risk of the Ukrainians getting attrited during that grinding phase?
GEN. WOLTERS: There could be. We do not see that at this point, but there could be.
DR. HICKS: So on to supplemental, the supplemental is a reflection, the latest reflection of that strong bipartisan support that we've had in the United States for -- to provide assistance to Ukraine, including lethal assistance.
We did have to estimate, of course, what we should put forward. We did use an estimate that was based on providing support through September 30th, using the burn rate -- monthly burn rate -- that we had been or been experiencing at the time we put the supplemental forward. So that is our -- that is how we project in that. We do absolutely expect that if we go through that and, you know, and we're into the fall, again post-Madrid further down the road, we'll have more information, and if we believe more support is warranted, the president will not hesitate to go to Congress for that.
Q: A simple question that I never, (inaudible) what is the U.S. aim in Ukraine? Is it a ceasefire, negotiated settlement or continue until every Russian soldier is off the Ukrainian land or something else?
DR. HICKS: So the U.S. aim is fundamentally about support to Ukraine and the end-state goal will be decided primarily between Ukraine and Russia. We continue to hold firm to the knowledge that this war could end tomorrow and it's the decision of one person and that is Vladimir Putin. So, how the Ukrainians and the Russian choose to end this, we want to be supportive of an approach that protects Ukrainian statehood and understand that beyond that it's going to be between those two parties primarily.
Q: And General Wolters, do you see any bottlenecks as far as the weapons are concerned either going into Ukraine or once they're in Ukraine getting to the front lines?
GEN. WOLTERS: No. We just -- we're watching that. We always look for stockpiling. We also consult back and forth to the liaison officers, and liaison entities that we have access to make sure that that is not occurring. So when large quantities of goods go in, there's a corresponding expectation to see subsequent activity occur as a result of receiving those. And that is exactly what we see, and with each and every passing day, we're improving as we fine-tune the communications that we have back and forth with liaisons, and this is an emphasis area and at this point we're seeing no stockpiling at all.
Q: Last question. Why do you think the Russians haven't targeted the supply lines within Ukraine? Is it that they aren't able to or they have made a decision not to?
GEN. WOLTERS: That a great question that you'd have to ask the Russians about. My sense is that there are attempts to do so, but they haven't been successful up to this point.
Q: Just for both of you. I'm curious as this mission goes forward since the $40 billion has been approved. Is there going to be need for more clarity around the mission and, what, sort of, what we saw take place around the security assistance? Because obviously this has been stood up so quickly, and so fast (inaudible) conflict --
DR. HICKS: Can – Jack can you say that… I didn't quite understand.
Q: I'm just, you know, is this something that, you know, the U.S. may need to have a named operation for with regards to the security assistance just down the road, since, you know, we are talking about fall.
DR. HICKS: So I mean, I think what's been so useful to Ukraine has been how agile the United States and other Allies and friends of Ukraine have been, and I think we're smart to continue that way. So, we will have to keep talking to the Ukrainians, talking to our Allies and partners as I said before, that should be at all those levels, that strategic, political military level and on down to assess the situation. And I think you'll see a continuing evolution of our approach, I wouldn't you know, take off the table something like changes to how our security assistance is provided. But I think we want to move in lockstep with the needs on the battlefield, and the needs of the Ukrainian government, and that's, you know, that's where we are right now. We're really in this focus, first and foremost on their immediate defensive needs as you have seen, the United States and Allies and others are starting to think ahead beyond that a bit into the training and sustainment aspects of an enduring Ukrainian military capability. And I think that will continue to evolve as we move through the summer.
GEN. WOLTERS: And Jack, just as I said before, it sounds trite but the willingness of an organization here to iterate and adjust to strategic changes, operational changes and tactical challenges is very, very important, and to anticipate as many of those branches and sequels as possible so that as we currently sit, our charter is we have security assistance, and we need to support Ukraine. And that's what we remain focused on and we will be a learning organization here at Stuttgart and if we have to adjust later, we'll be prepared to do so, but for right now it's very clear that supporting Ukraine is at the forefront and having a learning organization that's willing to be flexible as the secretary said is very, very important.
Q: The deconfliction line is also in Stuttgart, right, with the Russians? Or no?
DR. HICKS: For Syria you're talking about or --
Q: No, for Europe. The deconfliction line.
GEN. WOLTERS: When you say deconfliction line, what do you mean?
Q: I think the Pentagon described it as, sort of, an open line between the U.S. and --
GEN. WOLTERS: Oh, you're talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
GEN. WOLTERS: There's a safety deconfliction line that exists at the tactical level here at Stuttgart to be able to ensure that we have access to be able to pick up the phone on short notice. As you well know, Chairman Milley was able to have a conversation with his counterpart recently which is the tipper of a potential start to where we may be able to open up a safety deconfliction telephone line and continue to ensure that we could improve conversations back and forth. Hasn't occurred yet, we'll see what happens in the future and we're prepared to be able to do that, but it hasn't occurred yet.
Q: I thought there was a -- there's a deconfliction that --
GEN. WOLTERS: There is a EUCOM safety deconfliction telephone line.
Q: They're already used.
GEN. WOLTERS: They're already used.
Q: Why do you both think the Russians have now been more open to talking to senior DOD leaders? Is it the realization that the war's really not going well?
DR. HICKS: I'm not going to speculate on the Russian motivation. I'll just say we think it's a healthy thing. We've thought that, and continue to express to them we think it's healthy to have a line of communication and that's been specifically addressed with them. It's good that they're talking.
GEN. WOLTERS: Any opportunity to try to get diplomacy to the forefront, we'll take it.
Q: Just with Denmark agreeing to send harpoons to the Ukrainians, is there, you know, an increasing need for Ukrainians to break this Black Sea blockade, just given the economic pressure they're under. The Lithuanians seem to be cognizant in agreeing to help ship grain. Just curious about your thoughts on that, the economic damage, and you know, whether the U.S. is open towards harpoon there?
GEN. WOLTERS: Well, certainly we're excited about Denmark's contribution and again this goes back to supporting Ukraine and the phases of the campaign that they embrace, and the harpoon is a system that will be very, very productive for them. But this goes back to a national decision by Denmark to work with the Ukrainians, and it's my belief that this for settlement at this time will benefit the overall campaign for the Ukrainian armed forces, and we're in support.
DR. HICKS: I think it's another great example of how countries all across Europe and elsewhere in the world are, you know, putting themselves forward. This is not a U.S.-only mission, and this is a great example. I mentioned this morning separately that we have in that supplemental package, USAID and State Department funds that are for support to Ukraine both economically and for food security, and that food security assistance goes beyond Ukraine, projecting that we have some food security issues that are going to result from this conflict.
Q: You, sort of, addressed this in the morning. Finland and Sweden and you're confident that you will get to figure out some of the issues with Turkey. As a holistic angle, you have dealt with Turkey a lot. (Inaudible), do you believe Turkey is still a reliable NATO Ally or are they just a big spoiler in too many different areas?
DR. HICKS: I do think Turkey is a reliable Ally and I think if you look at the way in which the Turks have very responsibly managed the Montreux Convention role, that's a strong indicator of, obviously, General Wolters is more -- much closer to them as SACEUR in terms of their commitment as far as their commitment as a military ally. So let me turn to him.
GEN. WOLTERS: Well, I'll stay with my military lane. The mil-to-mil relationship that we have with Turkey is very strong. They are a very strong NATO ally. They do a fantastic job of hosting all of our NATO military members in their country, and we will continue to enjoy the luxury that they provide. Certainly in the southern portion of the Black Sea with respect to their staunch deterrence.
Q: President Erdogan some interesting statements. It doesn't effect the mil-to-mil relations?
GEN. WOLTERS: The mil-to-mil relationship is very strong.
Q: I wanted to ask about the Russian defense industry as you're seeing it at this point in the war. Obviously, U.S. officials have already talked about the slowdown of the Russian PGM lines, but as the U.S. and other countries have hit different components that the Russians need for their weapons. You know, are you seeing a larger slowdown potentially in the works to the Russians just across their acquisition and, sort of, the rest of their platforms, fighter jets, anything else?
DR. HICKS: I can start, you know, the economic cost of Putin's decision to undertake this war are going to be significant for Russia, and Russia's defense industry will feel that. I do anticipate you'll see that across the breath of their major modernization areas, just given the degree to which any advanced military today is reliant on components that are now either under sanction or companies that have voluntarily, and/or companies and countries have voluntarily chosen to step away from their cooperation with Russia. I think that will have significant effects on the pace of their modernization and the capacity, the overall ability to fill back in areas where they've been spending such as on PGMs.
GEN. WOLTERS: I agree with the secretary, anytime you start talking about the capabilities of a potential foe or a foe like Russia, I'm always reminded what matters to me the most as the commander of the U.S. forces here and certainly as SACEUR, is the readiness of our forces. And that is not a question at this time, we're at a very, very high state of readiness and we're able to sustain that and that is good for the cause of supporting Ukraine.
STAFF: One more question.
Q: Just to buckle down on that. Are there any, sort of, specific platforms across their modernization areas? Obviously they focused a lot on the air domain in the past few years. I'm just curious as, sort of, the components link up to their systems from the west and other countries, you know, where their defense industry might take a hit specifically beyond the PGM issue.
DR. HICKS: I think the one area to point to above all of this is microelectronics and that effects many aspects of their modernization approach, whether it's in space, whether it's advanced fighter aircraft, whether it's in their advanced munitions, whether it's in their naval platforms. Microelectronics are central, and they are going to bear the cost of the fact that Vladimir Putin chose to undertake a war of this unnecessary nature.
Q: With that, we'll turn it over to Secretary Hicks and General Wolters for any closing comments.
DR. HICKS: No closing comments from me.
STAFF: All right. Great.
