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>> good morning. my name is peter and on behalf of the nea aan roa i want to welcome you to our list of seminars on ballistic defense arms control and defense policy. we are honored today to have uzi ruben to as many of you know is the father of an arrow system and ballistic missile defenses in israel and he will be talking to us about what he called the gaza missile wars and some aspects of iron dome. i also want to let you know that our seminar series continues on the 25th of this month with general quality who is

vice-chairman of strategic command and we will also have scheduled tom d'agostino the former head of mnsa and he will be speaking to us on october to a day to be determined. our space series continues again on the 19th of this month. the new space commander general will introduce our two speakers. our our speakers are congressman brighton stein from oklahoma a member of the house committee on the space committee and he will be joined by high-ranking air force space acquisition official who will talk about space acquisition reform, threats to our space assets and secured access to space for our military. on the 18th of this month we have as you know a triad event in washington d.c. at the army-navy club. i have 200 guests with 185 seat so if anyone of you know anything about alchemy let me know. we also have, by the way on the

18th we will for the first time in history every single major nuclear command will be represented by a speaker. i want to thank our friends from hungary, england denmark and israel for attending in being here today and particularly i want to say hello to my friend tom who is here as a fellow from georgetown university. martin feuer who is one of our sponsors from aipac, mikayla dodge from heritage foundation who does so much there. missile defense work and my dear friend professor curtis from the annapolis naval academy and my sponsors from boeing and the congressional staff. i want to say thank you to all her military folks here today to give us so much. i also want to say thank you to the marshall is a tape which is here today filming this event which they do grants us as one of our associates and i also want to thank, reach out and say thank you to c-span who are here today who will be broadcasting

the event as we go on. without anything further i hope those of you interested in our further breakfasts will let me know you are attending. will you all please give a warm welcome to my dear friend from israel, uzi ruben. [applause] >> good morning everyone. it's always a pleasure to be here in this magnificent venue. this year i plans to be here two months ago but then the war started and i wanted to give you some kind of a summary and at that time there was no summary. it was just the beginning so now that things, i'm not sure if they are over but there is a phase over and it's a good time to sit down and sum up the point of view from missile defense and

then tell my presentation the 2014 gaza war which i'm not sure is over. i am pretty sure it's not over and i talk about the missile defense. i give an introduction and background. it's very technical but i will skip it and then i talk about the strategy and the tactics of the other side. israel is the achievement of another system here and i will not forget our critics during the war who woke up and explained -- so i will dedicate some of the talk to them and i will make concluding remarks. i want today to stress like i do every time that all the material you see here is based on public domain including releases by the

israeli defense force. i'm not using any confidential information here and i would be glad to answer questions but based on open source material. i want to stress again that all the views and opinions are my own. they don't represent necessarily the government of israel, views and opinions. some of my opinions are -- so after this preamble let's go into the introduction. on july 6 islamic jihad and hamas cease-fire that the 20 months since the operation. there is a controversial discussion why there is one school of thought. there's another school that it was a deliberate plan by the gaza sanctions. this is probably will -- a lot

of historians and causes of aware. any operation launched july 8 there was one aimed to stop the rocket fire and military. hamas interestingly declared war on its own. a very expressed objectives specified by a speech in cacao and he demanded a list of procedures of gaza and spelled out opening and closing border crossings and international guarantees to build an international airport and seaport in gaza. while those demands are couched very smartly a better life for gaza residents but they mean

practically a hamas state in gaza with open borders for the rest of the world. free to import any troops and weapons that it wants and without any obligation. and committed to the elimination of the state of israel eventually. with this gap or distance between the positions obviously successive cease-fires didn't hold out. hamas broke up the cease-fire and finally with the cease-fire on august 26 and 27th it's still holding its duration and it remains debatable. in israel versus discussion on whether will continue. within two weeks time we will see some fighting there. let's now go to the threat. let me stress that this engagement air campaign has a

ground campaign on both sides. it has merit or operations and navy operations. i'm skipping all this. i'm concentrating on this only on the rocket assault on israel and israel's responses mainly active defense responses. we have two charts. which look very similar but this one, the left one is released by the defense forces in and the right one is released by thomas. it's interesting how the graphics are the same. except notice the hamas palestine does not exist here and all the provinces of the military palestine. however if you look at the classification they show hamas

and us show short-term rockets at 10 kilometers and let me say here what does short-range medium range of long-range main? it's completely different in american terms and the city of gaza one of the main cities of israel is exactly the distance from dulles airport to where we are right now. so that is an israel medium range. everything is on a microscopic scale. we are talking about sizes and kilometers of cities. long-range again 70 or 80 kilometers about the distance of baltimore from here and about 160 kilometers. very quickly let me go over the dash and you can see the rockets

in libya are from -- arsenals of gadhafi. the homemade rockets the classical that are cooked in the kitchen made from sugar and fertilizer with drainage pipes or irrigation pipes. and imported kudzu shows. they have thousands of them and this is made in iran. this is aimed at american forces in iraq. they have all those types. before i go further here is the new thing. what happened in the last year and a half is that hamas established with the iranian support the arms are making

longer-range rockets. when you go to longer-range sugar and fertilizer don't work anymore. you need something different. you need chemicals. you need casings and pipes made of high-grade steel and you need fuses and explosives. and you need experts to know how to make a good rocket. it's a highly complicated process. you need expertise in the machinery. the iranians they help them. if before the regime they supplied everything the underground highway. everything could be imported into gaza almost officially so my guess is during that time they set up their factories and

what it says to them as they need to smuggle big rockets. big rockets are harder to smuggle. this has lower profile elements to be smuggled in. much easier to smuggle in sax instead of the whole rocket and they established separately with hamas and islamic jihad. although they are very similar types. why is that? jihadis are more friendly with iran than hamas. hamas had a cool love. because it supported -- so for a while there were two separate industries and the finishing factory. so let's go on. the medium-range rockets,

122-millimeter and 2245 kilometers and now they are making their own launchers. you see those in gaza. the rocket, the main piece is the 75 or 85 climate or rockets. this is made of five-inch, excuse me, it's about six-inch, five-inch pipes. they have all kinds of rockets. m. 75 and has some designation. those are propaganda basically talking about the same stuff, variation of the same stuff.

but from our point of view it's about the same. most of the rockets and launchers are inside gaza. with their fuses and warheads and launches. this is a simple launcher. they are manufacturing there in gaza a sophisticated launcher that they displayed last year. it's quite an elaborate piece of machinery. it shows you what level of technical support you need read you need to smuggle in a lot of components. interestingly enough they put an inscription in hebrew. it says in hebrew m75 so we understand what it is. this is a very smart way of

making a racket. all of this innovative folded sheet metal to support the missile. i remember that because we see it later. that's the m. 75. they have some of that -- they were mostly taken out and destroyed before the fighting started. some of them remain. they are imported. the important thing is the differences they have a large warheads, 250 kilograms while the homemade rockets are 40 or 50 kilograms, much smaller. the 160-kilometer rockets it still in mr. the origin. you remember in march of this year the ship that was carrying

rockets actually a locally made chinese rocket w. as two. it's the only one with this particular caliber. it was transported to iran. went to the iranian airports and from there it was loaded onto the ship in the ship went into iraq, loaded cement, loaded on the rockets and then sailed to portugal and captured by the israeli navy. where supposedly it was supposed to do bark the rockets and transfer them to gaza. they were taken and the ship was released and they knew nothing

about it. they just knew the container. this can go 160 kilometers. maybe that is this type but there's another possibility. here is one of those rockets that fell. it fell in tel aviv and haifa. the debris was collected and let me say it looks like 10 kilometers so another possibility is a locally made attack by the gaza rocket industry to make their own long-range rocket. i have said i believe the numbers are very low. they say they fired 11 of them and we recorded only four of them. it looks more like a locally made attempts of beginning the capability of long-range rockets.

the quantities estimated, officially of the israeli defense spokesperson you can see the distribution between hamas and islamic jihad and their other groups too. it's not just the islamic organization. another three or four or five smaller organizations bandaging rockers and -- rockets but the important one is that hamas. you can see the short-range and medium-range and long-range. the one that can reach tel aviv and ben gurion airport about 500 something. altogether 9000 rockets and according to our estimation 40% are ready in gaza. so this is i say very significant development which is an advantage to them and also a disadvantage because if you can find the factory and you bomb

them is hard not to smuggle again. all of this arsenal was at the disposal of several organizations when the fighting started in july 6 and i record recorded, copied from israelis recorded a number of launches every day of rockets and mortar boards. this information comes from her home defense command and to them everything that explodes is recorded. the numbers here are interesting. one interesting thing is the highest number of almost 200 per day is still lower than the largest number a year and half ago. a year and a half ago they fired almost 300 rockets and bombs in

one day. this time for some reason it was lower. the other trend that you see here it's slowly going down in time until the cease-fire of august 5. there was a period of partial cease-fire and then you see there's eight days of complete cease-fire that was held in the fighting breaks out again. we call that phase one. the second period again their rate of fire went out but it changed its nature. it shifted here about two-thirds of everything was rockets and one third mortars. this was two-thirds mortar and one third rocket. i will talk about that when i talk about policy. another point i want to mention the numbers, take it with a pinch of salt because the data is confusing.

there are different sources in the numbers differ by almost 10%. this is not new. after lebanon war i looked at all the numbers by the idf and there was a large difference between them. because it depends who recorded and what it records. a lot of them were sent to the gaza strip and i have several estimations. this is the number i believe of all the sources i collected. total rockets intercepted with 755. i have heard this number several times in we lost 71 people but only to buy rockets. i am -- my presentation but in the lebanon war we had 161 killed and one killed from rocket. the number killed by rockets came down this time.

so this was the background and here is a map of faith communities and cities in the hinterland. you see the numbers are very impressive. the brunt is on the south of israel. 370 rockets. those are the rockets that reigned at the cities. some of them did not fall in the city but they fell into the open fields around them. tel aviv and haifa four times. iraq, three times. this didn't include the gaza strip itself so i focused on the gaza strip. the gaza angle is our name for all the communities. this is one major city so they

received the attention of the hamas 82 times. the rest is 20 or 25 communities altogether and that received their majority of the fire. mortar 2200 firings and the short-range stuff were mortar bombs. it takes weeks and months to distinguish exactly what felt. 1/2 of the firepower was aimed against communities in gaza. you can learn or guess from the firing. one thing is sometimes firing fewer rockets in outlying communities in an obvious attempt to spread out israeli defense. they knew we had limited amount of defense and the idea was to spread out and to achieve that

they asked the allies in the neighborhood to fire rockets and communities. we have some palestinian organizations firing mortar into israel to the golan heights. the idea was obviously to spread, to then our defenses. an obvious attempt to threaten strategic targets in order to harm the israeli economy. they fired again and again. they saw the dash of the ben gurion airport. it was a great success. they rated it as one of their main achievements. they said they fired rockets at one of our gas fields nearby which is within range of the medium-range rockets. they fired -- and i don't have

to explain what is the significance of that. obviously it was an attempt to harm our economy and dim our lights of course. the psychological effect, the meantime was prime-time in the evening. at 8:00 the short time was approaching because it was the hour the news. they had teams in real time taking pictures in jerusalem and tel aviv. it was psychological warfare. 8:00 was prime-time, showtime and we all made an effort not to be caught in the shower during that time. that was in the beginning. later on they kind of wandered around. in the second phase between august 191026 they shifted the fire. the brunt of the fire went to

gaza. quite successful, to cause mass evacuation of the people. again they saw this and achievement. they use mortar fire against communities and fired less towards the hinterland of israel. the fire policy and the tactics. you could see huge, dozens and dozens of rockets firing at a single target. there was obvious attempt to break through protective screen by inundating it, by flooding it. they didn't succeed. a few days into the campaign you could see the more thrifty policy and the size of -- going down and becoming thinner and

leaner travel plea to save ammunition. they were preparing for extended campaign. in the second phase of the operation when they shifted to the gaza communities we saw one rocket, a single rocket. obviously they were saving ammunition. there is a possibility that they were approaching the end of the bombing. my feeling was they were running out of long-range rockets. the most significant and smart thing they did was -- those launchers. the launchers were in a small area. so they dug everything underground. we don't have time to show videos on how they fired with a

timer. an indian journalist took the whole sequence from his hotel window. those launchers were located in places that would cause a lot of damage. this come i think it's a hotel in gaza. the launching site is -- this is from gaza. here you see as being fired from gaza. i'm sure people have of all map of all the houses in the maps and they could identify the street in the number for which that launchers firing. these are residential areas with a lot of innocent civilians leaving them. that was -- human shielding was a deliberate policy and ice on the news this morning that hamas

community inquiry about abuse of human rights and war crimes, they can make an omission but in some cases within the populati population. they apologized and said gaza is a population center so they had to do it. so this was their policy and their strategy. let's now go to speak about what israel did about it. israel did a lot about it offensively and defensively. because my name topic is israel defense i will speak shortly about the offensive but it does not mean it wasn't successful. it was quite successful in effect. my point is this is a map of the district above which is a neighborhood close to gaza and the border where most of the fighting took place. every single red.is a point for

which a rocket was fired. we see gaza from above and we can see every rocket and we can ping-pong where was fired from. it was no problem to go there. there were six launchers and you take them one by one. so that was done from both the air and the sea. we had precision-guided munitions. a precision-guided missile fired from the ship and i began i don't have time to show you the footage of the missile. one of those lunches of the medium rocket and taking it down. the sheet metal of the launcher, here it is. although the objective of the offensive was not to take -- for several launchers were taken out. here is one of those big launchers.

i hope they took it back but i'm sure they didn't. they probably blew it up. the one thing i'm going to say about operations. again i could fill the whole presentation just dumped out by with your permission i will go to the israeli defensive mission. i won't speak about civil defense. we got alerts in my hometown and we didn't get an alert we were in no danger. we could hear explosions rattling our windows but nothing came our way. i will speak about the active offense. this is a map showing deployment with two caveats. this is based on published material for the interception took place. when i heard it intercepted a

rocket when you realized you couldn't do it from tel aviv. when i heard for the first time that rockets were entering i realized it had a defense asset. this is one comment in the other comment that those selectors are just to illustrate. they in no way show the size. i have no idea the size. i just illustrated that so you see most of the israeli large communities had iron dome defense at their service and another point is iron dome i'll remind you again does not engage every single rocket that comes its way. rockets are going to hit within the defendant's own. that's defined by the israel air

force air defense command which is specific for each target. it goes out to the open areas and into the sea. nine batteries. the six batters at the beginning of the year and three more worsted up an emergency basis temporary basis during the first days of fighting. discourse. again here is the problem because it was contradictory. but i managed less time after the offensive shield there was a publication for each neighbor -- major population center. how many fired and how many missed and how many were shot down. this time the information was -- in tel aviv i have information. this is the official information

and the number of interceptor rockets were 66. everybody knows it was a decision. the rocket could be destroyed. unfortunately people didn't realize the psychological and political meaning and allowed it. it should have been destroyed. it anyway if you look at the record here the score is better than 98%. the total number was 471 but most were in israel. the number of intercepted rockets again look at the numbers, 40%. that doesn't mean about the fire was -- it's not hard to hit so you have to take out a portion of the rockets coming in.

the score is about 96%. very impressive and let me say way beyond estimation of the designers. this reflects three years of operation. the nature of the technology and the teams that operate it and the strategy and tactics and rules of engagement. there is a controversy and this number is not really sure. if you take out the cities and add them together it's about 1700 a member of interceptor rockets this is a soviet number, 735. i arrived at this number from all kinds of sources. in my opinion somewhere between 80 and 85 something like that. the score is 90% and below. why is it lower in tel aviv?

the closer you are to the source of the fire the score went down. when the timeline is shorter it's harder to hit get the rockets. i will remind you that last time with the defensive shield the score was about 70%. which is also very good. if you shoot down seven rockets is just four kilometers from the gaza strip. i would be very proud of it. the total score is lower in tel aviv. let me say the policy of israel used to fired two rockets and two interceptors. this time most of the firing was single fired which 90% was single fire. this is amazing to me and would not have believed it. the people of big israel experienced it and they knew

that iron dome is giving them security. let's look at some visual evidence. here is one of the pictures i liked because you see there was always a target and interceptor. this is part of something. it could be part of an interceptor sticking out after the explosion. you can go to youtube, sources on youtube and spend nights seeing action for the last war and the previous warbeck let me look at some and walk you through some significant foota footage. [videotape]

>> people went out to see the sights and i asked my fellow citizens don't do that. it's dangerous. even pieces of a iron can cause a lot of damage and harm to people standing out in the open. anyway what's interesting here is the explosion of some strange warhead and you can see some of the incoming rockets. and there are pieces of the iron dome. the siren u.k. in the backgrou background -- the first few days you can see from this footage here. [videotape]

>> this was taken by one of the troops and it shouldn't be done. but it was released by a spokesman so i permitted myself to show it to you. the point is you can see iron dome. they can fire as fast as the rockets. it comes with large bullets too. and perhaps the most significant is defense in tel aviv. this is a battery in tel aviv.

notice this is -- fire because this is tel aviv so you want to make sure there's no leakage. see the two rockets coming out. this is a simulation. it's just for drama. no notice the iron dome. they are aligning themselves. the first one hits the target. it hits the target almost always the first time. i will show you some more of it. not again but i will skip it immediately. you can say the same thing from a different angle.

people would stand in the streets and look. so this brings me to the skeptics. the israeli people were quite happy that some people are not happy either in israel or the united states. i can give you a whole presentation just on the reason why. and respected expert on warheads with textbooks, three textbooks which are widely read textbooks. they came out with several publications doubting and being skeptical -- skeptical of

several claims for you to put in a nutshell why the claims the perception of iron dome is not optimal to their point of view. the scores are much lower, mostly 40%. another number, the question is why are there so few casualties? good civil defense. timely warning and people are more aware. this is coupled with the fact that hamas makes the warheads smaller and there is less litter. it makes some kind of sounds. you can argue those points. let's take the first claim. this is richard floyd a respectable expert. his books were read and it shows here that if you get the rocket from behind its no good. it from the side it's no good.

this is as i said good material. everybody knows that. this is a picture from his publication about a month ago. look at that picture. this is lloyd's picture. here are the two rockets flying parallel to the ground so they are hitting anything from above but from the side, no good. it's diving summits coming from behind. no good. that is why there are no hits. let's look at how reliable those are pretty or show you some examples. if you want to see the missil missile -- into the air. this was about two years ago. a huge rocket.

a huge missile they say here. that huge missile was a passenger aircraft flying at 40000 feet above the pacific ocean. now you want to see is diving missile. i will show you a diving missile. look at this one. you see a diving into the ocean. the operators not worried this is a satellite launcher. this is what you see with two-dimensional pictures. this is pure guesswork. all the rockets we showed before our climbing very high. it's simply an optical illusion. anything from behind looks like it's going into the horizon but it's climbing. i wonder if one day mr. lloyd

will see the c-span footage and say that -- [inaudible] and i am puzzled why he is picking on them. so much for that but let's look at the number. the best way to see the geometry is to go back and i've seen it with my own eyes. they were to iron dome's coming up, two explosions and i looked below to see if there was an explosive warhead underground. this is a time-lapse. it's climbing up. let me show you one thing. iron dome is designed to

intercept the optimum -- let's look at the number of casualti casualties. people are taking shelter so let's take three campaigns. the second lebanon war, the defensive shield in gaza and the present conflict. let's look at the number of batteries in each one. 2006 we had zero batteries. there were 4200 rockets fired in israel also at the same time. short-range, middle range, long-range. closer communities were hit. the lebanon envelope was hit. the same mix of rockets. we have civil defense, the same thing. still 53 people were killed. it means that it took 79 or 80

rockets to kill one israeli. if you look at 2012 you have five batteries. there were 600 rockets and five people that were killed. there was another death from a mortar bomb. the relationship is that somehow the rockets are better. it takes 320 rockets to kill one israeli. it's a one quarter the fatalities the what happened? it's the same thing. in 2014 we had nine batteries. we had 4000 rockets and hundreds of them fell down in the gaza strip. there were two fatalities and those brutalities did not occur in the areas of iron dome. you have to take that into account. maybe he should have more batteries. the ratio went down for 21 in 2000. how can you do that?

no alarms and no shelters. we didn't invest in shelters. either the rockets are becoming one 20th of the previous fatalities. or the iron dome works. this is not the only indication. we are engineers and we love to crunch numbers. business businesslike numbers and we engineers like charts. if you look at the numbers you will figure out what would happen if the duration would be 80 rockets per for tel aviv. the i say this with full -- at

least 60 israelis are alive today because of iron dome. there is another damaging indicator. in israel every citizen is insured against hostile action. the income from that is dedicated for that assurance and by now the numbers published. it's about $1.5 billion. in order to compensate everyone for damages it was her injured. during the fighting they had officials in every community that was hit.

this is psychological. as they say the money is behind it's a people use it with gusto. they claim it for everything. the parking they claim. the government is quite liberal about it. you can get some notion about the extent of the damage from the numbers published. the second lebanon war we had no batteries. we had 4000 rockets and seven damage claim -- low and the holding gaza five batteries, 1600 rockets 3200 damage claims and for some reason it dropped down. now in gaza the number is from

september 3, last week. that was a week after the end of the firings of the numbers quite stable. 4000 rockets and 2400 claims so that means less than one claim for rocket. if there's no damage that means the rocket did not hit. so this information doesn't have to be discerned or calculated. this is public information. he has to explain that. he has to explain why it doesn't work. in my mind and i'm sure his two obviously those numbers are -- iron dome works. it saves lives and it saves property. and again the ratio is climbing down.

we have a lot of bombs and no defense against them. the last claims that for some reason hamas is in favor of reducing the size of its warheads. [inaudible] let's watch that together. [videotape] look at this car here. i will show it again. this is not designed to kill. no small warheads, little damage

and few casualties. iron dome works. i want to complete my presentation that i need to mention another corollary that was left -- less advertised it was air defense. hamas accumulated a fleet of 10 uavs made from iranian subassemblies. the commercial stuff you can buy from a radioshack for your skyping but also they can be used to kill something which looks like a munition and they can be used for explosives. hamas made sorties but intelligence was aware of that. this is a us-made battery

deployed on the seashore waiting for those uavs from tel aviv. a third one was shot down. if there are any -- people here let me congratulate them. a week after the fighting it happened to be in the golan heights so at least three or four killed. i don't know about the other parts but it's the first hostile target taken down. if they took targets in 2003 but they were friendly once. this is real action and i think hitting such a small target, it's a small target. it was quite an achievement. i want to conclude here my remarks. i don't want to make a

conclusion about the war because i don't know where we are. i cannot summarize the work because there's a possibility in two weeks time there will be another round of violence by the what happened july 8 and august 26 israel was subjected to one of the fiercest rocket launches in history. iron dome is a curtain of steel. it destroys nine out of 10 rockets. think about that. nine out of 10 rockets. i think people in israel men women and children over their life to iron dome and hundreds more. iron dome enabled the israeli life to continue. 95% of israel safeguarded

international and base. it was safeguarded by iron dome. it secured daily life in the targeted area. i could see tel aviv functioning under fire. it could be done because iron dome was there. this was tremendously political. the israeli government have the leeway. there was damage to important cities. they could carry on their military and diplomatic field. [inaudible] the team that created iron dome is a miracle of engineering and cost-effectiveness. when you fire a thing like that

at $50,000 about the price of a new car in israel, not the united states. this is practically nothing. this is the cost of one apartment, it's about $500,000 that you save. also i need to mention the troops and the missile air defense command. 24/7 falling off their feet walking around-the-clock securing defense of israel. i again wish to congratulate nato for the successful performance of the campaign and i think i want to express my feelings and the feeling of gratitude to the president and the united states. especially the iron dome system.

the lives that were saved in israel, people are walking around today. thank you. [applause] >> first i want to thank you. i am richard hellman from cpac and i want to thank you. we were in israeli -- israel studying the support pack and always always one puff of smoke in the air over tel aviv the first day. we felt good about iron dome and the other systems and two brief questions. first after all these years, nine years for example with respect to gaza as an israeli citizen how would you say giving up land for peace is working for you? >> planas peace? >> giving up land by gaza for peace. how is that working for you in second with respect to our missile defense there are great

differences but how would you evaluate as a profession -- professional our missile defenses and america vis-à-vis what you have in israel? >> with your permission i will sneak away from asking -- answering your question because it's a political question. of course i have my opinions but i am here as it -- there's a threat to united states forces and is the same threat facing gaza with the same types of rockets perhaps more rockets. i think they are very effective weapons test of time after time. it's equivalent to iron dome and i think all of us in the lower tier with the mortar bombs and

the shelters. .. >> don't hear you. >> the lesson is -- okay. the lesson -- no problem

running an emergency program with the same rate. what you do, take the best engineers, the best managers, give them all the moneys, all the money they needed. don't ask questions, you eliminate them. but you can't do it on a regular by says for every program because otherwise you loose are lose control of anything. so specific program, you can do it, as the united states as in israel. >> have you seen anymore sophisticated threats, like going to guidance or using tactics like depressed trajectories to avoid ion dorm or unguided dire. >> all the projectiles are unguided. another question there.

>> i'm dr. kurtis from u.s. naval academy mitchell question has to do with the missiles that fail within the -- >> within? >> within the vicinity of the reactor. and -- >> what? nothing hit the reactor. >> well, i read that some fell within the vicinity, and i'm wondering, is this an escalation of target selection on the part -- >> yes, definitely. not only that, have been going up, but nothing would surprise me. this was expected. >> thank you, sir. >> charles perkins, aipac.

two quick things. there's been a lot of discussion about how to prevent the next round, how to stop the smuggling, how dependent are ham -- is hamas now on internal ability to manufacture inside gaza versus stopping outside sources, and secondly, although it's not directly on our topic figure past years you have given us a comprehensive look at the irann ballistic missiles program which is retaliated what was going nongaza. there's -- going on in gaza. and i wonder if you could spend very brief time talking about where the iranian ballistic missile system is going. >> i think gaza very dependent on internal manufacturing. a decision not to rely anymore

on smuggled -- on full-scale rocket smuggling but on the material, they'll see that enriching their own prophecy -- proefficiently. and how successful they are in stopping some of the tunnels are still working, and as we hear today, smuggling continues in, and now we have to smoke plutonium. but the iranians, i -- let me say very emphatically, the iranian ballistic missile system goes on as before, but they don't announce the tests. they do the tests but don't announce it. for some reason the united states doesn't -- i don't know why. the program goes on as before, all the amibitions, long-range

rockets, icbm, everything being built. >> dr. rubin, you do wonderful work. thank you, thank you. [applause] >> thank you, sir, and come again next year. >> sure. >> on the next "wall street wasn journals, predictions about the mid-term elections and the center for strategic and international studies on president obama's plan for fighting isis. >> we're excited it's launch week for the student cam contest. $100,000 in cash prizes well by awarded to middle and high school contest winners. the theme is the broadest ever, three branches and you. tell a story that demonstrates how a policy, a law, or an action by either the executive,

legislative, or judicial branches of the federal government, has affected you and your life or your community. the competition is open to students in grades six through 12, and students may work alone or in groups of up to three. contestants are asked to produce a five to seven-minute video documentary supporting their topic and to include some c-span programming. that $100,000 in cash prizes will good to 150 students, and the 53 teachers, and the grand prize winner with the best entry will win $5,000. the deadline for entries this year is january 20th, 2015, and winners will be announced in march. visit studentcam.org for the information on the contest, the three branches and now. >> today the defense department honored michigan senator carl levin and buck mckeon with a military parade. they're the chairman of the senate and house armed services

committees, and both are retiring from congress this year. defense secretary chuck hagel and joint chief chairman martin dempsey spoke about the legislative careers of the two chairman. this is just under an hour. ♪ ♪ ♪

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block [inaudible conversations] >> the department of defense medal for distinguished public service is awarded to the honorable carl levin for distinguished public service as plane of the united states senate from january 1979 to january 2015, and as chairman and ranking member of the senate armed services committee from january 1997 to january 2015.

senator levin has consistently been leading the -- a leading proponent for the strong national defense, an advocate for service members, veterans and their families. that spans from the cold war to the conflicts in iraq, kosovo, and afghanistan. dead identity protecting our nation's security, his inspirational leadership for 36 sessions of congress has resulted in maintaining a military capable of defending the united states, its allies, and its interests around the world. while fully supporting the men and women of our military and their families in keeping with their sacrifices. senator levin's peerless dedication to men and women in uniform and their families led to a unanimous passing of the wounded warrior project and and the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell." body armor for service members in iraq, pay raises, support for health care, and educational benefits for families as well as improved military voting rights, and care for veterans.

these distinguished accomplishments of senator levin reflect great credit upon himself and the department of defense. signed, chuck hagel, secretary of defense. >> the adapt of defense medal for distinguished public service is awarded to the honorable howard p. buck mckeyon for distinguished public service as a member of the united states houston of representative from january 1993 to january 2015, and as chairman, ranking member, and member of the house armed services committee, from january 1995 to january 2015. with uncommon devotion and steadfast leadership, congressman mckeon was an

unwaiverring proopinion meant for national defense and dedicated champion for the members of armed services. and their families. deeply committed to protecting the nation's security, he led the committee's efforts to fund critical military operations worldwide, and initiated the first overhaul of acquisition in years which helped shape the force to more capably meet the complex challenges of the threats of the 21st century. congressman mckeon's unyielding dedication to support and protect key readiness programs, missile defense, and provide enhancements to troop force protection equipment is our without peer. an aggressive supporter of military vas he advocated for the authorization of important veteran programs that offered counseling, vocational training and college education. of equal significance, his personal leadership and bipartisan focus enabled he house to consistently pass a national defense authorization

act. congressman mckeon, courageously and self-leslie led the armed forces committee in a bipartisan manner that exemplified the exemplary values service, duty, and patriotism. the accomplishments of congressman mcleon reflect great credit upon himself, the department of defense. signed, chuck headachele, secretary of defense. [applause] [applause]

[inaudible] >> post the colors. >> ladies and gentlemen, please stand for most of the colors. d the posting of the colors. ♪

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♪ ♪ >> please sweeted. -- please be seated.

>> ladies and gentlemen, secretary hagel. >> good morning. and thank you. thank you all for being here to help us honor two remarkable american leaders, two public servants who have devoted their careers and lives to protecting america's security and supporting all of those who serve our country in uniform. with increasing pressure to reduce defense budgets, the world growing more volatile and complex, and with the gears of government continuing to grind ever more slowly, chairman levin, chairman mckeon, have worked tirelessly to help provide the department of

defense with the resources it need to do its job. it helped make our military stronger, and our country more secure through their leadership on defense issues and their commitment to our troops and our nation. one of the proudest, most important accomplishments, has been upholding both armed service committees longtime spirit of bipartisanship. they ensured that congress continued its tradition of passing a national defense authorization act every year. given the gridlock of recent years that's not a minimal achievement, and also represents a commitment to responsible and accountable governance. the kind you expect when two leaders whose careers in public service date back to the time of their local city councils. they'll know about responsible, accountable leadership, responsible, accountable

governance. during my service in the senate carl levin was either the chairman or ranking member of the armed services committee and has served on the committee since coming to the senate 36 years ago. he is as dedicated a member of the senate armed services committee as it has ever had. a recent example of that dedication was his recent tripe, few days ago to rain arian, iraq, and jordan, a senator who is retiring. during our years together in the senate there was no colleague's advice i respected more than carl levin. and i often sought his advice on many issues. i always appreciate hit straightforward style, his honesty, his outreach, his informed and clear thinking and, maybe most importantly about carl levin, his decency and

civility. carl levin is the kind of elected leader america will always need. the kind, i hope, we all hope, america will always have. the kind of leader who always does what he believes is the right thing, the right thing for his country. he puts his country first. so does buck mckeon. so does buck mckeon. as an army grandparent buck has always fought hard to provide or service members and families with the resources and support they need and deserve, and after nearly 20 years on the house armedded services committee he has been among congress' strongest advocates to ensure our military has the capabilities to meet the complex and challenging threats it faces today and will face in the fewer. like carl levin, this retiring member of congress just returned from a trip to israel, jordan, egypt, and morocco. and like carl levin, he is

demonstrating his absolute commitment to our country and our military right to the end of his career. over the past year and a half that i've been secretary of defense, i've counted on buck'sed a series, his honest--- -- buck's advice, honest, is insights and his friendship. he is a man of equal dose offices immense courtesy, devotion, ability, and character. it's rare, especially these days in our politics to find an elected leader as open to a vigorous debate and different opinions,out respectful of others' opinions and points of view and always willing to listen as buck mckeon. buck mckeon never allowed politics to get personal. that's why both of these unique american leaders are highly regarded and admired. they're not only admired in our country but throughout the world. as we all know there is always

tension between the executive branch and the legislative branch. that is how our founders designed the system. but that tension forces us to work together. to make our country better, our government stronger, and more responsive and accountable. but it really depends to a great extent on the leaders themselves, and their commitment to making it work. carl and buck have demonstrated that commitment throughout their careers. they have made their committees and government work. and they've done it the right way, the way americans deserve to be represented and the way americans can be proud of their representatives. they have always made the system work. today, given the multitude and diversity of complicated threats and challenges that face our country, the relationship between the department of defense and congress must go beyond checks and balances. it must be a partnership, a real

partnership, where we work together for america's common good and our common defense. the department of defense and all its people will always be grateful for what chairman levin and chairman mckeon have done for them and our nation. we also appreciate their wives. and their families. we appreciate the tremendous sacrifices of your families. thank you. to barbara and patricia especially, and tower your families, the mckeon family, the levin family, thank you. we know, being the spouse of a congressman or senator is not easy. so we thank you for the constant love and encouragement and support you have always provided to carl and buck. provided over so many years of their distinguished, very distinguished public service. carl and buck, thank you. we will miss you. i will miss you. i will miss you greatly.

but you have earned and deserve a break. you served our country so well. and we all wish you and your families every god's blessing. thank you for your service. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, general dempsey. >> secretary hagel, service sects, i saw several of the chiefs, the jcs, military leaders, civilian leaders. i'm mindleful of the fact as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff there's many thing is have to do, and there's also a handful of things that remind me what a privilege it is that i get to do. and today i get to represent the

men and women that serve america's armed forces in uniform and their family in thanking two great patriots and american leaders, and i get to do that and i'm mindful of the great privilege it is to do. so thank you all for attending this ceremony. i sat with the chairman mckeon -- by the way, don't know when the last time there were three chairmans sitting side-by-side-by-side on this field but it will be a memory i'll keep. when we watched the fife and bagpipe cross by, we marvel at the troops on the field, we listen in awe to the national anthem as we do everyday it's played, but maybe today played with a little sweeter tune for the two of you, and i hope you think about it that way. and it occurred to me what you have really done for america's armed forces is made sure we remain the best. the best by far. we overmatch. we dominate. we're just the best.

we're the best musicians. we're the best infantry men next coast guards men's marks reasons, the best fighters, the best, period, and that doesn't happen by accident and happens with the kind of partnership that secretary of defense mentioned and it happens when we are partnered with two great leaders like the two of you. i'd especially like to join secretary hagel in thanking barbara levin and patricia mckeon and all the friends and family who supported our two honoree0s over their congressional careers. thank you for being here today and for being there for them and being there for us through the years. both of these leaders have been absolutely stead fast champions of our nation's defense. and of those who serve in uniform. they will be missed by those of us who have been privileged to serve with them. for more than five decades of combined service these two remarkable public servants have worked to overcome the

difficulties inherent in the defense of this nation. they've worked across the aisle on many defense bills to determine -- to help determine the kind of military the united states and the american people need and deserve, the right mix of capables and programs to protect our national interests. their leadership has helped make the nation's military the best led, the best trained, best equipped, in the world, ever. chairman levin, owe you a personal debt of gratitude if you hadn't been such a staunch supporter during several confirmation processes for me, i might have preceded you in retirement. come to think of it, i'm not sure whether to thank you or to blame you. and chairman mckeon, your leadership on the house armed services committee has been so legendary your colleagues have renamed the fiscal year 2015 defense authorization act after you. i'm just glad your name won't be on the appropriations bill because i don't want there to be

any confusion about who gets the money. and while i -- and chairman, plural, on behalf of our men and women in uniform and their families, let me thank you for your leadership, for all you have done for our nation, you devotion will continue to resonate throughout the ranks. we will proudly be part of your congressional legacy. thank you very much. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, senator levin. >> well, secretary hagel, chairman dempsey, this is really an overwhelming moment for me and my wife, barbara. on this extraordinary day for us, we look out at this glorious, glorious sight, the men and women in uniform who represent the best of this country. i very much thank you for your introductions, the awards and recognition, and i would just

spend a few minutes kind of reminiscing about those 36 years. i never was in the armed services, and when i came through washington 36 years ago, i decided i was going to join the armed services committee to learn. to learn what had missed. and i hope i've learned a lot, and i think i've learned a lot. and, buck, one of the things i've learned is the beauties of working in a bicamera way between the house and senate, working with you and your predecessors, in a bipartisan way, our determination over the previous years to produce a bill, and a very difficult

setting and environment at times, our determination to finish our service here with a final defense authorization bill for us, even though it may come down to the wire again, it keeps us young. but we will do it. we're both determined that we will pass, i believe, the 53rd 53rd straight authorization bill, and we will not fail in that. >> some of the things i've learned, of course i've seen incredible courage of our men and women who have been in battle, been in harm's way, putting on the uniform of this country, so proudly, and when wounded, their fierce determination to carry on, and to go back, if possible, into harm's way. i have seen it in hospitals,

i've seen it in the eyes of families that have supported those men and women who put on our uniform. i've seen the wisdom and advice of our leaders, such as chuck hagel, and general dempsey. wisdom that we need on the senate and the house of representatives. as to how to prevail and to win when we go to battle, but also how to deter and to avoid where that is possible and consistent with our nation's interests. to deter and to avoid the battles which cause so much destruction but at times are so necessary. i've seen what american power can do. and the extraordinary achievements that american power can give us.

but i've also learned the limits of our power and understand those limits. i've seen the loyalty of our men and women in uniform to each other as well as to this country. and to the determination that they have, that they will not leave a buddy behind. no matter what the circumstances, and even though that buddy may have done some things which appear to be less than what your standards are, it makes no difference. the loyalty or men and women have to each other is so fierce, that determination is so great, it should be an inspiration to every american. the courage of our wounded warriors, i've already mentioned i'll add the power of something else and that's the power of working together.

the jointness, the goldwater nick koles act which promoted that jointness, and how much stronger we are that when we all and you al of do you all work as one. i've seen the role of the commanders, how important that role is, to making sure that we are ready and that our spirit and loyalty to each other is undiminished by differences of race or gender or sexual orientation. i've seen the power of that command and those commanders overcome some differences that needed to be overcome, whether they were differences that resulted in "don't ask, don't tell" and the need to repeal that policy so that we all could be whoever we are, and the power

of the commanders, the need for our commanders, the responsibility of our commanders, now when we are addressing the problems that we have had when we have not dealt adequately with sexual assault or sexual harassment. our commanders are key, and they have stepped up to our history to their role, and they are stepping up to that role. i've seen the importance, vital importance, of bipartisanship in security policy and foreign policy and how, when we don't live up to bipartisanship, how our country is weakened. i've seen the way our leaders, our military leaders, civilian and uniformed, have not only produces most powerful army and the army with the greatest spirit that is in the world, i've also seen how they represent us around the world.

they're great diplomats as well as great military leaders. and men and women in uniform who have not only offered their lives to us but they've given us an extra gift. a gift they didn't maybe even realize they were signing up for. and that is the way in which the men and women in uniform and our veterans, obviously, have helped the to unify this country, have given us a gift of unity, because the people of the united states love the people who serve news our military, and our veterans. there's a love affair between our people and you. and that love affair, that determination, that we provide you everything that you need to succeed in battle and to in peacetime recover from wounds of

war, and to support your family. that determination of northwestern people bipartisan, knows snow geography, is so -- no geography, is so keen when we fall short -- at timestimes do do -- they will remind us with great vigor what service to this country means and how we must all do the best we can to support the men and women in uniform and the families that support them. that gift of unity is so needed in our country. we don't have too many sources at at that times that keep us unified but men and women in uniform, your courage, braverly, dedication, loyalty to each other is a huge source of unity in a country which desperately needs unifying factors. and so, i'm here with my wife today, barbara, and many of our staff and former staff, and

we -- mentioning my wife barbara one last time. she is the proud sponsor of the combat ship which is being built, called the uss detroit. it's lcs-7, and she has become so deeply involved. before that with military families and military children, and now she -- when i know when she is not at home i know where she is. she is studying how to break a bottle of champagne. so thank you so much for these honors. i want to thank our leaders, secretary hagel, general dempsey, and everyone with whom they serve for their great, great contribution to the defense of this country. thank you for your friendship and your very, vary warm words this morning. thank you. [applause]

ladies and gentlemen, congressman mckeon. >> thank you, secretary hagel, chairman dempsey, senator levin. service secretaries, members of the joint chiefs, family and friends, most importantly, the men and women standing in uniform. i'm humbled by your attendance here today. i wish i had the words, mr. secretary, chairman, senator to thank you for the hunt i've had to work with you, for your kind words that you just spoke. you know, the longer i've been in congress the more opportunity i've had to work with the men and women in uniform, and those

who serve in the men and women in uniform, civilians. i wish i had the words to adequately express to you my feelings of admiration, respect, and to me, just looking out here, the young men and women that have dedicate their lives to us, it just says what america is. that is -- it's amazing, at the outset i want to thank my wife, patricia, 52 years. she has stood by me, very, very patient. thank you for your love, for your support. we have one of our sons and his wife with us today, dave and crystal. we want to thank them. we have six children, 30 grandchildren, and i'm going to spend a little more time with them.

i know the best way to show gratitude to the troops in review is to keep my remarks short. i represent a large district in california but i've always thought of every man, woman, in uniform and their families, as my constituents. before the first world war, the germans were considered to have the best army in the world. after the war a german general said this: i fought in campaigns against the russian army, the serbian army, the romanian army, the british army, the french army, and the american army. i participated in more than 80 battles. i have found your american army the most honorable of all enemies. you have been the bravest of our enemies. to this day, you wear the uniform of the finest military in the world. i believe you stand here as the

finest military on this earth in history. you carried on the traditions of bunker hill and gettysburg and you made your own mark in tora bora, fallujah, and ram -- are a mad di. you have earnedded eternal swat gratitude from your fellow meshes, envy from fellow nations and fear from your enemies. it's been the greatest honor of my thrive d of my life to serve you in congress. everything that senator levin and i did, every bill, every debate in the house and senate, every tough negotiation, all were for those of you in uniform, and your families. if anything can be said about our tenure as armed services

chairmen, i hope it is we alaska worthy of your sacrifice. you have my sincerest thanks. god bless each and every one of you. god keep you as we enter a new conflict in the middle east, and god bless these united states of america. [applause]

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[drumming] >> ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's ceremony. please remain in place as the official party departs. thank you for your attendance enjoy the rest of your day. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

block. at a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of amir core, president obama was joined by former president bill clinton who created the program in 1994. this ceremony at the white house south lawn is 45 minutes.

nod conversation [inaudible conversations] >> good morning, president obama. president clinton, members of congress, and distinguished guests. amore core -- americorps alums, americorps members. happy birthday americorps. what an incredible honor it is to stand before you as we celebrate 20 years of service to america. please take your seats. since that first class, donned their gray shirts, 900,000 americans have served in

americorps. [applause] >> and they committed 1.2 billion hours of service to get things done for america. now here we are, at the white house, joining ceremonies that are taking place across the nation, in all 50 states, at this moment and throughout the day, including territories. it's really an historic moment for every one of us. at this time, i would like to ask the members of the 2014 class of americorps to stand. [applause] >> the rest of our guests, the pledge is in your program and we invite you to follow along. as we recite the americorps pledge. let us remember that these very exact words were first spoken

here at the white house 20 years ago today. and, members, as you say these words, please consider its meaning. take these words to heart. think about them. and i hope that you will live these words from this day on. please raise your right hand and repeat after me: i will get things done for america. will get things done for america. >> to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier. >> to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier. ...

[applause] >> good morning. >> good morning. >> you guys are all so beautiful up here. twenty years ago i applied to become an americorps member because i wanted to challenge myself and contri t