during the time frame covered by the green mints the israel air force command center received three hundred men tend not to fictitious about russian air force missions running close to israeli territory during the same time he's really should only twenty five knots if occasions it did so just before attacks. in the context of constructive russian israeli copper rationing in the syrian arab republic it is difficult for us to understand the reasons behind such actions by toll of the. this is an extremely ungrateful response to all that has been done by the russian federation for research oh and for these really people recently. i would like to remind you that as a result of the operation conducted in the south western deescalation zone in syria by government troops supported by russian airspace forces this summer the un peacekeeping contingent was able to resume its work on the border between syria and israel in the golan heights in accordance with the un security council resolution three fifty conducted in nineteen seventy fourth. sean august the second twenty eighteen the un peacekeeping co

air command. general john raymond, commander air force space command. timothy ray, and lieutenant general brad webb, commander air force special operations command. the rules of engagement for this session are as follows. each speaker will make a presentation and then we'll take questions from the audience if there is time. believe it or not, we're going to be 21st century here and you can text your questions in to a number that should be up on the screen at some point. with that, let me give the floor to general walters and let him start. >> thanks, secretary peters. and behalf of all of us certainly for this panel, we want to thank you for your service as our secretary, undersecretary and for that moment for this very second for all you've done for our nation. it's great to be back in your company. albeit it's in washington d.c. and i must say to this crowd prefer being 4700 miles away in central europe. i want to pass a shout out to our wing commanders and chiefs that represent the wings. where the rubber meets the road is where those commanders and c

air force not supporting this, it's just crazy. i mean, the air force was supportive. john heighten at the time was air force space command. you cannot find a better space warrior. there's no way we could have developed leaders john heighten and all of the other space warriors without having institutional support from the air force, to groom them and put them into position. so here's the thing. right now this is i believe when you go to a service, you were talking about offensive operations in their domain. space power. how would you do offensive operations? and i don't believe the united states is saying we want to go, we don't want to have on orbit space weapons that drop and provide space-based fire support. i just don't think the united states is willing to go to that level. and that's why i think this is all about fighting the constellation while under attack and getting operators in the mindset that they have to think everything about how they would respond to these attacks. but i would actually argue that when you go to a space force it would be when and if the united states says we are going to conduct offensive ope

air combat command and u.s. army training and doctrine command have done for tabletop exercises together with the purpose of trying to figure out how the army and air force will fight together on the battlefield of the future. and how we can present those multiple approaches that will require multiple lanterns out of the enemy as the chief did. we look at different portions of the bite and we started with closed battle. for air force. doubt be starting with the target and working backward. we started with what will be required for us to fight together well in the closed battle. we were cap back into control. tabletop. we work at deploying our tops. some of the things that we have learned our that one of the key things that will -- we will have to figure out is how to take the echelons of air force control, for most of us is one echelon, the operations center, it pulls everything together. how to proceed in the fight. in the army, multiple echelons the battalion and brigade and core, how will record and our efforts together in a way faster than the board structure that we have used in the past. where weeen in a fight can think about what we going to do th

air force space command and royal canadian air force space command discussed how the two countries can work together on military and security operations in space. the wilson center organized the conference. >>> okay. well, thank you so much. i'm really excited to see this audience just kind of got filled all of a sudden by a bunch of military people, so that's very cool. so i have the honor to introduce our two guests today, our two panelists. so i'm going to start with brigadier general kevin wale. he's the director general and component commander for space for the canadian defense ministry. he brings with him a really diverse military background that starts in 1986. and over the years, he's flown a bunch of rotor craft, including the kiowa, the twin huey, the apache. he's had a number of staff positions, such as training in headquarters, he's done a ton of work in engaging with allies in exchange for the u.s. army that landed him at ft. hood, texas, and integrating special aviat n aviations attachments in afghanistan, and somehow now he's landed himself doing space operations. so let

he's the assistant vice commander of air force space command and you held that position -- his experience with air force space operation stretches back farther than that. he retired from the air force in 2013 as a colonel and he built up a rÉsume there of space and icbm operations or roles and he's also held positions such as the air force's deputy director of planning, deputy director of its legislative liaison office, and most recently before he took his current role, the assistant deputy chief of staff for space operations. so i'm thrilled to welcome you both. as i understand it, you have presentations before we get into some q & a and, you know, hopefully a lot of audience q & a. so, general, would you like to start with your presentation? >> sure. i'm going to to the podium. >> i'm happy to be here today and describe to you what i can honestly say is an exceptional collaboration collaborative relation with the u.s. department of defense on the canadian side to build on what has been talked about already on the civil and commercial side. i'll add the canadian defense lens on this. the

first of all we are prioritizing our strategic steps which will include the readiness of the air force reserve command and where we're going with that you can then we are focused on building our recent leadership and trying, we are in lockstep with the things the air force is doing and how do we best present leaders and grow our leaders in order to fill the needs of the air force total force? that's the second piece. the other one is our organizational reform that we are looking at. mr. manas caput sit very well when he says excellence in all we do that also include excellent and our support to our airman. so we are focused on ensuring that we keep the faith and our airman and we provide them with the necessary support that they need to be able to do their jobs. that's what we'll focus on is make sure our airman have the ability to show up every day to work, focus on their skills training and really get after the work of being ready for the worst that will come in the future. those are really the three things that we're going to prioritize as we go forward from that. i'll let general rice start with t

so i think the space commission in 2001, all of the commanders of air force space command have not been pilots except for kevin childress, and anyone who commanded a space shuttle more than once in my view qualifies. an air force guy, but i don't come from that background of aviation. let me also say that i think it's a very good thing that this subject is being talked about publicly, and i'm very, very reassured by the fact that the government is talking about this, there department of defense is talking about it, the executive branch, all the way up and including the president of the united states and how important space is to our economy, to our national security. and we have all been expressing their concern about why some steps have to be taken and why it is we need to act. i won't go back over that. i agree with csis. they do a great job there. they also acknowledge that the pace of technology is going faster than our acquisition system has been able to assimilate. and they acknowledge, and i think this is right. time is not necessarily on our side here. i think that we assumed du

vice president say, he has a secretary of defense, our chief and that's really the focus of air force space commanday. if you coming to air force base committed you can integrate the set a strategic inflection point, . what we used to operate in april 9 -- benign domain. i would say there are four necklines of effort that you could lump or group activities and that we are focusing on. first one is partnerships and development the partnerships with a were fighters that are on this table and working to integrate space at a different level with the partners that are here, developing, we all have a great relationship with intelligence community but even furthering that partnership with intelligent unity which is so important. we are also developing partnership with our allies, just a couple months ago we transitioned the joint space operations center to a combined space operations center so we really working that aspect as well. then working to strengthen relationships with industry. there's a really bad word they use in space basis but there's an explosion of things happen in the commercial industry,

first of all we are prioritizing our strategic depth, which includes the readiness of the air force reserve commandnd where we are going with that. then we are focused on building our resilient leadership and trying to -- we are in lock step with the things that the air force is doing. and how do we best present leaders and grow our leaders in order to fill the needs of the air force total force. that's the second piece. and the other one is our organizational reform that we are looking at. mr. manasco puts it very well when he says excellence in all we do does also include excellence in our support to our airmen. we are focused on ensuring that we keep the faith with ouren a airmen and we provide them the necessary support that they need to be able to do their jobs. that's what we are focused on making sure that our airmen have the altd to show up every day to work focused on their afcc's training and ready for the wars of the future. those are the three things we are going prioritize as we go forward from that. i'll let general rice start with the first part of your second question. >> so some. t

commander air force reserve command. she is a command pilot with over 4,300 hours in numerous aircraft . captain jim graham is the vice president of flying operations and chief pilot at delta airlines. captain graham is responsible for the overall conduct of delta's worldwide daily flight operations, which include overseeing over 14,000 pilots,el 1176 aircraft and the aircraft of delta's subsidiaries on over 5400 daily flight. he was a naval aviateor prior to delta. our final panelist is general mike holmes. the command operates more than 1,100 aircraft, 36 wings, 12 bases at more than 315 operating locations worldwide with 158,000 total force military and civilian personnel. general holmes is command pilot with over 4,000 hours. 530 combat hours in the f-15 a, d and e.andy -- general rice, if you'd like to start us off with your opening comments. >> ok. thank you, junior. thank you for that introduction and it's great to be in this lineup of this panel because this is a great opportunity for us. we talk about the air cr

, triple haddad, united states space command and air force space command turkey walked in the door. i was around. he walked in the door and he said we are going to spend our time figuring out how to make space rather than for the forward war fighters, and so the effort those made by the air force beginning then was to make sure that there was never time that a warrior said where's that space stuff? we took that on with a vengeance. the difference today, and by the way, by the time i got to strategic command with iraq and afghanistan going on, no combatant command ever look to meet said we are not getting what we need from space. the difference though now is those same space people have got to be able to fight their platforms in order to do that. that's the something they had to be considering before. that's the cultural difference. there is a cultural difference in that regard. that gets to what i was calling earlier combat space operators as opposed to just people who fly satellites there's a difference and they need to be tactically trained as well as technical

deputy commander of the air force command west of the ukrainian air force it's worth noting that in july twenty fourth teen colonel green cherokee was the commander of the one hundred sixty fourth radio technical brigade. number a fourteen fifty one of the korean our air force. in july twenty fourth teen units of the one hundred sixty fourth radio technical brigade were deployed in the character of soma poltava improper troughs donetsk lugansk and there's a corrosion regions scanning there as space over ukraine including its south eastern regions as you can see on the slide the tuner area on the mh seventeen aircraft. lied through they want two hundred sixty fourth brigade radar detection zone. in other words. knew exactly what was happening in the air over donbass because it was his job. she also knew about all oppression all to operational tasks and performance of the end craft systems deployed in this so-called anti-terrorist operation zone so his phrase about another malaysian boeing that they could shoot down confirms she was.

air force has come a long way, the air force represents diverse and young military service who's culture is constant evolution as i'm confident anyone who has ever served in a position of air force command or leadership will agree nothing and absolutely nothing matters if families aren't supported and care for in a way that recognizes them as the most important element of our air force. we are excited to bring you this air force senior leader town hall meeting focusing on some of the important issues faced by airmen and family, faa is proud to present opportunity with interaction of the senior leadership of air force and amazing spouses. on stage we have chief master sergeant of the air force and his wife tonya. [cheers and applause] >> chief of staff and wife dawn. [cheers and applause] >> secretary of the air force heather wilson and husband jay holmes. [cheers and applause] >> these leaders are here to participate in a dialogue with you about issues important to you and your families. if you have any questions for our distinguished panel, please text your questions to the number displayed on the screen and i will do my best to get through as many questions as we can. so i'm going to

this commander, serving as a commander, air force space command at the time, paid a visit to washingtontate. went up there to see the air national guard unit. the cyber unit up there. he was pulling up with his aide, pulls into a parking lot and sure it was a pretty stylish compact if the story serves me correctly. >> fusion. >> as he pulled in with the fusion, along pulls up a seen year airman e4 in a $100,000 tesla. sure there's a story there. there absolutely was. he was one of the vice presidents for cyber security and microsoft. because he wants to be doing this kind of profession. the profession of arms because there are things you can do in the capacity of the arms forces member you just can't do in life. i think there's value. once again, how do we cu cultiv that talent, assess that talent and retain that talent? it's imperative each and every one of us focus on that. >> if i look at all the oall t l >> if i look at all the l the t in this room, every one of you, if you join the air force to get rich, man, the recruiter saw you coming. you joined it because you wanted to do some

she was chief of the air force reserve headquarters and air force reserve command. she is a command pilot with over 4,300 hours in numerous aircr t aircraft. captain jim graham is the vice president of flying operations and chief pilot at delta airlines. captain graham is responsible for the overall conduct of delta's daily flight operations which includes overseeing over 14,000 pilots,el 76 aircraft and the aircraft of delta's subsidiaries on over 5400 daily flight. he was a naval aviator prior to delta. our final panelist is general mike holmes. the command operates more than 1,100 aircraft, 36 wings, 12 bases at more than 315 operating locations worldwide with 158,000 total force military and civilian personnel. general holmes is command pilot with over 4,000 hours. general rice, if you'd like to start us off with your opening comments. >> okay. thank you, junior. thank you for that introduction and it's great to be in this lineup of this panel because this is a great opportunity for us. we talk about the air crew crisis task force. for the reserve component and

sean barnes, assistant vice commander of air force space command and is held that position since april, right? major general thompson moved to the pentagon [inaudible] started for you. his experience with air force base operation starting back a lot further than that. he retired from the air force in 2013 is a colonel built to resume their hunt space in icbm centric operations and is also held positions such as the air force's deputy director of planning and deputy or legislative liaison office and most recently before he took his current role, assistant chief of staff for space operations. he thrilled to welcome you both and as i understand it, you guys have presentations before we get into some q&a and hopefully a lot of audience q&a. general, would you like to start with your presentation? >> over the podium. >> cool. >> i'm happy to be here today describe to you what i can honestly say is an exceptional collaborative relationship we have at the u.s. department of defense on the canadian side. it's been talked about already on the civil and commercial side, i will add the defense pl

there is an army command in the pacific, an air force command in the pacific, a marine corps command in the pacific, and if you march around the world to the different geographic areas i told you about, each of those has a component. and that componency is an important part of this. it's a little bit of a moderator of what the commander needs and what the services say they can provide, and also that service component, pacific fleet, organizes, trains and also equips the forces to help prepare them to deploy. so this process in the navy to prepare forces to deploy, it's called the fleet response plan. the name is irrelevant. there is a similar name that the army has, the air force has, and the concept works very much the same between all of them. it produces forces. that's the end state of the fleet response plan. people and platforms, as i said before, forces that are ready to be tasked for a whole spectrum of operations. that spectrum of operations is defined by the department of defense, like i said, based upon the input of the geographic commanders. now, the readiness of those thi

we had to create new command and control that they look up and fight the constellation joint base operations center would still own to provide support to the allied forces. the air force space command agreed to a common space enterprise vision something that we have not added quite and with that architectural framework reestablishes space doctrine for strap kong at the tactic to conduct a strength in the space defense counsel to provide better investment that did not work as well as we hoped. in pursuit of her capabilities and we received terrific risk for -- support everybody was all in. thinking that we are not taking the threat serious enough i can say with confidence given the budget and also three player at the fastest speed possible given those resources. you can say why weren't the number one? and i was deputy secretary in 2014 my two immediate predecessors really had gotten the cyberproblem on the right path i did not need to spend a lot of time with the cybercommand whether or not to make a unified command so the focus was on the space problem and then the simple fact the obama administration never received once as many resources as it requested so cong

air force officer. force and its relationship with spaces part of the conversation here but i want to remind you, i am not a pilot. five of the last six commanders of air force space command have not been pilots. the other one was but he was a space shuttle pilot. a view is anyone who has been satellite is clear to command people who fly them. since the space commission in 2001, all of the commanders of space command have not been pilots except for kevin chilton. know, an air force guy, but i do not come from that background of the aviation piece of the air force. i think it say that is a very good thing that this subject is being talked about publicly. i am very reassured by the fact that the government is talking about these. all the way up to and including the president, they are talking about the importance of space to our economy, scientific advancements, national security. they have all been expressing their concern about why some steps have to be taken and why it is we need to act. sagree that the csi unclassified population -- publication is very good. thanology is going faster our system has been able to assimilate. that time isdge not

space command, which by the way we had back in the 1980s, i think in the early '90s it got rolled into air force space command. but we did have a combat and command. bringing that back, that is focused not on geography on earth but focused on a function, that being space security. so a military service, a functional combat and command, and of course an assistant secretary of defense for space, which you add all that together, and it looks a lot like a space force. that's what the vice president, you know, suggested that we do at his pentagon speech a number of weeks ago. >> all right. i've got more questions, but i suspect some people in the audience have some better questions. if you've got a question, raise your hand. we'll get a microphone to you. lance, up front. just keep the question short and in the form of a question. >> so this is a softball question for you. >> i like softballs. you're not supposed to tell them it's a softball. >> you are the leader of this space community which is an inspiration to a lot of i think people, and you're a parent. could you share with all of us your thoug

systems so for these equipment was only supplied to the russian army forces because of this new equipment the syrian air defense command will be able to implement a centralized command of all air defense forces monitoring the situation in the air and assign targets promptly that is most importantly the syrian air defense systems will now identify properly all russian aircraft in the area third. which is the limited iranian c.-e. near easy decent to syria we will use. jamming all satellite navigation and the readers and communication systems of aircraft to take in targets in syria this shoot down some odd hands keeping them from reckless behavior that poses a threat to our servicemen otherwise we will have to respond based on the current situation. so it was six days ago that a syrian battery shot down a russian military plane killing everyone on board a missiles were launched in response to an air strike by israeli f. sixteen fighter jets and accidentally struck the russian plane at the tragic incident happened around thirty five kilometers off the syrian coast just as the aircraft was returning to base. let's get to s

laid out but that space operations force talking about the new combat tent command that is what cites wars to have a program of the us space command that got rolled into air force space command and to bring that back that is focused not geography on earth but on security is important so that functional combatant command and they. >> i think people had better questions. >> you are the leader of the space community can you share with all of us the importance but to be an attendee and i had been an attendee here for a lot of reasons that to know what the interests were. because of their focus on stem. and for those capabilities going forward. but who put power on the planet? >> to have the best scientists, engineers, best technology. nasa has a lot of those capabilities right now. 30 years from now or 50 years from now we have the power then that we have now. the answer is organizations like this. and to build up that cadre. and the summer after my fifth grade year i had the opportunity to participate in a wind tunnel it was a summer camp. probably because she wanted me out of the house and i played with the wind tunnel at the university of texas arlington f

mentioning this, i am an air force officer, the air force, and his relationship with space, part of a conversation here, i want to remind you, i'm not a pilot, five of the last six commanders of space command have not been pilots, the other one was, but he was a special pilot, in my view was anyone who has been commanding people who fly them, the space commission, in 2001. all the commanders, they have not been pilots, except for some, commanding the space shuttle, or orbited more than once, qualifies. just so you know, an air force guy, but i don't come from that background, of aviation, and i think it is a very good thing that the subject is important, i am reassured that the government is talk about this, talking about the important -- importance of space, to our national security, the scientific advancements, expressing their concern about why some steps have to be taken, and why we need to act, and going over that, the publication does a great job there. and acknowledge that the pace of technology is going faster than our system has been able to assimilate. and they acknowledge, and i think this is right, time is not necessarily on our site here. we assume -- assumed

general miller is the commander, any she's response imfor more than 123,000 air force reserve member and dod civilians. general miller was chief of the air force reserve headquarters and the command. the command pilot with over 4800 hours with numerous aircraft. >> captain jim graham is the vice president of operations and chief pilot of delta airline and the overall conduct of delta's worldwide daily flight operations which includes overseeing 14,000 pilots and 876 aircraft and the delta has held subsidiary and afill ats on 5400 daily flights and it was naval aviator, and the final panelist, general mike holmes, and the command operates more than 1100 aircraft, 27 wings and 12 bases and more than 315 operating locations worldwide with 158,000 total force and civilian personnel. general holmes piloted 4,000 hours and 530 combat hours in a, b, c, d and e. >>. >> general wright, would you like to start us off with the opening comment. >> thank you for that introduction, and it's great to be in this line up of the panel because it is a great opportunity for us. >> we'll talk about the ai

air force material command. it is a litany of death made in the usa. and yet, the u.s.partment has certified that the saudi coalition is undertaking actions to reduce the risk of harm. and that arm sales to the coalition could continue. when cnn reached out to the pentagon, spokeswoman commander rebecca said it called upon all parties to take all precautions to harm civilians. the conduct in the campaign is made by the members of the saudi-led coalition, not the u.s. many of the weapons were precision-xw precision-guided. we wanted to see the aftermath for ourselves. cnn was able to send a team. there, our cameraman met this 12-year-old. in april, a coalition bomb struck a village wedding. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: you can see here, the moments before the planes arrived, killing 11 children. a weapons expert helped cnn trace it back to the u.s.-made bomb by raitt yen. he will spend his life on crutches. his brother was killed. as the team conducts the interviews, in the distance, a plane is heard. and the children scatter. in a rare moment of respite

air force. it's called u.s. space command. so if you make a space force, what it will do is it will shift -- it's like an accounting shift -- shifts all of these space activities out from under the air force, puts them under a new umbrella, but it would localize and sharpen how people are thinking about command and control in space. and it is likely that there will be advances that would benefit astrophysics. >> i think there are people who are looking to some of our geopolitical adversaries and noticing that they are upping their game in the space race. the chinese, they're spending about $11 billion a year to the u.s.'s $48 billion in space. so, while they are certainly an ascendant power, it seems to me that, you know, it's quite possible that this is just a mounting space race that we're starting with china the american people aren't aware of. >> it could be. that's a perceptive point. it could be. if you feel threatened by someone else who's putting up more satellites than you or who might have a moon base and you don't, t

air force material command. it is a litany of death made in the usa. and yet the u.s.has certified to congress that the saudi-led coalition is undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm and that arms sales to the coalition could continue. when cnn reached out on our findings to the pentagon, the spokeswoman said it called upon all parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians. the final decisions on conduct are made by the members of the saudi-led coalition, not the u.s. many of these weapons were precision guided. we wanted to see the aftermath for ourselves. cnn was able to send a team to the province. there, our cameraman met 12-year-old boy. in april, a coalition bomb struck a village wedding. >> you can see here the moments before the planes arrived killing 21 people, 11 of them children. this is part of twhat was used n the attack. it was traced back to a u.s. bomb manufactured by rathe eon. he was one of the lucky ones. his brother was killed. as the team conducts the interviews in the distance, a plane is heard. and the ch

assistant to the secretary of defense or homeland defense, kenneth barack obama and air force general terrence o'shaughnessy. commanderd states northerncommand and north american aerospace defense command . their bios can be filed on defense.gov. mister warner will begin with an opening statement followed by generalshaughnessy . and we will open it up for

air national guard member. this is the kind of talent we pulled in. i'll assure you a quick story. i stole this from one of my commanders, so please don't tell him, so this commander, air forcese marathon, paid a visit to washington state. when it there to see the air national guard unit, cyber unit. he's pulling up with this aitkin pulled into a parking lot and a pretty stylish compact if the story certainly quickly. a long pause of the senior airman and a $100,000 tesla. there's a story there. there actually was. he was wanting the vice president for substrate microsoft it because he wants to be doing this kind of profession, the profession of arms. there are things you can do in the capacity of the armed forces members you can't do in life. there is value and once again how do we cultivate that count? how do we assess that at how we retained otello? i think it's imperative each and every one of us focus on it to be honest. >> if you look at all the talent in this room, all the talent, everyone of you, if you join the air force to get rich, man, the recruiter saw you coming. you joined it because you wanted to do something a good than yourself. that's it's all about. that'

congressional testimony, senior military officials such as air force general john heiden, commander responsible for all nuclear forces and vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff voiced enthusiastic support for the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. on the go through a series of questions and you could give me a simple yes or no. communities dates me all of our current deterrence requirements with a forest at or slightly below the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty, yes or no? in that we are currently meeting obligations, senator. >> pardon me? >> we are currently meeting obligations. >> so the answer is yes we can meet requirement that the forest at or slightly below the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. >> senator, we've met our limits. >> the reason we have witnesses here is to give us answers to the questions we pose. that's not the question i pose to you. we try another one. does the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty forced the united states to cut back any of our current nuclear modernization effort, yes or no? >> i would say no. >> thank you. does the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty the manner missile defenses? tonight i defer to the departm

went to rf where theton hall, bloody hundred traces back to its lineage in the air force of world war ii. the wing commanderd his readiness money to build an exercise. they mobilized every tanker in the wing in less than 16 hours and after an elephant walked to the runway, kept them flying for 24 hours of nonstop operations. two short months later, the real call came. the united states would destroy syria's chemical weapons development capabilities and as they say at millden hall, november, kilo, alpha, whiskey, tango gulf. , if you don't know what that means, ask one of your friends in the tanker squadron. when it was time to execute, the weather was significantly below minimums. they needed a follow-me truck to find the runway center line. the bloody 100th was in thefirst -- in the first wave. if they didn't go, the mission would have to be scrubbed. they relied on their training, their confidence and the maintenance of their equipment, and push the throttles forward. i know there are some airmen air -- airmen here from the bloody 100th and i'd ask you to stand and be recognized. [applause] part of being

services retirement state security retirement military security with all of the air force intelligence within the chain of command official forces this is silly this is the clearest case that i've ever seen this is abundant evidence that we've got more so much more that maybe. it's embarrassing going away at it particularly it's embarrassing we've got no court to thank but there is one route to justice and rap is pursuing it hundreds of syrian families have identified their loved ones from the season photographs if just one of the thousands of victims was found to be a european national or one of the perpetrators of these crimes was found on european soil that would present a way of opening a case against the syrian regime in a european court. how is your health and everything you feeling ok yeah ok as much as it is helping run with the case trying to identify members of the regime who slipped into europe. he very much wants to be a public witness and that record's good to great rescue certified after you've done all this to this to us to me what more can you really do i remember women who whose children have bee

assistant to the secretary of defense or homeland defense, kenneth barack obama and air force general terrence o'shaughnessy. commander united states northerncommand and north american aerospace defense command . their bios can be filed on defense.gov. mister warner will begin with an opening statement followed by generalshaughnessy . and we will open it up for questions. we have a limited amount of time so during the q and a, state your name and the news outlet and limit yourself to one question and the follow-up. please state your name and outlet. restart all devices to silent mode, the wi-fi password is at the back of the room. this is on briefings for hurricane florence. >> good afternoon. we in the department of defense appreciate the immediate attention to the status of and preparations forhurricane florence. secretary matus and shanahan are monitoring storms in the atlantic ocean , getting daily updates from us indo pacific command and northern command and response efforts currently 100 percent of rfa and been approved . the secretary is receiving reports on actions in military services but are taking to protec

air raid targeting hezbollah weapons talent's has more from moscow. this israeli military delegation headed by the commander of the air force major general and mccann nor can has come to moscow essentially to argue israel's case following the downing of this russian plane and in addition to say to the russians that iran is continuing to attempts to transfer strategic weaponry to hezbollah and establish a military presence in syria now regarding the downing of the plane what israel says is that it wasn't their fault their points are that it was extensive and inaccurate air defense fire from the syrian anti-aircraft batteries that down the plane that when these missiles were launched at the russian plane actually the israeli jets were already back in israeli air space during the strike that the is ready jets were engaged in the russian plane wasn't actually in the area of operations and that the syrians didn't even try to determine that there were no russian planes in the air so essentially what they're doing is saying to the russians we aren't to blame and also and this is important they're also trying to persuade russians that the current arrangement b

investigation to be conducted with the russian side when so far as to suggest that the israeli commander of the air force flying to russia to provide full details for such an investigation this is a severe taste in terms of what is often presented as a strategic relationship and a close relationship between netanyahu and putin now the israeli defense forces has also issued a statement in which it says it mourns the deaths of the fifteen russian servicemen it did acknowledge that it carried out bombings against targets inside syria on monday night but also stressed just like the israeli prime minister that it was not responsible. these are expresses sorrow for the death of the air crew members of the russian plane that it was down to my view to syrian anti-aircraft fire israel holds the assad regime whose military showdown the russian plane fully responsible for this incident the israeli army has conducted an initial inquiry of the incident and they point out and i'm quoting here that the syrian anti-aircraft fire was indiscriminate extensive and inaccurate they also say that the syrian army norns to its

investigation to be conducted with the russian side when so far as to suggest that the israeli commander of the air force flying to russia to provide full details for such an investigation this is a severe test in terms of what is often presented as a strategic relationship and a close relationship between netanyahu and putin now the israeli defense forces has also issued a statement in which it says it mourns the deaths of the fifteen russian servicemen it did acknowledge that it carried out bombings against targets inside syria on monday night but also stressed just like the israeli prime minister that it was not responsible. israel expresses sorrow for the death of the air crew members of the russian plane that was down tonight butin syrian anti-aircraft fire israel holds the assad regime whose military showdown the russian blamed fool are responsible for this incident the israeli army has conducted an initial inquiry of the incident and they point out and i'm quoting here that the syrian anti-aircraft fire was indiscriminate extensive and inaccurate they also say that the syrian army north-east its m

the people who solve problems are the people doing the work in the business of our air force, and that's you, commanders at all levels. that's why he's worked so hard on how do i strengthen and vitalize the squadron, how do i make that -- the environment so right, because that's where we generate our power down to squadron level. and he really does trust you. and he's going to reiterate that question, that -- this year to all the wing commanders on thursday and friday of this week. because i think we have been -- we've been lulled into this world where we become too hard and too complex and too risk averse, and too regulated, too stovepiped, too analog for the digital world that we live in. we've got to change that. so this -- this risk aversion is one of the big things that's holding us back, ending in this -- to empower our airmen to do the things that they know how to do. if you listen to these -- it's fascinating because we didn't prepare our comments. but all of these are connected. so whether it be the people part of this and culture change is really hard, right, to me the first thing we have to b

to milton hall where the bloody hundred places the lineage back to the eighth air force in world war ii, the wing commanderlonel crisp and rhine used his readiness money to build the exercise. they mobilize every tanker in the wing and less than 16 hours and after an elephant walk to the runway kept them flying for 24 hours of non-stop operations and two short months later the real call came. the united states would destroy serious chemical weapons capabilities, and as i say at milton hall. november, kilo, alpha, whiskey, tango, golf. if you don't know what that means ask one of your friends with the tanker squadron. when it was time to execute, the weather was significantly below minimums. they needed a follow-me truck to find the runway center line. the bloody hundred was in the first wave. if they didn't go, the mission would have to be scrubbed. they relied on their training, their confidence and the confidence in their equipment and pushed the throttles forward. i know there are some airmen here from the bloody hundred, and i would ask you to stand to be recognized. [ applause ] >> part of being ready