- 7/2/2025
Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell held a press briefing on Wednesday.
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00:00Good afternoon everybody. Thanks for joining me today. I'll start off with a few things at the top
00:06and then I'll get to some of your questions here at the end. But let's start off with Ukraine
00:12because I'm sure that a lot of you all have a question a lot of questions about that.
00:16The Department of Defense continues to provide the president with robust options regarding
00:22military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end. And at the
00:30same time, the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach towards achieving this
00:37objective while also preserving U.S. military readiness and defense priorities that support
00:43the president's America First agenda. This capability review, and that's exactly what it is,
00:49it's a capability review, is being conducted to ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense
00:57priorities. And we will not be providing any updates to specific quantities or types of munitions being
01:03provided to Ukraine or the timelines associated with these transfers. But the secretary will continue
01:10to make recommendations to the president for his decision on military assistance to Ukraine going
01:15forward. We see this as a common sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what
01:24munitions are sent and where. But we want to be very clear about this last point. Let it be known that our
01:32military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world.
01:40We have the most lethal fighting force in the world. If you need further proof of that, look no further
01:46than Operation Midnight Hammer and the total obliteration of Iran's nuclear ambitions there.
01:52So switching to Iran and based on the success of the U.S. and Israeli military strikes, Iran is much
02:01further away today from a nuclear weapon than they were before the president took bold action to fulfill
02:07his promise to the American people. And that promise was Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
02:12And after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, we have a ceasefire and we finally have peace.
02:19And the Department of Defense will support the diplomatic mission to continue that peace
02:25by ensuring that we maintain capability across the Middle East so that the president and the secretary
02:31of defense have a range of military options available to defend both our citizens, our troops, our forces
02:38in the region. And as such, we don't have any force posture updates at this time in the CENTCOM AOR.
02:45Okay, let's transition to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and our partnership with them.
02:51The department continues its important work in securing our borders and supporting the Department
02:55of Homeland Security. Approximately 8,500 military personnel assigned to Joint Task Force Southern
03:02Border continue to enhance U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's capacity to identify, track, and disrupt threats
03:10to border security. Since the secretary authorized enhanced detection and monitoring on March 20th,
03:17Joint Task Force Southern Border has conducted more than 3,500 patrols, including more than 150
03:25trilateral patrols with CBP and the Mexican military. The strong partnership and coordinated efforts
03:33between the Department of Defense and Customs and Border Patrol yielded exceptional results between June 28th
03:39and June 30th with zero gotaways across the entire southern border during that time frame. We have made
03:47incredible progress and will continue to work towards achieving 100% operational control of the border.
03:54And recently, Secretary Hegseth directed the secretaries of the Air Force and the Navy to take
04:02necessary action to establish national defense areas along the U.S.-Mexico border. The South Texas NDA,
04:10administered by the Department of the Air Force, will include federal property on and along 250 river
04:18miles of the Rio Grande River. The Yuma NDA, administered by the Department of the Navy,
04:24will include approximately 140 miles of federal property along the U.S.-Mexico border near the
04:31Barry M. Goldwater Range in Arizona. These will be the third and the fourth designated national defense
04:39areas along the border and will continue to enhance the Department's ability to protect the southern
04:44border from unlawful entry. The National Guard is also playing an essential role in protecting the U.S.
04:51southern border from a legal entry and maintaining the sovereignty, the territorial integrity, and the
04:56security of the United States. Over 4,200 Texas National Guard soldiers and airmen on state active duty
05:03continue to support Operation Lone Star and nearly 70 Florida National Guard members are on state active duty as well.
05:11They're conducting base camp security at Alligator Alcatraz. In the greater Los Angeles area, approximately
05:185,000 military personnel assigned to Task Force 51 continue the important mission to protect federal functions,
05:26personnel, and property in that area. These federalized California National Guard and U.S. Marines have supported
05:32more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency,
05:42U.S. Marshal Service, ICE, and the Department of Homeland Security. Okay, so let's switch gears to the budget.
05:50I want to take a minute from the podium today to applaud the Senate on passing the President's one big, beautiful bill,
05:57and I would urge the U.S. House of Representatives to do the same. This bills necessary investments in shipbuilding,
06:05military ships, aircraft, icebreakers, unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, $25 billion for the development of Golden Dome.
06:13All of these things directly help achieve the President's Peace Through Strength agenda and will help equip our warfighters
06:21to protect the homeland against 21st century threats. This reconciliation bill is a once-in-a-generation
06:29opportunity to revolutionize our nation's defense capabilities by investing heavily in service member
06:36quality of life, including housing modernization, child care, education reforms, health care improvements.
06:44I mean, all of these things are great, and the Department is just laser-focused on getting our warfighters
06:49the funding they need to execute their mission. Let's talk about recruiting briefly.
06:56A strong and lethal military, as many in this room know, requires capable recruits, and we're excited
07:03to announce that the Air Force and Space Force have both hit their recruiting goals three months ahead
07:08of schedule. Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Heggseth's leadership, enthusiasm to serve is at all-time
07:15highs. Since November 5th, 2024, the U.S. military has seen the highest recruiting percentage of mission
07:24achieved in 30 years. Let's talk EUCOM real quick. Over the weekend, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General
07:33Grinkovich was officially confirmed as the next supreme ally commander in Europe and the U.S. commander of
07:41European command. He officially assumed command of the U.S. military mission in Europe during a change
07:45of command ceremony in which U.S. Air Force General Dan Raisin Kane, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
07:50Staff, served as their presiding officer. General Grinkovich relieved General Chris Cavoli, who's retiring
07:57from military service after nearly four decades. So congratulations to you, Chris, on a successful
08:04career. We're also very proud to have Grinch at the helm in Europe. And in closing, before I take some of
08:12your questions, I just want to take an opportunity to recognize the career of Lita Baldor, who's retiring
08:20after 20 years covering the Department of Defense. I want to thank Lita for her dedication to covering
08:27the issues, the operations of this department and the people of this department in depth. And she's made
08:34my job and those who had it before me a hell of a lot more difficult, but we get it. That's her job
08:39to ask those tough questions. So to Lita, congratulations, good luck in everything that you want to do. And
08:46thank you for everything that you gave this this department. And finally, as our nation commemorates,
08:52its 249th birthday on Friday. Let us never forget that the freedom we enjoy in America is never free.
09:01Our freedom is ensured by the men and women in uniforms spanning here at home and across the globe
09:08who dedicate themselves to its preservation. So let us never forget our fallen who made the ultimate
09:14sacrifice. Let us never forget their families who continue to carry that very heavy burden. And as we
09:20celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends at backyard barbecues, wherever it is that you
09:25celebrate this nation's independence, please remember that the very best of our nation remains forward
09:32and on watch. And so thank you all for your patience during what is a longer than normal topper. And with
09:39that, I would love to take some of your questions. Rebecca? Yeah, so obviously with respect to Ukrainian aid,
09:48the United States announced that they are going to be withholding certain aspects of aid. Ukraine
09:53responded by saying that this is going to embolden Russia. What is the department's response to that
09:58argument? Well, the president's strategic outset with regards to Ukraine and Russia has been one of
10:03peace. He campaigned on this when he was asked on a town hall with CNN about that war. He said he wanted
10:11to just stop people from dying. And so peace has been the president's highest aspiration. We here at the
10:16department support those goals and those missions. But it's important to remember that that that
10:23the stuff that I mentioned in my top are like what we've done here at the Department of Defense
10:27is create a framework to analyze what munitions we're sending where to help the president and the
10:33secretary of defense make decisions. And so ultimately our job here at the Department of Defense
10:39is to pursue the president's America first agenda and make sure that we achieve peace through strength
10:43throughout the world. Thank you. How about Olivia? Thank you. As you said, the Air Force and Space
10:50Force hit their recruiting goals three months early and the Navy announced that they did the same a month
10:54ago. What does Secretary Hegg said attribute these increases to after the Biden administration saw
10:59drops in recruitment and failed to meet those goals? Well, I think, you know, we recently stood up a
11:06recruiting task force here a couple of weeks ago to analyze and look at just these types of questions.
11:13Recruiting is a is a constellation of different things. And one of the things that we recognize
11:18here at the department, I mean, to answer your question directly, I mean, I believe that
11:22with President Trump as a commander in chief and Secretary Hegseth at the helm here in the DOD,
11:26leadership matters and certainly their leadership and moral clarity as it pertains to certain issues,
11:32not just here within the department, but all around the world, has inspired people to want
11:36to join and serve this country in great numbers. But, you know, as we stand up this recruiting task
11:42force, one of the things that I recognize right off the right off the bat was the idea of propensity.
11:48And what I mean by that is how we here in this department
11:51asked questions about people who might want to serve this country. And if you're an 18 year old
11:57kid, propensity essentially means like, do you see the US military as a viable career path moving
12:03forward? And so in the late 1980s, that number was somewhere between 25 and 27 percent of of the
12:10country who believe that service was a viable path forward. After 9-11, we believe that number was
12:15somewhere between 25, 27 percent fluctuating in a couple of years thereafter. But in between,
12:21that number has steadily fallen to I think we're somewhere between only 7 percent and 11 percent
12:26of this country see military service as a viable career path moving forward. And so obviously,
12:33at this department, we recognize that that number is probably unsustainable. And while we have great
12:38recruiting numbers now, it might not always be the case. And so one of the things that we're trying to
12:42achieve with this recruiting task force is answering the tough question about how do we how do we set the
12:50conditions here culturally in this country to have more kids want to serve this serve the country
12:55and see it as a viable career path? One of the interesting things about that is the idea of the
13:01intersection between propensity and proximity and the idea that when people are exposed to and see
13:07somebody in uniform on a day-to-day basis, their desire to serve this country skyrockets. Something
13:14we're up to 50 percent like that they see military service as a viable career path. And I think over
13:20the last 15 or 20 years, while much of the research is borne out that the U.S. military is largely a
13:26legacy force, in other words, like grandfather served, father served, more likely for their son or
13:31daughter to serve, I think that's part of the reason why they're exposed to somebody in uniform. So
13:36part of the question I'd like to answer as part of this is that the department would like to answer as
13:40part of this recruiting task force is the intersection between propensity and proximity. And if we can get
13:47servicemen and women in every community in the country and involved in community events exposed to
13:52our kids in their high schools, whatever, I think that will help us solve our recruiting problem. So
13:56I think the secretary is looking at a constellation of different things to sustain the momentum that we
14:01have now. But the reality is that leadership matters, and the president and the secretary are
14:05inspirational leaders. Tara. Thank you for doing this. You're welcome. So how much did Iran's retaliatory
14:13strike against IUD kind of persuade the department to look at the stockpiles because it did take
14:19enormous amount of patriots to defend that base against the ballistic missiles? And then secondly,
14:25on Iran, again, have you had time now to do a deeper assessment of the damage to the nuclear
14:32facilities? And have there been any sort of like air patrols or anything like that to gather additional
14:38information? So I'll answer your second question first. You know, our assessment of the battle
14:45damage around Fordow, Nantes and Estefan remains unchanged. I mean, we we believe and certainly
14:52all of the intelligence that we've seen have led us to believe that Iran's those facilities
14:57especially have been completely obliterated. And the interesting interesting kind of side point about
15:04this, Tara, is that all of the conversations that we've had since Operation Midnight Hammer
15:10with our allies all around the world, but certainly also in the region, you know,
15:14they say a couple of things. They share our sentiments about, you know, the degradation of
15:18Iran's nuclear program and the fact that we have degraded their program by one to two years,
15:23at least Intel assessments inside the department assess that. And I think their intelligence shares that
15:29conclusion. Current assessments by this department think it's been degraded or delayed by one to two
15:35years? I think we're thinking probably closer to two years, like degraded their their program by two
15:40years. But but but what we've seen almost, in fact, just universally among our allies, was
15:48them congratulating the United States, the President, the Secretary of Defense on that bold
15:52operation and the idea that American action in Iran has set the conditions for global stability.
16:00You know, you think back during my time in Afghanistan, all of the when we were due sensitive
16:05site exploitations in Afghanistan something like 20 years ago, almost all of the weapons that we pull
16:10out of those sensitive site exploitations were Iranian weapons. Iran has been a major exporter of terror
16:16all around the world and nations nations the world over have been subject to their terror. So I think they
16:22I think that nations all around the world have they they know that when America is strong and speaks
16:29clearly, the world is a better and more stable place. And so I I think it pertains to your get
16:38get your first question here now. I remind me what you want to ask again. How much did Iran's retaliatory
16:45strike on IED kind of press the department to look at the stockpiles? Well, we're always assessing
16:52our munitions and where we're sending them. And, you know, part of what we wanted to do here at the
16:56department was, again, create a framework. We can't give weapons to everybody all around the world. We
17:02have to look out for, you know, America and defending our homeland and our troops around the world. So,
17:08I mean, that's something that we always do, uh, both before and after operations. And it's the
17:14President's job along with the Secretary of Defense to determine how we use those weapons.
17:18Can I follow up on that? You said in your opening, just to Tara's first question,
17:23I guess the second question that you answered first, you said in your opening that this led
17:26to the obliteration of Iran's nuclear ambitions. And I wonder if the assessment is not just
17:31that you're citing is not that the program was degraded, but that Iran no longer has the ambition
17:37to even create a nuclear weapon. Is there an intelligence or assessment that says that?
17:40Well, I mean, we believe that sending bombers 30, you know, from Missouri 37 hours on a mission,
17:48not a single shot fired at them, took a very strong psychological toll on Iranian leadership.
17:55We also believe that the degradation of the facilities at Fordow, Estefan and Antez degraded
18:00their physical capability of constructing a bomb. And it's not just it's not just enriched uranium or
18:07centrifuges or things like that. We destroyed the components that they would need to build a bomb.
18:12And so when you take that constellation of different things into consideration,
18:16yeah, we believe that Iran's nuclear capability has been severely degraded,
18:20perhaps even their ambition to build a bomb. I mean, ultimately, the President has said he's
18:25not going to allow them to build a bomb. The Israelis are not going to allow them to have a bomb,
18:28and they know that. And I think that factors into factors into their decision making process.
18:33Is that a final assessment that you that you're citing there? Or is there still more information?
18:37I mean, the assessments are ongoing. And every day that goes by,
18:40the intelligence picture that we have gets clearer and clearer. And as we get those updates,
18:43Courtney, we'll we'll keep you updated. Mike.
18:47Okay. Okay. Noah.
18:51Could you be more specific about the nature of the pause and weapons being provided to Ukraine?
18:55When did it begin? What munitions are being affected here? And then who was involved in the review
19:00that you're describing right now? And is that still ongoing?
19:03I can't get involved. I can't. I can't go in detail about what weapons were paused and when
19:08and what we're providing and when. Ultimately, the President and the Secretary will make those
19:14decisions about what happens with those weapon systems. Obviously, keeping in mind that the
19:19President was elected on an America first platform to put America first. And so our job as political
19:26appointees here in the Department of Defense is to provide the President a range of options to do
19:30just that. Thank you. Is the Pentagon working on a joint fitness assessment test, which is a PT test
19:38that all service members would have to take in addition to the one that they have to take for
19:42their services? If so, what will the standards be? Well, we're currently reviewing that right now,
19:48so I don't have any details to provide on that yet. But when we get them, I will let you know.
19:52So you are looking at a possible PT test for all service members in addition to what they have to take?
19:57We're evaluating standards across the board. How about Wallace?
20:02Right here. I wanted to ask a question pertaining to Syria. I was going to ask you,
20:09does the U.S. have plans to continue to draw down the troop presence in Syria? And if so,
20:16are they confident that the current Syrian government can successfully
20:19keep under detention of 10,000 ISIS fighters currently there?
20:24Well, I mean, certainly the President has talked about expanding our relationship with Syria,
20:29and I think we have high hopes there. But right now, we've still got about 1,500 troops thereabouts
20:34in Syria. But we're not going to comment further on forced posture there. But we're optimistic about
20:40the future in Syria, as the President has already said before. Mike.
20:43I do remember my question. I thought I saw you with your hand up.
20:48Does, do y'all believe that the Biden administration the past four years sort of
20:53basically opened up the door to Ukraine and say, take whatever you want, and without much
20:58idea to sort of keep control of the inventory? And is that one of the reasons why you want to
21:03see what's in the, what's in the storage and not?
21:05Absolutely. I think that for a long time, four years under the Biden administration,
21:11we were giving away weapons and munitions without really thinking about how many we have.
21:17I think that this President was elected on putting this country first and defending the homeland.
21:23And then you couple that with our national defense strategy and a shift to the Indo-Pacific.
21:27And part of our job is to give the President a framework with,
21:30that he can use to evaluate how many munitions we have and where we're sending them.
21:34And that review process is happening, is happening right now, and it's ongoing.
21:40Haley. Thank you so much. Thanks for doing this, Sean.
21:43On Iran, the IAEA chief said this weekend that he believes Iran could begin enriching uranium
21:49within months. Does the department disagree with that? Are you saying the Secretary does not
21:53share that? Well, I'm not going to comment on anything with the IAEA and Iran, but our
21:57assessment of Iran's nuclear program remains unchanged.
22:01Could you also provide an update on the review panel on Afghanistan and what work has been done
22:06there thus far? Yeah, we've got a great team coming together, most of whom will be here in July.
22:11And Haley, I think, you know, that's a great question. I just want to say, you know, our strategic
22:16outset here for this for this review. You think back to the Vietnam War and helicopters on embassies,
22:24and I got to believe that there were a lot of first lieutenants, captains, majors who witnessed
22:29that, who fought in that war and thought, boy, I wish we could have ended this war differently.
22:33And some of those first lieutenants, captains, majors, I'm sure, stayed in
22:38and became one star, two star, three star generals, and then maybe led and commanded
22:43an Operation Desert Storm. And I find that interesting because in Operation Desert Storm,
22:47there's a clear mission, clear end state. American troops withdrawn when that end state was realized.
22:53And I feel like many of those one star, two star, three star generals perhaps retired after Desert
22:58Storm. And a lot of that institutional knowledge and that pain that was experienced during the
23:02withdrawal in Vietnam was probably lost. And then flash forward 10 years, 9-11 happens,
23:0720 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we find ourselves at the end of the Afghan war in a
23:13remarkably similar situation that we were in Vietnam. So the question that I have here
23:18that the department has is what happened? Like, how do we as a department make sure that something
23:26like in Vietnam and something there again that happened in Afghanistan never happens again? Helicopters in
23:32embassies in Vietnam, helicopters and embassies in Afghanistan. It's just not the desired end
23:37state that we were looking for in those conflicts. And so how do we get an assessment at the tactical,
23:44strategic and maybe presidential level questions that were how was intel reported during the withdrawal?
23:50You know, how do we structure our report in the micro at the tactical level to answer a lot of the
23:54questions that the American people had, the questions like why did we abandon Bagram? How did we end up
24:00in Kandahar? All of these questions are the types of questions that we're going to be that we're going
24:05to be asking. But ultimately, it's about weaving these lessons learned into doctrine. And the idea
24:13that like maybe we can use this review to reform the way that we evaluate and promote young non-commissioned
24:22officers and young officers. Like for example, if you read the Afghan reports that came out every June,
24:27regardless of who the task force commander was in Afghanistan, those reviews were remarkably similar.
24:33But the end state was a disaster. So I think if you think back to my time in Afghanistan as a young
24:39commander giving battlefield update briefs as a captain to my battalion commander, if I were
24:44constantly saying that my area of operations was a disaster, it didn't have the ammo or troops that
24:48I needed to accomplish the mission, the likelihood of me getting promoted was probably not great.
24:54So how do we set the conditions here in the department to create a sense of honesty where
24:59officers are reporting what they believe to be accuracy? They're concerned about maybe their area
25:03of operations. They're concerned about the truth and maybe less about their careers. And that's not an
25:09indictment on the officers in the DOD. It's just the way that our system is constructed. And so we've got a
25:15great team that we put together. There are many of whom will start in July where the real workers
25:21started. Just had a great meeting with with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs about this and how
25:24the joint staff can help collaborate on this. But I'm very optimistic about about where we're going with
25:31this review. Haley haven't been. Have you started interviews for this report? Oh sure. Yeah.
25:36Yeah. I mean we've we've done we've done interviews. We've had we've had meetings. I mean we've
25:42getting a lot done. I mean I feel really good about it. I'll take I'll take one more question.
25:46Thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you. I have two questions. Iran, China, and Korea. Iran has
25:56signed a deal with China to purchase 40 Chinese fighter jets. What are your concerns about the
26:05Iran and China military cooperation? Well obviously like we're watching that. You know we're very
26:11concerned about that especially as we as we look to shift force posture to the Indo-Pacific. But
26:18ultimately I think that you know what we're doing here at the Department of Defense you know building
26:24up our military with historic recruiting numbers peace through strength. I mean ultimately it's about
26:28re-establishing deterrence to make our enemies think twice about doing things that we wouldn't want
26:33them to do. So Korea and regarding the reduction of U.S. troops in South Korea are there any specific
26:43plans for reducing the member of U.S. troops in South Korea and changing their rules and when will the time be?
26:56Well normally we don't we don't comment on forced posture reviews um here from the podium. It's
27:03something that we that we always do um but you know you've been covering this building for a long
27:09time. We've got an ironclad alliance with the Republic of Korea uh and we're going to remain true
27:14to that alliance. But okay thanks everybody. So we'll do this again we'll do this again very soon.
27:18We'll talk soon. Thank you everybody. Have a great day.
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