Instructions of local officials if you get the Evacuation Order remember you can always rebuild and repair but you cannot restore a life that is lost we want to make sure we minimize any possible loss of life for rest to people in these areas. I also want to make sure we say thanks to those people at the National Weather service and the fee in the team for what theyre doing here and craig thomas from florida and is familiar in a just so happens he has family in areas that could be affected so this is personal for him. You know that he will work around a the clock to make sure we are preventing any loss of life to minimize the impact but it will be a serious storm. Even as we prepare here at home. Keep in mind that haiti one of the poorest countries in the world already suffering from a range of previous disasters has been hit hard by this storm and we anticipate they will need substantial help may be similar needs and places like the bahamas. I would ask those of ii contribute and help visit cidi. Org to find out how you can make life a little easier food did not have a lot to begin with and garneau getting hammered by the storm. The last point, even as you are waiting to get instructions, and now if you evacuate there is not an Evacuation Order it makes sense for you to figure out a plan or preparation of supplies and if you need help to figure that out, go to ready. Gov that will give you clear instructions, to keep your family safe which is the priority for all of us. This is something to take seriously. We hope darfur the best but prepare for the worst of living courage everybody florida and georgia sort carolina and North Carolina to pay close attention to your local officials coming through over the next several hours. [inaudible conversations] ladies and gentlemen, instead of going into introductory remarks we will go right to questions we have attended general bed hodges the ambassador and the just got done during the Panel Discussion so with that we will start chilin a so please identify yourself. [inaudible] [inaudible] and i have a followup question. It isnt pet this by itself that deters but the u. S. Army with other capabilities with the allies whiff fatalistic approach. That is number one and certainly we are working hard to reestablish a lovable of capability to ensure deterrence. With that pruning back of former or preposition of equipment or the speed of the assembly these are all aspects of deterrence. We have not lost it but we have to rebuild some of that to make it more relevant. [inaudible] and when do they need to do that . Please keep that to one followup christina. Renshaw in base shed of ukraine illegally at next crimea and what they have done since 2008 with the invasion of georgia they have soldiers that is contrary to what they said david do with the sighting of the agreement to end the fighting in georgia. The fighting in the Eastern Ukraine are all things that undermine any attempt for stability or security in europe fact that all nations agree that this is unacceptable to use force to change sovereign and recognized borders one and then with the alliance to recognize we need to deter that is a part of it but it is the irresponsible behavior with the use of using Nuclear Weapons or threatening other countries as nuclear targets. That i would describe as frequent and unprofessional use of airspace to fly without transponders, the best way to avoid escalation is with transparency if any of us are doing exercises we will always have of thinktank or Public Officials or delegations watching our exercises. They have been right off the borders of our allies without the same degree of transparency. I will try not to cause massive feedback. Mentioning rebuilding for rampant movement of forces. And a lot of surprisingly small things that turnout like the nozzle for the fuel hose or transporters. As the partner nations have gone through this, what are the basic things we have forgotten or divested that need to be solved before we can do this effectively quick. I would like to jump on that because the german army has done so much to step forward to reestablish its own capabilities. You are right some of our urge definitely solvable. None of it is free but the real inner the reenergize thing sophisticated robust exercise with the schedule is what helps us to address this everybody here everything we were doing focused getting ready to go into iraq for afghanistan. Then lowercase add Electronic Warfare capability and we dont have to worry about before or to have you ave overhead region taft to worry about that before. Those exercises to figure out how owed to create improve that interoperable liddy . So i defer to my colleagues. First of all, this is a change of mindset when we were in afghanistan we had to develop our capabilities to build up the Afghan Security force. Lot of procedures and as you know, even the manuals are written in the United States with counterinsurgency. Afghanistan was the challenge of the battalion to be effective and we have to think of that Division Level and it isnt new but a change of mindset with double generation of young engineers who have spent already done all these things in warfare but they have not to be incapable to do that that is something from the material with a better understanding what does that mean . So what we do it is implementing better mens in lithuania and estonia that is sent only the better groups but to bring that together for those that our responsible and these all have to be brought together that is so were doing at the moment so they are a catalyst to bring these things together. So to rebuild those capabilities this is about the Counter Movement capabilities so they all have to be built up again and what wed do all together with the europeans and canadians and americans to find out who has which capability to bring this together and already this means today we can fulfil our mission so we know what to do and when we have clear guidance of what we need to do. And if it is a bit different. And of National Defence and with the afghanistan but with those traditional skills that are related that the use of artillery. Solo so maybe we have some capabilities but at the same time i would say we benefit with those capabilities. So with this situation and the effort for peace to have this Critical Response capability with the alliance daiwa as satin exercise earlier this year thanks to the invitation and it was an amazing experience first of all, to have it and american u. S. Army striker company there that moved under the command of captain moving from estonia to finland to participate in the exercise then came back the first time we had Armored Vehicles in finland, Armored Vehicles under the command of a captive and they learned so much. Great experience and went back to estonia to join another exercise. While i was there i could participate for this fly fire exercise. Probably one of the most amazing events have ever been on with tanks and artillery and small arms. Finland as of next of new and older equipment. And i was astounded when i discovered all the soldiers involved in this attack was in the army less than six months of great mobilization process. She can answer your questions but as an outsider when i saw the sophistication of the soldiers that had bent in the armys six months i think maybe the tankers were tied months but i was astounded. What i took away was nations that share a border with russia or any threat to respond very quickly, in particular they dont have a gigantic populations if they have to have a mobilization system to allow them also to contribute. Finally, when i think something we did learn in the afghanistan iraq that we all became very comfortable and expected to work alongside the state department. And i dont think if i had not had that experience i dont think i would have automatically reached out to the ambassador. Not sure i would have known what the osc was, but because the experience it out iraq and afghanistan we did learn deterrence is a comprehensive effort and involves state knowledge other aspects of power as well. I will keep it if we could do one question. Microphone, please. I wanted to ask about the heavy brigade you plan to rotate into europe. I know that has not happened yet and at one point the goal is to start the rotation october 1. Obviously that has lapsed, so im wondering, can you talk a bit about the what looks like a delay here, how that may be impacting your objective and maybe expand a bit as to why this is not occurred yet. Is at the cr or Something Else . Thank you. It was never intended for october. There was always want to be eight period of time where we transition from the das, it european activity set model which was the Third Division where the troops came over, fell in on existing clinic, used it, put it away and went back. So, we are the transition of that now, so thats why the second battalion 503rd infantry airborne units replace the armor unit in the baltic countries. We kept the tanks and armored fighting vehicles still in those countries until the next heavy belgrade shows up, but that was mainly for assurance purposes to the allied. We took them through this transition and they knew we were still committed there, so theres been no lapse. The third brigade of four division will arrive 15, january please dont pin a specific date to me because its based on shipping, but mid january and thats based only on windows that ship actually arrived. Mid january and then they will immediately go into their the point as i described earlier on the clock to find out how long does it take us to really do that, to unload, move. The chokepoint wont be how fast we can get off that ship, but the rail capacity available to move out of a single port and the next time we do this, next september we will look at using multiple ports just to exercise those as well, so no lapse. To your point, this has been the problem for every service chief and every chairman every year. If you dont have certainty it makes it difficult for people to plan and anticipate especially when you have to spend that money, getting the cr so we can have some er money here in the first few months is whats going to pay for loading that. What is the er [inaudible] i believe so, yes. So, your next. [inaudible] [inaudible question] [inaudible question] i have no followup, but a followup to that come all of the discussions of the building of europe and learning to do bridging and so on and so forth, it seems like we still have a lot of work to do in iraq and syria and libya and afghanistan, so its almost appears we are jumping ahead to europe without completing the task that we set out to complete starting after 911. Lets me touch your followup sort of question first and then defer to my colleagues to answer the other part. We dont get to choose which of threats are out there and we dont get to arrange them to line up when you need them and i think that goes to the point that all of the Service Chiefs have made and that the secretary fanny made this morning to do everything that the services is being asked to do you have the capability to do it. Otherwise you do have to do it in sequence as you can get to them. There is not enough. Theres not enough capability to fully seal the deal to achieve the desired outcome decisively in and all of them at the same time, so we are having to find a variety ways to deal with each threat as we can. Thats why our portion of it, 30,000, thats it, thats less than a third of a stadium here. Thats how me soldiers we have in europe. Thats probably about 30,000 is what it is to attend okay i will defer to you all. Of course we have interest doing on how to do the military operation and what is the difference between ukraine and syria. Of course, in ukraine we have seen the use of russian assets. But, in syria we have seen the use of Russian Forces and especially the air force. At least its been a bit surprised. Of course, they are up there always. How many flights a day, what kind of weapons used, so i would say at least from our point of view that theyve been better. Of course, thats the disaster on the civil population. From a Military Point of view they have been quite effective of that running those and rather a long period. Referring to your second part, we all have to understand and i think we understood that if we commit forces as part of an overall conference of approach and just peace, we have to stand ready that this can take a long time. In the bosnia, we intervened in 1996, and before that. Incos about 1949, we still arent as of zero and afghanistan 2001, so we need to have this understanding that we need to have patience, but got to stay committed and from the perspective from the german army we stay committed in afghanistan. We stay committed in this northern region, the nine providences. Providing an assist. We stay committed in cozumel and we stay committed with the training of the persian regret to enable them to defend the region. And we continue because we think it is also important to do something, which helps to downgrade the flood of refugees coming from the southern part of africa, so we continue with the two missions with european training mission. We provided the training for the groups of smalling army and we are now going out and continuing with the training and the Second Mission this time its un. We also provided troops in the northern part, so stay committed and from my perspective it is important to do that. Okay, of course, its ordered, but you have to have an understanding and also to tell the soldiers we have to contribute what we contribute and at the same time we have to do all we can do and what we have to do to provide our input for a sufficient deterrence in eastern europe, so southern part as well as the eastern park, which is important and you cant just drop one part and sake, hey, now, we focus on the other one because a few years later the other problem comes back to you, so it is to have patience from time to time. I know we have time for one more question and i think your next. Thank you. You mentioned during the panel retrofitting with reactive armor on our tanks and it appears based on russias Armor Development that they are preparing for a largescale land war in europe. Heavily relying on armor and it also appears that the us has not really pushed Armor Development capabilities and my reading and my reading this correctly and if i am how do you see this playing out in potential conflict . I would disagree that the us is not working on armored development. I mean, there are a lot of aspects to it. We still have exceptional armored m1 abrams tank, the latest versions versions on it just like the latest british challenger tank, so the quality as they are. The point about the reactive armor, from what we see in ukraine, on the battlefield there how everyone there is using reactive armor as well as starting to see some active protecting systems and i thought, well, if we are serious about deterrence that we should bring your thing we, so not just the tanks, but bring the reactive armor. Thats a normal part of that process. You have to put the brackets on there so then you can put this on there and its all part of it and we have not used to that very much since the beginning of the war in iraq, so this is a skill set that we are having to relearn on how to do, so its not a matter of we are lagging behind. We just havent needed reactive armor on Armored Vehicles like we see being used in their ukraine, so thats what thats about. [inaudible question] interesting, they have a big role out of the new 10, the one that failed in that red square. What they have done is the t7 e2, the latest version of that t72 tank, an outstanding tank and so russia has for a variety of reasons had to cut back on some of the investments that they had planned to make for modernization, but they are continuing to develop a particular tend to continue to build on a good model, so they were plenty of armor capability. The question is, how would they employed if they were going to they are stretched. What is their actual capacity . How long can they do what they are trying to do . And its not just a matter of having tanks, its a not a money required to train, have crews, to use it, to maintain it, so when you take the combined capabilities of the alliance, put together it worse whatever russia could muster. Thats why the alliance, the unity of the alliance is so important for us. I know that was the last question, but i went to see if anyone else from the panel wanted to respond. Last one . Yes. Challenge for us is to become , again, better interoperability. What is favoring russias build up of forces is they always speak the same language. They use the same doctrine. They use the same radios and they use the same equipment. We were very good, we were really good and afghanistan and iraq as well and we have to get all of these keep abilities back. If a leopard from the finish has been hit that than i can maintain them in my maintenance unit. If i have to refuel a modern fighting vehicle like the boxer i can do in the stryker unit, so these things, this is interoperability. Its a tactical question and also about doctrine and thats what we are working so hard and where all of these many many exercises we are doing are helping us to come forward, so we are really coming forward to. Ladies and gentlemen, i know everyone has a few more questions, but we have to close the press conference because we have other appointments that we have to get the gentleman too, so thank you for your time. Thank you for coming and everyone have a great day. If you have followups, please get in touch with myself or someone from a office. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] tonight on cspan2, republican Vice President ial candidate mike pence speaks at a Campaign Rally in here as in junior. Then democratic vp candidate tim kaine in philadelphia. A discussion about the future of transportation with bill ford, executive chairman of the ford motor company. In his First Campaign appearance after tuesday nights Vice President shall debate republican mike pence told supporters that quote Donald Trumps a vision to make America Great again one of the debate. From harrisonburg, virginia, this is a halfhour. [cheers and applause]