00:00I just want to follow up on what you just said.
00:03Sure.
00:04You said that there needs to be a clear end state.
00:06And I know the goal is to have the Houthis stop their attacks, but what is the end state?
00:10What happens if the Houthis don't stop their attacks or don't agree to say they'll stop
00:14their attacks?
00:15It doesn't seem like there is a clear end state, that this could just go on and on.
00:19Well, in fairness, I mean, it's a great question, but in fairness, the operation's only been
00:23going on for 48 hours.
00:25And the President and Secretary have been very clear on this, that the Houthis can determine
00:30when this ends.
00:31And until then, the campaign will be unrelenting until we, one, protect our homeland, and two,
00:40open up the shipping lanes there, so make sure that we have freedom of maneuver in that
00:43area.
00:44But, General, you have something to add?
00:47I mean, what I might add is, while we won't talk about it publicly, just know that there
00:51is a design to the operation.
00:53There are specific effects that we're trying to achieve, and there are specific targets
00:56that have been selected and approaches that we're taking in order to achieve the President's
01:00end state.
01:01So it isn't that we're just striking capabilities.
01:03There's an intent behind every strike and every target that we go after.
01:06To that point, what is – you mentioned that this is not like it was before.
01:09So what is different about the targeting that you're doing this time that wasn't true
01:13under the Biden administration?
01:14Yeah, I'll give the short answer to that, and again, without going into too many operational
01:19details for security reasons.
01:21But it's a much broader set of targets that we've been able to action in this case.
01:25And the other key difference is the delegation of authorities from the President through
01:29Secretary Hegseth down to the operational commander.
01:31So that allows us to achieve a tempo of operations where we can react to opportunities that we
01:35see on the battlefield in order to continue to put pressure on the Houthis.
01:39Thank you very much.
01:41Will this operation include sending ground troops into Yemen?
01:45If so, how do you achieve your objective of making them say enough without sending
01:51ground troops?
01:52Well, I'll tell you, it's very difficult, if not impossible, for us to talk about forced
01:57posture from this podium, because as a commander who's been on the battlefield, it's very,
02:02very important to keep the enemy guessing, keep your adversaries guessing.
02:07Now, that's not to say that we've got ground troops in Yemen.
02:11And that's not to say that we're sending ground troops in, but it's difficult to talk about
02:16that stuff for operational security reasons from the podium, but generally, you have anything
02:20to add?
02:21No, nothing to add to that.
02:22I think that's exactly right.
02:23John, can I follow up on that?
02:24You said that one of the things that you were waiting to do for the BDA was sensitive site
02:27exploitation.
02:28Does that include U.S. boots on the ground or any kind of American personnel on the ground
02:32to do that?
02:33I can't talk about that stuff from the podium, but we have ways of conducting sensitive site
02:39exploitations without ground troops on the ground.
02:43Yeah, it does not always require boots on the ground, and I'll just leave it at that.
02:47General, could I also ask you also about if there's any U.S. military assessment?
02:51I know that BDA is ongoing, but is there any military assessment about how much of the
02:55Houthis' capabilities were degraded by these first couple of rounds?
02:59And can you say anything, the President's truth social mentioned going after leaders,
03:03which seems to be one of the things that's different here.
03:05Can you say anything about any of the leaders that were targeted here?
03:08Yeah, on the second part of the question, I'll just go to my opening statement where
03:12I mentioned that there was an unmanned aerial vehicle facility that was struck with several
03:16key leaders.
03:17Those were key individuals who led their unmanned aerial vehicle enterprise and were some of
03:21the technical experts in there.
03:22So think those types of individuals that we might be targeting as part of the command
03:26and control.
03:27And so we have destroyed command and control facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities,
03:34and advanced weapons storage locations.
03:37But again, this campaign is ongoing, it's difficult to talk about all this stuff from
03:40the podium, and we're not going to say anything from the podium until we're 100 percent sure
03:44that we have it right.
03:45I've got time for one more question.
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