US military unfunded requirement list at $33 billion: Mattis

Mattis promised McCain and the committee that the Pentagon was putting together a strategy against the insurgents. Senators threatened to cut funding without a strategy.

This comes after Mattis said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that "we are not winning in Afghanistan right now ... and we will correct this as soon as possible". Since 9/11, war has accelerated wear and tear on equipment and troops, Dunford explained.

"Since the 1990s, China, Russia, other countries have studied United States capabilities from precision munitions to our ability to project power", Dunford said, calling USA power projection "our source of strength".

McCain rued that despite all the sacrifices made by USA soldiers, Afghanistan is still a nation at war. "All I can tell you is that unless we get a strategy from you, you're going to get a strategy from us".

The US focus on North Korea has been sharpened by dozens of North Korean missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since the beginning of a year ago and by Pyongyang's vow to develop a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

"We are not winning in Afghanistan right now". "You can't expect a stable budget if you don't give us a strategy". Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana) when he asked: "Are we better shape now than a year ago?"

"I think Taliban had a good last year and they're trying to have a good one this year, sir".

Dunford echoed Mattis' comments, saying that "without sustained, sufficient, and predictable funding, I assess that within five years we will lose our ability to project power; the basis of how we defend the homeland, advance USA interests, and meet our alliance commitments".

The move allows Mattis to end the current cap on Afghanistan troop levels.

"We're now six months into this administration, we still haven't got a strategy for Afghanistan", McCain said, noting it was hard to get behind an Afghanistan budget request without knowing what the plan is. "We've got to confront them there".

Legislators repeatedly asked Mattis for an update on Afghanistan, and about whether Trump would deploy thousands more troops to help Afghan partners reverse a stalemate against the resurgent Taliban.

Mattis says, "Mr. Putin has chosen to be a strategic competitor". "All the while, terrorist groups murder the innocent and threaten peace in many regions and target us".

The defense secretary called on Congress to provide the Department of Defense with a budget, "not a continuing resolution", that is "passed on time", in order to push the USA military through readiness shortfalls while maintaining a support role in two wars. To date, more than 2,300 Americans have been killed and more than 17,000 wounded since the war began in 2001.

A new strategy for Afghanistan will soon be released.

US officials have said that as part of the strategy review the USA military had proposed sending 2,000 to 4,000 more American troops to Afghanistan.

Since then, the coalition has taken down Manbij and targeted Raqqa, the de facto IS capital.

The Army and Air Force said paring excess infrastructure would save billions of dollars that could be used for other purposes. US Apache helicopters and Marine howitzers are supporting the SDF ground forces. That could allow American advisers to work with Afghan troops below the corps level, potentially putting them closer to fighting, a United States official said.

"We would be challenged in projecting power today", Dunford said while pointing out that a Pentagon review of U.S. and adversary capabilities found that the United States would "suffer significant casualties and significant time delays in meeting our objectives in projecting power in five years".