Defense Secretary Austin says women in military ‘make us stronger’

VIENTIANE, Laos — Women and racial diversity are vital to the strength of U.S. armed forces, outgoing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an exclusive interview with NBC News as he prepares to shortly exit the top military post after four years.

“I have spent 41 years in uniform, three long tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and everywhere I went on a battlefield, there were women in our formation,” Austin said. “I would tell you that, you know, our women are the finest troops in the world. Quite frankly, some of the finest in the world.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary is Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major whose past comments about women in combat have raised questions and concerns.

Hegseth said on a podcast released this month that the military “should not have women in combat roles” and that “men in those positions are more capable.”

Women made up 17.5% of the U.S. military’s active-duty force and 21.6% of the selected reserve in 2022, the Defense Department said in a report last November.

“They do impact readiness. They make us better. They make us stronger. And again, what I’ve seen from our women is quite incredible, and I’m not — this is not hyperbole. This is fact,” Austin said.

Hegseth has also said he wants the military to be purged of “woke” officials who support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Austin said he would not speculate on what will happen, but he highlighted the role of diversity in the military and said it remains a meritocracy.

“We’re a diverse nation, and we’re going to remain a diverse nation. Our military is going to remain a diverse military,” Austin said.

Hegseth must still be confirmed by Senate, which will Republicans will control for the next two years, unless extraordinary circumstances like a recess appointment occur.

Austin did not weigh in on what he thinks about Trump’s choice of Hegseth.

“The president-elect has the opportunity to nominate anyone that he chooses for any position, and certainly, you know, we respect that,” Austin said.

Trump has also said he could try to deploy the military to help with his plans to conduct mass deportations of people living in the U.S. without authorization. Asked in a Time magazine interview in April whether his plan included using the military, Trump responded that “it would.”

Austin would not comment on what Trump’s plans or intentions may be, but he said the law is “well-defined” in terms of “how we employ our military, our armed forces.”

“And I have faith and confidence in our senior leaders that they will always make the right decisions and make the right recommendations to their leadership,” he said.

On the Ukraine war, the outgoing Biden administration recently granted Ukraine permission to use U.S.-provided ATACMS, a type of ballistic missile system, inside Russia for limited strikes. Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for his country’s use of nuclear weapons Tuesday as the Defense Ministry announced that Ukraine had carried out its first strike on Russian territory using the U.S.-supplied long-range weapons.

Austin said that as the war — which began when Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — has evolved, “our approach to supporting them has also evolved over time.”

He said the U.S. has known for weeks that Russia was “revamping” its policy on using nuclear weapons, but he added that he did not see a “change in their strategic force posture.”

“We’ll continue to remain vigilant in this regard. But at this point, no, I don’t see an indication that there’s an imminent intent to use nuclear weapons,” he said.

Austin also said that the U.S. military believes around 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia’s Kursk area, where Russia is preparing to try to retake land it has lost, but that it has not seen North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian troops yet.

“We believe that those troops will be embedded in Russian formations, and I have every reason to believe that we will see them in combat in the not-too-distant future,” he said. “I think the intent’s there, but we’ve not seen that yet.”

Austin, a four-star general who was commander of U.S. Central Command, was appointed as defense secretary by President Joe Biden and was sworn in on Jan. 22, 2021.

For more on this story, tune in to NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT or check your local listings.