FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- A Stryker brigade commander has given Defense Secretary Robert Gates a briefing on Stryker vehicles at Fort Lewis.

Gates met with soldiers of the 5th Stryker brigade and received a briefing on how the specialized vehicle works and how well it's handled the rigors of combat in Iraq.

Many of the members of this new brigade came over from other Stryker units that have already been to Iraq.

He also spoke about all the talk lately for setting a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. He says it's still too soon.

Gates says the timetable depends so much on how smoothly the transition to local control goes. He says right now, the move to having Iraqi forces and police take over more responsibility is going well.

"We have a process ongoing," Gates said. "As the Iraqi security forces get stronger and better, then we will be able to continue drawing down our troops in the future. And I think this transition of control and primary responsibility for security is a process that is already well under way and based on everything that I'm hearing, will be able to continue.

"However long that takes will depend on the situation on the ground but things are going very well at this point."

He added that while military operations are improving in Iraq, they're getting more difficult in Afghanistan, though he stopped short of saying whether more troops will be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been supporting the fighting in Iraq, will now help support the fighting in Afghanistan, but Gates said the assignment switch does not mean the U.S. is changing its focus.

Gates also said the Air Force tanker report from the Government Accountability Office, which is so important for Boeing, is also a very serious matter to him.

Of the GOA report, Gates said, "Particularly their identification of some deficiencies in the contract process. I expect to announce the way forward very soon."

Gates spent two days here. Monday, he was at McChord Air Force Base talking with airmen, and Monday afternoon through Tuesday he was at Fort Lewis speaking with Rangers, wounded soldiers at Madigan Army Medical Center, and then the Stryker soldiers.

It wraps up a trip to this state that included a 4th of July break at his home near Mount Vernon.

This is the first visit by Gates to Fort Lewis and the first by a defense secretary since Donald Rumsfeld in 2002.

Fort Lewis is the nation's third-largest Army base and is being merged into a joint operation with McChord.