ANOTHER HEADACHE: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had a lot of things on his mind yesterday as he waited on the steps of the Pentagon’s River Entrance to greet visiting German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. One of them, however, was not how to house immigrant children and their families on U.S. military bases.

HAPPENING TODAY — TURKEY’S FIRST F-35: Despite reservations in Congress, Turkey will be getting its first F-35A Lightning II in a ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. After the rollout, two planes will be flown to Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., where Turkish pilots will begin training. You can watch a live stream of the 11 a.m. ceremony here.

But here’s the catch, according to a Pentagon official who said private ceremonial transfer doesn’t actually confer ownership to Turkey. “After aircraft production, the U.S. government maintains custody of the aircraft until custody is transferred to the partner,” said the official. “This normally occurs after the lengthy process of foreign partner training is complete,” which typically takes up to two years.

Members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees are angry that Turkey, a key member of NATO, is buying the S-400 air defense system from Russia, and is also refusing to release American pastor Andrew Brunson from prison.

Both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act contain language that would delay sales of the F-35 to Turkey, and potentially limit its role as a developmental partner in the program.

HEARING ON MIL TECH: The House Armed Services Committee holds a hearing at 10 a.m. on military technology transfer with testimony from Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, and Eric Chewning, the deputy assistant secretary for manufacturing and industrial base policy.

AVIATION MISHAPS HEARING: The House Armed Services’ military personnel subcommittee is slated for a 3:30 p.m. hearing on the rash of recent aviation mishaps. It will follow a hearing on the issue last month by the tactical air and land forces subcommittee. Today’s testimony comes from top aviation commanders from the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Army.

BOEING TO DELIVER KC-46 TANKERS: The Air Force announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Boeing for the delivery of the first of its new aerial refueling tanker, the KC-46A Pegasus. “As a result of months of collaboration, the Air Force and Boeing KC-46A teams have reached an agreed joint program schedule to get to the first 18 aircraft deliveries. This includes the expectation the first KC-46A aircraft acceptance and delivery will occur in October 2018, with the remaining 17 aircraft delivered by April 2019,” said Matthew Donovan, undersecretary of the Air Force, in a statement

Bloomberg, which was first to report the deal, said it settles a disagreement over timing for the much-delayed $44.3 billion program. “Agreement on a delivery date indicates Chicago-based Boeing and the Air Force are narrowing their differences over fixing flaws on the tanker, which is already more than two years late based on original projections. The problems include concern that the tanker’s 59-foot-long extended boom may scrape the aircraft it’s refueling,” Bloomberg reported.

“While the KC-46A flight test program is nearly complete, significant work remains,” Donovan said. “The Air Force is looking forward to KC-46A first delivery and will continue to work with Boeing on opportunities to expedite the program.”

AN ‘EXHILARATING FIRST TASTE’ OF PEACE: U.S. and NATO officials are pinning a lot of hopes on the scenes they witnessed during the three-day cease-fire over the weekend in Afghanistan. The cease-fire, which coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid, ended Sunday, but was marked by images of members of the Taliban hugging, dancing and praying with Afghan civilians and some soldiers. “The Taliban that came into Kabul on Saturday seems to be more focused on taking selfies, going to the barber, buying ice cream and things like that,” said British Lt. Gen. Richard Cripwell, deputy commander of NATO’s resolute support mission.

“For many Afghans, Taliban and pro-government alike, it was an exhilarating first taste of what peace might look like,” Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told a House committee yesterday.

“Taliban fighters wandered the streets of the cities. They took selfies with Afghan soldiers. They sampled Eid treats with Afghan citizens. And they worshipped alongside those they had been exchanging fire with just a few days earlier,” Wells said. “If Afghan troops and Taliban foot soldiers can pray together, then the Afghan people have every reason to believe that their leaders can come together and negotiate an end to this war.”

The optimism comes despite a deadly attack by the Taliban conducted as soon as the cease-fire expired that killed 30 Afghan soldiers. “The key question remains: Will the Taliban join a peace process and make the compromises necessary to end the war?” Wells said. “We’re prepared to test this proposition.”

STATING THE STRATEGY: A day after Lt. Gen. Scott Miller, the nominee to take over the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan, had trouble putting Trump’s new strategy into words during his Senate confirmation hearing, the deputy NATO commander had a succinct description at yesterday’s Pentagon briefing, delivered in his crisp British accent. “We are clear that Resolute Support is here to help the Afghans to deliver the military pressure that brings the Taliban to the table,” Cripwell said.

“You will, I hope, be familiar with the three pressures that President [Ashraf] Ghani believes will ultimately bring the Taliban to the table: social pressure, which is clearly growing in the run-up to the election; diplomatic pressure from NATO, the U.N. and the entire international community; and lastly, military pressure. And Resolute Support is squarely focused on the latter pressure.”

“The president’s South Asia Strategy, announced last August, is making a difference,” Wells argued in her House testimony. “Its conditions-based approach has signaled to the Taliban that they cannot win on the battlefield, and has provided President Ghani with renewed confidence to pursue a negotiated political settlement. His February 2018 invitation to the Taliban to enter into a peace process without preconditions was unprecedented.”

BACKING THE TALIBAN: Meanwhile, Russia and Iran are “hedg[ing] their bets” by backing the Taliban against other terrorists at the expense of Afghanistan’s central government, Wells said yesterday. “We are concerned about countries that are seeking to hedge their bets in Afghanistan, typically by viewing the Taliban as a legitimate force in fighting ISIS-Khorasan,” she said.

MOON TO MOSCOW: South Korean President Moon is on an official state visit to Moscow today to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is Moon’s first visit to the Russian capital since he was elected in May 2017, and the first state visit by the South Korean president to Russia since 1999, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.

TRUMP-PUTIN MEETING: Trump is looking to meet with Putin in July, according to Bloomberg, prior to the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11 or after his trip to the United Kingdom on July 13. However, plans have not yet been finalized.

RUSSIA SPOOKED BY SPACE FORCE: Russia is warning that Trump’s Space Force courts “a military confrontation in outer space.”

“The purpose of the instruction was described in very clear terms — dominance in space,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, per state-run media and the Russian embassy to the United States.

The comments come a day after China announced its opposition to the service. “A military confrontation in outer space could have the same destructive effects as the nuclear race into which the United States plunged the world after WWII.”

Both China and Russia are accusing the U.S. of moving to militarize space, which would violate a 1967 treaty that calls for space to be used for only peaceful purposes. It also bans the placement of “nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner.”

Nothing in the Trump’s verbal directive talks about putting weapons in space, and yesterday Mattis said, “No, we are not weaponizing space. We are dealing with space as it’s developing.”

It bears repeating that the new Space Force, which is right now just a vague concept, is unlikely to have a mission much different from the current Air Force Space Command, which is focused on defending America’s interests in space, including ensuring the security of our satellites, conducting surveillance of Earth, ensuring command and control of ground-based weapons, maintaining communications, and forecasting weather.

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Examiner: Rep. Ted Yoho: China wants to keep ‘nuclear North Korea’ as ‘perpetual threat’ to US

Washington Examiner: China sees North Korea progress as victory for its ‘socialist cause’

Bloomberg: Lockheed’s F-35 Bonus Fees Under Scrutiny by Pentagon’s Watchdog

Task and Purpose: Pentagon Reporters Asked Mattis About Immigration, And It Didn’t Go Well

Breaking Defense: Keep Ships Longer To Boost Fleet Size: 355 Ships By 2035

AP: Senators Rip Tariffs Imposed for National Security

Defense News: Air Force leadership: Don’t expect immediate Space Force changes

New York Times: Taliban Kill Dozens of Afghan Soldiers, as Cease-Fires Give Way to Violence

USNI News: SECNAV Spencer Censures Retired Admiral, 2 Other Officers in Ongoing ‘Fat Leonard’ Case