MILITARY TO MAKES SPACE FOR ‘ALIEN’ KIDS: The Pentagon has been asked, and apparently has agreed, to provide space at three military bases to house children who have crossed the border illegally, but are not part of a family unit. The Department of Health and Human Services says it will need 20,000 beds for at least six months, beginning next month.

HAPPENING TODAY: At the Pentagon this morning, Mattis is scheduled to sit down and “sort things out” with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton. On the agenda is how to maintain the readiness of U.S. and South Korean troops to “fight tonight,” without the benefit of major large-scale military drills. President Trump deemed the exercises too expensive and provocative as he tries to strike a deal with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

On Wednesday, Mattis said there were no signs North Korea has taken any steps toward denuclearization since the historic Singapore summit 10 days ago. “I mean, obviously, it’s the very front end of a process. The detailed negotiations have not begun,” Mattis said. “I wouldn’t expect that at this point.”

At yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, the president had a different take as Mattis sat silently to his left. “They’ve stopped the sending of missiles, including ballistic missiles. They’re destroying their engine site. They’re blowing it up. They’ve already blown up one of their big test sites, in fact it’s actually four of their big test sites,” Trump said. “And the big thing is it will be a total denuclearization, which has already started taking place.”

Mattis said that in this morning’s meeting he also plans to bring up the president’s verbal directive to create a “separate but equal” Space Force when he meets with Bolton. Mattis said the move is “going to require legislation and a lot of detailed planning.”  

TRAVEL PLANS: Mattis departs Sunday for a weeklong trip that will take him to China, South Korea and Japan. North Korea will be a dominant issue, but China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea will no doubt also come up. And yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that lasers have been pointed at U.S. pilots at least 20 times in recent months near and around the East China Sea.

CALLING OUT CHINA: The Mattis trip also comes amid U.S. claims that China routinely steals U.S. technology and intellectual property.

“The exfiltration of the work of others is not unlike the Chinese construction of islands to encroach upon the geographic domains of international waters and those of other sovereign nations. It circumvents the autonomy of nations in a departure from a rules-based global order. It is adversarial behavior and its perpetrator must be treated as such,” said Michael Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, in testimony yesterday before a House Armed Services subcommittee.

“The breadth and depth of Chinese malfeasance with regard not only to our technology, but also to our larger economy and our nation is significant and intentional,” Griffin said. “It is adversarial behavior and its perpetrator must be treated as such.”

BOLTON TO MOSCOW: Bolton also has travel plans next week, heading to Moscow to discuss a potential meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a tweet from Bolton’s spokesman. Bolton also has stops planned in London and Rome during the June 25-27 trip.

SPACE HEARING: It’s rare for a Friday, but the House Armed Services Committee has a hearing at 9 this morning on space situational awareness. The hearing on the “congested conditions in orbit” will be chaired by Rep. Mike Rogers, the moving force in the House behind the Space Force proposal. It includes a familiar face, Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, as well as testimony from some officials who are a rarer sight, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. But Bridenstine is not exactly a stranger. In his last job as a congressman, he sat on the House Armed Services Committee.

RAYTHEON WINS BIG TRAINING CONTRACT: The Army has awarded Raytheon a training contract worth $2.4 billion over five years, the company said. The enterprise training services contract means Raytheon will be training Army combatant commands as they work with partner nation’s security forces. “High-consequence training enhances readiness across the U.S. Army,” said Bob Williams, vice president of Global Training Solutions at Raytheon. “This award reflects Raytheon’s extensive experience and successful track record delivering innovative, lifecycle training solutions to soldiers around the world.”

NEW F-35 ROADBLOCK: A bipartisan group of senators moved to block Turkey from acquiring cutting-edge U.S. stealth fighters in response to the NATO ally’s efforts to obtain Russian anti-aircraft systems. “I support the transfer of F-35 advanced aircraft to Turkey, but not if they proceed with the acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense system – this move would jeopardize the national security of the United States and our other allies,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat.

AND ABOUT THAT CEREMONY: “Rollout events for major new combat aircraft are often flashy, overwrought affairs to begin with,” according to The Warzone. “But the Lockheed Martin event to celebrate the delivery of Turkey’s first completed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was particularly over the top, featuring traditional music and song together with a dancer who performed at one point while wearing a pair massive leather wings that looked like something out of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks.

“What this sometimes surreal celebration didn’t have was any direct reference to the very serious and steadily escalating political spat between the U.S. and Turkish governments that threatens to upend the stealth fighter deliveries over the latter country’s purchase of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.”

PIVOTAL TURKISH ELECTIONS: The latest polls in Turkey indicated a tighter race than many expected as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to tighten his grip on power and another five years in office. Erdogan needs more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff in Sunday’s snap elections.

Under a constitutional referendum that Erdogan pushed to a narrow victory last year, his powers as president would increase, especially if his Justice and Development Party wins the majority of seats in the parliament.

“If he wins on Sunday, Erdogan will become Turkey’s most powerful leader since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the country in 1923,” writes Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in an essay in Time magazine.

“He will not just be the head of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and head of state. The executive presidency will also make him the head of government (currently nominally held by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım), as well as cement his rule over the military and the police, which is a national force in Turkey. Erdogan already appoints a majority of the judges to the high courts, and if he scores a double victory in the two polls this Sunday, both the parliament and the executive branch will fall into his hands,” said Cagaptay, author of The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey.  

TERRORISTS’ GOAL: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that terrorist groups are still looking for ways to carrying out an attack on a U.S.-bound commercial airplane.

When asked about the threat of a laptop explosion or chemical gas attack aboard a U.S.-bound or domestic flight, Nielsen told House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul that the threat “is a pernicious one.”

“They really do want to take down an airliner. I mean, I think that is clear. They have not given up on that as an aspiration,” added Nielsen, who spoke at the Capitol Hill National Security Forum Thursday morning.

NEW NO. 2 MARINE: Among the general officer announcements yesterday came word that Trump has nominated Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gary Thomas for promotion to general and assignment as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. Thomas is the deputy commandant for programs and resources for Headquarters Marine Corps.

THE RUNDOWN

AP: Rival Koreas agree to reunions of war-separated families

Navy Times: MCPON calls it quits: Sudden retirement comes amid ongoing investigation

Bloomberg: Google Engineers Refused to Build Security Tool to Win Military Contracts

Air Force Times: The Air Force Reserve has fired its command surgeon

Defense News: Facing Chinese cyber threat, Pentagon to bake better contractor security into buying decisions

Foreign Policy: Singapore Was John Bolton’s Worst Nightmare

Marine Corps Times: The Marine Corps has lost its first F-35

Washington Post: The Taliban has successfully built a parallel state in many parts of Afghanistan, report says

Reuters: Trump: North Korea blowing up test sites, ‘total denuclearization … has already started’

Roll Call: Poll: McSally Leads by Double Digits in Arizona Senate Primary

USNI News: Work: U.S. at Risk of Losing Military Technology Edge to China in Two Years

Stars and Stripes: Navy’s Hospital Ships Will Remain Afloat Despite Talks Of Scrapping One To Cut Costs