“We have incredible reach,” added Esper. “We can strike anybody, anytime, anywhere. The terrorists should be aware of that, they should have seen that now after us doing this multiple times.”

ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE CRITICAL: While the U.S. has the capability of striking anywhere, a successful operation requires actionable, timely intelligence. The critical intel that lead to Baghdadi blowing himself up in a dead-end tunnel came from a mole that America’s Kurdish partners had planted in his inner circle, according to multiple reports, all citing phone interviews with SDF commander Gen. Mazloum Abdi.

Gen. Abdi told NBC that his source provided the U.S. with a room-by-room layout of al-Baghdadi’s compound on the Turkish border, including the number of guards, floor plan and tunnels, along with a stolen pair of Baghdadi’s underwear and a blood sample, both for DNA testing.

Abdi said the unidentified source, who he described as one of the ISIS leader’s security advisers, was on the scene during the raid and left with the attacking U.S. forces.

“I know what you’re referring to,” said Milley when asked about Abdi’s account during yesterday’s DoD briefing. “I’m not going to comment on what may or may not have happened with the SDF on the objective. The actions on the objective, the aircraft coming in, the aircraft overhead and the soldiers conducting the assault, was a U.S.-only operation.”

POTENTIAL INTELLIGENCE BONANZA: Esper described Baghdadi’s compound as someplace he was “staying on a consistent basis,” and that U.S. forces captured two of his top lieutenants and harvested a large amount of potentially valuable intelligence about ISIS operations, which could lead to more raids in the future.

“I don’t want to characterize exactly what or how much yet until it gets exploited properly, but as a matter of course, we always do sensitive site exploitation on any objective anywhere to do that,” Esper said.

COUNTER-ISIS OPS TO CONTINUE: Esper says by keeping several hundred American troops in Syria to prevent oil fields from falling into Syrian, Russian, or terrorist hands, the U.S. will be able to remain engaged with the Kurdish allies who helped liberate Syria from ISIS, and provided the critical intelligence that lead to al-Bagdadi’s demise.

“We will respond with overwhelming military force against any group that threatens the safety of our forces there, he said. The U.S. is continuing to reinforce the defenses of the oil facilities in the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor in the eastern part of Syria, still controlled by the Kurds.

“Our recent repositioning of forces within the country is intended to posture us to continue this mission and give the president options, while returning the balance back home to the United States,” Esper said. “Those who remain will continue to execute counterterrorism operations while staying in close contact with the Syrian Democratic Forces who have fought alongside us.”

WHO GETS THE OIL? “The United States will retain control of oil fields,” said Esper. noting during the brutal reign of ISIS the oil was the prime source of revenue for the terrorist group. Now he says the oil will be used to benefit the Kurds. “We want to make sure that SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the Defeat ISIS mission,” he said.

But that’s not how President Trump characterized it in a speech to a gathering of police chiefs at a conference in Chicago yesterday. “We’re keeping the oil,” the president said. “Remember that. I’ve always said that, ‘Keep the oil.’ We want to keep the oil,” he said putting the value of the resource at $45 million a month.

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Susan Katz Keating (@SKatzKeating). Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.

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HAPPENING TODAY — F-35 BUY ANNOUNCED: Ellen M. Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, F-35 program executive, will announce details of a $7 billion award to build an additional 114 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters this morning.

According to Air Force Magazine, the deal updates an earlier procurement contract and includes planes for the U.S. as well as partner nations and other foreign customers. Bloomberg says the $7 billion was just a “partial installment,” and puts the total value of the award about $34 billion for 478 fighters.

“Of the 114 aircraft in the agreement, 48 are F-35As for the Air Force; 20 are Marine Corps F-35Bs; and nine are Navy F-35Cs. The US will receive 77 total aircraft, while 15 F-35As will go to Australia, 12 F-35As will go to Norway, and eight F-35As and two F-35Bs will go to Italy,” the Pentagon posted on its contract announcements for yesterday.

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the deal, but not the numbers ahead of this morning’s announcement, which will be streamed live from the Pentagon at 8:30 a.m.

“The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin have made tremendous progress and now have an agreement regarding the production and delivery of F-35 Lots 12-14,” said Lt. Col. Mike Andrews in an email. “This agreement represents our continued commitment to reduce F-35 cost aggressively, incentivize Industry to meet required performance, and deliver advanced capabilities to our warfighters at the best value to our taxpayers.”

INHOFE’S SKINNY NDAA: Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe is pleading with his Democratic colleagues to consider a fall back plan in the increasingly likely event that differences in this years defense policy bill cannot be resolved.

So far 11 weeks of negotiations have not produced a breakthrough on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, and Inhofe plans to introduce a “skinny” NDAA that would include only the “noncontroversial essentials,” for the Pentagon.

Senators “went line-by-line to find the must-haves,” according to a GOP aide to the Armed Services Committee who stressed that Inhofe’s bill “is intended to be brought up only in the event both sides can’t reconcile their differences in a timely fashion, and it is not intended to be the only NDAA Congress considers this year.”

But over in the House, where Democrats are in control, Chairman Rep. Adam Smith is not willing to give up his leverage as he seeks to kill President Trump’s plan to shift Pentagon funds to border barrier construction.

“Some have suggested that we will be forced to abandon our negotiations this year and instead pass a ‘skinny bill.’ A bill that does not restrict wall funding would be challenging to bring to the House floor,” Smith told Breaking Defense last week. “It is the equivalent to failure – not just for the men and women in uniform who are counting on us to pass the NDAA, but also to the national defense of our country.”

TMI? Yesterday’s tight-lipped Pentagon briefing stood in stark contrast to President Trump’s expansive Sunday account of the Baghdadi raid. Esper and Milley were careful not to reveal too many details of the operation, while Trump regaled the nation with a vivid description of al-Baghdadi “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.”

Neither Esper nor Milley, who were seated beside Trump in the situation room as they watched a live video feed, could confirm that version of events, nor say where Trump got his information. “I don’t know what the source of that was. But I assume it was talking directly to unit and unit members,” said Milley.

The Pentagon was typically cautious, not even confirming that what Trump described as a an hour and 10 minute helicopter flight began at a U.S. base in Iraq. “We’re not going to discuss the location from which the raid took place,” Milley said.

On CNN, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons suggested Trump “shared a remarkable, even disturbing amount of detail about the operation beyond what I think is advisable.”

“Too much?” Asked CNN’s John Berman. “Too much,” Coons replied.

‘CONAN,’ THE DELTA FORCE DOG: The name of the dog who chased down Baghdadi, is classified, by which I mean the Pentagon is keeping it secret, not that the dog’s name is literally “Classified.” In fact, as with a lot of the classified details of the operation, we soon learned from a leak that the dog’s name is “Conan,” presumably after “the Barbarian,” not O’Brien.

President Trump tweeted file photo of the then-anonymous hero yesterday along with his congratulations to the canine warrior. “We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!”

“The dog is still in theater,” said Milley at the Pentagon yesterday. “Slightly wounded and fully recovering, but the dog is still in theater, returned to duty with its handler.”

The Rundown

Washington Examiner: ‘Charred corpse’: Second ISIS leader killed in US airstrike following Baghdadi raid

Washington Examiner: ‘So much hatred’: Pelosi would have leaked Baghdadi raid to sabotage Trump, Senate Republican suggests

Washington Examiner: ‘I am a patriot’: Army officer on White House staff to say he twice reported concerns over Trump and Ukraine

Washington Examiner: Hero military dog who cornered ISIS leader to remain anonymous for now, says top US general

U.S. News & World Report: Trump, Pentagon Diverge on Need to Control Syrian Oil Fields

ABC News: Why ISIS Leader And Founder Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s Remains Were Buried At Sea

Al-Monitor: US set for risky IS mission with leader’s death in Syria

Air Force Magazine: JASSMs Used to Level Baghdadi’s Compound in Syria

AP: Students join Iraq protests as clashes kill 3 demonstrators

AP: U.S. Afghan Peace Envoy Takes Push For Peace To Pakistan

Washington Post: Amazon Has Options After It Loses Pentagon Cloud Contract

Breaking Defense: All 6 East Coast Carriers In Dock, Not Deployed: Hill Asks Why

Washington Post: U.S. Considers Blacklisting Chinese Firms That Steal Intellectual Property

AP: Air Force’s mystery space plane lands, ends 2-year mission

War on the Rocks: Opinion: Just say no: The Pentagon needs to drop the distractions and move great power competition beyond lip service

Calendar

TUESDAY I OCTOBER 29

8:50 a.m. 300 Army Navy Dr., Arl. — Navy Secretary Richard Spencer delivers keynote address at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Arctic Patrol Conference. https://www.idga.org/events-arctic-patrol

9 a.m. 300 Army Navy Dr,, Arl. — The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Hypersonic Weapons Summit, with Brig. Gen. Andrew Gebara, director of strategic plans, programs and requirements at Global Strike Command, delivering remarks on “Building Hypersonic Weapons into American War Doctrine to Outline Strategy for Years to Come.” https://www.idga.org/events-hypersonicweapons

9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nominations of Dana S. Deasy to be CIO of the Defense Department; and Robert John Sander to be general counsel of the Department of the Navy. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings

10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. — House Armed Services Committee Future of Defense Task Force Hearing: “Theories of Victory,” with Michele Flournoy, co-founder and managing partner WestExec Advisors; and Jim Talent co-chair Reagan Institute Task Force.

10 a.m. 957 E St. N.W. — George Washington University School of International Affairs forum on “Cross-Strait Relations under Stress: Chinese Pressure and Implications for Taiwan.” http://elliott.gwu.edu

1:30 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — Brookings Institution, Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the Asan Institute conference on “Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Alliances at Crossroads.” https://www.brookings.edu/events

2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion “Managing the Risk of Tech Transfer to China,” with Michael Brown, Director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. https://www.csis.org/events

3 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion on “The Air Force of the Future,” with Jeremiah Gertler, senior specialist in military aviation at the Congressional Research Service; Heather Penny, senior resident fellow at the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; Mark Gunzinger, director of future aerospace concepts and capabilities assessments at the Mitchell Institute; Valerie Insinna, reporter for Defense News; and Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at CSIS. https://www.csis.org/events/air-force-future

WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 30

TBA White House — President Trump awards the Medal of Honor to Mst. Sgt. Matthew Williams for conspicuous gallantry while serving in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on April 6, 2008.

8:45 a.m. 300 Army Navy Dr., Arl. — The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Hypersonic Weapons Summit, with Eric Marineau, program officer for hypersonic aerodynamics, heat transfer and materials in the Office of Naval Research. https://www.idga.org/event

9 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E. — The Heritage Foundation discussion on a new report, “The 2020 Index of U.S. Military Strength,” with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; and Dakota Wood, senior fellow for defense programs at Heritage. http://www.heritage.org

10:30 a.m. — 1211 Connecticut Ave. N.W. Stimson Center discussion on nuclear security, with Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford. https://www.stimson.org/content/conversation

2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion on “The Implications of Deep Fakes,” with Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for cybersecurity in the Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Matt Turek, program manager of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Information Innovation Office; Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at McAffee LLC; James Lewis, director of the CSIS Technology Policy Program. https://www.csis.org/events/implications-deep-fakes

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 31

8:15 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — Brookings Institution discussion on U.S. defense and foreign policy with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. and Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings https://www.brookings.edu/events

2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion on “Syria in the Gray Zone,” with Dana Stroul, co-chair of the Syria Study Group; Michael Singh, co-chair of the Syria Study Group; Ibrahim al-Assil, nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute; Coner Cagaptay, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Turkish Research Program; former Lt. Gen. Charles Cleveland, senior fellow in the West Point Combating Terrorism Center; and Jon Alterman, director of the CSIS Middle East Program https://www.csis.org/events/syria-gray-zone