OMNIBUS UNVEILED: The military’s funding hike is a little closer to becoming reality after Congress finally published its proposed fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill last night. After days of delays and anticipation, the omnibus release confirmed that the Defense Department is set for a major $61 billion increase over last year’s funding. Now, Congress has until midnight on Friday to pass the massive, 2,200-page piece of legislation or face another government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats will have to work together to move the omnibus to passage quickly and the House is expected to vote today.

HAPPENING TODAY — THE PRINCE AT THE PENTAGON: A military band will be playing at the Pentagon’s River entrance this morning as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hosts an “enhanced honor cordon” to welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks in his third-floor office at 9. No formal joint press conference has been scheduled, but a press pool will be on hand to shout a question after what is expected to be some perfunctory welcoming remarks by Mattis and the prince.

WHATSAPP WITH THAT? A report in The Intercept claims Prince Salman bragged that he had White House adviser Jared Kushner “in his pocket” after the two met in Riyadh late last October. While the details of Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law’s unannounced foreign trip is largely unknown to those who didn’t attend the meeting, sources told the Intercept that the prince made the boast to Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The meeting reportedly laid the groundwork for a close relationship between Kushner and the Saudi and Emirati crown princes. Kushner is said to keep in direct contact with them using WhatsApp, a secure messaging app owned by Facebook.

MATTIS MOST POPULAR: A new survey shows that Mattis’ low-key, fly-below-the-radar style is working for him. The camera-shy defense secretary leads the pack as the most-approved-of member of President Trump’s Cabinet, according to the poll, which has U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, tied for second.

NUKE FORCES HEARING: House Armed Services hears testimony at 9 a.m. on the military’s fiscal 2019 budget request for nuclear forces and atomic energy defense activities from John Rood, undersecretary of defense; Gen. Robin Rand, head of Air Force Global Strike Command; and Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of Navy Strategic Systems Programs.

WMD BUDGET: House Armed Services has a second subcommittee hearing at 10:30 a.m. on the Pentagon’s plans for countering weapons of mass destruction with testimony from assistant defense secretaries Ken Rapuano and Guy Roberts as well as Lt. Gen. Joseph Osterman, deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

PERRY AT SASC: Energy Secretary Rick Perry will be at Senate Armed Services at 10 a.m. to talk about the challenges facing the department’s atomic energy defense programs. On Tuesday, Perry told Congress that in response to Russian hacking into computer systems controlling energy infrastructure in the United States, he is creating an office within the Energy Department called the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response.

AI COMMISSION: The U.S. needs a new commission to investigate and brief Trump on the growing challenges and security threats of artificial intelligence, says Rep. Elise Stefanik, who chairs the House Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee. Stefanik has introduced a bill that would create the independent commission and give it a wide mandate to look into how the rapidly developing field of machine learning, something that military competitors such as China are already embracing, and how it could affect the United States.

NAVY NIXES ATHEIST CHAPLAIN: The Navy has finally denied the application of a man who has sought for years to become a “secular humanist” chaplain for the service, Sen. Roger Wicker said Wednesday. The application of Jason Heap, who was backed by the Humanist Society, was first rejected by the Navy in 2014, but a chaplain advisory board recently recommended approving it. “The Navy’s leadership has done the right thing,” said Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee. “The appointment of an atheist to an undeniably religious position is fundamentally incompatible with atheism’s secularism. This decision preserves the distinct religious role that our chaplains carry out.”

ANTI-MILITARY TEACHER FIRED: A California high school teacher who was caught on a viral video calling the U.S. military the “lowest of the low” and a “bunch of dumb shits” has been fired. The school board in El Rancho, Calif., voted unanimously to boot Gregory Salcido following an investigation of the incident, which was captured by a student’s cell phone. “The superintendent has recommended disciplinary action including termination of the employment based on the investigation report and supporting documents,” school board president Aurora Villon said in a video of the meeting posted online. “The board of trustees has voted to take action as recommended by the superintendent … Our decision has been made, our job is done and we wanted to report that to you.”

The board’s announcement sparked applause from gathered audience members. Salcido had been put on leave in January after the video of him talking to his students drew widespread criticism, including from White House chief of staff John Kelly. Salcido said U.S. wars have languished “because we have a bunch of dumb shits” in the military. “Think about the people you know who are over there, your freakin’ stupid uncle Louie, or whatever, they’re dumb shits. They’re not like high-level thinkers, they’re not academic people, they’re not intellectual people. They’re the freakin’ lowest of the low,” Salcido told the students.

DUNFORD’S UPBEAT ASSESSMENT: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford is in the middle of a weeklong inspection tour of Afghanistan getting a firsthand look at the implementation of the new strategy approved by Trump in August.

“What I saw yesterday and today is, with a relatively small coalition footprint, we are able to leverage over 300,000 Afghan forces that have been built over time,” Dunford told reporters traveling with him, according to a Pentagon account. “I am actually very encouraged. We have the right organizational construct for 2018, and the advisers we are bringing in are the right people, at the right level, with the right training. That’s my takeaway.”

KABUL BOMBING: Dunford’s comments came as another deadly attack rocked Kabul yesterday. A suicide bomber killed at least 29 people while they were heading to a Shiite shrine in the capital to celebrate the Persian New Year. ISIS has claimed responsibility.

FURIOUS OVER FIREABLE OFFENSE: A leak that disclosed that Trump ignored the advice of his advisers not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election in a Tuesday phone call has rattled White House aides, with one official calling the embarrassing leak “a fireable offense.”

Trump defended his well-wishes to Putin and criticized his predecessors for not having the “smarts,” “energy or chemistry” to develop good relations with Russia. “The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing…, “ Trump tweeted. “They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race.”

RUSSIA’S ‘ORDER OF BATTLE’: Catherine Harris, of the Institute for the Study of War and  Fred Kagan, of the American Enterprise Institute, have teamed up on a new report challenging the conventional wisdom about the threat the U.S. and its partners face in Europe. “U.S. leaders and their European allies are unprepared for the ways in which Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is poised to wage war in Ukraine and the Baltic,” the report concludes. “The Russian military is well positioned to launch a short-notice conventional war in Ukraine and a hybrid war in the Baltic States, the opposite of what Western leaders seem to expect in each theater.”

LIFE AFTER IRAN DEAL: U.S. and European allies are developing plans for a new Iran policy in the event that Trump decides to withdraw from a nuclear deal with the regime, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

HE’S BACK: Al-Qaeda has released a new video of a speech from its leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in which he seeks to rally the Muslim world to focus on what he views as the No. 1 enemy of the Muslims: the U.S., according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“In the 17-minute speech, released by Al-Qaeda’s Al-Sahab media company on its official Telegram channel and disseminated by the organization’s supporters online, Al-Zawahiri reiterates Al-Qaeda’s well-known position that the U.S. is the main target of jihad and that Muslims and especially jihad factions must unite to fight it. He condemns ‘the impudent Crusader Trump,’ saying that his policies reveal America’s true character and enmity toward Muslims,” according to the monitoring group.

THE RUNDOWN

AP: Koreas, U.S. Conclude ‘Constructive’ Talks In Finland

Defense News: Norway could agree to additional US Marine presence by summer

AFP: Syria Kurds mark grim Nowruz after fleeing Afrin

AP: Syrian rebels to leave key town in eastern Ghouta enclave

USNI News: Navy To Congress: Columbia-Class Submarine Program Still On Schedule With Little Margin For Error

New York Times: U.S. Highlights Ties With Taiwan, After Warning By China

Reuters: Chinese Paper Says China Should Prepare For Military Action Over Taiwan

Business Insider: The US is stocking up on a small, deadly new missile

Military.com: New Round Of Incentives Aims To Keep Navy Pilots In Service

Defense One: Yemen Shows Why US Needs to Change Its Arms Sales Policy

Air Force Times: Laser weapon for KC-135 ‘still in the infancy stage’

Breaking Defense: Rethinking Intel In The Age of Trump: DNI Coats & PDNI Gordon

Daily Beast: Israel Finally Tells All About Its Top-Secret Strike on Syrian Nuclear Reactor

Foreign Policy: Crown Prince of Disorder

Talk Media News: Mattis-Tillerson relationship transcended usual Washington ways

Marine Corps Times: Marines consider forward-firing rockets for MV-22 Osprey fleet

Task and Purpose: Korean War Heroes Warn Trump Not To Be Played By Kim Jong Un