NATSEC RACES TO WATCH: As voters across the nation go to the polls on this Election Day 2018, some of the tightest races are among incumbents facing reelection who serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Of the committee’s 27 members, 12 are up for reelection:

BORDER BUILDUP CONTINUES: The Pentagon says more than 5,000 active-duty military troops are on or near the southwest border under orders from Trump on the way to an eventual total of roughly 7,000. But at a briefing yesterday, spokesman Col. Rob Manning again underscored the troops are all performing support activities that will keep them far away from any migrants and any law enforcement functions.

“There is no plan for them to come in direct contact with migrants or protesters,” Manning said, noting that most of the troops won’t be armed. “The only soldiers that are going to be armed during this mission are the soldiers that are providing force protection.” The armed troops are all highly trained military police who normally carry sidearms as part of their regular duties, and Manning said their sole mission will be to provide security for the unarmed troops as deemed necessary.

So what are the troops doing? Two things primarily: Building barriers and stringing fence to harden the border; and flying surveillance missions along the border to give Customs and Border Protection personnel a better picture of what’s going on.

At last check, the migrant caravan, which has been slowly losing members, was about 500 miles away near Mexico City and is not expected to arrive at the border until next month.

MATTIS BORDER WALL HITS DELAYS: Three months after Trump indicated he would have the Pentagon build part of his Mexico border wall to fast-track construction, that military project is facing years of potential delays. The Navy says it has started work on a federally mandated environmental impact statement for the $450 million project to construct a 32-mile-long border barrier along the Barry Goldwater bombing range in Arizona.

“The EIS process can and typically runs in a matter of years,” said Jim McElfish, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law Institute. “This administration has put a pretty high priority on and put out executive orders and tracking approaches to try to get those done in two years.”

That means the NEPA review could stretch into a new administration, unless Nielsen can tap wide authorities to waive the environmental regulations. Naval Facilities Engineering Command said it hired a contractor for the EIS work in September. “The Navy’s goal is to complete the EIS in the most efficient manner possible, while ensuring that all potential environmental impacts are taken into consideration,” the command said in a statement.

WILL SHE, OR WON’T SHE: The Pentagon is looking into how the Goldwater project will be funded. If it is handled and paid for solely by the military, it remains unclear whether Nielsen can or will use a DHS waiver to clear away NEPA and all other environmental regulations, a power granted to the department’s secretaries by Congress in 2005 to speed up construction of border barrier projects.

“The secretary is committed to building Trump’s border wall and is engaged in ongoing conversations with the Department of Defense,” DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman wrote in an email. Nielsen’s predecessor in the Bush administration, Michael Chertoff, used the powers to waive NEPA and the Endangered Species Act along with six other federal regulatory laws to fast-track a DHS project erecting $122 million in border barriers along the Goldwater range in 2007.

‘UNSAFE’: A Russian Su-27 fighter jet conducted an “unsafe” and “irresponsible” pass in front of a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries surveillance plane over the Black Sea on Monday, “putting at risk the pilots and crew,” a Navy statement said.

“The intercepting Su-27 made an additional pass, closing with the EP-3 and applying its afterburner while conducting a banking turn away,” the statement said. “The crew of the EP-3 reported turbulence following the first interaction, and vibrations from the second. The duration of the intercept was approximately 25 minutes.”

You can see video of the encounter here.

POMPEO’S WARNING, DEFIANCE WILL BRING PAIN: In formally announcing the new U.S. sanctions prohibiting countries from buy Iranian oil, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a warning for members of the European Union and any other countries who might want to try to get around the embargo. “I promise you that doing business with Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran,” Pompeo said yesterday, promising that in response to any company that secretly continues sanctionable commerce with Iran, the U.S. will levy severe, swift penalties.

PRAISE FROM LIEBERMAN: Former Sen. Joseph Lieberman now heads a group called “United Against Nuclear Iran.” Along with the group’s CEO Mark Wallace, he released a statement lauding the tough new sanctions.

“UANI applauds the Trump Administration for re-imposing sanctions against Iran, which includes more than 700 entities, banks and individuals,” said a statement issued yesterday.

NUKE WAIVERS: Trump will let countries helping to overhaul three Iranian nuclear facilities escape sanctions that have been reimposed as part of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, the State Department confirmed Monday.

“We are not issuing waivers for any new civil nuclear projects,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s office said in a Monday bulletin. “We are only permitting the continuation for a temporary period of certain ongoing projects that impede Iran’s ability to reconstitute its weapons program and that lock in the nuclear status quo until we can secure a stronger deal that fully and firmly addresses all of our concerns.”

NO POLITICS: The Pentagon confirmed yesterday a story first reported here last week that Marine Maj. Gen. Burke Whitman has been tapped to take over as a primary on-camera briefer, and will transition from his role as commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North this month.

Whitman, who is in the Marine Corps Reserve, will be serving in an active-duty status, and will brief in uniform, contrary to the previous policy instituted by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter that the Pentagon briefer should be a civilian political appointee who is free defend the partisan policies of the administration.

At yesterday’s off-camera briefing, spokesman Manning said Whitman should have no problem defending Trump administration policy while steering clear of politics. After all, Manning said, he does it all the time. “I talk about transgender policy, I talk about South Asia policy, and he’ll do the same,” Manning said. “I think you should draw the distinction between policy and politics. And so absolutely, I mean he is, he’s apolitical, but he will brief on department policy.”

A POIGNANT REMEMBRANCE OF A FALLEN SOLDIER: An Afghan National Army pilot praised Maj. Brent Taylor, 39, a member of the Utah Army National Guard who was killed over the weekend in Afghanistan, in a letter he wrote to Taylor’s wife Jennie.

Abdul Rahman Rahmani, who is stationed in Kabul as a major and pilot with the Special Mission Wing and served alongside Taylor, said the father of seven “taught me to love my wife Hamida as an equal and to treat my children as treasured gifts, to be a better father, to be a better [husband], and to be a better man.

“I gained a great deal of knowledge from him and I am a better person for having met him,” Rahmani wrote in the letter, which he also shared on Twitter.

THE RUNDOWN

Defense News: Midterms could crash Trump’s Space Force on the launch pad

Military Times: What’s at stake for the military on election night

Reuters: Pentagon balked at U.S. border troops building detention facilities – officials

Foreign Policy: Watchdog Warns of Islamic State Resurgence

AP: Seoul: Iranian waiver shows strength of alliance with US

USNI News: Navy Admiral Assigned to Oversee Green Beret Homicide Case as NCIS Investigation Nears Conclusion

Reuters: Pentagon balked at U.S. border troops building detention facilities – officials

New York Times: Iran Sanctions and Oil Prices: Who’ll Feel the Pain?

USA Today: Read transcript of USA TODAY interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Defense One: In the Gulf, Repression and Discontent Are Rising as US Influence Wanes

Military Times: Why were active-duty forces picked over Guard to defend the border? Capabilities, Pentagon says

Business Insider: Check out these spooky photos of shot down US aircraft on display at Vietnam’s military museum in Hanoi

Task and Purpose: Former Pentagon Spokesman: This Is Not An ‘Invasion’ — And The Military Doesn’t Need To Go To The Border