ON HIS TEAM: As we predicted yesterday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was completely unfazed by President Trump’s cryptic remark in his “60 Minutes” interview, in which the president suggested that Mattis might be leaving his post, and was in the president’s words “sort of a Democrat.” On the long flight to Vietnam, Mattis told reporters there has been no discussion of his departure, and he’s focused on the tasks at hand. Asked what he made of the president’s comments, Mattis replied. “I’m on his team. We have never talked about me leaving. And as you can see right here, we’re on our way. We just continue doing our job.”

HAPPENING TODAY — ISIS UPDATE: The effort to mop up the remnants of the Islamic State in Syria is stretching into its sixth month, but Mattis insists “it’s going well.” The offensive by U.S.-backed Syrian fighters, dubbed Operation Roundup, began in early May, and Mattis said “ISIS is taking a beating.”

“As we told you here over the last several months as we’re pushing against the last remnants of the geographic caliphate, we told you it’d be tougher fighting. It is,” Mattis said. “The SDF continues, with coalition support, to move against the adversary and ISIS is taking a beating.”

Army Col. Sean Ryan, chief spokesman for the U.S.-led counter-ISIS coalition, will brief reporters live from Baghdad in the Pentagon Briefing Room. The briefing will be streamed live at 11 a.m. here.

NORTH KOREA MEETING: The State Department’s top envoy for North Korea will travel to Moscow for meetings this week about the denuclearization process, officials with both sides confirmed Monday. Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, will stop in Moscow Tuesday before heading west to Paris and Brussels. “Special Representative Biegun will regularly travel to meet with allies and partners as we work towards the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea,” a State Department official said.

WE BELIEVE THEY CAN FLY: All the F-22 Raptor fighter jets left behind at Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base ahead of Hurricane Michael will likely fly again, an Air Force official told the Washington Examiner. Of the 55 F-22s that are based at Tyndall, 17 had to be left in hangars because they were not in flyable condition. “Many of the aircraft were flown out prior to the hurricane, but some of them can’t because the engines are taken out and they’re doing a lot of heavy repairing work,” said Trump, who was in Florida and Georgia to view the hurricane aftermath. “There was some damage. Not nearly as bad as we first heard,” he said.

It appears all the planes survived the storm with mostly superficial damage that is repairable; no broken wings, tail fins, or major structural damage. But the Air Force must complete an assessment and conduct stress tests to be sure there is no unseen damage, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Right now the initial review … looks like all the planes are fixable, but we’ll know after we get them out of the hangars,” Mattis told reporters en route to Vietnam. “So I’m not ready to say it can all be fixed, but our initial review was perhaps more positive than I anticipated in light of the amount of damage.”

Repairing the high-tech stealth jet is expensive because of the unique radar-absorbent skin, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying a new $143 million plane, which by the way, is not an option because the Lockheed Martin F-22 assembly line was shut down years ago. “I’m always concerned about cost. I don’t like it. In fact, my first question is, ‘Why didn’t they take them out?’” Trump said, before adding it was because they were down for maintenance. The Air Force told us last week that only 49 percent of F-22s are “mission capable” on any given day, according to the most recent stats.

TRUMP’S NEW FAV FIGHTER: During his remarks in Georgia, Trump opined “The F-22 is one of my all-time favorite planes. To me, it’s the most beautiful fighter jet in the world, and one of the best.”

For the record, the president’s other all-time favorite planes include the F-35, the F/A-18, and of course, Air Force One.

F-35s BACK IN THE AIR (MOSTLY): More than 80 percent of the military’s F-35 joint strike fighters have been cleared and returned to flight status after the entire fleet was grounded last week due to a fuel tube issue, the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office said Monday. Half of the remaining grounded jets among the 245 flown by the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps — about two dozen of aircraft — can be repaired with the military’s stock of replacement fuel tubes. The remaining jets are expected to be cleared for flight “in the coming weeks,” the JPO said.

“More than 1,500 suppliers are on the F-35 program and this is an isolated incident which is quickly being addressed and fixed,” the program office said in a statement. “Safety is our primary goal, and we will continue to take every measure to ensure safe operations while we execute our mission.”

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? At the Pentagon these days, all the talk is about how artificial intelligence or “AI” will fundamentally change the nature of warfare. Also referred to as “machine learning,” it’s the ability of computer systems to process massive amounts of data and use algorithms to learn how to do tasks better.

The technology will likely be part of everything we do in the future, from self-driving cars to autonomous lethal weapons systems. “It should be able to let us see faster, sense faster, decide faster, and act faster,” Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told defense reporters at a roundtable this year.

But as any fan of science fiction knows, the problems begin when thinking machines are smarter than their human creators. “If we ever get to the point where it’s completely on automatic pilot and we’re all spectators, then it’s no longer serving a political purpose, and conflict is a social problem that needs social solutions, people, human solutions,” Mattis said recently. Read more in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.

THE HUNT FOR NEW RECRUITS: Not since 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October” has the Navy been this excited about a submarine thriller hitting the big screen. The Navy cooperated with the making of “Hunter-Killer,” starring Gerard Butler, which releases this week. Butler took the conn at the Pentagon press room yesterday to talk about the movie, and his time in Pearl Harbor as a guest of the Navy to get the feel for his part as commander of the fictional attack sub USS Arkansas.

The plot is centered on the sub’s role in an operation aimed at averting war with Russia, according to the Pentagon.

At the briefing, Navy Vice Adm. Fritz Roegge, former commander of Submarine Forces Pacific, said he hopes the action-packed movie gets some young folks excited about a Navy career. “We’re also competing for talent, and in this dynamic economy, it’s more important than ever that we find ways to inspire the next generation of warfighters to consider serving our country in the Navy,” Roegge said.

THE RUNDOWN

Daily Beast: Mattis Isn’t Going Anywhere Unless Trump Says ‘You’re Fired!’

Washington Post: Mattis’s defense goals teeter as he tries to temper Trump

Task and Purpose: Actor Gerard Butler Has Given More Pentagon Briefings In The Past 5 Months Than The DoD’s Spokeswoman

AP: U.S. targets key transnational criminal groups

Defense News: How did the Army find $25 billion for new equipment?

Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia Breaks 45-Year Taboo With Veiled Threat to Use Oil as a Weapon

Washington Post: Why Trump wants to keep Lockheed, Boeing and others in business with Saudi Arabia

Defense One: Trump Asks, ‘I Mean, What’s an Ally?’

New York Times: Hailed as a Hero, Executed as a Spy, and Exonerated Decades Later

Foreign Policy: Islamic State Fighters Are Back, and This Time They’re Taking Up Arms With Shiite Militias

Washington Post: Syria’s militants give tepid support to demilitarized zone in final opposition stronghold

AP: Australia considers moving embassy to Jerusalem

Military.com: Army Wants Bradley Replacement to Vastly Outgun the Enemy

Task and Purpose: Peter Jackson’s New Documentary Shows World War I As You’ve Never Seen It Before

Fox News: Drone expert, Homeland Security agree airborne threats are ‘outpacing’ US defenses