The overhead imagery shows North Korea is pursuing “a rapid rebuilding of the Sohae (Tongchang-ri) Launch Facility at both the vertical engine test stand and the launch pad’s rail-mounted rocket transfer structure.” This site has been used in the past for satellite launches, which employ ICBM technology banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to Beyond Parallel, which is funded by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

BOLTON: TRUMP GAVE UP NOTHING: President Trump surprised Kim Jong Un with his resolve at the Hanoi summit, according to his national security adviser. “I think the North Koreans were surprised that the same playbook that they have run against three prior administrations didn’t work with President Trump. That’s what they were most surprised about,” John Bolton said in an radio interview with Fox’s Brian Kilmeade.

“The president just doesn’t think he has given up anything by having these meetings,” said Bolton, arguing that “conventional diplomacy” has failed to stop or slow down North Korea’s nuclear program.

“The president’s turned this on its head, he’s tried something different. It’s hard to say that he’s less successful than 30 years of failure. So we’ll see how this plays out.” he said. “In Singapore, the president held open the door for the North Koreans there. They didn’t walk through it, he’s held the door open again in Hanoi, they didn’t walk through it there too. He’s still got the door open, they could have a bright, economic future, just give up all your weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.”

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: Meanwhile, Stephen Biegun, President Trump’s point man for North Korea negotiations, won plaudits from Democrats for his closed-door briefing on what went down in Hanoi, according to the Washington Examiner’s Joel Gehrke.

“This was a very good briefing,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said after the private session with the Foreign Relations Committee. “Steve did a great job in giving us some real detail on what happened, which I think is partially why you probably hear some Democrats being more confident about our strategy going forward.”

“It’s the first in-depth briefing that we’ve had on this or any other subject,” New Jersey senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel, told the Washington Examiner. “It was substantive, it was insightful and very helpful.”

TOP NATO COMMANDER WANTS MORE TROOPS, SHIPS: In his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and U.S. European Command head Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti said he needs more troops and warships to counter the growing threat from Russia.

“Russia has continued its reemergence as a strategic competitor and remains the primary threat to a stable Euro-Atlantic security environment,” said Scaparrotti. “While the United States maintains a global military superiority over Russia, evolving Russian capabilities threaten to erode our competitive military advantage, challenge our ability to operate uncontested in all domains, and diminish our ability to deter Russian aggression.”

In response to a question from Chairman James Inhofe, Scaparrotti said he was “not comfortable” with the current “deterrent posture” in Europe, citing “shortfalls” in land and maritime components and noting a particular need for more ISR, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capacity. “In light of Russia’s modernizing, increasingly aggressive force posture, EUCOM recommends augmenting our assigned and rotational forces to enhance our deterrence posture.”

“I’ve asked for two more destroyers within EUCOM,” Scaparotti said at one point. “If we want to remain dominant in the maritime domain and particularly undersea, which we are today, we’ve got to continue to modernize.”

Scaparrotti promised more detail in the closed session that was set for the afternoon. The dual-hatted commander is scheduled to appear before the House Armed Services Committee next Wednesday, the day after the Pentagon is expected to release its FY 2020 budget request to Congress.

Good Wednesday 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 Kelly Jane Torrance (@kjtorrance). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. 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.

HAPPENING TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel receives testimony on the military services’ prevention of and response to sexual assault. Two panels with 10 witnesses testify beginning at 2:30 p.m. in 222 Russell.

BORDER CROSSINGS SURGE: Critics of President Trump’s effort to build more barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border like to cite the statistic that overall illegal border crossings are at an all-time low. But yesterday Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, announced that more than 76,000 people tried to cross illegally from Mexico into the United States in February, the highest level of illegal immigration the country has seen in one month since 2007.

That was up from 58,000 in January, and senior Homeland Security officials say they expect the number of migrants illegally entering from Mexico to continue spiking due to a continued surge of family and children arriving daily.

More than 90 percent of the migrants were families from Guatemala who can get bus rides to the border that take less than a week.

ONE CONGRESSMAN’S FIRSTHAND VIEW: Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, is just back from a deployment along the border and told CNN why his experience reinforced his backing of President Trump.

This was Kinzinger’s fourth trip to the border as a guardsman but the first under Trump. He told CNN’s Jim Sciutto what he observed in the deserts of Arizona, far from the legal ports of entry.

“If we saw somebody and they heard a helicopter or they thought they were going to be pursued, they drop these big bundles. We’d pursue the people. Eventually, maybe the border patrol would go back and get the bundles. A lot of the times, those had drugs in them. You would see these ‘coyotes’ abandon a group and leave them out in the middle of a desert where there’s no life for 50 miles from there because they’re obviously afraid of getting caught and would leave people out in the desert to die, which is why you see 200 dead about a year in Arizona,” Kinzinger said.

“So I came back and said because of the drugs and the human trafficking, I support it,” he said of President Trump’s plan to use an emergency declaration to shift Pentagon money to wall projects.

FIRE THE CORPS: Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., is fed up with the Army Corps of Engineers and has fired off a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen suggesting Pentagon officials overseeing border wall projects be replaced with private-sector companies on contract that can get the job done more quickly and cheaply.

In a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner Tuesday, Cramer told Nielsen the Army Corps of Engineers has “wasted taxpayer funds and been egregiously slow in constructing physical barriers” on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The president prides himself on accomplishing projects on time and under budget. Unfortunately, current construction of the wall has been contracted out to the USACE, and on time and under budget has not characterized their work,” Cramer wrote in a letter dated Monday.

TRUMP’S HEAD-SPINNING PIVOT: It’s almost as if President Trump didn’t set off two months of turmoil with his December announcement that he was abruptly pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria. After an bipartisan uproar in Congress, threats from U.S. allies, and an intense lobbying campaign by lawmakers led by a infuriated Sen. Lindsey Graham, Trump did an about-face and agreed to stick to the original plan to leave some American troops behind to train local security forces and prevent the resurgence of ISIS.

When lawmakers wrote a polite letter of praise to thank the president for coming around, he sent it back with one section marked and the notation “I agree 100%. ALL is being done” in his distinctive handwriting, according to the copy obtained by Courtney Kube of NBC News.

The paragraph Trump highlighted read: “Like you, we seek to ensure that all of the gains made in Syria are not lost, that ISIS never returns, that Iran is not emboldened, and that we consolidate our gains and ensure the best outcome in Geneva for American interests.”

‘DROP THE POLITICS’ ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Former secretary of state John Kerry, former defense secretary Chuck Hagel, and nearly 60 other retired national security and military leaders are accusing the Trump administration of creating a panel to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, which they argue will make America less safe.

“Imposing a political test on reports issued by the science agencies, and forcing a blind spot onto the national security assessments that depend on them, will erode our national security,” a group of 58 military and national security leaders, led by Kerry and Hagel, wrote in a letter to Trump. “Let’s drop the politics, and allow our national security and science agencies to do their jobs.”

The White House, through the National Security Council, is considering creating a panel of scientists to scrutinize the consensus view that man-made climate change is harming national security.

Critics have zeroed in on William Happer, a controversial National Security Council senior director and physicist who is leading the effort. Happer once said that the “demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler.”

SANCTIONS REDUX: In the wake of President Trump’s contentious statements about taking Kim Jong Un’s word that he didn’t know about the brutal treatment that led to the death of Otto Warmbier in North Korean custody, two senators are revisiting a sanctions bill named for the American college student.

Senators Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., reintroduced the Otto Warmbier Banking Restrictions Involving North Korea (BRINK) Act. The bill, which passed the Senate Banking Committee unanimously last Congress, would impose mandatory sanctions on the foreign banks and companies that facilitate illicit financial transactions.

“The United States should not sit on our hands as reports of North Korea’s efforts to build up their nuclear capabilities continue to stream in. And with talks between the Trump Administration and the DPRK breaking down last week, the need for Congress to draw a clear line in the sand is more important than ever,” said Van Hollen.

“Our bipartisan measure is a powerful tool that gives companies a choice: you can do business with the United States or North Korea — but not both,” said Toomey.

KUSHNER’S SECURITY CLEARANCE: There was a lot of angry letter-writing going on in Washington yesterday, including one to Attorney General William Barr calling on him to open a criminal investigation into reports Jared Kushner intentionally omitted contacts on his security clearance forms.

“We are deeply disturbed by recent reports that President Trump ordered his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, to grant Jared Kushner a security clearance, overruling intelligence officials who raised concerns about the clear national security risks of doing so,” wrote congressmen Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Don Beyer, D-Va.

“Taken together with previous reports that Mr. Kushner omitted contacts with more than one hundred foreign persons on his clearance forms — including the Russian Ambassador — we request that the Department of Justice open an immediate investigation to determine if Mr. Kushner is criminally liable for his false statements.”

P-R-E-V-E-N-T SUICIDE: President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at halting the spike in suicide rates among U.S. veterans. The President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide order, or PREVENTS, establishes a task force under the direction of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to develop a comprehensive nationwide plan to address gaps in mental health access for veterans, including strengthening collaboration between local and state officials and the federal government.

“Hard to believe an average of 20 veterans and service members take their lives every single day. Who would believe that’s possible? There are more than 6,000 veteran suicides per year. The suicide rate among veterans is 1.5 times greater than that for non-veteran adults, and the suicide rate for post-9/11 soldiers has increased significantly over the last 10-year period,” said Trump as he signed the order. “To every veteran: I want you to know that you have an entire nation of more than 300 million people behind you. You will never, ever be forgotten. We are with you all the way.”

The order encourages public-private partnerships to make mental health care more readily accessible, incentivizes mental health research, and revamps existing suicide prevention resources offered by the VA.

WHEN YOUR ‘LOYAL’ WINGMAN IS A DRONE: At the Australian International Airshow last month, the Australian Defence Force and Boeing unveiled a plan to jointly develop the first autonomous robotic jet fighter that will serve as a wingman to other manned fighters in air battles, reports National Defense magazine, which has an artist’s rendering of the concept on its website.

The project would be the first aircraft developed and built in Australia since World War II and would be Boeing’s largest monetary investment in an aircraft development program outside the United States, according to the report.

“The ‘loyal’ wingman concept calls for low-cost unmanned aircraft to accompany fighter jets and surveillance aircraft into battle to serve as decoys, sensor platforms, or weapon carriers. They would be controlled by pilots, or from the ground, and must fly semi-autonomously so they don’t put an undue burden on aviators. They could perform high-risk surveillance missions.”

ISIS ‘BRIDES’ ARE ISIS MEMBERS: The Trump administration should hold former ISIS members accountable regardless of their gender, argues Robin Simcox, a terrorism expert at the Heritage Foundation.

“Two women with close ties to the United States who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State are currently living in a Kurdish-controlled camp in Syria. Both are requesting a return to the U.S. While one of these women was born in the U.S., there is an ongoing factual dispute as to her actual citizenship, which is now in litigation,” Simcox writes. “These two women are security threats until proven otherwise: Women who join terrorist groups should not be treated as any less of a threat than men.”

THE RUNDOWN

CNN: President pressured staff to grant security clearance to Ivanka Trump

Washington Examiner: Huawei opens ‘cybersecurity center’ to counter Pompeo’s spy warnings

Wall Street Journal: Chinese Hackers Target Universities In Pursuit Of Maritime Military Secrets

Washington Times: Taliban Balking At U.S. Timetable, Wants One-Year Pullout From Afghanistan

American Military News: Rand Paul’s new bill to give $2.5k to every War on Terror vet, end Afghan war

Stars and Stripes: Bases Brace For Pentagon Decision On Which Military Construction Projects Will Lose Funding

Breaking Defense: Despite U.S. Threats, Another Ally Mulls Russia’s S-400

Washington Post: Chelsea Manning fights subpoena in WikiLeaks probe

National Defense: Boeing Exploring Potential International Market for its T-X Trainer

C4ISRNET: DARPA Inks A Contract For Hypersonic Weapon Research

CNN: India Denies That Pakistan Intercepted One Of Its Submarines

Breaking Defense: Rep Rob Wittman: Keep 12 Carriers, It’s A National Imperative

New York Times: Why Napalm Is a Cautionary Tale for Tech Giants Pursuing Military Contracts

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 6

9:30 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. “After the Trump-Kim summit 2.0: What’s next for US policy on North Korea?” www.brookings.edu

10 a.m. 226 Dirksen. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on issues at the southern border. Witnesses: Kevin McAleenan, commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Michael Fisher, former chief, U.S. Border Patrol; Dr. Julie Linton, American Academy of Pediatrics; Timothy Ballard, CEO Operation Underground Railroad. Streamed live here.

10 a.m. Cannon 310. “The Way Forward on Border Security.” www.homeland.house.gov

10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Committee hearing on “Outside Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence Policy and Posture. Witnesses: Bruce Blair, Princeton University; Joan Rohlfing, President and COO, The Nuclear Threat Initiative; Franklin Miller, The Scowcroft Group. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

10 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. “The Hanoi Summit: Implications and Opportunities.” www.stimson.org

2:30 p.m. 222 Russell. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel receives testimony on the Military Services’ prevention of and response to sexual assault. Two panels, 10 witnesses. www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings.

THURSDAY | MARCH 7

9:30 a.m. 216 Hart. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the “chain of command’s accountability to provide safe military housing and other building infrastructure to servicemembers and their families.” All three service secretaries and all four service chiefs are scheduled to testify. Army Secretary Mark Esper, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov

10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Committee hearing on “National Security Challenges and U.S. Military Activities in the Greater Middle East and Africa.” U.S. Central Commander Gen. Joseph Votel, U.S. Africa Commander Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, and Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, testify. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

11:45 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Suite 400. “Revolution and Civil Unrest: Lessons From Venezuela and Syria.” www.hudson.org

12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Avenue N.E. “The Next Steps for Combatting Terrorist Travel.” www.heritage.org

1:15 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave N.W. The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts an expert panel to assess the outcome of the recent Hanoi summit between the United States and North Korea, followed by a speech from Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. Panelists: Amb. Alexander Vershbow, Atlantic Council; David Nakamura, Washington Post White House correspondent; Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and Korea Chair, CSIS; and Sue Mi Terry, Senior Fellow, Korea Chair, CSIS. www.csis.org

2:00 p.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces and Subcommittee on Readiness Joint Hearing: U.S. Transportation Command and Maritime Administration: State of the Mobility Enterprise. General Steve Lyons, Commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, and Rear Admiral Mark H. “Buz” Buzby, USN, Ret., Administrator of the Maritime Administration, are scheduled to testify. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

2:45 p.m. 1740 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. “Bridging America’s Civil-Military Divide.” www.sais-jhu.edu

MONDAY | MARCH 11

7 a.m. 1779 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. www.carnegieendowment.org

1 p.m. 2301 Constitution Avenue N.W. “How Pakistan Navigates the Saudi Arabia-Iran Rivalry.” www.usip.org

TUESDAY | MARCH 12

7 a.m. 1779 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference (Day 2). www.carnegieendowment.org

2 p.m. 2212 Rayburn. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel hearing on “Outside Perspectives on Military Personnel Policy. Witnesses: Todd Harrison, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Peter Levine, Institute for Defense Analyses; Beth Asch, RAND Corporation. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 13

7 a.m. 1513 K St. N.W. McAleese/Credit Suisse 10th Annual FY2020 “Defense Programs” Conference. All-day speakers list includes Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations; Gen. Robert Neller, Marine Corps commandant; Ryan McCarthy, under secretary of the Army; Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., Armed Services Committee chairman; Rep. Joseph Courtney, D-Conn; Rep. Robert Wittman, R-Va.; Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio; and many others. Email [email protected] to register.

10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. U.S. European and Supreme NATO Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti and Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, testify before the House Armed Services Committee.

2 p.m. 2212 Rayburn. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness hearing on “Ensuring resiliency of military installations and operations in response to climate changes.” Witnesses: retired Rear. Adm. David Titley, Pennsylvania State University; Sharon Burke, International Security Program and Resource Security Program; and Nicolas Loris, Center for Free Markets and Regulatory Reform. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

4 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. “Putin’s World.” www.brookings.edu

THURSDAY | MARCH 14

9 a.m. 2212 Rayburn. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces hearing on “Department of the Air Force Fiscal Year 2020 budget request for seapower and projection forces.” Witnesses: William Roper, assistant secretary of Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Fay, deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration, and requirements. armedservices.house.gov/hearings

2 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. “The future of the Army in an era of great power competition.” www.brookings.edu

TUESDAY | MARCH 19

8 a.m. 1779 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. “Religious Authority in the Middle East: Implications for U.S. Policy.” www.carnegieendowment.org