MATTIS IN KABUL: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived in Kabul under tight security today, says a victory in Afghanistan would be a political reconciliation, not a military victory. Mattis told reporters traveling with him that expecting a total Taliban surrender may be “a bridge too far,” and instead the strategy is to “start peeling off those who are tired of fighting.”

HAPPENING TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee hears testimony at 9:30 a.m. from two combatant commanders. Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, will testify about the war against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and across the Middle East. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, will talk about military operations in Somalia and across the continent.

MILITARY CYBER SECURITY OPS: Officers from four military branches will testify about cybersecurity operations before the Senate Armed Services Committee this afternoon at 2:30. The hearing will include Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the commanding general in charge of Army Cyber Command who is nominated to head U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. His counterparts from the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy will also testify.

ALSO TODAY — TRUMP VISITS MIRAMAR: President Trump will meet with members of the military this afternoon when he visits Marine Corps Air Station Miramar during his trip to California.

NORTH KOREA NUKE DEAL ‘UNVERIFIABLE’: Former Defense Secretary William Perry, who negotiated with North Korea in 1999, says one problem the Trump administration faces in negotiating with Kim Jong Un is that any denuclearization deal will be essentially unverifiable. “We do not know how many nuclear weapons are operational or under construction. We do not know where all the nuclear facilities are located,” Perry writes in an op-ed in the Washington Post. “Counting warheads is fundamentally difficult, particularly in a country rightly called the ‘Hermit Kingdom.’ ”

But Perry says just because the U.S can’t verify a denuclearization agreement doesn’t mean it shouldn’t make a deal, which he argues could still contain and deter North Korea’s hidden arsenal. “Our nuclear treaties with the Soviet Union counted operational missiles, which we could verify, and inferred the number of warheads, which we could not directly verify. To this day, the U.S. does not know how many nuclear warheads Russia has in reserve or storage, and the error in our estimates could be in the thousands.”

Perry warns that North Korean leaders are despotic, ruthless, cruel to their own people, but not crazy or driven by ideology. “They are not bound by ethical or moral standards, so an agreement is not really binding for them. If they see some advantage in breaking an agreement, they will, particularly if they can do so clandestinely.” So Perry concludes, “it would be a fundamental error to believe that we can reliably verify a treaty by which North Korea agrees to dismantle all of its nuclear weapons and not build more.”

CHINA BACKS NORTH KOREA MEETING: Chinese President Xi Jinping is endorsing the prospect of face-to-face talks between Trump and Kim, following a meeting with South Korean officials. “We expect a smooth [North Korea-South Korea] summit and DPRK-U.S. dialogue,” Xi said yesterday, using the acronym for the North Korean regime, according to state-run media.

“I am delighted that S. Korea’s efforts have made great progress in the overall Korean Peninsula situation and that close dialogue between NK and the U.S. has been achieved,” Xi also said in a statement, according to CNN.

NAVY WITHHELD HYPOXIA INCIDENT: Leaders of a House Armed Services subcommittee are criticizing the Navy for not disclosing another possible fighter jet hypoxia incident during a two-hour hearing last month. Reps. Mike Turner and Niki Tsongas, the chairman and ranking member of the Tactical Air and Land Forces panel, said Monday that they wrote a complaint letter to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson about the Jan. 29 flight incident.

“During this nearly two-hour engagement, the Navy witness failed to mention the PE experienced by an EA-18G Growler crew on January 29th. We understand that after a failure of the aircraft’s environmental control system, the aircrew flew 60 miles with a -30 degree cockpit temperature and severely limited visibility. We also understand that the pilots were able to land safely using a GPS wristwatch,” Turner and Tsongas wrote. The incident is under investigation but they said Rear Adm. Sara Joyner, who is leading the effort to reduce hypoxia among pilots, should have informed the Armed Services Committee. Defense News chronicled the incident here.

$100 BILLION SUBS: The new Columbia-class nuclear submarine will not be easy on taxpayers’ wallets, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “All of a sudden you’re talking about the submarines and there is a number that will make your eyes water. Columbia will be a $100 billion program for its lifetime. We have to do it. I think we have to have big discussions about it,” Spencer said. U.S. nuclear subs are the most invulnerable to adversaries such as Russia and the Columbia class is part of a plan to modernize the nuclear triad, “but it comes with a price,” Spencer said.

The comment came after former Sen. John Warner, who also served as Navy secretary, suggested the Trump administration might need to focus more on modernizing subs. The full triad modernization could ring in at $1.2 trillion over three decades. “It is in stone that we have it and we shall always have it. We’ve got to begin to make tough decisions on the various allocations between air-sea, sub-sea and land,” Warner said.

Spencer was part of a rare group public appearance by three service secretaries at CSIS. “We are modernizing all three legs of the triad and the nuclear command-and-control at the same time in both the Navy and the Air Force. It’s a challenge,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said. “The nation is going to have to make the decision on the actual purchase of these systems within this 10-year window.” The country should also consider investing in other ways to head off a nuclear conflict, Army Secretary Mark Esper said. “Many of us grew up with the triad as part of the Cold War but we have a new capability these days that provides the president more options and creates its own deterrence and that is missile defense,” he said.

TILLERSON ‘OUTRAGED’ BY RUSSIA: Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisoning of a former spy who collapsed in southern England, joining British Prime Minister Theresa May’s condemnation of the attack. “We have full confidence in the UK’s investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible for the nerve agent attack that took place in Salisbury last week,” Tillerson said in a statement last night.

“There is never a justification for this type of attack — the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation — and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior,” Tillerson said. “From Ukraine to Syria — and now the UK — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.

Just hours earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to mention Russia by name while denouncing the attack as “reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible.” When pressed by reporters at yesterday’s White House briefing Sanders simply said “Right now we are standing with our U.K. ally. I think they are still working through even some of the details on that.”

AIR FORCE OPTICS: The Air Force is reducing the access for media as the public affairs team undergoes retraining to aid operational security, according to Defense News.

As a result, the Air Force will be cutting access for media embeds, base visits, and interviews as public affairs officials complete training courses regarding how to not share sensitive information before being authorized to speak with members of the media. The training was outlined in a March 1 guidance and could prompt larger restrictions regarding public communications.

THE RUNDOWN

AP: Turkish troops and allies say they besieged Syria’s Afrin

Reuters: U.S. pushes U.N. for Ghouta truce as Trump considers Syria options

Breaking Defense: How Big Should The Defense Budget Be? Experts vs The Public

Roll Call: Senators Will Vote on Pulling Troops Out of Yemen, But When

AP: Military reviews rules for helmet cams after Niger attack

CNN: Former top US negotiator says Kim is ‘in the driver’s seat’

AP: Summit raises hope North Korea will release 3 US detainees

USA Today: UFO encounter? New footage shows U.S. Navy pilots’ apparent sighting of alien craft near East Coast

Air Force Times: US considering permanent cutbacks at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey

Defense News: Russia to world: Our new nukes are ‘no bluff’

BBC: Russia ‘test-fires hypersonic Kinzhal missile’

New York Times: After Putin Cites Jews, Democrats Implore Trump to Extradite Russians

Business Insider: What you need to know about Novichok, the Russian nerve agent used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal

Military Times: Asking for just $308M, Army submits modest wish list to Congress

Defense One: How Much Do America’s Arms Makers Depend on Foreign Metal? No One Seems to Know

Associated Press: AP Investigation: US military overlooks sex abuse among kids

Army Times: Vice chief: Women serve in every BCT battalion, but sexual harassment battle is far from over

Foreign Policy: I Knew the Cold War. This Is No Cold War.

Marine Corps Times: Military judge cites widespread ‘failure of leadership’ at sentencing of Parris Island officer in recruit death

Washington Post: Navy intelligence chief took lavish meals and gifts from ‘Fat Leonard’ but is cleared of consorting with prostitutes