BOEING ON A ROLL: Boeing’s victory in the competition for a training jet to replace the Air Force’s T-38 fleet gives the contractor $13 billion in defense contract awards in the past month. The Chicago-based company, which worked with Saab to build two all-new jets for the project, confirmed it had won yesterday afternoon in a post on Twitter.

JOINING FORCES: The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has selected Blue Origin to supply the first-stage engine for its new rocket, a big win for the upstart rocket company founded by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.

“Following completion of a competitive procurement, ULA has selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for Vulcan Centaur’s booster stage,” said a statement on the companies website. “These engines and components will ensure ULA continues to lead the way in space exploration, maintain our record of success and remain America’s launch vehicle for our nation’s most vital missions,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO.

LIGHTNING STRIKES: Yesterday was also a red-letter day for Lockheed Martin’s F-35. A Marine Corps version of the jet struck a Taliban target in Afghanistan, making it the first U.S. F-35 to drop a bomb in an active war zone. “The Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II conducted its first combat strikes in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan, Sept. 27,” said a news release. “The F-35B conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander.”

The F-35B is the short take-off/vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the joint strike fighter and was flying off the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship that is essentially a smaller aircraft carrier.

The jet made its international combat debut in May when Israeli pilots conducted “the first operational F-35 strike in the world,” Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said.

HONORING A FALLEN COMRADE: Normally the name of the pilot who is flying a combat jet is stenciled under the cockpit canopy, but in reviewing photos released after yesterday’s strike, our sharp-eyed friends over at Task & Purpose noticed that tradition has been modified to honor Lt. Col. C.K. “Otis” Raible, a former VMA-211 squadron commander who was killed six years ago in an attack in Afghanistan.

“Taliban fighters had infiltrated Camp Bastion and were destroying high-value AV-8B Harrier Jump Jets sitting on the tarmac,” writes T&P’s Brad Howard. “The squadron commander of Marine Attack Squadron 211, deployed to Bastion in support of ground operations in Afghanistan, ran towards the sounds of chaos with only a pistol, organizing Marines to repel the attack before he was fatally wounded.”

Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). 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: President Trump is scheduled to sign the $674 billion defense spending bill at a White House ceremony at noon. The bill is officially titled, “H.R. 6157, the Department of Defense and Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act and Continuing Appropriations Act,” and its signing will mark the first time the Pentagon has gotten its money for the year in time to start spending it on Day 1.

AIR MISHAPS HEARING: A House Armed Services subcommittee holds a hearing at 9 a.m. on C-130 aircraft mishaps and the military’s other airlift challenges with Air Force and Navy officials. The testimony comes after a recent spike in mishaps and the May crash of a C-130 that killed nine Air National Guard troops.

Testifying will be Air Force Lt. Gen. Jerry Harris, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs; Air Force Lt. Gen. Donald Kirkland, commander, Air Force Sustainment Center; and Rear Adm. Scott Conn, director, Air Warfare, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

‘GOLD-PLATED’ SPACE FORCE: The Air Force is trying to derail Trump’s plan for a new Space Force military service with its $13 billion cost estimate, Rep. Mike Rogers, a top proponent of space reform, said at the Aspen Institute Thursday. “There is two things we are watching for and that’s gold-plating and slow-walking, that’s what you try to do when you want to kill something and you can’t stop it, you slow it down until you can figure out how to kill or you start throwing out numbers that make everybody go, ‘Oh, well we can’t afford that,’” Rogers said. “That’s exactly what’s going on now with that $13 billion number.”

The $13 billion estimate by Air Force Secretary Wilson was leaked this month. Rep. Jim Cooper, the top Democrat on Rogers’ subcommittee, said “give me a break” when describing Wilson’s estimate. Wilson now publicly backs the Space Force, but she strongly opposed a plan by Rogers and Cooper last year for a Space Corps inside the Department of the Air Force. Cooper said Thursday that her service would be in an easier situation now under the earlier, less disruptive proposal.

“This is an attempt to work cooperatively with the Air Force so they can do their job better and our proposal for Space Corps would have kept it within the Air Force not a direct attack on the Air Force the way the president’s proposal is,” Cooper said at the Aspen Institute. Trump is calling for a completely separate new military department, the first since 1947.

SPACE CORPS NOT DEAD: Vice President Mike Pence announced Space Force as the sixth branch of the military last month. But the public should “not get too concerned” with estimates and proposals because Congress has not yet seen a finalized plan or decided what the military service will actually look like, Rogers said.

“They can propose anything they want to. Congress is going to decide what it’s going to look like in the end. So I would not get too concerned with these different proposals that are tendered,” Rogers said. “There is no administration proposal yet. All the president said was ‘I want a separate and equal Space Force.’ That could be what we proposed last year.”

CONFIRMED: The Senate voted Thursday 98-1 to confirm Lisa Porter as deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Before her confirmation, she was director of labs at the Virginia-based venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, and had earlier worked for DARPA and NASA.

NO EASING OF SANCTIONS: At yesterday’s session of the United Nations Security Council both China and Russia called for an easing of sanctions against North Korea, which runs counter to the U.S. strategy to maintain maximum pressure on Kim Jong Un until he shows he  is sincere in his pledge to dismantle and destroy his nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal.

Yesterday’s session was chaired by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who made clear the U.S. believes the U.N. should hold firm. “Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearization,” Pompeo said.

Russia and China argued North Korea was entitled to preliminary economic relief, despite Western fears that the regime will pocket those concessions and then break its denuclearization promises.

NETANYAHU’S ACCUSATION: Iran has maintained a “secret atomic warehouse” in its capital containing stockpiles of “radioactive material” and other equipment related to its nuclear weapons program, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“This site contained as much as 300 tons of nuclear-related equipment and material,” Netanyahu said holding up a satellite image at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He said the “innocent-looking compound” had been used to store radioactive material and predicted that satellite imagery would show a flurry of activity at the site in the coming days, as Iran tries to hide the material from international inspectors.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif denied the accusation on his Twitter account. “No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program – including an *actual atomic arsenal*,” he tweeted. “Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors.”

DUNFORD TO NATO: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford stopped in London yesterday en route to this weekend’s NATO Military Committee Meeting in Warsaw, Poland. Dunford met with his British counterpart Army Gen. Sir Nicholas Carter, the chief of defense staff. The two will travel together today to Warsaw.

The NATO military chiefs work mostly in the background, doing a lot of the spade work for NATO initiatives that then must be approved by the political leaders of the alliance. Among the topics for discussion at Saturday’s session is countering Russia by increasing the readiness and mobility of NATO forces.

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Meanwhile Dunford’s senior enlisted adviser Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell has been suspended from his current duties after an unspecified complaint of misconduct. While the Army Inspector General’s Office investigates, Troxell has been assigned temporary duties.

“Due to the ongoing Army investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment on the nature of the alleged misconduct or investigation details,” said Col. Patrick Ryder, a Joint Staff spokesman. “We will wait for a full accounting of the facts and will not presuppose any findings or outcomes.”

MIRACLE ON THE LAGOON: Those were U.S. Navy sailors who were ferrying passengers from an Air Niugini Boeing 737 that landed in the water while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The U.S. 7th Fleet says sailors assigned to Underwater Construction Team 2 assisted local authorities by shuttling passengers and crew to shore using their inflatable boat prior to the plane sinking in approximately 100 feet of water. So far it appears none of the 47 people on board was killed, although one person was described by officials as in critical condition, according to the AP.

The U.S. team was in Chuuk improving the wharf area and exploring the port for future deep-water mooring locations. The area is a popular scuba diving site because of its World War II wrecks. (Below, AP photo)

THE RUNDOWN

Defense News: Pentagon budget win eclipsed by Kavanaugh assault allegations

Foreign Policy: Bolton Puts Mattis in a Tight Spot on Syria

Breaking Defense: F-35’s First Combat Strike Won’t End Debate

USNI News: Navy Awards Ingalls 6 Destroyers, Bath Iron Works 4 In Multiyear Deal; Ingalls To Build Both 2018 Ships

Fox News: Meet the new Air Force helicopters that can ‘defy Armageddon’

Daily Beast: Fancy Bear, the Russian Election Hackers, Have a Nasty New Weapon

New York Times: Pompeo Hails Talks With North Korea but Says Sanctions Must Continue

Defense One: In Cyberspace, Governments Don’t Know How to Count

The Hill: US military: At least 1,100 civilians killed by coalition since start of ISIS war

Defense Tech: Marines Show Off Augmented Reality Goggles at Modern Day Marine

Defense News: Here’s Who Is Running The Pentagon’s Acquisition And Technology Offices

Air Force Times: One-star general — and Enola Gay pilot’s grandson — forced to retire after misconduct claims