A CAUTIONARY TALE: It’s a classic Washington power struggle. Who knows best when it comes to what planes and weapon systems best serve our warfighters on the front lines? The Congress? Or the military? Yesterday, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson was practically begging members of the Senate Appropriations Committee not to force the Air Force to spend $6.5 billion on a new version of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft, or JSTARS, which was state-of-the-art back during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

NDAA AMENDMENTS PILE UP: The House is prepping the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act for a floor vote and lawmakers’ proposed amendments are pouring in. More than 530 had been filed Thursday with the House Rules Committee and that number will continue to climb in the coming days, a spokeswoman said. The committee is set to meet Tuesday to tee up the NDAA for its full House vote. Here are some of the proposals that lawmakers could be voting on when it gets to the floor:

• AUMF: There are at least four proposals to rescind or replace current authorizations for the use of military force, which are used as the U.S. legal justification to wage war against terrorists around the world.
• Transgender policy: The Obama administration’s open service policy for transgender troops would be locked in by Congress under a proposal by three Democrats.
• Afghanistan data: A group of three Democrats wants to make sure performance data on U.S.-backed Afghan security forces is again made public after it was retroactively classified and redacted.
• Blocking F-35s: NATO ally Turkey would be barred from buying any of the advanced fighter jets unless Trump certifies certain conditions have been met under an amendment by Rep. David Cicilline.
• Yemen war support: Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna filed an amendment prohibiting the military from refueling Saudi aircraft in the war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
• Child immigrants on bases: Amendments filed by Democrats would block immigrant children stopped from illegally crossing the Mexico border from being sheltered on military bases, which is under consideration by the Trump administration.
• LCS for icebreakers: Two California Democrats want to take $950 million currently authorized for the two additional littoral combat ships and spend it on Coast Guard icebreakers instead.

THE CHAIRMAN’S VIEW: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford is back in Washington after spending most of the week in meetings with his military counterparts at NATO’s spanking new headquarters building in Brussels.

On the flight back to Joint Base Andrews, Dunford spoke the small group of reporters traveling with him, including your Daily on Defense correspondent. Here’s his take on some of the issues we quizzed him about as he sat with us in the back of his plane:

U.S.-South Korea military exercises

“These exercises are critical to maintaining a high level of readiness. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. There is an expression on the Korean Peninsula, ‘fight tonight,’ and that’s what the forces are expected to be able to do. These exercises are not designed towards North Korea. They are not designed to be provocative. They are designed to maintain a high level of readiness. These are consistent in both the size and the scope of the exercise with previous years.”

Countering Iran

“We have always looked at Iran through the lens of five challenges they present. There’s a nuclear challenge. There’s a missile challenge. There’s the sponsors of proxies. There’s a cyber challenge. And then there’s a threat to the maritime domains. The purpose of our posture in the Middle East, specifically vis-à-vis Iran, is deterrence. We’re gonna make sure our posture is effective in deterring Iran and that’s going to take into account the operational environment at any given time.”

China’s militarization of the South China Sea

“This is not a military problem. This is about undermining the rules-based order that has existed in the Pacific for the last 70 years. These territorial disputes should be handled in a legal way, and might doesn’t make right. The military dimension — being flying, sailing, operating whenever international law allows — is but one dimension of an overall approach that is going to involve the diplomatic and economic tools necessary to make sure we sustain.”

Progress in Syria

“The SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] are clearing out the remaining pockets of ISIS, so where they actually hold ground. There’s also thousands of local forces that are being trained in order to assume responsibility for security in the areas that have been cleared. This is all going to take place over the coming months. I wouldn’t put a timeline to it, but once the SDF got back in the fight here a couple of weeks ago, the clearance is going pretty well down by the Abu Kamal area. It’s going to take obviously some time to grow local security forces. And then in the meantime, and importantly Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo and his team are energizing the approach to the Geneva process to get a political settlement.”

On the Iraqi elections and the growing political influence of former foe Muqtada al-Sadr

“Look, you know since 2003 we’ve been talking about getting Iraq to the point where the Iraqi people could determine their own fate, and so this is what they are doing right now. … What I think is important right now is that the will of the Iraqi people get carried out in the formation of a government. And I think it would be wholly inappropriate for me to talk about political figures in Iraq and question the judgment of the Iraqi people.”

‘TREMENDOUS’ PROGRESS: The failed Taliban attack on the Afghanistan provincial capital of Farah this week shows that Trump’s new strategy for the country is working, said Dana White, chief Pentagon spokesperson. “Our Afghan partners’ success in places like Farah are a testament to the tremendous improvements in the Afghan national army, Afghan special security forces, and the Afghan air force,” White said. Afghan security forces reportedly suffered about 25 casualties but were able to repel the major offensive on Farah and kill 28 Taliban fighters with backing by U.S. warplanes, drones and military advisers there.

White said Afghanistan has stood up six army corps nationwide to provide security and that effort is paying off with more effective operations in the war, which is the longest in U.S. history. “This is a great milestone for Afghanistan that will allow for coordinated campaigns as they take the fight to the Taliban throughout the country,” she said.

MEME MISFIRE: The Afghan security forces repelled the Taliban in Farah but the victory appears to have come with significant casualties. That might be why a lighthearted tweet about the battle from the Air Force’s official Twitter feed sparked a backlash. “The Taliban Forces in Farah city #Afghanistan would much rather have heard #Yanny or #Laurel than the deafening ‘BRRRT’ they got courtesy of our A10,” the service tweeted Thursday morning. By midday, White was being questioned during the Pentagon press gaggle about whether the tweet was appropriate given the casualties. “We are working by, with and through these partners and they are dying to secure their own future and I think that shouldn’t be forgotten in any of this,” White said. The Air Force later deleted the tweet, admitting it was a bad idea. “We apologize for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed.”

RUBIO VS. DIPLOMAT: Sen. Marco Rubio is accusing a U.S. diplomat of undercutting Trump’s effort to negotiate with North Korea by suggesting the U.S. might accept a “partial” surrender of its nuclear weapons at the start of the talks.

“She is in Tokyo undermining [Trump] by advocating for partial surrender of nukes by [North Korea] as acceptable,” Rubio argued, irked by a comment by Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, whose nomination for a permanent post is pending. Thornton was quoted as suggesting a give-and-take between North Korea and the U.S. at the outset of the negotiating process.

WE HAVE A DIRECTOR: Gina Haspel won easy confirmation in a bipartisan vote in the Senate yesterday, clearing the way for her to become the first woman to lead the CIA. Trump tweeted his congratulations after her nomination was affirmed by a comfortable 54-45 tally.

SUMMIT’S STILL ON: Trump said Thursday his administration is proceeding with North Korea “like nothing happened,” days after officials in Pyongyang threatened to call off a summit between the leaders of both countries.

“North Korea’s actually talking to us about times and everything else as though nothing happened,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with NATO’s secretary general. “We have not been told anything. We’re just reading stories like you are.” 

KOREAN MODEL, NOT LIBYAN: Trump flatly dismissed national security adviser John Bolton’s suggestion that the “Libya model,” might be a blueprint for a deal with North Korea. But at the same time, Trump conflated the Libya model of 2003, which dealt with Libya’s nuclear program, with the Libya war of 2011, which ended up toppling Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed by his enemies.

“Well, the Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all when we’re thinking of North Korea. In Libya, we decimated that country. That country was decimated,” Trump said yesterday. What he has in mind is a deal that would essentially promise the North Korean dictator he could retain his grip on power.

“There was no deal to keep Gadhafi. The Libyan model that was mentioned was a much different deal. This would be with Kim Jong Un something where he’d be there. He’d be in his country. He’d be running his country. His country would be very rich,” Trump said. “This would be, really, a South Korean model in terms of their industry, in terms of what they do. They’re hardworking incredible people.”

F-35’s NEW NICKNAME: Air Force pilots have taken to calling the F-35 Lightning II the “Panther,” according to The Drive. It joins a long list of informal nicknames for planes that already have official Air Force-blessed nicknames, such as the Warthog (really the A-10 Thunderbolt II), the Viper (really the F-16 Fighting Falcon) and the Moose (really the C-17 Globemaster III).

THE RUNDOWN

Bloomberg: Pentagon says North Korea’s Regime has Staked Its Survival on Nuclear Weapons

Defense One: How to Sell a COIN Aircraft in a Great-Power Era

Military Times: The military won’t be responsible for immigrant children if they are detained on bases, DoD says

Business Insider: Watch the USS Milwaukee test the Longbow Hellfire missile for the first time

Defense News: US Navy Still haunted by collisions, even as it adds Milius to 7th Fleet

UPI: General Atomics to retrofit MQ-9 Reaper drones

Defense Tech: Proposed Cannon Would Turn the B-1 Bomber into a Gunship

Roll Call: John McCain Hits the Big Screen

Army Times: National Guard stands by to evacuate up to 1,000 from quakes, lava as Hawaii volcano erupts

Reuters: Syria’s Assad flies to Russia for talks with Putin: Kremlin

Task and Purpose: More US Troops In Niger Were Nearly Wiped Out During Ambush And Chaotic Rescue