THE VIEW FROM STRATCOM: From Minot Esper will fly to Offutt AIr Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, where he’ll meet with Adm. Charles Richard, who commands U.S. nuclear forces.

In his written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week Richard said he thinks many have lost sight of the fact that a robust nuclear deterrent has prevented a major world war for 70 years.

“I cannot overemphasize the need to modernize our nuclear forces and recapitalize the supporting infrastructure to ensure we can maintain this deterrent in the future,” he wrote. “And I am concerned that the oft-repeated message of the need to modernize and recapitalize has lost its impact, and that collectively we have underestimated the risks associated with such a complex and time-constrained modernization and recapitalization effort.”

“These capabilities are foundational to our survival as a nation,” Richard told the senators, calling the massive modernization effort “a once-every-other-generation responsibility to recapitalize the strategic deterrent.”

THE PRICE TAG: The cost of nuclear modernization is spread out over several line items in the proposed 2021 budget. If you look at the section on nuclear modernization, you’ll see a total of $28.9 billion, which includes:

• $7 billion for Nuclear Command, Control and Communications
• $2.8 billion for the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber, built by Northrop Grumman
• $4.4 billion Columbia Class Ballistic Missile Submarine, built by General Dynamics
• $474 for the Long-Range Stand-off (LRSO) Missile, built by Raytheon and Lockheed
• $1.5 billion Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), built by Northtrop Grumman

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: But coupled with nearly $20 billion in warhead funding, another $20 billion for missile defense, and $6 billion on environmental cleanup, and the overall nuclear budget rockets to a stratospheric $75 billion, roughly 10% of the total defense budget notes Bill Hartung, the director of the arms and security program at the Center for International Policy.

“It’s an outrage,” Hartung says. “It’s the only thing that’s going up dramatically in the entire budget. Even other parts of the military aren’t getting this kind of treatment.”

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 Susan Katz Keating (@SKatzKeating). Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. 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.

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HAPPENING TODAY: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia today, on the last leg of an overseas trip that will end with a stop in Oman.

In Riyadh, Pompeo is meeting with senior Saudi leadership to discuss the Iranian regime’s “continued destabilizing influence in the region,” according to a State Department briefer. Also on the agenda is the the escalation of violence in Yemen including “the need to return to a UN-led peace process, and the urgent humanitarian concerns in Houthi-controlled areas.”

SPEAKING OF IRAN: Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy revealed in a tweet that included a link to his travel diary on Medium that he met privately with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif while in Germany for the Munich Security Conference.

“I don’t know whether my visit with Zarif will make a difference. I’m not the President or the Secretary of State — I’m just a rank and file U.S. Senator. I cannot conduct diplomacy on behalf of the whole of the U.S. government, and I don’t pretend to be in a position to do so. But if Trump isn’t going to talk to Iran, then someone should. And Congress is a co-equal branch of government, responsible along with the Executive for setting foreign policy. A lack of dialogue leaves nations guessing about their enemy’s intentions, and guessing wrong can lead to catastrophic mistakes,” Murphy wrote.

Despite his insistence he wasn’t freelancing American foreign policy, President Trump suggested Murphy might be in violation of the 1799 Logan Act, which has never been enforced, and according to legal experts doesn’t apply to members of Congress.

“I saw that there’s this Sen. Murphy met with the Iranians. Is that a fact?” Trump asked reporters Tuesday. “I just saw that on the way over. Is there anything that I should know? Because that sounds like, to me, a violation of the Logan Act.”

“If they met, I don’t know what they said,” Pompeo replied when asked about during a news conference in Ethiopia. “I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy, not their own.”

“I have no delusions about Iran — they are our adversary, responsible for the killing of thousands of Americans and unacceptable levels of support for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East,” wrote Murphy, who said he wanted to gauge whether reprisals for the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani are over and wanted to “make sure it is 100% clear to him that if any groups in Iraq that are affiliated with Iran attack the United States’ forces in Iraq, this will be perceived as an unacceptable escalation.”

AFGHAN ELECTION MUDDLE: And the winner is … incumbent President Ashraf Ghani, who got 50.64% of the vote. Or maybe it’s his main rival Abdullah Abdullah who got 39.5%.

The results announced yesterday after months of delay were immediately met with accusations of fraud by opposition leaders, with Abdullah rejecting the result and vowing to form his own government.

“The result they announced today was a result of election robbery, a coup against democracy, a betrayal of the will of the people, and we consider it illegal,” said Abdullah after the announcement by the Independent Election Commission.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, is in Kabul for talks with Afghan political leaders, while in Washington his deputy, Molly Phee, said the election dispute “could add to the many challenges that Afghanistan faces, including the challenges associated with the peace process,” speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

After the last disputed election in 2014, Ghani and Abdullah agreed to a U.S. brokered power-sharing arrangement under which Ghani was named president and Abdullah his chief executive.

ANONYMOUS UNMASKED? President Trump said he knows the identity of “Anonymous,” the purported insider who wrote the book A Warning, which described a resistance movement within the Trump administration.

“I know who it is,” Trump told reporters as he boarded a plane at Joint Base Andrews destined for Los Angeles, adding that he’s not going to divulge a name just yet. “But I know who it is,” he added. “We won’t get into it. People know it’s a fraud. I know who it is, and I know who some of the leakers are

INDUSTRY WATCH:

— Israel’s military has decided to buy both another Lockheed Martin F-35 squadron and another Boeing F-15 squadron, in a deal estimated at $3 billion, reports Breaking Defense.

— Northrop Grumman Corp. will receive as much as $13 billion in research spending through 2025 as the sole contractor on the Air Force’s replacement program for the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, reports Bloomberg. “The Air Force’s $1.5 billion request for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is up from $500 million this year, according to budget documents. The request grows to $2.5 billion in 2022,” according to the report.

The Rundown

Washington Examiner: ‘We’re not walking away’: Generals say US committed to Africa despite budget review

Bloomberg: Pompeo Seeks To Assure Africa Partners As U.S. Weighs Troop Cuts

Breaking Defense: Navy Looks to Slash $40B To Build Bigger Fleet

Forbes: Naval Transformation At Risk As Key House Legislator Blasts SECDEF Esper

USNI News: Navy Confirms Global Strike Hypersonic Weapon Will First Deploy on Virginia Attack Subs

Reuters: Trump Blasts Proposed U.S. Restrictions On Sale Of Jet Parts To China

Wall Street Journal: Unhappy With South Korea’s Stance on the North, Defectors Use Elections to Push a Tougher Line

Forbes: Why Pratt & Whitney’s F135 Fighter Engine Will Be The Most Important Military Franchise Raytheon Technologies Owns

New York Times: State Dept. Labels Chinese News Outlets as Agents of Communist Party

Defense One: Pentagon to Adopt Detailed Principles for Using AI

Breaking Defense: Gen. Hyten On The New American Way of War: All-Domain Operations

Washington Post: The war in Afghanistan shattered Joe Biden’s faith in American military power

New York Times: The Epic Battle Between Trump and Bezos Is On

USA Today: Accused Of ‘Free Hugs’ And Office Margarita Machine, Navy Official Mostly Cleared In Draft Report

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 19

All day — Defense Secretary Mark Esper visits two legs of the triad at Minot Air Force Base and U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska. https://www.defense.gov

11: 30 a.m. 1750 Independence Ave. — Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley attends ceremony and wreath presentation to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, sponsored by Friends of the National World War II Memorial, with Ira Rigger, veteran of World War II and the Battle of Iwo Jima; Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; Navy Chaplain Cmdr. Garry Thornton; and Josiah Bunting, chairman of the Friends of the National World War II Memorial.

2:30 p.m. — American Bar Association webinar “There is a National Emergency at the Southern Border. True or False?” with Erica Newland, counsel at Protect Democracy; Seth Weinberger, professor of politics and government at the University of Puget Sound; Laura Pena, pro bono counsel at the ABA Commission on Immigration; and Engy Abdelkader, chair of the ABA Rights of Immigrants Committee. Register at https://register.gotowebinar.com

9 p.m. 3655 Las Vegas Blvd., Nevada — Democratic presidential primary debate to be aired on NBC and MSNBC.

THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 20

7:30 a.m. 1700 Army Navy Dr., Arl. — National Defense Industrial Association forum on the FY 2021 Defense Department budget, with Stephen Herrera, budget deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management; Tom Simoes, director of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller’s Investment and Development Division; and Edward Gardiner, assistant deputy commandant for programs and resources at the Marine Corps. https://www.ndia.org/events

9 a.m. 2172 Rayburn -— U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing “China’s Military Power Projection and U.S. National Interests,” with commissioners Larry Wortzel and Jeffrey Fiedler of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for China Chad Sbragia. https://www.uscc.gov/hearings

11:00 a.m. 620 L St. N.W., — Daniel Morgan Graduate School discussion “Just War Reconsidered,” with retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, author of Just War Reconsidered: Strategy, Ethics, and Theory. Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/just-war-reconsidered

6:30 p.m. 1957 E St. N.W. — George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs Kuwait Chair Lecture on “current dilemmas facing U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf,” with Edward Gnehm, vice dean and Kuwait chair at GWU. http://elliott.gwu.edu

FRIDAY | FEBRUARY 21

10:00 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies conversation with the service secretaries, with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, and Kathleen Hicks, director, CSIS International Security Program. https://www.csis.org/events/discussion

10 a.m. 740 15th St. N.W. — New America book discussion on “The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War,” with author Fred Kaplan, national security columnist at Slate; and Peter Bergen, vice president of New America. https://www.newamerica.org/international-security/events/bomb

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 4

9 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. —