TO INFINITY AND BEYOND: President Trump used pretty unambiguous language when he announced yesterday he was ordering the Pentagon to move ahead with plans for what he called a “separate but equal” military service with the responsibility of defending America’s military interests in space.

HAPPENING TODAY: MILLER CONFIRMATION HEARING: The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a confirmation hearing at 9:30 this morning for the general tapped to head up Trump’s strategy in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Scott Miller, who heads U.S. Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., is poised to be promoted and take over the NATO-led Resolute Support mission from Gen. John Nicholson. Streamed live on the committee website.

SENATE PASSES NDAA: The Senate passed its 2019 National Defense Authorization Act on Monday that includes $716 billion in Pentagon spending authorizations. “We’re making needed investments in training, maintenance and modernization — restoring our qualitative and quantitative advantage around the world. We know that right now, America doesn’t have the best of everything,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who shepherded the bill. “We’re addressing that by catching up where we are falling behind — artillery, hypersonics, nuclear triad — and maintaining our superiority in areas where China and Russia are trying to gain on us.”

TRUMP’S ZTE DEAL: In a rare rebuke of Trump, the bill also contains a measure that would scuttle his effort to revive Chinese telecom company ZTE. The White House had opposed the Senate bill amendment restoring penalties on the company imposed after it violated sanctions on Iran and North Korea. The bill now threatens a deal announced by Trump to ease a prohibition on ZTE purchasing U.S. products while requiring it to pay a $1.4 billion fine and overhauling its management team. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Tom Cotton and Chris Van Hollen, who see the company as a national security threat, successfully added it to the must-pass legislation last week.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Senate’s version of the NDAA passed 85-10 and now must be reconciled in conference committee with the House, which passed its version in May. Rep. Mac Thornberry, the House Armed Services chairman, said he hopes the two chambers can strike a final compromise bill by the end of July. The negotiations could lead to changes in the ZTE provision, which is not included in the House legislation, and other initiatives could shift in a final bill. Here are a few issues that House and Senate lawmakers will have to hammer out:

• JSTARS: The House version of the NDAA mandates the service move ahead with replacing its 17 Boeing E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar aircraft, or JSTARS, and authorizes $623 million for it, but the Senate has no such requirement. Instead, it proposes blocking the Air Force from retiring the existing JSTARS aircraft while authorizing it to move ahead with its vision for a replacement system of drones, aircraft and space-based sensors.
• FOURTH ESTATE CUTS: Thornberry is focused on cutting back-room waste in the Pentagon’s support activities, the so-called Fourth Estate. The House NDAA directs Chief Management Officer John Gibson to carry out 25 percent reductions in department-wide activities such as logistics, human resources and service contracting. It would also eliminate the Washington Headquarters Service. But the Senate has no such measure in its bill.
• LCS: The Navy requested just a single littoral combat ship for the coming year and the Senate went along with that plan. But the two shipyards in Wisconsin and Alabama that build the small surface ships are warning of layoffs if more are not bought in 2019, and the House is proposing an authorization of three hulls.

PROCEEDING WITH CAUTION: In a very carefully worded statement yesterday, the Pentagon announced it would be complying with Trump’s wishes to end a major joint military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea as a goodwill gesture to North Korea.

Here’s the full statement, along with a translation.

“Consistent with President Trump’s commitment and in concert with our Republic of Korea ally, the United States military has suspended all planning for this August’s defensive “wargame” (Freedom Guardian).”  Notable here is that the Pentagon says it has “suspended planning,” not canceled the exercise. Presumably, that leaves open the possibility the U.S. could resume planning if North Korea breaks any of its commitments. It’s also notable the Pentagon has adopted Trump’s description of the exercise as a “wargame,” but put the president’s term in quotes.

“We are still coordinating additional actions. No decisions on subsequent wargames have been made.”  This shows the Pentagon is not willing to declare all future exercises will be canceled, and is taking it one “war game” at a time.

“There will be a meeting at the Pentagon later this week with the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor on this issue.” This is another sign that as far as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is concerned, questions about the size and scale of future exercises are not yet resolved.

“There is no impact on Pacific exercises outside of the Korean Peninsula.” Here the Pentagon is laying down a marker that it will continue exercises such as the Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, a huge maritime warfare exercise that involves 26 countries and more than 25,000 people and is scheduled to run June 27 to Aug. 2, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

DUNFORD ON EXERCISES: When I traveled with Dunford to NATO headquarters last month, I asked him specifically about the value of the joint exercises with the South, and whether they could be conducted in a way that was less provocative.

“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,” he said on the plane ride back to Washington. “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.”

KIM IN CHINA: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is back in Beijing today, meeting with Chinese officials. Kim appeared to travel by plane instead of his armored train, an indication he’s getting more comfortable with conventional means of travel outside his hermit kingdom.

ALTERING THE ARMISTICE: Meanwhile Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed yesterday that Trump agreed to “alter the armistice agreement” between North and South Korea in exchange for Kim’s promise to denuclearize.

“[Kim] has made very clear his commitment to fully denuclearize his country. That’s everything, right? It’s not just the weapons systems, it’s everything,” Pompeo said during a question-and-answer session at the Detroit Economic Club. “In return for that, the president has committed to making sure that we alter the armistice agreement, provide the security assurances that Chairman Kim needs.”

FAILURE TO DISCLOSE: Korea Aerospace Industries, a South Korean aviation firm, failed to disclose the indictment of nine current and former executives on corruption charges two weeks before the firm won a contract worth up to $48 million from the U.S. Air Force, according to the Washington Post.

The business, whose executives were being investigated on charges of embezzlement, bribery, and defrauding the South Korean government, had retained Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, as a consultant, according to the Post.

Cohen’s firm received $150,000 from Korea Aerospace Industries, but there was no evidence he was involved in the Air Force contract, the Post reported; the company said he wasn’t.

THE NEW ‘COLD’ WAR: Members of Congress and outside experts say the U.S. has taken its eye off the ball in the Arctic, where rapidly shrinking and thinning ice has opened a strategic competition between the U.S. Russia and China and sparked a race for dominance in an area estimated to hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered gas.

“Our rivals are paying close attention to the changing Arctic, even if we are not,” said David Titley, a professor of meteorology and international affairs at Pennsylvania State University.

“The Russians are actively monetizing their northern sea route and rebuilding their Arctic military capabilities,” Titley told Congress, while “China declares itself to be a near-Arctic state and intends to jointly build a Polar Silk Road as a northern flank in its Belt and Road Initiative.”

Read more in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.

THE RUNDOWN

Daily Beast: Forget Nukes. Will Kim Jong Un Pull Back His Big Guns?

Military.com: No Movement Yet On North Korea’s Promise To Return US Troop Remains

Defense News: Strict export regulations may be costing US industry billions in foreign sales

Army Times: US-led coalition destroys Islamic State narcotics cache — including 300,000 so-called ‘Jihadi pills’

Washington Times: U.S. Walks Fine Line With Kurdish Allies By Joining Turkish Forces On Patrol In Syria

Foreign Policy: I Fought Against Muqtada al-Sadr. Now He’s Iraq’s Best Hope.

Task and Purpose: Army’s ‘Commie Cadet’ Disciplined; Masses Fail To Rise Up

New York Times: Israel Charges a Former Minister With Spying for Iran

South China Morning Post: China Adds To Nuclear Arsenal Amid Military Modernisation Drive

Stars and Stripes: Russian Bunkers Near Poland Could Be Storing Nuclear Weapons, Report Says