The SecDef will tell allies in Brussels next week they must take a hard line on Turkey as the body count in Syria continues to rise. The question is, does this emperil Turkey’s NATO membership?

Norway suspended new applications for military export licenses to Turkey today. Norway is also reviewing all current licenses for Turkey for military and multi-use military export licenses.

The Pentagon and State Department spent much of Monday scrambling to respond to the White House’s Sunday night announcement. Three days earlier Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters he and the Turkish Defense Minister had reached an agreement on joint US/Turkish patrols in northern Syria.

“In our defeat-ISIS activities, we’ve had a struggle and presently continue to struggle with the challenge of open source and publicly available information, and how we leverage that to make it truly useful for the warfighter,” Jospeh Votel, former head of both Special Operations Command and Central Command.

TEL AVIV: The expulsion of Turkey from the F-35 program could lead to closer relations for the NATO ally with China, a move likely to have far-reaching implications in the Middle East, Israeli national security experts say. There is no doubt that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now strengthen relations with China, says Uzi Rabi,… Keep reading →

Washington finally removes Turkey from the F-35 program, but Pentagon officials decline to say whether there’s a path for it to come back.

A friendly Senate hearing heated up when Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Acting SecDef Esper “you should not be confirmed as Secretary of Defense.”

An Israeli expert said that the critical question is, where will the Turks deploy the Russian system. “If it is deployed near the border with Syria it may endanger air forces that will attack Iranian controlled militias in Iraq,” the Israeli source says.

No one is talking at DoD, State or the White House about today’s delivery of the Russian weapon system. Is the president considering looking the other way?

The $750 billion defense policy bill sticks with the administration’s topline, but huge fights loom with the House version. Prepare for a long, hot summer.