With Connor O’Brien and Lara Seligman

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Quick fix

— Iran will “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” President Joe Biden declares.

— Some Democrats push back against the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, while the government in Iraq cries foul.

— An influential senator is making noise about the Navy’s shipbuilding plan, and is using a Pentagon nominee as a bargaining chip.

HAPPY TUESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE. We're filling in for our colleague Bryan Bender this week and are always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected] and follow on Twitter @paulmcleary, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

Middle East

FALLOUT FROM AIRSTRIKES: U.S. forces at a military base in eastern Syria came under rocket fire on Monday, a day after President Joe Biden ordered retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, according to a spokesperson for the mission. The service members launched counter-battery artillery fire in self-defense, and initial reports indicate there were no injuries.

But Biden’s weekend strikes also caused waves in Washington, rankling Democrats frustrated by his decision to sidestep Congress — a repeat of similar strikes launched in February, POLITICO’s Andrew Desiderio and Lara Seligman write for Pros.

In both operations, the president cited his authority under Article II of the Constitution, which allows him to take steps to protect U.S. service members in self-defense.

“But some in Biden's party are sounding the alarm about possible abuses of that power, which presidents from both parties have employed to circumvent Congress and legally justify various military operations. The airstrikes come as lawmakers are already working to repeal the two-decade-old authorizations for the use of military force in Iraq, an effort that Biden supports.”

Iraq pushes back: The Iraqi government wasn’t pleased, either. Baghdad issued a statement Monday describing the strikes as a “blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and national security.” The Iraqi government has been unable to stop attacks by Iranian-backed militias against the 2,500 American troops still in the country training local forces, though many of the groups are pulling paychecks from the Baghdad government, which has enlisted all the help it can get in the ongoing fight against ISIS radicals.

But the Iraqi government continues to find itself in a tough — if familiar — spot, caught between Washington, which can bring air power, intelligence help, and training, and its neighbor Iran, which wields considerable power over local politics with the country’s Shiite majority.

Biden and nukes: The continued attempts by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria to hit U.S. targets are likely to have a limited effect on the talks between Washington and Tehran over the Iranian nuclear program, but Biden waded into that issue Monday, as well.

Iran will “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” Biden said during an Oval Office meeting with Israel’s outgoing president, Reuven Rivlin, affirming an “iron-clad” relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

On the Hill

ON HOLD: Republican Sen. Roger Wicker is slow-walking Biden's pick to lead the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, Susanna Blume, to pressure the Pentagon to commit to buying more amphibious ships, your Morning D correspondent and Connor O'Brien report for Pros.

Wicker wants the Pentagon to agree to follow through on a congressionally backed effort to buy four amphibious ships in a single “block buy,” which proponents say would be cheaper than acquiring the ships individually. Though the move was blessed in the most recent defense policy bill, the ships were left out of the Biden administration's budget.

Wicker, whose state of Mississippi is home to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, which builds Navy destroyers and amphibious ships, is an advocate for increasing the size of the Navy to at least 355 ships and has knocked Biden's defense budget for what he calls not appropriately resourcing the military. He and other advocates of the block buy have emphasized the estimated savings, as well as the certainty the deal would provide the shipbuilding industry.

Not the last word: Wicker's action alone isn't enough to block Blume's confirmation if Democrats want to force the issue on the Senate floor. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could still force a procedural vote to advance her nomination that requires only a majority of senators to agree to advance her nomination.

I spy: One thing the Biden Navy budget does is keep up the level of spending on new submarines, calling for two per year going forward. Subs will play a major role in confronting China and Russia in the coming years, and the new Columbia-class boats slated to enter service in the 2030s will be one leg of the nuclear triad.

With that in mind, the Navy has uncharacteristically been promoting the comings and goings of its submarine fleet as of late, and on Monday released rare pics of an Ohio-class submarine cruising past the Rock of Gibraltar on its way into the Mediterranean.

The photo arrived after reports began to emerge that Russia might have tested an air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile in the Mediterranean recently.

DEMS OUTLINE FUNDING LEVELS: House Democrats released their toplines for a dozen government funding bills on Monday, outlining their proposal for divvying up $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for the upcoming fiscal year, POLITICO's Caitlin Emma reports for Pros.

On the defense side, appropriators are allocating $705.9 billion for their annual defense bill. When including the nearly $11 billion House Democrats are seeking to spend on military construction programs, the Appropriations Committee is hewing closely to the Pentagon topline proposed by the Biden administration.

Today: The House Appropriations Committee is expected to release its fiscal 2022 defense spending bill. The legislation will be marked up at the subcommittee level on Wednesday.

Dems who like the defense budget: Elsewhere, a group of moderate “Blue Dog Democrats” is pushing back against the left wing of the party that has been calling for cuts to the defense budget to fund domestic programs.

“Leaders of the House’s Blue Dog Coalition say they oppose calls to fund any less than the requested $753 billion national defense budget for fiscal 2022 — which included $715 billion for the Pentagon,” Defense News reports. A June 24 letter from the group to leaders of the House Armed Services Committee and House Appropriations Committee stated that “we believe this is a strong and sensible funding request, and we oppose calls to authorize or appropriate funding below this level.”

AUMF VOTES: The House votes today on a pair of war powers bills that would repeal the 1991 Gulf War authorization and a broad 1957 Cold War military force law for the Middle East. The two bills were debated on Monday and final votes were postponed to today.

HAPPENING TODAY

— Cyber Command chief Gen. Paul Nakasone speaks at the WEST 2021 virtual conference at 11 a.m.

— Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. Africa Command, and Vice Adm. Hervé Bléjean, director of the European Union Military Staff, participate in a panel on European and U.S. military engagement in Africa moderated by POLITICO’s Lara Seligman at 10:45 a.m. during the 10th annual EU Defense Washington Forum.

Making Moves

Army Gen. Gustave Perna, the top military official responsible for coordinating the U.S. vaccine rollout, is set to retire July 2, as Operation Warp Speed, the name for the U.S. coronavirus response, shifts gears. Robert Johnson, who works at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, will serve as interim chief operating officer for the effort.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanked Perna for his service in a tweet on Monday.

“I'm very grateful for Gen. Perna’s exceptional service to the @deptofdefense & nation after an esteemed 38-yr career in the @USArmy. Thanks to his unrelenting efforts in the fight against COVID, we’re one step closer to returning to a normal way of life,” Austin wrote.

Speed Read

— Coast Guard in talks to add ships to heavy icebreaker program: National Defense

— House passes its version of science bill to take on China: POLITICO Pro

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