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Quick Fix

— The Taliban are seizing more ground as Afghan forces collapse with receding U.S. military support.

— The Senate Armed Services Committee says it will take up the National Defense Authorization Act this month.

— The Pentagon is upping its game to counter drones amid attacks from Iranian-backed militias.

HAPPY TUESDAY AND WELCOME BACK TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we got a little caught up in the chatter about the 25th anniversary re-launch of the all-American cheesy alien invasion movie Independence Day. We agree with our colleague Alex Thompson that President Thomas J. Whitmore was a lousy chief exec who gave one good speech. But it’s a film that endures for good reason. And it really was a heckuva speech that feels somehow relevant. “We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive.” We’re always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected], and follow on Twitter @bryandbender, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

On the Hill

SEEKING COVER: The Pentagon is asking oversight committees to shift $4.3 billion in the current defense budget to cover shortfalls incurred by the border deployment and coronavirus pandemic and to boost growing priorities such as fielding small drones, our colleague Connor O’Brien reports for Pros.

A major chunk — $420 million — would recoup the personnel and operations costs of deploying National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the 97-page reprogramming request.

It also asks to shift $668 million for the Defense Health Program following the costly response to the pandemic and seeks to pay for the extended operations of carrier strike groups as well as the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s reprogramming request also seeks authority to add $21.7 million for prototyping small drones and improving existing ones. The Pentagon notes that it also set aside $19.1 million for the effort in the coming fiscal year.

What would get cut? To pay for the unforeseen expenses and evolving priorities, the Pentagon is seeking to curtail the purchase of helicopters, cut funding for the replacement for Air Force One, and transfer funds from shipbuilding accounts that the Navy says it can’t use this fiscal year.

The request, which was first reported by Inside Defense, must now be approved by the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations panels, which could reject some or all of it.

For Your Radar

SASC SETS NDAA DAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to consider its version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act on July 21, Connor reports for Pros.

The full committee and its seven subcommittees will mark up the defense policy bill earlier in the week, with subcommittees voting on their portions of the bill on July 19 and 20.

Plus: House Armed Services leaders unveil 'by request' NDAA bill, also via Connor for Pros.

Happening Today

The Asia Society Policy Institute hosts a discussion with Kurt Campbell, White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, at 8 a.m.

Happening This Week

On Wednesday, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane holds its Nuclear Triad and Advanced Conventional Strike Symposium, at 8:45 a.m.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a virtual discussion on the legacy of the war in Afghanistan at 1 p.m.

And the Intelligence National Security Alliance hosts a conversation with Rear Adm. Mike Studeman, Indo-Pacific Command intelligence chief, at 4:30 p.m.

On Thursday, the Potomac Officers Club holds its Air Force Acquisition Forum at 8 a.m.

Pentagon

ARMY ENERGY PICK: The White House on Friday announced President Joe Biden’s intent to nominate Rachel Jacobson, who served as the Pentagon’s deputy general counsel for environment, energy and installations during the Obama administration, to be assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment.

If confirmed by the Senate, Jacobson, who works on natural resources issues at D.C. law firm WilmerHale, would join the Defense Department at a time when preparing the military for climate change and adopting greener technologies is a top priority.

Related: Biden names more ambassadorships, including Amy Gutmann for Germany, via POLITICO’s Myah Ward.

DRONE WARS: “The U.S. has been steadily increasing the number of counter-drone systems sent to troops in Iraq and Syria as they come under attack by small, armed unmanned aerial vehicles operated by Iranian-backed militias,” our colleague Paul McLeary reports for Pros.

“The uptick in militia drone activity has alarmed U.S. military commanders and policy makers in Washington, and the Biden administration last weekend launched airstrikes in response to the drone attacks.

Related: Killer flying robots are here. What do we do now? via Foreign Policy.

Afghanistan

‘NEARLY 10 PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY’: The Taliban warned on Monday that any remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan would be seen as a violation of the 2020 agreement to stop supporting terrorism in return for a military withdrawal. The warning came amid reports that the militant group is seizing more ground and Afghan security forces are crumbling without reinforcements, including air power.

“The security situation has deteriorated rapidly. In the last six days alone, the Taliban has taken control of 31 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts – nearly 10 percent of the country – and most all of them in critical areas,” Bill Roggio at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported on Monday in his latest update on the order of battle.

The increasingly bleak outlook comes just days after U.S. forces pulled up stakes at Bagram air base outside of Kabul, signaling a major turning point for Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops, which is now set to be completed by the end of August.

As the endgame nears, the political finger-pointing also grew more heated, as POLITICO’s Nick Niedzwiadek reports. “We’re going dark in Afghanistan, and there’s going to be consequences long term for this,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said on Fox News Sunday. “President Biden [is] going to own these images.”

Related: Taliban find new revenues as they seize Afghanistan’s U.S.-built border gateway, via The Wall Street Journal.

Plus: Biden sends dueling messages on Afghanistan, via The New York Times.

Outer Limits

UFO HEARINGS? At least one Democratic lawmaker wants hearings on unidentified aerial phenomena in the wake of last month’s report to Congress that concluded scores of UFO sightings cannot be explained, including many appearing to exhibit highly advanced technology.

"The report is inconclusive. What we do know is that ... there have been nearly 150 sightings,” Rep. André Carson of Indiana, a member of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “Eighty of those sightings have been detected with some of the best technology the world has ever seen," Carson said. "And we can't rule out something that's otherworldly, but that's a very small percentage."

What’s at stake? We sought comment from Christopher Mellon, the former senior Pentagon intelligence official who has been a leading advocate for more government action.

“Aliens or not, we urgently need to know who is operating these mysterious and highly advanced vehicles in restricted airspace above American test ranges, carrier battle groups, military bases, and nuclear weapons facilities,” he told us. “We need to determine not only why, but how they are doing it, because some of the capabilities we are observing suggest revolutionary scientific insights and engineering capabilities that place America at a huge strategic disadvantage.”

But that means a much more aggressive effort at data collection, in his view. “No effort was made to search our huge ballistic missile radar databases for objects that did not match the profile of known targets and therefore were recorded by a computer but not displayed to personnel at NORAD warning centers,” he maintains. “Hundreds of documented commercial airline pilot sightings were also not included.”

In a recent memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks directed top military leaders to “establish procedures to synchronize collection, reporting and analysis on the UAP problem set.”

Related: How would the military fare against aliens? via Task & Purpose.

Speed Read

— Philippine military’s worst air disaster kills 52, wounds 51: The Associated Press

— A silo building spree raises questions about China’s nukes: The Economist

— China’s ambitious space programs raise red flags: National Defense

— Ukraine criticized for making female cadets parade in heels: The Associated Press

— The following asteroid collision is only a test: The Boston Globe

— Donald Rumsfeld’s fog of memos: The New York Times

— The podcasting feud over the Iraq War’s legacy: POLITICO Magazine

— How the World War II codebreakers created the modern digital world: Foreign Policy

— The end of the world is closer than it seems: The Nation

— BOOK REVIEW: Why did we invade Iraq? New York Review of Books

— Jack Downing, Cold War spy who came out of retirement to help CIA, dies at 80: The Washington Post

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