Mattis or Trump Keeping Top DoD Posts Vacant?

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Chronic conflict between DefSec Jim Mattis and the White House is why so many top Pentagon posts remain vacant, so a source familiar with the White House personnel team tells Breaking Defense. “My theory [is Mattis thinks that] if you supported Donald Trump, you probably are not a high-caliber person.”

Bloomberg reports that Washington loves National Security Advisor McMaster, but Trump doesn’t, according to White House insiders, but officially the White House says everything’s fine.

BGen Roger B. Turner Jr. says his 300 Marines recently deployed to Afghanistan are not operating on the front lines of the fight against the Taliban, but there is no doubt his Marines are in a combat zone, reports Marine Times.

What had been regular operations, sailing US ships where China and other nations challenge access to the South China Sea, have not occurred since Trump took office, reports Bloomberg. A hiatus in “freedom of navigation” operations does not mean the disputed South China Sea is a diminished US priority, according to Pacific Fleet Commander Scott Swift. The operations typically produced protests from Beijing.

Iran test-fired a high-speed torpedo on Sunday, a senior US defense official told Fox News, marking the latest provocative action from the Islamic Republic. The Hoot torpedo, which has a range of six miles, was fired in the Strait of Hormuz, where much of the world’s oil passes each day.

One congressman’s plans to honor veteran-friendly businesses helped keep the federal government from shutting down last week, reports Military Times. California Republican Rep. Paul Cook’s HIRE Vets Act was signed into law over the weekend, after lawmakers made it the legislative vehicle for their omnibus budget plan to fund government operations through September.

Maryland Matters reports on two likely Democratic candidates for governor: Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker and state Sen. Rich Madaleno addressed friendly, home-based audiences in recent days, and what they said reveals a lot about the campaigns they plan to wage, writes Josh Kurtz.

The Huffington Post says belief that the Senate will dramatically reconstruct the House health care bill passed last week, could be misplaced, premature.

Tidbits of a video give a glimpse of the US Air Force’s secretive X-37B spaceplane, which landed yesterday 12 days shy of a full two years in orbit, reports Gizmodo. What was it doing up there in the sky? The government won’t say.