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With Connor O’Brien and Jacqueline Feldscher

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— Rep. Jim Cooper told POLITICO he wants a review of the decision to move the U.S Space Command to Alabama.

— The Biden administration has halted the proposed sale of F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates while it reviews a series of Mideast weapons deals.

— The Pentagon has been ordered to consider the implications of climate change in all planning and strategy.

IT’S THURSDAY AND YOU’RE READING MORNING DEFENSE, on the 35th anniversary of the loss of NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew of seven astronauts. "And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff" — we remember so well President Ronald Reagan's somber but reassuring words to the nation that night. "I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." We're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected] and [email protected]. And follow on Twitter @bryandbender, @sarahjcamm, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

‘TO HELP HIS POLITICAL CRONIES’: Cooper (D-Tenn.), an early supporter of creating a separate Space Force, has joined Colorado lawmakers in calling for President Joe Biden to review the decision this month to move the headquarters for the U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama.

“The scuttlebutt is that [Air Force] Secretary [Barbara] Barrett only had one folder when she went into the White House and it was Colorado and then, boom, [former President Donald Trump] decided it needed to be in Alabama to help his political cronies,” Cooper, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel, said at an event convened by POLITICO Live on Wednesday. “But we need a decision on the merits and we need to be as thrifty as we can.”

The Air Force has denied that the choice was politically motivated. John Henderson, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and energy, told POLITICO the decision was made in consultation with the White House, but that Huntsville, Ala. beat Colorado Springs, Colo. in all the evaluation criteria.

‘WE WILL NOT HESITATE’: The Concerned Veterans for America is out today with its new legislative agenda, which asks the Biden administration and Congress to follow through on Trump’s efforts to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

The conservative group, which has pushed to end military engagements, has been a leading voice for winding down America’s longest war, including through a nationwide media and advertising campaign. And it’s pressing the new president to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops by May, under the terms of a peace agreement reached with the Taliban last year.

“I would prefer to run advertisements thanking the Biden administration for bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, but we will not hesitate to go the other way and hold the administration accountable if they fail to live up to past rhetoric and bring closure to this endless war,” said Nate Anderson, the executive director of the group, which also supports political candidates.

The legislative agenda also calls on Congress “to require future Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) to automatically sunset and more narrowly identify the mission at hand and its geography — not to become blank checks for future military action.”

It is also advocating for what it calls “smart and sustainable defense spending,” like ending separate war spending accounts and authorizing a new round of military base closures.

The Office of Strategic Services Society hosts a discussion with former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and former Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers at 6 p.m.

WEAPONS SALE PAUSE: The State Department is pausing some U.S. weapons sales inked under Trump until they are reviewed by the new administration, our colleague Connor O'Brien reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration supports the peace agreements pacts between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries struck under Trump, but added that accompanying weapons sales would be reviewed.

"We think that Israel normalizing relations with its neighbor and other countries in the region is a very positive development," Blinken told reporters. "We're also trying to make sure that we have a full understanding of any commitments that may have been made in securing those agreements.”

Blinken called the review “typical” and said it served to “make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives.” But the pause comes as some lawmakers push to halt Trump's Middle East arms sales, including sales of munitions to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Ten House Democrats — among them, Foreign Affairs Chair Gregory Meeks of New York and Armed Services Chair Adam Smith of Washington — urged Blinken to swiftly reevaluate the U.S.-Saudi relationship, including by freezing and reviewing arms sales that contribute to the kingdom's war in Yemen.

"American support for the Kingdom is not a blank check and Saudi Arabia should understand that we will no longer overlook actions inconsistent with American interests and values to preserve a relationship that, over the past several years, has served Saudi interests more than it has served our own," they wrote.

Related: What the Lincoln Project gets wrong about Israel-Palestine, via The New York Review of Books.

‘THIS IS GOING TO BE QUITE A SHOW’: Biden is assembling a national security team with an unusually ambitious agenda to negotiate new arms control treaties, scale back the nuclear arsenal, and review decades of military doctrine, your Morning D correspondent reports.

"The stars are aligned," said Joe Cirincione, a veteran nonproliferation advocate who mentored a number of Biden’s picks. "Extending New START for five years is just the opening gambit. This is going to be quite a show."

But skeptics are already expressing alarm at Biden’s decision to extend the nuclear pact with Russia for five years without any preconditions. "I think that is a bad signal and suggests that Biden may be a pushover when it comes to this sort of thing," said former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who served on the National Defense Strategy Commission.

Related: Russian parliament OKs New START nuclear treaty extension, via The Associated Press.

And: How effective is America's deterrent? via Defense News.

Plus: Renewed Great Power Competition: Implications for Defense—Issues for Congress, via the Congressional Research Service.

THE CLIMATE THREAT: The Defense Department announced on Wednesday that Biden had directed it to “prioritize climate change considerations” in all aspects of military planning.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military will now be “incorporating climate risk analysis into modeling, simulation, wargaming, analysis, and the next National Defense Strategy.”

“There is little about what the Department does to defend the American people that is not affected by climate change,” he wrote. “It is a national security issue, and we must treat it as such.”

The Association of Defense Communities, which represents states and localities with heavy military concentrations, applauded the move. “The threats climate change pose to our defense infrastructure do not stop at the fence line — they impact entire communities, regions, and their economy,” it said in a statement.

Biden also ordered a new national intelligence estimate on climate change.

In a fresh example of what is at stake, the Center for Climate and Security released a new report on Wednesday that says the Arctic could “see accidents or misunderstandings more easily leading to escalation of conflicts,” due to climate change.

In other apocalyptic news, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that its “Doomsday Clock,” which signifies the level of existential danger posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, remains at 100 seconds to midnight, the “most dangerous situation that humanity has ever faced.”

“National governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage nuclear weapons and climate change, which currently pose existential threats to humanity, or the other dangers — including more virulent pandemics and next-generation warfare — that could threaten civilization in the near future,” the group said Wednesday.

Plus: Biden pitching a much vaster climate plan than Obama ever attempted, via POLITICO’s Zack Colman and Ben Lefebvre

SPACE OFFICE SHUFFLE: The Air Force is reorganizing its space acquisition office into three new directorates, Shawn Barnes, the service’s acting space acquisition official, told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have gone from an organization that was largely focused on policy and providing advice and counsel to the secretary, to one that is now focused on ... acquisition, architecture, and policy and integration,” Barnes said.

The teams will focus on space control, launch and space logistics, which reflect the priorities for Defense Department space acquisition. The incoming new Air Force secretary could soon shift those priorities, however.

BOEING EARNINGS SLUMP: Boeing reported its biggest-ever annual loss on Wednesday, our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher reports.

The aerospace giant reported $58.2 billion in revenue for 2020, a 24 percent drop from the previous year that was driven by the pandemic and the grounding of the 737 MAX airliner.

The company’s defense division, however, saw revenue grow 14 percent in the fourth quarter. Overall it inched up 1 percent for the full year, to $26.3 billion, driven by more fighter jet sales.

General Dynamics also saw a dip in 2020, reporting revenue of $37.9 billion, a 3.6 percent dip from the previous year, Feldscher also reports. CEO Phebe Novakovic said the company is projecting approximately $39 billion in revenue in 2021, a slight increase from 2020.

Northrop Grumman — the last of the big five to report full-year earnings — will publish its numbers today.

— Lawmakers demand answers on Covid outbreak, Guard deployments: POLITICO

— Sen. Tom Cotton: Our National Guard's Capitol mission is complete – it's time to send home the troops: Fox News

— Black Veterans' group calls for representation at VA: POLITICO

— The Pentagon tried to bury a survey about widespread racism in the ranks: Task & Purpose

— U.S. B-52 bomber flies over Persian Gulf, in show of force against Iran: The Wall Street Journal

— Biden wants to return to the Iran deal. He can start here: The New York Times

— Biden’s U.N. nominee pressed on whether she'll take a hard line on China: POLITICO

— Beijing’s welcome gift to Biden: More threats and tensions: Foreign Policy

— Robust freedom of navigation operations must continue: The Diplomat