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— The Pentagon’s extremist problem looms ever larger, as the list of Capitol rioters with military ties grows.

— The debate over retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin’s waiver for the top DoD spot kicks off today with a hearing on civilian control of the military.

— Northrop Grumman has paused its political donations to lawmakers after last week’s Capitol attack.

IT’S TUESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where 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.

WAIVER WARS BEGIN: The deliberations begin today over whether to grant a special waiver to Austin to serve as Defense secretary, with testimony this morning from experts on civilian control of the armed forces before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Appearing before the panel: Lindsay Cohn, a professor at the Naval War College who studies civil-military relations, and Kathleen McInnis, a specialist at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

We don’t expect them to advise senators how they should vote. But McInnis could urge them to give the decision more serious attention. She noted in a report last week that “a school of thought suggests the process for considering a recently retired military officer for the position of Secretary of Defense is just as important — if not more so — than the appointment itself.”

She added: “Some might maintain that the vibrancy of the public debate surrounding Austin’s proposed nomination is an indication that the norm of civilian control of the military remains healthy.”

The Senate panel is also scheduled to hold its traditional confirmation hearing for Austin on Jan. 19, two days before the House Armed Services Committee hears from him on the waiver. Austin can gain Senate confirmation only if both chambers approve the waiver, which would be the second in four years but only the third in history.

Lawmakers in both parties, including a number of Republicans on the House panel, have reservations about granting the waiver, which is required for retirees who have not been out of uniform for at least seven years.

MILLER MAKING DOMESTIC SWING: Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller is traveling to the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Space Command and U.S. Northern Command in Colorado.

He’s making several other stops: The National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; the Tennessee National Guard; and Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

CALLING IN THE CAVALRY: Amid warnings from the FBI of more armed protests by Trump supporters around the nation and the potential of a “huge uprising” if he is removed from office early, thousands more National Guard troops are being called to duty in the nation’s capital, our colleague Lara Seligman reports.

Up to 15,000 troops from across the country will deploy to D.C., ahead of the inauguration, Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters on Monday. About 6,200 Guardsmen have already deployed following the Capitol siege last week. That will swell to 10,000 by Saturday, with another 5,000 authorized.

It’s unclear whether some or all of the Guardsmen will be armed, or outfitted with riot gear, but the Guard is looking closely at the possibility, Hokanson said.

‘IT WAS BIZARRE’: “As pro-Trump rioters besieged the Capitol complex last week, leading to five deaths and scores of injuries, hundreds of members of the D.C. National Guard — with easy access to body armor, shields and helmets — sat on the sidelines around the city, unable to act,” Seligman and POLITICO’s Natasha Bertrand report.

“In conversations with POLITICO on Monday, five of the National Guardsmen on duty last week expressed frustration and disbelief with how the events unfolded, emphasizing that they were ready and willing to support the Capitol Police before they were overwhelmed by a mob armed with metal pipes, fire extinguishers, and American flags,” they report.

As one Guardsmen described the scene: “It was bizarre watching live streams of your country being [be]sieged — especially when in a unit called ‘Capital Guardians’ — and having to sit there just mere blocks away from the Capitol and being told to watch traffic instead.”

Related: 6 times the military was called in to quell civilian uprisings, via Military.com.

‘A CRISIS ISSUE’: The Pentagon is confronting a resurgence of white supremacy and other right-wing ideologies in the ranks and is scrambling to track how acute the problem has become in the Trump era, your Morning D correspondent reports.

“There is a crisis issue: the rise of extremism and white supremacy in the ranks,” said Rep. Jason Crow, a retired Army officer and member of the House Armed Services Committee. “That has been fueled by President [Donald] Trump, unfortunately. So that has to be dealt with right away and unequivocally. That’s top of the list.”

The overall problem of right-wing extremism has dogged the military for decades and tends to be more severe when there is a rise in wider society. But it has gained new attention following the revelation that multiple former military personnel took part in the deadly riot and have espoused far-right and QAnon conspiracies.

In another sign of the challenge, the Army on Monday announced it was ousting a junior officer who was investigated for posting a video to his 3 million TikTok followers joking about Jews being exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.

The concerns about extremist influences also extended to the new Guard deployment. Crow has requested Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy enlist the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division to review the backgrounds of all troops who will be deployed at President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week “to ensure that deployed members are not sympathetic to domestic terrorists,” his office said in a statement.

INVESTIGATING THE ‘COUP ATTEMPT’: Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Monday also asked the Pentagon to probe allegations that troops and veterans participated in the Capitol attack, Seligman and POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien report.

"If accurate, it would be a disgraceful insult to the vast majority of servicemembers who honorably serve our Nation in accordance with the core values of their respective Services," the Illinois Democrat and Iraq War veteran wrote in a letter to Miller, calling the attack a “coup attempt.”

Related: Army investigating officer Emily Rainey who led a group to D.C. rally ahead of Capitol riots, via Fox News.

And: How many troops were involved in the Capitol riot? Figuring that out won’t be easy, via Military Times.

Plus: How the military could bring retirees back to face charges after the Capitol riot, via The Washington Post.

‘EVALUATING THE WAY FORWARD’: “Northrop Grumman is halting political contributions in the wake of Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, becoming the first of the nation's top defense companies to do so,” our colleague Jacqueline Feldscher reports.

“We are pausing political action committee giving and evaluating the way forward,” spokesperson Tim Paynter said on Monday.

The decision comes after many large companies, including Ford and Microsoft, announced Monday that they were stopping all donations to political action committees after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday in a confrontation that killed five people, Fortune reported.

‘SHRUG OF THE SHOULDERS’: Defense contractors are not worried that Democrats controlling both houses of Congress presents any major new threat to their bottom lines, in part because officials have been preparing for months to face flattened budgets regardless of which party is in control, Feldscher reports.

“It’s a bit of a shrug of the shoulders,” said Wes Hallman, senior vice president of strategy and policy at the National Defense Industrial Association, when asked what he’s hearing from the advocacy group’s members. “It’s such a closely divided Congress that it really doesn’t sway much.”

If the past is prologue, the defense industry should be spared from the worst cuts. Multiple industry officials pointed to previous attempts to cut the defense budget that were blocked by wide margins as evidence that the Democrats’ slim majority is unlikely to make a big impact on defense budgets.

But they might be wise to worry about incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez, who as Defense News points out, is a foe of Trump’s Mideast arms sales.

‘IN A FEW WEEKS’: The Navy wants a quarter of its fleet to be unmanned vessels within a decade and a half and plans to release a plan “in just a few weeks,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said Monday, Feldscher also reports.

“Our unmanned campaign plan, which will be released publicly in just a few weeks, explains our taking those programs ... in the air, on the sea and under the sea together to try to get us to a point by the end of the decade where we can scale and potentially … within 10 to 15 years have a quarter of the fleet be comprised of unmanned vehicles,” Gilday told the Surface Navy Association.

Gilday on Monday also released his 2021 NAVPLAN to compete with Russia and China. “Today, China and Russia are undermining the free and open conditions at sea that have benefited so many for so long,” the introduction says. “Optimism that they might become responsible partners has given way to recognition that they are determined rivals.”

Related: Unclear on unmanned, Pt. 2: On Capitol Hill, the US Navy has a credibility problem, via Defense News.

Chris Bigelow, former deputy staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, has been named clerk of the committee by Chair Rosa DeLauro.

— Chad Wolf steps down as acting secretary of homeland security: POLITICO

— For CIA director, Biden taps veteran diplomat William Burns: POLITICO

— Former US ambassador to the UAE under Obama joining Biden’s National Security Council: Vox

— Reps. Moulton and Banks: The future of defense is in public-private partnerships, via Defense News

— Pentagon presses ahead with Afghanistan troop drawdown despite law barring it: Reuters

— Trump administration to name Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism: The Washington Post

— ‘Stop F—ing lying’: Congress, Trump officials in heated exchange over terrorism designations: Foreign Policy

— Update on Natanz: Construction progresses towards large-scale tunnel complex: Institute for Science and International Security

— Why the Pentagon remains a battlefield for women: Foreign Policy

— LISTEN: How arms control keep us safe: War on the Rocks

— White House postpones Medal of Honor for Alwyn Cashe until after the inauguration, via Task & Purpose

— Trump’s lingering menace: The New York Review of Books