| THE TOPLINE: The Pentagon on Thursday had few details to share regarding President Trump's plan to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. Open questions: Officials would not say whether Trump's newly signed proclamation late Wednesday would be paid for with Defense Department dollars. Pentagon officials have long stressed that those dollars are needed for military readiness. Details were also scarce as to how the Pentagon will support the plan, which is intended to address a "surge of illegal activity" along the border, according to administration officials. Chief spokeswoman Dana White also could not say when or how many troops would be deployed, did not have cost estimates for the endeavor and didn't say whether state or federal dollars would be used. White also could not say whether guardsmen would be armed or if they will perform patrols with border security agents, adding that the new support cell will help answer such questions. What we do know: White told reporters that the Pentagon is establishing a new Border Security Support Cell, led by Kenneth Rapuano, the assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and global security. The cell will be made up of several Department of Defense representatives who will serve as the back-and-forth coordination between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is leading Trump's charge, and "will last for the foreseeable future," White said. She added that the National Guard's efforts at the border will "act in support of border patrol agents who are performing law enforcement duties," and will include aviation, engineering, surveillance, communications and vehicle maintenance. PLANES GROUNDED AFTER CRASHES: U.S. air operations in Djibouti are on hold and an ongoing military exercise in the country has been canceled following two aircraft crashes there in a day, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command announced Thursday. The flight operations were halted in agreement with the Djiboutian government, while the exercise was canceled at the discretion of the U.S. commander, Joint Staff Director Kenneth McKenzie added during a Pentagon briefing. "It is not unusual," McKenzie said. "You want to step back, take a look, make sure, for reasons that have been amply brought out in the back and forth here, that you're not doing something wrong as your aircraft fly. So that's just a reasonable precaution by the commander on the ground to make sure that we're not doing something that we can fix." Djibouti is home to the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa. The base, Camp Lemonnier, holds about 4,000 U.S. troops and serves as a launch point for operations in Somalia and Yemen. What caused the groundings: On Tuesday afternoon local time, an AV-8B Harrier jet from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit crashed at Djibouti Ambouli International Airport. The pilot ejected and was evaluated and released by the expeditionary medical facility at Camp Lemonnier, according to the Navy. Hours later, a Marine CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter from the same unit suffered structural damage during a landing at an approved exercise landing zone at Arta Beach, Djibouti. The aircrew was not injured, while the helicopter remains at the landing site pending more assessment, officials said. But don't call it a 'crisis': McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon that he would avoid calling the string of crashes a "crisis." "Those are missteps that occurred we're going to look at each one in turn," he said. "Each one is tragic. I'm certainly not prepared to say that it's a wave of mishaps or some form of crisis?." SAUDI ARABIA GETTING $1.3B IN US ARTILLERY: The State Department has approved selling Saudi Arabia $1.31 billion worth of artillery and supporting equipment, a Pentagon agency announced Thursday. "This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of an important partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a notice published Thursday. "This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force's (RSLF) interoperability with U.S. forces and conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization." The potential sale includes 180 155 mm M109A5/A6 medium self-propelled howitzer structures for conversion to 177 155 mm M109A6 Paladin medium self-propelled howitzer systems. Timeline: The agency notified Congress of the sale Thursday, setting off a 30-day clock for lawmakers to block the sale if they so choose. Key takeaway: Arms sales to Saudi Arabia have been controversial in recent years due to mounting civilian causalities in the Yemen civil war. Saudi Arabia is leading the military coalition supporting the internationally recognized government and has been blamed for the majority of the civilian casualties. AMAZON COMPETES FOR LUCRATIVE PENTAGON CONTRACT: The Trump administration is considering whether to award Amazon a multibillion-dollar defense contract even as President Trump takes public shots at the company. What's at stake: The Department of Defense (DOD) is finalizing the details of the contract during a public comment period, but has signaled that it will ask a single source to develop a new department-wide cloud computing system. Why everyone in tech is watching: Defense officials are widely expected to award the company the multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract early next month. But many of Amazon's rivals believe the bidding process is unfairly biased in favor of the company. The big question: What will Trump do? It’s not clear how much attention Trump has given to the Pentagon contract, but he appears to at least be aware of it. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Safra Catz, the co-chief executive of Oracle, complained to Trump about the bidding process during a private dinner Tuesday evening. Oracle is also competing for the deal. Trump did not suggest to Catz that he would intervene, according to Bloomberg. Ali Breland has the rest of the story here. 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