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State groups, criminal crews, and hybrid operators are all using familiar IT entry points to reach systems that support industrial processes, according to the latest Operational Technology Threat Report from Trellix. The report covers attacks observed …
Possible causes include stagnating budgets and increased operations, experts said.
The House is getting close to voting on its version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, several lawmakers said Tuesday, six weeks after the fiscal year began. “It should be on the floor the beginning of the second week of December,” Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., told one of your D Brief-ers at our Acquisition Summit on Tuesday. Meanwhile, House Armed Services Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told Roll Call to expect a vote the week after Thanksgiving.
Wittman: “I think we are just about finished with all the issues involving HASC and SASC. The other issues remaining to be resolved are issues having to do with other committee jurisdictions, and those mostly are relegated to the Senate bill, so they’re trying to work through those particular issues. I think that those will hopefully be done by the end of the week, and then the bill will be in its final form.”
Meanwhile: the SASC chair has canceled confirmation votes for Alexander Velez-Green, tapped to be the Pentagon’s deputy policy chief, and Austin Dahmer, the nominee to be assistant defense secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities. Politico: “The rare move by Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to delay the votes is a hard flex from traditional Republicans in the committee’s public fight with the nominees’ boss, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby. Republican defense hawks have slammed Colby for icing Congress out of key strategic decisions.”
Conflicting accounts: The pause might also reflect Velez-Green’s and Dahmer’s performances during their confirmation hearings earlier this month, when they gave differing versions of how the U.S. came to pause arms shipments to Ukraine earlier this year.
Update: Following a judge’s order sending 200 Oregon National Guard troops home, those soldiers now must travel to Fort Hood in Texas just to “demobilize,” the Oregonian reported Tuesday. The process involves “medical and mental health screenings and administrative duties like dealing with their pay,” a Guard spokesman told the newspaper.
What’s going on: Because they were federalized by President Trump, those soldiers have no formal place in Oregon to demobilize, “so troops will travel out of state like they would when returning from an international deployment,” and “The federal government picks up that tab,” the spokesman explained.
Can quantum sensing turn magnetic navigation into a replacement for GPS? Well, not yet—but a new Pentagon contract indicates that one company might be on the right track to overcome one of the main barriers: how to know whether your quantum nav device is working. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker explains, here.
Additional reading:
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
The U.S. has designated more terrorist groups this calendar year than it did in the last 10 years combined, Patty Nieberg and Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose reported Tuesday as the White House escalates its war against drug cartels.
From 2014 to 2024, 18 groups earned the U.S. designation. Just since January, 19 groups have been added, including eight drug cartels.
Why bring it up: “[P]olitically, this administration has used these designations to pave the way for military action,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer.
But designating cartels as terrorists marks a significant break from precedent in that “[Drug cartels are] trying to sell Americans an illegal product, but they’re not targeting Americans with violence. They’re not crashing airplanes into buildings and therefore using the tools of counterterrorism are completely inappropriate,” Finacune said. “Obviously, drug overdoses, drug abuse in this country is a terrible problem, but it’s a public health problem. It’s not a military problem,” he added. Continue reading, here.
Analysis: Trump says Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro leads a drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles. But “Cartel de los Soles” is not an actual group; it’s “a figure of speech in Venezuela, dating back to the 1990s, for Venezuelan military officials corrupted by drug money,” Charlie Savage of the New York Times reports, citing regional specialists, think tankers, and former Drug Enforcement Administration officials.
Related reading: “Can Venezuela Count on Any Allies to Help if the U.S. Attacks?” the Times reported separately on Tuesday.
Developing: A U.S. contractor is reportedly recruiting LinkedIn users to “physically track immigrants for ICE” at a cost of about $300 each, 404 Media reported Tuesday.
And in Minnesota, an ICE agent was among 16 men arrested in a sex trafficking sting, CBS News reported Tuesday. “When he was arrested, he said, ‘I’m ICE, boys,’” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said at a press conference Tuesday. “Well, unfortunately for him, we locked him up.”
As ICE enforcement expands from Charlotte to other cities in North Carolina, New Orleans and New York may be next, CNN and The Hill reported Wednesday morning.
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After two failed summits with Russia’s leader, the Trump administration is reportedly drafting a new, “28-point plan” to end Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion, Axios reported late Tuesday. “The plan’s 28 points fall into four general buckets, sources tell Axios: peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine. It’s unclear how the plan approaches contentious issues such as territorial control in eastern Ukraine—where Russian forces have been inching forward, but still control far less land than the Kremlin has demanded.”
The effort is being led by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who discussed it extensively with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who runs Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, visited Miami on Oct. 24-26, a U.S. official said. “Dmitriev expressed optimism about the deal’s chances of success because, unlike past efforts, ‘we feel the Russian position is really being heard’,” Axios wrote, here.
U.S. Army leaders in Kyiv: As part of the effort, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George are in Ukraine this morning, the Wall Street Journal first reported. They are “on a fact finding mission to meet with Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war,” Army Spokesperson Col. Dave Butler told CNN in a statement.
European defense stocks fell 3% on the news, Reuters reported on Wednesday afternoon Berlin time.
Another likely Russian drone entered NATO airspace, this time over Romania, ABC News reports.
That took place during overnight Russian attacks on Ukraine that killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 70 others
Developing: The U.S. is on the verge of selling Ukraine an upgrade package (not new launchers) for Patriot air defense systems totalling about $105 million. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency has a few more details, here.
And lastly, in commentary: Don’t leave Lithuania, Luke Coffey of the Hudson Institute argues, writing Tuesday for Defense One. The Pentagon’s Global Posture Review is months behind schedule, but several senior officials are signaling their desire to reduce U.S. troop deployments around the globe. Coffey argues that the Baltic country is too geographically vulnerable and strategically important to reduce the rotational deployment of U.S. forces there.
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In this Help Net Security video, Jon Taylor, Director and Principal of Security at Versa Networks, talks about how organizations can deal with security tool sprawl. He explains why many teams end up with too many tools, especially as zero trust introdu…
Princeton University has confirmed a breach of its Advancement database and is urging vigilance as investigators assess the exposed information.
The post Princeton University Confirms Data Breach Affecting Advancement Records appeared first on eSecurity Planet.
WhatsApp scammers are using screen sharing and malware to rapidly steal accounts and money worldwide.
The post WhatsApp Screen-Sharing Scam Drains $700K in Minutes appeared first on eSecurity Planet.
President Trump suggested he would be okay ordering U.S. military strikes inside Mexico and Colombia as part of his administration’s ostensible war against fentanyl and cocaine, he told reporters Monday at the White House.
“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” he said inside the Oval Office. “Colombia is—has cocaine factories, where they make cocaine. Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do it, personally.” NBC News and Bloomberg have a bit more.
Update: The U.S. Navy’s Caribbean Sea build-up now features at least a dozen ships, including the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which arrived in the region over the weekend, Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post wrote on social media Monday. Other vessels include the guided missile destroyers Mahan, Bainbridge, Winston S. Churchill, Stockdale and Gravely; the guided missile cruisers Lake Erie and Gettysburg; the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima; amphibious transport dock ships Fort Lauderdale and San Antonio; and the littoral combat ship Wichita.
Developing: The State Department says it will designate Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization beginning next Monday, CBS News reports. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio allege the cartel is run by Venezuelan dictator and President Nicolás Maduro. CBS reports the group “is not known to be a traditional, hierarchical drug cartel like the Sinaloa or Tren de Aragua,” and that “The term is instead generally used to describe a loose, decentralized network of military and government officials within the Venezuelan state who are alleged to be involved in the illegal drug trade.”
After the announcement, Trump told reporters Sunday evening, “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out. They would like to talk.” Trump repeated that somewhat on Monday when he said, “At a certain period of time, I’ll be talking to [Maduro],” but he did not elaborate.
Related: Maduro said Monday he’s ready to speak “face to face” with anyone in the U.S. “who wants to talk to Venezuela,” Agence France-Presse reported.
And despite its coziness with the Trump administration, Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister told AFP the country would not let the U.S. military use its soil to launch attacks on Venezuela. “The US has NEVER requested use of our territory to launch any attacks against the people of Venezuela,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told AFP in a message, adding, “Trinidad and Tobago will not participate in any act that could harm the Venezuelan people.”
Big-picture consideration: The New York Times explores “The ‘Donroe Doctrine’: Trump’s Bid to Control the Western Hemisphere,” reporting Monday.
Developing: A Tennessee state judge temporarily blocked Trump’s National Guard deployment to Memphis, saying it appears to violate the state’s militia law, which instructs local lawmakers to call in such soldiers for matters of public safety.
Background: Memphis is one of several U.S. cities to which Trump has sent the National Guard, departing from norms against deploying troops on U.S. soil,” Reuters explains. “Trump has said they are needed to suppress civil unrest, support immigration enforcement and fight crime. Democrats have accused the Republican president of abusing military powers meant for grave emergencies such as an invasion.”
The judge gave Trump officials five days to file an appeal, declaring Memphis crime rates—while among the top 10 in the nation—still do not constitute the “grave emergency” or “disaster” required to call in the National Guard, according to Tennessee’s state constitution. The Associated Press has a bit more.
Additional reading: “New York Officials to Team Up With Wall Street to Keep National Guard Out,” the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1978, the F/A-18 Hornet flew for the first time.
Happening today: Defense One’s State of Defense Business Acquisition Summit, with several panel discussions and featured guests scheduled between 1–5 pm ET, with a networking lunch beginning at noon.
Location: The River Birch Ballroom at the Westin Washington D.C Downtown (999 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001).
Guests include Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces. We’ll also hear from top officials at ScaleAI, Shield AI, HII, Anduril, Slingshot Aerospace, Oracle, Lockheed Martin and more. Panels discussions will span autonomy, U.S. munitions stockpiles, the future of the defense industrial base and more.
Registration and additional details, here.
Trump: U.S. will sell F-35s to Saudis, despite Pentagon concerns that the jet’s secrets might leak to China. New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s announcement came on the eve of a White House visit from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, during his first trip to the United States in more than seven years. Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, and U.S. officials are expected to discuss a Saudi purchase of 48 of the fighter jets and a potential mutual defense agreement.” Read on, here.
The president’s insistence on the sale comes as his company pursues business deals in Saudi Arabia. Axios has the latest roundup of the Trump family’s pursuit of wealth in foreign lands, which continues to present unprecedented conflicts of interest. Read that, here.
The “mixing of politics and profitmaking during President Trump’s second term has shattered American norms, shocking scholars who study ethics and corruption,” the Times writes in a separate article.
The pilot of an F-22 recently controlled a drone wingman in flight. The pilot used a tablet to control a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger over the Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range, according to Monday statements from General Atomics and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works; L3Harris was also part of the demonstration. The flight, apparently the first of its kind with an F-22, took place in October. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has a bit more, here.
France, Germany are talking about scrapping their plans to jointly build a fighter jet, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Instead, they might focus on a command-and-control system, Reuters writes off the FT report.
Europe hunts for ways to speed up defense innovation, production. Early next year, the EU Commission says it will “air a proposal” for a “pilot initiative that will allow companies to test and refine new technologies, aiming to turn projects into defence products ready for sale quicker,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Also in the works: Proposals for “ways for different member countries to recognise each other’s certifications for defence technologies, help companies access EU research facilities and encourage EU member governments to allocate at least 10% of arms budgets to emerging and disruptive technologies, according to the draft roadmap.” Read more, here.
France promises Ukraine 100 new Rafale warplanes, plus air defence systems, munitions and drones. On Monday, the presidents of France and Ukraine signed a letter of intent for the transfer of the arms; an actual purchase deal is planned later. The countries aim to finance the deal “with EU programmes and the planned use of frozen Russian assets, which the EU still has to agree,” Reuters reported.
Background: “The announcement comes after a surge of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, and Moscow’s reports of ground advances in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region,” Reuters wrote, here.
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U.S. national security requires three deployed ARG/MEUs, Marine Corps commandant argues in Defense One. That’s Amphibious Ready Groups and Marine Expeditionary Units, like the one built around the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima that has been sailing in the Caribbean since August.
Once the United States could keep three such groups at sea, ready to respond to conflict or other need, Gen. Eric Smith writes. “But as the nation focused on extended land campaigns in the Middle East, the amphibious fleet was deprioritized. By 1997, that number had dropped to 40, and by 2016 it stood at just 31. Today the amphibious fleet has 32 ships whose average readiness hovers around 45 percent. Shipyards are strained, timelines are slipping, and hulls are aging faster than we can replace them.
“Sustaining a 3.0 ARG/MEU presence will require 31 amphibious ships at 80 percent readiness. The recent LHA/LPD block buy was a step in the right direction, but we must continue to build on this momentum.” Read how, here.
Developing: Former U.S. military bases in Panama and Puerto Rico are returning to service as the Trump administration eyes possible military action in Venezuela amid its new war on alleged drug trafficking-boats around Latin America, Task & Purpose reported Friday.
This includes Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico and Fort Sherman in Panama. If these sound familiar, Reuters mapped the ongoing U.S. military build-up in the region in a special report published two weeks ago, here.
Update: The Pentagon wanted to stage at an old base in Ecuador but voters there rejected the proposal on Sunday, AP reports from Quito—calling the decision “a significant defeat for President Daniel Noboa, a conservative who is closely aligned with the Trump administration.”
Also: The Pentagon says it killed three more people it claims were trafficking drugs on Saturday. Like nearly all the other U.S. attacks since September, this strike hit a small boat traveling off the coast of Latin America—this time on the Pacific side. That makes 21 known strikes that have killed at least 83 people.
ICYMI: American Marines in Haiti exchanged gunfire with suspected gang members near the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
The Marines returned fire; none were harmed in the incident, a spokesman for the service told the Associated Press in a very brief follow-up.
Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1856, the U.S. Army established a post called Fort Buchanan in southern Arizona to control new land acquired from Mexico two years earlier. The fort was officially abandoned five years later.
Army unveils its own acquisition reform. Among other moves, it’s “gathering up the many offices that weigh in on requirements and stacking them under a new program office structure,” Defense One’s Meghann Myers reported on Friday. The previous dozen Program Executive Offices will be compressed under six Portfolio Acquisition Executives (Fires; Maneuver Ground; Maneuver Air; Command and Control and Counter Command and Control; Agile Sustainment and Ammo; and Layered Protection and Chemical, Biology, Radiological and Nuclear Defense). Read on, here.
One-stop shopping for counter-drone gear? That’s what the Army’s-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401 is working on as it pushes to improve the military’s counter-drone defenses. Myers reports on that and other steps, here.
B-21, ICBM construction projects. The deal that reopened the government included some $850 million for 11 construction projects related to the Air Force’s nascent strategic bomber and its under-development ICBM, Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reported on Friday. Learn what and where, here.
Update: Changing the Defense Department’s name to the War Department could cost as much as $2 billion, NBC News reported Wednesday, noting this “estimate for renaming the Pentagon comes as Trump has promised to cut back on federal spending.”
For the record, changing the actual name of the department requires an act of Congress. And while it is true that President Trump has ordered the executive branch to refer to the Defense Department as the “War Department” and to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “Secretary of War,” Trump’s Sept. 5 executive order does not formally change the name of the department.
Trump’s own order acknowledges this, saying: “The Secretary of Defense is authorized the use of this additional secondary title—the Secretary of War—and may be recognized by that title in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch.”
Changing “New department letterhead and signage alone could cost about $1 billion,” NBC reports. But “rewriting digital code for all of the department’s internal and external facing websites, as well as other computer software on classified and unclassified systems” could cost more, four senior congressional staffers said.
Survey: Do you approve of DoD to DoW name change? Overall 54% opposed while just 22% supported, with the rest undecided, according to a survey of 2,542 people by political scientists Don Casler and Robert Ralston. Only 42% of Republicans overall expressed support for the name change, they said. More, here.
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Update: The Pentagon pulled hundreds of National Guard soldiers from Chicago and Portland beginning this weekend, ABC News reported Saturday. That includes 200 federalized California Guard soldiers in Portland and 200 more Texas troops sent to Chicago early last month.
Northern Command officials teased the reductions in a vague social media post Friday night, writing, “in the coming days, the Department will be shifting and/or rightsizing our Title 10 footprint in Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago to ensure a constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city.” That leaves around 300 activated Illinois Guard soldiers on standby for Chicago, and another 100 Oregon Guard troops will stay near Portland, the New York Times reported Sunday.
“While they deployed to the two cities, the troops never carried out operations because of several legal rulings that placed a hold on their deployment,” ABC explains. A federal judge in Portland blocked the Guard from deploying to the city after protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility led the president to declare Portland a “war-ravaged” combat zone. The judge disagreed. Meanwhile in Illinois, an appeals court upheld a federal judge’s temporary restraining order blocking those Guard troops from deploying to Chicago. That decision has now moved to the Supreme Court.
By the way: Less than 3% of the 600-plus people arrested during DHS’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago had criminal histories, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday, citing Justice Department statistics.
Related reading: “Immigration crackdown inspires uniquely Chicago pushback that’s now a model for other cities,” AP reported Sunday.
The Border Patrol arrested 81 people on its first day of a new immigration crackdown in Charlotte, North Carolina, Reuters reported Monday. Homeland Security officials surged to the city, arresting most of those over a five-hour span Saturday in an effort dubbed “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” NPR has a short history of naming such operations, here.
Related reading: “Homeland Security Missions Falter Amid Focus on Deportations,” five writers for the New York Times reported Sunday in a big-picture analysis.
Developing: Energy Department officials want to “tamp down Trump’s idea of explosive nuclear testing,” and they could have that conversation with National Security Council officials quite soon, CNN reported Friday.
The gist: “Energy Secretary Chris Wright, National Nuclear Security Administration leader Brandon M. Williams and officials from the US National Laboratories are planning to inform the White House that they do not think blowing up weapons for nuclear warhead testing, as Trump suggested last month, is tenable,” CNN reported citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Happening today: Trump welcomes Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to the White House for talks about AI and nuclear energy, Reuters reports. AP, the New York Times and Fox have more.
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The Army-led effort is also working on policy for buying and deploying C-UAS systems stateside.
The U.S. military’s war on drugs in Latin America has a (borrowed) name. “Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted Thursday. “Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood—and we will protect it.”
Hegseth made the announcement on social media; he hasn’t held a press conference since late June.
And the Pentagon’s 20th known boat strike killed four more people on Wednesday, raising the death toll in these U.S. attacks to at least 80 people, CBS News reported.
ICYMI: To date, “U.S. officials have not provided specific evidence that the vessels were smuggling drugs or posed a threat to the United States” on any of the 20 known strikes, CBS reminds readers. And U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said this week there are “strong indications” of “extrajudicial killings” in the Pentagon’s boat attacks.
“From what we know, these instances violate international human rights law,” he told French media.
Notable: It wasn’t immediately clear how Hegseth’s announcement relates to the pre-existing Operation Southern Spear, an effort to “operationalize” the use of aerial and seaborne drones that the Navy’s 4th Fleet began running in the region in January.
A widening window into the White House’s legal decision-making process is emerging after more reporting Thursday from Charlie Savage of the New York Times, who has been tracking the development of a secret memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
The memo declared “extrajudicial killings of people suspected of running drugs were lawful as a matter of Mr. Trump’s wartime powers,” which Savage reports “contradicts a broad range of critics, who have rejected the idea that there is any armed conflict and have accused Mr. Trump of illegally ordering the military to commit murders.”
The conclusion of the memo also “offers potential legal defenses if a prosecutor were to charge administration officials or troops for involvement in the killings. Everyone in the chain of command who follows orders that comply with the laws of war has battlefield immunity, the memo says, because it is an armed conflict,” the Times reports.
Expert reax: “It would be difficult to establish that the cargo on these vessels was a military objective under the law of war because there is no obvious connection between a shipment of drugs and military action by these supposed groups,” said former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane.
Another seemingly confusing wrinkle: “Despite concluding that an armed conflict is underway, the memo also says the operation is not covered by the War Powers Resolution,” Savage writes. Continue reading (gift link), here.
New: Just 29% of Americans support the U.S. military killing drug suspects without the involvement of a court or judge, according to survey results from Reuters/Ipsos published Friday.
More than half openly opposed the killings (51%), including 27% of Republicans polled in a survey of 1,200 adults that concluded this week.
Less than half supported designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (47%), including 75% of Republicans compared to just 22% of Democrats surveyed.
And starting a war to depose Venezuela’s leader? Just 21% of Americans supported it versus 47% opposed—including 49% of voters who said they are not aligned with the GOP or Democrats. Read the rest, here.
Additional reading: “Family of Fisherman Killed in U.S. Military Strike Says It Wants Justice,” the New York Times reported Thursday from Colombia.
Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1969, NASA launched Apollo 12, its second moon-landing mission.
Boeing Defense workers have approved a new contract, ending a strike that idled fighter-jet and weapons production in St. Louis for three months. “The roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 voted 68% in favor of approving the five-year contract. They will start returning to work as early as Sunday,” Reuters reported on Thursday. The New York Times also has a report, here.
Anduril says it will build an autonomous vessel prototype in Korea. It’ll be the first fruit of a partnership with shipbuilding tidal HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and is intended to lead to subsequent vessels built at the former Foss Shipyard in Seattle, Wash., the company said. The goal is to have infrastructure in place to compete for the Navy’s Modular Attack Surface Craft, or MASC, program, a combination of the service’s previous large and medium unmanned surface vessel programs. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports, here.
Related: See “How American and Chinese Drone Arsenals Stack Up,” via the Wall Street Journal reporting Friday.
Blue Origin’s giant reusable rocket matches SpaceX’s landing on second flight. Ten months after missing its “stretch goal” of sticking the landing in its maiden flight, the heavylift New Glenn booster touched down safely on a landing ship Thursday after launching a probe toward Mars. “I think New Glenn is the most promising competitor for SpaceX right now because it is the only other medium/heavy-lift launcher with reusability. ULA’s Vulcan and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 missed the boat on reusability and have no real chance at being cost-competitive,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Defense One in January. Space-dot-com has more, here.
Fresh possible U.S. arms sales include the first batch of assistance to Taiwan since Trump took office in January. That pending sale includes “spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, and repair and return support for F-16, C-130, and Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft” for about $330 million, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Thursday.
And in a smaller package intended for Iraq, the U.S. is on the verge of selling Baghdad an array of communications equipment for a “country-wide repeater system” totalling about $100 million. DSCA has details. Congress could object to either of these packages, though that prospect seems unlikely.
It’s now been a week since SecDef Hegseth announced his arms procurement makeover from the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington. “Move faster and invest more—or we just might make you,” was how Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams characterized his effort.
Second opinion: “There’s nothing remotely transformative about this strategy. The admin is simply fulfilling arms industry demands for bigger, longer contracts, reduced weapons testing, and the ability to determine contract prices. Of course, they’re justifying it all by fearmongering on China,” says Julia Gledhill of the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank, writing Thursday on social media. “The result will be unfettered weapons development and production—regardless of need, cost, or reliability. Hard to imagine how military contractors could tighten their grip on USA, Inc… but here we are,” she added.
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Developing: Trump’s State Department says four left-wing groups in Europe are anti-fascist “foreign terrorist organizations.” The groups span Germany, Italy and Greece, and State Secretary Marco Rubio said Thursday he plans to announce the terrorist designations sometime next week.
Rubio: “Groups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, ‘anti-capitalism,’ and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The groups include Germany-based “Antifa Ost,” two organizations from Greece—Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense—and one out of Italy the State Department refers to as the “Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front.”
By the way: Antifa Ost—Antifa east, in German—is “not a formal organization but a label used by German police, intelligence services, and media to describe a cluster of more militant anti-fascist activists in eastern Germany,” extremism researcher Amarnath Amarasingam noted on social media Thursday.
The designations come at least partly in response to physical attacks against neo-Nazis in Germany, including this 2023 Dresden court case involving beatings of far-right extremists using clubs and hammers. The other three groups have carried out select attacks over the past two years that have included explosive devices, but those did not result in injuries, Reuters reports.
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