‘Lack of focus’ is slowing needed change at the Pentagon, a former acting SecDef says.

Coming soon: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s acquisition reform. Three days before his scheduled address to defense CEOs and acquisition officials, Valerie Insinna of Breaking Defense obtained what she says is a six-page draft memo laying out “sweeping changes to the way [the U.S. military] buys weapons and platforms.” However, since the memo was still in draft form, “It is unknown if Hegseth intends to announce these changes from the stage,” Insinna reported Tuesday morning. 

Among the changes: Hegseth wants to rename the “defense acquisition system” to the “warfighting acquisition system,” which is in line with Hegseth’s departmental rebranding strategy that congress (as required by law) has not approved or formalized. 

According to the memo, “Speed to capability delivery is now our organizing principle: the decisive factor in maintaining deterrence and warfighting advantage.” To that end, Hegseth is seeking “fewer internal review processes and new incentives both for DoD officials and industry,” Insinna writes. 

Hegseth: “The core principle of this transformation is simple: place accountable decision makers as close as possible to program execution, eliminate non value added layers of bureaucracy, and prioritize flexible trades and timely delivery at the speed of relevance,” the memo reads. 

Expert reax: With these new plans, Hegseth is effectively saying, “I want to prioritize speed,” Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute told BD. “What he’s not saying is, ‘I’m willing to accept higher costs and lower performance.’ But that is the reality, that when you prioritize one, you’re making sacrifices in one or both of the others,” said Harrison. Continue reading, here.

ICYMI: Hegseth’s past and future acquisition changes, rolled up by Breaking Defense, here. 

General Atomics has flown a second collaborative combat aircraft, according to new images released by the company on Thursday. 

Photos show two of the company’s YFQ-42A collaborative combat aircraft sitting on a runway. Another image shows one of the drone wingmen in the sky, with a different tail number than the drone wingman that took flight back in August. The reveal comes days after neoprime contractor Anduril announced it had notched its first flight, which was delayed amid software issues to make the test semi-autonomous. Both companies are competing in the Air Force’s CCA competition.

General Atomics’ first CCA flight this summer was not semi-autonomous. When asked by Defense One when General Atomics would reach that milestone, C. Mark Brinkley, a company spokesman, said “I can’t speak to the timelines on our flight tests on YFQ-42A, but this software isn’t holding us back” pointing to more than 300,000 push-button takeoffs and landings with no Class A mishaps across its fleet. “It’s like asking Michael Jordan if he can dunk,” Brinkley said. “We can dunk.” 

Related reading: “Rheinmetall closing in on multi-billion-euro ammunitions contract, CEO tells Reuters,” Reuters reported Tuesday from Berlin

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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, Tom Novelly, 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 1979, the Iran hostage crisis began. 

Around the Defense Department

When it comes to resuming U.S. nuclear weapons tests, President Trump and his energy secretary are of different minds, the New York Times reported Monday after interviews with both officials aired on TV in the past 48 hours. 

Recap: Trump announced his order to resume nuclear testing “immediately” last Wednesday. It was initially unclear if he was referring to tests of nuclear-weapons delivery systems—like ballistic missiles, e.g., or actual nuclear detonations. But he seemed to clear that up when he told CBS News in an interview that other nations “test way under—underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test. You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test and we don’t test. We have to test. And Russia did make—a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China– and China does test, and we’re gonna test also.” 

As we noted last week, Russia and China haven’t detonated nuclear weapons at all this century. Russia did it last in 1990, when it was the Soviet Union at the time; and China last tested weapons in 1996. France tested a nuclear weapon in 1996 as well. India and Pakistan conducted two tests each in 1998. And North Korea tested weapons in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016, and again in 2017. The Pentagon last detonated a nuclear weapon in 1992. 

Trump told CBS, “Doesn’t it sorta make sense? You know, you make—you make nuclear weapons, and then you don’t test. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna know if they work?”

However, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox on Sunday, “These will be non-nuclear explosions. These are just developing sophisticated systems so that our replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before.”

So, what gives? David Sanger and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the Times write, “Trump may have been referring to an ongoing, if still classified, argument within the intelligence agencies and national laboratories about whether China and Russia have conducted what amount to small tests…[But] The evidence is vague, and experts disagree on the quality of the evidence.”

Expert reax: “It makes everyone afraid when the guy in charge of America’s nuclear weapons doesn’t appear to know what he’s talking about,” Matthew Bunn, a Harvard professor focusing on nuclear weapons, told the Times. Read the rest (gift link), here. 

Brief analysis: Trump’s threat to attack Nigeria this weekend amounts to “whiplash” for recent Pentagon priorities, Reuters reported Monday. “Pentagon officials broadly expected Trump’s administration would prioritize border security, China’s growing military might and pressuring NATO allies to do more to stand up to Russia. But Trump’s announcements in the past week on everything from nuclear testing to Nigeria have caught many off guard by appearing to reshuffle Pentagon priorities,” a trio of reporters write. 

Regarding possible U.S. strikes inside Nigeria, one U.S. military official told Reuters, “I think we are all learning about this at the same time.” More, here. 

Additional reading: 

• “Marines fire entire command for Osprey squadron in Hawaii,” Military Times reported Tuesday; 
• “USS Gerald R. Ford Leaves Mediterranean Bound for U.S. Southern Command,” U.S. Naval Institute News reported Tuesday; 
• “Supreme Court weighs if contractor can be sued for wartime negligence,” Military Times reported Monday;
• And “This soldier built a side hustle on TikTok and Instagram and says it’s now paying better than the Army,” Business Insider reported Monday.  

Etc.

U.S. pitches UN on two-year mandate for Gaza security force. On Monday, officials sent a draft memo to several UN Security Council members proposing to send an international force into Gaza for at least two years, Axios reported Tuesday. 

Breaking: Israel shelled Gaza City on Tuesday, an apparent violation of the ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported.

Ukraine revamps military service to attract recruits. New York Times: “Until now, Ukrainian soldiers have served under open-ended contracts, leaving them with no control over their future. Enthusiasm for enlistment has waned, with Ukrainians fearful that indefinite duty amounts to a one-way ticket to the front line. Under the new system, both current service members and recruits will be able to sign fixed-term contracts lasting one to five years, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday night as he announced the plan.” Read about that and other changes, here.

Someone else is building fake islands in the South China Sea: Vietnam. The southeast-Asian country has piled dirt, sand, and concrete on nearly two dozen rocks and other features in a bid to forestall Chinese dominance of the strategic waterway, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Satellite images show that Vietnam has created new land on all 21 rocks and so-called low-tide elevations—reefs that were previously submerged at high tide—that it occupies in the Spratlys. That compares with China’s seven such artificial islands in the archipelago.”

Citing CSIS’s Island Tracker site, WSJ writes: “As of March, Vietnam had built more than 2,200 acres of artificial land in the South China Sea, compared with just under 4,000 acres constructed by China.” Read on, here.

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“That’s what happens when your boss disappears, and then some of your lead unicorns also disappear,” one person said.

President Donald Trump’s 60-day window for military strikes on alleged Latin American drug boats has closed, according to the legal fine print of the War Powers Resolution. If the U.S. president cannot obtain congressional approval for military action after 60 days, that law says those actions must be terminated. The Pentagon said their first such strike occurred on September 2; White House officials formally notified Congress of the strikes on September 4, which makes today day 61. 

And that’s why the White House reportedly now claims war powers restrictions do not apply to President Trump’s actions against these alleged drug traffickers. The New York Times and Washington Post both reported that new legal wrinkle over the weekend. 

As of Sunday, the U.S. military claims to have conducted 15 of these strikes, which have killed 65 people and left three survivors. NBC News reminded readers Monday, “The administration has produced no evidence supporting its allegations about the boats, their passengers, the cargo or the number of people killed, injured or surviving.”

But the White House now claims these strikes do not constitute “hostilities” as described in the War Powers Resolution. An anonymous White House official told the Post the Pentagon’s “operation comprises precise strikes conducted largely by unmanned aerial vehicles launched from naval vessels in international waters at distances too far away for the crews of the targeted vessels to endanger American personnel.” The Times calls this “an important development for the history of a law that presidents of both parties have chafed at over the past half century.” 

“A similar situation arose in 2011, when [President] Obama directed the United States to participate in a NATO-led air war over Libya that ended up lasting more than 60 days,” Charlie Savage and Julian Barnes of the Times write. “Congress had not passed a spending bill for the operation, but, for policy reasons, Mr. Obama did not want to halt or scale back American participation before the war was over.” Yet “one [White House] faction came up with a theory that Mr. Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without changes because American involvement fell short of ‘hostilities.’ Mr. Obama embraced that argument and kept going, weathering significant criticism.”

If that White House position is accepted and unchallenged by the current Congress, the implications would be “significant,” argues former State Department counsel Brian Finacune. “First, the U.S. government can continue its killing spree at sea, notwithstanding the time limits imposed by the War Powers Resolution,” Finacune wrote Monday at Just Security. Second, “The administration’s theory places a broad swath of common U.S. military action—standoff strikes with little risk to U.S. forces—outside the scope of the War Powers Resolution and its restrictions. And the White House is doing so while it postures not only for further killing at sea, but also for possible military action against Venezuela.” And “Third, this legal theory could further complicate congressional efforts to rein in unauthorized military action by this and future presidents.”

Finacune’s read: The White House’s latest “creative lawyering” in this case “is yet another legal abuse and arrogation of power by the executive. And it is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the President’s own say so,” he warns. His advice? “The legislative branch should reject the executive’s strained legal interpretation of the War Powers Resolution, including possibly in legislation. Congress should also continue efforts to halt these killings at sea and block an unlawful attack on Venezuela.” Read the rest, here. 

Developing: The U.S. military is planning operations to send troops into Mexico to fight drug cartels, NBC News reported Monday, citing current and former U.S. officials. “The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun…But a deployment to Mexico is not imminent” because “a final decision has not been made,” three NBC reporters write. 

As we discussed in a recent podcast episode on the topic, the troops would be expected to come from Joint Special Operations Command operating under Title 50 status with assistance from the CIA. According to currently-understood plans, “U.S. troops in Mexico would mainly use drone strikes to hit drug labs and cartel members and leaders,” which would “require operators to be on the ground to use them effectively and safely, the officials said.”

Also: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has forbidden military officials to discuss the boat strikes with lawmakers without prior approval, CNN reported Sunday. But that’s just one of several topics the secretary won’t let officials discuss with Congress without approval. Others include the Golden Dome program, acquisition reform, “critical munitions,” and the National Defense Strategy. 

But that’s not all. “Other topics include budget and reconciliation spending plans; critical minerals; Foreign Military Sales reform; AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; anomalous health incidents also known as ‘Havana Syndrome’; and Spectrum, which refers to the electromagnetic spectrum that underpins military operations and other key US government functions,” CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reports.  

Congressional reax: “The new rules have put a large barrier between the military & Congress,” GOP Rep. Don Bacon wrote on social media this weekend. The “Pentagon says the change is very small. But I already see the impact with military members being afraid to communicate. This is another amateur move.”

Reminder: Hegseth in February claimed on social media, “Transparency doesn’t happen on its own, and this will be the most transparent administration ever.” Meanwhile, “Hegseth, whose tenure has been beleaguered by leaks, has taken a number of steps to more tigh[t]ly control information since earlier this year, including barring most engagements between DoD personnel and think tanks, reporters, or other outside events and conferences,” Bertrand writes. More, here. 

Mapped: Visualize Trump’s possible war on Venezuela thanks to an informative multimedia presentation published Sunday by Reuters. The outlet “spoke to three U.S. military officials and three maritime experts who said the new construction in [the former Roosevelt Roads military base in Ceiba,] Puerto Rico and [the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport at St Croix in] the Virgin Islands pointed to preparations that could enable the U.S. military to carry out operations inside Venezuela.”

Related reading: 

• “US strikes on alleged drug boats violate law, UN human rights chief says,” the BBC reported Friday; 
• “As U.S. ramps up the pressure, Venezuela pleads with Moscow for help,” the Washington Post reported Friday; 
• “Billboards outside US Southern Command urge troops not to ‘break the law’ in Caribbean strikes,” Task & Purpose reported Wednesday; 
• And in a case going back to the first Trump administration, “Judge orders arrest of ex-Green Beret accused of plotting to invade Venezuela after he fails to show up in court,” CBS reported Saturday. 

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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 with 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 1783, the United States disbanded the Continental Army, one day after Gen. George Washington delivered his farewell to the troops.

Around the Defense Department

Hegseth visited the Korean DMZ before negotiations this week on the future of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, Reuters reported Monday from Seoul. Those troop talks are slated for Tuesday as “Washington is considering making the role of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea more flexible,” though it’s not clear yet exactly how that might play out. 

Back stateside, a federal judge in Oregon paused Trump’s order to send National Guard troops to Portland until at least Friday. The ruling came down Sunday evening, “which essentially extends her earlier temporary restraining order blocking President Trump from using Guard troops to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city that has been the site of daily protests since early June,” the New York Times reports. 

Notable: “The judge also said the protests outside the Portland ICE building did not amount to a rebellion,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. In her 16-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut “referenced several dictionary definitions and even cited prominent events from American history in the late 1700s, including the Whiskey Rebellion and Shays’ Rebellion, two events that saw bloodshed shortly after the nation’s founding.”

By the way: “Trump’s National Guard deployments aren’t random. They were planned years ago,” NPR reported Monday morning. 

And Black Americans in Memphis say they’re being “racially profiled and harassed” by Trump’s police task force, ProPublica reported Monday. “Among those who have reported being harassed: a ride-share driver stopped for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on as she drove a passenger to the airport; a pastor pulled over for looking lost as she left a church gathering; and, in a case of mistaken identity, a 72-year-old man roused from bed and marched out of his apartment while clad in only his robe and underwear.”

“If you’re not white, we’re just all going to be targeted,” one resident told ProPublica. 

Additional reading: 

• “Michigan lawyer says a Halloween terror plot that FBI Director Kash Patel described never existed,” the Associated Press reported Sunday; 
• And “Trump declines to rule out underground nuclear tests,” Reuters reported Friday. 

Industry

DOGE is leading the Pentagon’s overhaul of its drone program, Reuters reports, “including streamlining procurement, expand[ing] homegrown production, and acquir[ing] tens of thousands of cheap drones in the coming months, according to Pentagon officials and people with knowledge of the matter.” In June, Trump designated drones as a priority in an executive order; in July, Hegseth issued a memo saying that the Pentagon would approve the purchase of “hundreds” of drone-related products and otherwise boost drone development, manufacturing, and deployment.

DOGE’s involvement had not previously been reported, Reuters writes, citing five people with knowledge of the matter, adding that Pentagon officials “did not immediately respond to a comment request.” Read on, here.

Anduril’s drone wingman makes first flight, following software delays. The California milestone followed the August flight of rival General Atomics’ prototype for the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft competition. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has a bit more, here.

Workers stick around longer when you boost wages and give them better-qualified co-workers, nation’s largest shipbuilder finds. In April, HII announced that it would attempt to boost workforce recruiting and retention by raising wages and moving away from hiring green workers. The effort, later funded in part by a portion of the $4 billion granted by Congress to boost U.S. naval shipbuilding in July, is paying off, CEO Chris Kastner said during HII’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports, here.

Additional reading: 

• “US working overtime to speed up delayed F-16 deliveries, Taiwan says,” Reuters reported Monday from Taipei; 
• “Ukraine gets more US-made air defense systems to counter deadly Russian attacks,” AP reported Monday from Kyiv;
• And “Trump ‘not really’ considering supplying Tomahawks” to Ukraine, the Guardian reported after the president confirmed that to reporters on Air Force One Sunday. 

Etc.

Responding to apparent misinformation, Trump threatened to go to war with Nigeria in a social media post on Saturday. “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the U.S. president wrote in the afternoon. 

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” he posted, and added, “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

Context: “[R]ecent claims circulating among some U.S. right-wing circles” including West Virginia GOP Rep. Riley Moore “that as many as 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 are not supported by available data,” Reuters reports. 

What’s really taking place: “Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have wrought havoc in [Nigeria] for more than 15 years, killing thousands of people, but their attacks have been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim. While Christians have been killed, the vast majority of the victims have been Muslims,” the wire service explained Sunday. Indeed, researchers reviewed 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria in 2025, but “the number of those targeting Christians because of their religion stood at 50,” according to the crisis-monitoring group ACLED. 

Nigeria’s reax: “There is no Christian genocide,” replied Daniel Bwala, a top adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. “We don’t take [Trump’s threat] literally, because we know Donald Trump thinks well of Nigeria.”

Trump has threatened more than a half-dozen countries with military action since his second term began in January, including Canada, Panama, Denmark and Greenland, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Mexico, and now Nigeria. He has ordered actual strikes on Iran and Yemen.

Related reading: “Trump threat of military action in Nigeria prompts confusion and alarm,” the Washington Post reported Monday. 

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The Trump administration has chosen military installations inside Venezuela to attack, “and the strikes could come at any moment,” the Miami Herald reported Friday—hours after the Wall Street Journal first reported the available targeting. 

The attacks “will seek to destroy military installations used by the drug-trafficking organization the U.S. says is headed by Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and run by top members of his regime,” with the goal of “decapitat[ing] the cartel’s hierarchy,” the Herald reports. 

“If President Trump decides to move forward with airstrikes…the targets would send a clear message to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro that it is time to step down,” U.S. officials told the Journal.

Update: U.S. military officials “do not know precisely who they have killed in multiple military strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean” since the attacks began on Sept. 1, Politico reported Thursday following a classified briefing for lawmakers in the House Armed Services Committee. 

Notable: “The briefing came just one day after Democratic lawmakers were shut out of a similar closed-door Senate meeting on the boat strikes,” the New York Times reports. 

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee: “When an administration decides it can pick and choose which elected representatives get the understanding of their legal argument of why this is needed for military force and only chooses a particular party, it ignores all the checks and balances.” Read on, here.

Additional reading: “UN human rights chief says US strikes on alleged drug boats are ‘unacceptable,’” the Associated Press reported Friday. 

STRATCOM nominee takes heat hours after Trump’s nuclear-test bombshell. The morning after President Donald Trump vowed to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons,” his pick to lead U.S. Strategic Command fielded questions from senators who wondered what the president meant and what the nominee planned to do about it. Vice Adm. Richard Correll, a submariner and STRATCOM’s deputy commander, vows to give his best military advice. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports.

ICBM test planned? It appears the U.S. military is about to test an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific next week, as it does periodically, Dutch researcher Marko Langbroek flagged on social media Friday. 

New: SpaceX tipped to win $2B for Golden Dome satellites. Wall Street Journal: “The funding was included in the tax-and-spending bill that Trump signed in July, but wasn’t publicly linked to a contractor. The planned ‘air moving target indicator’ system could eventually field as many as 600 satellites,” according to “people familiar with the matter.” More, here.

Air Force: We need more money to buy the fighter jets we need. Clarifying a report sent to Congress last week, a service official said the Air Force plans to have nearly 1,400 manned tactical aircraft by 2030, about one-quarter more than the 1,160 it has today. But it would need 1,558 to achieve its missions with high confidence and low risk—a goal that would require more funding from Congress. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reports from the Thursday briefing, here.

Related: The Senate confirmed fighter pilot Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach to be the Air Force’s next chief of staff. Wilsback will replace Gen. David Allvin, who  unexpectedly announced his retirement in August, halfway through his customary four-year term. Task & Purpose reports, here.

• CNN: “Exclusive: Three-star general pushed out amid tensions with Hegseth,” reports CNN of Lt. Gen. Joe McGee, who was until recently director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Joint Staff.

Moving into generals’ houses. Political appointees Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have moved onto military bases, “where they are shielded not just from potential violence but also from protest,” the Atlantic reported on Thursday. The New York Times has more, here.

Coverage continues below…

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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 with 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 1956, the United Kingdom and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

Developing: The National Guard is scrambling to staff and train entirely new “quick reaction forces” by the end of the year, Aaron Glantz of the Guardian reported Wednesday. The effort began in earnest on October 8, when National Guard Army Maj. Gen. Ronald Burkett quietly launched the initiative, which extends from an executive order Trump signed on August 25.

This means every state is now “required to train 500 national guard members, for a total of 23,500 troops nationwide,” Glantz writes. That’s a sizable uptick from administration plans two months ago reportedly featuring just two groups of 300 troops stationed in Alabama and Arizona as a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force.”

Each state is expected to “be able to deploy a fourth of all their troops within eight hours and all of those assigned to the units within a day,” AP reported Thursday, citing the new memo. “To help with that goal, units will be provided 100 sets of crowd control equipment as well as two full-time trainers by the National Guard Bureau.” 

Since Guard troops are not trained in handling civil disturbances, they will need to attend special courses in “crowd management techniques,” “domestic civil disturbance training,” and “proper use of baton and body shields,” the memo says. 

Worth noting: It’s not yet clear exactly how these forces will be dispatched since the U.S. military is forbidden by law from conducting law enforcement activities domestically. The Trump administration has already run afoul of that 150-year-old law with its June deployments of Marines and Guard troops to help immigration enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area—an assignment later found by District Judge Charles Breyer to be in violation of U.S. law. The White House appealed that decision, which moved the case to the 9th Circuit Court.  

Historian reax: “The establishment of a domestic quick reaction force to quell civil disturbances at a time when there are no civil disturbances that can’t be handled easily by existing law enforcement suggests the administration is expecting those conditions to change,” warned Heather Cox Richardson of Boston College, writing Thursday. 

Update: Despite the government shutdown, U.S. troops will receive their  next paycheck. Newsweek reported this week “The money comes from multiple sources, including $2.5 billion redirected from the administration’s summer tax cut legislation, $1.4 billion from a military procurement account and another $1.4 billion from research and development.”

See also: “Who is Timothy Mellon, the billionaire who reportedly donated $130M to help pay troops?” via The Hill, reporting Monday. 

Additional reading: 

• “Hegseth orders the military to detail dozens of attorneys to the Justice Department” to staff offices based along the U.S. southern border or where federal immigration enforcement operations are taking place, the Associated Press reported Thursday; 
• “Meet the White House pick to conquer the ‘Valley of Death’,” Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reported Thursday regarding James Caggy, the nominee for assistant defense secretary for mission capabilities; 
• And “In reversal, DOD says troops can wear uniforms at Veterans Day events,” Military Times reported Thursday. 

Lastly this week, Ukraine isn’t just hurling attack drones; they’re waging real robot warfare, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Thursday after the release of a recent report from the London-based Royal United Services Institute. 

What’s going on: “Political developments in Washington interrupted the provision of military-technical assistance, disrupting Ukraine’s ability to coherently plan the equipping of its forces with its international partners. As a result, Ukraine doubled down on a method which delivered results and was under its control: drones,” RUSI’s Jack Watling writes. “Two dedicated UAV regiments, and two non-standard brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine…are pioneering the use of novel equipment,” as in air and ground drones.

Parallel to this, the U.S. and other European militaries are developing new battle-robot concepts around Ukraine’s experiences, Tucker reports. NATO and Ukraine recently tested new ways to counter UAVs. This effort, led by the NATO-Joint Analysis, Training And Education Centre, “aims to keep the alliance on the cutting edge and to support Ukraine,” a NATO official said. But the war in Ukraine has revealed the obsolescence of the way the large militaries of NATO members do many things, from force design to acquisitions to battlefield maneuver. Continue reading, here. 

Frontline dispatch: Ukrainian soldiers have turned their drone war with Russia into an incentivized game, the New York Times reported Friday. “Wound a Russian soldier? Eight points. Kill one? That is good for 12. A Russian drone pilot is worth more: 15 points for wounding one, and 25 points for a kill. Capturing a Russian soldier alive with the help of a drone is the jackpot: 120 points.”

How it works: “Teams compete for points to acquire Ukrainian-made gear, including basic surveillance drones and larger drones carrying powerful explosives, through an internal Amazon-style weapons store called Brave1 Market…The more points a unit gets, the better stuff it can buy, ensuring that resources are directed to the teams that best use them.” Story (gift link), here. 

For your ears only, Patrick Tucker unpacked what he learned during a recent trip to Latvia and Estonia regarding the European Union’s emerging plans for a “drone wall” to defend against an increasing number of Russian aerial incursions. Find that podcast episode on our site, at Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

And here are two leftover links we didn’t get to this week, but you might still like to read over the weekend: 

• “DNA from mass grave reveals pathogens that beset Napoleon’s army,” via Reuters reporting Monday; 
• And “WWI soldiers’ messages in a bottle found on Australian beach more than 100 years later,” AP reported Wednesday from Melbourne.

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In and around Vice Adm. Richard Correll’s confirmation hearing, senators criticized the president’s new interest in testing.

In and around Vice Adm. Richard Correll’s confirmation hearing, senators criticized the president’s new interest in testing.

Patrick Tucker explains what he learned during a recent trip to Eastern Europe.

A new RUSI report describes the broad use of air and ground robotic systems—and what they mean for NATO.

Alert: Trump wants to resume nuclear weapons tests

President Donald Trump says he’s ordered the military to begin testing nuclear weapons “immediately,” which would break a 33-year pause in U.S. and Pentagon policy going back to the end of the Cold War. 

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” the president wrote on social media Wednesday. “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years. Because of other countries[’] testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

What does “equal basis” testing mean? It’s not entirely clear, but it’s a possible reference to relatively recent Russian tests of experimental weapons like its Burevestnik nuclear-armed cruise missile or its allegedly nuclear-capable remote torpedo—both of which Putin says Russia tested (but did not detonate) this month. 

By the way, at least one open-source researcher spotted suspected recent Russian military maneuvers likely related to the Burevestnik test, and shared their findings online here. 

And in case you missed it, we flagged on Monday that “Russia continues to issue explicit nuclear threats as part of a multi-pronged effort seeking to deter continued U.S. pressure on Russia and support for Ukraine,” as analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted Sunday. 

Last time Russia and China detonated nuclear weapons? 1990 for Moscow, which was the Soviet Union at the time; and 1996 for China. France tested a nuclear weapon in 1996 as well. India and Pakistan conducted two tests each in 1998. And North Korea tested weapons in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016, and again in 2017. The Pentagon last detonated a nuclear weapon in 1992. 

Why test now? “To gather information—or to send a signal,” Reuters writes. However, the signaling element is arguably most notable in 2025, 33 years since the U.S. last conducted its own nuclear test. To do so again “would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of U.S. strategic power,” and almost certain to trigger a follow-up demonstration by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who “has repeatedly warned that if the United States resumed nuclear testing, Russia would too,” Reuters reports. 

Worth noting: Trump has authorized bomber overflights of the Venezuelan coast this month as the U.S. military adds to its troop buildup in the Caribbean Sea. That buildup already features more naval vessels than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s. Critics say it appears Trump is on the verge of authorizing a new war to oust Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. 

• For what it’s worth, Trump’s approval rating is at an all-time low, according to fresh polling data from YouGov/The Economist.

The nuclear club: China ranks third worldwide with around 600 warheads. France is next with 290, followed by the United Kingdom with 225, India with 180, Pakistan with 170, Israel is believed to have 90, and North Korea is estimated to have around 50, according to the Federation of American Scientists. 

And one other tangential development: Trump announced Wednesday that a new nuclear-powered submarine for South Korea will be built at a Korean-owned shipyard in Philadelphia. “Shipbuilding in our Country will soon be making a BIG COMEBACK. Stay tuned!!!” the president wrote in a short message on social media during his trip this week to Asia.

ICYMI: The maritime strategist to the previous Navy Secretary has thoughts on Trump’s approach to shipbuilding. Read that, here. 

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Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson with 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 1961, the Soviet Union tested the world’s most powerful nuclear weapon to date—the fusion “Tsar Bomba,” whose shockwave was so intense it circled the globe three times. 

Around the Defense Department

At least three key Republican lawmakers pushed back on a White House plan to reduce U.S. troop levels in Eastern Europe. According to Reuters reporting Wednesday, “Between 1,000 and 1,200 U.S. troops rotated out [of Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base] a month ago and will not be replaced.” 

Those troops are with the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, officials at U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced Wednesday. “This is not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5. Rather this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility,” the command said in its statement.  

“We strongly oppose the decision not to maintain the rotational U.S. brigade in Romania and the Pentagon’s process for its ongoing force posture review that may result in further drawdowns of U.S. forces from Eastern Europe,” Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a lengthy joint statement Wednesday. 

“It is concerning that Congress was not consulted in advance of this decision, particularly given the clear, bipartisan, and bicameral support for a robust U.S. posture in Europe expressed in both the House and Senate versions of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act,” the two men wrote. “The legislation also makes clear the Congressional intent that no modifications be made to the U.S. posture in Europe absent a thorough review process.” 

“This decision also sends the wrong signal to Russia at the very moment President Trump is applying pressure to force Vladimir Putin to come to the table to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine,” Rogers and Wicker warned. “The President is right that U.S. force posture in Europe needs to be updated as NATO shoulders additional burdens and the character of warfare changes. But that update must be coordinated widely both within the U.S. government and with NATO,” they added. 

“If you have to say it’s not ‘a signal of lessened commitment,’ then it probably is,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in his own statement Wednesday. “Training with allies is more extensive and less expensive than garrisoning at home. Retreating from Europe doesn’t advance deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, because Russia and China are working together to undermine us. If we’re serious about deterring them, we should be working more closely, not less, with allies and partners.”

Related: “Republican voters back sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine,” Semafor reported Thursday citing new survey results. 

Developing: Trump’s Pentagon chief wants to “overhaul” how the U.S. sells weapons to allies, Politico reported Wednesday ahead of a planned speech by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth early next month. The plan is expected to move the military’s arms-export personnel in the Defense Security Cooperation Agency from “the policy side of the building…to the acquisition and sustainment shop,” which is led by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey. 

“Defense industry groups have pushed for such a merger,” Politico writes, cautioning, “It’s unclear how the Trump administration’s expected changes would mesh with separate acquisition reform proposals in the House and Senate versions of annual defense policy legislation. A compromise bill is expected to pass before the end of the year.” More, here. 

New: Trump recently removed a rear admiral as chief of naval research and replaced him with “a 33-year-old former DOGE employee with no apparent naval experience,” the Bulwark reported Thursday. 

Out: Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus.

In: “Rachel Riley, a former partner at McKinsey & Company and Rhodes Scholar recipient who has been serving since January in a DOGE-related roles inside the Trump administration,” Joe Perticone of the Bulwark reports. More behind a subscriber wall, here. 

Developing: The Marine Corps is tweaking its Force Design 2030 plan as it enters the second half of its post-Global War on Terror transformation this month, releasing an update for 2025 after skipping 2024, Defense One’s Meghann Myers reported Wednesday. That includes putting on hold plans to stand up a third Marine Littoral Regiment, the service’s new shallow-water unit concept, which had been planned for Guam.  

Panning out: The Corps is evolving how it sees itself in more than one way, according to the Force Design update, and will codify that with a new “capstone concept.” That concept “will connect our operational ideas and state clearly what the Marine Corps provides to Naval and Joint Force: a globally responsive, lethal, and resilient combined-arms naval expeditionary force that projects power from sea to land and land to sea, fighting as a Marine Air Ground Task Force across all domains in contested environments to deter, deny, and defeat adversaries,” the update says.

Forecast: The concept is in staffing and on track to be released in a matter of months, said Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan. Read more, here. 

A new report to Congress pitching the Air Force’s 10-year fighter jet plan is missing key details and explanations, raising questions and concerns among defense experts, Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reported Wednesday. The long-term plan was ordered up by the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. This initial version was due six months ago; new editions are required every April through 2029. Defense One obtained a copy of the unclassified version of the report. 

The gist: The 24-page document details Air Force Secretary Troy Meink’s support of the interim defense strategy’s mandate “to protect the homeland, deter our adversaries, and project decisive airpower” by purchasing more F-15EXs, F-35s and F-47 aircraft. The report sets an ambitious goal of having nearly 1,400 tactical aircraft by 2030 but says the service does not have “total obligation authority” to place the necessary orders. The document also said the service needs a total of 1,558 manned tactical aircraft to “achieve low risk to resourcing, executing and sustaining combat operations.”

It’s unclear how the Air Force will reach those goals, said Todd Harrison, a defense budgeting expert at the American Enterprise Institute. He added the report didn’t include info from the Future Years Defense Program, the Pentagon’s five-year budget plan. “One thing that stood out to me is it doesn’t have actual tables in the unclassified document showing the force plans in the future,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t even show the FYDP plans.” Continue reading, here. 

And in industry developments, House Armed Services committee members are begging Boeing leaders to negotiate with 3,200 union workers and end a nearly-three-month strike at the company’s fighter jet and munitions factories in St. Louis, Novelly reported separately. 

In a letter published Wednesday, the bipartisan group of 17 HASC members also expressed alarm at reports that the company has been accelerating efforts to hire non-union workers instead. “For more than 80 days, including with the assistance of federal mediation, both sides have yet to come to terms on a new contract,” the letter said. “[W]e are concerned by recent reports that Boeing Defense has inquired on hiring permanent replacements for striking workers in manufacturing roles…we are urging both sides to come back to the table to negotiate to conclude this ongoing, disruptive strike.”

However, company leaders continued to seem unbothered by the labor dispute. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that production on Joint Direct Attack Munitions, the Air Force’s T-7A trainer, and the Navy’s MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueler continued during the strike. A Boeing spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about the Congressional letter and more details about the strike’s effects on other defense programs such as the company’s F-15EX, F/A-18, and F-47 fighter jets. Read more, here. 

Additional reading: 

• “Trump nominee at U.S. export bank withdraws amid scrutiny of Russia ties,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday; 
• “ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship,” 404 Media reported Wednesday; 
• “Camouflaging cars and swapping license plates: How agents make immigration arrests,” NPR reported Wednesday; 
• And “A Confederate statue is restored as part of Trump’s efforts to reshape how history is told,” AP reported Wednesday from Washington. 

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