threats

The D Brief: Two mass shootings; Troops to Portland?; Trump to join Hegseth-brass confab; Arrested by ICE for “how they look”; And a bit more.

Two Marine veterans killed seven people and wounded 13 others in separate mass shootings just hours apart in Michigan and North Carolina over the weekend. 

A possible motive still eludes investigators in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where at about 10:30 a.m. ET Sunday an attacker drove his pickup truck—with two American flags raised in the bed—into a Mormon church before opening fire with an assault rifle and setting a portion of the building on fire, Police Chief William Renye told reporters Sunday. 

The shooter was a 40-year-old former Marine sergeant who served from 2004 to 2008, with a year spent deployed to Iraq, according to the Detroit News. Police quickly responded, eventually shooting and killing the attacker in the church parking lot, but not before he had killed four people and wounded eight others.

Notable: The Michigan shooter can be seen wearing a camouflage Trump 2020 campaign shirt that says “Make liberals cry again” in a 2019 photograph posted to Facebook USA Today reports. He’d also allegedly “signed two political petitions, one to repeal Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID mandates and one to outlaw abortion in the state,” local outlet Bridge Michigan reported Sunday. 

The North Carolina attacker was also a 40-year-old former Marine sergeant who lived nearby and had been wounded while serving in Iraq. Using an assault rifle from his boat, he opened fire at a dockside bar in Southport, south of Wilmington, at about 9:30 p.m. local, killing three people and wounding at least five others. Whereas the Michigan shooter reportedly had no known police record and was awarded a Good Conduct medal while a Marine, the North Carolina shooter was known to police after filing several lawsuits this year against the Department of Veterans Affairs and the local county sheriff’s office. 

Coast Guard officials arrested him while attempting to retrieve his boat from the water roughly 12 miles from the where the shooting occurred. He’s been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, the New York Times reports. 

A motive eludes investigators in Southport as well. However: “Injured in the line of duty is what he’s saying. He suffers from PTSD. We want to point those facts out,” Police Chief Todd Coring told reporters Sunday. Marine Corps officials say the shooter served from 2003 to 2009, including two deployments to Iraq. 

The North Carolina shooting appears to have been indiscriminate, and “Sadly, a lot of the victims in this case appear to be not members of our community, but people who are here on vacation,” district attorney Jon David told the Times.

Panning out: The U.S. has experienced at least 324 mass shootings in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The country experienced 503 mass shootings last year. 

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 1941, the Nazis killed more than 33,000 Jewish people in Kyiv, modern-day Ukraine.

More troops on American streets

After sending U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Washington, and Memphis, President Donald Trump ordered 200 more National Guard troops to “war ravaged Portland,” according to a Saturday post on his own social media platform and confirmed Sunday by officials in Oregon. “At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” the president wrote. 

The order instructs the National Guard “to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel,” in what sounds similar to Trump’s order to send troops to Los Angeles. 

“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” Trump noted in an unclear detail that raised additional alarm bells regarding rules of engagement, e.g., for civil-military observers in the U.S. 

Trump’s order is set to last for 60 days, and came less than 20 hours after the Supreme Court let Trump to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid. NPR has more. 

His announcement also prompted hundreds to protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building Sunday afternoon. “Chants and bucket drumming rang in the air during an afternoon demonstration that was raucous but largely free of confrontation,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on location. However, “More than a dozen counterprotesters attended the event, an increase from previous nights, and many clashed verbally with demonstrators.”

Portland is not ravaged by war. Your D Brief-er visited the city and walked the streets with his children just a few weeks ago. There were occasional tents from encampments beneath a highway overpass here and there on the approach to downtown, but there was no “war” except those waged by self-published authors hawking their sci-fi and fantasy books to occasional unwitting pedestrians in the vicinity of Pioneer Courthouse Square—where protests flared five years ago amid nationwide protests against police brutality. 

Trump: “They are attacking our ICE and federal buildings all the time,” the president told NBC News in a phone interview Sunday. “You know, this has been going on for a long time. This has been going on for years in Portland. It’s like a hotbed of insurrection,” he claimed. 

Notable: ICE agents in Portland have been documented by the city’s police “instigating” confrontations with protesters, as the local Oregonian newspaper reported Thursday and updated after Trump’s announcement Saturday. 

“This is not a military target,” Portland Mayor Keity Wilson said at a Saturday press conference. “This is an American city, we do not need any intervention.” 

Portland city councilman: “To speak the language of federal agents, let me say this, here’s your sit rep: Situation normal in Portland. We do not need assistance. We are OK,” said Councilor Eric Zimmerman after Trump’s announcement. 

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek: “Contrary to President Trump’s social media posts, Portland is not war-ravaged,” the Democratic governor said in a video posted to social media Sunday. “There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security, and there is no need for military troops.”

“Military service members should be dedicated to real emergencies,” she said. “And that’s exactly what I said to the president when I asked him to stand down from sending federal troops into our city. But just in case that phone call wasn’t enough, I thought I’d take to the streets myself right here in downtown Portland.” The rest of her video is a dispatch on location, which you can view here. 

Other Portland residents have been posting photos showing how “war-ravaged” their city is. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has been drawing attention to some of these posts on his own social media account, here.

New: Like California before it, the state of Oregon has sued the Trump administration for this troop deployment to Portland. As a judge ultimately decided for Los Angeles, Oregon alleges the National Guard order “violates the Posse Comitatus Act,” calls the “stated basis for federalizing…patently pretextual,” and claims Trump’s order “violate[s] the Tenth Amendment’s guarantee that the police power … resides with the states.” 

Related reading:

Around the Pentagon

The president has decided to join Hegseth’s surprise gathering of brass tomorrow at Quantico, the Washington Post reported Sunday: “Trump’s appearance at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia not only overshadows Hegseth’s planned address but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event, which has required some generals and admirals to travel thousands of miles. Trump cast the discussion largely as a pep talk.”

Three sources familiar with the planning told CNN that Hegseth intends to underscore the “warrior ethos,” outline a new vision for the US military, and “discuss new readiness, fitness and grooming standards.” One defense official familiar with the planning said, “This is a showcase for Hegseth to tell them: get on board, or potentially have your career shortened.” More from CNN, here.

The short-notice, unprecedented confab has drawn urgent questions from Capitol Hill: In a Saturday letter, Senate Armed Services Committee members Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked Hegseth 19 questions, including: 

  • What is the estimated total cost of this gathering?
  • What accounts are being used to fund these costs?
  • Why was a secure virtual alternative not considered sufficient? 
  • Has the Department conducted a risk assessment of concentrating much of the operational chain of command in one location?  
  • Has this gathering disrupted any other scheduled operations, training or interagency coordination?  
  • Has any previous Secretary of Defense convened a similar gathering under comparable circumstances?  

The letter ends: “We require a briefing or written response to answer these questions no later than Monday September 29, 2025.” Read over the rest of the queries (PDF) here. 

Commentary from Mark Cancian, who posted at CSIS, and UCMJ expert Eugene Fidell, writing at Just Security.

Around the world

Trump’s $20B bailout for Argentina stirs anger in ‘America First’ camp. WaPo on Sunday: “The president’s customary allergy to using taxpayer money to help other nations makes the Argentine rescue especially noteworthy. Since taking office in January, Trump has slashed U.S. foreign aid programs, slow-walked military assistance for Ukraine and demanded that close allies like South Korea and Japan pay for a greater share of their defense.”

And Politico on Thursday: “The fast-moving deal to help [Argentine President Javier] Milei, which is still being negotiated, underscores the extent to which the Trump administration is willing to go to help a political ally who has cultivated strong ties with the president and American conservatives in recent years.”

And lastly today: South Korea to honor 11 military members who disobeyed illegal orders during last year’s attempted coup. Officials with the Ministry of National Defense announced last week that it will award government commendations to soldiers who “did not carry out illegal or unjust orders and upheld their duties as military personnel” when the country’s president attempted a coup last December. “We will do our best to become a military trusted by the public by continuously identifying and commending genuine soldiers who can resolutely reject illegal or unjust orders according to constitutional values and reject injustice,” the ministry said in a statement. The Chosun Daily has details, here.

]]>

September 29, 2025
0 comment
Read More >>

The D Brief: DOD sheds 60K civilians; EU warns Moscow; USAF’s new ‘homeland’ focus; China’s airborne gets help; And a bit more.

More than 60K defense civilians have left under Hegseth—but officials won’t discuss the effects. Nine months into the second Trump administration, the Defense Department has shed more than 60,000 employees, or about 7.6 percent of the department’s civilian workforce, comfortably reaching the 5- to 8-percent goal Secretary Pete Hegseth set in March, Defense One reported exclusively. 

But officials declined to answer nearly every other question, leaving it hard to judge how the effort to cut payroll and redirect resources is going. Multiple officials refused to talk about various problems caused by the sweeping cuts and policy changes Hegseth ordered just weeks into his job. They also declined to comment on criticism by current and former employees who say the changes were ill-planned and have hurt productivity and morale among the country’s largest national-security workforce. Defense One’s Meghann Myers walks us through the various policy changes, and what we don’t know about their results, here.

China, China, Chi—wait, what? Air Force mulls next steps amid homeland focus. After years in which the “pacing threat” drove decisions on everything from weapons to force structure, Air Force leaders are working out how to adjust to the Trump administration’s focus on hemispheric and homeland defense. 

SecAF: We’re already there. “Homeland defense pretty much captures all threats,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told reporters Monday at the AFA conference outside Washington, D.C. “Pretty much covers everything in the systems that we need to do.”

Experts and formers aren’t convinced. “All of the services, including the Air Force, are missing the clear strategic guidance needed to make essential prioritization decisions as they reach the end game of the budget process and try to chart an organizational path forward,” one former defense official said. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has more, here.

Why is Hegseth gathering almost all of America’s generals and admirals in one place on Tuesday? The Washington Post first reported the meeting Thursday. Many other outlets later confirmed the order, which instructs U.S. military officials from around the world to convene at Quantico, Va., on the last day of the fiscal year—and mere hours ahead of a potential government shutdown. The order says one-stars and up must attend, “within operational constraints,” and exempts flag officers in staff jobs.

No one yet knows why so many top officials must convene at a single location when numerous secure alternatives exist. The online rumor mill is already active, and so are the jokes—e.g., from users on Reddit. American historian Tim Snyder offered up four possibilities for such a meeting, including a possible attempt to “stage a purge, perhaps involving a loyalty oath.” 

“It’s probably more mundane than people think,” one U.S. official told Reuters, and admitted, “the lack of clarity isn’t helping.” 

For what it’s worth: the SecDef hasn’t held a press conference in three months. And the last time he did, he berated reporters for having doubts about the impact of U.S. military strikes on Iran. 

Hegseth and his press team “have held fewer than ten on-the-record briefings” compared to 34 during the first 100 days of President Biden’s tenure, according to The Hill and CBS News. 

SecDef: “Transparency doesn’t happen on its own, and this will be the most transparent administration ever,” Hegseth vowed in February on social media. 

Related listening: “Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?” asks NPR’s new podcast Sources & Methods. Find that Thursday episode, here. 

More after the jump…

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 1983, nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the U.S. was narrowly averted thanks to the caution of Russian air force officer Stanislav Petrov. 

Air Force’s AI ambitions require simplifying its network tangle. The service’s PEO for battle networks has teams working on ways to reduce “however many disparate systems are out there today into some rational number of end-to-end capabilities” within the next year. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports from AFA, here.

Trump’s intelligence chief has cancelled publication of a “global threats” report issued publicly every four years going back to 1997, the New York Times reported Friday—about a month after the associated office was quietly eliminated. “Past editions [of the report] warned of threats and shifts that came to pass, including climate change challenges, new immigration patterns and the risk of a pandemic.”

But the report has now “become politically inconvenient” for the Trump administration, former officials told the Times, which noted, “like so much in the Trump administration, what was once considered apolitical is now labeled political.” Part of a pattern: “The Trump administration has dismantled a number of national security groups looking at long-term trends,” the Times notes. That includes the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, “which had helped senior leaders think about the future of war, [but] was shut down in March.” More, here. 

Additional reading: 

Europe

New: European nations have reportedly told Moscow they’re prepared to shoot down Russian jets entering their airspace, officials told Bloomberg Thursday following a meeting this week between Russian, British, French and German envoys. 

Mapped: Axios illustrated the eastern European nations whose airspace has been confirmed or suspected to have been violated by Russian aircraft this calendar year. According to analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, “Russia is deliberately gauging NATO’s capabilities and reactions to various air incursions.” 

Kremlin reax: “I don’t even want to talk about this, because it’s a very irresponsible statement,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly said, according to state-run Tass news agency.

The view from Copenhagen: “We are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a national address Thursday. “There is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and that is Russia,” she said. 

“This means that the defense and police will be more present with anti-drone capabilities around critical infrastructure in the coming time,” Frederiksen promised. 

“That is why we are expanding the European defense industry, and that is why we are building up the defense industry in Denmark,” the prime minister said, and stressed, “The events of recent days emphasize how important this is.”

For your ears only: Get a better handle on the European Union’s ambitious new goals for its defense industrial base and how U.S. companies could play a role following our podcast discussion Thursday with EU Ambassador to the U.S., Jovita Neliupšienė. She reviewed the EU’s “Readiness 2030” defense plans, and shared a few details from her own history growing up in Lithuania under the Soviet Union. Find that episode on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Related reading: 

Revealed: Russia is training the Chinese military to air-drop armoured vehicles in preparation to seize Taiwan, Oleksandr Danylyuk and Jack Watling wrote Friday in a new report for the London-based Royal United Services Institute. 

“​​According to contracts and correspondence obtained by the Black Moon hacktivist group, Russia agreed in 2023 to supply the PLA with a complete set of weapons and equipment to equip an airborne battalion, as well as other special equipment necessary for airborne infiltration of special forces, along with a full cycle of training for operators and technical personnel to use this equipment,” Danylyuk and Watling write. 

Why it matters: Beaches in Taiwan that are “suitable for landing are limited, known, and dispersed. The runways and ports on the island could be invaluable for reinforcing the lodgement but denying these facilities would likely be a priority task for Taiwanese forces.” But “The capacity to airdrop armour vehicles on golf courses, or other areas of open and firm ground near Taiwan’s ports and airfields, would allow air assault troops to significantly increase their combat power and threaten seizure of these facilities to clear a path for the landing of follow-on forces.” 

Also: “[A]n attempt to seize Taiwan would likely see fighting erupt throughout the South China Sea, creating a requirement for the PLA to project combat power further afield,” the authors warn. “In the initial phases of war air manoeuvre could allow the PLA to move airborne forces with organic firepower and mobility to critical terrain beyond Taiwan.” Read the rest of the report, here. 

Middle East

Most officials and diplomats at the UN General Assembly walked out when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium Friday in New York. The walk-out reflected Israel’s growing isolation from the global community as it continues pressing its war on Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 65,000 people and caused more than 200,000 casualties for Palestinians in the area, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and a former Israeli military commander. 

Related reading: 

]]>

September 26, 2025
0 comment
Read More >>

The D Brief: Hegseth yanks brass to Quantico; Drones close Danish airports; AFSOC’s Caribbean work; Russia’s AI drones; And a bit more.

Breaking: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just “ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice” next Tuesday at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, the Washington Post reported Thursday. 

No reason was given for the rare and urgent meeting, which is scheduled “as a government shutdown looms,” the Post reminds readers ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, which is Tuesday. 

The order “applies to all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above, or their Navy equivalent, serving in command positions and their top enlisted advisers,” five Post journalists report. Officers with those ranks in staff positions are exempted. 

The meeting appears to be unprecedented. “All of it is weird,” one U.S. official said, and asked, “Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now?” Read the rest (gift link), here. 

Air Force special operators are preparing for missions in the Caribbean, the leader of Air Force Special Operations Command said Wednesday. While Lt. Gen. Michael Conley declined to specifically disclose if they are supporting operations related to Venezuela—off whose coast the U.S. military has sunk alleged drugrunning boats in recent weeks—he told reporters that his airmen have strike, surveillance, and mobility assets that “any combatant commander would love.” 

“We are doing things that you’d expect out of special operations, just in the sense that we need to be ready to go,” Conley said during a media roundtable at the Air & Space Force Association’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. Defense One’s Tom Novelly reports, here.

Update: The Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale is now in the Caribbean Sea to support President Trump’s war on drug cartels, Military Times reported Wednesday. U.S. Naval Institute News first reported the apparent development Monday, after Stockdale made a port stop in Panama this weekend. 

The ship joins seven other Navy vessels in the region: the USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely, USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale, USS San Antonio, USS Lake Erie and USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul. One nuclear-powered attack submarine is also reportedly in the vicinity, according to the New York Times. 

Four Russian military aircraft flew inside the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone before they were intercepted by a U.S. entourage Wednesday, officials at North American Aerospace Defense Command announced shortly afterward. 

Involved: Two Tu-95s and two Su-35s, which were met by an E-3, four F-16s, and four KC-135 tankers during the intercept.

To be clear, “The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said, and noted, “This Russian activity in the Alaskan ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”

Update on Kirk-related suspensions across the military: More than a dozen U.S. soldiers have now been suspended as investigations into troops’ social media posts about the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk proceed, Carla Babb reported Wednesday for Military Times.

“These numbers are subject to change as commands review social media activity and take appropriate action,” an Army spokeswoman said. The Marines and Coast Guard have also relieved or identified a service member for allegedly inappropriate social media posting. 

Related reading: “Black church leaders reject Charlie Kirk martyrdom and point to his race rhetoric,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. 

For your ears only: We unpacked highlights from this week’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference hosted annually by the Air and Space Forces Association. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams and Tom Novelly shared their findings as well as insight into their reporting this week from conference grounds at the National Harbor in Maryland. Catch that on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Additional reading: 

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 1906, Spanish engineer and early robotics pioneer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated how to maneuver a boat more than a mile off the shore using remote control. He later sought to apply his findings to the new field of torpedoes, but was denied by the Spanish government. 

Around Europe

Inside NATO’s response to Russia’s violation of Estonian air space. “Just minutes after NATO radars detected three Russian MiG-31 aircraft with transponders turned off heading toward the Estonian border on Friday, alarms sounded at this wooded air base about 40 minutes outside Tallinn. Italian airmen scrambled to their F-35s to intercept the Russian jets, taking over for Finnish aircraft that were already aloft. Twelve minutes later, the Italians escorted the MiGs out of Estonian airspace toward Kaliningrad,” reports Defense One’s Patrick Tucker from Ämari Aiur Base in Estonia.

Col. Gaetano Farina, commander of Italy’s Air 32nd Wing, told reporters Wednesday that the incident was more significant than his unit’s similar interception in August, but he described the scene as orderly. “There is training that we do almost every day,” he said, calling the response “very professional.” The Russian pilots, too, seemed unperturbed and even waved at the Italians from their cockpits, he said. 

But the violation raised alarm well beyond the Baltics, and Tucker wraps up the ongoing fallout, here. 

New: Drones closed Danish airports and disrupted operations at military bases earlier today, officials said. Danish authorities decided not to shoot at the drones for safety reasons, so their origins remain unproven. 

But Russia is the main suspect. “It certainly does not look like a coincidence. It looks systematic. This is what I would define as a hybrid attack,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters. 

Reuters: “Denmark has not yet decided whether to invoke NATO’s Article 4, which allows members to request consultations over any security concerns, Poulsen said. Poland invoked the article after downing the drones, as did Estonia after Russian military jets violated its airspace for 12 minutes on September 19.” More, here. 

China is helping a sanctioned Russian dronemaker, Reuters reports, citing two European security officials and documents. “Chinese drone experts have flown to Russia to conduct technical development work on military drones at a state-owned weapons manufacturer that is under Western sanctions,” the wire service reports, here.

Related: “Every Nation Wants to Copy Iran’s Deadly Shahed Drone,” the Wall Street Journal reports. 

New: Russia is using AI-enabled drones in Ukraine. Former Ukrainian Command-in-Chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in an interview this week that Russian drones with artificial intelligence is presenting a new threat for Ukraine, whose “forces cannot suppress such drones because these drones do not rely on radio frequencies,” analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War write in their latest battlefield assessment. 

Status check: “Putin remains uninterested in good faith negotiations that require compromises and is instead making the same demands of Ukraine and the West as he did in late 2021 and February 2022,” ISW analysts warned in a big-picture consideration. 

Related reading: “Europe is at war with Russia, whether it likes it or not,” Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, writes in an op-ed for Politico Thursday. 

And lastly: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is visiting the White House today in part to discuss potential F-35 sales, Reuters reports. It’s Erdogan’s first visit in nearly six years, after the U.S. sanctioned Turkey after it bought Russian S-400 missile defense systems. That purchase shut off Ankara from its desired acquisition of the F-35, which is an aircraft that had used some parts made in Turkey. 

Erdogan is also looking to buy 40 F-16 jets from the U.S., in addition to 40 Eurofighter Typhoons, which is a joint production from Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.

Additional reading: “Russia Delivers MiG-29 Jets to Iran Air Force,” Newsweek reported Wednesday.

]]>

September 25, 2025
0 comment
Read More >>