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Threat actors have dramatically increased their exploitation of the cybersecurity sector, which is a disturbing development. Spain’s country code TLD, ES, is used to plan credential phishing attacks. According to recent findings from Cofense Inte…
Ukraine weapons pause grows. The Pentagon has halted sending weapons to Ukraine amid stockpile review. In a rare news briefing Wednesday, chief spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the department was in the midst of reviewing munitions stockpiles to balance priorities of ending the war on Ukraine and fulfilling the White House’s “America First” agenda.
Parnell declined to specify timelines, which munitions provided to Ukraine or the quantities affected, but said “the secretary will continue to make recommendations to the president for his decision on military assistance to Ukraine going forward,” Defense One’s Meghann Myers reports.
“We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world,” Parnell said. “We have to look out for America and defending our homeland, our troops around the world.”
Update: The Pentagon’s pause extends beyond Ukraine, including all U.S. allies, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Pentagon officials also told the Times that President Trump could send some or all of the paused munitions to Ukraine depending on the outcome of the stockpile review.
New: Militarized zone grows at the Southern border. The Pentagon has expanded military zones along the Arizona border as part of an increase in using troops for immigration enforcement activities. The new military zone in Arizona is the fourth one created by the Trump administration, and will include 140 miles of federal land. That land is near the Barry M. Goldwater range and will be transferred to the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Military-dot-com reported Wednesday.
Bridging the gap: The U.S. Army wants to use attack drones to complement long-range weapons and close-fire capabilities. To do that, it’s experimenting with a new force structure that pairs first-person attack drones with traditional weapons systems, Defense One’s Meghann Myers reported Wednesday.
“We’re imagining a future where instead of it just being all tube,” there will be a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System battalion, an M777 howitzer battalion, “and then in that third battalion, it’ll be a combination of mortars, 105 mm, launched defects, loitering munitions, first-person drones, that makes up the delta for the longer range and the cannon artillery,” Gen. James Mingus said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.
But in the background, there are still concerns about munitions production capacity, Myers writes. “In particular, both production rates and price points associated with some of our critical munitions that are out there for our big frames and our big platforms,” Mingus said, “and based on what has happened in Israel and Iran and the expenditures that are there, what’s happened in Ukraine. Our magazine depth right now is not where it needs to be.” More, here.
By the way: Those firepower needs are exactly why recent criticism downplaying the Army’s role in the Pacific is misplaced, retired Army Gen. Gen. Charles Flynn argues in a Defense One commentary.
The gist: “Assertions that the Army is on a ‘dead-end ride to Asia’ are short-sighted, overlooking how deterrence must function across sea, air, land, space, and cyber domains as was just witnessed in the Middle East with the extraordinary strike in Iran,” Flynn writes. “Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific cannot be achieved with exquisite maritime or air systems alone…we have invested heavily in sea and air campaigns, while leaving ourselves exposed where conflicts are decided: on land.” Read on, here.
Developing: A.I. in the Army. In addition to its focus on drones in formations, the Army is planning for new job roles specifically for A.I. Internal documents show the service wants a new military occupational specialty for artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as a separate warrant officer track, Military-dot-com reported Wednesday.
The move is part of a broader effort to bolster technical expertise in the Army. But it’s unclear whether the initiative will be finalized. Steve Beynon has more.
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 and Lauren C. Williams. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1988, and amid some confusion during the Iran-Iraq war, the Navy’s USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
In an overnight vote, House lawmakers are nearly ready to vote on President Trump’s reconciliation bill, which would add more than $3 trillion to the nation’s debt, and give about $150 billion for defense priorities, as well as another $170 billion for immigration enforcement. Reuters has the latest developments, here.
All told, about $350 billion would go toward national-security initiatives, after an estimated “$1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps,” the Associated Press reports.
New commentary from HASC and SASC chairmen: “Defense reconciliation bill begins rebuild and transformation of our military,” Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Rogers write in a new op-ed published Wednesday in Defense One. The men also promise “more reform to come…including the FORGED Act and SPEED Act, to initiate a major reform of Pentagon acquisition and innovation processes—the most significant changes in 40 years.”
The bill allocates about $25 billion for the still-developing Golden Dome missile defense shield. “Completing the Golden Dome alone will cost another $150 billion,” Wicker and Rogers write. “But to be clear: The cost of deterring war will always be dwarfed by the cost of fighting one,” they say.
Learn more about the ongoing evolution of Golden Dome in a discussion from our recent Tech Summit. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Piper, Deputy Director of Operations at North American Aerospace Defense Command, joined a panel featuring Defense One’s Patrick Tucker on Thursday to discuss hypersonics and missile defense. Masao Dahlgren, fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project, and Doug Loverro, president of Loverro Consulting also joined.
You can hear that conversation on our Defense One Radio podcast available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
And lastly: After the National Guard was called in to help with Trump’s immigration enforcement, the Guard’s top officer Gen. Steve Nordhaus argues in Defense One that his troops’ missions here stateside “build deterrence against potential adversaries.”
“Response missions to hurricanes, wildfires, floods, or cyberattacks generate many of the same demands that would be found in wartime,” Nordhaus writes in a commentary co-authored by Col. John McRae, deputy director of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau’s Action Group.
More: “Every day, Cyber Protection Teams help form the front line of network defense, protecting critical databases from a variety of malign actors,” Nordhaus and McRae write. “Meanwhile, National Guard crews in Alaska and Colorado stand ready 24/7 to conduct ballistic missile defense missions of the homeland. Elsewhere, Civil Support Teams train constantly with local authorities to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive threats nationwide. The National Guard Counter Drug program helps the 54 states and territories combat illicit drug trafficking and transnational crime organizations. All these enduring National Guard missions contribute to national resilience and make it harder to complicate U.S. power projection.” Read the rest, here.
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Admin note: We’re off tomorrow for Independence Day. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again on Monday!
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Let’s Encrypt, a leading certificate authority (CA) known for providing free SSL/TLS certificates since 2015, has issued its first-ever certificate for an IP address. This development, announced earlier in January, marks a significant step in expanding…
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, which intensified in 2022, continues to reshape the cybercrime landscape in 2025, with hacktivism emerging as a potent weapon in geopolitical disputes. Since the war’s outbreak, pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian h…
As AI reshapes business, 90% of organizations are not adequately prepared to secure their AI-driven future, according to a new report from Accenture. Globally, 63% of companies are in the “Exposed Zone,” indicating they lack both a cohesive cybersecuri…
The first in a series of conversations from year’s Defense One Tech Summit.
Ruichen Xiong, a student from China, has been sentenced to over a year in prison at Inner London Crown Court for orchestrating a large-scale smishing (SMS phishing) campaign. Xiong deployed a sophisticated SMS Blaster device from the boot of his Black …
Developing: The Pentagon has put a hold on sending some munitions promised to Ukraine, amid concerns U.S. stockpiles are too low, according to reports in Politico and the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The Defense Department’s policy chie…
The cybercriminal group TA829, also tracked under aliases like RomCom, Void Rabisu, and Tropical Scorpius, has been observed deploying sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) alongside an updated version of its infamous RomCom backdoor…
The U.S. Air Force wants to retire the rest of its A-10s in 2026, which would be years ahead of its planned retirement, the service announced in its recent budget rollout. The venerable plane was used for decades in the Middle East, providing close air support for troops, but the service wants to get rid of its remaining Warthogs to fund next-gen tech, Defense One’s Audrey Decker reports.
As before, however, congress has been hesitant to let go of the A-10s, pointing to the service’s dwindling fighter fleet. The service wants to retire 340 aircraft, 162 of which are A-10s, while only requesting to buy 45 fighter aircraft. Read more about the new request, here.
The Pentagon’s full budget request is heavily investing in AI and drones, but it will need to change the way it buys new tech, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Monday. Some industry execs are hopeful that the DOD is moving towards a new way of investing in tech, and will start to de-emphasize formal programs of record and requirements, Chris Brose, the president and chief strategy officer for Anduril, said at the Defense One Tech Summit Thursday.
“I think you can begin to create programs that look more like markets where the government is actually going out to industry more regularly, every two to three years, for example,” Brose said. Read more, here.
Also: The Space Development Agency launched its first satellite that will test tactical satellite communications, the agency’s head said at our Thursday Tech Summit. The satellites will test some of the capabilities for SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a constellation of hundreds of military satellites in low-Earth orbit. SDA, an innovation arm of the Space Force, uses spiral development to blow past typical DOD acquisition timelines.
It took the agency between 30 to 40 months from ordering Tranche 0 sats to putting them on orbit, SDA director Derek Tournear said, while comparable DOD acquisitions take closer to eight years. Read more, here.
New: The Senate confirmed new leaders for Europe and the Middle East. Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich will take the helm of U.S. European Command and lead NATO forces as Supreme Allied Commander. Grynkewich was serving as the Joint Staff’s director of operations, and before that led Air Forces Central. And, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper will head U.S. Central Command after serving as the deputy commander since February 2024. Cooper previously served as the commander of Naval Forces CENTCOM.
Developing: The Army might axe General Dynamics’ oversight of three new 155mm artillery round production lines, Breaking Defense reported. The Army has been trying to increase 155mm production since the war in Ukraine began and tasked General Dynamics to run a new government-owned facility in Texas. “That work, though, has not gone smoothly, and the service is now ‘considering terminating’ the GD deals for all three UPLA lines,” since the company has failed to meet “significant milestones,” the Army said. The report doesn’t bode well for the Army’s 155mm production goals. More, here.
And in some industry news: Boeing officially made its interim defense CEO Steve Parker permanent, the company announced Tuesday. Parker has been operating in an interim role since former defense CEO Ted Colbert was pushed out in September. Parker will lead the company’s massive defense arm as it tries to turn the bend on a number of stubborn fixed-price contracts and deliver the Air Force’s sixth-gen F-47 fighter jet. The announcement comes a day after the company said that Jay Malave, Lockheed’s former chief financial officer, will become Boeing’s new CFO.
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 Audrey Decker. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1867, Canada was declared a self-governing dominion of Great Britain in an event celebrated as Canada Day.
Today President Trump is visiting a detention center for migrants his administration is building in the Florida Everglades. Homeland Security officials have called it “Alligator Alcatraz” because it’s located at the edge of the state’s Big Cypress swamp, but critics counter that the facility could reasonably be referred to as a “concentration camp.”
The cruelty is the point: “Ahead of Trump’s Florida visit, the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday shared a digitally altered image of alligators wearing ICE caps,” the Washington Post reports. And “The Florida Republican Party is selling gator-themed clothing and beer koozies,” according to Reuters. “You know snakes are fast, but alligators,” Trump told reporters Monday, “we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator, OK? If they escape prison, how to run away. Don’t run in a straight line,” he said. (WaPo notes that “Experts have debunked this advice and do recommend running away from alligators in a straight line.”)
Trump will be joined at Tuesday’s opening ceremony by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The facilities are located about 40 miles west of Miami at the formerly-abandoned Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport.
Why now? “The numbers in federal immigration detention have risen sharply to 56,000 by June 15, from 39,000 when Trump took office, government data show, and his administration has pushed to find more space,” Reuters reports. The new facility, however, is expected to hold 5,000 people at a cost of about $450 annually. At least some of that money is expected to come from FEMA funds, The Daily Beast reported last week.
“This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt boasted to reporters Monday. “There is only one road leading in” and “the only way out is a one-way flight,” she added. The Associated Press has more.
Update: Trump’s cuts to USAID could result in more than 14 million additional deaths worldwide in the next five years, according to new research published Monday in The Lancet medical journal. That includes a more than 80% reduction in USAID programs since Trump took office with plans to significantly reduce the size of the federal government.
Findings: From the years 2000 to 2021, “USAID funding was associated with a 65% reduction in mortality from HIV/AIDS (representing 25·5 million deaths), 51% from malaria (8·0 million deaths), and 50% from neglected tropical diseases (8·9 million deaths),” the researchers observed. Additional improvements were recorded for patients suffering from “tuberculosis, nutritional deficiencies, diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infections, and maternal and perinatal conditions.” Taken together, the data suggests the Trump administration’s “current steep funding cuts [to USAID] could result in more than 14,051,750 (uncertainty interval 8,475,990–19,662,191) additional all-age deaths, including 4,537,157 (3,124,796–5,910,791) in children younger than age 5 years, by 2030.”
Why it matters: “USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades,” the researchers write in Lancet. “Our estimates show that, unless the abrupt funding cuts announced and implemented in the first half of 2025 are reversed, a staggering number of avoidable deaths could occur by 2030.”
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Russia just jailed a former defense official for 13 years on corruption charges. His name is Timur Ivanov, 49, and he was a general and deputy defense minister who “oversaw property management, housing and medical support for the military, as well as construction projects,” AP reports. He’s accused of embezzling about $50 million and of taking a $15 million bribe, charges his lawyers said they would attempt to appeal.
Ivanov once managed construction at Russia’s Patriot Park, aka “military Disneyland.” “Another former deputy defense minister, Pavel Popov, also was arrested and accused of pilfering state funds allocated for the park in order to build himself a country estate,” AP adds.
Worth noting: “The arrest of Mr. Ivanov, and other defense officials after him, signaled a turning point in the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine,” the New York Times reports. “Coming at a moment of rising costs and increasing criticism from supporters of the war over the distribution of frontline resources, the moves were seen as an effort by Mr. Putin to put the war effort on more economically sustainable footing after more than two years of fighting.”
Russian drones are so dense now in Ukraine, that some town officials are stretching nets over the roads simply so ordinary people can travel from place to place in the hopes of some semblance of normalcy, the New York Times reports in a feature from eastern Ukrainian cities like Vuhledar.
Frontline POV: “To avoid detection by drones, soldiers on the front conceal their weapons under camouflage nets and dig trenches. Just before firing, they pull back the concealing tarps and camouflage nets. In this way the positions are visible only when weapons are fired.” Read more (gift link), here.
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