Threat Status for Friday, September 19, 2025. Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor.
Israel’s laser-based air defense system “Iron Beam” is expected to be integrated into the country’s screen against missiles and drones by the end of the year.
… British spy chief Richard Moore says there’s “absolutely no evidence” Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.
… Britain’s King Charles III pressed President Trump during his state visit this week not to hold up progress on the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) nuclear submarine deal.
… The king’s unease stems from a review of AUKUS that U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby has been conducting since June.
… Pakistan says it could provide nuclear weapons protection to Saudi Arabia under a new Islamabad-Riyadh defense pact.
… Poland and Ukraine are establishing new joint military training programs and manufacturing projects tied to battle-tested Ukrainian drone warfare.
… The California-based children’s online video game developer Roblox is under scrutiny over an “assassination simulator” that appeared on its website after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s slaying. It has been removed.
… And Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll says unit commanders will investigate service members’ social media posts about Mr. Kirk’s death.
The Pentagon is in the final stages of producing a new “America First” defense strategy. Early indications suggest the game plan will include a shift away from viewing the threat posed by communist China as a priority.
A draft of the strategy, first obtained by Politico, is on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk and awaiting final approval. It is said to alter the first Trump administration’s major focus on deterring adversaries, including China. Instead, the defense strategy will call for prioritizing defense of the U.S. homeland, specifically, and the Western Hemisphere, in general.
Asked if the strategy will shift away from the China threat toward homeland defense, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to say. “Secretary Hegseth has tasked the development of a National Defense Strategy that is laser focused on advancing President Trump’s commonsense America First, Peace Through Strength agenda,” Mr. Parnell told Inside the Ring, the weekly column by National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz. “This process is still ongoing,” he said. “We do not comment on alleged leaked classified documents to the press.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has seized more than 75,000 pounds of cocaine since early August, when it launched Operation Pacific Viper, a mission to crack down on narcotics coming from South America through the eastern Pacific Ocean. The service said this week that it has taken about 60 suspected traffickers into custody during more than 80 maritime operations since Aug. 8.
U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South, based in Key West, Florida, detects and monitors suspected aerial and maritime transit of narcotics coming from Latin America. The Coast Guard takes over when missions become a law enforcement operation that ends with the interdiction and apprehension of smuggling suspects.
The announcement comes in tandem with a separate campaign by the Trump administration involving other U.S. military forces to strike and kill suspected “narco-terrorists” in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. Administration officials this month have announced three strikes, with Mr. Trump posting video of one of the strikes on social media.
A delegation of Taiwanese officials and civic leaders is calling for a three-way intelligence-sharing pact among the U.S., Japan and their island democracy to help counter Chinese Communist Party aggression in the Pacific and beyond. Delegation members told Threat Status during a visit to Washington this week that such an agreement would represent a significant U.S. geopolitical statement that Taiwan is a trusted partner in the strategically vital region.
It’s not clear whether the Trump administration would consider such a move. A formal arrangement could be similar to the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group of the U.S., Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Analysts warn of increasing Chinese political warfare and influence operations targeting Taiwan and Beijing’s preparations for a military invasion of the island.
“We don’t have a formal exchange system, including classified information and crisis notifications,” said K.J. Hsu, a judge in Taipei District Court, part of a national security and military division within Taiwan’s civilian justice system. “We can be trusted … and want to team up together.”
Taliban officials on Friday rejected Mr. Trump’s idea that American troops could return to Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base, a key military facility and regional hub for U.S. troops for nearly two decades but was given up during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The comments from Zakir Jalaly, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, came just hours after Mr. Trump told reporters during his visit to Britain this week that the U.S. is “trying to get it back,” referring to Bagram.
The president’s assertion raised eyebrows among American military strategists, some of whom argue the U.S. must move beyond its reliance on major bases because of recent weaponry advances by China. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Harris wrote in a recent column for Defense One that if the U.S. goes to war tomorrow, the Air Force would “operate in a world where the assumptions that shaped it for more than 30 years no longer hold.”
“No longer can the Air Force rely on Bagram-style air bases as sanctuaries, thanks to anti-access and area-denial capabilities developed by China and others,” Gen. Harris wrote. “To deter and defeat adversaries, the service must focus on agility, adaptability and operating with a smaller footprint in austere environments. Leaders must refine options for getting into theater to generate tempo and seize initiative. In short, the Air Force must return to its expeditionary roots — a critical change that is already underway.”
Retired CIA Clandestine Services Officer Daniel N. Hoffman writes that “nothing is more important for U.S. national security than a comprehensive strategy to defend, deter and counter” Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “aggressive plan to build a new world order, where the Chinese Communist Party exterminates the principles of liberty, freedom and democracy enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
“It all starts with the U.S. intelligence community, which is on the hook to steal Mr. Xi’s secrets, especially his plans and intentions to wield China’s military, economic and diplomatic power against us,” writes Mr. Hoffman, an opinion contributor to Threat Status. “We have no reason to go it alone,” he writes. “Our allies and partners can be powerful force multipliers so that the U.S. conducts its China policy more effectively and, especially with respect to our financial and military resources, efficiently.
“Mr. Xi wants China’s adversaries to be weak and divided because he knows that together we are stronger and better equipped to protect internationally recognized borders, freedom of navigation, and the free exchange of goods and services on which the U.S. and global economies rely,” writes Mr. Hoffman. “If there’s a silver lining for what too often appears to be hopelessly divided American politics, it’s that Democrats and Republicans should find common ground on promoting U.S. global leadership rather than suffer the consequences of Chinese hegemony.”
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