Air Force Gen. Kenneth F. Wilsbach disclosed that the Pentagon now expects China’s arsenal of nuclear warheads to reach 1,500 by 2030, as he warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Chinese nuclear and missile threat is growing.

The new estimate for future Chinese warhead growth came in answers to questions posed by committee members made public during a nomination hearing this week. 

The Chinese “nuclear modernization and expansion will increase its ability to target our homeland with longer-range systems that can reach the continental United States, a primary reason to invest in Golden Dome,” said the four-star general, who has headed the Air Force in the Indo-Pacific region and the Air Combat Command.

Gen. Wilsbach said China has increased its nuclear arsenal from about 300 warheads in 2020 to 600 today, “with projections of 1,500 by 2030.” That amount would give Beijing a comparable arsenal to that of the United States and Russia, each of which is estimated to have about 1,700 deployed warheads.

The 33-year-old founder of Anduril, Palmer Luckey, said this week that he sees his defense company “as kind of the gun store of our allies and partners around the world.”

He offered the comment in Washington, where he capitalized on his boyish charm and pop culture references at an event with the newly minted editor-in-chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss. Threat Status’ new Natsec-Tech lead reporter John T. Seward was there, reporting on how Mr. Luckey also opined on the growing number of Silicon Valley tech titans, including Mark Zuckerberg, who are open to working with the Trump administration.

Mr. Luckey, an early Trump supporter, is still seen as an outlier by many of his liberal Silicon Valley peers. But he says a shift is afoot from just a few years ago, when it seemed he and fellow billionaire Peter Thiel were the only Silicon Valley executives that he knew were backing Mr. Trump.

With his ties to the Trump administration and his outspoken willingness to build what he calls “killer robots,” Mr. Luckey has cultivated a reputation as a brilliant, creative disruptor. In 2012 at the ripe age of 20, he created the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset. Two years later, he sold his company and the technology to Facebook for an undisclosed multibillion-dollar figure.

Mr. Trump met with Finnish President Alexander Stubb Thursday at the White House to sign off on an agreement for the U.S. Coast Guard to buy up to four icebreaker ships from Finnish shipyards. The ships are crucial for the U.S. strategic posture toward Russia in the Arctic Ocean.

Mr. Trump said Finland’s shipbuilders “have almost a monopoly on ice breakers.” Mr. Stubbs noted that Finland builds 60% of the world’s icebreakers and designs 80% of the ships built throughout the world. The Finnish president pointed out that Russia has 40 of the ships.

The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for the U.S. military’s icebreaker operations and is in dire need of additional vessels to compete with Russia and China in the Arctic. Its newest ice breaker, USCGC Storis, is a former supply and towing vessel for the oil industry. The acquisition expands the current Coast Guard fleet of Arctic icebreakers to three.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ramped up its fight against Iranian oil profits this week with a slew of new sanctions targeting 50 companies, individuals and vessels that facilitate the sale of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas.

The new punishment targets a network that Treasury says is responsible for transporting millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil via shadow fleet vessels and Chinese-based oil terminals and refineries. Washington Times reporter Vaughn Cockayne writes that the new sanctions follow three other rounds of restrictions from earlier this year targeting Chinese-based organizations that buy Iranian oil.

Tehran’s oil sales to allies, primarily China, have been a crucial revenue source for the regime despite Western economic sanctions. OFAC singled out China-based oil refinery Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, which it says has purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil since 2023.

It’s good to be Kim, and as dictators go, Kim Jong-un is arguably sitting prettier today than either his father Kim Jong-il or grandfather Kim Il-sung ever did. The Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon offers a deep dive on the North Korean dictator, reporting from the region as Mr. Kim oversees celebrations in Pyongyang Friday of the 80th anniversary of the founding of his regime’s Korean Workers’ Party.

Having succeeded his father after his death in 2011, King Jong-un is the third Kim to rule North Korea. He is jeered globally for his portliness, his tailoring and the over-the-top adulation he commands among his populace. However, he has been an effective leader. VIP guests at Friday’s celebrations in the North Korean capital were slated to include officials from China, Laos, Russia, Vietnam and elsewhere.

During 14 years in power, Mr. Kim has ruthlessly crushed dissent. Globally, he has proved a savvy player and risk manager, sitting down with the U.S. and earning new support from Russia and China. “KJU is the most successful [‘supreme leader’] when it comes to enhancing his impoverished nation’s international status,” says Lee Sung-yoon, author of a biography of Mr. Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong. “He has elevated his nation’s international status from an endlessly mockable pariah state to a de facto member of the ‘International Tyrannical Triumvirate.’” 

• Oct. 10 — Should the United States Extend New START Limits? Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Oct. 13-15 — AUSA 2025 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Washington, Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA)

• Oct. 15 — Vanguard of Manufacturing: Fortifying U.S. National Security, Hudson Institute

• Oct. 20 — Are Geopolitics Leading to Fragmentation of the International Financial System? Brookings Institution

• Oct. 21-22 — Missile Defense Agency Small Business Conference, Tennessee Valley Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)

• Oct. 22 — Europe’s Energy Transition: From Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine to Trump’s ‘Energy Dominance’ Agenda, Brookings Institution