The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration is using AI as part of an extensive modernization program for nuclear warheads. Threat Status’ Bill Gertz reports on the situation, examining new details that David Beck, the nominee for the post of NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs, disclosed in little-noticed Senate testimony Oct. 7. 

In written answers to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Beck said AI is being leveraged by NNSA to maintain and modernize all current warheads in the stockpile. “I fully expect that [AI] will increasingly become an indispensable tool for NNSA,” he said.

AI at NNSA involves the use of supercomputers, new AI-based processes and machine learning to solve problems for warhead modernization. Mr. Beck stated that “AI and machine learning technologies could optimize experimental designs, analyze diagnostic data and improve facility operations.”

Pressure from top American military officials to accelerate the acquisition and deployment of rapidly evolving technology across a wide range of tools and weaponry for warfighters spurred excitement on the vast exhibition floor of this week’s AUSA conference in downtown Washington.

Washington Times National Security Editor Guy Taylor and newly appointed NatSec-Tech Correspondent John T. Seward broke down the scene in an exclusive video from the conference floor, with insights drawn from interviews with leaders of more than a dozen private defense firms that were there displaying everything from advanced radars to futuristic counter-drone and AI-driven integration software.

Mr. Seward offers insight from an exclusive discussion with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, who kicked off AUSA 2025 earlier this week with a speech slamming the defense acquisition system, saying it has a history of prioritizing the desires of government bureaucrats and defense lobbyists over the needs of U.S. soldiers.

New self-destructing drones, developed by U.S. and Israeli military contractors, will soon be in the hands of Army soldiers. Defense industry insiders say the HERO-120 system could help fill a precision strike gap in current U.S. capabilities — a gap highlighted by the Russia-Ukraine war, which has seen heavy use of various loitering munitions, more commonly known as “suicide” or “kamikaze” drones. 

The HERO system was brought to the U.S. through a partnership of Science Applications International Corp., an American company with decades of work in the defense sector, the Mistral Group and Israel-based UVision. “What we’re going to provide the Army is really something that they wanted to have in two to three years,” Eyal Banai, an adviser with Mistral Group, told Threat Status at AUSA. “We are going to give it to them in 18 months.”

SAIC, the Mistral Group and UVvision have secured a nearly $1 billion contract to provide the HERO system to soldiers. They’re also competing for contracts in another Army program, the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, or LASSO, initiative. That program, the Army has said, aims to field new capabilities to engage “armor vehicles, hardened targets, defilade targets, [and] personnel targets at extended ranges,” with the goal of giving soldiers more safety in large-scale combat scenarios.

Technological advances have made China’s 80% share of the world’s reserves of 17 rare earth metals — materials that are critical to advanced tech manufacturing for everything from cellphones to fighter jet radars — an even more valuable strategic tool for Beijing. Analysts say Chinese leader Xi Jinping is now engaged in using his country’s dominance over rare earths to push for global supremacy and to promote the Chinese communist system as it works to replace the U.S. as the world’s leading power.

The Commerce Ministry of the Chinese Communist Party last week announced new export controls on various rare earth metals and high-tech components, expanding curbs that were initially announced in April. The ministry asserted that Chinese and foreign companies will now be required to obtain CCP approval before exporting any items containing “even trace amounts” of Chinese-origin rare earths.

The restrictions are slated to go into effect early next month. The ministry specifically mentioned controls on semiconductors and AI-related devices and components manufactured outside China if they contain magnets and materials made from Chinese rare earths.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday encouraged NATO members to spend more on U.S. weapons for Ukraine’s defense, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for more aid. In remarks in Brussels, Mr. Hegseth pitched the continued purchase of U.S. weapons via the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, which halted U.S. arms donations in favor of purchases by U.S. allies.

“You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect,” Mr. Hegseth said in comments that came amid reports that Ukrainian military aid fell sharply over the summer following the implementation of the PURL system. Military aid fell by 43% between July and August 2025 compared to the first half of the year, according to the nonprofit Kiel Institute.

Mr. Trump this week pledged more U.S. support for Ukraine and has even suggested he might approve the transfer of Tomahawk missiles. Kyiv officials are keen to obtain Tomahawks, which could allow Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, accurately and with large warheads.

• Oct. 17 — A U.S. Standards Strategy for the 21st Century, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Oct. 17 — What Is North Korea’s Strategy? Hudson Institute

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

• Oct. 21 — Implications of the Military Junta’s Internal Shifts on Civil-Military Relations in Myanmar, Stimson Center

• Oct. 21 — The U.S. Enduring Human Presence in Orbit: Reflecting on the Future and Past 25 Years, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• 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

• Oct. 28 — How America Failed to Disarm North Korea: Implications for the Future, Stimson Center