Threat Status Correspondent Joseph Hammond dives into the terrifying notion of weather warfare, in which nations seek to use subtle weather manipulation to wreak havoc on agricultural sectors or spark major, deadly storms. 

Experts warn that Russia’s “potential use of solar geo-engineering as a hybrid warfare tool is no longer science fiction but a real risk.” In theory, Russia could conduct cloud-seeding missions within Russia or Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine that would hamper Ukrainian agriculture, impact military logistics or complicate the removal of landmines without technically violating a ceasefire.

And it’s not just Russia. Experts say China is also at the forefront of research into geo-engineering and weather manipulation as potential weapons of war. Research into the technologies and systems needed to manipulate weather patterns for strategic or military purposes has been taking place under the premise of climate research, specialists say.

The U.S., Russia and China agreed to abandon the use of weather as a weapon of war under the Environmental Modification Convention of 1978. But Russia has a decades-long track record of violating agreements it signed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is one of the most prominent officials interviewed in the documentary “Age of Disclosure,” which makes the case that there has been a decades-long U.S. government cover-up supposedly directed by the CIA and the Pentagon regarding UFO crashes, technology and even alien bodies.

In the film, Mr. Rubio says there have been “repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities … is not ours and we don’t know whose it is.”

Mr. Rubio stood by those comments during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity this week, though he said his words appear to have been selectively edited. Still, Mr. Rubio — who for years has been one of the most vocal public officials calling for more investigations and serious discussions about unidentified objects in U.S. airspace — defended the underlying point.

“There have been things that fly over the airspace, restricted airspace, be it where we’re conducting military exercises or the like, and everyone in the government says they’re not ours,” he said during his Fox News appearance.

There have been many high-profile instances of U.S. military personnel witnessing unexplained objects. For example, video footage said to have been taken by U.S. drones off the coast of Yemen in October 2024 seems to show a Hellfire missile bouncing off an unidentified flying object and the mysterious craft continuing on its path unaffected by the strike.

America’s drone capabilities in the Pacific rightly get plenty of attention. But the Pentagon is taking aggressive steps to build up its drone force in other theaters as well.

U.S. Central Command this week announced the formation of Task Force Scorpion Strike, which is designed to set up the military’s first one-way attack drone squadron in the region. The effort is aimed at getting low-cost drones directly into the hands of warfighters, which is a top priority across the Pentagon.

The formation of Task Force Scorpion Strike, officials said, is part of CENTCOM’s effort to follow through on Mr. Hegseth’s directive that the armed forces quickly acquire and field cutting-edge drones in large numbers.

Returning astronauts to the moon and building a permanent base on the lunar surface must be the immediate priority for NASA as part of a long-term mission to guarantee that the U.S. is the world’s leader in space exploration. That was the case made to lawmakers this week by Jared Isaacman, President Trump’s nominee — for the second time — to lead the nation’s top space agency.

Mr. Isaacman’s first try to become NASA administrator fell apart after Mr. Trump cited his “prior associations,” widely believed to be political donations made to Democrats. But Mr. Isaacman, a billionaire who has gone into orbit twice aboard a SpaceX craft, is now back in consideration for the job. 

He faced tough questions from lawmakers during his testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday. But one of the biggest takeaways from the widely anticipated hearing was that Mr. Isaacman says a return to the moon and a permanent base there are crucial to America’s national security goals. He framed it as an American competition against “our great rival,” China, which is aggressively pursuing its own ambitious lunar programs and dramatically increasing its own space capabilities.

In a worst-case scenario, the U.S. may not even realize it is under attack until it’s too late. Satellites become unresponsive. Space-Based Infrared System missile warning satellite constellations are offline. So are civil and radiation-hardened military satellites. GPS over the Pacific region becomes spotty and intermittent. 

Soon, it becomes clear that the world’s first war in space is underway. Perhaps it’s a precursor to a military invasion of Taiwan by communist China, with the People’s Liberation Army first seeking to cripple the U.S. military through a space attack to ensure that American forces in the Pacific can’t effectively respond.

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, sketches out that nightmare scenario in a new column for The Washington Times — and urges America’s military and defense industry leaders to prepare for it.

“The key that opens the lock to attacking our otherwise formidable forces in the region is the opening blow in space that leaves us blind and mute,” he writes. “We must make attacking space every bit as daunting a challenge as are our forces here on Earth. We need complete, real-time monitoring of the space domain to prevent surprise. Our assets must be actively protected, not floating helplessly and unaware above our heads.”

• Dec. 5 — Moldova’s Euro-Atlantic Path: Regional Security, Energy Opportunity and Democratic Resilience, Hudson Institute

• Dec. 5 — Advancing Energy Security with Greek Minister of Energy Stavros Papastavrou, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Dec. 5 — Securing Critical Supply Chains in an Age of Great Power Rivalry, Brookings Institution 

• Dec. 6 — 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute

• Dec. 9 — Building a Golden Age for the U.S.-Japan Economic Partnership: Ensuring Security, Stability and Prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Dec. 9 — Twisted Sisters: Biodefense Supply Chains and Stockpiles, Atlantic Council 

• Dec. 10-12 — Spacepower Conference 2025, Space Force Association

• Dec. 11 — NATO and the Cloud: A Conversation with Assistant Secretary-General Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, Royal United Services Institute