NATSEC-TECH THURSDAY — March 5, 2026: Every Thursday’s edition of Threat Status highlights the intersection between national security and advanced technology, from artificial intelligence to cyber threats and the battle for global data dominance.
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Trump administration officials are set to meet with top defense industry leaders Friday and pressure them to speed up production of key munitions. Sources tell Threat Status that missile defense producers L3Harris, Lockheed Martin and RTX will attend.
… The high-stakes meeting comes as the frantic U.S.-Iran conflict is drawing down America’s missile and rocket stockpiles. Iran’s strategy of firing missiles and launching drones at targets across the Mideast is stretching defensive systems. Military insiders fear that some offensive weapons also could run low, given the conflict’s rapid pace.
… All of this contrasts with President Trump’s assertion that the U.S. has enough munitions to fight “forever” if necessary.
… Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters the U.S. will soon shift to short-range weapons, of which he says the U.S. has a “nearly unlimited stockpile.”
… Dramatic video footage shows an Iranian warship sinking after being hit by a U.S. torpedo in the Indian Ocean.
… Iran unleashed a new wave of attacks against Mideast targets and called for “Trump’s blood.”
… And authorities from the U.S. and 13 other countries shut down the cybercrime forum LeakBase, one of the world’s largest online forums used to buy and sell stolen data.
Can Iran’s vast supply of drones and its stockpile of ballistic missiles outlast the air defenses of the U.S., its Gulf allies and Israel? That question is central to the unfolding conflict across the Mideast, as Tehran bets it has enough firepower to wear down its adversaries.
Asia Editor Andrew Salmon explains how this new, cutting-edge war of attrition differs from past conflicts. Unlike the manpower attrition of World War I, or the armor attrition of World War II, Iran’s attrition strategy centers on missiles, drones and allied interception capabilities.
The Gulf states, Israel and the U.S. are all prosperous nations armed with high-tech, stand-off weaponry. But Iran’s low-cost suicide drone swarms — chiefly its cheap Shahed drones — create enormous asymmetric challenges for such defensive systems.
Mr. Trump says the U.S. has enough munitions to fight “forever” against the Iranians. However, for key defense systems such as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, systems and Patriot missile interceptors, concerns are growing that the supply could run low if Iran maintains its frantic pace of attack. The White House is expected to pressure defense companies on Friday to speed up the production of both offensive and defensive weapons.
Often taken for granted, the constellation of 31 GPS satellites in orbit provides far more than accurate navigation for smartphones and cars. The satellites also guarantee the pinpoint location accuracy that American troops need when operating anywhere in the world.
Malik Musawwir, vice president of Navigation Systems at Lockheed Martin, explained on the latest episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast how the next generation of GPS satellites can guard against increasingly sophisticated adversary attacks. Such attacks can include jamming, which tries to overwhelm the GPS signal, or spoofing, which transmits fake GPS signals.
“Jamming and spoofing are one of the key areas where a nefarious actor — someone who is threatening what you’re trying to do — will attack first,” he said. “They’ll try to trick your GPS receiver into thinking you’re somewhere else or to get data from a different source other than a GPS constellation.”
Mr. Musawwir said his company’s most cutting-edge satellites have the boosted signal needed to overcome such jamming or spoofing attacks, which are highly likely to be a key element in any major great power conflict in the 21st century.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz unpacks startling revelations from top Navy officials this week about the speed with which China is expanding its submarines and drone weapons. Those capabilities, military officials said, could erode America’s undersea advantage.
Rear Adm. Mike Brookes, intelligence director at the Navy’s National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office, told a congressional hearing this week that China’s People’s Liberation Army wants to dominate 21st-century undersea warfare and could challenge U.S. regional maritime dominance by 2040.
The submarine warfare buildup includes one of the world’s largest underwater fleets with more than 60 submarines. New capabilities include six nuclear-powered attack submarines, which serve as the PLA’s offensive backbone, and at least two nuclear-powered guided missile submarines for precision strikes. Beijing accomplished its buildup by making massive investments in new shipyards, which more than doubled China’s submarine production capacity.
Executives from Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon were at the White House this week and signed Mr. Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge.” The initiative, announced by Mr. Trump during last month’s State of the Union address, aims to ensure that consumers will not pay for tech companies’ efforts to boost their AI infrastructure.
It’s a critically important subplot to the rapid expansion of AI across U.S. society, including for key military and national security uses. Artificial intelligence computing capacity requires a vast amount of electricity that can drain regional grids. By signing the pledge, companies promise to pay for the capacity’s costs.
It’s notable that OpenAI was one of the companies at the meeting. Late last week, the company announced an agreement with the Pentagon, following the administration’s public breakup with competitor Anthropic.
North Korea recently took a potentially dangerous step: It codified a preemptive nuclear strike capability.
Threat Status contributor Joseph R. DeTrani explains the new concept, referred to as “Haekpangasoe,” or nuclear trigger, and why it’s important. It’s an integrated nuclear crisis response system designed to ensure the national nuclear shield operates promptly and accurately at any time.
“Thus, North Korea’s nuclear deterrent now includes a preemptive nuclear strike capability,” says Mr. DeTrani, former associate director of national intelligence, in a Washington Times column.
He argues that another summit between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in the interest of peace and regional stability, with the goal of getting Pyongyang to agree to a moratorium on nuclear tests, fissile material production for nuclear weapons and medium- and long-range ballistic missile launches.
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