NATSEC-TECH THURSDAY — March 19, 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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Secretary of Defense Hegseth says the Department of War — officially the Department of Defense — is asking Congress for upward of $200 billion for the war against Iran.
… U.S. intelligence leaders testified to Senate lawmakers on Wednesday that President Trump and the Pentagon were aware Tehran would target the Strait of Hormuz and global energy producers in response to Operation Epic Fury.
… FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is now buying commercially available internet location data on Americans.
… An Israeli-led airstrike on Iran’s South Pars gas field triggered a massive Iranian counterattack on Thursday, with Tehran targeting energy infrastructure across the Gulf with scores of ballistic missiles and drones.
… A new Booz Allen Cyber Threat Report warns that “artificial intelligence is compressing the timeline of cyberattacks and reshaping how intrusions unfold.”
… The Special Competitive Studies Project think tank has created a new National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing.
… Mr. Seward’s exclusive video on embedding with U.S. Special Forces in Alaska goes inside an elite Army unit’s training in the unforgiving Arctic.
… And Teresa Carlson — founding president of the General Catalyst Institute, the policy arm of the San Francisco-based venture capital firm General Catalyst — joins the Threat Status podcast to discuss how the tech industry can bridge its differences with the Pentagon.
Advanced technology and low-yield nuclear weapons highlight the most complex and strategic threat environment for the United States since World War II, according to the new commander of the Pentagon’s Strategic Command. Adm. Rich A. Correll, who assumed the Nebraska-based nuclear forces command in December, told a House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing this week that China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are subverting global balances of power.
Artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, quantum communications and sensors are changing the character of war, the admiral said. New threats from cyberattacks, electromagnetic and space weapons, novel missile systems and supply chain threats “continue to impact our decision calculus and planning practices,” he said in prepared testimony.
“The development of nuclear weapons with smaller yields, improved precision and increased range increases strategic ambiguity and the possibility for coercive use by potential adversaries,” said Adm. Correll, who asserted that the major strategic nuclear threat continues to be China, which, under President Xi Jinping, has increased its strategic and shorter-range nuclear capabilities, including massive megaton-class warheads.
The Iran war is showing that many fundamentals of military clashes remain constant, no matter how many drones, robots, space-based capabilities, laser weapons or AI-powered cyber tools are introduced. At the most elemental level is what former White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called the “continuities” of war: that conflict is inherently human, political, uncertain and subject to a contest of wills between the combatants.
Some specialists argue that the way the Iran war has unfolded could be a blow to “futurists” in Western military-industrial circles who believe the latest technology alone will define modern wars and single-handedly determine the victor.
The value of alliances and the importance of domestic politics, both deeply important in conflicts throughout history, have been on display this week. Mr. Trump has struggled to assemble a coalition to help break Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. That closure is severely limiting the flow of oil, which has driven up gasoline prices in the U.S. and put political pressure on the White House to clearly articulate its endgame in Iran.
Tech billionaire and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey held a private lunch for Republican lawmakers this week on Capitol Hill, where he talked about the Iran war and his company’s new $20 billion Pentagon contract for “Lattice” command and control software that U.S. military officials hope will serve as a new communication “backbone” fusing older conventional equipment with futuristic new weaponry and hardware.
Big money flowing toward Costa Mesa, California-based Anduril, coupled with the recent rounds of private funding the company has been attracting, has pushed it into territory occupied by historic suppliers for the U.S. government known as defense contracting “primes.” Such companies as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX and Boeing may soon find Anduril beside them on the primes list.
The 33-year-old Mr. Luckey has become a major face of the new era in defense technology, with members of Congress and their staffs calling him a “rock star” and recognizing him instantly. “He has a keen intellect,” Sen. Roger Wicker, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Threat Status. “I think he’s a national treasure,” added Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican.
New Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is signaling a shift in how Kyiv plans to manage its war with Russia: less bureaucratic oversight, more data-driven management and a new emphasis on leveraging Ukraine’s hard-won expertise in defeating Iran’s Shahed drones. Previously the minister for digital transformation, Mr. Fedorov was appointed defense chief in January with a mandate to modernize.
Threat Status Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak examines the situation in a dispatch from Kyiv, where drones are a central pillar of Ukraine’s strategy for conducting reconnaissance, guiding artillery fire, striking armored vehicles and attacking Russian logistics hubs far behind the battlefield. Both sides are now deploying thousands of unmanned aircraft every month.
Ukrainian government officials say the country produced or procured more than 1 million drones in 2024, and Kyiv has announced plans to further expand domestic production. Mr. Fedorov’s arrival at the Defense Ministry appears designed to accelerate that technological momentum.
Foreign ownership veers sharply toward security risk when a foreign owner has “access to the data of nearly 150 million Americans, pursues partnerships with the world’s highest-risk adversary and promotes policies that run counter to U.S. interests,” writes John Czwartacki, a co-founder and principal at Public Policy Solutions and a former executive director of external communications for Verizon.
“That’s exactly what is happening with Deutsche Telekom, the German government-backed telecommunications giant that operates stateside as T-Mobile, America’s second-largest wireless carrier,” Mr. Czwartacki writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times. “Today, Deutsche Telekom is using its expansive influence throughout Europe and the United States to undermine America’s economic and national security priorities.
“The company,” he writes, “has become a prominent corporate supporter of Europe’s ‘digital sovereignty’ campaign, which consists of regulations specifically designed to pressure American platforms to police speech, impose regulatory costs and ultimately weaken U.S. technology companies that underpin America’s economic security.”
• March 25 — Next Steps for U.S.-Japan Military Shipbuilding, Repair, and Maintenance, Stimson Center
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