After axing the M-10 tank, the Army’s not sure what happens next. Officials are sitting down with manufacturer General Dynamics to negotiate the return of funds put toward a 93-vehicle order in 2022. “The Army Transformation Initiative directs the service to collect those savings and put it directly into new technology. The initial, low-rate production contract was about $1 billion, and yielded the three vehicles the Army has in service now, so discussions will focus on how much to refund the Army, minus a penalty for canceling the contract,” reports Defense One’s Meghann Myers.
In the meantime, the M-10s are going to Anniston Army Depot, Ala., and despite suggestions that the Marine Corps might want them, Army officials report no talks on the subject yet. Read on, here.
How much to renovate the “free” Air Force One? USAF won’t say, officially. But “Air Force officials privately acknowledge dipping into nuclear modernization funds for the complex project,” after $934 million was quietly transferred from the Sentinel ICBM program to an unnamed classified effort, the New York Times reports.
The aircraft, which adds to the commander-in-chief’s unprecedented pile of national-security conflicts of interest, “probably won’t fly for long: It will take a year or two to get the work done, and then the Qatari gift—improved with the latest communications and in-flight protective technology—will be transferred to the yet-to-be-created Trump presidential library after he leaves office in 2029, the president has said.” Read on, here.
A disagreement over a three-star’s promotion highlights “tension between top military officers and their civilian leaders,” the New York Times reports. The “highly partisan worldview” of SecDef Pete Hegseth clashes with “the longstanding tradition of an apolitical military that pledges an oath to the Constitution” and “Hegseth’s actions could shape the military’s top ranks for years to come. His insistence on absolute loyalty, backed with repeated threats of polygraphs, also creates uncertainty and mistrust that threaten to undermine the readiness and effectiveness of the force, officials said.” Read on, here.
ICYMI: Hegseth scuttled the appointment of an admiral to lead 7th Fleet, apparently because sailors performed in drag aboard his aircraft carrier years ago. Jon Duffy, who worked with the admiral, argues that “The Navy needs leaders like Buzz Donnelly: leaders who know that warfighting readiness isn’t threatened by a sailor’s talent show, but by corrosive fear-mongering and political purity tests.”
New: The White House has told Hegseth to stop with the polygraph tests, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Additional reading:
Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston and Audrey Decker. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1945, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people and injuring 26 others.
Russia’s Ukraine invasion
Tactical update: Russian troops are launching more missiles in overnight attacks, and they’re using more armored personnel carriers after a decrease in both since the winter months, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War wrote in their Saturday and Sunday assessments. The uptick in missile launches is most visible beginning in late May, according to this chart from ISW. It’s too soon to know for certain if these changes are deliberate, top-down choices or the result of Russian defense industry output—though the latter is a strong possibility, ISW’s analysts wrote Saturday.
Lithuania said it’s putting down about $35 million for Ukraine to acquire another Patriot missile defense system and Germany vowed to send another IRIS-T air defense system to Ukraine soon, officials said last week.
Notable: The U.S. announced four pending weapons sales to Ukraine last week as well, including a HAWK Phase III Missile System at a cost of about $172 million, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle refurbishments for $150 million, $180 million in unspecified air defense system components, and about $150 million for M109 self-propelled howitzers.
Meanwhile, Russian ground forces continue making incremental gains in select locations in eastern Ukraine, including Siversk and Toretsk in Donetsk, and Novopavlivka in the southeastern Zaporizhia Oblast. The recent gains coincide with an increase in APCs in both oblasts since early July.
Those gains also follow months of intense, drone-centric defense in the frontline city of Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian forces have used small drones to fend off Russian invaders—until last week, Reuters reported Monday from Donetsk.
But Russian forces have more fiber-optic drones, which are resistant to jamming, and have taken full advantage of that both in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been pushed back, and now around Pokrovsk. Read more, here.
By the way: Elon Musk helped Russia in late 2022 when he turned off Starlink satellite services to Ukraine just as Kyiv’s troops were retaking territory seized by Russian invasion forces, Reuters confirmed in a report published Friday. Musk’s order deactivated more than 100 Starlink terminals, “shock[ing] some Starlink employees and effectively reshap[ing] the front line of the fighting,” three people familiar with the order told Reuters.
Why it matters: “We would never do such a thing,” Musk claimed on social media in March. “Musk’s current global dominance exemplifies the dangers of concentrated power in unregulated domains,” a British parliamentarian added. Story, here.
Ukraine drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, spoiling Russia’s Navy Day and causing the airport to cancel flights for about five hours, Reuters reported from Moscow. “The Russian Defence Ministry said air defence units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below a record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia’s Victory Day parade on May 9.”
At least some of Ukraine’s drones are using mobile networks for navigation, and that’s prompted Russian officials to institute mobile network blackouts that make ordinary life especially challenging, the New York Times reported Monday. “By late July, the cellular internet was down every day, for at least a few hours, in some part of at least 73 of Russia’s 83 regions,” according to a volunteer tally.
“The internet shutdowns have become so frequent and widespread that they have given rise to online memes and songs,” the Times reports. Read more, here.
Pro-Ukrainian hackers forced the cancellation of dozens of flights Monday for Russia’s national flag carrier Aeroflot, Reuters reported from Moscow. “Aeroflot did not say how long the problems would take to resolve, but departure boards at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport turned red as flights were cancelled at a time when many Russians take their holidays.”
Diplomatic update: Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin still want “nothing short of Ukraine’s full capitulation, undermining Russia’s diplomatic posturing,” ISW warned Sunday in response to public remarks from Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Additional reading:
Industry
Boeing is preparing for a potential strike in St. Louis after its fighter jet workers rejected a proposed contract offer—a major blow for the company already grappling with workforce shortages. The company’s St. Louis-area facilities host key Pentagon fighter jet programs, including the F/A-18, F-15, T-7 trainer, and the future sixth-gen F-47. The company expects more than 3,200 union workers to start the strike next week.
Boeing has “activated our contingency plan” and is “focused on preparing for a strike,” and added that no talks are scheduled with the union, according to Dan Gillian, Boeing’s vice president of air dominance and general manager and senior executive in St. Louis. The company reports its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, where executives may provide more details on the implications of the strike.
Additional reading: “Australia, Britain sign 50-year AUKUS submarine partnership treaty,” Reuters reported Saturday from Sydney.
Around MENA
U.S. forces in the Middle East killed a top ISIS official in Syria on Friday. Central Command officials said his name was Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and that he was a senior leader for ISIS in the region. Two other adults were killed in the raid—Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani, whom CENTCOM claims was the senior leader’s “ISIS-affiliated sons.”
U.S. troops in Somalia conducted an airstrike against suspected al-Shabaab fighters near Sabiid, about 25 miles southwest of Mogadishu, on Friday. The militant group seized the town of Sabiid earlier that week, along with the nearby town of Anole, according to the Soufan Group.
Little is known about the strike or its alleged effectiveness. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” officials from U.S. Africa Command said in a brief statement Monday.
Recall that some in the Trump administration feared Somalia could be on the brink of a potentially “rapid collapse,” as the New York Times reported in April.
Bigger picture: “The group appears to be maneuvering toward encircling Mogadishu, a strategy underscored by high-profile attacks such as the March 2025 assassination attempt on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, carried out with a remote-detonated IED inside the capital,” the Soufan Group reminded readers last week.
“Since launching its Shabelle Offensive in April 2025, the group has rapidly gained strategic and territorial ground across Middle and Lower Shabelle, as well as eastern Hiran,” Soufan explains. Over the course of 2025, the U.S. military has carried out more airstrikes against suspected ISIS militants in northern Somalia than it has against Shabaab militants elsewhere, such as the vicinity of Mogadishu.
As noted above, “The U.S. military has offered few details on the outcomes or precise scale of these missions, casting a shadow on their effectiveness,” Soufan writes. “This imbalance has led to growing concerns that the international response may be lagging behind the pace of al-Shabaab’s resurgence in central and southern Somalia.” More, here.
From the region: “Yemen’s Houthis threaten to escalate attacks on ships linked to companies dealing with Israel,” the Associated Press reported Monday.
Read the full article here