The pinnacle of U.S. intelligence made deceptive claims about what Obama-administration officers mentioned about Russian meddling within the 2016 election, whereas accusing them of a “conspiracy” to “politicize” intelligence and asking the Justice Division to launch a prison investigation, Protection One’s Patrick Tucker experiences. On Sunday, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard informed a Fox interviewer that she can be sending a memo, report, and supporting paperwork to the DOJ for investigation and potential prosecution of Obama-era officers who, she alleged, had concluded one factor in personal however mentioned one thing completely different in public.
That conclusion? That Russia had not manipulated voting machines within the 2016 election.
However that’s simply what U.S. officers mentioned, as Tucker traces by way of the general public report, together with sworn testimony.
What was the precise meddling? Russia’s hack of Democratic Get together emails and its efforts to sway U.S. votes by way of mis- and disinformation, as documented in 2020 by the GOP-led Senate intelligence committee.
Tucker: “The brand new ODNI report, briefly, misrepresents a documented Russian affect marketing campaign aimed toward voter notion as a cyber marketing campaign to control vote totals. It additionally omits a topic of extra present relevance: the proof that Russia is constant its efforts to reshape perceptions of reality to America’s drawback.” Learn on, right here.
Welcome to this Tuesday’s version of The D Transient, a e-newsletter devoted to developments affecting the way forward for U.S. nationwide safety, dropped at you by Bradley Peniston with Lauren C. Williams. Share your ideas and suggestions right here. And in the event you’re not already subscribed, you are able to do that right here. On today in 1940, Britain created the key Particular Operations Govt, or SOE, to coach and equip native resistance teams to combat Nazi occupiers.
Protection business
The right way to increase arms manufacturing? Modular weapons—product of simply sourced supplies with manufacturing requirements that business factories can accommodate—might be key, in accordance with a panel of consultants who spoke Monday on the Hudson Institute. Meaning transferring away from “extremely built-in, monolithic weapons,” in accordance with a Hudson report launched earlier this yr. Protection One’s Meghann Myers has extra from the discuss, right here.
In the meantime, in Detroit, the second annual Reindustrialize Summit drew protection distributors pitching improvements of their very own. Protection One’s Lauren C. Williams experiences on electrical seaplanes, AI factories and extra. “This wasn’t a typical protection convention; extra of a tech and finance occasion with protection components. The one navy {hardware} noticed belonged to Allen Management Techniques, which featured an autonomous weapons station on the again of a pick-up truck—a robotic turret known as the Bullfrog that serves as a platform for unmodified computerized weapons in counterdrone missions. However there was a transparent theme: constructing in America and utilizing new, superior know-how to do it.” Learn on, right here.
Look overseas, Trevor Phillips Levine and Andrew Tenbusch argue at Warfare on the Rocks: “Co-manufacturing interchangeable weapon methods with trusted allies, notably when mixed with progressive employment ideas, presents a compelling resolution. The U.S. authorities ought to seize alternatives for co-manufacturing and joint procurement of present munitions with allies to maximise deterrence. Doing so will strengthen the credibility and resilience of the worldwide defense-industrial base required to prevail in a significant battle.” Learn their argument, right here.
Europe
Ukraine-war standing test: “Russia’s summer time offensive in Ukraine is gaining floor as its forces assault on a number of fronts. In June, the nation’s numerical benefits in troops and air energy produced its largest month-to-month beneficial properties in territory because the starting of the yr,” experiences the New York Instances, which provides that Moscow is aiming to destroy the Ukrainian navy because it takes floor—and achieve this earlier than its personal financial system can now not help the warfare. Ukraine’s survival might rely on the Trump administration, which is giving “blended alerts about its want and talent to proceed arming Kyiv’s forces. Final week, President Trump mentioned that NATO international locations would purchase weapons from america to offer to Ukraine.” The NYT’s standing test goes on at some size, overlaying “The bottom warfare,” “The air warfare,” “Russia’s objectives,” “The Russian financial system,” and “Casualties.” Learn on, right here.
In the meantime, Ukraine is working onerous to spice up its personal capacity to fabricate arms, an effort that relies upon closely on overseas funding, the NYT experiences in a separate article, right here.
And: Is the U.S. weapons stockpile depleted by the warfare in Ukraine? The Warfare Horse takes a crack at answering that partially labeled query, with assist from CSIS’s Mark Cancian and beginning with a timeline of the yr’s occasions to this point. Learn that, right here.
ICYMI: UK, Germany have a brand new bilateral protection treaty. Signed on Thursday, the so-called Kensington Treaty “features a broad vary of guarantees, starting from joint military-industrial exports to facilitating faculty exchanges between the 2 international locations. It moreover commits the NATO allies to ‘help each other, together with by way of navy means, within the occasion of an armed assault on the opposite,’” AP experiences.
And: “On the sidelines of the signing, the leaders additionally teased a brand new section within the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine. Shortly thereafter, Russia’s overseas ministry renewed warnings that such a transfer could also be met with navy strikes in opposition to European international locations.” Learn on, right here.
Across the Protection Division
USAF’s huge agility train. The service is marshalling greater than 400 plane and 12,000 personnel to check its capacity “to shift operations from giant, centralized air bases to smaller, extra agile clusters which might be more durable for adversaries to focus on,” Stripes reported. “Resolute Power Pacific, which started July 10 and runs by way of Aug. 8, is designed to judge the service’s agile fight employment technique, which emphasizes fast deployment, versatile basing and dispersal operations.” Learn on, right here.
Home, Senate coverage payments intention to nurture innovation, speed up manufacturing. How so? Air & House Forces journal has a brief roundup, right here.
Marines go away LA. AP: “The Pentagon ordered the U.S. Marines to depart Los Angeles on Monday, greater than a month after President Donald Trump deployed them to town in opposition to the objections of native leaders. The 700 Marines have been deployed June 9 on the fourth day of protests in downtown LA over the administration’s crackdown on immigration. 4 thousand Nationwide Guard troopers have been additionally deployed.” Extra, right here.
Timeline of SecDef advisors’ departure. The Hill: “Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s tenure has seen a sequence of high-profile employees departures, leaving the Pentagon head with no chief of employees and different key advisers”—together with, on Saturday, the introduced departure of senior adviser Justin Fulcher. The Hill has a ticktock of who has left and when, right here.
