Thursday, October 8, 2026

DHS intelligence revamp would keep it answerable to nation’s top spy

A White House plan to fold the Department of Homeland Security’s primary intelligence unit into DHS headquarters for the coming fiscal year would not affect its oversight by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, an administration official told Nextgov/FCW. The new reporting structure, unveiled last week in the president’s FY27 budget request, would…

4 ways the war in Iran has weakened the US in the great power game

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”—Napoleon Bonaparte’s maxim—may well have been in the minds of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing these past weeks, as the U.S. war in Iran dragged on. And now that a 14-day ceasefire between Tehran and Washington is in effect, with both sides claiming “victory,” Russian and Chinese leaders…

HASC chair: Trillion-dollar defense budgets are the ‘new normal.’ Reconciliation is less certain.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A $1 trillion baseline defense budget is the standard for future funding, but additional multi-billion spending measures to cushion 2027’s request are less certain, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee chairman said Sunday. The $1.5 trillion defense budget request unveiled this month would mark the highest level of military funding in a single…

US military eyes high-energy ‘laser dome’ for domestic air defense

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here.The U.S. military is paving the way for the regular deployment of high-energy laser weapons on American soil for air defense amid the expanding threat of low-cost weaponized drones.The Federal Aviation Administration and the…