Ukraine
Trump lifts restrictions on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles. On Tuesday, Ukraine struck a Russian plant in Bryansk with a British Storm Shadow missile—and U.S. targeting data, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. That signals a reversal in U.S. policy, which had barred helping Ukraine use long-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia. It follows a White House decision to transfer authority for such strikes from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO’s top military officer.
President Trump called the story “FAKE NEWS!” but did not deny its central claim. “The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!” he said. Read more from the WSJ, here.
Gripens for Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a letter of intent to buy “probably 100-150” Gripen fighter jets from Sweden’s Saab AB. “It is a clear and mutual statement of intent — the beginning of a journey over 10-15 years,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced. Deliveries of the Gripen E, the latest version, could start in three years. Breaking Defense has a bit more, here.
Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Patrick Tucker and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1983, a suicide bomber in a dump truck attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers.
Americas
Boat-strike campaign spreads to the Pacific. CBS News: “The U.S. has struck two alleged drug vessels on the Pacific side of Latin America over the last two days, killing five people, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday. The Trump administration has now carried out nine known strikes against alleged narcotics trafficking boats since last month, leading to at least 37 deaths. The first seven strikes were within the Caribbean Sea — but this week, the strategy broadened to the East Pacific.”
Commentary: Deadly force needs more justification than “just trust us.” “President Trump says the strikes are legal, and that the boats were trafficking drugs, but he has not offered evidence to substantiate the claim. Nor has he explained how the deliberate, premeditated killing of civilians — what Colombian and Venezuelan leaders and some jurists have called “murder”— can possibly be reconciled with domestic and international law. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has reportedly deemed the strikes lawful, but its analysis hasn’t been disclosed,” writes Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia, at the New York Times. “A quarter-century after the Sept. 11 attacks, then, we find ourselves in a familiar place: Our government is once again committing grave human rights abuses on the ostensible authority of a legal opinion that is being kept secret.” Read on, here.
“Drums of war.” Back on the Caribbean side, the Washington Post totes up the ways that Trump’s surging of warships, planes, and other U.S. forces are setting up a possible “mission creep” scenario where the United States comes into direct conflict with the Venezuelan military. They include the boat strikes, a secret CIA memo targeting Venezuela’s Maduro regime (Trump acknowledged it in the Oval Office last week) and the declaration of an armed conflict with drug cartels such as the Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua. “At the end of the day if you have authority to take out cartel runners” at sea, “you can take out the cartel boss,” one source told the Post. Read on, here.
Stage set for secret ops: February’s appointment of former AFSOC commander John “Dan” Caine as Joint Chiefs chairman and the firing of top service lawyers have set the stage of an increase in the use of clandestine and covert operations with little or no congressional oversight.
More context: Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, last week announced his intention to retire within months, less than a year into his tenure.
Guard deployments to Chicago on hold. Associated Press: “National Guard troops won’t be deploying in the Chicago area anytime soon unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes because a judge on Wednesday extended her temporary restraining order indefinitely.” Trump’s unprecedented deployments of troops to U.S. cities have spawned a raft of lawsuits; AP has updates on several of the most significant ones, here.
Shutdown
Some U.S. service members aren’t getting paid despite Trump’s promises, advocacy group says. “Troops are having a difficult time getting answers about their paychecks after some soldiers, sailors and Marines say they were shorted after paychecks came out Oct. 15,” WHRO reported in Norfolk, Virginia, citing Raleigh Duttweiler of the National Military Family Association. “More than 150 members of the National Military Family Association report being underpaid last week, some by as much as $2,000. The average loss was more than $600.” Earlier this month, Trump ordered SecDef Hegseth to divert funds to pay troops, a move budget experts said is likely illegal. More, here.
Danke. The German government has announced it will pay the salaries of the nearly 12,000 Germans employed by U.S. military bases in the country, three weeks into the shutdown of the U.S. federal government, Stars and Stripes reports.
Around the Defense Department
“Interoperability” isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, RAND report finds. Defense News: “In theory, the fact that the United States and Europe fly many of the same jets should be a blessing. Common aircraft models — such as the F-35 and F-16 — should mean common spare parts, ground support equipment and mechanics who can fix similar planes from different nations. “But the reality is more complicated. Different variants within the same model, incompatible support equipment and a lack of shared data and procedures create barriers to interoperability, researchers with the Rand Corporation think tank warned in a September report.” Read on, here.
“Next generation” of the Pentagon press corps includes “mostly right-wing outlets, following the mass exodus of legacy outlets from the building who refused to sign the department’s restrictive new press policy,” The Hill reported Wednesday, following an announcement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
The group includes a reporter for Timcast Media, run by Tim Pool, a podcaster who frequently pushes Russian talking points and accidentally accepted tens of thousands of dollars from the Kremlin last year; Jordan Conradson, a Gateway Pundit correspondent who suggested that large numbers of illegal aliens were “probably going to vote in this next election,” despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud in either the 2020 or 2024 election; Jack Posobiec, who boosted the #pizzagate conspiracy theory and a Russian disinformation operation; and a correspondent from an outlet called LindellTV, founded by My Pillow CEO and convicted defamer Mike Lindell. We wish them peace and good health.
Rewind: Why did the Pentagon press corps walk out? One of your D Briefers explained to Ward Carroll—a former F-14 RIO, military PAO, journalist, and YouTuber. Watch that, here.
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