DOD Priorities – Defend Homeland Or Fight China?

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – Defending the homeland, not deterring China, tops the list of priorities that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent to senior DOD leaders and combatant commanders, ahead of the expected release of the second Trump administration’s first National Defense Strategy. 

This focus reflects “the President’s determination to restore our neglected position in the Western Hemisphere,” Hegseth wrote in an Aug. 7 memo laying out his defense-planning guidance. Defense One obtained a copy of the memo.

Before mentioning China—long seen as the “pacing challenge” with which the U.S. is jockeying for influence in not only the Indo-Pacific, but Africa and Latin America—the guidance’s first listed priority is to “seal our borders, repel invasion, counter narcotics and trafficking, and support the Department of Homeland Security mission to deport illegal aliens.”

The language continues the current Trump administration’s departure from not just the Biden National Defense Strategy, but the president’s own first-term strategy, both of which placed deterring China as first priority.

It’s not clear what homeland defense as the No. 1 DOD priority will look like in the 2026 budget.

“I think that that’s going to, in part, depend on what the top line is, and if you have to actually divert resources from a second or third priority into a first priority, or if you have kind of an ongoing effort that you augment, based on what the what the requirement is.”

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories ending the week from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

Should Trump transform the proposed Dome for America into a Golden Dome for NATO? It would send the clear message to potential adversaries that we are united in deterring and defending against nuclear and conventional ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles.

DOD declined for the first time to send anyone to speak at a key security conference organized by the U.K. and held in Japan this year, even as regional allies seek to strengthen coordination. 

Trump wants to stop nuclear proliferation. STRATCOM could play a major role.

HOMELAND SECURITY

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed plans for stepped up presence of federal agents and immigration enforcement in the nation’s third-largest city.

The commander of the National Guard task force in Washington said his troops are focused on their assigned mission, which is to provide security, and to be a “reassuring presence,” not direct law enforcement.

DEFENSE POLITICS

Portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in his Confederate uniform with a slave guiding his horse in the background will be rehung in West Point’s library.

US POWER OVERSEAS

U.S. is boosting its naval force in the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels with the expected arrival of more vessels next week, an action that will fuel more reaction in Venezuela.

A hundred-plus high-altitude balloons could populate the skies over waters in the Indo-Pacific region next year as part of an Army swarming exercise designed to explore questions about mass effects.

Army will deploy its mid-range missile system, Typhon, to Japan for the first time during a Marine Corps-led exercise in September. 

MIDDLE EAST THREATS

Belgium joins the ranks of Australia, France, Canada and the UK, all who have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN next week in a bid to ramp up pressure on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza.

Israel is weighing the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, as several Western nations move towards recognizing Palestinian statehood this month. 

The leaked plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the territory’s local population.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels stormed the offices of two UN agencies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, a day after Israel said it killed the prime minister of the rebel-controlled government.

Largest Gaza flotilla with Greta Thunberg on board departs Barcelona. Aims to break Israeli blockade.

CHINA THREAT

How Air Force might ‘judo throw’ China’s plan to disrupt its C2 networks. In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups. 

‘Threat to sovereignty.’ Visit by a pair of U.S. senators to Taiwan has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its own and objects to any contact between officials of the two sides. 

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Putin says NATO enlargement has to be addressed for Ukraine peace.

Trump administration approves sale of 3,350  ERAM extended range missiles to Ukraine.

Thanks to Trump. NATO said all alliance members will spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense this year, the first time for that to happen since the spending target was set more than a decade ago. 

EU collectively spent $402 billion on defense last year, exceeding projections and setting a new record. Still half of U.S. defense spending.

Plane carrying EU chief was hit by Likely Russian GPS jamming as it prepared to land in Bulgaria.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Japan’s $60 billion budget for 2026 fiscal year seeks funding for coastal defense network, more F-35s and plans to build a multilayered drone network for littoral warfare, as well as the development of a submarine-launched missile.

Norwegian Navy will be equipped with British-made warships designed for anti-submarine warfare as part of the country’s largest defense capability investment to date.

Newly announced $1.5 billion facility, dubbed the “single largest defense industry investment” in Turkey’s history, is expected to double the production capacity for components of Ankara’s Steel Dome national air defense system.

US MILITARY

Project Flytrap and the Army’s answer to drone warfare. Small drones have become one of the most dangerous threats on today’s battlefields. The military has been racing to catch up, on both offense and defense. 

Why is the Army chopping away at its chopper fleet?

Head of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office discusses domestic crop security, programs to save troops in the age of drone warfare, and more. 

Navy Helicopter and CMV-22B Osprey squadrons recently drilled on extended search and rescue efforts across the frigid Alaskan water space as part of exercise Northern Edge. 

Space Force celebrated the first graduating class of its new Officer Training Course, marking a new approach to training that ensures the new leaders will have knowledge across key areas.

Boeing’s new rendering for its Navy F/A-XX proposal is remarkably similar to concept artwork for its F-47, selected for the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter.

END of PDB