PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – ‘We need to be ready to go.’ Special operations airmen are ready for potential missions focused on Venezuela amid Trump’s campaign against alleged narco-terror groups in the region, the leader of Air Force Special Operations Command.
AFSOC held a long-planned exercise on St. Croix just days before the first U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat.
The air commandos conducted a mock takeover of an airport, demonstrating the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept — which was originally designed for use against adversaries such as China or Russia.
While Lt. Gen. Michael Conley declined to specifically disclose if they are supporting operations related to Venezuela, he saids that his airmen have strike, surveillance, and mobility assets that “any combatant commander would love.”
Since Trump’s first narcoboat strike, the military has increased its presence in the Caribbean. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones and Marine Corps F-35Bs have been placed in Puerto Rico alongside C-5 and C-17 military transports.
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
Mobilizing for the ‘invisible war.’ In his confirmation hearing, the nominee for vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, set electronic warfare as one of his top priorities if he is approved by the Senate. This, after more than a decade of dire assessments regarding the U.S. military’s eroding proficiency and capacity for EW.
HOMELAND SECURITY
A leftist anti-ICE gunman fired upon a Dallas immigration field office from a nearby roof, killing one detainee and critically wounding two others before taking his own life in a targeted attack on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Veterans who lack citizenship fear being swept up in deportations.
More than a dozen service members have been suspended or relieved of duties for social media activity related to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
The divestment of Maryland’s A-10C Thunderbolt II warplanes this week left the state’s Air National Guard as the only one in the U.S. without a flying mission.
White House budget office tells federal agencies to draft mass firing plans ahead of potential shutdown.
Why? President Trump will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House as the Trump has indicated that the U.S. government’s hold on sales of advanced fighter jets to Ankara may soon be lifted.
Pentagon has stepped back from the policy that requires all troops to get the flu shot every year by introducing exemptions for reservists and proclaiming that the shot is only necessary in some circumstances for all service members.
US POWER OVERSEAS
The world’s most powerful warship, the super carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), is spearheading NATO’s latest Neptune Strike exercise, sailing in formation with allied warships in the North Sea as part of a major demonstration of maritime power directed at Russia.
U.S. Army tent hospital treated more than 160 simulated casualties during Orient Shield, a nine-day trilateral exercise in central Japan.
RUSSIA THREAT
Denmark reports ‘hybrid attack’ as drones sighted at several airports.
Prudent or weak? German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said calls to shoot down Russian jets that have entered NATO airspace are counterproductive, advocating instead for a policy of restraint following several incursions by Moscow’s warplanes.
Russian Navy Borei-class ballistic missile submarine was spotted near Japan for the first time transiting the La Perouse Strait.
German soldier told authorities that two Russian-speaking men assaulted him as he got into his car in Sulzbach-Rosenberg earlier this week.
Inside NATO’s response to Russia’s violation of Estonian air space. Just minutes after NATO radars detected three Russian MiG-31 aircraft with transponders turned off heading toward the Estonian border, alarms sounded at this wooded air base about 40 minutes outside Tallinn.
MIDDLE EAST THREATS
At least 20 people have been injured, two seriously, after a drone launched from Yemen hit Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat on the border with Jordan and Egypt.
Air Force officials in the Middle East had “no indications” ahead of time of Israel’s strike against Hamas targets in Qatar, but Washington’s strong military-to-military relationship with Doha moderated some “tension” in the strike’s aftermath.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
U.S. Military Sealift Command’s (MSC) commercial charter oiler motor tanker (MT) Allied Pacific conducted a consolidated cargo replenishment (CONSOL) at sea with Republic of Korea’s (ROK) Cheonji-class fast combat support ship in support of Freedom Edge 25.
SPACE THREATS
Expanding and strengthening U.S. military ties with space-capable nations will be key to staying ahead in the global competition for space dominance.
Space Force’s next-generation space domain awareness satellites will be equipped with a capability to be refueled on orbit — the first time the service has put such a requirement in an official acquisition program.
Aggressor satellites that replicate enemy ones on Space Force’s buy list. Space Force’s Guardians may execute a full-time remote mission from their stations on the ground, but the service’s top officer wants to take more training out of the virtual realm.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
‘Amphibious robot.’ Rheinmetall Canada said it has successfully tested an unmanned ground vehicle in a novel scenario, plunging the robot into the Atlantic Ocean to see it crawl out on a sandy beach here as part of a NATO military exercise.
Long-range jet-powered kamikaze drone Kratos is developing with Taiwan to fly next year.
Spain and Italy have sent naval ships into the Mediterranean Sea, charged with protecting the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which is carrying aid towards Gaza.
Philippine Navy’s newest warship recently arrived at Subic Bay, marking the latest development in Manila’s military modernization efforts amid tensions in the South China Sea.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial in which he and aides were accused of making an alleged corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to help fund his 2007 French presidential election campaign.
US MILITARY
Air Force has announced changes to its Physical Fitness Assessment and a new fitness program in tandem with its recently unveiled Culture of Fitness initiative.
Renderings from General Atomics offer new looks at how its air-launched LongShot drone might be employed from F-15 fighters, as well as B-52 bombers and C-17 cargo aircraft.
Navy has successfully carried out four launches of unarmed Trident II D5 missiles from submarines.
Coast Guard recently completed contract actions aimed at accelerating delivery of new MH-60 medium-range recovery helicopters and HC-130J long-range surveillance aircraft and expanding mission capabilities of the aviation fleet.
Army and Air National Guard exceeded their fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals last month, enlisting nearly 50,000 new Guard forces for the year.
Black Arrow, also known as the Small Cruise Missile (SCM), flew for more than 400 nautical miles in a test earlier this summer, also raised the possibility of eventually integrating the missile with the MQ-9 Reaper drone and the OA-1K Skyraider II light attack aircraft.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
I guess they will be going after the fat woman with the rifle?