⏱ 7 minute read
PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – The U.S. military just sent a clear message to Nicolas Maduro with a powerful naval buildup in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.
An illegitimate dictator, Maduro has a $50 million U.S. bounty on his head and is deep into the narcotics trade.
The U.S. build-up includes three 10,000-ton Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers and an amphibious strike group centered on two 25,000-ton San Antonio-class warships carrying Marines, helicopters, and beach landing craft.
The destroyers carry highly accurate 1,500-mile land-attack Tomahawk cruise missiles; sophisticated air defense, and intelligence collection capability; and two multi-purpose helicopters each.
The big amphibious ships can move their “main battery” – a Marine Expeditionary Unit of 2,500 Marines – ashore very quickly anywhere along the northern coast of South America.
A nuclear-powered attack submarine with its own cruise missiles may be operating in the area as well.
Tomahawk missiles can take out critical income-generating oil and gas infrastructure. Marines could be used against oil and gas platforms or Venezuelan military bases along the coast. Submarines and destroyers can sink Venezuelan warships and shoot down military aircraft.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela.
And as the U.S. deploys an armada of ships and aircraft to the southern Caribbean aimed at Maduro, the Navy and Marines are conducting an amphibious landing training exercise in southern Puerto Rico.
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
Bulls–t, if true. Vladimir Putin said the U.S. was listening to its justifications for the invasion of Ukraine and claimed that Moscow and Washington had reached a “mutual understanding” about the three-and-a-half-year war.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges.
Trump’s use of National Guard troops in LA immigration riots illegal, federal judge rules.
President says he will deploy National Guard troops to Chicago to help with crime in the city.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a nearly 150-year-old federal law that limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws.
Coast Guard is getting its first MQ-9 drones to help counter human trafficking, assist with drug interdictions and improve search-and-rescue missions, a game-changer in the fight against smuggling.
Trump said Tuesday that Colorado’s ‘crooked’ mail-in voting policies were a “big factor” in his decision to relocate Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama.
Following a review last month, the Army has canceled its Command Assessment Program, a program of record aimed at eliminating bias created in the last days of the Biden administration.
US POWER OVERSEAS
These are the approximate positions of the Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of September 2, 2025.
MIDDLE EAST THREATS
Israel began mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and repeated evacuation warnings as part of its plan to widen its offensive in Gaza City.
Tensions between Israel’s military and political leadership have sharply escalated over the past week, with the military chief directly confronting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent meeting over plans to expand the Gaza war.
CHINA THREAT
Air Force’s top officer in the Pacific says a key takeaway from China’s huge military parade tomorrow will be that “we are not deterred.” Several new Chinese air combat drones and air and missile defense systems, as well as a host of other advanced capabilities, will be showcased at the event in Beijing.
What new weapons on show at huge parade say about China’s military strength.
What looks to be a new Chinese road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) dubbed the DF-61, or at least a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) for it, a successor to its road-mobile DF-41, has emerged amid last-minute preparations for a massive military parade in Beijing.
Chinese ‘tourist’ spy trespassed into Air Force base on Okinawa.
Japan’s record $60B defense budget seeks unmanned systems, long-range munitions meant to counter any invasion of the country’s islands.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
As Russia and Belarus launch the “Zapad 2025” joint military drill this month, with buildups of military forces along NATO’s eastern borders and direct simulations of attacks on Poland and the Baltic States, those four European allies are gearing up for drills of their own in anticipation of low-intensity attacks against their infrastructure.
NATO is working to thwart Russian jamming of civilian flights, two days after a jet carrying European Commission president lost its ability to use GPS navigation midair in Bulgarian airspace.
Italy is considering keeping state flights secret after the satellite signal of the aircraft carrying the European Commission president was allegedly jammed by Russia.
NATO defense spending will increase by more than 15% in 2025, the second largest annual jump in more than a decade as collective expenditures rise to $1.6 trillion.
Ukraine looks set to receive a fleet of new-production up-armored 4×4 Mobile Strike Force Vehicle (MSFV) light armored vehicles from the U.S., originally developed for the now-defunct Afghan Army.
Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrum has been seen, for the first time, armed with an air-launched munition analogous to the Russian UMPK, a crude guided glide bomb that has nevertheless caused enormous difficulties for Ukrainian air defenses.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
The appearance of Kim Jong-un’s daughter in China ahead of Xi Jinping’s “victory day” parade in Beijing has added to speculation that she is being groomed to become the first female ruler of North Korea.
SPACE THREATS
Space Development Agency and its industry team demonstrated two-way optical communications between a satellite and an aircraft in flight — a milestone for efforts to establish a secure, high-speed, communications network that can connect systems across domains.
US MILITARY
Air Force plans to shutter several units dedicated to training foreign militaries in a bid to save money amid shifting priorities.
Can the US Navy’s E-2D Hawkeye substitute for the canceled Air Force E-7A Wedgetail? The Airborne and Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft was canceled by the Trump Administration, although Congress is moving to block such a decision and enacting legislation to prevent the movement of funds out of the E-7A program.
‘Be uncomfortable’: Navy wants new USV to challenge the ‘status quo.’ When the Navy gathered industry to discuss the future of its unmanned surface vessel fleet, nearly three times as many contractors asked to join compared to the previous year.
Army turning to commercial startups to fast-track autonomous ground vehicles into combat formations, awarding new contracts to three companies to test self-driving systems on Infantry Squad Vehicles.
Army says its premier attack helicopter, the Apache, successfully defeated various drones during a recent trial aimed at demonstrating the aircraft’s viability on modern battlefields.
Marine Corps is planning to bring together service members, civilians and industry at Quantico to develop courses of action for integrating generative artificial intelligence capabilities into the force.
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.
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Hi Paul…member of Kilo Co. TBS 9-68 here. Enjoy your work. Anyway, maybe you can address a couple of things in a future briefing…1. Why aren’t we using the LCS in the Caribbean? We don’t use it in the Middle East, or closer to home. Both areas are littoral regions. 2. If I were advising Trump, although that call still hasn’t come in, I would say put pressure on Belarus. Putin is nowhere ready for a confrontation with NATO. Put Levachenco on the spot. Would Putin pull troops away from Ukraine? Pull the tired old ‘I have nukes’ gambit?
Again, thanks for the updates…Bruce