Mr. Hegseth is in deep political danger after the midterm elections, with the Iran war — and the Pentagon’s handling of it — widely viewed as a leading reason for Republicans’ disastrous showing. 

Pentagon advisers tell Threat Status that a heavy cloud is hanging over Mr. Hegseth even as his staff says he intends to lead the department through the end of the Trump administration. Vice President J.D. Vance didn’t help the secretary’s case with a strikingly long post on social media Wednesday saying that warnings that the Iran war would be a political problem for Republicans were correct. 

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Mr. Vance wrote. The vice president, a longtime friend of former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who resigned in September amid behind-the-scenes tension with Mr. Hegseth, said to voters: “You’re right, you did tell us so.”

Mr. Trump has yet to publicly blame Mr. Hegseth, who proudly championed the Iran war alongside him, for any of the election fallout. The president said Wednesday he has “every intention” of keeping Mr. Hegseth.

In the last two weeks, the small town of Camden, Arkansas, has seen millions of dollars pour into missile production facilities owned by major defense companies Lockheed Martin and L3Harris. Growing demand for solid rocket motors, complex rockets and missiles has made the town a key hub for the defense industrial base.

The expansion of Camden facilities is a clear signal that missile production lines in the U.S. are increasing capacity to meet demand, which has surged during the U.S.-Iran war. The Trump administration has pushed defense companies to ramp up production. Both L3Harris and Lockheed Martin announced new investments in Camden late last year.

Lockheed Martin said this week it’s investing another $420 million in its facility and will increase production capacity for multiple munitions, specifically those identified by the Munitions Acceleration Council. The announcement comes just 13 days after L3Harris held a ribbon-cutting ceremony of its own 60,000-square-foot facility next door.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said his party will demand public transparency and accountability from senior Pentagon officials through “increased public testimony” as he moves to become the chairman of the committee in the next Congress.

Mr. Smith said he plans to bring back the panel’s oversight and investigations subcommittee to examine the most controversial military moves of the Trump administration, but also to look at some of its biggest spending. “We must dive into any waste, fraud and abuse by examining contracts and other financial support awarded to private companies,” Mr. Smith said in a statement.

“Sweetheart deals and favoritism to certain entities and individuals” also are in the committee’s crosshairs.

While Mr. Smith said investment in new weapon systems is necessary, he emphasized that it must be done in “a more cost-effective manner.” He suggested Democrats will open investigations into the equity investments, loans to private capital funds and other unique funding streams used by the Pentagon over the past two years. Many of those programs are the inventions of Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, who Mr. Hegseth recently called his “secret weapon” for modernization.

Rocketdyne CEO Kristin Houston sees the future of national security in space advancing rapidly.

In an exclusive interview on the Threat Status podcast, Ms. Houston said maneuverable satellites in orbit are “critical” to national security. “We’re thinking about our satellites, our constellations, in a different way than we’ve had to in the past,” Ms. Houston said. “We know that some of our adversaries may have co-orbital weapons.”

Ms. Houston discussed using maneuverable satellites to avoid letting adversaries “physically grab a satellite with a robotic arm, push it out of orbit” or be “blinded.” She said the U.S. needs to react quickly to threats in space and be able to move as a critical part of engaging with modern adversaries in space.

Her comments came just days after a Russian satellite flew within 85 feet of a key U.S.-Finnish radar satellite that aids the Ukrainian military, sparking fears that space combat may soon be a reality.

Allowing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to lead the U.S. government’s AI initiative “makes good sense for our national security and economic future,” Daniel Hoffman, a retired CIA officer and opinion contributor to Threat Status, writes in his column for The Washington Times.

“We have significant legislation to write and pass, and much executive policy planning to do, to ensure that we maximize the commercial and military benefits of AI’s learning, problem-solving and decision-making, while minimizing its risks to our national security,” Mr. Hoffman writes.

“The objective should be to integrate human oversight into AI to maintain the technical superiority needed to defend against AI attacks while maximizing the commercial and military benefits of our own AI development,” Mr. Hoffman argues. “Independent inspectors general would enhance trust and ensure that companies develop AI as quickly as possible, while maintaining the level of regulatory oversight and responsibility that national security and the public rightfully demand.”

• Nov. 10 — China, America and the Fragmentation of the Global Economy: A Conversation with Aaron Friedberg, American Enterprise Institute

• Nov. 10 — 2026 Homeland Security Summit, Potomac Officers Club

• Nov. 10 — Elisabeth Braw on ‘Undersea War’ and the Battle Over Cables and Pipelines, Atlantic Council

• Nov. 16 — The Black Sea Blueprint for Taiwan: Lessons in Asymmetric Naval Warfare, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Nov. 17 — Special Threat Status Event: The Golden Age of Space, Threat Status 

• Nov. 20-22 — Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, HFX