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Threat Status for Friday, July 3, 2025. The Threat Status daily newsletter team is on hiatus July 3 in recognition of the Fourth of July holiday. While we’re away, please enjoy recent selections from our team’s deep-dive journalism, exclusive Threat Status podcast interviews and highlights from the recent IndoPac 2026 event in Washington.

Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor and National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang.

Catch up on IndoPac 2026 | Naval Dominance: Shipbuilding, Autonomy & C2

OMB Director Russell Vought with Guy Taylor. Washington Times Threat Status event at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2026. Photo credit: Eleanor Kaufman, special to The Washington Times.

Threat Status convened leaders from the U.S. military, Congress, the Trump administration, think tanks and the defense industrial base for a special event on June 24 at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington. The event examined the future of U.S. maritime power in the Indo-Pacific as competition with China intensifies. Here are a few highlights:

WATCH: Inside the White House’s plan to reinvigorate U.S. shipbuilding

Mr. Taylor moderates a fireside chat with White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who explains how the Trump administration aims to “bulldoze bureaucracy” and breathe new life into American shipbuilding. 

WATCH: Naval Research Laboratory to build ‘decision superiority’ tools with AI

Capt. Randy Cruz, the commander of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, explains why the U.S. military needs new tools to cut through and make sense of the data overload confronting today’s warfighters. Capt. Cruz participated in an IndoPac 2026 panel discussion on command and control, moderated by Defense and National Security Correspondent John T. Seward

WATCH: Sen. Deb Fischer warns U.S. not keeping pace with its adversaries

In a keynote speech at IndoPac 2026, Ms. Fischer, a Nebraska Republican and key member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, outlined what she believes it will take to deter China and defend the Indo-Pacific.

Threat Status weekly podcast exclusives

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility 10.17.2025. Photo credit: Camelia Streff via DVIDS

LISTEN: Inside the Navy’s push for tech dominance

Mike Frank, the deputy chief technology officer at the U.S. Department of the Navy, joins the Threat Status podcast to discuss the future of American naval power, the role of unmanned surface vessels and much more. 

LISTEN: Inside the Army’s advanced manufacturing revolution

Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, the commanding general of U.S. Army Materiel Command, joins the show to discuss the Army’s advanced manufacturing push and a behind-the-scenes battle over the Army’s dining system.

Threat Status exclusive reporting

The sun sets near the Chinese guided-missile destroyer Guiyang at the end of a public day to mark the 75th anniversary of Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

READ: Pacific Command chief sounds alarm on China war threat in private report to Congress

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz explains a new report to Congress from Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, who says he needs at least $122 billion in new arms to bolster American military power in the Pacific.

Threat Status Events Radar

• July 6 — A Rebalancing NATO Gathers in Ankara, Brookings Institution 

• July 7 — Sixteenth Annual South China Sea Conference, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• July 7 — Was the Iran War Worth It? Assessing Costs, Benefits and U.S. Interests, Stimson Center

• July 8 — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Proposers Day: Lightweight Universal Codec Program, DARPA

• July 8-9 — Military Robotics and Autonomous Systems USA Conference, SAE Media Group

• July 10 — Taiwan’s Institutional Defense: Countering Chinese Communist Party Infiltration and Transnational Repression, Hudson Institute

• July 14-17 — Aspen Security Forum, Aspen Strategy Group

• Aug. 4-5 — Air and Space Force Procurement Conference, American Defense Alliance

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If you’ve got questions, Guy Taylor and Ben Wolfgang are here to answer them.

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