Threat Status for Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor.
The Pentagon inspector general says Iranian attacks on U.S. outposts have destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings.
… The war with Iran is spreading to Yemen and increasingly drawing in Saudi Arabia as a violent battle over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait escalates.
… Iran signaled Tuesday it has no interest in entering formal peace negotiations.
… Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, is seeking unanimous consent to advance a bill that would require developers of artificial intelligence to build kill switches.
… Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, is leading a push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
… The U.S. Justice Department says the Kremlin was behind a murder-for-hire plot targeting Russian dissidents in the United States.
… Latin American governments are trying to crack down on duplicitous recruitment of their citizens by Russian operatives for the Ukraine war.
… A citizen of Estonia, Switzerland and Russia has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin aviation and aerospace parts to Russia.
… And Air Force Secretary Troy Meink’s announcement that the U.S. now has “on orbit” weapons was a signal to China and Russia.
Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. outposts in the Middle East have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and dozens of American combat aircraft since the start of the war against Tehran, according to a mandatory report from the Pentagon’s inspector general delivered to Congress this week.
The Defense Department watchdog estimated that Operation Epic Fury — the official name of the war that began in late February — has cost $33.4 billion as of June 29. Of that amount, $22.3 billion went to procuring critical munitions, such as missile interceptors, as stockpiles have been steadily depleted by the conflict. Another $3.7 billion has gone to replace lost U.S. military equipment.
Those numbers have likely soared even higher since. For example, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it shot down an advanced MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. The IG report detailed other U.S. military aircraft that have been destroyed or heavily damaged in the conflict, including F-15E and F-35 fighters, KC-135 refueling aircraft, combat helicopters such as the AH-64 and the MH-60, and drones such as the MQ-4C Triton.
House Democrats picked up three new Republican supporters as they forced a third successful vote Tuesday night on a war powers resolution to end the Iran conflict. Capitol Hill Reporter Lindsey McPherson reports that Democrats wanted to squeeze Republicans on the Iran war one more time before November’s midterm elections, and it worked.
Two of the Republicans, Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn of Iowa, are running for reelection against Democratic challengers in races that election analysts consider toss-ups. Mr. Nunn, an Air Force veteran, said he cannot support another open-ended war. The third new GOP supporter, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, is not running for reelection after losing a bid this summer for the Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination.
The House approved similar measures in June and July. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Warren Davidson of Ohio have voted for all three resolutions because they say President Trump needs to ask Congress for authorization for use of military force against Iran.
Latin American governments have begun taking more forceful action against Russia-linked recruitment networks drawing their citizens into the war in Ukraine. Colombia’s new Trump-aligned president, Abelardo de la Espriella, on Sept. 5 formally asked both Moscow and Kyiv to stop enlisting its nationals.
Threat Status Special Correspondent Joseph Hammond examines the situation, reporting that Peruvian authorities are prosecuting an alleged recruiter accused of directing Peruvians into Russian military service under false pretenses. The Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office says it has 22 open cases involving more than 300 Peruvian nationals who have been recruited.
In one case, prosecutors say a Peruvian national was lured to Russia with promises of a $2,600 monthly salary and free travel. Once in the country, the alleged victim was induced to sign a Russian-language contract with the promise of a $26,000 signing bonus. The Peruvian mentioned in the reports said he never received the funds and was promptly sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Yixin made global headlines this week by warning that foreign AI technology poses a direct threat to Chinese Communist Party rule and that AI development is now a central battlefield in the global competition with the U.S.
Mr. Chen, China’s most senior intelligence official, called for bolstering security to protect political stability and for countering foreign cyberattacks and cognitive warfare from “hostile forces.” He also said China’s AI development is needed for Beijing’s military to compete with the United States.
Official CCP propaganda outlets have previously warned of the political dangers from AI. But Mr. Chen’s statements — in a detailed report published by the state-run outlet China Cyberspace — are the most comprehensive assessment to date on the AI threat to party rule and security. They also set a sobering tone ahead of a highly anticipated summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, slated for Sept. 24 at the White House.
A new cold war is “being waged against America by Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang — an Axis of Aggressors,” according to Clifford D. May, who writes in his weekly column for The Washington Times that, “in response, President Trump sensibly seeks higher military spending.
“His fiscal year 2027 request of $1.5 trillion is a significant increase over this year’s roughly $1 trillion. Even so, it would remain well below the percentage of gross domestic product we spent during Cold War I,” writes Mr. May, president and founder of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “No less important is recognition that we are not getting sufficient bang for our buck when interceptors worth millions of dollars are fired at drones worth thousands of dollars.
“The uncomfortable truth is that the current U.S. administration, like those that preceded it, has been reluctant to adopt Ukraine’s scrappy, fast, adaptive methods for integrating commercial technology or planning for cheap, mass-produced systems such as drones.”
Thanks for reading Threat Status. Don’t forget to share it with your friends, who can sign up here. And listen to our weekly podcast available here or wherever you get your podcasts.
