CALL AN EXPERT -- it seems like everyone needs good advice these days when it comes to understanding and navigating the complex global environment and rumor has it that former Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone (Ret.) (who also served as NSA Director) is launching his own consulting firm along with former director of the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service, Brett Goldstein. Aptly named The Nakasone Group, the boutique firm will focus on cyber defense, cyber-enabled fraud and understanding the risks associated with today’s fast-paced world. For a fantastic overview of what that world looks like, check out The Cipher Brief’s State Secrets Podcast with Gen. Nakasone when host Suzanne Kelly asked if the general thinks the U.S. is ready for AI-Enabled Warfare. His answer may surprise you. You can find the State Secrets Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or watch the conversation on The Cipher Brief’s YouTube Channel.
VANDENBERG NOT QUITE READY FOR THE MOMENT: Last week, base security at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California invited members of the press to attend a golden shovel groundbreaking for a new 160,000 square foot missile training facility. The down side of the gala came when base security officers mistook the invited media convoy for a group of gate runners and pulling weapons them and their two military escorts. It’s a little hard to understand the confusion because Stars and Stripes reported that the military escorts were handcuffed and placed in government vehicles, while reporters sat curbside contemplating the finer points of the base’s public relations strategy. Everyone was eventually released without charges, but the ceremony went on without them. A spokesperson described the episode as a coordination gap that resulted in a media convoy proceeding before the credentialing process was fully completed. The spokesperson (presumably not the one in handcuffs) added that the base takes installation security and its responsibility to media guests very seriously. Sentinel, the weapon system the visitors were there to celebrate, is itself famously behind schedule and over budget, so maybe base security was just staying on theme: at Vandenberg this week, nobody was quite ready for the moment.
WHAT A FEW MONTHS LOOKS LIKE IN PENTAGON YEARS - Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is expected to step down by the end of the year, The Hill reports, citing months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that appears to have boiled over into a slow motion purge of nearly everyone in Driscoll's orbit. Driscoll, a former Army Ranger and Iraq War veteran who took office in February 2025 and counts Vice President JD Vance as a longtime friend, was reportedly viewed by Hegseth as a rival for his own job, and administration officials tell reporters that Hegseth has been going after people perceived as close to Driscoll ever since. Now, this is a gossip column, so we can’t prove it but still, Exhibit A: the April firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a Driscoll ally, reportedly after George and Driscoll refused to strip two Black officers and two female officers from a one star general promotion list. Worth remembering: back in April, Driscoll publicly insisted he wasn’t going anywhere despite the reported friction, but four months is an awfully long time in Pentagon years.
DEAD DROP IN DEUTSCHLAND: German authorities reportedly found two handguns and ammunition buried in a professionally concealed cache in a forest outside Berlin last October. Seems interesting enough. But Germany’s domestic intelligence service now believes the weapons may have been intended for Russian agents who were possibly awaiting orders from Moscow. After finding the guns, investigators did something straight out of a spy thriller. They rendered the weapons dysfunctional and fitted them with GPS trackers but left them in their hiding place and watched the site, hoping some nefarious agent would collect them. The case surfaced publicly on Friday when Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed that federal prosecutors are investigating a suspect who is now being held in Romania. Officials say the man is suspected of espionage and preparing a serious crime threatening national security. Dobrindt called him a “low-level agent” and said the case showed Germany was operating under a “high threat level.” German officials have not publicly identified a target or confirmed that Russia ordered the operation. But German media report that the domestic intelligence service believes the cache was connected to Russian intelligence and possible assassination operations. Moscow denies such allegations.
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