Daily Report

Nov. 6, 2025
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Edited by Greg Hadley with Courtney Albon, Chris Gordon and John A. Tirpak

Air Force Conducts Unarmed ICBM Launch as Trump Ponders Nuclear Tests

By Chris Gordon
Air Force Global Strike Command tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in the early hours of Nov. 5, the service announced. The test, the latest in a series of launches which have been carried out at regular intervals for decades, came as Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted the development of two new nuclear weapons and President Donald Trump has suggested in recent days that the U.S. might resume nuclear testing.

Air Force Installations Nominee Endorses More Privatized Housing

By Greg Hadley
In written testimony to the Senate, the nominee to oversee the Air Force’s installations and energy enterprise endorsed the continued privatization of military housing and called for the department to think more during the acquisition process about how it will power new weapons systems when the logistics supply chain is under attack.

Report: Pentagon Can’t Forget About PNT for Golden Dome

By Courtney Albon
The Pentagon should establish a dedicated budget to support Golden Dome’s positioning, navigation, and timing needs and assign a PNT lead to coordinate needed improvements to ground and space-based navigation systems, according to a new report from the National Security Space Association. 

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Trump Expresses Reservations Over Strikes in Venezuela to Top Aides

The Wall Street Journal

President Trump has recently expressed reservations to top aides about launching military action to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, fearing that strikes might not compel the autocrat to step down, according to U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.

Experts: Full Nuclear Weapons Tests Would Backfire on US

Defense News

Resuming full testing of nuclear weapons—as President Donald Trump called for last week—would be unnecessary, costly, undermine nonproliferation efforts, and empower the nation’s adversaries to use their own tests as intimidation, experts told Defense News.

Draft List of Attendees for Hegseth Acquisition-Reform Speech Shows Wide Industry Interest

Defense One

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes the National War College stage to talk about proposed acquisition reforms on Nov. 7, he will have the full attention of many companies aiming to boost their sales to the Pentagon. The list includes both newer and more established defense contractors, as well as notable consumer tech companies like Facebook parent company Meta and consumer AI company Anthropic.

US Slams ‘Discriminatory’ Draft EU Space Law as Imperiling NATO Cooperation

Breaking Defense

The U.S. has come out swinging against a draft law by the European Union that Washington claims would establish restrictive market barriers, impose costly environmental protection requirements, and create regulatory hurdles for US commercial firms—thus undermining bilateral, as well as NATO-wide, cooperation.

Taiwan Moves to Counter China’s Drone Dominance

DefenseScoop

Taiwan is strategically moving to expand its arsenal of military and commercial drones, as China mobilizes and modernizes its forces with aims to be ready to seize its smaller, self-governing neighbor as early as 2027.

PODCAST: What Palantir Sees

The New York Times

Who’s afraid of Palantir? The company’s chief technology officer, Shyam Sankar, joins Ross Douthat for a conversation about what the shadowy company actually does—and the thorny political and ethical questions it faces. They also discuss the new era of collaboration between Silicon Valley and the military, a personal project for Sankar, who was recently commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.