Director’s note: Shaping the next era of strategic competition

Dear readers,

The AI race is no longer simply about building more capable models. It is increasingly about understanding what those models will enable – for defenders and attackers alike – and adapting before they do. As our understanding grows of the challenges posed by frontier AI models and what our adversaries’ responses to these supercharged capabilities may be, government and industry are increasingly bracing for what may lie ahead. We are entering a period in which the limiting factor is no longer access to information, but the speed with which intelligent systems can discover vulnerabilities, exploit weaknesses, strengthen defenses and accelerate decision-making.

The White House announced this week its new AI cybersecurity clearinghouse initiative that officials say will help federal agencies, critical infrastructure owners and operators, and AI companies identify and patch software vulnerabilities discovered by advanced models, Dana Nickel reported at POLITICO. And competition surfaces its own security concerns as U.S. companies looking to save over domestic models have begun to shift to open-weight Chinese models in a landmark adoption of the country’s software, Miriam Waldvogel reported at the Washington Post.

The first challenge is understanding not simply the technology itself, but the strategic consequences it creates. At War on the Rocks, Rebecca Hersman makes a case for an AI Threat Fusion Center – a standing body that “could provide the bidirectional, classified channel that is missing today” with intelligence coordination and the partnership of frontier AI companies. In a new RAND paper, Michael Sulmeyer examines the strategic cyberattack risk in the agentic AI era, arguing that these systems will significantly expand the strategic potential of cyber operations by alleviating the constraint on expert-level human capacity that has most limited strategic outcomes to date.

It’s in the face of these evolving threats that academic collaboration is so critical. This is precisely why research universities matter. They are increasingly serving not simply as educators, but as operational partners helping government and industry adapt to rapidly changing threats. WSFA 12 News and WTVM 9 News reported on the free cybersecurity services that our Alabama Cybersecurity Intelligence Center is providing to entities needing support and guidance in this challenging landscape. On this week’s Cyber Focus, Auburn leaders expanded on the principle of educators and students playing a critical role in our national security as they teach how to adapt to a new era of threats and learn in real time how to mitigate them. It was a pleasure to sit down with Auburn University President Dr. Chris Roberts, McCrary Institute Advisory Board Chairman Lt. Gen. (Ret) Ron Burgess, Dr. Steve Taylor, the university’s senior vice president for research and economic development, and Dr. Mario Eden, dean of Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, to explore Auburn’s strategic role as a trusted partner for federal defense, its expanding applied research operations in Huntsville for space and missile defense, and how experiential learning is preparing the next generation of engineers to tackle real-world national security challenges. The competition is no longer simply over who can produce the most graduates. It is increasingly about who can translate research into operational capability the fastest. We discussed the evolution of national security threats and the race to secure AI, how hands-on experience and industry partnerships are shaping the cyber workforce, and more.

Learning is not confined to classrooms. Our adversaries are studying one another in real time. When an adversary’s cyber offensive falls short, what do other adversaries learn from the missed opportunities and miscalculations? Sunny Cheung at the Jamestown Foundation analyzes how China has been studying Russia’s underwhelming cyber campaign at the outset of its invasion of Ukraine and drawing lessons that they believe will assist their own cyber warfare, such as a more unified command structure and enhanced civil-military fusion. At Air and Space Forces Magazine, Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.) assesses that Ukraine’s use of long-range drones, special operations, maritime strike systems, cyber-enabled intelligence and adaptive targeting has reimagined strategic attack by disrupting the systems that enable Russia’s military to continue fighting.

Our own forays into autonomous warfighting reached a new milestone Sunday when a trio of U.S. kamikaze drone boats hit a submarine and ship maintenance facility in an Iranian port – the first time sea drones have been deployed in combat, Shelby Holliday and Alistair MacDonald reported at The Wall Street Journal. Today’s battlefields continue to preview capabilities that will eventually migrate into broader national security and homeland security environments. These are the sort of tech investments being hashed out as the NDAA winds its way through Congress, and Madeleine Field at War on the Rocks digs deep into the defense reauthorization bill to surface details on tech policy, the industrial base, data and software, and more.

Russia’s investments in cyber ops spurred multiple reactions from targeted allies. A new advisory this week from 19 international agencies warns that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Center 16 cyber actors continue to exploit poorly configured and vulnerable networking devices worldwide, opportunistically compromising multiple critical infrastructure sector networks. In a separate advisory, Dutch intelligence agencies warned that Russia has been systematically compromising internet-connected security cameras across Europe and Ukraine to gather intelligence on NATO military logistics and identify Ukrainian troops for battlefield targeting, Daryna Antoniuk reported at The Record. NATO joined together in a statement to “strongly condemn Russia’s persistent malicious cyber activities” and the threat they pose to the security of allies.

Not every disruption begins with a keyboard. Massive Canadian wildfires that are churning vast plumes of hazardous smoke across our northern states remind us that natural threats also continually imperil our critical systems. A new Wildfire Mitigation: Canadian Perspectives report from NERC gives the increasingly vulnerable energy sector steps to help address wildfire-related risks. NERC also filed a new Wildfire Action Plan with FERC outlining work to strengthen wildfire situational awareness, mitigation, engagement and standards development over the next three years.

This week by the numbers:

• The government agency that collects property taxes in Puerto Rico inadvertently exposed the Social Security numbers of approximately 1 million people. (Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and ProPublica)

• The nation’s largest electrical grid operator released results of an electricity auction that would add $6.3 billion in costs to the bills of millions of households and businesses in 13 Eastern states and D.C., an increase driven by the power demands of data centers. (The New York Times)

• Hospitals and other health providers addressed only 6% of risks in the first half of 2026, a dramatic decline from the 23% of risks they addressed in the first half of 2025. (Cybersecurity Dive)

• Researchers said they published a massive database containing profiles of about 20,000 employees of Russia’s Alabuga facility, where Shahed attack drones are manufactured. (RBC-Ukraine)

• 65% of cybersecurity professionals who use AI in their roles are spending time deciding when to trust or act on AI-generated recommendations, and 63% said they often find themselves reviewing and validating AI outputs. (IT Pro)

A 209-foot-tall orbital-class booster powered by seven kerosene-fueled engines was reportedly fired off by China’s state-owned rocket developer – and 10 minutes later returned from space to guide itself into a landing perch on a vessel in the South China Sea, Stephen Clark reported at Ars Technica. It’s this kind of speed and scale in China’s sprint to improve its space capabilities that should ring alarm bells, Louis Abramson, Alexis A. Blanc, Nicholas Blanchette, John Chen, Christian Kim, Baileigh McFall, Thomas Van Bibber, Maggie Habib, Garrett Hinck and Andrew Radin argue in a deep-dive RAND report. Urging methodologies to forecast and strategies to confront China’s ascent, the authors warn that failing to understand these trends creates potential blind spots that could undermine the United States’ ability to maintain an advantage in space – and that is ground we can’t afford to lose.

Across AI, cyber, drones and space, one lesson keeps emerging. Technology continues to accelerate strategic competition, but enduring advantage still belongs to those who learn the fastest and adapt the quickest. The nations, institutions and organizations that translate insight into operational capability before their competitors will shape the next era of strategic competition.

War Eagle,

Frank Cilluffo