This Week in Dual-Use
I had a lot of feedback to last week’s rumination on AI-generated newsletters, so I have tested it out this week. The third news story is written by ChatGPT, trained to write in the style of Samuel Burrell. Going forwards, I will continue to write the content myself, not least because I enjoy doing the actual writing.
NEWS
Pentagon forms a counter-drone task force
Pete Hegseth released another video, this time announcing a counter-drone task force - JIATF 401. It follows the video he released last month, ‘Unleashing US Drone Dominance’. This time there was no Metallica backing track.
Beyond the theatre, this is partially a response to a growing threat. I’ve written a few times about cartels using FPV drones on the US/Mexico border to attack border guards. As cheap UAV technology proliferates, those attacks will increase in frequency and sophistication. So there’s an element of self-defence behind the creation of JIATF 401.
More broadly, this speaks to the incremental development of defence technology. During the Second World War Britain created RAF Fighter Command in response to the threat of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Previously air defence had been fragmented, but new German technology required an organised response. Fighter Command fused radar, ground controllers, and fighter squadrons into a single system.
As new offensive technology propogates, there is usually a commensurate response in defensive technology. In the modern world of venture-backed defence tech, that is also an investment opportunity.
Venezuela begins manufacturing Iranian Shahed drones
Venezuela, it turns out, is an OG of drone technology. Hugo Chavez first announced the creation of a drone programme in 2012, and Iran is now supporting the Maduro administration in building a new drone factory. Iran's military also maintains a presence at Venezuela's El Libertador Air Base, which houses a facility dedicated to drone manufacturing.
At this point it’s perhaps tempting to conclude that drones are eating the world, and that all future conflict is but an interaction of divergent geoplitical intent manifested through unmanned technology. To think that would be wrong, as Secretary of Defense Rock points out in this excellent essay. Drones have changed tactics but not strategy.
Nonetheless, Iran is leveraging its expertise in the new technology. Its presence in Venezuela gives it a Western Hemisphere foothold for its drone industry, and it signals that Caracas is a collaborator as well as a customer. This isn’t quite the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it’s still a problem for Washington. The diffusion of Iranian supply chains and doctrine into Latin America is a reminder that drone technology is not bounded by geography.
China, Russia, and US race for lunar nuclear reactors
(written by AI)
NASA wants a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030—not the 40-kilowatt demonstrator first envisioned, but a 100-kilowatt system designed to power bases, enable resource extraction, and anchor permanent outposts. The timeline is ambitious—but the logic is strategic. China and Russia both plan lunar reactors in the 2030s, and Washington knows that whoever delivers reliable energy first will set the terms of presence.
Solar is not enough—the Moon’s two-week night cycle makes it unreliable. Only fission offers continuous, high-density power—the kind needed to keep life support running, diggers moving, and comms live in the dark. In practice, energy infrastructure is sovereignty—control the power, and you shape who can stay.
The real challenge is industrial—scaling from prototype to a flight-ready reactor in five years will require breakthroughs in shielding, thermal control, and power conversion. These are non-trivial—but NASA’s Fission Surface Power programme is treating them as solvable engineering, not distant research. If they succeed, it will be the first truly scalable off-world power source.
Energy is the first currency of space—and a working reactor on the Moon is less about exploration than about control. Deliver it early, and the United States locks in not just presence, but influence over the entire cislunar domain.
FUNDRAISING
Phasecraft, a British developer of hardware-agnostic quantum algorithms for applications in materials science, energy, telecom, and life sciences, raised $34m in Series B funding co-led by Novo Nordisk, Plural, and Playground Global.