Good Morning. A Massachusetts man was charged with allegedly trafficking in wildlife parts after authorities raided his storage unit and found more than 100 animal parts including orangutan skulls, tiger skulls, and jaguar skin.

Wildlife trafficking is a booming industry closely linked to organized crime. According to a notice put out by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency this year, the trade in ill-gotten animals and animal parts is estimated to be between $7.8 billion and $10 billion global industry that threatens local ecosystems and communities throughout the world.

The good news is increased enforcement action from multiple US agencies in collaboration with international authorities and local communities has brought many major trafficking rings to justice in recent years and is helping keep exotic animals where they belong: in the wild.

— 🐈‍⬛ Acoustic Kitty

THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

The Fight For Supreme Hive Mind: How Drone Defense Kickstarted the AI Supremacy Race

The stakes are at an all-time high in the Russo-Ukrainian warfighter’s pursuit of AI-enabled drones for battlefield advantages. As both sides innovate and adapt their drone strategies, the skies over Ukraine and Russia will seemingly be ruled over by autonomous systems, according to Ukrainian soldiers that spoke with Frontsight media.

Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation recently said in an interview that prototypes of AI drones may appear on the battlefield before the year’s end. However, Ukraine has already reportedly used AI-enabled drones to strike Russia, pushing forward in its own pursuit of the upper hand in weaponized AI

Analysts and technologists are now signaling alarm over the real-time demand for an answer to the AI supremacy question, “reckoning” with the Oppenheimer moment we are brought to once again.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY & DIPLOMACY

Counterterrorism

• At least 15 police officers and a priest were killed by gunmen on Sunday in what appear to be coordinated attacks on multiple places of worship in Russia. At least six “militants” were also killed following the attacks on churches, synagogues and police posts.

• Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership has decided to launch a new multi-faceted nationwide counterterrorism campaign amid the country’s deteriorating security situation. Pakistan faces near daily attacks targeting security personnel and mounting pressure from China to ensure the security of its workers.

• Nuclear terrorism risks are ‘high’ according to a new report released by a National Academies committee and commissioned by Congress as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which points to challenges controlling nuclear materials and blurry lines between state and non-state actors involved in international conflicts.

Military & Defense

• The United States and China resumed semi-official nuclear arms talks in March for the first time in five years, with Beijing's representatives telling U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan. Details from the meeting were reported for the first time last week.

• Ukrainian energy facilities have come under a massive attack from Russia, in the latest onslaught targeting the country's power grid. It is the eighth time Russia has launched an attack on energy infrastructure facilities in the past three months.

• Israel's Defense Minister was in Washington on Sunday for "critical" talks on unfreezing US arms and ammunition deliveries that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had dropped off sharply in recent months. US officials have said they were not aware of what Netanyahu was referring to on the arms issue.

Cybersecurity

• The US Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency that vets federal employees hasn’t worked hard enough to protect its IT systems and the sensitive personnel data they store and has put itself at risk of a hack according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

• Japan’s space agency has suffered a series of cyberattacks since last year, but sensitive information related to rockets and satellites was not affected and it is continuing to investigate and take preventive measures.

• Researchers at Cisco Talos have uncovered a sophisticated cyber-espionage operation targeting global diplomatic circles by a group called “SneakyChef” that involves deploying “SugarGh0st,” a customized version of the Gh0st RA malware that has been around for over 15 years.

Counterintelligence & Espionage

• A Ukrainian citizen, an Armenian national, and a Russian citizen have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of trying to collect information on a person from Ukraine for an unspecified foreign intelligence agency.

• Belgium’s security and intelligence services say Russian civilian ships have been spying on pipelines and cables in the North Sea for years, and the espionage is happening on a much larger scale than previously known.

• China’s state security authorities warn of foreign spies hunting military info on messaging app in a new video, “WeChat Trap,” that narrates a story based on a real event.

Transnational Organized Crime

• In the wake of a significant joint counter-narcotics investigation with the United States, China's top prosecutor has urged US officials to intensify their efforts in combating drug trafficking as both nations confront the surging opioid crises.

• Montenegro's National Security Council adopted a series of measures for an “urgent and decisive response to strengthening the fight against organized crime” following an explosion last week at a sports center that killed two people.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Satellite image providers say that new artificial intelligence tools, coupled with more and faster satellite data, will enable image providers to much better anticipate events of geopolitical significance and notify customers and operators of impending crises.

Today, relatively simple AI processes such as machine learning can pick out things like cars or ships, but identifying trends across large amounts of imagery remains a heavily human endeavor. Analysis of some image sets—say, to understand where an adversary force might attempt to stage an invasion—can take months.

In other news…

When the congressional session resumes in the House next week, Rep. Nancy Mace plans to put forth a new proposal that would invest millions in the Army to set up a first-of-its-kind Quantum Computing Center of Excellence to aid the military.

Slingshot Aerospace unveiled its AI system that identifies anomalous satellites within large constellations, dubbed Agatha, and announced that it had demonstrated the ability to detect outlier satellites among operational constellations as part of a DARPA contract awarded in 2023.

NASA said Boeing Starliner's return to Earth from the International Space Station, which was scheduled for next week, has been delayed again. The delay of the rescheduled June 26 return will allow more time for the review of the thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that caused the first delay.

DEALS & FUNDING

Verus Research was awarded a $2.5M science and technology contract with the Defense Department’s Test Resource Management Center.

The 18-month agreement will support TRMC’s need for high-power microwave attack instrumentation on medium unmanned aerial systems, or drones. Verus Research will develop a minimally-invasive, high-power microwave sensor for use against unmanned aerial systems. The sensor is considered groundbreaking because of its small size and technical ability.

In other news…

T-Mobile has secured a $2.67B defense contract, positioning itself as the primary wireless solutions provider for the U.S. Navy and allowing all U.S. Department of Defense agencies to access T-Mobile’s wireless services and equipment until 2034.

The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin Space a $977.5M contract extension for the continued development, testing, and on-orbit support of two geosynchronous missile-warning satellites as part of the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) program.

The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.9B contract modification for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a high-value asset in the Ukraine war.