Weekly Preflight: 5 Things to Watch in Global Security | Week of August 24, 2026

Iran caused the most expensive intelligence damage in American history and it’s just now being reported

A US Air Force B-2 Spirit aircraft flies over Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in support of Valiant Shield, June 27, 2026. As part of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, the B-2 conducted a live-fire strike of a maritime vessel in the Pacific utilizing the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, demonstrating the ability to conduct operations against enemy naval forces and maintain the decisive edge over regional adversaries. (US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Hastings)

NOTE: I use two primary OSINT dashboards to scan for these topics; SITDECK and God’s Eye View open-source software. The issue was likely on my end, but both were down for me on Monday. Apologies for the late delivery.

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Think of this as your weekly strategic weather report exclusively for paid subscribers. Five things to watch and what could break next in war, defense tech, and geopolitics. Just the pressure points most likely to shape the next seven days.

I try to keep this a no-nonsense, high-level brief to start your week… But snark occasionally creeps in.

If you want to understand how I build my OSINT dashboard, I wrote about my workflow here:

My Guide to OSINT, Noise Reduction, and Modern War Forecasting

Source links in the text. Let’s jump in:

BLUF:

Iran caused the most expensive intelligence damage in American history and it’s just now being reported. Elbridge Colby is rewriting nuclear doctrine with no arms control treaty left to constrain it. Sudan bombed Chad. Two B-2s are flying low and slow near Japan. And gold is screaming danger while the VIX is taking a nap. Stay sharp.