The Chinese-born engineer arrested by the FBI this week on suspicion of spying for Beijing is a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked at HRL Laboratories — a Malibu defense contractor — when he allegedly stole sensitive information on advanced sensors used to detect missile launches.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz reports that some of the information focused on the development of technology used in detecting missile launches and tracking hypersonic missiles

The development comes amid a joint warning from U.S. and allied cyber officials that China-sponsored hackers have been found lurking in critical American computer networks for several years, positioning themselves to disrupt communications, energy, transportation and water systems. The Times’ Ryan Lovelace examines the warning — cosigned by cybersecurity officials in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — highlighting the moves by China’s “Volt Typhoon cyberattackers.”

The move follows then-NSA and U.S. Cyber Command Chief Paul M. Nakasone’s warning months ago that Chinese state-sponsored actors are engaged in a long-term “living off the land” campaign to penetrate and operate without detection from within U.S. critical infrastructure systems that provide necessities such as fuel, electricity and water.

The U.S. government’s official broadcasting agency has an “extraordinary crisis of leadership,” according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, whose panel oversees the agency. In a National Review editorial, the Texas Republican described problems at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) as a “rot of dysfunction formed on a bed of groupthink, political bias and self-dealing.” A USAGM spokesman says the agency has “worked cooperatively with Chairman McCaul’s staff on this matter for some time.”

Threat Status sat down with Mr. McCaul for the latest edition of our special video series. The extensive interview dives into a range of issues, including his belief that the Biden administration’s “appeasement” policy toward Iran has failed, his thoughts on whether the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security should be made into a U.S. intelligence agency with power to block sensitive tech exports to China, and his assessments of Russian disinformation and the GOP divide over military and economic aid for Ukraine.

The U.S. Air Force says it is sticking with plans to replace all 450 of its Cold War-era Minuteman III missiles with next-generation LGM-35A Sentinel ICBMs, despite massive cost overruns that have triggered an official notification to Congress.

In 2020, the program cost of the Northrop Grumman-made LGMA-35A was projected at $118 million per missile. That’s rocketed to $162 million within three years. Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn reports the missiles were supposed to be fielded by mid-2030, but officials now expect at least a two-year delay before the program is ready. Brig. Gen. Colin J. Connor, Air Force Global Strike Command Director of ICBM Modernization, notably highlighted the future of the LGM-35A during a recent conference.

On a separate front — amid ongoing recruitment and retention woes — the Air Force hopes to entice at least 1,000 retired officers and enlisted service members to come back to work to fill critical personnel vacancies in several fields, ranging from pilots and missile operations to finance and public affairs. The application window is open through Jan. 31, 2026, and those selected will serve no more than a four-year tour, officials said this week.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency has devolved into a “bloated organization,” drifting long ago from its mandate of providing humanitarian and development relief for Palestinians, according to Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Risch argues in an op-ed that, “as details emerge about employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East actively participating in Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel, it’s time to face reality: The agency, known as UNRWA, has lost its legitimacy and must be disbanded.”