Author: openjargon

• Congress ordered the US Navy to look into new ships and weapons platforms amid shipbuilding delays.
• The requested study is in direct response to the delays of a new frigate class.
• Lawmakers are concerned the US Navy is at risk of being unable to China in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Congress has requested that the US Navy conduct a study looking into other ships it can arm with missiles given the pressing need to maintain US naval power amid ongoing shipbuilding delays.

The potential short-term solutions, it said, are key to keeping up US strength in the Indo-Pacific region, especially as China continues building up its naval forces.

In a report accompanying a new draft of the annual defense policy bill for the 2025 fiscal year, the US Senate Armed Services Committee wrote that it was "concerned with the number of Navy battle force ships" and vertical launch platforms for missiles over the next two years.

"Given the ongoing naval buildup by the People's Republic of China, the committee believes these projected declines increase risk to US forces in the US Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility," lawmakers wrote.

The committee report added that it doesn't believe the Navy is adequately preparing to meet requirements for those capabilities in the near-term.

The request comes in response to delays on the first new Constellation-class guided missile frigate, which won't be delivered until at least 2029, three years behind schedule, per a Navy report earlier this year. The second ship in the class is also delayed.

Congress' push for short-term naval combat solutions is also linked to the slow procurement of new large, unmanned surface vessels, which is not expected to begin until 2027.

With this in mind, "the committee believes the US Navy needs to focus more on supplementary options for increasing ship numbers and missile-launching capacity in the nearer term."

By April 2025, Congress expects the Navy to pursue a number of solutions, including a crewed version of the LUSV, more missile-launching capacity, "foreign, commercial, or US government ship designs" that could be adapted for the Navy, and existing Navy platforms "that could be quickly modified into missile-firing ships through the addition of VLS (vertical launch system), bolt-on, or containers missile launchers."

In its report, the committee acknowledged its concerns that these near-term solutions are needed to keep the US Navy in fighting shape should conflict in the Indo-Pacific region arise, especially considering the massive naval buildup seen in China.

Back in April, a 45-day review showed major delays for most of the Navy's big shipbuilding projects, including its Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, a top priority for the Department of Defense. Due to plans to retire previous ships, the delay will likely keep the Navy from meeting its obligation of having 10 ballistic missile submarines ready to deploy at all times. But this isn't the only problem.

Other ships, like the Navy's next Ford-class carrier, are also notably delayed. At the time of the review, Navy officials attributed the issues to the lingering effects of COVID-19 on the workforce and supply chain, though some issues have long been around.

Beyond the Navy's shipbuilding woes, other US military deficiencies have prompted lawmakers and other national leaders to raise concerns about how the Pentagon is prioritizing its military capacity in the Pacific in order to counter and deter China. In May, 13 members of Congress wrote to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro about the glaring vulnerabilities of US Pacific air bases and aircraft in the face of a missile barrage from China, for example.

With China's current missile strike capabilities," the lawmakers wrote in their letter, "China can attack all US bases in the region, targeting US service members from Okinawa to those on US territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands."

• Through the years, LGBTQ+ people have been in the background of history. 
• There have been many turning points on the road to liberation, including trans athletes in sports.
• Many LGBTQ+ people are now becoming politicians to fight for their rights. 

Queer people have long existed in the background of history. Still, LGBTQ+ activities have long been criminalized — often rooted in religion, science, or socio-political factors, leaving queer individuals largely estranged.

And while erasure is prevalent in marginalized communities, LGBTQ+ people in the US have experienced some important turning points in history.

These photos show landmark events in the fight for freedom of sexuality, identity, and love.

Despite their pivotal role in queer liberation, transgender people are often written out of LGBTQ+ history.

For example, in 1952, years before the Stonewall Riots, American actor and singer Christine Jorgensen was introduced to America as the first woman to have gender-affirming surgery. At a time when public cross-dressing and gender-nonconforming activities were illegal, her transition paved the way for transgender visibility.

While the inclusion of transgender people in sports has been a hot topic in recent years, the conversation dates back to 1976.

After the United States Tennis Association barred Renée Richards from competing in the US Open as a woman, she sued the USTA for gender discrimination. Richards won the lawsuit a year later and became one of the first trans woman athletes to play professionally.

Her feat changed the game for many transgender and queer athletes.

Despite progress, the rate of transgender homicide continues to soar decades later.

On November 20, 1999, the first Transgender Day of Remembrance vigils were held to honor Rita Hester, a 34-year-old Black trans woman who was murdered in Boston a year earlier.

Five years later, on June 25, 2004, a few hundred people set foot on the first Trans March during Pride weekend in San Francisco.

One of the most famed moments of LGBTQ+ liberation was the Stonewall Riots.

On June 28, 1969, police raided a gay club in New York City called the Stonewall Inn, which led to six days of protests from the community and violence from law enforcement.

Four transgender and gender non-conforming women of color led the uprising, built on a string of similar protests at private businesses that began a decade earlier: Cooper Do-nuts in 1959, Compton's Cafeteria in August 1966, and The Black Cat in 1967.

They're acknowledged as a catalyst for the Gay Liberation Movement, allowing many LGBTQ+ people to enjoy a new sense of sexual freedom in its wake.

The first Pride marches were held in the '70s.

In June 1970, one year after the riots started, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco held the first Pride parades, formerly known as Pride Marches.

In 1978, Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flags for the parade in San Francisco.

"A Rainbow Flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary," Baker said in his memoir "Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color," explaining that the rainbow symbolizes cultural diversity in the LGBTQ+ community. "Now the rioters who claimed their freedom at the Stonewall Bar in 1969 would have their own symbol of liberation."

The 'unspoken' epidemic began in the '80s, killing many LGBTQ+ people.

In June 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published news of five cases of pneumonia among previously healthy young men in Los Angeles. They were described as "homosexuals."

The cases were later attributed to a virus known as HIV. It wasn't until September 17, 1985, four years after the first reported cases, that then-president Ronald Reagan publicly addressed the virus. By then, thousands of people were either living with or had died from HIV.

In a pre-PrEP world, stigma and discrimination led to a public health crisis that disproportionately impacted people of color in the community. It quickly became an epidemic, with tens of millions of reported cases and deaths from the virus.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt honored the lives that were lost.

A community art project known as The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt honored the lives of people lost by AIDS. It debuted on October 11, 1987, during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, DC.

LGBTQ+ people slowly started making their way into politics.

Two years ago, over 450 LGBTQ+ candidates ran for office. The 2022 midterm elections made history for having the most wins for openly queer candidates during an election period. But 50 years ago, one small victory was a huge step for the community.

On April 2, 1974, Kathy Kozachenko was elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan. She became the first openly LGBTQ+ person to run for political office in the US successfully.

Kozachenko's win is lesser known than Harvey Milk's.

Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on November 8, 1977, and, alongside San Francisco's then-Mayor George Moscone, was an early gay rights advocate.

A year into their term, former supervisor Dan White shot and killed Milk and Moscone. White was known for having political disagreements with the duo.

Fast forward to the 21st century, the LGBTQ+ community witnessed many wins.

On June 26, 2003, same-sex sexual activity was legalized in Lawrence v. Texas. The Supreme Court of the United States held that criminalizing consensual, same-sex sexual conduct violates the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Then-President Barack Obama announced the repeal of former President Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, ending years of secrecy and silence for queer members of the US military.

On June 26, 2015, exactly 12 years after Lawrence v. Texas, the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages are recognized under the 14th Amendment in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.

While the US has witnessed much progress for the LGBTQ+ community in the past century, some states' support for LGBTQ+ rights has wavered.

More recently, on June 28, the Texas Supreme Court upheld its 2023 ruling that bans transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care. Texas is only the largest of 25 states with laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary minors.

Momo Takahashi contributed to this piece.

• On Friday, Rep. Mike Levin became the 18th House Democrat to call for Biden to drop out.
• The California Democrat reportedly said it directly to Biden during a call with other lawmakers.
• Levin issued a statement saying that "the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch."

Rep. Mike Levin on Friday became the 18th House Democrat to publicly call on Joe Biden to drop out of the race

The California congressman said it directly to the president during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus call, according to several media reports.

Levin then issued a statement saying that "the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch," referencing feedback that he's received from constituents since Biden's disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump in June.

Levin represents a relatively competitive San Diego House district and campaigned alongside Biden in 2022.

The number of congressional Democrats calling on Biden to exit the race continues to grow by the hour: Five have done so just since the end of the president's press conference yesterday.

Though that press conference went smoothly overall, it is unlikely to assuage other Democrats who are concerned about their own reelection prospects.

• Southwest Airlines and Archer Aviation are developing electric air taxi operations in California.
• Southwest plans to use Archer Midnight eVTOL aircraft to cut customer travel time to the airport.
• Archer is working to obtain FAA certification for the Midnight eVTOL over the next 18 months. 

Southwest Airlines and Archer Aviation plan to develop an electric air taxi network for California airports.

The two companies signed an agreement on Friday that would allow Southwest Airlines customers to use Archer's Midnight electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as a speedy means of getting to and from airports in the future.

"This is a pretty huge deal for us and the industry," Archer Aviation chief commercial officer Nikhil Goel told Business Insider. "This is the first time Southwest has done anything like this, and so at this point, we're working with two of the biggest airlines in the US and three of the five largest airlines in the world by market cap."

Archer has also been working with United Airlines, which ordered $1 billion worth of the company's Midnight eVTOL aircraft for similar use in 2021.

The firm has inked deals internationally, as well. Interglobe Enterprises, the parent company of India's largest airline, IndiGo, signed an agreement in late 2023 with Archer that includes the purchase of 200 Midnight eVTOL aircraft for air taxi service in India.

The Southwest deal aims to shorten airport commutes for customers flying through any of the 14 California airports where the airline operates.

For example, let's say someone in Los Angeles wants to fly to Napa — but skip traffic to and from the airport.

With Archer, they would go to the Archer Vertaport, under development in Santa Monica, for a short hop to Burbank Airport. There, they would board an 80-minute Southwest flight to San Francisco International Airport and then a 15-minute Archer flight to Napa. (For context, Napa is roughly 60 miles from SFO).

Goel said this route could shave one to two hours off customers' travel time.

Beyond the new partnership with Southwest, Archer said it is focused on completing the development and certification process and building up the manufacturing infrastructure to support the Midnight eVTOL, which is at the heart of the deal.

"For us at Archer, the next 18 months are almost solely dedicated to certifying and manufacturing the aircraft," Goel said.

Archer received FAA certification to commence commercial operations in June, allowing the company to refine its systems before launching customer service.

However, the Midnight eVTOL, a four-seat electric tilt-rotor aircraft, has not been certified.

Archer is also working to complete its 350,000-square-foot production facility in Covington, Georgia, which will be operated in partnership with Stellantis. When fully operational, the factory is expected to be able to produce up to 650 aircraft a year, with room to expand capacity to 2,300 aircraft annually.

Archer isn't the only player in the eVTOL business that's working with major airlines.

Delta and Japan's All Nippon Airways are working with fellow mobility startup Joby Aviation for future air taxi services.

• Chris Duffy, a comedian and podcast host, says caregiving often takes away his social time.
• He started to take more time for interactions with casual acquaintances.
• Sometimes that leads to friendship, but even when it doesn't it's meaningful, he says.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Duffy, author of "Let's Hang Out: Making (and Keeping) Friends, Acquaintances, and Other Nonromantic Relationships." It has been edited for length and clarity.

In my early 30s, I was the caregiver for my wife, who was dealing with chronic pain and other health issues. It was all-encompassing and there wasn't a lot of time to have outside social interactions. I really felt the loss of those connections.

Now, at 37, I'm parenting for the first time, and my son is 6 months old. It's a similar feeling: if I don't reach out, there just aren't many people around. It's just not possible to have a social life in the same easy, unplanned way I could in college or during my 20s.

Yet, I've realized I can get some social fulfillment from casual interactions. Sometimes when I'm taking my son for a walk I make meaningful eye contact with another parent. We don't even have to exchange words but we're acknowledging that we're both here, walking at 6:30 a.m., in the trenches with the baby.

That simple exchange makes me feel less isolated. Here's how to foster them in your life.

Take the pressure off

Friends are great, but making new friends creates loads of pressure. Luckily, you don't need to see your friends every day to reap the benefits of social interactions. Research shows that even casual acquaintances can benefit our health and happiness.

So, chat with the cashier, say hi to people on your walks, and ask how your barista is doing. Maybe you open the door to a deeper relationship, but even if you don't, you'll feel better.

Stop assuming no one wants to talk to you

The biggest barrier to connection is almost always your mental idea that other people don't want to be connected. But research shows that's just not true. There have been studies of people on buses where one passenger is challenged to make small talk with the person they sit next to. When researchers ask about it, both people feel so much better.

The vast majority of interactions are going to be positive, so take a risk on starting one. Don't be afraid to take that first step and just say hi. It doesn't have to be a high-stakes thing, and just breaking the ice can lead to a much bigger reward.

Just show up

Get into your community and show up at the same places regularly, and you'll start to see familiar faces. I'm not much of a swimmer, but I started going to my community pool. Before long, I'd met some of my best friends. We connected because we had this place in common. Maybe for you, it's the library, a coffee shop, or the park. Just get out there!

You don't have to be vulnerable

Our culture really pushes the idea that vulnerability is the most important thing for building connections. I think time is much more essential. Over time, you're going to connect with people and naturally become vulnerable unless you're really fighting it. So no, you don't have to pour your heart out to someone you just met — instead, just ask how their day is going.

Join clubs or groups

Years ago, it was so common to be part of a religious community or club. These days, not so much, but these community groups are still a great way to meet others. They're sort of forced social gatherings where you're sure to see the same people again and again.

As a comedian, I love weird things, so I joined the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. We gather every Wednesday at 7 a.m. to eat breakfast and sing songs about ham and eggs. It's not for everyone, but it's been great for me.

Don't underestimate the internet

There's an idea that you can't have a real connection through the internet, but I was surprised by how false that is. The key is to find your own weird little corner of the internet where you can form connections. I even heard about a group of people who meet in the comments section for the New York Times Metro Diary each week. Set aside the culture of debating and just try to learn about others.

Making friends as an adult isn't easy, but the more you can approach it with a spirit of play and generosity, the more meaningful connections you'll find.

• A judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy case, freeing him to appeal a $148 million judgment.
• It comes with a big asterisk: Giuliani can't seek bankruptcy protection again for 12 months.
• Now, all the civil lawsuits against Giuliani can continue to play out in courts.

The judge overseeing Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy granted him a rare legal win.

In a court order Friday, the judge dismissed the Chapter 11 case and allowed him to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment he owes.

But there's a catch: Giuliani isn't allowed to file for bankruptcy again over the next 12 months. And his creditors are ready to pounce.

The former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy in December, claiming he couldn't pay his $152 million in debt.

The bankruptcy froze all the other civil litigation against Giuliani, including defamation cases from election technology companies and a lawsuit from Noelle Dunphy, who accused him of sexual abuse.

Nearly all of Giuliani's debt was the $148 million judgment a Washington, DC, jury awarded to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, two election workers he defamed by falsely claiming they manipulated votes in Georgia.

Giuliani's assets were worth about $10 million — depending on what he could get if he sold his Manhattan and Florida apartments — not nearly enough to satisfy all the debt.

Friday's order, approved by bankruptcy judge Sean H. Lane, also puts Giuliani on the hook for $350,000 in fees already incurred in the case by a legal discovery vendor. Lane also placed control of Giuliani's Upper East Side condo, which is up for sale, in the hands of a lawyer representing his creditors. A chunk of the potential proceeds from the sale would go toward legal fees, and the rest would be held in escrow.

Over the past few months, Giuliani has filed inconsistent financial statements and appeared to squirrel away streams of income, his creditors have complained. Giuliani said he had trouble finding an accountant — a claim his creditors found hard to believe. Lane expressed frustration with "the difficulties we've had in terms of transparency in this case" in a hearing earlier this week.

At the same time that Giuliani was filing odd financial statements, he also made it clear in court filings that he wanted breathing room to appeal his $148 million judgment.

After months of wrangling — including a last-ditch effort to convert the bankruptcy to a Chapter 7, which would have further slowed the process — Giuliani and lawyers representing Freeman and Moss struck a deal.

On Wednesday, they both told the judge that dismissing the bankruptcy altogether was the best move.

The draft order provided by Giuliani's legal team included a line that would forbid the 80-year-old from filing for bankruptcy again for one year.

In the Southern District of New York, where the case is playing out, bankruptcy judges customarily forbid debtors from re-filing for some period of time if they believe the debtor sought the protection in bad faith, according to Eric J. Snyder, the chair of the bankruptcy practice at Wilk Auslander LLP.

"Twelve months is a long time. Normally it's six months," Snyder said. "But in this type of case, because of Giuliani's behavior, I think 12 months is probably consistent."

Dunphy will continue her fight in court

Dismissing the bankruptcy would unfreeze all of Giuliani's other civil cases, allowing him time to appeal the massive defamation judgment against him.

It also means all the other litigants suing Giuliani can continue to pursue their cases against him in other courts, which are mostly taking place in New York, where he was once the mayor and top federal prosecutor.

But the legal team representing the so-called "unsecured creditors" — including Dominion Voting Systems and Dunphy — objected to dismissing the bankruptcy case.

In a rowdy hearing Wednesday, they asked Lane to allow the cases to play out in the bankruptcy process.

Lane said at the hearing that he was inclined to dismiss the case. He said appointing a Chapter 11 trustee to take over Giuliani's assets would eat up administrative fees, and that Giuliani's lack of financial transparency posed a persistent problem.

"That's not going to magically change if you continue the case in 11 with the trustee," he said.

"Our client Noelle Dunphy remains as strong and steadfast as ever in her commitment to pursuing justice," Dunphy's lawyer Justin Kelton told Business Insider in an email earlier this week. "If Mr. Giuliani's bankruptcy is dismissed, she will continue pursuing her claims in court, and we look forward to the day when we can present this case to a jury."

Giuliani also has plenty of other legal woes stemming from his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump.

The ex-president's former attorney was disbarred in New York and may soon lose his law license in Washington, DC.

He is also the subject of two criminal cases, in Arizona and Georgia, over his efforts to overturn the election results.

• A car enthusiast posted a video of Sam Altman in a super rare Koenigsegg Regera.
• The Swedish supercars are some of the fastest street-legal cars. They cost as much as $4.6 million.
• Vroom vroom.

Joseph Velyan was eating lunch at a restaurant with his family when he spotted something extraordinary rolling down the street: a Koenigsegg Regera.

Only 80 of these Swedish sports cars were made — and they can cost as much as $4.65 million.

"I've been into cars almost my whole life, and seeing a Koenigsegg was definitely a dream of mine — especially in public," Velyan, who runs the car fan pages @norcal.garage on TikTok and Instagram told Business Insider. "I go to car events and see some pretty rare cars often, but this is for sure the rarest one I've seen, and it caught my eye right away."

He took a quick video of the car and posted it online in late April. But it wasn't until more than a month later, when he looked back at the footage, that he noticed something else interesting: The driver appeared to be Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. (Representatives for Sam Altman didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.)

Like Velyan, Altman is a Car Guy. According to a Wall Street Journal story about his vast fortune, he owns a McLaren in addition to the Koenigsegg and drove F1 cars on a racetrack for fun on vacation with his husband in Dubai.

He also has mentioned owning a Telsa. (This might be amusing to Elon Musk, the former friend and current frenemy of Altman, who had an amused reaction to the video after Musk's henchman friend Jason Calacanis pointed out the irony of the head of a nonprofit driving such a fancy car. (Musk's beef with Altman is largely over how OpenAI has shifted from its nonprofit roots. And, of course, Altman has been an investor in companies including Reddit and Stripe, accounting for a fortune that's been estimated at around $3 billion.)

In the video of Altman in the Koenigsegg, there's something totally uncanny about seeing such an unusual car — which looks unlike anything else and is capable of going zero to 250 miles per hour in under 30 seconds — at a stop light in a busy pedestrian area. Velyan is right — you'd expect to see something like this at a car show or a track, not a city street in Napa, CA.

There's something else sort of weird — tech moguls, for as rich as they are, don't typically drive incredibly noticeably ostentatious cars.

Sure, they might own a fancy car in their collection (Mark Zuckerberg reportedly has a $1.4 million Pagani Huayra), but you don't typically see them driving them past a CVS in a supercar on a Tuesday.

Koenigseggs are so rare that there's a fan community that keeps track of each model on a blog called Egg Registry. Based on the distinctive all-white paint job of the car in the video, it seems likely to be No. 7232, which the fans on the blog have traced to an owner in San Francisco. (BI couldn't independently verify this.) They say it's been seen driving around the streets and showing up to a local car show.

The hoi polloi can often be a little harsh on seeing displays of tech mogul wealth (just check the comments anytime Zuckerberg posts himself surfing). But on TikTok, a lot of ChatGPT users seem pretty happy for Altman and his car.

"This man helped me pass chem 🙏 enjoy that Regera" wrote one person."

"Bro carried me through half of my classes last year I hope he enjoys that beauty," said another.

"Countless assignments, countless tests passed enjoy it bro."

• Russia has been engaging in hybrid attacks against NATO for a long time.
• In recent months, aggression has included attempted assassinations, arson, GPS jamming, and other sabotage.
• A former top US general said this week that in some ways, Russia is already at war with the alliance.

Russia has been carrying out hybrid attacks, aggression in the blurry grey area between war and peace, against NATO, unnerving the military alliance and raising concerns that what has long been a low-intensity campaign could escalate into something much bigger.

Recent covert acts of sabotage are far from the level of aggression and brutality that Russia has put on display in Ukraine. But make no mistake, a former top US general argued this week, Moscow is already fighting NATO.

"We need to acknowledge that they are at war with us," said Ben Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former commander of US Army Europe, on Wednesday at the NATO Public Forum in Washington, DC.

"It may not be T-72s or Sukhois that are striking NATO countries, but they are absolutely at war," he said, referring to types of Russian tanks and aircraft, respectively. He listed off GPS jamming, sabotage, election interference, and the illicit movement of oil as a few examples of malign activity.

NATO allies have seen a string of aggressive acts linked to Moscow over the past few months, ranging from signal jamming and incidents of arson to cyber hacks and attempted assassinations. Moscow does not necessarily claim responsibility for these, but leaders have suggested that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin's way of trying to interfere with Western support for Ukraine.

Russia's leadership has regularly framed the conflict as not merely a fight with Ukraine but as a confrontation with NATO. Moscow routinely portrays itself as the victim while targeting other countries with direct and indirect aggression.

The recent campaign prompted NATO in May to raise public concern over Russia's activities. In a pointed statement, the alliance expressed great concern over what it described as "hostile state activity" in a number of European countries.

"These incidents are part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on alliance territory and through proxies," the NATO statement said, adding that "this includes sabotage, acts of violence, cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations."

NATO called the situation a "a threat to allied security" and said that allies "will act individually and collectively to address these actions."

A lasting headache for NATO

Although the war in Ukraine has exacerbated tensions, the problem of Russian hybrid attacks is not a new hassle for the alliance, which has been dealing with this trend for quite some time.

"The Russian threat isn't just directed at Ukraine. In fact, we all, in our own countries, have had warnings of this — we've all had knowledge of this and experience of this for a number of years," UK Defense Secretary John Healey said at the Public Forum.

"We face wider Russian aggression directed at our own democracies, from hybrid attacks to threats in the high north," he added.

Some allies know this better than others. The Baltic nations, which are on the alliance on its eastern flank, point to a long history of hybrid attacks by Russia to validate their concerns over neighboring Russia's aggression.

"We've been advocating taking a strict position on Russia for years," Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said alongside Healey and Hodges at the forum this week. "We, ourselves, have been experiencing hybrid attacks from Russia for decades, so that's why the threat has been quite clear, what we're facing."

"We are facing Russia, the country, which can change in every five years — in every 10 years — dramatically," the defense minister added. "But nothing changes in 100 years. So we pretty much see the same Russia. It's expansionist, it's imperialist, regardless what type [of] regime we are dealing with."

The Russian hybrid attacks were a notable discussion point on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington this week. At one panel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said every ally is "acutely" aware of the threat and is focused on the recent upticks in sabotage.

"These are not one-offs," Blinken added. "This is part of a deliberate strategy by Russia to try to undermine our security and undermine the cohesion of the Alliance. It's not going to work because we see it and we're acting on it."