The D Brief: Marines deploy to Florida; Big Beautiful spending details; Israel strikes Yemen; New tactics in Ukraine; And a bit more.

Anti-immigration spending soars as 200 Marines have been sent to support ICE in Florida. The new troops will provide “strictly non-law enforcement duties within [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] facilities,” according to a July 3 U.S. Northern Command press release cited by Reuters, which said the Marines would provide administrative and logistical support and are “the first wave of U.S. Northern Command's support to the immigration enforcement agency's mission.” More, here.

That follows last month’s deployment of 700 Marines to protect immigration agents during raids in Los Angeles, and the further authorization to send up to 700 Defense Department personnel to support ICE in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

It also follows Thursday’s signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the gargantuan spending-and-policy act that will put a staggering $120 billion-plus toward immigration enforcement through 2029. For context, ICE’s 2024 budget was about $8 billion, and border crossings have recently fallen to their lowest level in decades. That 12-figure number breaks down like this, per Axios:

• $46.5 billion to extend the border wall and add security gear.
• $45 billion to build and operate detention centers. (That could bring total immigration-related detention beds to 112,000, according to a July 1 report by the American Immigration Council.)
• $29.9 billion for ICE personnel, vehicles, IT, and other equipment.
• $5 billion to build and improve Customs and Border Protection checkpoints.
• $4.1 billion to hire CBP and other personnel. 
• $3.3 billion to hire immigration judges and otherwise increase the capacity of the immigration system.

See what U.S. homeland-security spending priorities look like now, in this chart by Tom Malinowski, a former Democratic congressman.  

The passage of the OBBB also cements “a $157 billion defense funding boost that the Pentagon has been counting on to compensate for an otherwise flat budget,” as Military.com put it. “The Pentagon has been banking on passage of the bill to bring its budget next year to a record nearly $1 trillion. Without passage of the bill, the department has been planning a roughly $848 billion budget for fiscal 2026, essentially the same amount of funding it has this year.”

Rewind: some GOP lawmakers had slammed this one-time injection of funds as a “gimmick.” But not Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who chair the Senate and House armed-services committees, and who defended the bill in an oped in Defense One, here.

For more details on the military and national defense aspects of the OBBB, see the Congressional Research Service’s July 1 report on it, here.

Other news:

• The Coast Guard is giving its districts names to replace the traditional numbers, about 45 years after the Navy did something similar, Chris Cavas reports.
• The Pentagon has reversed its policy that blocked rape kit exams for its civilian workers in foreign countries, Stars and Stripes reported Thursday.

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2005, more than 50 people were killed when suicide attackers triggered four explosions while traveling on London’s public transit system.

Israel vs. the Houthis

Israel carried out new air attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, including the hijacked Galaxy Leader vessel as well as “the ports of Al Hudaydah, Ras Isa, Salif, and the Ras Kanatib Power Plant,” the Israeli Defense Forces announced on social media Sunday. “The strikes targeted sites used to transfer Iranian weapons and attack Israeli civilians with UAVs & missiles,” the IDF claimed. 

The Houthis also targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a ballistic missile on Saturday. IDF missile defenses shot down the projectile before entering Israeli airspace, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War reported Sunday.  

Why attack the Galaxy Leader? It had been “fitted with a radar system to track international vessels for terror operations,” the IDF said. 

However, “Hours later, Israel said two missiles were launched from Yemen. Attempts were made to intercept them, though the results were still under review,” Reuters reported Monday. 

Developing: A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier was also hit during a four-hour attack and could soon sink in the Red Sea, Reuters reported separately on Monday. Just a day earlier, “likely Houthi fighters” attacked the ship off the coast of Hudaydah, Yemen,” ISW reported, citing British maritime authorities. 

How it happened: “Fighters on eight small vessels reportedly fired small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and naval drones at the vessel, which caused a fire onboard,” ISW writes. 

Notable: “Sunday's assault off the southwest coast of Yemen was the first such incident reported in the [Red Sea] shipping corridor since mid-April,” Reuters reports. Read more, here. 

Russia’s Ukraine invasion, day 1,230

Ukraine is deploying fishing nets to stop Russian drone attacks, the New York Times reported Monday from eastern Ukraine—extending related counter-drone reporting from last week featuring nets strung over frequently-used roads to protect from Russian drone attacks. 

“With their dense mesh, the nets can tangle drone propellers and immobilize the weapons,” Constant Méheut of the Times writes. “They are a simple but effective countermeasure against drones that are often too fast to shoot down and can fly deep behind the front to strike logistical routes once out of reach.”

Russian drone attacks are increasingly striking similar targets twice, often hitting Ukrainian first responders who have arrived to help the wounded, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War wrote in their Sunday assessment. Such “tactics suggest that Russian strikes against civilian targets are very likely intentional,” ISW warns. Relatedly, “Russia’s recent drone technological adaptations and strike tactics, such as accumulating drones near a target before simultaneously striking, have increased Russia's ability to precisely coordinate strikes and hit intended targets,” ISW says. 

Russia launched more than 100 drones at Ukraine early Sunday, injuring more than two dozen people. “In total, over the past week, there were around 1,270 drones, 39 missiles, and nearly a thousand guided bombs,” President Volodymir Zelenskyy said on social media after the Sunday attacks. 

But Russia isn’t sleeping on the drone threat. Researcher Sam Bendett shared some messaging from Russian state media showcasing counter-drone measures under development. Check those out, here.   

Developing: Russia’s invasion forces are closing in on two more Ukrainian cities, Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, which Russian commanders have sought over the past 18 months of operation on the edge of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk oblast. “Russian forces are constantly conducting assaults with motorcycles and buggies” to advance northeast of Pokrovsk, ISW said Saturday. More, here.

ICYMI: NATO recently tested a new seaborne drone that can work for 100 days before needing to be refueled. It’s called the Saildrone Voyager, and it’s being tested in conjunction with the Danish navy. It features a “A small engine, a big sail, and a mission to protect critical underwater infrastructure,” NATO announced on social media two weeks ago. 

Developers tested the drone in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea in late June for NATO’s Task Force X Baltic program. According to the manufacturer, the sensor-packed boat “detected and tracked hundreds of vessels daily…including Russian ‘shadow fleet’ and military vessels.” Read more, here. 

By the way: Denmark has agreed to manufacture drones for Ukraine on Danish soil, President Zelenskyy announced Saturday. He also said Ukraine has “reached an agreement with one of the leading American companies to significantly increase our joint efforts,” though he did not specify the company involved. 

Additional reading: 

• “Kremlin gloats about US weapons pause to Ukraine,” Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Thursday; 
• “Creeping Doom: Russia Deploys Solar Powered Ambush Drones,” Forbes reported last week; 
• In commentary, “Interceptor drones will decide Europe’s fate. Here’s why,” The Telegraph’s Roland Oliphant wrote Friday; 
• “What Drones Can—and Cannot—Do on the Battlefield,” according to former Pentagon official Michael Horowitz along with Lauren Kahn and Joshua Schwartz, writing Friday in Foreign Affairs;
• “Dutch, Norwegian F-35s to guard Ukraine supply lines in Poland,” Defense News reported Monday from Paris; 
• Pentagon chief Pete “Hegseth halted weapons for Ukraine despite military analysis that the aid wouldn’t jeopardize U.S. readiness,” NBC News reported Friday; 
• “Russia’s ‘anti-woke’ visa lures those fearing a moral decline in the West,” the Washington Post reported Sunday; 
• “Russia Cancels or Delays More Than 2,000 Flights Due to Drones,” Bloomberg reported Saturday; 
• And “Putin fires transport minister after Ukraine cripples Russian air traffic,” Politico reported Monday.