The LOWDOWN
The LOWDOWN Podcast delivers a weekly intelligence briefing designed for military professionals, analysts, and strategic thinkers. Each episode summarizes the most critical open-source developments related to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, covering real-world reporting across diplomatic, military, economic, cyber, and information warfare domains. With a clean, voice-ready format and zero fluff, The LOWDOWN helps you stay mission-focused with timely, fact-driven updates. Whether you're prepping an intel brief, tracking adversary TTPs, or just need the facts without the noise—this is your weekly OSINT download.
Support the podcast by listening to our YouTube channel, Lofi Metal, or by picking up some gear from BadIntelligence on Etsy.
🎧 Need a soundtrack for your shift, workout, or targeting cell? Stream Lofi Metal—instrumental metal with no vocals, just raw energy to help you focus and rage:
- Lofi Metal on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Lofi_Metal/
- Lofi Metal on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gYjVrEgtbcYRLon9PmXdK
👕 Want to support the show and wear something that says what you can’t in the SCIF? Grab a REFORPAC 2025 Tour Tee, the West Taiwan Swim Team Shirt, or our briefing magnet sets featuring fighters, bombers, and PLAN surface groups:
The LOWDOWN
Caribbean GPS Jamming, Chinese ICBMs, Iran Rebuilding Missile Program, Oreshniks for Belarus, and a Look Back at Op JUST CAUSE
This episode assesses intensifying global security pressures driven by concurrent crises in the Caribbean, Indo-Pacific, Middle East, and Europe, with emphasis on great-power risk management under escalation. China is shown maintaining a deliberately bounded posture toward Venezuela during Operation Southern Spear—condemning U.S. actions and safeguarding oil interests while avoiding military guarantees or direct confrontation, prioritizing regime stability and energy security over alliance credibility. In the Caribbean, U.S. and Venezuelan electronic warfare has degraded satellite navigation, protecting military assets but disrupting civilian aviation and maritime traffic and effectively turning a commercial hub into a contested digital battlespace.
The episode also reviews a major expansion of China’s nuclear forces, including new ICBM silo fields near Mongolia, contrasting U.S. concerns over a more assertive posture with Beijing’s stated no-first-use policy amid projections that China’s arsenal could exceed 1,000 warheads this decade. In the Indo-Pacific, China’s advances in airborne invasion capabilities, drone-carrier concepts, and gray-zone coercion are set against expanded U.S. defense spending and Taiwan’s push for asymmetric unmanned defenses.
In the Middle East, Iran’s post-mid-2025 effort to rebuild its ballistic missile program—leveraging external supply chains—raises the risk of preemptive action and maritime retaliation as regional tensions persist. The Western Hemisphere segment details U.S. oil tanker seizures targeting the Maduro regime, prompting international backlash over energy and humanitarian risks. Historical context from Operation Just Cause underscores how prolonged pre-crisis shaping enables rapid regime collapse. The episode concludes with warnings that Russia, constrained conventionally, is pivoting toward hybrid escalation and AI-enabled warfare with partners, accelerating non-kinetic threats to U.S. and allied security.
Thank you for listening to The LOWDOWN.