NSA Deputy Warns of China's Pervasive Threat Across Domains

"China has its hands in most every national security priority we are dealing with today, and it’s a hot competition," National Security Agency Deputy Director Tim Kosiba said at the TechNet Augusta conference, laying out a broad set of allegations about Beijing’s activities and a stark warning about the role of artificial intelligence in that competition.

Tim Kosiba’s framing at TechNet Augusta

Kosiba, identified in the source as the number two official at America’s premier technical spying agency, told the TechNet Augusta audience that Beijing is acting as a "spoiler" and "disruptor" across multiple regions — "from Greenland to the Korean Peninsula to the Western Hemisphere." He said China is attempting to "help [America’s] enemies in most every sphere across domains and environments" and repeatedly stressed the scale of what he called a "hot competition."

Allegation: Chinese GEOINT helped Iran target U.S. sites

Kosiba asserted a specific operational example: "For example, it’s no secret that Chinese companies provided GEOINT [geospatial intelligence] to the Iranians to help hit our bases and our allies." That allegation echoes reporting from April in The Washington Post, which said Chinese firms — some with links to the Chinese military — had used artificial intelligence to analyze open-source data-market imagery and other information to track U.S. forces. The Washington Post noted U.S. officials were divided on the degree of threat posed by that information, while Australian outlet ABC reported at least one defense source believed the imagery was endangering lives.

China’s foreign ministry, told ABC at the time, that the imagery "was obtained from open-source channels and is a routine market practice," a response Kosiba’s remarks implicitly contested by tying such activity to direct operational effects on U.S. military installations and allies.

Allegation: intelligence, drone technology, and training for Russia

Kosiba also accused China of providing "intelligence, drone technology and training to Russia 'in its unprovoked war against the Ukraine, in what they call a partnership without limits.'" He cited European intelligence reporting; Reuters reported in May that China had trained scores of Russian soldiers. Kosiba presented those activities as part of a wider pattern of Beijing supporting actors that challenge U.S. interests.

NSA response: tasking, partnerships, and bureaucratic hurdles

"Our troops and our cyber and SIGINT [signals intelligence] resources have been tasked to track and counter these activities and many more," Kosiba said, adding that those efforts "are the priority for this administration." To support that tracking and countering, he said the NSA is working more closely with "partners at home and abroad" and is attempting to clear bureaucratic hurdles to cooperate more effectively with industry.

The remarks place internal coordination — between military forces, cyber and SIGINT assets, foreign partners, and private-sector firms — at the center of the agency’s strategy for confronting the threats Kosiba described.

AI as the force multiplier: agentic models and the race to integrate

Kosiba repeatedly returned to artificial intelligence as a critical enabler in the competition. "We must use our advances to our advantage, and AI is a massively important enabler that changes the character of warfare, both on the offensive and defensive sides," he said. He emphasized the emergence of "agentic AI," describing models that "take multi-step actions rather than react to specific user prompts," and added, "and I mean right now — not in a year or a decade, but today, in the engagements we are in today."

He warned that "the breakneck speed of AI development 'directly intersects' with the Chinese threat" and that "our adversaries are investing resources in AI capabilities designed to penetrate our networks and outpace us." Kosiba concluded with a blunt competitive framing: "Whomever successfully integrates AI … into their workflows and leverages it to fully harness the power of their data will have an immense advantage. We can’t fall behind, not even for a moment."

How technologists, policymakers, and troops are responding

• Technologists and security teams: Kosiba’s remarks underline pressure to accelerate AI integration and to partner with the NSA as the agency seeks to "clear bureaucratic hurdles" for industry cooperation. The deputy director framed rapid integration of AI into workflows as a decisive competitive factor.
• Policymakers and regulators: The deputy director cast these issues as an administration priority, signaling that policy and interagency coordination will be focused on countering Beijing’s cross-domain activities and on facilitating public–private collaboration.
• Troops, cyber and SIGINT resources: Kosiba said these elements have been "tasked to track and counter" Chinese activities and related threats, reflecting a hands-on operational mandate tied to both traditional signals collection and newer, AI-influenced intelligence challenges.

Kosiba’s speech stitches together allegations about Chinese assistance to actors who have engaged U.S. forces or allied partners, recent reporting on commercial imagery analysis, and an urgent call to adopt agentic AI at speed. The combined message from the NSA deputy director is a dual warning: an expansive, cross-domain competitor on one hand, and on the other, an accelerating AI race that must be met with faster integration and closer cooperation among military, intelligence, and industry actors. The unspoken operational question his remarks leave is concrete: can the bureaucratic and partnership gaps he named be closed quickly enough to prevent adversaries from converting AI and open-source data into asymmetric advantage?

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/08/hot-competition-nsa-deputy-sounds-alarm-on-china-threat-ai-race/