January/February 2026

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that a drone strike last February compromised nuclear safety at the mothballed Chernobyl nuclear complex after a visit to the Ukrainian site in November.

The IAEA conducted a comprehensive safety assessment at Chernobyl at the request of Ukraine’s nuclear regulator. The objective of the mission was to evaluate the status of the containment structure built in 2016 to prevent further radioactive release at a reactor unit destroyed in the infamous 1986 accident. The structure, known as the new safe confinement structure, was struck by a drone in February 2025. The strike caused a fire in the outer cladding of the structure but did not result in the release of radiation, according to the IAEA.

However, the agency’s November assessment suggests that, without repairs, the structure is at risk. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Dec. 5 that the agency concluded that the containment structure “lost its primary safety functions” due to the strike, but “there was no permanent damage to its load-bearing structures or monitoring systems.”

Grossi said there were limited repairs to the roof of the structure, but “timely and comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation.”

The Dec. 5 statement said that there will be additional repairs on the structure in 2026 to “support the re-establishment of [its] confinement function.”—KELSEY DAVENPORT 

Janyuary/February 2026

Sabrina Dallafior of Switzerland was chosen the next director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by the states-parties Nov. 27. She is the first woman appointed to the four-year position, which begins July 2026.

“As Director-General, I will accord the highest importance to upholding the norm against chemical weapons. Ensuring its long-term sustainability requires us to investigate all credible allegations of use, establishing the scientific facts, and to denounce all confirmed cases […] This is non-negotiable, as it touches the very core of the [Chemical Weapons] Convention,” Dallafior said in a statement released by the OPCW.

Currently, Dallafior is the Swiss ambassador to Finland. She has been a career diplomat since 2000 and has extensive multilateral experience regarding security and defense policy, disarmament, arms control, and nonproliferation.

Dallafior will succeed Fernando Arias, who has served as the fourth director-general since 2017. Under Arias, the OPCW has taken on investigations of chemical weapons use by the former government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the illegal use of riot-control agents during the war in Ukraine. He also oversaw the elimination of the last declared chemical weapons stockpile by the United States.—DARYL G. KIMBALL

January/February 2026

For the first time since 1998, the U.S. Air Force is moving to take back from the Navy the Airborne Command Post mission, an important nuclear command, control, and communications function.

The mission, called “Looking Glass,” is designed to ensure that the United States can control its intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear forces even if land-based control centers are attacked.

From 1961 to 1990, the Air Force deployed at least one EC-135 plane in the air on 24/7 alert for this purpose but in 1998, the mission was transferred to the Navy’s E-6B Mercury aircraft, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine Dec. 11. For the past 27 years, the Navy E-6B fleet also has carried out the “take charge and move out” (TACOMO) mission, which is similar to Looking Glass but focuses on receiving, verifying, and relaying orders to the Navy’s nuclear submarines.

On Dec. 9, the Air Force announced a defense industry day to begin acquisition for “Looking Glass-Next,” and JJ Gertler, an analyst at the Teal Group consultancy, told Breaking Defense Dec. 12 that “the Air Force [will have] to find someplace else for Looking Glass.” Since the Air Force is already upgrading the “Doomsday” plane from the E4-B Nightwatch aircraft to the E4-C model, it “wouldn’t be too surprising to see the [Looking Glass] mission back on that plane,” Gertler said.—LIBBY FLATOFF