Israel’s military forces crossed the border into southern Lebanon on Sept. 30 to conduct what its military described as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The offensive is aimed at pushing Hezbollah forces further away from the Israeli border and is expected to last for days, not weeks, according to U.S. officials.
The Russian government intends to increase its defense expenditures by about a quarter next year, according to a draft state budget released on Sept. 30, signaling the Kremlin’s continued determination to allocate vast resources to the war in Ukraine.
Defense startups developing weapons to counter China have a problem. They depend on the country for parts. China is the dominant supplier of batteries, motors, sensors, rare-earth materials, and other key components needed by U.S. defense companies. The industry’s outsize reliance on China for materials to build everything from drones to ships and missiles has become an untenable reality in Washington.
“It’s already very challenging for satellite operators to fly their own satellites during a solar storm in LEO, so imagine how hard it is to keep track of a noncooperative maneuvering satellite in the same conditions,” says Matt Shouppe, a leader in Booz Allen’s space business. “Our adversaries know that when their satellites can’t be seen, that’s the best time to maneuver, deploy a covert payload, or perform some other operation they don’t want the U.S. to know about.”
The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) on Sept. 30 issued a call to industry—worth up to $708 million over a maximum of seven years—for help training AI-driven computer vision systems to, among other tasks, process satellite imagery and identify targets of interest.
Pentagon leadership will accelerate high-volume production of technologies designed to detect, track and destroy enemy drones via “Replicator 2.0,” DefenseScoop has learned. This development marks the first public report of the second capability focus area under the Replicator initiative—a high-profile effort that underpins the Defense Department’s multifaceted plan to deter China.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Sept. 30 they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over the country, with videos purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile striking it. The U.S. military acknowledged losing a drone.
Networked cell phones running special software may make a cheap and easy-to-deploy counter to sophisticated Russian electronic-warfare tactics, according to an American company working to develop such a system in Ukraine.
The Air Force’s special operators remain mostly unknown to the American public when compared with their Navy and Army counterparts, worsening an already difficult recruiting environment, according to a new service-commissioned study. Perhaps the biggest issue confronting Air Force Special Warfare is competing with the household-name status enjoyed by the operators in those two other services, researchers at the Rand Corp. think tank found.
Syracuse, New York-based SRC Inc. has unveiled an electronic support measures (ESM) payload for a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). The first defensive payload expressly designed to suit the needs of the new class of autonomous aircraft raises a question: Will the CCAs need it?
A total of 181 candidates with military experience won primaries for House and Senate seats this year, according to an analysis from Military Times. That number is down from 196 in 2022, and follows a trend of fewer veterans winning national elected office that began in the late 1970s.
