The Department of Defense has awarded a contract worth almost $11 million to X-Bow Systems, a New Mexico-based rocket manufacturer, under a program aimed at developing a new anti-ballistic weapon for less than $750,000 a shot—roughly a fifth the cost of its top-tier equivalent, the Patriot missile.
The U.S. military purchased satellite images that identified Chinese aircraft carrier positions and Ecuadorian airstrips allegedly used for drug trafficking, a new report from the Government Accountability Office revealed. But despite those and other examples of prior use, the Space Force still hasn’t fully embraced commercial intelligence, the watchdog said.
The first large-scale tests for the Golden Dome missile defense shield focused on validating the architecture’s complex command-and-control and software systems, according to a top official overseeing the program.
The Air Force is modernizing how it conducts command and control and edge communications, moving away from a decade-old model that proved cumbersome and ineffective during Operation Epic Fury, according to the officer who oversees the service’s communications and cyber system implementation.
Taiwan’s legislature approved a plan on Thursday to spend over $7 billion on drones over the next six years, investing in a strategy to deter an attack by China and supporting an emerging domestic industry that aims to be a world leader.
The U.S. military said Aug. 27 that it has cleared all Iranian sea mines along internationally recognized transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz. In a video posted to the social platform X, U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said that “the U.S. military has achieved a major milestone in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The premier of British Columbia has an additional suggestion for Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in dealing with U.S. tariffs: stop plans to buy as many as 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets.
The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack.
NASA is starting to explore options to fill the gaps that will be left by the eventual retirement of its iconic T-38 Talons. Since the 1960s, NASA has been using the jets to support astronaut training and as chase planes. However, the Talons are aging, supportability is already a problem, and challenges to sustain them further are expected to grow as the U.S. Air Force replaces its T-38 fleet with new T-7A Red Hawks.
