A new instruction approved by Pentagon CIO Kirsten Davies includes procedures for AI-assisted software development as the department adapts for an era of “software-defined warfare.”
Aerospace conglomerate Textron and artificial intelligence firm Merlin Labs have unveiled a new unmanned aircraft concept to kickstart conversation about Pacific logistics, the companies announced Sept. 14.
Almost $200 million and almost a decade after it was first announced, a Commerce Department effort designed to free the Pentagon from the mission of tracking civil and commercial space operations, in order to better focus its resources on potential on-orbit threats, remains in its nascent stages.
The Defense Logistics Agency is piloting AI agents that work autonomously—bots that its CIO calls “digital employees.” “This is a new frontier for everyone,” DLA chief information officer Adarryl Roberts told reporters at DLA’s Industry Collider Day on Sept. 9 in Alexandria, Va.
The Navy awarded a $562 million fixed-price incentive contract to Boeing on Sept. 14 to kick off Lot 1 Low Rate Initial Production of the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned tanker, the service announced.
With lingering questions regarding the depleted U.S. stockpiles due to the war with Iran, the Air Force is looking to build the “right mix” of weapons, not just “replenishing what has been expended,” Brig. Gen. Robert Lyons III said.
Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft has already flown in formation alongside F-35 fighters during U.S. Air Force testing, company executives have revealed, offering the clearest indication yet that live manned-unmanned teaming work with the fifth-generation fighter is underway.
New defense industry player Swarm Aero unveiled the Gamera uncrewed aircraft system on the opening day of the Air, Space and Cyber conference, revealing the product of a nearly five-year, largely secret effort to offer the U.S. Air Force a replacement for the MQ-9A Reaper with a similarly-sized aircraft capable of swarming.
President Trump said Sept. 14 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to avoid energy targets in their ongoing war as global fuel prices rise. “Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do likewise!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Just as Ukraine was learning how to parry Russia’s drone attacks, Moscow has moved the goal posts with a new generation of innovative jet-powered weapons.
The Defense Department’s inspector general released its first report on the war with Iran on Sept. 14, saying the conflict has resulted in a shortfall of U.S. munitions and “bottlenecks” in supply chains as the Trump administration works to replenish weaponry.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, bolstering the Iran-backed rebels’ ability to control a key maritime shipping route.
Air Force Col. Merryl Tengesdal started out in the Navy flying helicopters but ended up becoming the first Black woman to fly the Air Force’s U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane. Tengesdal made a rare cross-rate move to the Air Force after teaching a joint flight program, and in 2004, she qualified to fly one of the most difficult aircraft in the world, the U-2. Tengesdal joins only five women and three Black members, male or female, to participate in the U-2 program.
