Two people were killed May 5 in a new targeted strike on a vessel traveling on a “known narco-trafficking” route in the Caribbean Sea, according to U.S. Southern Command.
Lithuania, a NATO state bordering Russia and Belarus, bought 48 Merops interceptors from American manufacturer Perennial Autonomy on April 22, becoming the latest NATO country to buy into the $15,000 per-shot counter-drone system. The pilot purchase, made without competitive bidding, follows earlier Merops deployments and training with Polish and Romanian forces along NATO’s eastern flank.
Just off the windswept beach, a camouflage-painted unmanned vessel reminiscent of a Chinese amphibious fighting vehicle advanced through the sapphire waters of the South China Sea. Drones buzzed ahead as American, Filipino, and Japanese soldiers waited nearby. Then two rockets whooshed from HIMARS launchers hidden in the sand dunes, heading out to target simulated enemy warships in deep water. The battle had begun.
The Pentagon for many years has repeatedly failed to pass a clean department-wide audit, but senior officials are hoping that new AI capabilities can help them get over the hump.
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force are working on a new “Compact Variant” of the AIM-9X Sidewinder. The smaller Sidewinder is being developed with a focus on increased magazine depth when carried internally by “advanced aircraft,” while also offering improved range and performance.
President Donald Trump said on May 5 that he is pausing the U.S. effort to guide stranded vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz to allow time for a deal to end the Iran war, but that the American forces’ blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.
The growing use of artificial intelligence to enhance monitoring of adversary activities poses huge interoperability challenges for NATO that require near-term agreements on policies and data standards, NATO’s top intelligence policy officer warned on May 4.
The U.S. Army is pushing defense contractors to provide access to weapons’ software to improve their interoperability and help integrate them with emerging artificial-intelligence tools.
A retired Air Force fighter pilot accused of teaching American tactics to Chinese airmen allegedly drove erratically to avoid an FBI tail, kept a fake passport, and deleted messages from foreign pilots to cover his tracks, according to recent filings in federal court.
