The newest White House tech strategy pushes faster development of emerging technologies for the military, gives defense innovators more room to experiment, and will broaden the federal market for young defense tech startups. But it also doubles down on a particular approach to developing AI—one that favors a handful of well-connected U.S. tech companies at the expense of other innovative approaches.
A U.S. Air Force plane heading from New Zealand to Antarctica was forced to turn around Aug. 18 due to a “potentially hazardous” space activity warning.
With lawmakers out of town for the remainder of the month, Breaking Defense Senior Congressional Reporter Valerie Insinna explains why there’s a ticking clock for the passage of a continuing resolution, why House and Senate deadlines do not overlap and why that could be a problem in the weeks ahead.
President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year and offered an updated assessment of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying it possesses “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
AU.S. Air Force’s new EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare jet made an appearance near the Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave on Aug. 18. The flight was part of a large presence of U.S. and NATO reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft and Polish ground forces arrayed near the strategic Baltic Sea salient bordering Poland and Lithuania.
Security teams at an Air Force nuclear base may soon be training with Chinese-made drones, which are now so widely used in war zones that one expert called them ‘the new AK-47.’ According to a federal contract solicitation, nuclear security airmen at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., need the Chinese-made drones so they can train with the “exact devices adversaries are most likely to employ.”
The Pentagon’s new comprehensive report on the state of America’s defense research enterprise spotlights severe structural, logistical, and bureaucratic vulnerabilities undermining the military’s technological edge.
The Pentagon is defending the safety of M17 and M18 handguns — military versions of the controversial SIG Sauer P320 — saying that “there has never been a mechanically caused accidental discharge” involving the service weapon.
The Army took a major step to prepare for wars of the future in January when it established a new battalion in Europe to master the art of fighting with drones and ground robots. ... But the much touted drone assault battalion is being phased out. After participating in a major exercise in Germany in August and September, the unit will report its findings to the Army to guide future experimentation, shed its drone assault role and “refocus on its core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion,” an Army official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement.
Some U.S. military members who are itching to play a video game they've anticipated for over a decade can trade a commitment for several more years of their life in uniform for a few days off to play Grand Theft Auto VI.
