Threats
Space Force braces for stalled progress amid lack of full funding
Fiscal 2027 program starts are already on hold until December.
Science & Tech
Air Force contemplates unmanned tankers
The technology isn’t yet available to give autonomy to very large aircraft—but it’s coming.
Ideas
How a MAGA influencer with ties to Russia became Trump’s Arctic adviser
As Thomas Dans holds forth in the U.S. and abroad, it’s not always clear where the administration’s agenda ends and his own begins.
Sponsor Content
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Policy
Agencies spent nearly $10 billion for feds not to work in 2025
The use of paid administrative leave as part of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, an effort to entice federal workers to quit, across government in 2025 was 435% higher than two years prior, according to a new GAO report.
Science & Tech
NGA official takes top AI job at Cyber Command
Ronzelle Green succeeds Reid Novotny, who pushed the combatant command to embrace the technology.
Threats
‘It was time’ to admit US has weapons in orbit, Space Force’s new leader says
Russian and Chinese advances led to the revelation, Gen. Douglas Schiess says at AFA.
Sponsor Content
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Threats
Iran strikes exposed gaps in medical evacuation ops across Middle East: IG
Medical professionals have long warned that drones would cause higher U.S. battlefield casualties. A new Inspector General report shows the military is still scrambling to meet that challenge.
Defense Systems
US military has ‘on-orbit’ space weapons, Air Force Secretary reveals
Experts said the acknowledgment may lead to overt action by China, Russia.
Business
Lockheed’s Skunk Works plans to build four more of its multirole combat drones
The firm’s top secret research arm shared new Vectis images, but few key details.
Voices
Ideas
Cold comfort
A Polish naval commando walks into a bar…in the latest Fictional Intelligence column.
Science & Tech
Russia is weaponizing US-built AI to make killer drones, cyberattack bots, and fake news
AI companies are sounding alarms, but the Trump administration isn’t acting on them.
Science & Tech
‘Digital employees’ are coming to the Defense Logistics Agency
Nearly 200 agentic-AI bots are already running autonomously as the combat support agency pushes ahead with AI-powered tools, CIO says.
Threats
25 years after 9/11, spy agencies face old lessons and new threats
Former intelligence officials describe a nation better equipped to disrupt terrorist plots, but still wrestling with the costs.
Ideas
The Pentagon is using polygraphs to hunt leakers, but the tests are more theater than fact
My 27-year career with the CIA makes me wary of the certainty their use can appear to convey.
Policy
US absent as western powers meet on wartime protections for civilians
A multinational group meets this week at NATO headquarters in Belgium to discuss protections for civilians during combat. Even though the U.S. co-founded this effort, no American delegation will be in the room.
Policy
‘We have to throw technology at the cyber problem,’ Pentagon CIO says
DOD must use “the fantastically skilled people that we have in a much more effective way,” Kirsten Davies said.
Policy
Top Air and Space Force leaders will gather amid unresolved Iran war, budget uncertainty
The Joint Chiefs chairman, Space Force’s new leader, and the NASA administrator are all scheduled to speak at next week’s Air and Space Force Association conference.
Science & Tech
AI-powered biowarfare is coming; the Army lays plans to ‘fight through’ it
A new strategy aims to prepare to “deploy, fight, and win decisively in a bio-contested environment” by 2035.
Science & Tech
Maven is becoming the Pentagon’s everything app
MSS has replaced “six, eight, ten” systems that the military used to analyze data, AI chief says.
Science & Tech
NSA wants AI to help analysts sift vast data troves
Tasks that take days or weeks will be done "much faster," says the agency’s cybersecurity chief.
Science & Tech
CIA cyber intelligence helped US forces capture Maduro, deputy director says
The agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence built a “flawless intelligence picture,” Michael Ellis said.
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