Defense Systems

DISA plans single award for $11.7B IT contract

The Defense Information Services Agency expects to release the solicitation for a potential 10-year, $11.7 billion IT support contract by the end of September with an award expected in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021.

Science & Tech

Microscopes Powered by Google’s AI Could Change Cancer Diagnostics

A DoD pilot program could help make artificial intelligence useful not just to researchers but to physicians.

Threats

China Rapidly Increasing Nuclear, Naval, and Next-Gen Tech, Pentagon Warns

The PLA is preparing for modern, networked warfare with more artificial intelligence, warships, and even a space station.

Ideas

Fear of a Black General? 

The case of one superstar colonel doesn’t prove anything about the Marines. But the larger pattern is worrisome. 

Policy

Trump's Halt to Election-Security Briefings Worries Many

DNI Ratcliffe’s edict comes just two months ahead of Election Day, with Russia, China and Iran all intent on influencing the outcome.

Defense Systems

Joint All-Domain Command and Control: It’s all about the data

Critical applications and data become liabilities if they cannot be architected in a lightweight, modular manner, readily scaled and consistently deployed everywhere they are needed -- whether at the tactical edge, on an aircraft or in a cloud environment.

Ideas

The Week QAnon Became Everyone’s Problem

The conspiracy theory-based movement poses a different type of terrorist threat.

Ideas

Bad Cyber Actors Don’t Fear the Law. We Can Change That.

Better coordination among law enforcement agencies at home and abroad are key to the layered deterrence strategy we need.

Policy

Biden: Trump’s ‘Subservience’ to Putin Is ‘Humiliating’ to the US

“Never before has an American president played such a subservient role to a Russian leader,” the Democratic candidate said.

Ideas

‘America First’ Enters Its Most Combustible Moment

If the next 150 days turn out to be Trump’s final days in office, he could still wreak a lot of havoc on American foreign policy.

Ideas

Will Trumpism Change Republican Foreign Policy Permanently?

The president did not just challenge Republican orthodoxy. He also blew up its establishment.

Threats

N. Korean Hackers Upgraded Their Financial-Theft Tools, Feds Warn

The BeagleBoyz — tied to Pyongyang’s General Reconnaissance Bureau — are thought to have stolen some $2 billion since 2015.

Science & Tech

Can AI Solve the Rare Earths Problem? Chinese and US Researchers Think So

A research effort funded by China and the U.S. could speed up the discovery of new materials to use in electronics.

Business

US Shipyards Lack Needed Repair Capacity, Admiral Says

And that’s just in peacetime.  

Ideas

In a Robot War, Kill the Humans

Even if advances in robotics mean fewer humans on the battlefield, the fight will increasingly focus on those that remain.

Science & Tech

US Navy Turns to Drones, AI to Monitor Rust

The service has hired a Google partner to apply technology that has already changed cancer treatment and road repair.