Science & Tech
Two programs suggest the Pentagon is getting better at buying technology
The Maven and Collaborative Combat Aircraft efforts display real steps forward, a pair of reports say.
Ideas
Did China just demote its defense ministry?
Adm. Dong Jun has been left off key decision-making bodies. That could complicate the U.S.-China military relationship.
Business
F-35 performance-based logistics deal is dead—for now
Pentagon balks at moving away from fix-on-demand arrangement during global uncertainty.
Policy
Leaked training videos show civil service remains in Project 2025's crosshairs
The videos repeatedly stressed the need for more “political control” of agencies, though they stopped short of overtly discussing the Trump campaign or the Heritage Foundation-led transition project’s endorsement of Schedule F.
Science & Tech
Can AI spot vulnerabilities in infrastructure software?
DARPA is giving seven teams $2 million to hone tools for scrutinizing the open-source code that underpins everything from banks to water systems.
Science & Tech
Social-media firms are lowering defenses to foreign disinformation campaigns, researchers warn
Meta is about to become the latest to scuttle a key tool—just months before a U.S. election.
Policy
National-security workforce needs young people, former NSA chief says
Paul Nakasone says fifteen times more 50-plus-year-olds work in national security than under-30s. At least one university is trying to step up.
Science & Tech
Anti-drone ‘shoot-out’ lets experienced soldiers wring out latest gear
Organizers created innovative firing ranges to handle everything from anti-drone rifles to directed-energy weapons.
Science & Tech
Navy still bullish on lasers but widely-deployed directed-energy ship defense remains years away
Quest gains urgency as enemy drones and missiles get better, cheaper, and more widely used.
Science & Tech
Near-autonomous satellites could be coming in a decade, Space Force envisions
AI-powered spacecraft would need fewer vulnerable ground stations, chief buyer said.
Ideas
Defense boom drives 33% sales surge for Rheinmetall
“We have never seen such growth,” says CEO of German company that recently opened a repair facility in Ukraine.
Ideas
It’s increasingly difficult to see how Qatar can broker a Gaza breakthrough
Doha's mediation efforts have been undermined by Israel's recent assassination of Hamas' longtime political chief.
Policy
DARPA hires Twitter whistleblower as CIO
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko will return to the agency after a decade spent working for several leading tech firms.
Defense Systems
The Pentagon’s IT agency looks to expand cloud offshore
The agency has been expanding services outside the continental U.S. while reworking tools to ease data access.
Threats
Replicator passes a milestone as some troops complete training with cheap new drones
DepSecDef says the systems will be a formal part of the 2026 budget.
Policy