Science & Tech

Trump’s New Missile Policy Relies Heavily on Largely Unproven Technologies

New adversary missiles are to be met by a host of technologies that, by and large, don’t exist yet.

Science & Tech

Pentagon to Study Putting Anti-Missile Laser Weapons in Space

The long-anticipated missile defense review shies away from a full-scale push — which critics say underlines the idea’s folly.

Science & Tech

Ukraine Is Buying New Combat Drones…From Turkey

The skies over Eastern Ukraine are becoming more crowded as Kiev looks to Ankara for weapons.

Science & Tech

How AI Will Find You In the Crowd, Without Facial Recognition

New deep learning methods tested on video footage groups of animals could be a surveillance hit.

Science & Tech

Russia’s Special Operators Are Getting Futuristic Mini-Subs

Originally designed for oil exploration, the six bathyspheres are to arrive by 2022.

Science & Tech

Report: Iran Is Likely Setting Stage for International Phishing Campaign

Hackers have been methodically gaining access to domain name services that allow malware-laden emails to look like they come from legitimate organizations.

Science & Tech

DARPA Thinks Insect Brains Might Hold the Secret to Next-Gen AI

They’re small, efficient and capable of basic reasoning, and researchers want artificial intelligence tools to do the same.

Science & Tech

Russia: Expect a National AI Roadmap by Midyear

Moscow is starting to put financial and logistical muscle behind its efforts to develop artificial intelligence.

Ideas

Why China’s Military Wants to Beat the US to a Next-Gen Cell Network

For Beijing, the race to 5G has always been linked to its national strategy for military-civil fusion.

Science & Tech

Pentagon Seeks a List of Ethical Principles for Using AI in War

An advisory board is drafting guidelines that may help shape worldwide norms for military artificial intelligence — and woo Silicon Valley to defense work.

Science & Tech

The FBI is Trying Amazon’s Facial-Recognition Software

The software allows the FBI to go through video surveillance footage much faster than agents can.

Policy

Goodbye, Mattis. Goodbye, Syria. Hello, 2019

Dramatic shifts abound as Trump puts US military’s war plans in doubt, Democrats resurge in Congress, and the Pentagon gets a new boss.

Science & Tech

US Spies Want to Know How to Spot Compromised AI

What if you were training an AI, and an adversary slipped a few altered images into its study set?

Science & Tech

The Pentagon Doesn’t Know All the Software on Its Networks—And That’s a Problem

The Defense Department faces “unnecessary” risk without a complete software inventory, according to the agency’s inspector general.

Science & Tech

US Army Narrows Search For Light Tank to Two Companies

General Dynamics and BAE Systems will each build 12 prototypes of an up-to-40-ton armored vehicle.

Science & Tech

Inspectors Find Big Cyber Vulnerabilities in US Missile Defense System

The managers of the nation’s missile defense system aren’t implementing basic cybersecurity practices, according to a new inspector report.

Science & Tech

The US Is Buying Phone Hacking Tools for Ghana’s Police

The State Department wants Ghanaian law enforcement to be able to access Android, Windows, and BlackBerry devices used in transnational crime.

Science & Tech

The Government’s Bioterror-Response Website May Be Leaking Sensitive Data

DHS inspectors and a whistleblower say the site, which would be used to coordinate federal responses to a bioterror attack, isn’t secure.