Science & Tech

US Military Testing Whether Human Pilots Can Trust Robot Wingmen in a Dogfight

DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution program aims to find out — and so shape America’s future arsenal.

Science & Tech

The Pentagon Still Buys Software Like It's 1987

The Defense Innovation Board recently discovered that a 32-year-old report "pretty much said it all."

Science & Tech

Don’t Expect the US Military’s Next Fighter to Be Joint

While the Navy’s and Air Force’s next tactical jet might share some capabilities, a Navy official says, they won’t share an airframe.

Science & Tech

Admiral: The US Is ‘Operating Blind’ In the Arctic

The Navy needs more weather data to better operate in the cold northern seas.

Science & Tech

Robots and Lasers Are Bringing Shipbuilding into the Digital Age

Even decades-old aircraft carriers are being mapped onto digital models at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Science & Tech

DIU Is Helping the US Army Field More Backpack-Sized Drones

The Pentagon’s internal startup accelerator wants to get consumer quadcopters in the hands of soldiers in a matter of months, not years.

Science & Tech

Fighter Jets with Missile-Killing Lasers Take Another Step Toward Reality

U.S. Air Force says a ground-based laser downed multiple test missiles over New Mexico.

Science & Tech

US Drones May Soon Run on Open-Source Software

The Defense Innovation Unit is exploring whether a popular commercial platform could help the military keep up with the rapidly advancing drone industry.

Threats

Pentagon Warns Of China’s Rise in the Arctic, Missile Subs, Influence Operations

Annual "China Military Power" report notes that Beijing’s deterrence fleet is up to six ballistic missile subs.

Science & Tech

Instagram and Facebook Ban Far-Right Extremists

Alex Jones, Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, Paul Nehlen, and Louis Farrakhan have all been removed from the platforms.

Science & Tech

Maduro’s Media Crackdown Fails as Protests Overwhelm Caracas

The blue armband uprising of Venezuelan soldiers shows that viral messaging remains the future of protest.

Science & Tech

Here's the US Navy’s Drone Tanker, on the Road

A test prototype of Boeing’s MQ-25 carrier-based refueling aircraft gets a ride to its test airfield.

Science & Tech

One Defense Agency is Building a Bot Army

And it's saving the department hundreds of thousands of work hours a year, a defense official said.

Science & Tech

Russians Will Soon Lose Uncensored Access to the Internet

A new law allows the Kremlin to spy on, filter, and control the country’s online activity, alarming human-rights watchdogs.

Science & Tech

Progress Is Finally Being Made on Security Clearance Backlog

“For the first time ever, the executive and legislative branches are on the same page about this issue.”

Science & Tech

Here Come AI-Enabled Cameras Meant to Sense Crime Before it Occurs

The future of video surveillance is about detecting not just faces, but behaviors.

Science & Tech

Pentagon’s Digital Guru Chris Lynch to Depart

DOD office instrumental in the JEDI cloud competition is getting a new director this month.

Science & Tech

Microsoft Unveils Two Secret Data Centers Built for Classified Government Data

Microsoft is building data centers and expanding security capabilities to compete with Amazon to host sensitive government data.

Science & Tech

Air Force to Begin Shifting Research Funds to These Kinds of Next-Gen Weapons

The Pentagon’s continues to shift focus toward Moscow and Beijing with a new push for tomorrow’s drone swarms and smart missiles.

Science & Tech

The US Is Investing in AI for High-Powered Satellite Imagery Analysis

The Intelligence Community envisions a system combining archives with real-time surveillance footage from drones and other aircraft.