Ideas
National security deserves better than House Speaker’s 6-month CR plan
Bipartisan leaders should insist on—and meet—a tighter deadline for the fiscal 2025 spending bills.
Business
Pentagon keeping $5M per jet until Lockheed finishes F-35 upgrade
Lockheed issues small upgrade to TR-3, but full capability remains some time away.
Threats
US falling dangerously behind China on GPS development: Pentagon’s former space-policy leader
The Pentagon needs other position-navigation-timing systems if it loses connection to GPS satellites.
Policy
US, UK, Australia loosen mutual export controls
New rules may mark a “generational-level change” in allies’ industrial and technological collaboration.
Threats
Pentagon didn’t get heads-up about Ukraine’s Kursk offensive
U.S. officials still trying to discern Kyiv’s long-term objectives for the attack.
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.
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.
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.
Science & Tech
Pentagon planning huge experiment for its connect-everything concept
“We see significant progress,” in opening up DOD data, one observer said. But a bigger, multinational test is coming.
Policy
Meet the Pentagon's first-ever cyber policy chief
The Senate has confirmed Michael Sulmeyer to fill a position it helped create.
Policy
The US is helping the Philippines modernize its military
The move comes at a time of rising tensions in the South China Sea.
Threats
Army’s planned assault rotorcraft clears hurdle, will move to engineering phase
Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program gets greenlight to build six prototype tiltrotors.
Policy
Senators take another crack at solving over-classification
The bipartisan Classification Reform for Transparency Act would establish a task force to narrow the criteria for classifying documents and make it harder for agencies to exempt records from automatic declassification.
Threats
The US might lose a war with China, congressional commission says
Insufficient industry, readiness, innovation, and funding hamper military’s ability to prevail in conflict, key experts find.
Threats