“I spent the first 15 years of my career walking around in a lab with a laser, saying ‘does anyone want this…’ and the warfighter [kept] going ‘that’s adorable,’” Craig Robin recalled ruefully. “Just recently there’s been a tremendous pull [because] we simply just got out it into the user’s hands and they recognized the value.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Gray Eagle is the low-cost, low-risk answer to Army modernization
Gray Eagle STOL and Gray Eagle 25M are the best options for Army aviation as it assesses where to move from its current inflection point.
“There are a lot of autonomous systems in DoD today. There are very few, and I would say really no significant, AI enabled autonomous systems,” says Shanahan, who is trying to change that.
By Theresa Hitchens
The list includes 12 additional F-35s, and funding to speed development of the GPS anti-jam M-Code signal.
By Theresa Hitchens
The Valkyrie is the only drone to have flown with the Skyborg AI wingman package — but the Air Force isn’t ruling out the eventual use of another drone.
By Theresa Hitchens
ABL’s planned timeline would see the vehicle integration of the RS-1 this quarter, with a test launch in the third quarter of this year and the first commercial launch sometime after the end of the year.
By Theresa Hitchens
NRO has had a complicated relationship with commercial remote sensing providers, especially those working with SAR and other powerful new technologies.
By Theresa Hitchens
“I’ve never gotten a briefing from the Space Development Agency,” Roper said, “so I don’t know what their plan, I don’t know what they’re intending.”
By Theresa Hitchens
BAE Systems’ LR-PGK: The Superior Anti-Jam Solution
Going the distance to defeat emerging jam threats.
A single F-35 could have a flock of “loyal wingman” drones to carry weapons, jam radars, and if need be take a hit and die to save their human commander.
By Colin Clark
AFA: The Air Force is developing smart bombs that detonate differently depending on the target. These “Dialable Effects Munitions” could turn up the blast to devastate an enemy camp or turn it down to kill a single terrorist without hurting nearby civilians. In the extreme case, said Col. Garry Haase, the director of munitions at…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
NEWSEUM: The troops of tomorrow may be able to pull the trigger using only their minds. As artificially intelligent drones, hacking, jamming, and missiles accelerate the pace of combat, some of the military’s leading scientists are studying how mere humans can keep up with the incredible speed of cyber warfare, missiles and other threats. One…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATED: Adds Insights On Signficance ONRCO Mum So Far ON Switch GEOINT: In news sure to rock the launch industry, the mighty United Launch Alliance today failed to be named as the company launching the X-37B spaceplane. Instead, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will carry it for the first time, marking what is believed to be the…
By Colin Clark
presented by
General Atomics, whose MQ-1 Predator changed the world, is to start testing another potentially revolutionary weapon next month: a 150-kilowatt class laser. Several other companies are developing laser weapons and “we’re looking at all of them,” said Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, in an interview with Breaking Defense. “The…
By Richard Whittle
TYSON’S CORNER: All branches of the military really want laser weapons. But they don’t all want them for the same missions. What struck me after a recent conference here was how differently the US Air Force is approaching lasers. The USAF is pursing a two-pronged approach: They want to mount lasers on both the large…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
PENTAGON: Star Wars fans, calm down. The US Air Force wants to fire a 100-plus-kilowatt laser from a small plane. And not just any airplane, Air Force Research Laboratory officials. The last laser on an airplane — the megawatt Airborne Laser, which filled a converted 747 and cancelled in 2011 — the 2022 demonstration will be…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
