WASHINGTON: William Roper’s Strategic Capabilities Office is exploring some of the most innovative concepts in the US military. Imagine a militarized version of Pokémon Go, helping Army soldiers locate real-life threats instead of cartoon monsters. Imagine robot brains in a box — an “autonomy kit” — that Navy sailors can install on a patrol boat…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI presented integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
PENTAGON: He won’t be there for long, less than half a day, but Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work will attend the Farnborough Air Show and discuss his Third Offset Strategy in closed-door meetings. It marks a boost in firepower for the air show, which has usually seen Frank Kendall, the head of Pentagon acquisition, there as…
By Colin Clark
ARLINGTON: The Army must tell its story better to get the money it needs, the new Army Secretary said this morning, making messaging one of his main missions. “What I would have to do first of all is… tell the Army story,” Eric Fanning said, “and the reason to do that is to make sure that the Army…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: Army budgeteers are laboring mightily to fund four National Guard attack helicopter battalions in their 2018 request, if Congress doesn’t add the money for 2017, the service’s vice-chief said today. The Army also has “a resourcing strategy” to restore an 11th Combat Aviation Brigade — a mix of attack and utility helicopters — to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: Trust your robots. Trust your tech industry. Trust your troops. Let go of traditional mechanisms of control — be it a human pilot in the cockpit or a formal requirements document for a program — that increasingly serve to slow you down. That was the message between the lines when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
As Defense Secretary Ashton Carter toured naval sites in New England this week, one aide was almost always standing at his side: William Roper, head of the quietly important Strategic Capabilities Office. On the flight home to Andrews Air Force Base, the often press-shy secretary surprised reporters — and, it seems, his staff — with an impromptu…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: In a report out this morning, CSBA scholars Bryan Clark and Mark Gunzinger argue that we don’t just need new technology and new tactics to confront the growing missile threats from China and Russia, though lasers, railguns, and hypervelocity projectiles are all useful. We need a different missile defense mindset than what we have today, one that trusts…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
How to unlock innovation and savings for DoD: “commercial,” not COTS
Overmatch is fleeting and while traditional acquisitions can’t always keep up with new threats, a different and approved practice can.
UPDATED from SASC briefing WASHINGTON: In their dueling drafts of the annual defense bill, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain has staked out bold positions where the House’s Mac Thornberry is cautious — and McCain is cautious where Thornberry is bold. Specifically, according to a summary his staff released last night, McCain’s bill is bold…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: If ground forces are obsolete, why are the Chinese bothering to build all those artificial islands in the South China Sea? The answer to that is key to the US Army’s emerging vision of its future role, a complex combination of old-fashioned close combat, resilient wireless networks, and advanced long-range weapons that extend the Army’s reach…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: “When most people when they hear me talk about this, they immediately start to think of think of Skynet and Terminator,” said the deputy secretary of defense. “I think more in terms of Iron Man.” The Pentagon wants artificial intelligence, said Bob Work, but it doesn’t want “killer robots that roam the battlefield” without…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
PENTAGON: One of the most important — and most maligned — elements of the Pentagon bureaucracy has gotten 30 percent faster, according to data exclusively compiled for Breaking Defense by the staff of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council. In a new drive for openness, the infamously opaque JROC is also bringing in outside expertise from industry,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: The secretive Strategic Capabilities Office is designed to jumpstart high-tech weapons projects. But today the SCO’s own director warned the Senate against placing too much trust in technology. In wartime, under assault from a savvy enemy, systems start breaking down, William Roper said, and the winner will be the side whose human beings adapt best…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Classic science fiction imagined evil master computers remote-controlling their mindless robot minions. It imagined good-guy droids that were basically humans in tin suits. But as the actual science of autonomy evolves, reality is looking a lot weirder. The user interface may be in an ordinary Android tablet, but the artificial intelligence itself may reside in…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
This afternoon, Deputy Defense Secretary and robotics booster Bob Work will christen the largest unmanned surface vessel in history. At 130 feet long and not quite 140 tons displacement, DARPA’s Sea Hunter dwarfs previous robotic boats, giving it the ruggedness and fuel capacity, about 70 days’ worth, to cross oceans on its own power without a manned mothership. But…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
