New autonomous aircraft in development for Marines
DefenseNews : New versions of the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie drone will be manufactured for the U.S. Marine Corps after the service made the drone a new program of record, Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco told investors during a phone call last week. A U.S. Marine Corps XQ-58A Valkyrie, front, conducts a test flight with two Air Force F-35A Lightning II. The Valkyrie drone, an unmanned aircraft known for its versatility and many warfighting capabilities, has been flying since 2019 and until this point has been used by the U.S. Air Force and Marines for test…
Pak Army Chief Asim Munir in US: ‘We’ll Take Half the World Down’: Nuclear Threat Shocks Global Audience
DefenseNews: Pakistan's Field Martial also threatened to destroy any infrastructure that India builds on the Indus water channels, saying his country has no dearth of missiles. Washington : Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir has openly warned of a "nuclear war" from American soil. Addressing an event in Tampa, Florida, Pakistan's de facto military ruler threatened to take down "half the world" if his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India. "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we a…
European drone builders tinker with AI in navigation and targeting
MILAN: Drawing from Ukraine’s battlefield successes, a growing number of European companies have begun fielding drones with artificial intelligence features. An element of Ukraine’s recent “Spider Web” operation on June 1 – a covert drone attack carried out deep inside Russia – was largely overlooked: the supporting role played by AI. According to the Center for Strategic and International studies, AI-driven tools were likely critical in training the software of explosive, first-person-view drones. These tools enabled the drones to spot threat…
DefenseNews: Space Force rethinking plans for proliferated satellite communications
DefenseNews: The Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request proposes stalling plans to buy a third batch of communication satellites through the Space Development Agency as it weighs whether an existing constellation, largely dominated by SpaceX, is better suited for the mission. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed the pause in a congressional hearing Thursday, telling senate appropriators the service is studying “other avenues” to use small, commercial satellites flying in low orbits to provide low-latency communications to…
Pahalgam terror attack: JD Vance urges India, Pakistan to avoid WAR
DefenseNews : US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that India's response to last week's terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam should be measured to avoid triggering a “wider regional conflict”. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Vance also emphasised that Pakistan must cooperate with India in addressing the threat of extremism. Here are the top updates 1. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth spoke with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to offer condolences for the lives lost in the recent terror attack in Pahalg…
Russian hacking group targeted US military contractors
DefenseNews : A hacking group tied to Russian intelligence tried to worm its way into the systems of dozens of Western think tanks, journalists and former military and intelligence officials, Microsoft and U.S. authorities said Thursday. The group, known as Star Blizzard to cyberespionage experts, targeted its victims with emails that appeared to come from a trusted source — a tactic known as spear phishing. In fact, the emails sought access to the victims’ internal systems, as a way to steal information and disrupt their activities. Star Bliz…
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French Navy orders underwater drones for deep-sea surveillance
BREST , France — The French Navy has ordered an autonomous underwater vehicle from Exail that will surveil critical infrastructure at depths of up to 6,000 meters, the company announced. The architecture of the new drone will be based on the firm’s Ulyx, a vehicle co-developed with Ifremer, the national institute for ocean science and technology. The platform will primarily be used to carry out reconnaissance operations across the seabed, covering sensitive infrastructure like submarine cables, many of which lie at a depth of 6,000 meters. Ens…
DefenseNews: Chinese balloons spotted over Mideast posed no threat, three-star says
DefenseNews: U.S. forces in the Middle East spotted a Chinese stratospheric balloon floating through the region last fall, though it did not pass over any “sensitive” military sites and was not seen as a threat, an Air Force three-star general told reporters Monday. It’s the latest acknowledgment of China’s global airborne intelligence program, which has come under scrutiny since a balloon passed into American airspace late last month. Chinese balloons periodically fly over U.S. Central Command, with no particular pattern, Air Forces Central b…
US Navy teams with Qualcomm to research 5G, artificial intelligence
SAN DIEGO — The Naval Postgraduate School and wireless specialist Qualcomm Technologies inked a cooperative research agreement to explore 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, some of the U.S. Defense Department’s most pressing priorities. The collaboration, announced on Feb. 13, aims to inform the digital pursuits of the Navy and Marine Corps, while also engaging school faculty and students with some of the private sector’s leading scientists and engineers. “The core of warfighter development at NPS is preparing leaders to solve co…
‘Everything and the kitchen sink:’ USAF plots new refueling tanker
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force wants its next-generation aerial refuelling tanker, dubbed KC-Z, to be flying and reach initial operational capability by 2040. According to a request for information the Air Force posted online on Jan. 31, the service plans to start conducting an analysis of alternatives for the next-generation air refuelling system, or NGAS, in October and wants to hear what the defense industry might have in mind for it. Industry has until March 2 to submit its responses. The KC-Z would be the third and final stage of the Air…
Will Iran supply the world with low-cost weapons?
DefenseNews : Tehran claims to have the most successful arms industry in the world despite decades of economic sanctions. The regime states that 5,000 knowledge-based companies are cooperating with its defense industry to develop innovative weapons. In November 2022, Iran launched a hypersonic ballistic missile for the first time. The aerospace commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Amir Ali Hajizadeh described the event as “a great generational leap in the field of missiles.” International experts have greeted this …
Congress wants to arm Taiwan, but hasn’t figured out how to pay for it
DefenseNews ― Lawmakers eager to boost security aid to Taiwan may soon authorize as much as $10 billion in new State Department financing for Taipei to buy U.S. weaponry. But it’s an open question whether appropriators will approve the actual dollars. A soon-to-be-released draft 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would authorize $2 billion in aid per year over five years and another $1 billion annually in equipment from U.S. military stockpiles. But while authorization bills can create programs, only appropriations bills have the legal au…
US sending Ukraine $400 million in military aid
DefenseNews : The U.S. will send $400 million more in military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials announced Thursday, amid concerns that financial assistance for the war against Russia could decline a bit if Republicans take control of Congress. The aid comes as the vote counting from Tuesday’s election continues, with Republicans inching closer to a narrow House majority and with control of the Senate hinging on tight races in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. According to the Pentagon, the aid package will contain large amounts of ammunition and, for…
Air Force Research Lab awards $76 million for lunar experimentation
WASHINGTON — The Air Force Research Laboratory chose Colorado-based Advanced Space to build a spacecraft that will observe, detect and track objects around the moon. The space services company won a $76 million contract for AFRL’s Oracle program, which will develop sensing, navigation and communication technology along with algorithms that could support situational awareness in cislunar orbit. Cislunar refers to the area between geostationary orbit — about 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface — and the moon. “Our primary goals for the progra…
Space Force expects budget growth into 2024 amid ‘tremendous need’
WASHINGTON — Following a 38% increase in its fiscal 2023 budget request, the U.S. Space Force expects the upward funding trajectory to continue next year, according to a senior official. Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson said during an Oct. 25 Mitchell Institute event in Arlington, Va., that the service will require more resources as it looks to make its spacecraft and other systems more resilient and takes on tasks including space domain awareness and data exploitation. “I can’t talk about the current budget process that we’r…
Space Force surveillance telescope now operational in Australia
WASHINGTON — A U.S.-built space-monitoring telescope that was moved from New Mexico to Western Australia is officially operational, according to Space Operations Command. The Space Surveillance Telescope was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to locate and track debris in geosynchronous orbit, about 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Defense signed an agreement with Australia to move the telescope to the Southern Hemisphere to fill a cove…
Congress passes Ukraine nuclear security funding
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday passed 230-201 an additional $12.35 billion Ukraine aid package, including money to help Kyiv respond to a potential nuclear security incident, as part of its stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown. The package includes $35 million in defense nuclear nonproliferation funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration to prepare Ukraine for a potential incident from shelling at the besieged Zaporizhzhia power plant. The Senate passed the government funding bill, complete with the Ukraine nucl…
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