SOCOM begins fielding new battlefield biometrics system
Reveal Technology’s Identifi platform allows operators to collect fingerprints, facial scans, iris data and voice recognition in the field.
Battlefield Tech
The US Navy is full speed ahead on building a laser fleet
Operation Epic Fury may have strengthened the case for laser weapons, but the U.S. Navy’s dream of putting one on every ship may take longer than expected.
Germany touts pan-German space command amid European push to supplant US tech
Austria’s Defense Minister Claudia Tanner reaffirmed that Austria plans to put three operationally designated military satellites into orbit next year.
War in pieces: Air Force wants special ops plane that can be built on the fly
The Skyraider II, a militarized version of the AT-802 crop duster, is built to give isolated special ops teams eyes overhead and firepower on call.
Pentagon inks $500 million deal with Perennial Autonomy for counter-drone tech
The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy a $500 million contract to accelerate procurement of counter-drone technology.
AI tool has ‘saved a lot of aircraft’ in Epic Fury, AFSOC chief says
Lt. Gen. Michael Conley said “necessity had been the mother of invention” in spurring the service to apply available machine learning tools in combat.
Pentagon reaches agreements with defense firms on containerized missiles
The Pentagon is announcing framework agreements with Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos and Zone 5 to acquire over 10,000 containerized missiles.
Why aircraft carriers are the best (and worst) place for laser weapons
High-energy laser weapons are a natural fit for large, power-rich aircraft carriers — with limits.
What we know about the US military’s new joint laser weapon system
The Army-Navy effort aims to produce a containerized 150-kilowatt high-energy laser weapon to counter incoming cruise missiles.
The US military wants a fleet of missile-killing laser drones
The U.S. military is once again pursuing flying directed energy weapons to counter threats to American airspace.
US Navy successfully tests new long-range, winged JDAM out to 200 miles
An April 1 test saw the munition deployed from an F/A-18 Super Hornet, fly approximately 200 miles in 34 minutes and strike within meters of its target.
Starlink outage hit drone tests, exposing Pentagon’s growing reliance on SpaceX
Last August, a global outage across Elon Musk’s satellite network left U.S. Navy unmanned surface vessels bobbing off California, halting operations.
US Air Force debuts operational AI wargame system
WarMatrix is an AI-powered system meant to keep human judgement central to wargaming and was marked operational during an event in late March.
AeroVironment launches new multifunctional drone variant
The MAYHEM 10 drone, a part of the Switchblade family, will serve as a multifunctional launch system, capable of deploying from various platforms.
US military eyes high-energy ‘laser dome’ for domestic air defense
The U.S. military's pursuit of high-energy laser weapons for American air defense comes amid the expanding threat of low-cost weaponized drones.
Army debuts data operations center to serve as information hub
The Army Data Operations Center’s debut is part of an enormous push to further integrate data and machine learning into military operations.
Pentagon, Lockheed Martin agree to $4.7 billion PAC-3 interceptor deal
Lockheed in January discussed a target of increasing annual PAC-3 interceptor production from approximately 600 to 2,000 over a span of seven years.
