Drone diplomacy wins Ukraine valuable allies, but now it must deliver
The Iran war has confirmed how central drones are to modern warfare and handed Zelenskiy a diplomatic trump card, analysts say.
Battlefield Tech
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.
Australia awards contracts for counter-drone tech based on lasers, interceptors
Both products will eventually integrate into a command-and-control system developed under the Army’s umbrella Land 156 counter-unmanned aerial system push.
Opinion
Inside China, artificial intelligence is a snake eating its own tail
AI researchers refer to this as “model collapse,” a phenomenon in which models trained on their own synthetic outputs degrade over successive generations.
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.
After watchdog slams understaffing, AI to vet Pentagon-backed professors’ China ties
AI’s confusion over the nature of DOD research partnerships may mask real espionage if humans are not the final judge of foreign influence, experts warn.
Air Force unit executes test of Anduril’s semiautonomous combat drone
Airmen operated Auduril's YFQ-44A jet-powered combat drone, which could someday fly alongside piloted fighters.
Dutch broadcaster tracks carrier-group frigate with Bluetooth gadget
The MoD has made adjustments in response to the reported incident, including no longer allowing greeting cards with batteries to be sent.
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.
EU pumps over $1 billion into defense R&D, centered around Ukraine war lessons
The choice of funded projects marks a shift to 21st-century warfare, with loitering munitions and affordable mass drone production high on the agenda.
France readies AI-powered combat data-management similar to US ‘Maven’
The system could be available within a few months, and available for exercises in September 2027, a top general said, declining to provide specifics.
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.
Estonia raids combat-vehicle funds to buy more drones, air defenses
The defense minister said the decision was based on lessons learned from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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.
Ukrainian drone makers visit Paris looking for co-production deals
“We come with our lessons learned,” Kamyshin said. “We offer a model which is definitely beneficial for your country, for your industry, for your economy."
