Friday, October 11, 2024
Justin Doubleday was managing editor of Inside the Pentagon until June 2021, where he focused on defense-wide topics including budgets, acquisition policy, combatant commands, missile defense and cyber. He has also worked for ITP sister publications Inside the Army and Inside the Navy. Justin previously reported for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2013.
The Pentagon is reviewing its bedrock policy governing how the U.S. military approaches autonomy in weapon systems, as defense officials say the directive may be outdated due to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper has endorsed the Defense Department sharing portions of the "mid-band" electromagnetic spectrum with the commercial wireless industry in order to better compete with China on fifth-generation telecommunications technology.
The Pentagon is seeking $696 million in fiscal year 2021 for a series of pilot programs designed to fund software through a single budget activity, as the Defense Department hopes to win congressional support for a new category of appropriations dedicated to "software and digital technology."
Pentagon officials concede the Defense Department's first-ever artificial intelligence principles are broad and somewhat vague, but say they are committed to the "hard work" of applying them into concrete actions, including through new contracting language and testing measures.
The Pentagon today announced the adoption of ethical principles for artificial intelligence first recommended by technology advisers last fall.
Pentagon officials are touting what they call the Trump administration's "sensible, reasonable and affordable" approach to nuclear modernization as the Defense Department prepares to potentially clash again with House Democrats over nuclear weapons plans.
U.S. Cyber Command is requesting an extra $106 million in fiscal year 2021 for three programs: "hunt forward" capabilities, access operations and Defense Department information network security.
The Defense Department's cloud computing applications face approximately 10,000 "serious cyberattacks" on a weekly basis, according to a DOD official, who said the department needs the commercial sector's help in shifting to a better cloud security model.
The State Department and the Pentagon today publicly accused the Russian military of conducting "a widespread cyberattack" against the country of Georgia last fall.
The Pentagon's technology chief has pumped the brakes on the Missile Defense Agency's move toward an airborne, ballistic missile-killing laser, instead consolidating "laser scaling" efforts under the umbrella of his own office.
A federal judge today ordered the Pentagon to stop work under the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract and directed Amazon to post $42 million in security to potentially account for the cost of delaying the cloud services award.
The Defense Digital Service is taking over "Rogue Squadron," a counter-unmanned aerial system project initiated by the Defense Innovation Unit, to give the Defense Department a "same day" capability to begin responding to emerging small drone threats, according to DDS Director Brett Goldstein.
President Trump is directing federal agencies to strengthen the resiliency of Positioning, Navigation and Timing services, including through new contracting language.
The Pentagon's fiscal year 2021 budget request would increase funding the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center as it begins the development and fielding of AI applications for warfighting operations, according to the center's director.
The Missile Defense Agency is not requesting any money this year to build new radars in the Pacific after the Pentagon encountered issues securing sites for the new sensors, according to MDA. (UPDATED)
While the Pentagon's contractor cybersecurity certification requirement is still months away from showing up in contracts, a new Defense Department cyber assessment center has emerged over the past year and is already scoring some companies on their network security practices.
Pentagon officials are promising the defense industry a slow, phased roll out of the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, with the new security requirements expected to show up in just 10 contracts this year.
Pentagon officials will meet with industry this spring to discuss a wide range of autonomous system developments in the coming years, according to a public notice which sheds more light on how Defense Department officials envision pairing machines and humans on the battlefield.
Amazon is asking a federal judge to stop the Defense Department and Microsoft from doing any further work under the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services contract.
The Pentagon's second highest ranking military officer said today one of his top priorities is updating the Defense Department's requirements process in line with "information age" technology, as he called DOD's current methods for building software "horrible."