Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Key Issues Stratotankers F-35 'kill switch' Pandur SHORAD
Defense industry executives expect the Trump administration's cost-cutting advisory team will come for at least one billion-dollar Pentagon program by the end of 2025, with a former congressman saying it shouldn't stop there.
The Pentagon's innovation arm has selected four companies, two of which are partnered with Ukrainian firms, to receive contracts under its project to operationally evaluate long-range, one-way drones, the Defense Innovation Unit announced today.
The Defense Innovation Unit is set to field and test quantum sensing systems for military applications, awarding Other Transaction Agreements to 18 vendors under its Transition of Quantum Sensing program, according to an announcement today.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's new memo directing the adoption of special contracting pathways for rapid software procurement is a positive sign for the Pentagon acquisition process -- but there are some caveats, industry leaders told Inside Defense.
The Defense Innovation Unit is set to launch a digital "marketplace" in the coming weeks where commercial defense technology vendors can seek partners from a group of pre-approved commercial manufacturing companies, enabling the scaled production of their solutions, a DIU official told attendees during the Reagan National Security Innovation Base Summit on Wednesday.
The Space Force vice chief said Wednesday that the service is reviewing opportunities to divest legacy systems amid a Pentagon-wide effort to reallocate 8% of the fiscal year 2026 budget, though new investments are being eyed for the "protect and defend" mission.
The Pentagon's innovation arm has awarded Scale AI a prototype contract for Thunderforge -- an initiative aimed at integrating artificial intelligence into military planning and wargaming, with plans for initial use by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. European Command.
Key indicators for the defense innovation base remain at subpar levels amid another stalled appropriations cycle, but contributions from private-sector and non-governmental players prove "there's reason for some optimism and enthusiasm," Roger Zakheim, director at the Ronald Reagan Institute, told reporters today.
The Pentagon's innovation arm lacks clear insight into whether it is making headway toward achieving its strategic goal of leveraging commercial technology and innovation to meet critical operational gaps, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The Defense Science Board has been tasked with conducting a study on whether to designate U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll and the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site it houses as a Major Range and Test Facility Base, per a memo from the Pentagon's acting technology chief cleared for open publication Monday.
The Trump administration is seeking public comment to inform the development of its plan to ensure U.S. artificial intelligence dominance, according to a Federal Register notice.
A bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the United States to spend about $1.4 billion over the next five fiscal years expanding U.S. defense cooperation with Israel on emerging technologies, including the establishment of a new Defense Innovation Unit office.
Maritime defense technology provider Saronic announced today it has closed a nearly $600 million private capital funding round, valuing the company at $4 billion and positioning it to build "a next-generation shipyard" to deliver "new classes of unmanned ships" at speed and scale.
Reducing reliance on imports from adversary nations for critical minerals powering the defense sector's supply chain will require a more comprehensive approach than just ramping up domestic mining activity, lawmakers and experts said during a House hearing last week.
L3Harris Technologies today rolled out its latest software solution for multidomain autonomous system swarms -- called "AMORPHOUS."
Ground vehicle autonomy software supplier Applied Intuition announced Thursday its acquisition of autonomy software vendor EpiSys Science (EpiSci), expanding its portfolio across all military domains.
Startups Mistral and Zoltix are set to receive awards totaling $150,000 for their first-place solutions in a challenge hosted by the Defense Innovation Unit and the Singapore's Ministry of Defense, which sought dual-use technologies to scale in support of two operational demands for drone warfare, the DIU announced Wednesday.
The Defense Department published an updated version of its supply chain risk management (SCRM) taxonomy at the end of January -- more than two years since the Pentagon published the first "draft" version.
A follow-on operational test and evaluation of the latest update to the Global Command and Control System-Joint (GCCS-J) will be reported a year later than expected, according to the Pentagon's top weapons tester.
The Defense Department only performed one "operationally realistic" test in fiscal year 2024 across several initiatives meant to support the Pentagon's Digital Modernization Strategy, according to the latest annual report from the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E).