Tuesday, November 11, 2025
The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit has tapped five companies to develop first-person-view drones and components under its inaugural Project G.I. prize challenge, aiming to equip small military teams with new kinetic capabilities in contested environments.
Private capital markets should be tapped to support the development and scaling of technologies critical to national security, the nominee to be the Pentagon's deputy technology chief told lawmakers today.
Defense industry players can now use Northrop Grumman's three semiconductor facilities to design, manufacture, package and test microelectronics within the United States for commercial and defense applications, the company announced today.
The Defense Department will review the 23 cybersecurity service providers authorized to conduct operations for the Pentagon, seeking opportunities for potential consolidation, according to a new government watchdog report.
The Defense Innovation Unit is working with the Department of Homeland Security to acquire technology that can stop "non-compliant" small vessels near U.S. maritime borders at minimal risk to anyone onboard or surrounding the watercraft, per a recently published DIU solicitation.
Apex Technologies has secured $200 million in new private funding to boost monthly production of its satellite bus platforms and more than double the size of its California manufacturing facility, CEO Ian Cinnamon told Inside Defense.
The Defense Department official leading a zero-trust implementation initiative across the enterprise says his office will come out with a new strategy to guide the effort, which could come as soon as December.
The Defense Department awarded $2 million to ReElement Technologies Corp. for its technology to separate and purify critical minerals and rare-earth elements for national security applications, the company announced today.
The Air Force Research Lab is gauging private-sector interest in developing reliable and precise position, navigation and timing (PNT) technology to coordinate swarms of small drones in GPS-denied or degraded environments with harsh physical conditions, per a request for information published yesterday.
The Defense Department will task a new industry group aimed at accelerating directed energy with more than a dozen projects per year, per an updated solicitation released Friday.
The Pentagon's plan to shorten its list of critical technology areas reflects a shift in terminology -- not a downgrading of priorities -- according to Michael Holthe, who is performing the duties of assistant defense secretary for science and technology.
Two years to the date after the Pentagon publicly launched its Replicator-1 mass drone deployment initiative, a senior official at the Defense Innovation Unit said the program has transitioned to the military services for surging and has been left in "highly capable hands."
Emil Michael said his stint as acting head of the Defense Innovation Unit will only last as long as the search for a full-time director, noting that the organization will remain an independent entity that continues to report directly to the defense secretary.
Doug Beck, the former Apple executive helming the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit since April 2023, is leaving, according to multiple reports.
The Defense Department's top office for directed-energy technology is seeking private-sector solutions supporting fast-steering mirrors capable of handling and directing beams from directed-energy weapon systems, per a public notice issued yesterday.
The Defense Department has reached the deadline set two years ago to procure multiple thousands of all-domain, autonomous and "attritable" drones through the Replicator initiative, and the Defense Innovation Unit's former director for the project said when he left a few months ago, the goal was on track to be met.
The Defense Department is looking to establish a group of entities across industry and academia to accelerate government access to directed-energy capabilities for military applications, per a solicitation issued Friday.
The Defense Department's digital and artificial intelligence office, previously reporting directly to the deputy defense secretary, will now fall under authority of the Pentagon's research and technology chief, following an organizational shift ordered by Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg.
The Defense Innovation Unit and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command are launching a competition to develop new technologies to rapidly collect, organize and use data for AI-driven military decisions.
The Pentagon's innovation engine has added an array of new partners and projects over the past two years to its wide-ranging campaign aimed at providing U.S. military installations with more resilient energy sources through geothermal technology, the Defense Innovation Unit announced today.