This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the latest weapons package sent to Ukraine plus a senior Pentagon official speaking at the Center for a New American Security event, the Air Force Research Laboratory's work on artificial intelligence and more.
The latest U.S. shipment of weapons to Ukraine will transfer weapons directly from U.S. stocks and is the 59th such action since August 2021:
DOD announces $225M military package for Ukraine
The Defense Department announced a $225 million weapons package for Ukraine today, including air defense interceptors, artillery systems and munitions, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.
Defense Under Secretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu spoke at a recent Center for a New American Security event:
Senior Pentagon official calls on Congress to grant DOD more flexible funding
A senior Pentagon official today called for more flexibility in the Defense Department's budget so threats can be tackled as they emerge, comments coming a week before the House Armed Services Committee is expected to vote on the fiscal year 2025 defense spending bill.
The AI algorithms the Air Force Research Laboratory is developing can scour data points "way faster than any human can" to identify the types of errors or at least flag potential errors for a human to then check and correct, according to AFRL architecture lead for cyber and AI Roselyn Richardson:
AFRL using AI to clean up data sets, tag data as it comes in
The Air Force Research Laboratory is running experiments to bring artificial intelligence into the field and bring data to the warfighter, but first it’s using AI to clean up the existing mounds of data.
The Pentagon wants to take another crack at developing an airborne laser:
MDA plans 'tracking,' 'characterization' projects in initial exploration of new airborne laser
The Missile Defense Agency plans to begin work on tracking technology as a first step in a potential project that could build the case for arming uncrewed aircraft with a next-generation airborne laser powerful enough to defeat long-range ballistic missiles, according to a senior official.
The Navy is looking to develop a long-endurance small, unmanned surface vessel that would ideally be operational for seven days at a minimum and able to maintain a cruising speed of 1 knot:
Navy seeks industry input on small, long-endurance USVs
The Navy is seeking to expand its unmanned surface vessel portfolio -- specifically small, long-endurance vessels -- according to a request for information posted Thursday.