Sunday, May 25, 2025
Sunday, May 25, 2025
We start off this midweek INSIDER Daily Digest with news about anti-drone systems for a major U.S. command, the latest national intelligence view of the world, a new hypersonic defense test, news from the Army’s Project Convergence, and more.
Money has been moved around to boost U.S. CENTCOM’s anti-drone defenses:
DOD shifts funds for anti-drone systems for CENTCOM
Congress has approved a Defense Department request to reprogram funding to purchase four anti-drone weapon systems mounted to shipping containers for U.S. Central Command.
The intelligence community has spelled out the threat from international drug cartels:
Cartels placed atop global threat list, while Trump's intel team criticized over Signal leak
An annual threat assessment from the U.S. government's top spies has identified criminal drug cartels as the Trump administration's No. 1 concern, followed by the individual and collective threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, though a hearing meant to discuss the report today mostly spotlighted the growing controversy surrounding senior officials' mistaken sharing of secret war plans against Houthi militants in Yemen with a journalist.
A significant hypersonic threat test was recently carried out:
MDA, Navy execute key test of hypersonic defense capabilities with Aegis and new target
The U.S. military executed a dry run for a planned missile defense upgrade to protect aircraft carriers from advanced threats -- including Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons -- in a significant first-time event combining a medium-range launch vehicle with a hypersonic re-entry vehicle, according to the government.
The Army has demonstrated a missile-launching vehicle robot:
RTX runs successful demo with unmanned launcher vehicle at Project Convergence
RTX has successfully tested a driverless, missile-launching vehicle using a new training rocket at a Project Convergence live-fire test event, according to a press release the company put out this morning.
The Army sees a real benefit in an AI fire control network:
Army charting course for AI-enabled, fire-control network to support Golden Dome mission
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army is in the process of formulating a plan with the other services to create an artificial intelligence-enabled, fire-control network to support President Trump's "Golden Dome" executive order, according to a service official.