DepSecDef On Boosted Humans & Robot Weapons

WASHINGTON: The senior leadership of the US military knows that genetically modified humans — stronger, faster, or better at altitude — and intelligent machines that could kill without remorse and with enormous efficiency, are two of the thorniest policy nettles they must grasp. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work firmly grasped that nettle today, saying the United…

Army Electronic Warfare Investment Lags Russian Threat

Army Electronic Warfare Investment Lags Russian Threat
Army Electronic Warfare Investment Lags Russian Threat

There is a great disconnect in the Department of Defense. Leaders at the highest levels realize we are falling behind — or have already fallen behind — Russia and China in electronic warfare, the invisible battle of detecting and disrupting the radar and radio transmissions on which a modern military depends. Even in the traditionally lower-tech…

Faster Than Thought: DARPA, Artificial Intelligence, & The Third Offset Strategy

Faster Than Thought: DARPA, Artificial Intelligence, & The Third Offset Strategy
Faster Than Thought: DARPA, Artificial Intelligence, & The Third Offset Strategy

ARLINGTON: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing artificial intelligence that can help humans understand the floods of data they unleashed 50 years ago with the Internet and make better decisions, even in the heat of battle. Such “human-machine collaboration” — informally known as the centaur model — is the high-tech holy grail…

DepSecDef Work Details 2017 Budget: Offset Just Beginning EXCLUSIVE

DepSecDef Work Details 2017 Budget: Offset Just Beginning EXCLUSIVE
DepSecDef Work Details 2017 Budget: Offset Just Beginning EXCLUSIVE

UPDATED: Adds DepSecDef Explanation For Additional LCS PENTAGON: “We don’t have enough money to do everything we want to do,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work told me in an exclusive 85-minute interview in his E-Ring Pentagon office. “So what we’re doing this year, Sydney, is we are trying to prepare as many demonstrations on advanced…

People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC

People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC
People, Not Tech: DepSecDef Work On 3rd Offset, JICSPOC

PENTAGON: The Pentagon says it wants a revolution and the 2017 budget to be unveiled today funds a host of high-tech weapons, from arsenal planes to Hyper Velocity Projectiles to robots. But for Deputy Defense Secretary  Bob Work, the real bleeding edge of innovation is not a weapon, no matter how impressive. It’s a secretive command…

OSD Staffs, Creates New Electronic Warfare Office

OSD Staffs, Creates New Electronic Warfare Office
OSD Staffs, Creates New Electronic Warfare Office

ALEXANDRIA: The executive committee on electronic warfare that Deputy Secretary Bob Work created last year is already reshaping the Pentagon bureaucracy. While the four-star officers and top civilians who make up the “EXCOM” itself have only met three times, executive committee co-chair Frank Kendall, undersecretary of acquisition, technology, and logistics, has created a new EW office and chosen…

Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy

Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy
Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy

ARMY & NAVY CLUB: As the Pentagon prepares to roll out its 2017 budget, one strategically crucial piece is the so-called Third Offset Strategy. That’s the US military’s high-tech, high-stakes plan to keep our edge over Russia, China, and other rapidly advancing rivals. This morning, the Chief of Naval Research outlined some of what the Navy’s…

Carter’s LCS Cut: Second Thoughts At OSD

Carter’s LCS Cut: Second Thoughts At OSD
Carter’s LCS Cut: Second Thoughts At OSD

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s decision to curtail the controversial Littoral Combat Ship program may not be the last word, according to several well informed sources. Those sources independently told Breaking Defense that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is divided over the decision cut LCS from 52 ships to 40. So is the Navy, which has had pro-…

Robot Wars: Centaurs, Skynet, & Swarms

WASHINGTON: I haven’t seen the new Star Wars movie yet — no spoilers in the comments section, please — but its vision of high-tech warfare is already looking quaint. Always at heart a fairy tale in space, the series puts humans in the cockpit and on the front lines, with droids as adorable sidekicks. Meanwhile,…

McCain Loses To Appropriators, Threatens Russian RD-180 Ban

McCain Loses To Appropriators, Threatens Russian RD-180 Ban
McCain Loses To Appropriators, Threatens Russian RD-180 Ban

WASHINGTON: John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, believes fervently in the importance of the authorizing committees, those bodies charged with making congressional policy and placing restrictions on weapons program spending. Today, McCain lost a battle against the appropriators, that small group of powerful legislative leaders who decide how much money the executive branch…

Will US Pursue  ‘Enhanced Human Ops?’ DepSecDef Wonders

Will US Pursue  ‘Enhanced Human Ops?’ DepSecDef Wonders
Will US Pursue ‘Enhanced Human Ops?’ DepSecDef Wonders

WASHINGTON: The Defense Department’s Third Offset Strategy is designed to create new advantages over adversaries now that Russia and China are developing stealth fighters, cyber weapons, and precision missile arsenals of their own. With studies well underway and up to $15 billion budgeted for experimentation in 2017, the emerging answer is a cluster of technologies related to…

US Must Do More To Deter ‘Reckless’ Russia: Farkas

US Must Do More To Deter ‘Reckless’ Russia: Farkas
US Must Do More To Deter ‘Reckless’ Russia: Farkas

WASHINGTON: Until 5pm last Friday, Evelyn Farkas was the Pentagon’s top policy expert on Russia. At 8am this morning, the recently liberated Farkas proposed a Russia policy much more assertive than what her former superiors have  publicly endorsed — at least, so far. She wants the US to consider sending (defensive) lethal weapons to Ukraine,…

We’ll Unveil Third Offset Details In FY17 Budget, Except The Black Part: Bob Work

We’ll Unveil Third Offset Details In FY17 Budget, Except The Black Part: Bob Work
We’ll Unveil Third Offset Details In FY17 Budget, Except The Black Part: Bob Work

WASHINGTON: This time last year, top Pentagon officials were very publicly touting the Pentagon’s new Third Offset Strategy. Then offset went into stealth mode as people went behind closed doors to wrestle with what it would actually be. So, I asked Deputy Secretary Bob Work yesterday, what’s up with offset? Work’s response made clear the concept…

NDAA Veto Override Vote In Doubt; CR Deadline Looms

NDAA Veto Override Vote In Doubt; CR Deadline Looms
NDAA Veto Override Vote In Doubt; CR Deadline Looms

UPDATED 4:40 pm with Bob Work comments WASHINGTON: The budget deal saved the day for defense. Now let’s never do that again. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 bought two precious years of stability, House Armed Services chairman Mac Thornberry and Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said today at the Defense One summit, but it hurt like…