In this week’s episode of The Break Out, Breaking Defense Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta and Deputy Editor Lee Ferran discuss Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new memo, first reported by Breaking Defense, creating a Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for autonomy, which concerns all ground vehicles, all small-to-medium air vehicles and almost all sea platforms. Why now? And what’s the scope of this new position?
Then Mehta and Ferran unpack the latest developments in the multinational race for a sixth-generation aircraft under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).