China showed off its nukes and caused problems in the region: 5 Indo-Pacific stories from 2025
China was once again at the forefront of Indo-Pacific news in 2025.
Artifical intelligence is everywhere: 2025 review
From the skies over Ukraine, to Chinese cyber attacks, to bureaucratic battlefields inside the Pentagon, artificial intelligence has grown from an experiment or niche product to an increasingly routine tool of military organizations.
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GPS: Still the gold standard in global navigation
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
China military buildup leaves US ‘increasingly vulnerable’: Pentagon report
The assessment also says that in 2024 China "tested essential components" of Taiwan invasion options, "including through exercises to strike sea and land targets, strike U.S. forces in the Pacific, and block access to key ports."
Breaking Defense’s 5 most-clicked stories of 2025
From an Army leader's harsh warning to AFRICOM's worries, here are a few stories that broke out of containment this year.
US greenlights massive, $11 billion military arms package to Taiwan
Beijing did not take the announcement well, saying the offer of the arms package "grossly violates the one-China principle," undermines stability in the region and "sends a gravely wrong signal to 'Taiwan independence' separatists forces."
DoD to industry: Start planning now for 2027 deadline banning Chinese parts
“If you start to ask for a waiver starting ‘27 that's going to be a painful process for everyone. We'd rather you go ahead and start early,” said Michael Cadenazzi, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy.
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Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
US must lead in building a Pacific drone industrial base to balance China’s economic might and hegemony
Indo-Pacific allies see unmanned systems, shared production, and interoperability as essential to offset China’s scale.
China, Russia experiment with stealthy satellites, Space Force official says
"Not only are [some Chinese satellites] difficult to visually acquire, that shape, they believe, would be incredibly beneficial in terms of masses of the radar cross section," Chief Master Sergeant Ron Lerch said.
China threat still drives Pentagon R&E despite counternarcotics focus: Emil Michael
While the National Security Strategy has a strong focus on the Western Hemisphere, the undersecretary for research and engineering said, "I am focused much more on other parts of the world.”
‘No warehouses anymore’: Ukrainian troops get drone deliveries to the front
"For those who believe it's about technology, I tell you the solution is about human capital and processes," Marco Criscuolo, NATO's acting head of strategy and policy, told the conference.
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Keeping sensitive information safe in a new AI era
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
‘It’s alive’: Biden-era Replicator drone initiative lives on as DAWG, looking at bigger UASs
Renamed the Defense Autonomous Working Group, the drone initiative is now conducting wargames and working on larger, longer-ranged attack drones, Adm. Sam Paparo and Pentagon CTO Emil Michael said.
From French fighter jets to Chinese drones, Egypt expands global supply chain footprint
Egypt's Arab Organization for Industrialization inked several agreements at Cairo's Egypt Defense Expo.
US National Security Strategy calls for reviving ‘Monroe Doctrine,’ limiting NATO expansion
The document hits Europe hard, stating that the largest issue facing Europe is the "Stark prospect of civilizational erasure."
Upgrade carrier air wings with F/A-XX or lose to China
If the US is to stand a chance against China, the time is now to move out on the Navy's future next-gen fighter, explains Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute.