New START expires: Will a new US-Russia nuclear arms race follow?
President Donald Trump "will decide the path forward on nuclear arms control, which he will clarify on his own timeline," a White House official told Breaking Defense.
Despite conventional wisdom, space arms control verification possible: Aerospace Corporation
"This paper ... provides a framework that could help ensure that verification challenges are not used as a convenient excuse for giving up on space arms control as an option," writes author Mick Gleason.
Modernizing defense enterprise IT without disrupting the mission
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
US needs more nuclear subs, mobile ICBMs and tactical nukes: Heritage report
The conservative Heritage Foundation presented the new report as a potential draft Nuclear Posture Review for the 2025 presidential administration.
Russia vetos US-Japan resolution against nukes in space, ‘unprecedented escalation’ in UN fight
"Although Russia would not be expected to vote for a resolution aimed at its own conduct, its response that it is 'against' putting nuclear weapons in space is just vague enough to not quite be reassuring," said Jessica West of Canada's Project Ploughshares.
US joins Austria, Bahrain, Canada, & Portugal to co-lead global push for safer military AI
Two US officials exclusively tell Breaking Defense the details of new international "working groups" that are the next step in Washington's campaign for ethical and safety standards for military AI and automation - without prohibiting their use entirely.
Avoiding accidental armageddon: Report urges new safety rules for unmanned systems
Even if China doesn’t agree to or abide by new “confidence-building measures,” CNAS scholar Tom Shugart says, the US and its allies should adopt them unilaterally to reduce the risk of accidents or worse in the West Pacific.
Breaking Defense announces Breaking Defense Europe, a new, distinct, European edition
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Russia’s nyet to White House offer bodes ill for nuclear arms treaty
Russia's stance will need to be "baked into" Biden administration "thinking as we look at our own nuclear modernization, our own deterrence measures that we may want to take, and what the security environment could look like after 2026," said White House arms control advisor Pranay Vaddi.
Ethical Terminators, or how DoD learned to stop worrying and love AI: 2023 Year in Review
Over the last 11 months, the US has made major progress in defining “Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence” and even getting other nations to sign on the idea — without ever actually precluding the kind of automated “killer robots” activists want to ban.
Biden launches AI ‘risk and safety’ talks with China. Is nuclear C2 a likely focus?
Details are scant for now, but experts tell Breaking Defense that any AI agreement between China and the US could involve a pledge not to use AI in nuclear systems.
White House pushes P-5 agreement on missile launch notification, prods China to talk
Of military to military relations with China, the US is "ready to talk when you're ready to talk," White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said today in a speech to the Arms Control Association.
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Why enterprise IT modernization matters now – and how to “delight by design”
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
‘Not the right time’: US to push guidelines, not bans, at UN meeting on autonomous weapons
Last week, 33 nations called for a global treaty restricting “lethal autonomous weapons.” But US officials warn that such a ban would be both premature and overly narrow, preferring broader but non-binding “best practices” guiding any military employment of AI.
DoD’s clarified AI policy flashes ‘green light’ for robotic weapons: Experts
The revised DoD Directive 3000.09 refines an obscure review process, adding broad AI ethics principles but still not actually forbidding development or deployment of would-be killer robots.
Amid geopolitical instability, NNSA looks to industry for new arms control verification tech
For US nuclear stocks, Jill Hruby of the Department of Energy said, "this is the most demanding moment in the history of our nation's nuclear enterprise since the Manhattan Project."
DoD agency wants to put weapons monitors on the ground in Ukraine
“Once we have more people in country, we should be in a position to actually go do more physical validation [and] verification, going forward,” said Jed Royal, deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.