“Low-collateral effect interceptors” against small drones would be used in “defeating small UAS in urban environments, over sensitive sites, or situations where the rules of engagement would not allow kinetic effects,” DoD’s solicitation to industry says.
By Theresa HitchensAutonomy changes everything about combat engineering
Sending robotic vehicles into the breach saves lives by removing humans from one of the most dangerous places on the battlefield.
While Congress wrestles with CH-47 cuts, Army leaders are already looking ahead to hard decisions on high tech.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The near-term payoff for military AI isn’t replacing human soldiers in the physical world, but empowering them to understand the world of radio waves. That’s an invisible battlefield which Russia’s powerful electronic warfare corps is poised to dominate in a future war, unless the US can catch up.
By Paul McLeary
The military’s top generals have called Russia the number one threat. The incoming administration doesn’t seem convinced that Russia is a threat at all, with Trump himself speaking warmly of Vladimir Putin and dimly of NATO allies. But whatever Putin’s intentions for the future, Russia has proved what its capabilities are in Estonia in 2007,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: What’s the most important initiative in the Obama Pentagon that the Trump team should pick up and run with? It’s innovation, outgoing Army Secretary Eric Fanning said last night: “Some of the most important work we’ve done in the last eight years is trying to set up places in our procurement system where we…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: This afternoon, Army generals gathered to begin designing a new kind of unit, a tactical cyber/electronic warfare detachment, whose first experimental exercise overseas could be as early as next year. For the first time since the Cold War, at least a small part of the Army could have radio and radar jamming capabilities to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The Army’s new Rapid Capabilities Office is focused like a laser on Russian threats to Army networks: both cyber attack (hacking) and electronic warfare (jamming), in particular against the GPS signal on which US forces rely. I’ve written before that a $100 million boost to electronic warfare might be an early priority for the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Capability exists to simulate the future of kill chains at theater scale
A tool to explore what-if scenarios and tradeoffs at the theater-level faster than traditional analysis.
PENTAGON: The brand new Army Rapid Capabilities Office is studying proposals to spend between $50 and $100 million on urgently needed electronic warfare gear, Breaking Defense has learned. The options include sensors to detect radar and radio signals, and jammers to block them, mounted on ground vehicles, soldiers’ backpacks, and drones. Where will the money come…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
