Improved Saudi-Iran relationship has Israel nervous — about Iran, and about China
According to government sources, the Israeli Ministry of Defense paused a large arm sale to a Middle Eastern nation when the Saudi-Iranian deal was announced.
Missile Defense Agency details evolving, ‘incremental’ vision for Guam air defenses
“[It] is an incremental path. There is no end state,” according to MDA chief Vice Adm. Jon Hill, who noted the military would "beautify" incoming platforms to make them more palatable to locals.
10 Breaking Defense op-eds that defined 2025
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
Devil in the details: How Saudi-Iranian détente will (or won’t) affect defense in the region
The diplomatic rapprochement may signal a win for regional stability and for Beijing, but it’s too early to tell what will actually change on the ground, experts told Breaking Defense.
UK pledges $6B in defense spending ‘ramp up’ to replenish stocks, support AUKUS subs
Despite the previous Conservative Party government pledging to increase military spending to 3 percent GDP by 2030, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stopped short of making any such commitment and has deferred a new defense spending review until after 2025.
‘Not about China’: White House says it ‘welcomes’ Beijing-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement
A joint statement announcing historic resumption of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran credited "the noble initiative" of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China knocks AUKUS deal as destabilizing, while Albanese pledges defense boost for subs
"Well, there's one country in the region that's undergone the biggest peacetime militarization since the Second World War and that's the People's Republic of China," said Australian Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie. "So they can make comments like they have, but it's kind of ironic given what they're doing with their military."
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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 Indo-Pacific Command seeks $15.3 billion in new, independent budget request
US Indo-Pacific Command's independent budget request is roughly $4 billion more than what it received last fiscal year.
Space Force’s INDOPACOM unit to embed allies to help deter China
China's growing number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites are "designed to find, fix, track and target US forces and allied forces. They're designed to help kill sailors, airmen, soldiers, and Marines," said Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, head of the Space Force's Indo-Pacific component command.
Space Force eyes True Anomaly’s satellite ‘pursuit’ capability for ops, training
The company is using private capital to build its hunter satellite, called Jackal, to shadow adversary satellites seeking to evade US tracking.
China outpacing US in critical tech research ‘should be a wake up call’: report
In a new report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says China is outpacing the US in 37 out of 44 critical technology research areas.
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Powering the future: Securing America with domestically made microelectronics
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
‘Destabilizing and dangerous’: Pentagon official warns of communication breakdown with China
Chinese counterparts are declining to engage even on working-level dialogues, according to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner, raising greater fears that misinterpretation could spark conflict.
Raytheon wins $250M contract to build missile warning/tracking sats to monitor Chinese launches
The new satellites will be integrated into SDA's first operationally capable set of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, called "Tranche 1," the SDA spokesperson explained.
Russia turning to N. Korea, Iran for more weapons ahead of spring offensive, NATO head warns
Iran has consistently supplied Russia with Shahed-136 loitering munitions for strike missions but a recent UK intelligence update indicated that there have not been any reports of “one way attack” UAV’s being used in Ukraine since February 15.
How AI became ‘the autocrat’s new toolkit’ [BOOK EXCERPT]
In an excerpt from "Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," Paul Scharre writes about how China became the world's leading exporter of digital authoritarianism.