LongShot program eyes new target for early flight tests
The first flight test for the X-68A was originally set to begin in December of 2023, Breaking Defense previously reported.
No longer ‘experimental’: Navy to deploy drone boats this year, official says
A Navy official said he expects nearly half of all naval surface vessels will be unmanned by 2045.
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Undersea superiority: ASELSAN’s integrated approach to naval defense
As global navies adapt to evolving underwater threats, ASELSAN’s integrated sonar, countermeasure, and sonobuoy solutions offer a scalable, future-ready approach.
DARPA backs Diffraqtion to demo ‘quantum camera’ for space, Earth surveillance
Only recently emerging from stealth, the MIT-UMD spinout is planning constellations of small, low-cost ISR satellites for multiple military missions.
DARPA seeks universal translator between different kinds of quantum computer
With rival tech giants building different kinds of “quantum bits,” from superconductors to photonics to trapped ions, DARPA program manager Justin Cohen worries no one approach will work for every purpose — so he wants to find a way to make them work together.
Small but mighty: DARPA’s new Lift competition wants drones to carry much, much more
A drone capable of carrying four times its own weight "can actualize the dreams that a lot of people have of using drones in both the military and civilian sectors," DARPA Program Manager Phillip Smith told Breaking Defense.
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Innovating for impact: An inside look at BAE Systems’ FAST Labs™ organization
Stewart Coulter talks transition and disruptive technology in defense R&D.
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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.
AI for ATO: Pentagon seeks AI to streamline cumbersome cybersecurity processes
“Like Frank's Red Hot Sauce, we should be trying to put AI on anything that you can," said David McKeown, a senior cybersecurity official.
How the Pentagon plays into Trump’s sprawling artificial intelligence ‘Action Plan’
America's AI Action Plan features 19 recommendations that involve the DoD, including the creation of a "virtual proving ground."
With demos to begin next year, DARPA’s COFFEE project brews potential leap for spectrum sharing
The program's goal is to isolate or suppress specific signals, which could allow DoD and commercial tech to safely share congested portions of the spectrum.
DARPA picks Bell Textron to build runway-independent X-Plane
Bell will now proceed in DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, which has eliminated Aurora Flight Sciences from the running.
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How the “Doomsday Plane” contract highlights the rise of mid-tier primes
Midsized companies can offer flexibility and agility while keeping intellectual property in the hands of the government.
DARPA’s DRACO nuclear propulsion project ROARs no more
DRACO began life in 2020 with the moniker "Reactor on a Rocket," or ROAR — a name agency scientists later decided might garner negative attention.
EVADE: DARPA pivots shipboard drone program to rapidly field tech later this year
“By forcing a missionization really quickly before you get to that 100 percent product ... we're getting a lot of really good interaction,” DARPA Program Manager Phillip Smith told Breaking Defense in an interview.
DARPA aims to make defense firms ‘much, much harder’ to hack with ‘formal methods’ push
Right now, DARPA's Kathleen Fisher said, much of the defense industrial base is "choosing to leave the doors open, leave the windows up and not use the locks" in cyberspace.
Hegseth slashes $5.1B in Pentagon contracts for IT consulting, ‘non-essential’ activities
A memo from the secretary of defense also directs the Pentagon's Chief Information Officer to prepare to negotiate more favorable cloud computing service deals.