“There’s going to be winners and losers,” Gen. Ed Daly told us. “[But] this transition… is not code for ‘reducing the workforce.’”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.B-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation
Technological advancements are key to keeping pace with customer demands and evolving threat landscapes.
The Army can’t keep modernizing around the edges at its World War II-era ammunition plants, Assistant Secretary Bruce Jette said: It has to “transform” them. The detailed plan — and cost — are TBD.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
A worker died in 2017 scooping up explosive tetrazene by hand with a spatula. The Army and Congress agree an upgrade is long overdue — but it won’t be cheap.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
After an AI beat humans 5-0 in AlphaDogfight simulations this summer, Mark Esper announced, a future version will be installed in actual airplanes for “a real-world competition.” But military AI will adhere to strict ethical limits, he said.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
While the pandemic continues, Pentagon metrics show production on Army programs is returning to normal, the Army’s acquisition chief told Breaking Defense.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The massive Army Materiel Command needs to get a lot lighter on its feet for future conflicts, its four-star chief says.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: The military’s new cyberspace force is working to overcome recruiting and retention shortfalls, training bottlenecks, and its dependence on the National Security Agency, officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. These devils in the details are an inevitable part of standing up a new kind of force for a new kind of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
A major overhaul is coming in software for missile warning
Space Systems Command’s FORGE program is the first, major missile-warning software modernization effort in 20 years.
presented by
COLORADO SPRINGS: One topic dominates just about every conversation here at the AFCEA cyber symposium: where to find promising cyber warriors and how to hire them and keep them. Deloitte, which is building a substantial cyber warfare portfolio, put on a Capture the Flag game where five teams of college hackers had to find code…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The Army is ahead of schedule building cyber teams — but its equally essential electronic warfare branch is lagging badly. Like a fiddler crab, one arm is much more developed than the other. While effective in the current fight against Daesh (aka ISIL), this unbalanced force would be at a severe disadvantage in future Multi-Domain Battles…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATE with Hill reaction WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter today asked Congress to help the Pentagon’s quest for talent in specialized areas such as cyber warfare. Among many other reforms, this latest iteration of Carter’s “Force of the Future” initiative requests changes to existing law to: Let cyber and other technical experts join the military at higher…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Never have so many been so thankful to so few for so long. America has been at war now for 14 years, two months, and 14 days. Nor is there any end in sight to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines eating their Thanksgiving dinners in dusty outposts far from home. We are thankful for their…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: The Navy and Marines are deploying at a pace they can’t sustain, says a report released today.And no feasible defense budget can build a big enough force to solve the problem, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says. Even the Navy’s famously optimistic 30-year shipbuilding plan — denounced by House seapower chairman Randy…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have found the $5 billion in cuts required under the budget deal. As HASC chairman Mac Thornberry promised, some of them are painful. The committees released the detailed list Tuesday after close of business, formatted into categories only a legislative aide could love, such as “Increases to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The Army has another 40,000 troops to cut, but how many of the civilians who support them will have to go? The answer to that is actually getting more uncertain. In July, the service reported to Congress that “total Army-wide civilian reductions through FY19 are expected to be ~17,000.” The more the service wrestles…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
