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To remove the human from the loop in uncrewed operations, the AI must be trusted to take specific actions every time certain scenarios happen based on its programming.
By Breaking DefenseInsights on digital transformation following successes on B-21 and Sentinel
Customers and employees are experiencing the ‘Butterfly Effect’ of digital transformation from key national security programs.
The Navy is standing up its first operational unmanned ship command, a big moment in the Pentagon’s move toward autonomy
By Paul McLeary
There was some good news, and some bad news, for the Navy on Monday.
By Paul McLeary
PENTAGON: Despite his campaign pledge of a 350-ship fleet, President Trump’s first budget cuts Navy shipbuilding and aircraft procurement below what was enacted in 2017, documents released today reveal. Despite Trump’s criticism of President Obama’s defense plans, this budget sticks with Obama’s shipbuilding plan for 2018: eight ships. And it actually buys eight fewer aircraft…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The military is drowning in video. Figuring out what’s worth watching can literally be a matter of life and death. The standard technique today is to sit young servicemembers down at screens to stare at live feeds or archived video — from drones, from satellites, from static cameras — until their eyes glaze over. But that’s…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Littoral Combat Ship Fort Worth joined the search for the remains of Air Asia Flight QZ8501. This grim mission marked more than a real-world test of a new and controversial class of ship. It also shows why the Navy needs something like LCS at all. The Fort Worth started working this weekend with the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Fire Scout makes it look easy to take off from a destroyer. It’s not. In video released today (above), the MQ-8C helicopter takes off from the destroyer Jason Dunham with its eyes closed — or rather with its cockpit windows painted over, because there’s nobody inside. Though derived from the widespread Bell 407, the Northrop…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Future inevitability of quantum computers is a security problem today
‘Store Now, Decrypt Later’ attacks must be thwarted now with Zero Trust cybersecurity.
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: They get so big, so fast. Once a child-sized helicopter that could just collect reconnaissance imagery, the Navy’s MQ-8 Fire Scout has graduated to a bigger airframe that will also carry a maritime search radar and laser-guided rockets. The tentative plan is to kick off the competition for the new radar with…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. At 11 years old, the robot helicopter called the MQ-8 Fire Scout is a at least a preadolescent. But ever since the reconnaissance drone’s first flight in 2002, it’s had one big problem: It’s a little bit…little. So, at the Navy’s request, manufacturer Northrop Grumman basically did a brain transplant. It put the Fire Scout’s…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Things could get a lot busier for the Navy’s fleet of Fire Scout drones with the service’s decision to drop plans for a new, medium-range unmanned aircraft. The larger C model version of the MQ-8 Fire Scout might fill some of the requirements left unfilled by the Navy’s decision to cancel the Medium-Range Maritime…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: It looks like aerial drones are not the only unmanned systems the Pentagon is interested in arming. The special warfare branch of the Navy’s expeditionary warfare division is eying plans to arm its small fleet of unmanned boats with an long-range missile, branch chief Capt. Evin Thompson said. The missile — known as the…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: The Navy’s premiere combat helicopter and unmanned drone can now operate in tandem during future combat operations after successfully completing initial tests late last year. Officials at Naval Air Systems command were able to link up the Lockheed Martin-built MH-60 Sierra with Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout unmanned drone during a series of operational evaluations…
By Carlo MunozUPDATED WASHINGTON: The Navy chalked up a big financial win for the MQ-8 Fire Scout program last month, setting the stage for a multimillion-dollar deal to buy a slew of new unmanned aircraft in the coming years. Congressional appropriators set aside $191 million for the Navy to buy 12 new, long-range variants of the helicopter-like…
By Carlo MunozPatuxent River, Md: The Navy has increased its experimentation with its fleet of combat helicopters to see how they can work with unmanned aircraft. The Navy recently flew Lockheed Martin’s new MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and the Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout unmanned aircraft together in joint operations, deputy program manager Robert Kimble told reporters here…
By Carlo Munoz
