Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, charged with offensive fires, detailed a quadruple challenge — energetics and propulsion, targeting and seekers, the industrial base and “munitions breadth and depth.”
“We need a more comprehensive missile defeat strategy that focuses on interceptors, [but also] equally so on non-kinetic effects, both electronic warfare and directed energy, and the type of targeting in C2 … that will enable us to use that data to make decisions to engage targets faster,” said SMD head Lt. Gen. John Rafferty.
AI is reshaping the Army’s approach to cyber, electronic warfare and command and control. At TechNet Augusta 2026, leaders outlined how they’re turning emerging technology into capabilities for the battlefield.
“The ground-based midcourse defense mission that we traditionally held under NORTHCOM has expanded to air and missile defense holistically,” said Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey.
“We have a requirement to grow a Patriot force structure; we will grow a Patriot force structure,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler told reporters today.
"It means that our adversaries are growing increasingly bold in their hostile acts of using ballistic missiles cruise missiles and UAS," Lt. Gen. Karbler said. "They're crucially bold in their conduct of irresponsible space activities. It means the Joint Force will demand more from the Army's Space and Missile defense capabilities and expertise going forward."
Experimental AI software, Prometheus and SHOT, can turn masses of data – from both government and commercial satellites – into precise targets for long-range missiles and cannon. But what do the humans do?
A commitment to long-term operational value.
“I spent the first 15 years of my career walking around in a lab with a laser, saying ‘does anyone want this…’ and the warfighter [kept] going ‘that’s adorable,’” Craig Robin recalled ruefully. “Just recently there’s been a tremendous pull [because] we simply just got out it into the user’s hands and they recognized the value.”
"This is a radar they're going to buy for, I don't know, 30 years? So you want to make sure you've got new technology that can meet the threats of the future."
"Real-time tasking and receiving data is going to b the future," Capella CEO Payam Banazadeh says. "Over time every single remote sensing company will go this direction."
Miitary lasers are getting more and more powerful, fast. But raw power isn't all you need for a workable weapon.
Explore how software, edge AI and resilient connectivity can strengthen military logistics in contested environments. Join Breaking Defense on Oct. 21 and earn 1 CPE credit.
"We were never above probably a total of eight people," the aviation Cross Functional Team chief, Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, told me. "We’re not this big colossal thing, we’re a lean, mean organization."
Lockheed is as close to an incumbent as you get in the rapidly evolving world of high-energy fiber lasers. Raytheon, by contrast, only recently made a big play for laser weapons, but they can draw on their experience with lower-powered but exquisitely tuned laser sensors.
So, I asked, could a sufficiently high-powered neutron beam not just detect a nuclear warhead from a distance, but actually disable it? Dent, who worked on the Safeguard missile defense system as a young Army officer and later on Reagan's Star Wars initiative for SAIC, pondered a moment. Then he said: “Could it fry the electronics ? Yes, it could."
HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: The Army keeps putting more powerful lasers on smaller vehicles. Battlefield lasers in testing today can shoot down snooping quadcopters and other small drones. By the early 2020s, however vehicles mobile enough to keep up with combat brigades – Strykers and FMTV trucks – will have power in the 50 to 100 kilowatt […]