Pentagon partners with CIA’s In-Q-Tel for ‘technology scouting’
The CIA-funded investment firm, which has helped finance startups from Anduril to Palantir, is now formally coordinating with the Pentagon’s Critical Technologies office.
Pentagon review asks Congress to fence off $5B over 5 years to rebuild ‘deteriorating’ labs
The armed services raid lab funding for more urgent needs like barrack repairs, the study says, leaving researchers in aging, outdated labs “that pose documented safety risks.”
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Biodefense is force protection: Ready today, prepared for tomorrow
A decorated combat aviator and biotech CEO advocates preparing for novel viral threats before the next crisis.
Pentagon CTO offers industry free use of 400 patents from gov’t labs — for a start
The first 400 patents are “the freebie, the door buster” to get industry excited about an in-progress, unprecedented database linking all 216 DoD labs, Emil Michael told reporters.
Pentagon rolls out major reforms of R&D, AI
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth consolidates tech offices under Pentagon CTO Emil Michael, launches new AI initiatives from swarms to sims to GenAI, and breaks up the sprawling Advana database.
China threat still drives Pentagon R&E despite counternarcotics focus: Emil Michael
While the National Security Strategy has a strong focus on the Western Hemisphere, the undersecretary for research and engineering said, "I am focused much more on other parts of the world.”
‘It’s alive’: Biden-era Replicator drone initiative lives on as DAWG, looking at bigger UASs
Renamed the Defense Autonomous Working Group, the drone initiative is now conducting wargames and working on larger, longer-ranged attack drones, Adm. Sam Paparo and Pentagon CTO Emil Michael said.
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Building the stand-off and stand-in weapons needed for the fight
Threats have changed the range, seeking and attack capabilities necessary to ensure effectiveness.
From lasers to logistics: Pentagon CTO announces top six tech priorities
Under Secretary for Research & Engineering Emil Michael pruned a sprawling list of “critical technology areas” down from 14 to just six: AI, quantum, biomanufacturing, contested logistics, directed energy (lasers, microwave weapons, et al), and hypersonics. His aim: “deliver capabilities” in three years or less.
Pentagon moves AI office under R&D, raising fears it’s ‘demoting AI’
“When you pull an organization that was a direct report to the deputy secretary or secretary and move it somewhere else…the message to the force is loud and clear: This isn’t a priority,” said retired Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who founded the predecessor to the current Chief Digital & AI Office (CDAO).
‘Top Gun’ for drones: Pentagon plans August exercise with FPV drone units
“At this next T-REX [Technology Readiness Experimentation exercise], we’ll be starting to host TOPGUN school,” said prototyping & experimentation director Alex Lovett. “We’re going to be playing Red versus Blue, their best [offense] coming after our best defense.”
Emil Michael, former Uber exec, confirmed as undersecretary for research and engineering
In written testimony from March, Michael indicated he would look to review the structure of the R&E office, while pushing to shift a culture he described as “overly risk adverse.”
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How the industrial base is responding to Air Force, Space Force needs
Demand signals from leadership are shaping investments in design, engineering and manufacturing.
OpenAI’s $500B ‘Stargate Project’ could aid Pentagon’s own AI efforts, official says
“We really don’t have … the in-house capabilities to answer all the questions,” the Pentagon’s deputy director for advanced computing, Roy Campbell, told Breaking Defense. “We’re really going to have to ‘phone out’ to all these assets” that the private sector plans to build.
Pentagon will award $280 million in CHIPS Act grants for microelectronics prototypes
The US is still great at designing chips but has offshored the ability to build prototypes, which slows innovation and risks IP theft, said OSD’s Dev Shenoy.
Defense Innovation Board calls to resurrect AT&L office, but with new name
DIB member Charles Phillips said the DIB should recombine AT&L because the DoD “need[s] integrated designs, we need integrated manufacturing capacity around the world. It’s hard to do that in separate organizations."
‘Who should shoot who?’: INDOPACOM getting ‘combat representative’ JFN this year
The Joint Fires Network, meant to match weapons to targets across a theater of war, is a crucial pillar of the Pentagon's nascent global command system, CJADC2.