Air Force Busts Out Credit Cards To Buy High Tech Gear
The Air Force can be an “angel investor” for some startups, said Will Roper, the service’s top acquisition official.
Artificial Intel, Buying Software And Old Planes: Farnborough Air Show
Will this result in more operations like the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab in Boston, where coders join airmen to build useful software? Perhaps it will mean the service will hire civilian coders or train airmen to write code.
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Why enterprise IT modernization matters now – and how to “delight by design”
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Farnborough Preview: Navarro Leads US Sales Push; Reaper Flies Atlantic To RIAT
WASHINGTON: No Russians. Few Chinese. The F-35. And the man who has led the charge in America’s trade wars, Peter Navarro, at the head the American delegation, with lots of other senior American officials along eager to boost bilateral sales of US weapons and civilian aircraft. Those are the early outlines of what we’ll see at this […]
Air Force Acquisition Test: Missile Warning Sats In 5 Years to Orbit?!
SPACE SYMPOSIUM: The Air Force, eager to get inside the decision cycle of China and Russia, is pressing ahead hard and fast to substantially speed space acquisition. In what is something of a test case for the service, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson last night committed to building the next generation of missile warning satellites, […]
Air Force Leaders Dodge On Trump ‘Space Force’; Up To $8B To Reengine B-52
In a somewhat surreal scenario, President Trump yesterday riffed on the idea of a "Space Force," something he'd clearly been briefed on at some point. And the Air Force expects new engines for the B-52 fleet to cost up to $8 billion.
Forget The Terminator; Suicide & Data Drones Are Future, Says SCO’s Roper
AFA HQ: William Roper, the man who’s helping shape that future at the well-named Strategic Capabilities Office, told a packed room here that “stealth won’t last forever;” that adapting to the new version of war he’s helping the country ready for “is going to be harder for the Air Force than the other services;” that […]
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America must adopt a Sixth Domain of warfare doctrine
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
Keep Innovation Alive, SecArmy Fanning Implores Trump
WASHINGTON: What’s the most important initiative in the Obama Pentagon that the Trump team should pick up and run with? It’s innovation, outgoing Army Secretary Eric Fanning said last night: “Some of the most important work we’ve done in the last eight years is trying to set up places in our procurement system where we […]
Carter, Roper Unveil Army’s New Ship-Killer Missile: ATACMS Upgrade
UPDATED with William Roper comments WASHINGTON: The Army’s long-range artillery rocket, ATACMS, will get upgraded to strike moving targets on land and at sea, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced today. After at least two years of pressure from Congress and vague promises from Pentagon leaders, and for the first time since the Coastal Artillery Corps was […]
Arsenal Plane Pick Still In The Air: SCO’s Roper
DARPA HQ, ARLINGTON, Va.: Reporters must stop asking Will Roper about the Arsenal Plane, because he hasn’t picked which aircraft will be rebuilt as a high-tech truck for long-range missiles and other weapons. Speculation has centered on the Air Force B-52, but the Strategic Capabilities Office director made clear that choice is, well, up in the […]
Artificial Intelligence Drone Defeats Fighter Pilot: The Future?
In an intriguing paper certain to catch the eye of senior Pentagon officials, a company claims that an artificial intelligence program it designed allowed drones to repeatedly and convincingly “defeat” a human pilot in simulations in a test done with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). A highly experienced former Air Force battle manager, Gene Lee, tried repeatedly […]
Breaking Defense announces Breaking Defense Europe, a new, distinct, European edition
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Google Cars, Pokemon Go, & The Future Of War: Roper Interview Part II
William Roper is “buying time” for the rest of the Pentagon, he told us in a rare interview. His Strategic Capabilities Office finds near-term but game-changing upgrades for existing weapons systems, preserving American advantage over rapidly advancing adversaries while DARPA and Defense Department labs develop a new generation of breakthroughs. Yesterday, we wrote about Roper’s […]
Strategic Capabilities Office Is ‘Buying Time’ For Offset: William Roper
WASHINGTON: William Roper’s Strategic Capabilities Office is exploring some of the most innovative concepts in the US military. Imagine a militarized version of Pokémon Go, helping Army soldiers locate real-life threats instead of cartoon monsters. Imagine robot brains in a box — an “autonomy kit” — that Navy sailors can install on a patrol boat […]
Robots, Techies, & Troops: Carter & Roper On 3rd Offset
WASHINGTON: Trust your robots. Trust your tech industry. Trust your troops. Let go of traditional mechanisms of control — be it a human pilot in the cockpit or a formal requirements document for a program — that increasingly serve to slow you down. That was the message between the lines when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter […]
Open DoD’s Doors To Cyber Talent, Carter Asks Congress
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: None of these ideas is new, and none is as radical […]