Science & Tech

US Intelligence Wants Computers That Spot Fake Fingerprints

Researchers at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency aim not only to spot prosthetic thumbs, it will also learn to predict attacks never seen before.

Science & Tech

F-35 Chief: Think Very, Very Hard Before Making Another Joint Fighter

Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan has a bit of advice for Air Force and Navy leaders envisioning their next tactical aircraft.

Science & Tech

Behind the Air Force's Fast-Growing Cyber Research Budget

The service wants to quadruple its money for defending networked aircraft, launch systems, satellites and a whole lot more.

Science & Tech

The Military’s Super-Fast Bird Drone

The Defense Department’s mad scientists show how to make super-fast, light-weight drones.

Science & Tech

The Army Has Made a Robot Cockroach

Biologically inspired robot bugs could be the next big thing in intelligence collection.

Science & Tech

America's Spies Want to Speed Up IBM's Quest for a Quantum Computer

IBM has been working on quantum computers for decades, and now it has the support of IARPA, the U.S. intelligence community’s research agency.

Science & Tech

The US Military Just Ditched Plans to Launch Satellites with F-15s

DARPA was looking for a way to get small sats into orbit more quickly, but the fuel proved too dangerous.

Science & Tech

Can the Military Design a Disaster-Resilient City?

Cities are incredibly complex, and break in complicated ways. Understanding that complexity will be key to mitigating tomorrow’s disasters.

Science & Tech

The US Military Is Developing Brain Implants to Boost Memory and Heal PTSD

One of DARPA's many brain-improvement projects centers on implantable, wireless devices intended to aid troops' cognitive abilities both during and after wars.

Science & Tech

When Military Robots Can Predict Your Next Move

New research may enable robotic armed guards — or just help self-driving cars get through a four-way stop.

Ideas

DOD's Current InfoSec Strategy Is 'Patch and Pray’

But DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar says that her agency is working to make computing ‘mathematically, provably secure.’

Science & Tech

Engineering Humans for War

Inside the Pentagon’s efforts to create a super-soldier — and change the future of the battlefield.

Science & Tech

Is This the Warship of the Future?

Laser-armed battleships that print their own drones will have to survive anti-ship missiles plummeting from space.

Science & Tech

Here’s What The Military’s Top Roboticist Is Afraid Of (It’s Not Killer Robots)

We’re on the verge of an explosion in robotic capability and diversity, and it would be folly to stop exploring now, says the man who ran DARPA’s Grand Robotics Challenge.

Science & Tech

The Military Wants Swarm Bots It Can Retrieve in Midair

They'll bite through your aileron wires. They'll insert toasting forks in your tyres. That is the tale of the Gremlins.

Science & Tech

How Uber Could Help Change Spycraft

The U.S. intelligence community wants feedback from the innovative car-sharing company and other commercial startups on its 5-year data-analysis roadmap.

Science & Tech

Hackers to Military: Replace Us With Robots? Ha!

Next year’s Cyber Grand Challenge event will pit humans against machines in a grand hacking war. DEF CON’s war gamers like their chances.

Business

Pentagon Sends an Engineer and a Navy SEAL to Woo Silicon Valley

Not five months after its announcement, the military’s California technology-hunting office is up and running.

Science & Tech

The Military Will Test a New Terrifyingly Loud Noise Gun

The Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program is developing lasers that create a screaming ball of plasma on their target.

Science & Tech

Will DARPA’s Disaster Robots Ever Go to War? Never Say Never

In the latest Grand Challenge, semi-autonomous machines pushed the state of the art for humanoid robots.