Science & Tech

Get Lasers Into the Field Faster, Lawmakers Tell the Pentagon

The Senate’s version of the annual defense bill provides $200 million for rapid prototyping of directed energy weapons.

Ideas

The Pentagon Has the World’s Largest Logistics Problem. Blockchain Can Help

DoD should join other logistics-heavy organizations in experimenting with the cryptography-messaging-accounting technology that powers Bitcoin.

Science & Tech

DARPA-Funded Radar Lets Planes See Through Smoke and Clouds

A promising approach to a decades-old quandary: how to get a clear field of view to the ground?

Science & Tech

Social Media is ‘First Tool’ of 21st-Century Warfare, US Lawmaker Says

And buying Facebook ads is much cheaper than an F-35 fighter jet, said Sen. Mark Warner.

Science & Tech

The Future the US Military is Constructing: a Giant, Armed Nervous System

Service chiefs are converging on a single strategy for military dominance: connect everything to everything.

Threats

‘Cyber Defense Is Very Much About Political Decisions’

When European defense ministers played a tabletop cyber defense exercise, things got hard very quickly.

Science & Tech

Can the US Military Re-Invent the Microchip for the AI Era?

As conventional microchip design reaches its limits, DARPA is pouring money into the specialty chips that might power tomorrow’s autonomous machines.

Science & Tech

Trump's Tech Crackdown on China Has Begun

The White House just blocked a $1.3 billion plan to sell an Oregon-based semiconductor company to a Chinese equity firm, citing possible technology risks to national security.

Business

NSA Quietly Awards a Classified $2.4B Tech Contract, With More to Come

CSRA won the first of three NSA Groundbreaker contracts to upgrade parts of the intelligence community’s IT infrastructure.

Science & Tech

Energy Dept Spends $33M to Harden Grid Against Network, Kinetic Attack

The grants focus on improving grid resiliency during a cyberattack and speeding recovery.

Science & Tech

DARPA Wants to MacGyver the Internet Using Only What's in Troops' Pockets

The research agency wants to tap the computer power of the devices warfighters already have to network anywhere.

Science & Tech

What the CIA’s Tech Director Wants from AI

Dawn Meyerriecks says staying ahead of Russia and China isn’t as hard as getting U.S. leaders to listen to their own artificial intelligence analysis.

Science & Tech

Future Spy Satellites Just Got Exponentially Smaller

By changing the way microchips measure light, researchers are shrinking the size of space-based telescopes.

Science & Tech

3 Questions: Artificial Intelligence and the Military

AI has moved from the movies to the laboratory, and governments around the world want it in their arsenals. We asked how militaries define it, and how they intend to keep it under control.

Threats

'We Do Not Have Long to Act': Tech Heads Warn UN About Autonomous Arms

SpaceX head Elon Musk and other industry leaders write that autonomy will lead to wider and faster war.

Science & Tech

17-Year-Old Hacks US Air Force For The Biggest Bug Bounty

The Defense Department’s third vulnerability-finding contest invited international participants to attack USAF websites. They found the most bugs yet.

Science & Tech

Here’s How the US Military Wants to Counter ISIS Drones and Roadside Bombs

Predictive algorithms, deep machine learning, directed energy, and more are all on the Pentagon’s shopping list.