Know What's Happening in Defense
Know What's Happening in Defense
Trump administration proposes record $1.5 trillion defense budget for FY2027
The FY2027 budget request totals $2.16 trillion, allocating a historic $1.5 trillion to the newly renamed Department of War and $63 billion for Homeland Security. The plan emphasizes expanded immigration enforcement, Coast Guard modernization, and a surge in defense spending.
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By the numbers: Kraken Robotics acquires Colvya Group for $615M
Colonel Richard “Butch” Sheffield recounts his B‑58 Hustler service, highlighting ultra‑low‑level, supersonic training at 500 feet and 628 knots and a secret reconnaissance role kept from adversaries. He describes the Dual Exhaust program where his crew dropped a Mark‑53 nuclear bomb without its plutonium pit over White Sands, then observed the aircraft’s climb after pod jettison. The narrative also covers a 1964 reunion with Doolittle Raiders and Jimmy Stewart, and Sheffield’s later move to the SR‑71 Blackbird program. His forthcoming memoir promises deeper insight into these historic missions.
President Trump announced a $1.5 trillion defense budget request for FY 2027, roughly a 50 percent jump from the FY 2026 proposal and far above the $839 billion base level. The request comes amid an ongoing Iran conflict, raising concerns that operations and maintenance spending...
Elon Musk’s decision to block Russia from using Starlink satellites has hampered Russian drone and artillery operations, highlighting the strategic power of private space assets. After initially supplying Ukraine with terminals, Musk later restricted their use against Russian territory following...
India’s strategic calculus is being reshaped as Bangladesh abandons Indian defence deals and pivots toward China and Pakistan, creating a potential three‑front dilemma for New Delhi. The shift follows the 2024 ouster of Bangladesh’s long‑time prime minister, sparking public anti‑India sentiment...
The United States is fighting an economic war while its intelligence and business sectors operate in silos. Adversaries exploit supply‑chain, capital‑flow, and technology dependencies, yet private‑sector leaders lack access to classified intelligence that could reshape risk assessments. The author argues...
The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) evaluated its Integrated Resource Workload Model (IRWM), a tool launched in 2014 to translate contract‑management demand into staffing needs. The assessment found the model follows best‑practice manpower analysis but suffers from procedural gaps, data‑quality...
A South Korean ruling‑party lawmaker warned that the escalating US‑Israel war with Iran could jeopardize the supply of essential semiconductor materials, particularly helium, which is critical for heat management in chip fabrication. The Korean chip sector, responsible for roughly two‑thirds...
YellowScan introduced the Venturer LiDAR at Geo Week 2026, positioning it as an NDAA‑compliant solution for high‑precision, security‑focused surveying. The system processes all data locally via YellowScan CloudStation, eliminating cloud dependencies and ensuring full data sovereignty. It features 360‑degree adaptive...
After four years of experimentation, Keith Burkepile concludes that wargaming is essential for professional military education. He describes how the Joint Overmatch board game was integrated into the Army War College curriculum, highlighting faculty preparation, early introduction, and realistic expectations...
‚As planning for a potential strike in Iran was underway, Maven, powered by Claude, suggested hundreds of targets, issued precise location coordinates, and prioritized those targets according to importance, said two of the people. The pairing of Maven and Claude...
The UK Home Office has awarded Indian AI firm Mastek a five‑year, £49 million contract to manage and upgrade its biometric infrastructure, including the Biometrics Services Gateway and the National DNA Database. The deal includes optional two‑year extensions and covers specialist...
On February 28, President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping military strike against Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and decapitated the regime’s senior leadership. The campaign quickly expanded to hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s missile forces, navy and...
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a national emergency aimed at Cuba, accusing the island of hosting spies and terrorists and threatening tariffs on any nation supplying oil. Following the declaration, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, intensifying regional...
The Air Force will not sign a contract for an additional 75 KC‑46 Pegasus tankers until Boeing fixes key deficiencies, including the Remote Vision System and boom actuator issues. The extra aircraft were intended as a short‑term bridge to keep...
India’s Ministry of Defence approved a ₹5,083 crore ($550 million) package that includes the ALH Mk‑III MR helicopter and a ₹2,182 crore ($236 million) contract with Russia’s Rosoboronexport for Shtil‑1 vertical‑launch missiles. The Shtil‑1, a semi‑active radar homing system derived from the Buk family,...
Ukrainian forces on the Donbas front line are confronting a relentless wave of Russian attack drones that patrol the open terrain. Soldiers rely on handheld drone detectors and small‑arms fire to knock out the buzzing threats, while command posts fuse...
The Australian Defence Department has launched domestic production of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) at a new facility in Port Wakefield, South Australia. The first batch of missiles is slated for completion by mid‑March 2026, marking the first GMLRS...
Declarations of air superiority are relative. Iran has road mobile air defenses that can hide and pop up out of nowhere. They have exotic stuff like loitering SAMs too. Moving fighters in for direct attacks doesn’t mean they can operate...
I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for foreign operators of Ukraine’s interceptor drone P1SUN to discover what its seemingly purely technical name actually stands for.
American Security First argues that U.S. policymakers have repeatedly mishandled Iran, from Carter’s missed opportunities to Obama’s covert cash transfers and Biden’s JCPOA revival. The author warns that the Trump administration’s hard‑line stance should not translate into regime‑change wars, emphasizing...
The Pentagon and at least one Gulf government are in talks to buy Ukrainian-made interceptors to fend off attacks by Iranian drones, @charles_clover and @ChristopherJM report https://t.co/hV2ixGhKjx
MQ-9 Reapers appear do be doing a LOT of the heavy lifting against mobile ground targets and vessels in Epic Fury.
President Trump’s nominee for CISA, Sean Plankey, resigned from his advisory role at the U.S. Coast Guard to allay concerns about his prior shipbuilding contracts that prompted Sen. Rick Scott’s hold. Plankey emphasized his focus on leading CISA and highlighted his turnaround of...
"Operationally, the two most powerful air forces in the world, the United States and Israel, are dominating the skies over the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,"
Elizabeth Warren says she’ll do everything she can to stop dismantling the financial networks that fund terrorism (Iran). Given her track record of stopping things, that’s actually pretty reassuring.
The U.S. House and Senate have unanimously approved legislation authorizing President Joe Biden to award the Medal of Honor to Maj. Nicholas Dockery, a Special Operations Command officer recognized as Military Times’ Soldier of the Year in 2022. Dockery’s 2012...
Got to get the Supers FALCO APKWS (air-to-air laser-guided rockets for swatting down drones and some cruise missiles) ASAP. Surprised this isn't a thing still after the Red Sea and the USAF going all in on it. The remaining roughly...
Israel and the U.S. are steadily eliminating Iran’s top leadership, including figures capable of negotiating an end to the conflict... Join our Analyst Tier on Patreon to watch the full video ➡️ https://t.co/R47Ca3Pp6h #iranwar #military #geopolitics https://t.co/HS9nDRCPcB
The Government Accountability Office released a critical review of the Space Development Agency’s missile‑warning satellite program, highlighting a heavy reliance on contractor‑provided technology‑readiness assessments and an aggressive two‑year acquisition cadence. GAO found that SDA lacks an enterprise‑wide schedule, has limited...
Pentagon officials assured that the United States holds a "nearly unlimited" stockpile of stand‑in weapons, such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, after depleting precision‑guided standoff munitions in the opening days of the Iran conflict. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint...
More than a third of the Air Force’s dwindling E‑3 AWACS fleet is currently deployed to support operations against Iran, exposing the strain on the service’s airborne battle‑management (ABM) capability. A new Center for a New American Security report urges...
The United States convened a critical‑minerals summit to curb China’s overwhelming role in battery and electric‑vehicle supply chains, but China still controls over 80 percent of global lithium‑ion battery production and 90 percent of grid‑scale storage. Washington has taken minority stakes in...
OpenAI has signed a new contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, expanding its involvement in Pentagon projects. The agreement’s surveillance language contains numerous ambiguities that could allow broad data collection. Critics on LessWrong highlight potential loopholes that may undermine...
The historic TAT-8 transatlantic fiber‑optic cable, installed in 1988, is being dismantled, marking the end of an era for the original global internet backbone. At the same time, the U.S. Pentagon deployed Anthropic’s Claude AI model to support a strike...
The escalating U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is spilling over into Africa, where Iran has cemented security ties with Sahelian juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Western attention is being diverted, prompting the United States to scale back counter‑terrorism support while...
Amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, roughly 1,600 Americans are stranded across the Middle East, prompting the State Department to arrange charter flights and consider military options. The Air Force has deployed C‑17 Globemaster III cargo planes to evacuate civilians, offering a...
Airbus is actively testing quantum navigation, known as MagNav, which leverages the Earth’s magnetic field and quantum sensors to pinpoint aircraft location. The approach matches real‑time magnetic readings against a pre‑built magnetic anomaly map, offering centimeter‑level accuracy without satellite reliance....
The U.S. Army is revamping its direct‑commissioning program to accelerate the entry of civilian technologists into officer roles. By moving oversight to the Army Recruiting Command and streamlining medical, security, and training steps, the accession timeline has dropped from roughly...
Operation Epic Fury, a joint U.S.–Israeli strike against Iranian infrastructure, relied on coordinated space‑based uplink/downlink jamming and cyber disruption before kinetic weapons were employed. The campaign highlighted how militaries exploit a legal gray zone where non‑kinetic effects avoid the traditional...
Bitwarden announced native support for Windows 11 passkey login, letting users authenticate with credentials stored in their encrypted vault. The feature works across all plans, including the free tier, and uses a QR‑code flow to confirm the passkey on a mobile...
In this live conversation, historians Timothy Snyder and Ruth Benjiat dissect the ongoing war with Iran, framing it as a classic strong‑man maneuver where an autocratic leader uses foreign conflict to consolidate power, sidestep elections, and pursue personal or financial...
The House Financial Services Committee rejected a Defense Production Act amendment that would have prohibited federal agencies from blacklisting companies refusing to deploy high‑risk AI products. Rep. Sam Liccardo introduced the measure after the Pentagon clashed with Anthropic, which declined...
Researchers at OX Security disclosed a maximum‑severity zero‑click vulnerability (CVE‑2026‑28289) in the open‑source FreeScout help‑desk platform. By embedding a zero‑width space before a malicious filename, attackers can bypass recent upload filters and achieve remote code execution through a single crafted...
Poland’s right wing president Karol Nawrocki is hatching a plan to use the NBP (Polish central bank) to help finance Polish rearmament. Except as Bloomberg notes, legally, the cbank isn’t allowed to finance the govt. Why do they want this?...
"... one reason I am very reluctant to begin wars of choice without a clear strategy and goals."
And, leading up to his confirmation, everyone and their mother told me @USWPColby would pull every asset we have away from Iran.
Ukraine will send experts in drone warfare to help the Middle East and Gulf states
"...Shugart said he was not surprised that the U.S. nuclear submarine could strike with such impunity when ordered to do so, especially because the Iranian vessel likely did not have the technology needed to detect and destroy submarines..." https://t.co/vjrKh0Quht
Been hearing some "message to China" takes here and well...I'm sure the Chinese already knew that a U.S. SSN would have little trouble taking down lone Iranian frigate if ordered to do so—one with near-zero ASW capability. https://t.co/3NdN0Ojzho
Scoop from BGOV on budget: Defense Industry Expects $50 Billion Package to Boost Munitions Summary by Bloomberg AI US defense industry officials are expecting the Pentagon to request supplemental funding to shore up expensive munitions stockpiles following US strikes on Iran. .
