NATIONAL HARBOR: The Pentagon’s biggest advocate of artificial intelligence just spoke to the Air Force Association for over an hour — and he didn’t mention drones. When Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work talks about autonomy, he’s much less interested in killer robots than in command and control. The Air Force led the way on… Keep reading →

IN FLIGHT TO ANDREWS AFB: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is pushing hard for artificial intelligence — but the US military will “never” unleash truly autonomous killing machines, he pledged today. “In many cases, and certainly whenever it comes to the application of force, there will never be true autonomy, because there’ll be human beings (in… Keep reading →

SAN FRANCISCO: Uncle Sam wants you, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a skeptical tech community yesterday. It’s part of an all-out effort by the military’s civilian leader to get the technologically best and brightest to work with or even for the often-hidebound Pentagon. Carter has created the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUX) and the Defense Digital Service, both… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Adds Carter & Kirchhoff remarks AUSTIN: Today, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will announce the latest location for his Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental) — but DIUX Austin will be organized differently from the home office in Silicon Valley or its offshoot in Boston. Instead of its own offices, DIU(X) Austin will “occupy space within the well-known… Keep reading →

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… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The current Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is a careful man with words and much of his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies echoed earlier policy pronouncements he and other senior Pentagon leaders have made over the last two years, about innovation, the Third Offset Strategy and more effective relations between… Keep reading →

Tiny drones, no bigger than your palm, were the big stars of an Army experiment in Hawaii, participants told Breaking Defense. Larger ground robots, however, struggled in the jungle. Staff Sergeant James Roe told me he was “blown away” by the PD-100 Black Hornet, a commercially available mini-drone used in PACMAN-I (Pacific Manned-Unmanned Initiative, part of… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Carter Touts Import Of Biotech CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: Special operations troops will test a high-tech headset that “uses noninvasive electrical stimulation” to help the brain learn better marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said here today. This cutting edge example of “enhanced human operations” — a highly controversial field — is just… Keep reading →

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… Keep reading →

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… Keep reading →