Industry’s prototype Robotic Combat Vehicles are proving more capable than the Army expected, Brig. Gen. Richard Ross Coffman told me: “It is really exciting.”

But building a global 3D terrain database will require wrangling huge amounts of data, Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais told us.

Instead of augmenting super-soldiers, DARPA wants to boost troops’ natural defenses against engineered diseases — and even undo gene-editing altogether.

A new Aerospace Industries Association study underlines international interdependence amidst today’s trade wars.

“They’re willing to say, ‘I’m willing to sacrifice the lives of American servicemen and women, I’m willing to take more civilian casualties … on the off chance that sometime in the future this weapon will exist.”

Iron Man-style powered armor has proven impractical. New flexible, wearable electronics offer an alternative path to help the infantry.

Other companies build planes. Other companies build helicopters. Bell’s “secret sauce,” its CEO says, is its aircraft can be both.

The senators’ draft of the annual defense bill puts a new emphasis on technological competition, including industrial policy moves to strengthen US companies.

“This is not based on ownership. We leave them their freedom.”

Dark horse design house AVX has never built a complete aircraft. The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition just might change that.