AFA 2019: Maj. Gen. William Cooley explains to Breaking D how Air Force Research Lab is shaping its efforts to move cutting-edge tech to warfighters in the field. AI, autonomy and networking capabilities to link sensors and shooters top the priorities list for the lab’s yet to be established priority “Vanguard” programs, Cooley told Theresa… Keep reading →

“So, we’re purposely trying to identify those things that may fundamentally change the way in which we are approaching warfare and our concept of operations.”

“I get really irritated when I’m in the audience and I hear ‘startup, startup, startup,’” Army Futures Command’s chief innovation officer said this morning at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). “Startups are not the only source of ideas.”

The Army’s modernization initiatives aren’t plunging into the valley of death this week or even, in most cases, this year. It will take time to build prototypes, to test them and to figure out how the force will make the most of new technology. But over the next few years, enough of these projects have to make it across that daunting gap to actually change the Army.

if you can deliver new technology really fast, the US Army is now willing to pay your company much higher profits. And it’s working hard to make sure that new tech actually gets to new weapons.

NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY: Like a surgeon planning to separate Siamese twins, Pentagon officials worry how complex the congressional mandated breakup of the acquisition bureaucracy could become. “We understand the challenges (and are) very cognizant” of the risk,” acting deputy assistant secretary for research and engineering Mary Miller told me this morning. “It’s going to be difficult,” Miller… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: The Navy’s new offices for unmanned systems — that’s drones or robots to you and me — are a long-overdue reform, two top experts tell us. But, as emphasized by both our outside sources and the new Navy officials themselves, it’s equally important to understand the initiative’s limits. This is not an overhaul of the… Keep reading →