DefenceTalkForty years after US president Ronald Reagan stunned the nation and world with his “Star Wars” plan to take nuclear competition into outer space, a new battle of the satellites has emerged in the stratosphere. Largely because it far outpaced technology at the time, very little became of Reagan’s March 23, 1983 declaration that the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/reagans-star-wars-at-40-battle-of-the-satellites-79964/

DefenceTalkCountries including the United States and China called Thursday for urgent action to regulate the development and growing use of artificial intelligence in warfare, warning that the technology “could have unintended consequences”. A two-day meet in The Hague involving more than 60 countries took the first steps towards establishing international rules on use of AI […]https://www.defencetalk.com/countries-urge-action-for-rules-on-ai-use-in-war-79875/

DefenceTalkAirbus has signed a contract with the Belgian Ministry of Defence to provide tactical satellite communications services for a 15 year period. The Armed Forces will utilize channels of the Airbus UHF (Ultra High Frequency) military communications hosted payload on-board a commercial telecommunications satellite manufactured by Airbus. “With this new UHF payload, Airbus will be […]https://www.defencetalk.com/airbus-to-provide-satellite-communications-for-belgian-armed-forces-79757/

DefenceTalkThe Defense Department awarded contracts to four technology companies to provide services in support of its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability. The four companies include Amazon Web Services Inc., Google Support Services LLC, Microsoft Corporation and Oracle. “This is a huge day for the department and what we can bring to our warfighters, particularly for areas […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-dod-names-vendors-to-provide-joint-warfighting-cloud-capability-79672/

DefenceTalkThe US Department of Energy said Sunday it would announce a “major scientific breakthrough” this week, after media reported a federal laboratory had recently achieved a major milestone in nuclear fusion research. The Financial Times reported Sunday that scientists in the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had achieved a “net energy gain” from an […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-teases-major-science-news-amid-fusion-energy-reports-79667/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon announced Wednesday it has awarded $9 billion in cloud computing contracts to Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, after scrapping a previous deal during a dispute between two of those firms. The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) is a “multiple-award contract vehicle that will provide the DoD the opportunity to acquire commercial cloud capabilities […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-splits-9-billion-cloud-contract-among-google-amazon-oracle-and-microsoft-79649/

DefenceTalkNorthrop Grumman has been selected by the U.S. Department of the Air Force to be a member of its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) Digital Infrastructure (DI) Consortium. Northrop Grumman is one of the five industry partners named to the consortium to design, develop, and deploy advanced data-centric capabilities for the Air Force and Space […]https://www.defencetalk.com/usaf-selects-northrop-advanced-battle-management-system-digital-infrastructure-consortium-79438/

DefenceTalkAeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today introduced Mantis™ i23 D, a multi-sensor daytime imaging payload compatible with the Raven® B small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS). An enhanced daylight variant of its predecessor, the Mantis i23, Mantis i23 D maintains its ruggedized design and utilizes the same modular interface […]https://www.defencetalk.com/new-mantis-i23-d-multi-sensor-imaging-payload-delivers-superior-surveillance-performance-79287/

DefenceTalkBlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) received a $4.4 million award from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to support the second phase of the multi-year Space-based Machine Automated Recognition Technique (SMART) Program. “As part of our work, BlackSky created a high-performance MLOps (machine learning operations) framework that was ultimately selected to perform as the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/blacksky-to-provide-advanced-ai-for-space-based-dynamic-monitoring-79107/

DefenceTalkResearchers with DARPA’s Machine Common Sense (MCS) program demonstrated a series of improvements to robotic system performance over the course of multiple experiments. Just as infants must learn from experience, MCS seeks to construct computational models that mimic the core domains of child cognition for objects (intuitive physics), agents (intentional actors), and places (spatial navigation). […]https://www.defencetalk.com/ai-improves-robotic-performance-in-darpas-machine-common-sense-program-79015/