Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Waiting is one of the military’s oldest operating conditions. For every firefight or mission that becomes legend, there are weeks or months of stillness surrounding it. That’s why “Groundhog Day” remains a cultural shorthand inside the military for the experience of living inside routine long enough that time itself stops feeling linear. For service members, the reference to the 1993 film, in which Bill Murray portrays a weatherman trapped in a time loop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who’s forced to relive Feb. 2, works because it captures something service members immediately recognize: days repeat, routines harden and progress feels frozen. Long…

The demand signal is getting louder: move faster, field sooner, iterate continuously. Across the defense enterprise — from hypersonics and counter-UAS to space assets and tactical command posts — the common constraint is time. Programs can no longer afford to wait for traditional handoffs between requirements, prototyping, engineering, production, and sustainment. Today’s emphasis for warfighters is not just to invent something new, but to get something reliable into the hands of operators and iterate quickly without building from scratch. Booz Allen frames the solution to this challenge in terms of “build, partner, invest.” This strategic approach connects people, advanced R&D…

After the initial gains delivered by AI — read What AI has genuinely improved so far in P2P platforms — many procure-to-pay (P2P) platforms reach a point where additional intelligence no longer produces meaningful changes in outcomes. Accuracy continues to improve, interfaces become more polished and individual steps run faster, but the same operational bottlenecks persist. This article examines where and why that plateau appears and what it reveals about the limits of layering AI onto existing P2P design models. This plateau appears across both e-procurement and accounts payable (AP), although it manifests differently in each. In e-procurement, the limitation shows up in…

Once again, the Trump administration and its latest National Defense Strategy failed to mention the spread of nuclear weapons or proliferation. This follows a similar omission in its 2025 National Security Strategy. This is disappointing, but hardly surprising.  Although the United States has previously maintained fairly tough nonproliferation policies, for the last 16 years, it hasn’t had any at all; instead, Foggy Bottom has maintained a “case-by-case” approach to nonproliferation. The result has been a hodgepodge: no nuclear program for Iran, allowing South Korea to make nuclear fuels that could be turned into bombs, and a hazy set of policies that might apply to Saudi Arabia. The unspoken assumption…

Japan’s prime minister on Monday publicly renewed her call to amend the country’s Constitution to explicitly recognize the Self-Defense Forces, signaling a renewed political push on a long-debated national security issue during a campaign appearance ahead of the next general election. Speaking in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Sanae Takaichi said she wants to revise the Constitution […]

Ever since Donald Trump first became U.S. president, in 2017, commentators have searched for an adequate label to describe his approach to U.S. foreign relations. Writing in these pages, the political scientist Barry Posen suggested in 2018 that Trump’s grand strategy was “illiberal hegemony,” and the analyst Oren Cass argued last fall that its defining essence was a demand for “reciprocity.” Trump has been called a realist, a nationalist, an old-fashioned mercantilist, an imperialist, and an isolationist. Each of these terms captures some aspects of his approach, but the grand strategy of his second presidential term is perhaps best described…

The Pentagon’s new science and innovation board, announced last week, merges the Defense Innovation Board with the Defense Science Board to “streamline” how the department addresses the hardest technological and scientific national security challenges. But it comes on the heels of cuts that could undermine future scientific and innovation progress for the Defense Department, creating new opportunities and new hurdles to long-standing Pentagon goals.Streamlining is a persistent target for the Pentagon. But it’s one that it has had trouble achieving in previous years, according to GAO reports, lawmakers, and military leaders across administrations. It is one reason why the so-called “valley…

Federal employees across parts of government went or stayed home on Monday, furloughed for the second time in three months even as lawmakers scramble to reopen agencies within the next 24 hours. The Senate late Friday approved a spending package to fund most of the agencies that have not yet received full-year appropriations, while keeping the Homeland Security Department afloat with a two-week stopgap continuing resolution. The House was on recess at the time and hoped to quickly pass the measure Monday, but House Democrats appear to have blocked that timetable. Instead, House Republicans are aiming to approve the package in the…

Ministry of Defence of Ukraine 1 February, 2026, 4:00 PM EET During a conversation with Sweden’s Minister of Defence, Pål Jonson, Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, Mykhailo Fedorov, discussed the formation of one of the largest security assistance packages for Ukraine. Sweden is preparing a substantial assistance package comprising air defence assets and Saab-produced radars, along with contributions to Ukraine’s defence industry—additional electronic warfare (EW) systems and drones, including deep-strike capabilities. Ukraine’s Defence Minister expressed gratitude to Sweden for its sustained support and new investments in Ukraine’s defence sector. The parties also focused on several key areas of cooperation. Strengthening air…

Marignane, France, 03 February 2026 – The French Directorate General of Armament (DGA) has ordered a new version of the SMDM (“Onboard Mini Aerial Drone Systems for the Navy”) from Airbus Helicopters (via its subsidiary Survey Copter). This UAS will now be delivered in the new vertical take-off and landing configuration (VTOL). The DGA has ordered a total of 34 Aliaca systems for the French Navy since 2022. Deliveries of this new version will begin in May 2026, following a qualification campaign. “We are proud to be able to deliver the VTOL version of the Aliaca to the French Navy…