Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Artist’s rendering of the future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The 12 submarines of the Columbia class are a shipbuilding priority and will replace the Ohio-class submarines reaching maximum extended service life. Source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. US-based General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) has been awarded a $15.4bn cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previously awarded contract for additional services for the US Navy’s future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN). The contract states that GDEB will provide lead yard support and sustainment, integrated enterprise plan initiatives for the class, and submarine industrial base supplier development enhancement efforts to support Columbia-class…

Pentagon staffers, former officials and IT contractors who work closely with the U.S. military say they are reluctant to give up Anthropic’s AI tools, which they view as superior to alternatives, despite orders to remove them. After a dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over guardrails for how the military could use its artificial intelligence tools, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain risk on March 3, barring its use by the Pentagon and its contractors following a six-month phase-out.RELATEDBut the move is running into resistance, with some military users dragging their feet and others preparing to revert…

NATO has launched its first Testing, Evaluation, Verification and Validation (TEVV) campaign focused on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and counter-UAS technologies at the Sēlija Military Training Area in Latvia. The testing activity took place from March 9 to 13, 2026, bringing together defense industry companies from NATO member states and Ukraine, alongside operational users and […]

Munich, Germany, 19th March 2026: Alpine Eagle, the European counter-drone defence technology company, is scaling production of its Sentinel counter-drone system as governments seek rapid, deployable solutions to defend against large-scale drone threats. The company has seen accelerating demand across Europe. Sentinel was first deployed with the German Bundeswehr in 2024 as a launch customer, and Alpine Eagle has since secured contracts with three new European customers and has expanded to the UK and the Netherlands. Sentinel combines Alpine Eagle’s airborne radar and sensor network with a software-defined defence architecture to detect and track hostile drones across wide areas and…

Issue Brief March 19, 2026 • 4:28 pm ET Print this page By Caitlin Thompson Bottom lines up front The institutions charged with keeping the United States secure operate under chronic strain that can make them prone to failure.Many current efforts to fix this focus on helping individuals operate effectively within flawed systems.But it’s only by redesigning the flawed systems that the US government can create the readiness on which national security depends. The hours are long and the pace rarely eases, including shifts of twelve to fourteen hours that inevitably erode family and social life. In theory, there are…

Lerone Murphy will take on Movsar Evloev in the UFC London headliner and a surging Oktagon MMA star, with some localized ties to the former, has weighed in on that featherweight fight. With the proximity piece of both men being surging fighters from the European scene and the inherent bias within that, when asked for his thoughts on the Movsar Evloev versus Lerone Murphy bout on March 21st, Denis Frimpong said [via Bowks Talking Bouts], “I believe [Murphy] knocks him out. I think momentum is a hell of a thing. Lerone’s had momentum building all the way up to his…

The principal civilian advisor to the U.S. secretary of war for all matters related to special operations forces and the most senior military SOF leader provided testimony at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill today on the SOF community’s capabilities and challenges it faces ahead. During the hearing, Derrick M. Anderson, assistant secretary of war for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, explained how special operations forces are successfully countering U.S. adversaries overseas while comprising just 3% of the joint force and 2% of the War…

Rheinmetall’s new Naval Systems division – formerly Naval Vessels Lürssen – aims to significantly shorten the construction time of the German F126 frigates as the new prime contractor. By Lars Hoffmann / Hartpunkt “We want to further accelerate the manufacturing process and, together with the customer, streamline the acceptance procedures considerably – while fully guaranteeing operational readiness,” a Rheinmetall spokesperson told hartpunkt in response to an inquiry. The company is examining “the best possible options,” such as a concentrated and consolidated acceptance of the weapons and operational systems. Rheinmetall and the German Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) plan to transfer…

This report examines human uplift studies — randomized controlled trial (RCT)-style evaluations of artificial intelligence (AI) systems — that increasingly inform decisionmaking for AI. Drawing on interviews with 16 practitioners, the research identifies methodological challenges across the study life cycle and documents emerging solutions, including standardized task libraries and versioned evaluation infrastructure. This publication is part of the RAND working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers’ latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.This document and trademark(s) contained…

The U.S. Army faces a critical modernization crossroads in field artillery. Ukraine’s war has made viscerally clear what doctrine writers warned for years: A self-propelled howitzer that stops to fire is a vulnerable target. A towed howitzer does not have a chance. Russia’s Zoopark-1 radar can locate a firing howitzer within seconds of the first round leaving the barrel. The KNDS RCH 155 — Germany’s remote-controlled howitzer — offers a transformative answer, allowing a standard howitzer battery to fight and survive like a HIMARS battery.The fires gapThe Army’s current self-propelled workhorse, the M109A7 Paladin, requires the crew to halt, emplace,…