Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Product March 17, 2026 Doodle Labs photo MARINA del REY, Calif. Doodle Labs is introducing Sense EW, a new set of capabilities designed to help drone OEMs and operators assure mission-critical communications links in contested environments. According to the Doodle Labs announcement, the Sense EW tools are built on the company’s resilient radios and adaptive mesh software with the aim of strengthening connectivity when RF conditions degrade.   Sense EW advances Link Assurance through three key capabilities: Anti-Detect / Anti-Intercept Multiband coverage and specialized radio capabilities reduce the likelihood that communications links can be detected or intercepted. Anti-Jamming Resilience …

Joe Kent, one of the United States’ top counterterrorism officials, announced his immediate resignation on Tuesday, arguing that President Donald Trump had been led into an unnecessary war with Iran — in part by undue influence from Israel.In a letter addressed to the president and posted to social media, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center claimed that the Islamic Republic “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”“It is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent said. Kent described what he characterized as a “misinformation campaign” driven by high-ranking Israeli…

Thailand, Bangkok, Rama IXAcross the Asia-Pacific, defense and intelligence (D&I) organizations are expanding their use of commercial space-based intelligence to support persistent monitoring, maritime domain awareness and regional security operations.As satellite constellations grow and analytics platforms mature, commercial Earth observation (EO) is no longer simply augmenting national capabilities—it is increasingly embedded within operational workflows. This shift raises an important question for planners and policymakers alike: what happens when a capability originally designed as supplemental access becomes a foundational layer of the intelligence architecture itself?For most of the commercial space era, EO was treated as access. Expanded coverage, adding surge capacity…

“The US Army Contracting Command – New Jersey (ACC-NJ), on behalf of Project Manager Soldier Lethality (PM SL), located at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, is conducting a market survey for direct view optics and aiming lasers for use on shoulder fired weapon systems (i.e. rifles, carbines and automatic rifles) within the Close Combat Force.” That’s how the recent US Army RFI to industry for commercial off the shelf weapon enablers starts out. I’m going to dissect it a little bit. It’s for “rifles, carbines and automatic rifles within the Close Combat Force.” Considering the Army is currently replacing the M4 Carbines…

As I have learnt, observing Nepal’s elections, its dual-election system all but excludes “knock-out” victory. Typically, counting continues tediously for weeks. Party bosses sit cheek by jowl, quarrelling over paltry, disputed ballots.  The 5 March election was called after youth protests in September 2025 forced the resignation of  K. P. Sharma Oli. This year, the Gen Z vote brought seismic change. From e-day 5 March 2026, it was apparent that the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) under rapper-turned-politician, Balendra Shah, had broken the glass ceiling. The country’s allegedly corrupt political elite and entrenched power structures fell. Symbolically, Balendra himself trounced Oli…

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) — The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, deployed in operations against Iran, is expected to temporarily pull into port after a fire on board, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the 18th day of the war with Tehran.The carrier, America’s newest and the world’s largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.The warship has been deployed for nine months, including taking part in operations against Venezuela in the Caribbean prior to arriving in the Middle East.…

The Kyiv Independent At least 11 people have been killed and 55 others injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over the past day, local authorities said on March 17. Russia launched 178 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said, reporting that Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 154. At least 22 drones evaded defenses and struck 12 locations. The fall of debris was recorded at two locations. Click here to read more.

At first glance, placing Army modernization of small unmanned aircraft systems—sUAS—under the leadership of the aviation branch seems reasonable. After all, sUAS fly and share battlefield airspace with crewed aircraft, so it is logical for the Army to charge the Aviation Center of Excellence to manage the modernization of all sUAS platforms (including Groups 1 and 2). But beyond the fact that sUAS, like the crewed aircraft that belong to the aviation branch, fly, there is good reason for the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE) to assume responsibility for the management of modernizing and integrating sUAS, which are inextricably linked…

PARIS — European NATO allies pushed back against demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, weeks after Iran shut down the majority of shipping through the critical trade artery in response to the American-Israeli war against the country.British Prime Minister Kier Starmer said on Monday the United Kingdom “will not be drawn into the wider war,” while German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said “this is not our war.” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said member states have no appetite to expand their maritime-security operation in the Red Sea to…

Officials said at a hearing Tuesday that tradeoffs in services may be necessary, as the U.S. Postal Service faces the prospect of running out of money within the next year. “We would hope that this is the beginning of the ultimate end of the ongoing [postal] crises that we have all witnessed far too long,” said Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel’s Government Operations Subcommittee. In his testimony, Postmaster General David Steiner warned that USPS could reach a financial cliff as soon as fall 2026. As a response, he floated reducing the postal…