Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

What I see repeatedly is not a technology problem. The models work. What breaks is everything around the model. Patrick Bryant September 14, 2026 7:14 pm 4 min read Every agency I talk to has an artificial intelligence pilot running somewhere. Fewer of them have an AI system that has actually made it through a compliance review, into an authority to operate (ATO) package, and out the other side into daily use by a program office. That gap — between “we built a demo” and “we operationalized a system a federal customer can actually rely on” — is where most…

BESANÇON, France — France’s 7th Armored Brigade is experimenting with breaking up its armored platoons into smaller teams to be more discreet and offer less valuable targets on a drone-dominated battlefield, the unit’s commander said.Whereas a French heavy cavalry platoon typically consists of four Leclerc main battle tanks and four VBL light armored vehicles, the brigade has been testing smaller units that can be combined “like Lego bricks,” Gen. Maxime Do Tran told Defense News last week at the brigade headquarters in Besançon in eastern France.Drones have made armored maneuver more difficult in Ukraine, creating a heavily surveilled “kill zone”…

The United States appears ready to pull much of its military from Europe. The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy, a key policy document, declared that it was time for the continent to “stand on its own feet” and take “primary responsibility for its own conventional defense”—or, put differently, that it needs to get ready for when Washington withdraws. At a June 2026 meeting of NATO’s defense ministers, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon was “moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe.” Two months later, in…

Rheinmetall has been commissioned by an international customer to supply artillery ammunition. The customer has ordered a low five-figure quantity of 155mm artillery projectiles. The contract value, which was recognised in the third quarter of 2026, is in the low three-digit million-euro range. Production has already begun, and the order is due to be completed in 2027. The projectiles supplied by Rheinmetall are already in service with various NATO countries. They can be fired from a wide range of 155mm weapon systems and offer a long range and high effectiveness. This contract underscores Rheinmetall’s high level of expertise in the…

Every alliance contains a struggle over who gets to decide what the alliance is for. The unusual thing about the Mecca Alliance, formally known as the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement,” is that all three of its members appear to believe they possess something that should give them that privilege: Saudi Arabia has the capital, Turkey has the defense industrial base, and Pakistan has the manpower and nuclear arsenal. Each can therefore imagine itself as the patron and the other two as clients. None of them, however, holds enough leverage to make that hierarchy stick.That unresolved competition for patronage may prove…

Brian Ortega was supposed to make his long-awaited UFC Lightweight debut this weekend (Sat., Sept. 19, 2026) at UFC 331 in his home city of Los Angeles, California opposite former foe Renato Moicano. After a rough stretch in the last few years that saw him lose four of five fights and nearly die cutting weight, the hope was that a move up to 155 pounds could rejuvenate his career.Instead, Ortega was forced to withdraw on Monday. Initially, the exact reason for his withdraw was unclear, but pictures of Ortega with a bandage on his eyebrow certainly seemed to offer an…

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s resignation has underscored growing concerns about the risks posed by AI. Coxon said that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Michael Hiatt, chief technology officer of Epirus, has taken a different tack.During a panel regarding counter-drone defenses at the Air and Space Cyber Conference, Hiatt noted that “everyone talks about cost asymmetry… and how important that solving that cost asymmetry problem is. But for the folks that are on the ground, the battle captain trying to make that assessment, it’s not a cost asymmetry…

The Canadian Snowbirds Tutors in their nine-ship formation over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. (David Oliver)The Canadian aerobatic team Snowbirds will retire its Canadair CT-114 Tutor trainer aircraft after completing the current demonstration season. The ageing jets will be replaced by Swiss Pilatus PC-21 turboprops, designated CT-157 Siskin IIs in the Royal Canadian Air Force.Development of the CT-114 Tutor two-seat basic jet trainer, internally designated CL-41A, began in the late 1950s at the Canadian company Canadair, with the prototype flying in January 1960. Powered by a single 2,633 lb. Orenda J85-CAN-40 turbojet, the CL-41A had a maximum speed of 486…

Scott Coker‘s new MMA promotion will be Ki MMA, set to launch in 2027. The former president of the now-defunct Bellator MMA announced that it will launch early next year, alongside Rich Chou. And the promotion is reportedly set to kick off with a 32-Man Grand Prix Tournament in the featherweight division. A total of 32 fighters across 4 continents, viz. Asia, Europe, South America, and North America (eight from each continent) will fight it out, with four continental champions eventually getting crowned. The winners from each continent will compete in the final event, in a knockout format, to win…

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