Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Saronic Technologies has been awarded a production Other Transaction (OT) under the U.S. Navy’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) Marketplace for Marauder, the company’s dual-use 180-foot autonomous ship. Saronic Technologies press release The Firm-Fixed Price award, executed under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 4022(f), reflects a streamlined acquisition approach that enables the Navy to procure capabilities from non-traditional suppliers like Saronic with greater speed and flexibility. The MUSV Marketplace is a Navy acquisition initiative designed to rapidly field unmanned surface vessels by drawing on mature, commercial-ready technology rather than a traditional multi-year program of record. In June 2026, the Navy initially…

I already know which name will jump out at many of you this month: Final Fantasy Resonance. A new turn-based Final Fantasy with HD-2D visuals and a return to a turn-based combat system is enough to get my attention, but I wouldn’t want the rest of October’s lineup to get lost behind it. We also have Frosthaven reaching its full release and the first two Octopath Traveler games arriving on Nintendo Switch 2 in the West. Those are some substantial adventures competing for our time before we even get to the smaller projects. For this month’s selection, I’ve included new…

The Pentagon will create a combatant command to lead its efforts to develop and deploy robotic weapons, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in a speech peppered with Bible verses and insults to the press. The new Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, will be “a new four-star combatant command with service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force,” Hegseth said. It is to stand up by Oct. 1, 2027, according to a memo released after his speech.The secretary seemed to say that planning for the new command would flow from the three-month-old direct reporting portfolio manager…

UFC 332 is here with the fight everyone has been waiting for … Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong for the vacant women’s flyweight title?On Saturday, Silva and Wang face off for the belt vacated earlier this year by long-time champion Valentina Shevchenko after an injury prevented her from defending the title at this event. Now, Silva and Wang have the opportunity to fight for a UFC title, but also the burden of making people care about a belt that doesn’t exactly feel like the real one.On the latest episode of No Bets Barred, host Jed Meshew flies solo to dive…

Last week, I spent two days at eCommerce Expo at ExCeL London, my first time in the city (and hopefully not the last). eCommerce Expo brings together retailers, brands, and ecommerce teams to talk about everything from finding customers to getting orders out the door. The expo shared the floor with Technology for Marketing, so it felt like two events at once.  With that much going on, it’s easy to leave with a bag of swag and a blur of buzzwords. With the holiday rush coming up fast, one panel felt especially relevant: Preparing for Peak Shopping Seasons: How to…

Educational technology (edtech) products are central in many school districts’ instructional strategies. However, prior research shows that school districts often struggle to move from adopting edtech products to ensuring that students use them consistently. Students’ and schools’ use of edtech products often fall below developer-recommended levels. But what if a district could meaningfully narrow the gap between recommended and actual use? In this report, the authors describe the strategies that one district and its schools used during a two-year period in which usage of Zearn Math, a mathematics edtech platform, increased markedly. The authors draw on a randomized controlled trial…

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is slated to undergo a massive overhaul designed to prepare the hulking vessel for the second half of its service life.The Pentagon on Tuesday announced a $5.1 billion fixed-ceiling incentive contract with HII to complete the carrier’s mid-life overhaul at Virginia’s Newport News Shipbuilding. The refueling and complex overhaul, or RCOH, comprises approximately one-third of the maintenance and modernization a carrier will undergo during its service life, according to the announcement. The RCOH process on Truman will “include refueling the ship’s reactors, as well as extensive modernization work in thousands of compartments and…

As Russia expands the bombardment of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, changes are taking place in the country’s energy sector with implications for the United States and the future shape of European gas markets. Since 2025, Ukraine has gone from having no meaningful direct relationship with US liquefied natural gas (LNG), to becoming one of the fastest-growing purchasers of American LNG in Europe. This transition underscores why Washington should view LNG sales to Ukraine as a strategic imperative. Russian attacks on Ukraine’s domestic gas production destroyed up to 60 percent of output capacity in 2025, forcing the country’s state-owned energy giant Naftogaz…

The Pentagon is creating a new four-star command to oversee the military’s push into autonomous warfare, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the technology is advancing faster than the military’s acquisition system can keep up.The Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom, will have service-like authorities and is intended to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the military, Hegseth said during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Wednesday.Hegseth said the new command is intended to address an acquisition system that cannot keep pace with the speed of technological change on the battlefield.“The pace of war…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping left their Washington meetings last week with a list of eight “deliverables and understandings.” The list covers trade, artificial intelligence and Iran, along with diplomatic and symbolic commitments. It is not eight separately signed treaties or completed deals. A proposed military crisis agreement appears separately, and neither government has announced that it is in operation. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping participate in an arrival ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) China’s published list identifies these eight outcomes: Strategic stability: The leaders agreed…