Defense news

• Race cars and robots on drones: Sights from AUSA day 2

  13-10-2026 19:33 via breakingdefense.com
  George Washington made a cameo appearance at this year’s conference, which features incredibly large artillery and fiber-optic drones from the Ukrainian battlefield.
  
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• Hegseth, service secretaries discuss ‘generational change’ of Autonomous Warfare Command

  14-10-2026 20:07 via defenseone.com
  
  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s vision for the planned Autonomous Warfare Command over the next two years “is that we're still iterating, we're still adapting, we're still learning, and we're moving faster and faster because we're doing it. We understand how to do it better with each iteration.”Hegseth sat down to discuss the Defense Department’s efforts to advance its autonomous capabilities with the service secretaries and the Pentagon’s top civilian for special
  
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• Trump admin's retreat from foreign-influence fight is weakening US defenses, sources say

  14-10-2026 20:00 via defenseone.com
  
  The Trump administration’s retreat from programs that track foreign influence operations has weakened various cross-sector relationships used to identify and confront those campaigns as midterm elections fast approach — even as artificial intelligence makes those operations easier to deploy — multiple sources told Nextgov/FCW.State officials say they are receiving fewer election-specific federal briefings than in previous cycles, while others who track foreign influen
  
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• Didn’t get picked for IFPC interceptor competition? Army says come demo anyway

  14-10-2026 14:00 via breakingdefense.com
  The service will continue working with the Lockheed Martin and Boeing-Anduril teams but also hosting “shoot-off opportunity” for additional vendors, explained Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano.
  
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• Army converts Futures and Concepts Command to Futures and Autonomy Command

  14-10-2026 02:55 via defenseone.com
  
  When Lt. Gen. Mac McCurry woke up Tuesday morning, he was the commander of the Army’s Futures and Concepts Command. By the afternoon, the service had announced that his outfit will become the recently announced Futures and Autonomy Command.FASCOM will be the Army’s component organization within the Defense Department’s planned Autonomous Warfare Command, it announced Oct. 1. “You know, we did decide to keep the patch, because that's honestly one of the hardest things
  
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• Army doubles down on autonomy, stakes out Indo-Pacific role: AUSA Day 2

  14-10-2026 02:27 via breakingdefense.com
  From a newly redesignated command to long-range fires in the Pacific, Army leaders laid out where they see the service fitting into the future fight.
  
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• FBI disrupts North Korean 'laptop farms' used to fund weapons programs

  13-10-2026 23:00 via defenseone.com
  
  The FBI searched more than 40 Texas residences and seized 187 laptops and other devices used to help North Korean operatives obtain remote jobs at U.S. companies under false identities, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.The effort, dubbed Operation Lonestar Roundup, targeted “laptop farms” that housed employer-issued computers and allowed workers overseas to access them remotely. U.S.-based facilitators configured the devices and transferred earnings to North Korean-controlled ac
  
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• Avio, Lockheed sign agreement for solid rocket motor production

  13-10-2026 22:48 via breakingdefense.com
  
  The deal will pave a path for Avio USA to become a new provider of motors on Lockheed Martin’s Extended Range GMLRS and the Precision Strike Missile.
  
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• Army’s Project Gatekeeper aims to cut software approval times from months to ‘minutes’

  13-10-2026 22:23 via breakingdefense.com
  The service’s new cybersecurity testing sandbox will stand up on Oct. 23, said acting Army CIO Gabe Chiulli, streamlining the current cumbersome, ad hoc arrangements for clearing commercial software for Army networks.
  
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• Army re-evaluating munitions procurement goals as Iran war continues

  13-10-2026 21:52 via defenseone.com
  
  The Army’s procurement goals for critical munitions could be shifting, officials said Tuesday in a break from the U.S. government’s typical reticence to talk about the enormous expenditure of weapons during the Trump administration's war on Iran.Increasing annual production of Patriot air defense missiles, particularly the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement, is high on the priority list, Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s fires portfolio acquisition executive, said during a panel at
  
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• Precision at scale: APKWS counters the threat

  13-10-2026 21:23 via breakingdefense.com
  [Sponsored] APKWS® laser‑guidance kit provides reliable precision‑guided munitions across missions and platforms, delivered quickly to meet evolving operational demands.
  
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• Democratic midterm gains could speed US military aid to Ukraine, lawmaker says

  13-10-2026 20:58 via breakingdefense.com
  Polling and prediction markets suggest the midterms could deliver “a fairly massive repudiation of the president,” said Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
  
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• LaNeve ‘redesignates’ Army’s Futures and Concepts Command as new FASCOM autonomy command

  13-10-2026 20:51 via breakingdefense.com
  The new US Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command, “will pioneer operational concepts that harness autonomous capabilities across all warfighting functions,” Gen. Christopher LaNeve said today.
  
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• Israel’s IAI unveils 3 new air defense systems at AUSA

  13-10-2026 19:52 via breakingdefense.com
  Unveiled today during the AUSA conference, the three systems represent the different approaches defense companies are pursuing as unmanned aerial vehicles reshape modern warfare.
  
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• Missiles and radar need more than demand – they need manufacturing capacity

  13-10-2026 18:54 via breakingdefense.com
  [Sponsored] Expanding manufacturing capacity is critical to producing missiles, radars, and launch systems.
  
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• Continuing resolution could ‘complicate’ Army’s HADES spy plane production: Official

  13-10-2026 18:27 via breakingdefense.com
  The Army’sG-2 Andrew Evans told Breaking Defense the program is currently “completely” on cost and schedule, but a budget impasse threatens plans.
  
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• Polish defense minister calls for US industry to establish European facilities

  13-10-2026 18:02 via breakingdefense.com
  Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz spoke the same day that another senior Polish commander said Patriot deliveries to Poland are expected to be delayed.
  
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• Teledyne FLIR Defense releases new compact counter-UAS radar

  13-10-2026 15:00 via breakingdefense.com
  “The Ranger R10-3DX gives operators an affordable, compact, and highly capable radar solution that delivers the early warning and tracking performance needed to counter evolving drone threats,” Rob Tarantino, senior vice president of Surveillance at Teledyne FLIR Defense, said.
  
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• From requirement-driven to market-ready: Rethinking how defense technology reaches the warfighter

  13-10-2026 14:24 via breakingdefense.com
  [Sponsored] As threats continue to evolve, speed will increasingly depend on what is already available when the need emerges.
  
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• Army to take a (cautious) step toward employing AI agents to defend networks: Official

  13-10-2026 13:00 via breakingdefense.com
  The Army is making its first awards under Project Griffin, which eventually envisions AI prowling networks for malicious activity.
  
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• Army plans ‘rodeo’ to round up supply-chain problems

  13-10-2026 05:27 via defenseone.com
  
  The U.S. Army is planning a "rodeo" to round up problems that slow the deployment of new weapons, and rope in new ways to improve supply chains and make parts in more places, the service’s acting chief said today. The “Manufacturing Rodeo,” planned sometime in 2027, will serve as a sort of public competition to expose where the industrial base is failing to meet demand and where new players are providing innovative approaches.“We need to strain the nation's larger in
  
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• US Army to stage counter-drug training exercises in South America

  13-10-2026 01:42 via defenseone.com
  
  The Army is looking to refocus its U.S. Southern Command exercises to focus on counter-cartel operations, Gen. Joe Ryan, who heads Army Western Hemisphere Command, said Monday at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C.The move is part of the nascent command’s mission to build a “theater Army,” Ryan said, above and beyond the largely partner training and disaster response missions its U.S. Army North and South predecessors maintained. &l
  
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• At Warsaw Security Forum, Poland’s Tusk raises alarm over ‘real threat’ from Russia

  12-10-2026 22:39 via breakingdefense.com
  The prime minister urged additional sanctions on Moscow, saying the “path through peace does not lie through weakness.”
  
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• From drones to ground vehicles: Check out day 1 of AUSA

  12-10-2026 21:58 via breakingdefense.com
  Sights on the ground at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
  
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• Army sent balloon swarms to Middle East to support CENTCOM operations

  12-10-2026 21:30 via breakingdefense.com
  The Army gleaned a trio of observations about how those balloons operated, but it is not yet clear what path the service will pursue when it comes to stratospheric sensing capabilities, Andrew Evans said.
  
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• Mojave STOL and Gray Eagle® 25M: Complementary capabilities for the modern battlefield

  12-10-2026 20:34 via breakingdefense.com
  [Sponsored] Both aircraft are designed to evolve as threats and mission requirements change.
  
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• Amid unease in Europe, NATO SACEUR bullish on ‘block, blunt, break’ theory of victory

  12-10-2026 20:20 via breakingdefense.com
  “I want others to know who might be thinking about doing harm against us, that we’ve got this, and that they better not take any shot at the alliance,” said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as commander of United States European Command.
  
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• CHAOS Industries joins low-cost interceptor parade with VESPID design

  12-10-2026 20:00 via breakingdefense.com
  The system comes in two sizes: man-portable Mk 0, and the vehicle-launched Mk 1.
  
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• Acting army secretary announces ‘manufacturing rodeo’ to tackle ‘weak links’ in supply chain

  12-10-2026 19:29 via breakingdefense.com
  “The magic is that this is an early indicator that we’re acquiring a new system of seamless, frictionless symbiosis between the Army and American commercial excellence,” said Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle.  
  
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• Mine hunting goes remote as the Navy replaces minesweepers with robots

  12-10-2026 16:12 via breakingdefense.com
  With minesweepers retired, the US is turning to remote and robotic mine-neutralization tactics.
  
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