Shaun Waterman

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | Shaun Waterman

Excitement about self-driving taxis and small autonomous drones is exposing a dividing line between systems that operate at relatively slow speeds and the increasing challenges posed by systems operating at the speed of war. Government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton is looking to Formula One car racing to gain a combat edge for autonomous military vehicles. “Doing autonomy slowly is something that we’re getting better and better at,” Bill Vass, the company’s chief technology officer, said June 3.

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | Shaun Waterman

Ukraine’s audacious drone attack June 1, which appears to have destroyed several Russian strategic bombers—some based thousands of miles from the war’s front line—posed a dramatic backdrop for a major defense innovation forum in Washington this week, underscoring the ways in which the rapidly developing capabilities of autonomous weapons are revolutionizing the battlefield.

1 month ago | airandspaceforces.com | Shaun Waterman

The Department of Defense is pushing ahead with a plan to automate and streamline the system it uses to ensure that software running on military networks is secure, and will start implementation next month, acting Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said May 7. Arrington signed a memo two weeks ago “directing the development of a Software Fast-Track , or SWFT, Initiative” to speed up the process by which the Department of Defense certifies software to run on its networks.

1 month ago | airandspaceforces.com | Shaun Waterman

The Air Force and other military services are deploying artificial intelligence tools in their IT networks and Security Operations Centers where personnel monitor cyber threats, officials said May 6—but they are leveraging the emerging technology cautiously even as some say it is the very nature of warfare. Col John W. Picklesimer, commander of the 67th Cyberspace Wing, said AI is more than just a buzzword.

1 month ago | airandspaceforces.com | Shaun Waterman

The launch last month of Orbital Watch, the new Space Force program to share declassified U.S. government threat intelligence with private sector satellite operators and other commercial space companies, comes amid increasing concern about Chinese and Russian development of anti-satellite weapons. Officials said the program will eventually become a sort of Neighborhood Watch for space—a clearing and distribution house for orbital threat data from both the government and private sector.