“ON A TRIP to Silicon Valley last year, Defense Secretary James Mattis openly envied tech companies’ superior use of artificial intelligence technology. To help close the gap, one Pentagon unit is now offering $100,000 in prizes to develop algorithms that can interpret high-resolution satellite images.” Source: xView Detection Challenge: Help

“In a historic first, the Army conducted a live fire exercise with a remote-controlled ground combat vehicle armed with a .50-caliber machine gun. It plans to conduct more exercises with more heavily armed ground robots within the next couple of years.” Source: US Army Now Holding Drills With Ground Robots That

“On Feb. 12, the Russian Defence Ministry posted a video on its website showing the white desolation of the Kazakh steppes in winter. Suddenly, a bright red and grey plume erupted from the snow and arced away from the camera, off into the horizon. Details were scant, but the video

“The radio spectra are increasingly crowded and confused, and smart devices are making it worse. Already jammed full of telecom signals, the airwaves have become increasingly congested with the popularity of the Internet of Things.” Source: Why it’s harder for soldiers to tell if their radios are being jammed

“The Corps is on the cusp of further integrating touch screen tablet and smartphone technology that will aid Marines calling in accurate air artillery strikes.” Source: Accurate air and artillery strikes, coming soon from a tablet

“In the Matrix series, Keanu Reeves wears futuristic sunglasses to look cool when fighting against machines. But in China, police are now wearing sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to catch criminal suspects.” Source: Chinese Police Are Wearing Sunglasses That Can Recognize Faces – Nextgov

“Behind the noisy aerobatic flight displays and lines of visitors ogling fighter jets and missiles on the tarmac, the future of aviation is on display in a cavernous exhibition hall at Asia’s largest airshow. And it’s drones.” Source: In the global game of hide and seek, the drones are winning

“Robot soldiers from cinematic nightmares are glistening silver automatons, with rictus skulls or towering automaton bodies. Robot soldiers in real life? Not so much. They look very much like the rough assemblage of improvised weaponry that they are: a camera and a gun on a wheeled or tracked body. And

“The National Space Defense Center, a collaborative project from the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community to track to monitor threats to U.S. satellites, is now a fully functioning inter-agency operation, according to a January 26 release.” Source: The latest on the Pentagon’s space warfare center

“The release of a purported National Security Council presentation pushing the national security benefits of a government-built 5G network led to outrage and general bewilderment from internet, infrastructure and communications specialists, including members of the Federal Communications Commission.” Source: FCC, Telecom Industry Slam Idea of Government-Built 5G Network – Nextgov