WASHINGTON — Amid the Trump administration’s heightened focus on software modernization, the Defense Information Systems Agency is looking to expand one of its high profile software contracting vehicles called the Joint Enterprise License Agreement (JELA) program — an initiative that consolidates software contracts across the department’s services and enterprises into one agreement. “The thought was let’s…
Category: Science and Technology
Northrop Grumman says first DARC test validates radar tracking capability
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman’s first test of the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) confirmed the ability of the multi-antenna radar to track multiple satellites, according to a senior company official. “We’re very pleased to be able to make this an announcement of the success of this first-time demonstration at the DARC site in Western…
Age Verification Lobby Pushes For Age Verification Checks For VPN Use
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A trade group representing companies that build age verification systems is now lobbying to extend these checks to anyone using a VPN in the UK. The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) wants online platforms that fall under the UK’s…
Beware ‘drone-tastic’ thinking: UK armed forces chief says ‘traditional’ capabilities still matter
BELFAST — Drones alone will not be enough to secure victory in future conflicts, according to the outgoing head of the UK armed forces, but the aircraft offer an opportunity to “adjust the way that we’ve traditionally fought” today. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank on Thursday, Adm. Tony Radakin,…
Dutch Regulator Pressures X, Facebook, TikTok to Enforce EU Censorship Rules Ahead of October Election
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Dutch authorities are once again leaning on tech companies to act as speech enforcers in the run-up to national elections. The country’s competition regulator, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), has summoned a dozen major digital platforms, including…
AI flight software maker Merlin set to go public
WASHINGTON — Merlin is set to go public in a deal that values the company at $800 million and positions it to become one of the first publicly traded prime contractors on the market specializing in autonomous flight software, the company announced Thursday. The deal involves a merger with the publicly traded Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp.,…
Irish Govt Pushes “Disinfo” Plan Despite Public Backlash
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Despite an avalanche of opposition from the public, the Irish government has pushed ahead with its controversial National Counter Disinformation Strategy, without conducting any evaluation of how such policies might restrict freedom of expression. The plan, quietly released in…
Mining for DOGE: Defense budget docs show $11B in ‘efficiencies,’ but what are they?
WASHINGTON — Depending on who you ask, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has either been a radical effort that has saved taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, or a wild goose chase that has crippled the government for years to come. One thing that many can agree on, however, is uncertainty about exactly how…
The economic argument for keeping US forces in Europe
NATO’s Hague summit earlier this summer has generally been viewed as a qualified success, despite — or perhaps because of — its unusually short and focused agenda. The new 5 percent defense spending commitment deserves most of the credit for this perception, but there’s no escaping the conclusion that the lack of major disruptions also…
Threat warning and survivability in the modern battlespace
Spinning dials can often interrupt our digital lives these days when our phones or computers get overloaded with data or software instructions, whether we are accessing the internet, using an app, downloading a file, or streaming a movie. While the device works on the request, it displays a simple animation like a spinning hourglass or…
Payment Gatekeepers Hit Gab AI as Chatbot Faces Growth
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Gab AI says its payment processor has terminated services. According to Gab, the termination was based on “adverse media reports about Gab AI.” Gab reported that the move came just as it launched version 3.0 of its AI dashboard,…
Supreme Court Allows Mississippi Age Verification Law to Take Effect, Advancing Online Digital ID Push
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Supreme Court’s choice to let Mississippi enforce its new age verification law is part of a growing shift toward digital ID requirements across the internet, raising urgent concerns about privacy and censorship. By declining to block the law…
AMTI is not air battle management: Why the US needs the E-7 now
In modern aerial warfare, victory hinges on turning raw data into decisive action. Yet, a dangerous misconception in parts of the Department of Defense is now equating Airborne Moving Target Indicator (AMTI) data, snapshots of moving targets from radar-based systems like space-based satellites, with the orchestration of air battle management. This fallacy threatens US air…
Who’s Who in Defense: Ro Khanna, Ranking Member, HASC’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems (CITI)
U. S. Representative Ro Khanna, D-17th District, California Responsibilities Khanna is the ranking member of a subcommittee that’s focused on technologies with the potential to threaten US national security. Since its creation in 2021 during the 117th Congress, the House subcommittee has been narrowing the aperture on hot-topic issues ranging from the electromagnetic spectrum to…
The “Free” Internet That Was Bait For Mass Surveillance
It was billed as one of those warm, city-benevolent gestures: Big Apple Connect, a shiny, feel-good initiative from the Adams administration to finally drag public housing into the 21st century by providing free internet. “Digital equity,” they called it. Nothing says equity like putting modems next to the radiators in buildings that haven’t had working…
Game Day Just Got Creepy: Florida Stadium Swaps Tickets for Faces
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The University of Florida has launched a facial recognition-based entry system for football games, making it the first college in the country to introduce this technology at a stadium. Instead of showing a ticket or scanning a phone, participating…
First Amendment Lawsuit Over Firing of Arkansas Firefighter for Social Media Post Can Proceed
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a fired Arkansas firefighter over a Facebook post will proceed to trial, reinforcing the principle that public outrage alone is not a legitimate basis for punishing constitutionally protected…
Army sees 3D printing taking off ‘very, very soon’
GVSETS 2025 — The US Army intends to accelerate and scale the use of 3D printing, several officials said at a ground vehicles conference this week, as they’ve become increasingly aware of the advantages 3D printing capacities can provide to logistics and sustainment. “Just like everything else with technology, it is kind of a crawl,…
Russia Blocks Voice Calls on WhatsApp and Telegram
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Russia has moved to limit voice call features on WhatsApp and Telegram, accusing both platforms of resisting cooperation with investigations into fraud and terrorism. The decision, announced by the state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, affects only the calling function for…
UK’s Tax Authority to Surveil Social Media Posts
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the UK equivalent of the Internal Revenue Service, has for the first time confirmed it has been using artificial intelligence to monitor social media activity in certain tax-related investigations, a revelation that intensifies concerns…
UK’s Controversial Facial Recognition Tech Hits The Road
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. You’ve probably gathered that Britain has developed a bit of a crush on surveillance. Not the kind you might associate with espionage thrillers or Cold War paranoia, but a distinctly modern version that looks suspiciously like a white van…
Poland signs off on $3.8 billion F-16 fighter jet upgrade
WARSAW — The Polish Ministry of National Defence has finalized a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) with the US government to upgrade its fleet of 48 F-16 Block 52+ multi-role combat aircraft to the advanced F-16 Viper configuration, also known as the F-16V. Lockheed Martin will serve as the primary contractor for the modernization…
Unmanned ground vehicles ‘real crucial’ in fight against Russia: Ukrainian official
GVSETS 2025 — As the war against Russia grinds on, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have identified more and more uses for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), from serving as hosts for electronic warfare payloads to medevac, but they’re always on the lookout for more, according to a Ukrainian official. “I saw today some [unmanned] systems over…
An autonomy blueprint is essential to keep legacy platforms relevant in modern warfare
Russia’s drone and missile attacks on Ukraine – and Ukraine’s own asymmetric tactics – have accelerated the need for rapid adaptation on the modern battlefield. The days of relying solely on new platform development are gone. Like the urgent deployment of blast-resistant vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan to counter IEDs, today’s mission demands faster paths…
Super carriers, smaller carriers rise across the Indo-Pacific
SYDNEY — Japan, for the first time since World War II, will once again have a navy that includes aircraft carriers — technically, at least, after retrofitting two helicopter-destroyers to host recently arrived F-35 stealth fighters. While they are not the immense super carriers of the US Navy like the Gerald R. Ford, the vessels,…
GS Engineering’s REAPr unmanned ground vehicle designed for US Marines
GVSETS 2025 — Michigan-based vehicle-maker GS Engineering this week is using the GVSETS Conference here to promote what one company official called a “small, cost-effective” ground vehicle platform designed for use by the US Marines. The Remote Expeditionary Autonomous Pioneer System or REAPr was developed as part of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project….
Advances in propellants, made in America, are crucial to long range-artillery fires
The U.S. industrial base for munitions and energetics is at a crossroads, with the Army investing heavily in munitions technology and production capacity. This includes a critical focus on artillery shells, which complements a simultaneous pursuit of vitally needed howitzer capability improvements – all in search of desperately needed improved long-range precision artillery fires. But…
Switzerland weighs cuts to F-35 order amid cost dispute, tariff pressure
WASHINGTON — Swiss officials said today negotiations with the US have failed to resolve a pricing dispute over an order for F-35 fighter jets, raising the possibility that Bern will have to reassess its planned buy. After selecting the jet in 2021 and inking a contract in 2022, Switzerland says its order of 36 F-35A…
Army, Clemson University unveil upgraded Deep Orange semi-autonomous vehicle
GVSETS 2025 — The US Army, in partnership with Clemson University, recently revealed the Deep Orange 16 semi-autonomous vehicle, the latest upgrade over previous Deep Orange vehicles designed to work in support of emergency response in extreme conditions. The vehicle was on display Tuesday here at the GVSETS Conference in Novi, Mich. Deep Orange 16…
How NATO nations need to sell the 5 percent spending hike to their own people
At the NATO Summit earlier this summer, NATO allies agreed to raise their defense spending target to 5 percent of GDP by 2035 — with 3.5 percent focused on hard security and 1.5 allocated to defense-enablers like critical infrastructure and cybersecurity. The move, pushed by the White House, represents a much-needed increase in spending to…
US State Department Condemns UK’s Censorship Laws
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Free expression in Britain is facing what the United States now calls a serious decline, with the US State Department’s latest Human Rights Report accusing the UK government of tightening its grip on speech, particularly since Keir Starmer’s administration…
More power, no moving parts: The quest to fly a rotating detonation engine
P&W RAY Rotating Detonation Engine Animation. Photo courtesy of RTX. The engineers gathered at a lab in Connecticut, stood outside a testing chamber and listened. Inside was what’s known as a rotating detonation engine – a new style of propulsion system, and one their peers, colleagues and predecessors had been researching and theorizing about for…
Reddit Slams the Door on Internet Archivers
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Reddit is sharply reducing what the Internet Archive can store, blocking the Wayback Machine from saving most of the site. Only the Reddit.com homepage will remain available for archiving, meaning the public record will no longer include individual posts,…
USV maker Seasats says drone came within meters of Chinese warship during Pacific transit
WASHINGTON — The autonomous surface vessel producer Seasats had an unexpected encounter with a Chinese warship while transiting the Indo-Pacific earlier this year, its chief executive exclusively told Breaking Defense. The California-based company conducted a publicly tracked transit of one of its USVs, dubbed Lightfish, from San Diego to Japan, a roughly 7,500 nautical mile…
New Navy-Marine AI and data strategy coming this fall, seeking rapid adaptation for wartime
WASHINGTON — The US Navy is drowning in data, but it can’t turn that intelligence into new tactics or tech updates fast enough for a 21st century war, warned the new Chief Data and AI Officer for the Department of the Navy Stuart Wagner. But, he said, a forthcoming strategy for “data and AI weaponization”…
Claim: Privacy Law “Protects Criminals” After UK Watchdog Tells Shops to Take Down Thief Photos
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. British shopkeepers are being told to think twice before displaying images of suspected shoplifters, after the UK’s data regulator warned such measures could fall foul of privacy laws. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) argues that even when someone is…
Nigeria’s Data Breach Allegations Expose Risks of Centralized Digital ID Systems
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Centralized digital ID systems promise convenience and streamlined access to services, but when a single database becomes the gateway to a population’s most sensitive details, the consequences of a breach can be devastating. Nigeria is now facing exactly that…
Fortnite Set to Storm Back Onto iPhones in Australia After Landmark Court Ruling
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Fortnite will once again be playable on iPhones in Australia, following a significant court ruling that targeted Apple and Google’s control over mobile app distribution. The federal court found both companies had leveraged their dominant positions, and steep in-app…
Plans for Singapore F-15 training detachment in Guam cancelled
MELBOURNE — A plan to base Singaporean F-15 fighter jets on Guam for training has been scrapped, Singapore’s defense ministry confirmed today in a statement, although some of the proposed infrastructure upgrades to the island’s sprawling Andersen Air Force Base to support the jets will still go ahead. The decision was mutually agreed upon by…
Amid shakeup, Army plans to replace Gray Eagle and Shadow drones
WASHINGTON — Soldiers inside divisions and brigades will not be left without replacements for Gray Eagle and RQ-7B Shadow drones, according to a US Army leader who says new plans to replace both are in the works. Since the service unveiled its Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) in May, questions have swirled about the path ahead…
Army, industry vehicle teams embrace off-the-shelf solutions, but not always
GVSETS 2025 — As the Army races to embrace commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions, officials and industry figures here said they’re seeing challenges both in how the acquisition process is done and, ultimately, the limits to what COTS products can bring to bear when it comes to ground vehicles. “It confronts both the way we do…
The Break Out: Ukrainian dreams of drone exports, and a big US Navy stress test
Ukraine may be fighting a war right now, but that doesn’t mean its drone manufacturers aren’t eyeing ways to generate more funds from foreign buyers. This time on The Weekly Break Out, editors Aaron Mehta and Lee Ferran discuss a recent piece by freelancer Kollen Post about the push from Ukrainian industry for customers outside…
With Assad gone and Iran hobbled, the time is ripe for a stable Middle East
The recent demonstration of Israeli and American military prowess in Iran has given rise to a new pathway to regional integration: an incremental progression that starts with security cooperation, moving to economic, technological and civil infrastructure partnerships, and eventually culminating in full normalization. It may not be the traditional model of diplomacy, exemplified by the…
How Conversations You Never Shared With AI Can Still Land in the Laps of Offshore Contractors
By the time you finish telling Meta’s AI how your boss ruined your life, a stranger halfway across the world might already be reading it over lukewarm coffee. The stranger’s job isn’t to help you heal; it’s to give your robot therapist a performance review. According to contract workers speaking with Business Insider, Meta’s chatbot…
Perplexity Offers $34.5B to Acquire Google Chrome
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Perplexity, a San Francisco-based AI startup, has surprised the tech world with a $34.5 billion unsolicited offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. The move comes as the US Department of Justice presses ahead with antitrust remedies that could force…
Rocket Lab buys GEOST, further expanding defense footprint
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab today announced finalization of a $275 million deal to buy the holding company for sensor system startup Geost — giving it a potential toehold in the Pentagon’s mega-billion Golden Dome air and missile defense initiative. Geost, which makes electro-optical and infrared sensors, is a subcontractor to Sierra Space, providing payloads for…
Vulcan’s first Space Force launch to carry long-delayed experimental PNT satellite
WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance (ULA) tonight is slated to launch its first Vulcan mission under the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, carrying an experimental satellite to demonstration new technologies for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). The Vulcan heavy-lifter will carry two military payloads directly to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) at about…
US Plan To Copy UK’s Disastrous Online Digital ID Verification Is Winning Friends in the Senate
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is moving forward in the US Senate with 16 new co-sponsors as of July 31, 2025, reviving a proposal that copies the same type of provision found in the UK’s controversial Online Safety…
Another Major Data Breach Exposes Dangers of Online Digital ID Verification
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. TeaOnHer, a newly released iOS app encouraging men to upload and share photos and personal details about women they claim to have dated, is already embroiled in a major privacy scandal. The platform, which went live just days ago,…
Could DoD buck ‘congressional intent’ on billions in reconciliation?
WASHINGTON — Days before the Senate took off on August recess, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee asked a handful of nominees for key Pentagon posts — including the official slated to become the department’s next comptroller — whether they would follow congressional guidance on implementing $150 billion in additional defense funding granted…
Canada’s Islamophobia Envoy Backs Plan to Police Politicians’ Posts
If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s federal government’s “Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia,” has thrown her support behind a controversial set of proposals that would give authorities the power to delete online posts by politicians if they are judged to be “disinformation”…
