A shipbuilder and defense-focused AI company have joined forces to build ships faster, as China continues to outpace the U.S. in shipbuilding, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports.
The new partnership will give shipbuilder BPMI Gecko Robotics’ drones and AI platforms to help reduce inspection times, speed up production, and relieve the shortage of highly-skilled workers, according to the companies. The news was announced Tuesday in Pittsburgh, where President Donald Trump was meeting with AI companies. Read more, here.
Update: Lockheed Martin has finally cleared the backlog of F-35s that were in long-term parking, Defense One’s Audrey Decker reports. The Pentagon stopped accepting new F-35 jets in July 2023, a pause that lasted for a year due to major delays with a new upgrade for the jet. That pause resulted in 72 jets being stacked at Lockheed’s facilities in Texas.
While the cleared backlog is a win for the defense giant, Lockheed is set to take a major blow in the Pentagon’s 2026 budget request, after officials cut its F-35 buy almost in half, citing delays with the new upgrades and readiness problems. Read more, here.
Developing: The Pentagon would be required to create a database of contractors used in covert operations under the draft House defense policy bill, Nextgov’s David DiMolfetta reports. The database would likely be classified, but could be used for congressional oversight.
The U.S. military and intel forces have long relied on a shadow workforce of contractors to help with missions, but the exact role of private firms in clandestine activities is largely secret. “Past watchdog reports have called for more visibility into military contracting, but efforts to centralize that oversight have largely stalled. The new proposal codifies a formal, continuously updated database specifically focused on vendors supporting clandestine military activity, paired with mandated congressional reports that could become one of the most robust military contractor oversight tools of its kind,” DiMolfetta writes. Read more, here.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has a new assistant press secretary: Liberty University graduate Riley Podleski, who comes to the Pentagon after interning with far-right Georgia lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene in January. She worked as an event planner in Dallas for two years before her internship under Greene.
Another Pentagon addition: Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata was confirmed Tuesday to be the next Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness.
Tata became a novelist and a Fox News commentator after retiring from the Army. He later lobbied for the top policy job at the Pentagon during the end of Trump’s first term; but his nomination was stalled in part by his past remarks falsely calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and a Muslim. Those concerns were less of an issue in the president’s second term. According to Trump’s Pentagon, “[Tata’s] leadership in and out of uniform in the Department, as well as in other fields, gives him the critical experience needed to help build and retain the Force we need.”
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Audrey Decker. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day 80 years ago, the U.S. successfully tested the world’s first nuclear weapon. Within 10 days of the test, radioactive fallout drifted across 46 states, as well as Mexico and Canada.
Trump 2.0
The State Department has fewer Russia and Ukraine analysts after its latest round of layoffs last week, the New York Times reported Tuesday. “The layoffs were among several at the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, commonly known as INR. The bureau employs no spies and does not conduct surveillance of its own, but provides analysis about world events to help guide U.S. diplomacy.”
Russia launched another 400 drones at Ukraine overnight, destroying energy infrastructure and wounding at least 15 people across Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa regions, President Volodymir Zelesnkyy said on social media. Fortunately, “Nearly 200 drones were shot down, and over 140 more failed to reach their targets,” he added.
What Ukraine needs most right now: “more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination,” because “Russia is not changing its strategy,” Zelenskyy said. Reuters has more.
Around Trump’s government:
Mideast
Israel launched several new waves of deadly airstrikes in Syria, including an attack targeting government troops at the entrance to Syria’s military headquarters in Damascus Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces announced on social media.
Background: “Dozens of people have been killed this week in violence that erupted in the southern province of Sweida, triggered by a series of kidnappings involving Syria’s Druse minority and pro-government Bedouin tribal groups,” the New York Times reports from Beirut. “The Israeli military official said Syrian forces were not preventing attacks on Druze and were part of the problem,” Reuters reports.
Notable: Israel’s military has attacked four Middle Eastern capitals in the past two months—Tehran, Sana’a, Beirut and now Damascus.
Additional reading: “Through Trial and Error, Iran Found Gaps in Israel’s Storied Air Defenses,” the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Etc.
There is now an “Iron Dome” for mosquitoes, Fast Company reported Monday. The product is called the Photon Matrix, and it’s “a black box about the size of a smartphone that can detect, track, and eliminate mosquitoes mid-flight using an AI-guided laser system.”
Its inventor claims it can kill up to 30 mosquitoes in one second. “Just looking at the video of it in action makes me laugh like a supervillain,” Fast Company’s Jesus Diaz writes. See a demonstration video on YouTube, here.
Says Defense One Science and Tech Editor Patrick Tucker: “No.”
And in other science reporting this week, “The Secret to Better Airplane Navigation Could Be Inside the Earth’s Crust,” the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (gift link).
Read the full article here