Author: Defenceline Webdesk

Federal prosecutors have charged 17 Iranians affiliated with the Tehran-based Mabna Institute over an alleged hacking-for-hire operation that stole research and intellectual property from hundreds of universities and compromised email accounts belonging to U.S. government agencies and companies.The 14-count superseding indictment, unsealed Tuesday, adds eight defendants to a case brought against nine other members of the firm in 2018. Prosecutors said the expanded charges expose a broader network that conducted cyber intrusions for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government and university clients.The Mabna Institute targeted systems belonging to 144 U.S. universities, 178 universities abroad, at least 42 U.S.…

WASHINGTON — To take full advantage of AI, the Army needs a comprehensive simulation of its networks, what’s called a digital twin, where it can train and test both the algorithms and the humans working with them, the two-star chief of the service’s Network Command (NETCOM) said today. Such a detailed digital model, constantly updated with live data on how the real-world network is performing, would be difficult to build, Maj. Gen. Jacqueline Denise McPhail acknowledged at AFCEA’s annual TechNet Augusta conference. But it would have so much potential, she went on, that she challenged the contractors in the audience…

Home › Podcasts › Pulse Check › Ukraine’s Fire Point Is Courting Pakistan. Pulse Check Episode 11 Asks Whether It Can Work. Pulse Check Quwa’s Pulse Check Season 1 Episode 11 takes up the question raised by Fire Point’s approach to Pakistan – whether a Kyiv design house and Pakistan’s defence-industrial base have anything workable to offer each other. By Quwa Team · August 20, 2026 · 3 min read Quwa released the eleventh episode of Pulse Check on 20 August 2026, in which Bilal Khan and Aseem work through whether Pakistan and Ukraine have a workable basis for defence-industrial…

AUGUSTA, Ga. — With no new starts for electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO) capabilities budgeted for fiscal 2027, the Army is looking to leverage prototypes and broad requirements from other programs to get new kit in the hands of soldiers, officials said this week. Earlier this year, the Army published two documents — a Characteristics of Need (CoN) for EMSO systems, which is a guiding document that outlines broad based needs as opposed to hyper-specific requirements, and the Rapid Electromagnetic Warfare & Signals Intelligence Commercial Solutions Offering (REWSI) Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), which is a library of capabilities to choose from…

One of Golden Dome’s most supportive voices in Congress fears that prioritizing Iran war funding along with continuous partisan gridlock threatens President Donald Trump’s plans for a sprawling missile defense shield.Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., told Defense One in an interview Wednesday evening that funding for Golden Dome is a “concern of mine.” Only about $400 million of the $17.5 billion the White House is seeking next year for the homeland missile shield is in the baseline budget, while the rest relies on funds through a Congress-controlled funding maneuver known as reconciliation. A third $90 billion reconciliation package working through the…

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration looks to spawn drone production lines at home, nearly 100 company representatives and government officials converged on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building today for the first White House Drone Dominance event. In total, officials from roughly 40 companies gathered next to the White House to hear from an array of government officials including National Security Council Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler.  “The cavalry arrived here to meet your cavalry in private industry to make sure that…

BEIRUT — Turkish Aerospace (TA) is developing a maritime version of its light attack and trainer aircraft Hurjet, as the company eyes increased exports to NATO countries.  “We have recently started work on a navalized version of HÜRJET,” TA CEO Mehmet Demiroglu said at a Turkish naval expo today, according to a transcript the firm provided to Breaking Defense. “It is still too early to define exactly what the aircraft will look like. Maritime operating conditions are significantly more demanding than land-based operations, and the aircraft will also need a more powerful engine.” He added that TA has been in…

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon wants more transparency from defense primes and their supply chains on the cost of building weapons and is considering the use of software that would pull data directly from companies’ financial systems to get it, according to memo reviewed by Breaking Defense. The memo, signed off by Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg on Tuesday, is meant to “reset” the Pentagon’s expectations for supplier cost and pricing information, with the department seeking to use that data to ensure that contractors’ profit margins don’t get out of control. “Full transparency throughout all tiers of the supply chain applies…

Rheinmetall and Hensoldt successfully integrated the Twinvis radar into a modern air defence system. Photo: Hensoldt. Rheinmetall Air Defence and Hensoldt have succeeded in integrating the latter’s Twinvis passive radar into the former’s Skymaster command and weapon engagement system. The development was demonstrated during the German Air Force’s Timber Express 2026 exercise in Manching, where the combined system operated under realistic Nato networking conditions and controlled the Skynex Air Defence battery. Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more In a joint statement, the companies…

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Army Cyber Command is training AI agents in various “work roles” to serve alongside humans to operate at machine speed, according to its commander. “Every agent we create is trained in a work role inside the cyber force,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Eubank, commander of ARCYBER, said on Tuesday at the TechNet Augusta conference. “We’ve created developers, data engineers, host analysts, exploitation analysts. You name the work role, we’re creating those. And then we’re training them to the same standard that humans get trained to. So agents have a work role; they’re JQR [Job Qualification Readiness-approved]. They get…