Author: Defenceline Webdesk

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming economies around the world, but much of the discussion about it focuses on software, algorithms, computing power, regulation, and talent. While these factors are important, they overlook the one major precondition upon which everything else depends: a reliable supply of electricity. Every AI application ultimately runs inside an AI data center and requires industrial land, electrical substations, cooling systems, fiber-optic connectivity, backup power, and, depending on the cooling technology employed, significant quantities of water. Without this infrastructure and the energy to power it, even the most advanced AI software, algorithms, and talent cannot be deployed…

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MELBOURNE — The Pentagon’s top policy official said today that the US is happy with ongoing progress on the AUKUS trilateral partnership, with Australia especially moving forward with “energy and focus” on the program.  Speaking at a virtual media briefing during his visit to Southeast Asia, Elbridge Colby also stressed that the US would like to see “middle powers,” such as Japan, continue efforts to indigenize their local defense industries and sharply warned against efforts by some countries to band together to exclude the US.  Colby’s visit to the region began in the Philippines on Aug. 10 and will also…

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DETROIT — The commander of the first brigade to receive the Army’s new M1E3 Abrams tank and XM30 Infantry Fighting Vehicle told Breaking Defense this week what features on the new systems he’s looking forward to the most ahead of their arrival.  “I can simply say that we are extremely excited about getting the M1E3 and the XM30 for soldiers,” Col. Todd Hertling, commander of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, nicknamed Iron Horse, told Breaking Defense in an interview Tuesday here at the GVSETS conference. “Iron Horse will be involved in the rolling out of the…

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WARSAW — ORP Wicher, the first of three multi-role frigates planned under the Polish Navy‘s Miecznik modernization program, was officially launched into the waters of Gdansk Bay off the Baltic Sea on Thursday.  A christening ceremony for the vessel was attended by senior Polish officials, including President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Nawrocki noted that the launch of the Miecznik program in 2021 has been crucial for Poland’s domestic shipbuilding industry. “With well-calibrated public finances and a strong Polish budget, we managed to create a project that sets a benchmark for the coming years and decades,” Nawrocki said. …

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Private cyber firms will be allowed to take action against foreign threats under a new White House policy, another step into a future where tech developers are ever more closely entwined with military operations, which now evolve faster than governments can keep up.Under the policy, announced Wednesday, the U.S. government will pay private cybersecurity companies to “manipulate,” “degrade,” “disrupt,” and “destroy” foreign adversary computer networks. The U.S. government historically reserves the right to take those sorts of actions, although they increasingly do so with help from front-line private workers. The companies will undergo vetting, be supervised by the departments of Justice…

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