Author: Defenceline Webdesk

WASHINGTON — The Army has selected Lockheed Martin and a Boeing-Anduril team to move onto the second phase of the service’s second Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 interceptor prototype program, a service spokesperson told Breaking Defense today, knocking a US-subsidary of Israeli company Rafael out of the competition.  The companies have been “selected to advance to the demonstration phase of the development effort. Additional information regarding the competitive effort will be released when appropriate,” the Army spokesperson said in a statement.  The Army’s IFPC Increment 2 program is designed to fill the capability gap between short-range air defense…

In August, government investigators subjected roughly 50 military officers and civilian employees on the Joint Staff to polygraph tests as part of an inquiry into press leaks about the Iran war and depleted U.S. munitions, according to The New York Times. The newspaper described the scope of the investigation as unprecedented in the modern military.This is not the first time the Trump administration has used polygraphs in this way; in 2025, it directed that a wave of tests be administered across the executive branch to expose minor leaks.As someone who has taken roughly a dozen polygraphs during my 27-year career with the CIA, I am wary of…

Southeast Asia’s familiar predicament – being asked to choose between Washington and Beijing – is acquiring an artificial intelligence dimension. In August, Reuters reported that a draft U.S. State Department letter warned partners against combining participation in Pax Silica, the U.S.-led technology initiative, with competing arrangements. The letter didn’t include specific names, but the obvious inference was that Washington was trying to discourage participation in China’s World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The draft was undated, and Reuters could not establish if it would be sent or whether it would change. Even so, its political ambition was clear: Washington wanted…

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced Wednesday it has picked Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indiana to host a next-gen nuclear reactor — a decision, one top official told reporters, that was primarily driven by a need meet President Donald Trump’s ambitious deadline to deploy a first reactor on a military base “no later than September 30, 2028.” “Time had priority for us….looking at site selection,” Michael Dodd, assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “The site selection was less about, ‘are we going to connect it to an AI data center or a DE [directed…

Saida Mirziyoyeva has another new job. By presidential decree – that is, by order of her own father, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, whose administration she heads – Mirziyoyeva has been appointed manager of the Tashkent International Financial Center (TIFC).  The TIFC was proposed in a March 2026 presidential decree as part of an effort to bring in long-term foreign direct investment. The financial center aims to attract investors in a range of industries from banking, investment, and insurance services to digital assets, Islamic finance, and green tech, in addition to professional services like auditing, legal counsel, and fintech.  Signed into law…

WASHINGTON — Drone maker General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) formally revealed today its offering to replace the firm’s hunter-killer MQ-9A Reaper with a clean-sheet design the company claims can be rapidly produced and exceed the Pentagon’s targets. General Atomics says the new drone, dubbed Wildfire, can take on missions traditionally fulfilled by the Reaper like long-endurance reconnaissance and strike. Outside of conflict, the company is pitching the aircraft for civil roles and asserts the unmanned system’s relatively greater payload combined with “stronger hardpoints” permits “new options” for tasks like shuttling commercial cargo. “This is exactly the right design for high-demand…

The September 6 state election in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, resulted in a decisive victory for Alternative for Germany (AfD), which secured nearly 44 percent of the vote. It marked a stunning rise for the party, which is widely considered to belong to the far-right of the political spectrum. While the AfD’s performance is fundamentally a domestic political development driven by local grievances, energy costs, and other factors, this outcome offers an important, often overlooked perspective on the economic policy dialogue between the EU and China.  The rapid ascent of Chinese firms in key sectors like automotive and chemicals has accelerated pressure…

WASHINGTON — If Congress does not pass the full $350 billion reconciliation funding requested by the Pentagon, the department is prepared to work with lawmakers to figure out how to shuffle key priorities into the base budget, the department’s comptroller Jules Hurst told Breaking Defense today. That plan, though, means the department would need to work with appropriators to cut investment in other places or defer them until 2028. “If we really want to fund those things, then we have an opportunity to go back to the appropriators before they finalize the bill, at least I think we will…. it’s…

When the trial of the former head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev, ended in July the judge delivered what appeared to be a damning verdict followed by an absurdist reprieve.  Tashiev – alongside former Speaker of the Zhogorku Kenesh Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu, former Member of Parliament Kurmankul Zulushev, and five others – was found guilty of a coup attempt under Article 326 (“Violent seizure or retention of power, as well as an attempt to violently change the constitutional order”) of the Kyrgyz criminal code and acquitted of abuse of office charges. Tashiev and the rest were…

JERSUALEM — The Israel Defense Forces are creating a new branch, focused unmanned systems and artificial intelligence, according to Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. “The battlefield is changing at a dizzying pace, and we are changing with it,” Zamir said Wednesday at a graduation ceremony of the IDF’s 153rd Naval Officers Course. “We understand that the future includes unmanned systems, robotics, drones, and the extensive use of artificial intelligence.” To that end, he said, Israel has “finalized the establishment of a new branch of the IDF — a historic development: the Unmanned Systems and Artificial Intelligence…