No longer ‘experimental’: Navy to deploy drone boats this year, official says
A Navy official said he expects by 2045 for nearly half of all naval surface vessels to be unmanned.
DARPA
DARPA backs Diffraqtion to demo ‘quantum camera’ for space, Earth surveillance
Only recently emerging from stealth, the MIT-UMD spinout is planning constellations of small, low-cost ISR satellites for multiple military missions.
DARPA seeks universal translator between different kinds of quantum computer
With rival tech giants building different kinds of “quantum bits,” from superconductors to photonics to trapped ions, DARPA program manager Justin Cohen worries no one approach will work for every purpose — so he wants to find a way to make them work t…
Small but mighty: DARPA’s new Lift competition wants drones to carry much, much more
A drone capable of carrying four times its own weight “can actualize the dreams that a lot of people have of using drones in both the military and civilian sectors,” DARPA Program Manager Phillip Smith told Breaking Defense.
AI for ATO: Pentagon seeks AI to streamline cumbersome cybersecurity processes
“Like Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, we should be trying to put AI on anything that you can,” said David McKeown, a senior cybersecurity official.
Buttercup: Open-source AI-driven system detects and patches vulnerabilities
Buttercup is a free, automated, AI-powered platform that finds and fixes vulnerabilities in open-source software. Developed by Trail of Bits, it recently earned second place in DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC). Main components Buttercup is made up of…
How the Pentagon plays into Trump’s sprawling artificial intelligence ‘Action Plan’
America’s AI Action Plan features 19 recommendations that involve the DoD, including the creation of a “virtual proving ground.”
DARPA picks Bell Textron to build runway-independent X-Plane
Bell will now proceed in DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, which has eliminated Aurora Flight Sciences from the running.
DARPA adds 18 companies to spooky science Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
“The number of companies that we’re announcing is a surprise to me,” program manager Joe Altepeter told Breaking Defense. “I did not expect we would get this many.”
‘No smoke and mirrors’ with Boeing’s NGAD win, executive says
“We’ve been flying a prototype for quite some time,” said Steve Parker, Boeing’s interim defense unit CEO. “And we won the program. So that is a maturity stamp that I’ll give you right then and there.”