Defense News
The Space Force has finalized a plan for harnessing commercial satellite capabilities in times of crisis through a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve. That strategy, approved this month by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, outlines a framework for how the Space Force will scale up its use of commercial capabilities including satellite imagery and communications during a conflict to augment military systems.
DefenseScoop
The Department of Defense is expected to brief Congress in January on progress made toward achieving so-called zero trust, according to a senior official. Zero trust is a cybersecurity concept and framework that assumes networks are already compromised and require constant monitoring and authentication to protect critical information.
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Stars and Stripes
The Air Force’s technology-testing detachment in the Middle East has begun flying inexpensive 3D-printed drones, which are being produced as similar systems have become relied on by Russian forces in Ukraine. Task Force 99, based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, has made the Kestrel aerial system part of the Pentagon’s push to put thousands of drones in its inventory within two years.
POLITICO
The U.S. has launched a new effort to quickly find more precision weapons and artillery shells to rush to Israel as the Middle Eastern country conducts hundreds of strikes a day against Hamas targets in Gaza. A newly formed team inside the Pentagon has been tasked with scouring U.S. stockpiles, searching for ammunition to resupply Israel as it fires off munitions at a frantic pace, according to three people familiar with the effort.
The Associated Press
Declaring that U.S. leadership “holds the world together,” President Joe Biden told Americans on Oct. 19 the country must deepen its support of Ukraine and Israel in the middle of two vastly different, unpredictable and bloody wars. Acknowledging that “these conflicts can seem far away,” Biden insisted in a rare Oval Office address that they remain “vital for America’s national security” as he prepared to ask Congress for billions of dollars in military assistance for both countries.
Defense One
A prototype microchip design revealed today by IBM could pave the way for a world of much smarter devices that don’t rely on the cloud or the internet for their intelligence. That could help soldiers who operate drones, ground robots, or augmented-reality gear against adversaries who can target electronic emissions. But the new chip—modeled loosely on the human brain—also paves the way for a different sort of AI, one that doesn’t rely on big cloud and data companies like Amazon or Google.
Breaking Defense
The Space Force’s primary acquisition command hopes to kick-start a strategic dialogue with allies on how to create a more resilient, collective supply chain at a first-of-its kind meeting next week, according to a senior Space Systems Command (SSC) official. The SSC “international reverse industry days” will be held in Chantilly, Va., at the offices of The Aerospace Corporation on Oct. 25 and 26, and will involve representatives of eight allied governments and industries from those countries, Deanna Ryals, SSC director of international affairs, told Breaking Defense.
DefenseScoop
China’s military perceives shortcomings in its ability to operate within a potentially complex electromagnetic spectrum environment, among other deficiencies in its overall combined arms capacity, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
One More Thing
The War Zone
The War Zone and our partners at Blipshift.com are ecstatic to offer our long-in-the-works ‘Stealthier Things’ t-shirt and support one of the best causes in the process—putting much-needed light into the lives of Gold Star Families. These are military families that lost a loved one in the line of duty. … ‘Stealthier Things’ is a play on streaming's most popular ‘spooky’ show while showcasing America’s most iconic stealth aircraft, many of which were also born from secret labs and developed into a mature state within the ‘upside down’ realm of deep classification.
