DefenseScoop | Breaking US Military Tech News, Modern Defense News

Artist’s rendering of Lockheed Martin’s HELIOS system. (Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin)

Navy brass sees future battleship as catalyst to scale next-gen laser weaponry

The U.S. military’s urgent need to counter cheap adversarial drones in multiple regions has heightened calls for directed energy weapons.

By Brandi Vincent

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Brian Kimani, a Kenya native, and a crew chief with Alpha Company, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, launches a RQ-20B Puma unmanned aircraft system during a gunnery qualification range on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Jan. 23, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Preston Morris).

Marine Corps looking into new medium-range tactical drone as it pushes small UAS capabilities

Tech

By Drew F. Lawrence

Lt. Elliot Reed, right, assigned to Air Department aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), signals to a Carrier Air Wing 8 F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 87, as it launches from the flight deck, July 14, 2025. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tajh Payne)

How real-world ops are informing Naval Information Forces’ modernization pursuits

Tech

By Brandi Vincent

Featured on DefenseScoop

Pentagon looking to scale AI-infused enterprise task management platform to more than 150K users

By Jon Harper
SOCOM looking for vendors to boost cruise missile capabilities

By Mikayla Easley
Pentagon could award just 3 vendors for biggest phase of Drone Dominance Program

By Jon Harper
Navy hustling to modernize hundreds of legacy IT systems via Cattle Drive

By Brandi Vincent
Pentagon taps 6 vendors for accelerated hypersonics R&D

By Mikayla Easley

Popular Stories

YFQ-42 aircraft sit on the flightline at a California test location as part of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft flight test campaign. (Courtesy Air Force photo)

Air Force begins testing mission autonomy package for CCA prototypes

General Atomics and Anduril are working with Collins Aerospace and Shield AI, respectively, to integrate mission autonomy software onto their CCA prototypes and conduct semi-autonomous flights.

By Mikayla Easley

Texas National Guardsmen look for illegal activity in Brownsville, Texas, September 3, 2025. Guardsmen work alongside the United States Border Patrol to deter illegal activity and enforce U.S. immigration law. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Derek Gutierrez)

Customs and Border Protection personnel — not U.S. troops — used military laser to shoot object near El Paso

Joint Task Force - Southern Border trained CBP personnel on the equipment who used it during the incursion.

By Drew F. Lawrence

Rendering of imaging satellites (Credit: HEO)

NRO awards first 3 vendors to new commercial imagery contract vehicle

The new deals will purchase non-Earth imagery from HEO, medium-wave infrared imagery from SatVu, and radio-frequency sensing capabilities from Sierra Nevada.

By Mikayla Easley

PACIFIC OCEAN (June 22, 2022) The large unmanned surface vessel Nomad, front, medium displacement unmanned vessel Sea Hunter, right, and large unmanned surface vessel Ranger transit the Pacific Ocean to participate in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tyler R. Fraser)

Navy exploring options to solve its ‘unmanned dilemma’

The service’s new warfighting directions rely heavily on the integration of surface, undersea, and aerial drone swarms across the fleet.

By Brandi Vincent

Navy CNO is ‘all ahead flank’ on AI

By Brandi Vincent

Marine Corps brings General Atomics into CCA program for autonomy development

By Mikayla Easley

The Marine Corps passed its third audit and is testing how AI, automation can make the process easier

By Drew F. Lawrence

CIA, SOCOM gearing up for rapid capability assessment with an eye toward ‘field-forward’ ops

By Jon Harper

Military warns EOD techs against uploading ‘highly sensitive’ bomb disposal data into generative AI systems

By Drew F. Lawrence

Insights

Building a future-ready federal workforce

By Scoop News Group

Rebuilding the digital bedrock of government

By Scoop News Group

Too much data, too few analysts: How AI offers a ‘force multiplier’ for intelligence analysts

By Scoop News Group

(Getty Images)

From data silos to strategic insights: The interoperability imperative for defense analytics

By Scoop News Group

Videos

Varonis’ AJ Forysiak on aligning data strategy with operational efficiency

By Scoop News Group

Splunk’s Mick Baccio talks real-time visibility for defense preparedness

By Scoop News Group

Rubrik’s Travis Rosiek on why rapid recovery matters in cyber defense

By Scoop News Group

Broadcom’s Mike Krafft on the role of hybrid cloud in defense readiness

By Scoop News Group

Podcasts

Brandon Tseng: The Autonomous Future of Defense

Why AI and cloud are the next frontier for federal network automation

By Scoop News Group

Margaret Mullins: Debunking the myths of the Pentagon’s ‘Last Supper’

By DefenseScoop Staff

Steve Blank: The Playbook for Defense Innovation, from the Classroom to the War Room

By Billy Mitchell

The Latest

A U.S. Marine with III Marine Expeditionary Force familiarizes himself with maneuvering drones during the Marine Corps Attack Drone Competition on Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan, Dec. 7, 2025. During a two-week period, the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team trained and certified 3rd Marine Division Marines as attack drone operators, attack drone instructor, and payload specialist instructors, increasing the Division’s lethality and capacity of trained and certified attack drone operators and instructors. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joaquin Dela Torre)

Marine Corps seeks troops with small drone and AI expertise for warfighting lab fellowship

A pair of Ray-Ban Meta 2nd generation smart glasses is seen on display during the Meta Connect Developer Conference at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California on September 27, 2023. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Air Force bans Meta AI glasses over OPSEC concerns, while other services’ policies vary

Fort Hood’s Bernie Beck gate during sun rise Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Killeen. ( Nick de la Torre / Chronicle ) (Photo by Nick de la Torre/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

Army looks to lease out land on 4 military installations for new commercial data centers

Sailors, attached to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 2, deploy an MK18 Mod 1 Swordfish unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) during UNITAS LXV, September 5, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Hunter S. Harwell)

Navy eyes extended subsea network to link up its arsenal of manned and unmanned assets for DMO

An Operator assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) peers down a hallway scanning for hostile targets in Las Vegas June 2, 2023 . The training was conducted to allow Green berets to hone their ability to adapt to adverse conditions in unfamiliar terrain. (U.S. Army Photo by SPC. Steven Alger)

SOCOM exploring how AI can make it easier to survey key overseas facilities

A Standard Missile-3 Block IIA is fired from a Vertical Launching System on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam as part of Flight Experiment Mission-02, on December 10, 2024. (courtesy photo/released)

DIU looks to prototype affordable fire-control sensors for enhanced missile defense

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Henry David Volpe, an automotive maintenance technician with 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Combat Readiness Regiment, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, poses for a photo with the HANX drone he designed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Jan. 23, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Alfonso Livrieri)

Marine awarded for designing the Corps’ first fully NDAA-compliant 3D-printed drone at $700 a pop

An F-35C Lightning II, attached to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, prepares to make an arrested landing on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) on Jan. 24, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Cesar Zavala)

F-35C pilot downs Iranian drone to defend USS Abraham Lincoln, Centcom says

A Neros Archer first-person view drone takes off from the ground during a service level training exercise at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, Jan. 27, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Keegan Jones)

Pentagon names 25 vendors to compete for $150M in delivery orders during first phase of its Drone Dominance Program, ‘the Gauntlet’

The Pentagon (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Marisol Walker)

CDAO invests in AI-enabled translation for military-wide use

A member of the Rhode Island Army National Guard reviews a Soldier’s enlisted record brief (ERB) during a centralized promotion board, Feb. 12, 2025, Camp Fogarty, Rhode Island. Conducted without in-person candidates, the board relies heavily on accurate and well-written NCOERs (noncommissioned officer evaluation report) to fairly evaluate and score each promotion file. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Terry Rajsombath)

Meet VECTOR: An unofficial soldier-made AI tool the Army suspended pending a ‘compliance review’

An Extended Range Attack Munition live-fire test was conducted Jan. 22, 2025 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. (Air Force photo)

Air Force conducts live test of low-cost cruise missile developed for Ukraine

A poster at the Pentagon, Dec. 12, 2025, lets employees know that a new artificial intelligence tool is available to use at the War Department, and that employees are highly encouraged to use it. (Credit: C. Todd Lopez, DOW)

5 out of 6 military branches have elevated GenAI.mil as their go-to enterprise AI platform

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