Mikayla Easley

Mikayla Easley reports on the Pentagon’s acquisition and use of emerging technologies. Prior to joining DefenseScoop, she covered national security and the defense industry for National Defense Magazine. She received a BA in Russian language and literature from the University of Michigan and a MA in journalism from the University of Missouri. You can follow her on Twitter @MikaylaEasley

Articles by Author

Airmen with the 752nd Operations Support Squadron setup the Tactical Operations Center – Light it during exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025, July 25, 2025. The multi-week exercise, involving more than 12,000 U.S. and coalition personnel and approximately 300 aircraft operating across 50 locations and 3,000 miles in the Indo-Pacific, tested the Air Force’s joint and allied partners ability to rapidly deploy to a dynamic, contested environment. (Courtesy Photo)

Air Force tests logistics of next-gen C2 during huge REFORPAC exercise

Emerging Tech

(Getty Images)

DISA awards nearly $1B deal to Hewlett Packard Enterprise for data center modernization

IT

(Image credit: Lockheed Martin)

Space Force set to release solicitation for prototypes of space-based interceptors

Space

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., May 20, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Chad Trujillo)

Space Force reworking test, validation requirements to meet acquisition reform goals

Space

Heven AeroTech’s Z1 drone (Credit: Heven AeroTech)

DIU approves hydrogen-powered drone for Blue UAS list

Emerging Tech

An F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 87 lands on the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), after an in-flight change of command in which Cmdr. Brandon Rogers relieved Cmdr. John Schnepper, Nov. 5, 2025. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tajh Payne)

Navy awards deal for holistic cyber supply chain monitoring of airborne systems

Cyber

Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y. are advancing quantum technologies from the individual quantum bit or qubit, level to the system level, where different qubit types must interface for future capabilities for the US Air Force. (Photo by Albert Santacroce)

Pentagon pares down list of critical emerging technology areas

Emerging Tech

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy A. George join “Fox and Friends” to discuss the new Department of Defense memorandum on Army transformation and acquisition reform, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., May 1, 2025. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)

Army introduces sweeping reform of its acquisition structure

Emerging Tech

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 62nd Aircraft Maintenance Unit and the 310th Fighter Squadron participate in the annual weapons load competition, Feb. 7, 2025, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. The load competition featured the loading of an AIM-120 AMRAAM, an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, and a GBU-12 with a time standard of 20 minutes. Exercises like the weapons load competition advance training by producing command focused Airmen able to meet warfighting requirements. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Katelynn Jackson)

Air Force puts out call to industry for new counter-air missiles

Weapons