We need an updated zodiac for the US, because it’s clearly the Year of the Drone. On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed some big changes to the FAA rules around domestic UAV flights—especially out-of-sight ones. The long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) authorizes Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights, where the operator cannot […]
The budget drama on the Hill continues. Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its $852.5B defense spending bill for FY26, providing a $21.7 billion (2.6%) boost in spending over Trump’s budget, plus a big ol’ “hell no” to some of the President’s policy priorities. Among the starkest differences between the Senate’s appropriations bill and the administration’s […]
As you may have heard, the EU and US have struck a trade deal—sort of. In case you missed it, in Scotland earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Trump announced a trade agreement reshaping the $2T transatlantic trade relationship, including a blanket 15% tariff on all European goods imported […]
In case you missed it, on Friday, SecDef Pete Hegseth met with his Baltic counterparts at the Pentagon, where the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian defense leaders committed to spending 5% of GDP on defense by next year. Yes, next year, as in 2026. Impressive, especially when you consider the rest of NATO isn’t on track […]
In case you missed it, on Wednesday, President Donald Trump unveiled his “AI Action Plan” to slash red tape for AI development, promote the export of American AI, and counter “ideological bias” in artificial intelligence. Plus, there’s all that fun countering China stuff. The plan is wide-ranging, but the 28-page document (paired with all of […]
Between Iron Dome and Golden Dome headlines, debates over the E-7 Wedgetail AEW&C and space-based ISR, and calls to send more Patriots to Ukraine, air and missile defense (AMD) is the talk of the town. But despite all this talk, US AMD is still pretty crap for a few key reasons: We still rely on […]
Shortly after the House released the Chairman’s Mark for the FY26 NDAA last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) passed their own vision for next year’s defense budget on Friday. While there were some notable differences (we’ll get to that), the two chambers are clearly focused on spurring innovation, largely through their two competing […]
Drones are having a moment. Last Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a memo that the Pentagon would be making some big changes to the way it buys, uses, and trains with drones. In true showman fashion, he announced the changes in a viral video set to Metallica’s Enter Sandman, posted on X with a […]
Most people wouldn’t get too excited about the release of a thousand-page bill draft. But for the defense tech world, there’s a lot to smile about in the Chairman’s Mark of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). For those lucky enough not to spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill: The Chairman’s Mark […]
In case you haven’t read the news lately, President Trump has faced a bit of an uphill battle securing peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza. But he has had success in an unlikely place: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Last week, Rwanda and the Congo—bad history there, we’ll get into that—signed a deal under […]
