But instead of a service member resting a finger on the trigger well in preparation for the next shot, in video footage of the Bullfrog weapons system, a hulking, metal machine tilts the weapon just slightly, refocusing itself.

As the U.S. contends with steep expenses to counter cheap drones, Allen Control Systems, or ACS, announced Monday that the Marine Corps has chosen the Bullfrog autonomous weapon system to integrate into its airborne defenses.

The futuristic apparatus is an AI-enabled weapon system that detects, tracks and then automatically aims firearms against aerial threats like drones. That Marine Corps selected the system under its Ground Based Air Defense, or GBAD, program, which develops and fields capabilities to protect forces from airborne attacks.

The service plans to incorporate the Bullfrog into its Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), a counter-unmanned aircraft system mounted on two vehicles that relies heavily on electronic warfare.

The system is already in use in the Army and Navy and has been approved by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s unit established to streamline the acquisition of counter-drone technology.

The Defense Department’s focus on countering drones comes as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the increasingly important role of cheap drones on the modern battlefield. The Pentagon has placed a growing emphasis on developing and fielding counter-drone technology that is more scalable and less pricey.

Their prevalence has exposed the economic imbalance of U.S. air defense, as small, relatively inexpensive drones have forced the country to expend expensive interceptor missiles that can cost millions of dollars to make.

The challenge has become especially pronounced during the U.S. war with Iran, where American forces have relied heavily on costly defenses to counter Iran’s Shahed drones, which can cost around $35,000 compared to around $4 million for some interceptors. Experts have warned that the cost of a prolonged war may drastically deplete U.S. interceptor stores.

An ACS press release on the Marine Corps deal linked to the Bullfrog M240, which is compatible with the U.S. military’s belt-fed, fully automatic M240 machine gun. According to the company, the M240 system has a maximum effective range of nearly half a mile and can attack medium and large drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds. Without ammunition, the system weighs 300 pounds.

According to the company, which also has variants that support the M2 machine gun and M320 chain gun, the M240 system has “a cost-per-kill as low as $10.”

Other defense firms are also working to procure more affordable counter-UAS defenses. This week, Lockheed Martin announced a cheaper Patriot interceptor missile that they say will have a price tag of less than half of what other multimillion-dollar interceptors cost.

The New Mexico-based firm this week pulled the curtain back on Buckler, an interceptor designed to kill Group 3 drones — UAS weighing up to 1,320 pounds and flying below 18,000 feet at under 250 knots — for a cost of under $100,000 per unit.

Buckler is designed to knock out UAS at supersonic speeds, according to a company release, and is assembled with an airframe and propulsion system manufactured entirely at X-Bow factories, thus eliminating a production bottleneck that has plagued myriad high-priced systems reliant on multi-company components. Axios first reported about the X-Bow Buckler.

The unveiling at London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow this week is the latest push by U.S. industry to solve an interceptor enigma that has become increasingly glaring as the nation’s war with Iran drags on.

U.S. troops in the military’s Central Command area of operations have continued to face the onerous task of leaning on exorbitantly priced interceptors to contend with Iran’s vastly cheaper, mass-produced Shahed attack drones.

The use of a single PAC-3 interceptor to knock one Shahed-136 out of the sky comes with a $4 million to $35,000 tradeoff, or a 114-1 cost-per-kill ratio.

“You can’t win a war of attrition trading million-dollar interceptors against thousand-dollar threats,” X-Bow founder and chief executive officer Jason Hundley said in a release. “Buckler has flown, it comes in under $100,000, and we build its airframe and propulsion ourselves — the part of the industrial base that is so stressed by today’s munitions demands. This is our answer to the call from the U.S. and its allies: affordable capability, at scale.”

X-Bow’s announcement comes after the firm’s recent test of the Buckler munition — one that derives its name, as TWZ noted, from a Medieval era shield — that demonstrated its propulsion and flight performance, the company announced.

Following a similar theme at Farnborough, Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced what it hopes will be another low cost per kill solution to the ever-evolving unmanned threat.

The defense giant this week introduced the Morfius X-Rotor, a ground-launched “one-to-many” airborne high power microwave counter-UAS system the company says can “neutralize more than 50 enemy drones in a single flight.”

Morfius is built, most notably, to be recovered and reused.

Lockheed also introduced a cheaper Patriot interceptor.

That calculus has changed. Adversaries have invested in the capabilities needed to interdict supply lines — long-range fires, drones, electronic warfare, anti-ship weapons, proxy networks that can reach ports, rail corridors, and staging areas far from any front. The vulnerability of the logistics infrastructure that sustains combat power is no longer an abstract concern, it is the operational problem of this moment, and it is not unique to the Middle East. The supply chain as battlespace is the defining characteristic of modern conflict.

These same adversary investments are driving sustained, high-tempo combat operations that can burn through critical munitions inventories — precision strike missiles, air defense interceptors, long-range fires — at rates that take years to replenish. What once looked like an abstract readiness concern is now headline news. In this environment, knowing precisely where every asset is, protecting it with optimized precision, and integrating that picture into combat planning isn’t a modernization initiative, it’s a necessity. We have the technology for that comprehensive, near real-time common operating picture (COP), we just need to link it.

The technology is here

Episodic tracking — the military’s primary in-transit visibility approach for 30 years — was built for a different operational environment. It tells you when cargo passes a fixed reader but, in a contested environment that’s not visibility, it’s a guess.

Mesh networking changes the equation entirely. Battery-powered tags form ad hoc networks, relaying location and condition data through mobile gateways to satellite uplinks, delivering near real-time asset visibility across any mode of transportation without fixed infrastructure. The architecture is hardened for contested environments: tags can suppress their own emissions when the threat environment demands it and come back online automatically based on location; communications are encrypted; the network uses frequency hopping to resist targeting. It works in the field, across truck, rail, and sea, at scale.

Once materiel is deployed, AI-enabled platforms can now fuse asset locations, threat data, terrain, unit capabilities, and route status into a single real-time operating picture — and model the consequences of protection decisions before forces are committed. Optimization engines evaluate and analyze the full picture to recommend courses of action. Auto-tasking allocates units as conditions change. What once required significant, manual staff effort across disconnected systems can now be accomplished in a unified interface, fast enough to match the pace of combat. This capability, too, is proven and operational.

A COP across the lifecycle

Taken separately, each capability is valuable. Taken together, they represent something the joint force has never had: a COP that ties where a resource is to what the force can do with it. A COP that follows every resource — equipment, ammunition, fuel, sustainment — from depot to forward position, continuously informing protection requirements and enabling smarter combat decisions as the picture evolves.

Consider what that means in practice. A commander knows not just that a critical shipment departed a depot — but precisely where it is, in near real time, as it moves through rail yards, ports, and contested sea lanes. When the threat picture shifts, the protection platform immediately recalculates coverage, recommends reallocation and flags gaps. When assets reach a forward position, the same data that tracked them in transit feeds directly into combat planning. Inventory is not an estimate, it is a fact, integrated into every decision downstream.

That integration matters most when inventories are under pressure. Modern conflicts are consuming critical munitions inventories faster than they can be replenished, eliminating the margin for waste — misrouted shipments, unprotected convoys, planning based on stale inventory data — disappears. A COP does more than improve efficiency. It prevents the compounding losses that turn a supply shortfall into a capability gap.

This is a different theory of how logistics and operations relate to each other. The traditional model treats supply chain management and combat planning as sequential — logistics delivers, operations consume. The integrated model treats them as continuous and interdependent. The COP does not end at the depot gate or the port of embarkation. It persists through the entire lifecycle of a resource, from production to employment, updating in real time and driving decisions at every echelon.

Commanders who can continuously see their assets can redirect them before disruptions become crises. Protection cells who can see the full logistics picture — not just unit positions but the routes, schedules, and vulnerabilities of the supply chain itself — can defend it proactively rather than reactively. And planners who can query actual inventory rather than projected inventory can design operations around ground truth, not assumptions that dissolve on contact.

We get to choose

The threat environment that made this architecture necessary is no longer theoretical. From the Strait of Hormuz to the U.S. Pacific Command, adversaries are investing in the precise capabilities designed to disrupt sustainment, fracture visibility, and exploit delay between detection and decision.

The technology to close those gaps already exists, and the operational need is visible. What remains is the decision to connect these systems deliberately, under a unified architecture with the processes and authorities to move at the speed the threat demands.

Robert Yon is LMI’s SVP, Sensor Mesh. Yon leverages his experience as a former USMC officer to identify technology solutions for the military’s greatest challenges, with an emphasis on addressing logistics. As SVP, Sensor Mesh, he leads the implementation of LMI’s SPECTR asset visibility tool, and oversaw its recent successful deployment during USTRANSCOM’s Turbo Fusion exercise.

The new rules mean defense contractors will have to do much more than simply show that a Chinese supplier is the easiest or cheapest option.

Companies seeking a waiver will need to prove they searched for alternatives, explain where their materials come from and lay out a plan to move away from prohibited suppliers. Contractors will face the loss of contracts if they don’t prove they are doing enough to source domestically.

“No more: ‘we tried nothing and we’re out of options’,” White House adviser Peter Navarro told reporters during a briefing before the executive order was released.

The order comes as the Pentagon pushes defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing to rapidly expand weapons production while facing persistent vulnerabilities in the supply chains that feed the U.S. military.

Many critical minerals and processed materials used in missiles, aircraft and other advanced systems still rely on Chinese suppliers, leaving companies caught between demands to move away from Beijing and the need to keep weapons flowing to U.S. forces and allies.

Beyond tightening waiver requirements, the executive order directs the Pentagon to come up with rules that require contractors to map critical defense supply chains from raw materials through finished military products.

Companies will be required to identify the origins of minerals, components, software and other inputs used in designated weapons systems, extending government visibility beyond prime contractors to lower-tier suppliers.

“This is not paperwork. It is battlefield preparation,” Navarro said, arguing the Pentagon needs to know whether missile systems or other military platforms depend on foreign-controlled suppliers before a conflict begins.

The order also requires contractors to assess suppliers for foreign ownership, financial vulnerability and manufacturing risks, and to replace suppliers deemed unreliable.

The Space Force identified the airman Friday as 1st Class Cedric Eneluna, 23, a member of the 30th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Pavements and Equipment Flight.

No other personnel were injured in the incident, according to a Space Force release. A Safety Board Investigation was launched, and details will not be released until the completion of the investigation.

The Santa Barbara Coroner’s office had not determined the official cause of death as of Friday.

Eneluna joined the military in 2024, and he arrived to his first duty assignment at Vandenberg in August of that year, the release reads.

“Eneluna served with professionalism, humility, and an unwavering commitment to his teammates and the mission,” the release says. “During his assignment at Vandenberg, he earned the respect and admiration of those around him through his positive attitude, tireless work ethic, and willingness to help others.”

Eneluna spent his childhood in the Philippines and referred to Fayetteville, North Carolina, as his hometown.

The 30th Pavements and Equipment Flight unit are known as the “Dirt Boyz” and are tasked with maintaining the base’s roads, airfield and infrastructure in support of the base’s launch, test and range operations.

The “Dirt Boyz” remember Eneluna as a positive influence who made everyone feel welcome, the release says, and he never hesitated to lend a helping hand.

“He brought out the best in everyone,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Seth Poulsen, 30th CES commander. “He was always ready to work, always willing to help, and always had a positive attitude. He truly represented what it means to be an Airman.”

The base will share details surrounding any upcoming memorial services or recognition on the Central Coast at a later date.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro observed the Chinese ship Xue Long as it transited through the U.S. exclusive economic zone and over the U.S. extended continental shelf in the Bering Sea toward the Arctic.

“Alongside the Department of War, the Department of State, and our international partners, we are actively responding to competitor activities across an increasingly contested Arctic,” said Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District.

The U.S. Coast Guard completed the surveillance in service of Operation Frontier Sentinel, which tracks U.S. adversaries in and around U.S. waters in order to protect U.S. national security interests.

It was the first time in 2026 that Chinese vessels were recorded transiting the area, the Coast Guard said.

The thawing of ice sparked by climate change has opened up opportunities to traverse previously inaccessible shipping lanes and extract rare earth minerals.

Nations that seek to conduct marine scientific research inside the U.S. EEZ and or in the U.S. extended continental shelf must request permission from the United States before doing so.

In Sept. 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to two Chinese research vessels that were operating in the Arctic.

As geopolitical tensions rise in the region, the U.S. is increasingly focused on instilling security in the Arctic, investing hefty capital and developing new military courses and initiatives to accomplish this goal.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Oct. 8, 2025, instructing the Department of Homeland Security to expand its fleet of Arctic Security Cutters to address the “growing threat” in the region.

In February, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded a contract to defense manufacturer Davie Defense, Inc., to build five cutters, bringing the total amount of cutters currently under contract to 11.

The contract, worth $3.5 billion, is scheduled to deliver the first cutter in 2028.

The Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps are also following suit.

The Alaskan-based 673d Security Forces Squadron rolled out a new five-day combat course that prepares airmen for long-term combat in the rigid environment.

And the U.S. Marine Corps introduced a new Alaska rotation to train service members for military operations in the extreme cold.

The agents are able to fly the F-16s in the Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model, or VENOM, program through the aircraft’s additional hardware, software and instrumentation installed, according to a release.

A F-16 Fighting Falcon equipped with the technology completed a sortie recently at the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for the 96th Test Wing, per the announcement.

The modified aircraft began flights in June to verify that the aircraft worked properly with all the technology involved. A month later, the unit began in-air-testing using an agent to autonomously control the flight.

The pilots, located in the cockpit during the flights, monitored the AI agents to ensure the flight and mission systems tests objectives were met, the release reads.

“Getting the aircraft into the air is always a monumental milestone for a complex test program,” Tim Stevens, a VENOM test pilot with the 40th Flight Test Squadron, said in the release.

“It represents years of design, modification and test planning poured into this project by a dedicated team of hundreds,” he continued.

VENOM, which is a joint effort between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and the Air Force was initiated under the Air Combat Evolution program. The aircraft in the program are meant to serve in the next phase of AI development in DARPA’s Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements program.

The aircraft underwent months of ground testing of its engines and systems to ensure the functionality of the technology, and also completed many simulation hours dating back to 2024, according to the release.

The 53rd Wing and 96th Test Wing joined together in the VENOM program, but the early tests have been conducted by developmental testers in the 40th Flight Test Squadron.

U.S. Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died July 17 and July 18, respectively, according to a Department of Defense release.

The active-duty soldiers were killed during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

Gonzales was stationed at Ansbach, Germany, assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command.

Feehan was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command.

The incident is currently under investigation, the release states.

On Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced that another U.S. service member is missing following the attack, while four troops, who have since been discharged, were medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan.

For the ninth consecutive night, the U.S. “hit [Iran] very hard again tonight,” President Donald Trump said on Sunday. The strikes, he said, were in honor of the soldiers who were killed.

“The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” a CENTCOM post from Sunday reads.

Trump said that “probably” three service members were killed in action, as opposed to two.

As of Monday morning, the Pentagon had not clarified whether a third service member was killed in action.

The command said in a social media post Sunday that U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location of the attack. CENTCOM said that an examination process to verify the remains is ongoing.

The deaths of Gonzales and Feehan bring the toll of American troops killed in the war with Iran to 16. More than 400 U.S. troops have been wounded in the campaign, which began Feb. 28.

Separately, on July 18, a U.S. service member was killed in action in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.

“A second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

CENTCOM had not yet provided additional information Monday, such as the identities of those service members killed or missing.

Trump started flying aboard the jumbo jet on July 1 after accepting the plane as a gift last year, when an accelerated effort to renovate the Boeing 747 for presidential use began.

But Trump unexpectedly ditched the plane on a flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom amid rising hostility with Iran on July 8. He flew aboard an older Air Force One to London in what he described as a move “for old time’s sake”, but later boarded the new plane to return to the U.S.

Trump was asked about whether the newly renovated airplane lacked missile-defense capabilities as he returned home from a trip to the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday.

“It has a lot of capability,” Trump said of the plane. “But as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re gonna send it to have it be maxed out ... It’ll take about a month.”

The U.S. Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new plane, with red, white, dark blue and gold livery chosen by Trump, was refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies.

It’s meant to serve as a temporary replacement as Boeing has struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes. Boeing is working to deliver two purpose-built 747-8s under a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract signed in 2018 that’s now four years behind schedule and over budget. Delivery of the new planes is expected in mid-2028.

The upgrades to the jet from Qatar were completed so quickly that some experts expressed concern that the plane may not be as secure as the baby blue Air Force One that preceded it. Critics also questioned the cost and propriety of accepting the gift.

The New York Times journalists who had reported on the security features of the new aircraft were subpoenaed earlier this month. The Times has asked a court to block those orders to appear before a grand jury panel in Manhattan federal court.

“I just broke down,” Richards said.

In a few minutes, she would wipe away the tears, drive back to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital where she worked as a nurse and finish caring for veterans.

At the time, she couldn’t explain why an ordinary Tuesday afternoon had become the moment everything surfaced. Looking back, she doesn’t think it was about that day at all.

Richards became a nurse because she wanted to care for veterans. She loved listening to stories about their coffee mugs no one dared wash because years of coffee had seasoned them just right. Albert, a Vietnam War veteran, actually got her to drink from his mug one morning after repeatedly assuring her the taste was like no other.

She listened to their sea stories, anecdotes about deployments, friendships and losses that still lingered decades after the uniforms came off.

More recently, the moments that stick in her memory look different.

She thinks about the veteran who apologized for asking again for pain medication that hadn’t arrived long after it should have. The patient left staring at the ceiling while a call light continued to flash. The conversation that ended before she wanted it to because another veteran couldn’t wait any longer.

None of those moments would make a government report. Taken together, Richards says, they have changed what it feels like to care for veterans inside the VA.

For many of the 9 million veterans enrolled in VA health care, those moments are largely invisible. Patients may notice a delayed medication, a longer wait for help or a hurried bedside conversation. What they don’t see are the decisions nurses say happen behind the scenes when there isn’t enough time to do everything they believe their patients need.

Richards’ experience is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent staffing challenges across the Veterans Health Administration.

In its fiscal 2025 workforce assessment, the VA Office of Inspector General found that all 139 VA medical centers reported at least one severe occupational staffing shortage. Nearly four in five facilities identified nursing among those shortages, and facilities collectively reported 4,434 severe occupational staffing shortages across clinical and nonclinical occupations, a 50% increase from the previous year.

VA hospitals are finding it harder to fill jobs, watchdog says

The report does not measure nurse vacancy rates. Instead, it asks each VA medical center to identify occupations where recruiting or retaining staff has become difficult enough to affect operations or patient care. While vacancy reports estimate open positions.

The Inspector General’s review measures where facilities say staffing shortages are severe enough to interfere with their mission.

A series of tradeoffs

Richards says the hardest part of working inside the VA isn’t the pace; it’s knowing that no matter how quickly she moves, there are moments when she cannot be everywhere veterans need her to be.

A medication is due in one room while another veteran presses the call light for help getting to the bathroom. A family member has questions about a discharge plan. Another patient needs wound care.

The work itself isn’t unusual. What changes, Richards says, is the constant calculation of what can wait.

“You prioritize the sickest patient first,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean everyone else stops needing you.”

Those are the moments she carries home.

“You replay your day,” Richards said. “You think about the things you couldn’t do, not because you didn’t want to, but because there wasn’t enough time.”

VA leader’s policies delaying care, destroying work force, report says

Richards is careful to separate those experiences from the quality of care veterans ultimately receive. She says nurses continue to work together, adjust priorities and step in for one another to make sure patients remain safe. But safety and the kind of care nurses aspire to provide are not always the same thing.

Moral distress

For decades, nursing ethicists have studied the consequences of caring for patients when clinicians believe they know the appropriate course of action but lack the time, staffing or resources to carry it out.

In 1984, philosopher and nursing scholar Andrew Jameton introduced the term moral distress to describe that experience. Since then, researchers have expanded the concept beyond individual ethical dilemmas to include the organizational conditions that repeatedly force clinicians to compromise the care they believe patients deserve.

Ann Hamric, leading moral distress researcher, has argued that the problem is not simply exposure to difficult situations. It arises when institutional constraints prevent clinicians from acting in accordance with their professional judgment.

Repeated over time, she and other researchers have found, those experiences can leave a lasting psychological burden, sometimes referred to as “moral residue.”

More recently, nursing ethicist Cynda Rushton has described moral distress as a signal that something within the care environment is preventing clinicians from practicing in ways that align with their professional and ethical commitments.

Rather than viewing it as an individual failing, her work frames it as evidence of tension between the demands of the health care system and the standards clinicians strive to uphold.

Richards had never heard the term when she began questioning whether she was providing veterans the care they deserved. But she immediately recognized the experience it describes.

Richards still thinks about sobbing in that Wendy’s drive-thru. She recalls wishing someone would notice and offer her some kind of relief.

At the time, she couldn’t explain why she had broken down in the middle of an ordinary lunch break. Now she can.

Hailey says there was no single shift that convinced her something had changed. It happened gradually, one decision at a time.

She began replaying her days after she got home, wondering whether she had missed something, whether she could have spent another five minutes with a veteran who seemed anxious or answered one more question before leaving the room.

“I love taking care of veterans,” Richards said. “That’s what makes it so hard to deal with being short staffed, we know our veterans deserve better.”

Such has been the case at London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow, where Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced what it hopes will be a low cost per kill solution to the ever-evolving unmanned threat.

The Morfius X-Rotor is a ground-launched “one-to-many” airborne high power microwave, or HPM, counter-UAS system the company says can “neutralize more than 50 enemy drones in a single flight.”

Built, notably, to be recovered and reused, the Morfius is capable of using any command and control system and does not rely on any unique sensor or fire control radars, the company announced.

Morfius “sets a new benchmark for counter-drone capability — delivering a high kill rate while keeping the cost per kill low,” Randy Crites, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Advanced Programs, said in a release. “By leveraging a lightweight, field reusable high-power microwave architecture, we provide the most effective, low-cost solution on the market today.”

The company announced it is accelerating prototype production of both the drone and its HPM payload in the interest of getting it into the hands of frontline troops.

The system was recently flight-tested in Arizona, California and Oklahoma, the company stated, where it also demonstrated interception and lethal capabilities. Additional tests are slated in the months ahead.

Monday’s announcement comes as the U.S. looks to reduce dependence on cost-prohibitive interceptors to defend against cheaper munitions, a juxtaposition that has come under increased scrutiny as U.S. forces have quickly expended interceptor stockpiles to combat Iranian missiles and Shahed drones.

Lockheed Martin on Monday also introduced a cheaper Patriot interceptor as a potential off ramp to the reliance on exorbitantly priced interceptors.

The PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector, or ACE, will cost less than half of what a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement, or MSE, interceptor costs, the defense firm said, and can be used with legacy equipment.

The announcement, which came during London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow, comes as the U.S. looks to reduce its dependence on expensive interceptors to combat mass-produced munitions, a juxtaposition that has come under increased scrutiny as American forces have blown through the country’s finite interceptor stockpile to combat Iran’s relatively inexpensive drones during Operation Epic Fury.

The PAC-3 interceptors cost an estimated $4 million, far more than the $35,000 typical price tag of an Iranian Shahed drone. Experts warn that the U.S.’ increased interceptor use has raised concerns about whether stockpiles can be replenished quickly enough to sustain a prolonged campaign.

The PAC-3 ACE is designed to combat airbreathing threats — weapons that rely on oxygen for propulsion — cruise missiles and close- and short-range ballistic missiles.

Lockheed Martin said the new interceptor will still be compatible with the Patriot weapon system and Integrated Battle Command System, which enables the company to speed up development, an effort it says will be coordinated jointly with American and European partners.

U.S. forces in the Middle East have leaned heavily on the Patriot system, which uses radar to detect and track an incoming threat, calculate its trajectory and then guide an interceptor towards a predicted collision point, using a hit-to-kill method.

Patriot systems have become integral to Ukraine’s defense against Russia and as Kyiv’s missiles run out, the country pleaded for more interceptors before joining with nine other nations to create Freyja, a Patriot alternative, amid a global shortage of anti-ballistic interceptors.

The U.S. currently relies on a layered missile defense network that includes the Patriot system, the Navy’s Aegis Combat System — armed with SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors — and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

In April, Lockheed Martin announced that the Navy was preparing to bring PAC-3 MSE interceptors to sea for use by its Aegis system, which uses advanced radars to identify, track and then guide missiles. The company was awarded a multimillion dollar contract but did not specify a dollar amount or timeline in the announcement.

In the same month, the Pentagon also agreed to a $4.7 billion contract with Lockheed Martin to accelerate PAC-3 MSE interceptor production.

Anduril started the 2026 Farnborough Airshow with a splash on Monday when it unveiled an autonomous attack rotorcraft, dubbed Thunder, designed to operate with current and next-generation crewed attack helicopter platforms.

Developed in partnership with Archer Aviation as a vertical take-off and landing aircraft, Anduril’s military edition is a Group 5 autonomous attack rotorcraft built with a series hybrid-electric powertrain system and tilt rotors that allow it to operate in any environment while keeping up, when needed, with faster rotary aircraft like the Apache and Cheyenne II.

“The proliferation of drones in land warfare has brought maneuver to a stalemate, extracting a significant toll in terms of both man and machine,” a company release stated. “Attack helicopters and their crews, long the lifeblood of maneuver warfare, are increasingly held at risk by a combination of loitering munitions, cheap air defenses, and ubiquitous persistent ISR platforms that have rendered the near-surface domain one of the most lethal places on the battlefield.”

Anduril officials said the Thunder, which has been in development since 2024, will provide much-needed relief to that toll courtesy of its ability “to fight alongside crewed aircraft, as part of an autonomous formation, or independently across missions.”

The Thunder’s mission suite will include long range mass effects delivery; fire support; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; maritime patrol; anti-submarine warfare; search and rescue; and contested cargo and logistics.

On its weapons side, modular internal main and nose payload module bays will allow the Thunder to be armed with everything from precision munitions and electronic warfare payloads to air-launched effects, rockets and counter-drone munitions.

Citing configurable payload examples, Anduril officials said one Thunder operating on the battlefield could carry 10 air-to-ground missiles, 16 launched effects or 76 70mm rockets, in addition to a dozen counter-UAS munitions.

“Teaming multiplies the mass that Thunder brings to the fight,” the Anduril release stated. “By pairing multiple Thunder aircraft with a single crewed platform, commanders can achieve a step-change in combat mass that enables formations to defeat more targets, sustain operations longer, and keep crews farther from the most lethal threats.”

The Thunder aircraft will operate using Anduril’s core Lattice for Mission Autonomy software to inform flight formation behaviors and separation management for safety around crewed aircraft, the release said, thus eliminating the need for pilot control of the drones and freeing crews to focus solely on the mission.

The aircraft, meanwhile, is also easily transportable, with configuration that allows it to be packed into a standard shipping container.

The company has not yet listed a price point for the Thunder. Anduril is targeting a first flight in 2027.

The veteran-led organization AfghanEvac hopes a new AI-powered tool will benefit from the extensive data it’s gathered about the tortuous visa and asylum application process to help new applicants find the most promising pathways to help.

The Visa Pathways and Relocation Information Center, or V-PRIC, launched earlier this month and has seen more than 30,000 visits in its first week live, said Shawn VanDiver, the Navy veteran who founded and leads the organization. While the tool requires users to verify that they understand it won’t provide vetted legal advice, it aims to simplify daunting and confusing options and find the pathway most aligned with their circumstances.

When users select “find my pathway,” they’re prompted to enter information about their current location, their eligibility as an Afghan who worked for the U.S. and whether they’re in danger now. They’re also asked to write a brief statement in their own words describing their story and situation.

Then, the tool uses its database of 124 U.S. visa and status classifications — 16 of them relevant to Afghan applicants — and detailed information on global pathways around the world to link users up with the options that best match their needs and qualifications.

VanDiver is clear: there aren’t many promising pathways available to anyone right now. The Trump administration last year issued an indefinite suspension on processing of Afghans’ request to immigrate to the U.S., and terminated temporary protected status for asylum-seeking Afghans, leaving about 11,000 already in the States unable to work and at risk of deportation.

About 1,100 Afghan allies and their family members are stuck in grim conditions at the Camp As Sayliyah processing facility in Doha, Qatar, unable to leave due to the travel ban even though many had already secured approval to enter the U.S.

This spring, the Trump administration proposed forcing those at the camp to choose between returning to Afghanistan or being relocated to the war-torn and desperately impoverished Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some 400 of those camp residents are children, according to VanDiver.

Despite the barriers, VanDiver believes V-PRIC will help prospective applicants avoid wasting time at closed doors, stay abreast of rapidly changing policy and figure out the most promising options.

“It … tells you where the blocker is,” he said. “If it’s a matter of policy or a matter of law, if it’s a choice that can be unmade, and who can approve exceptions to it.”

The tool has been trained on legal decisions and executive orders and policy statements, but also surveys AfghanEvac has run and plain-language explainers they’ve developed, VanDiver said. Organization staff continue to update it to remove inaccuracies and reflect changing conditions. It might provide context that the U.S. State Department does not.

VanDiver gave the example of an Afghan special immigrant visa applicant who has received a notice from State that they can schedule a visa interview — not noting that the visa approval pipeline remains closed. V-PRIC can flag that, he said.

“It says, ‘Hey, hold up, don’t necessarily schedule your interview yet. They’re all going to be denied, and having that denial on your record can create problems down the line,’” VanDiver said.

For AfghanEvac, the work to secure safety for those who helped the U.S. at war continues indefinitely. A survey of more than 1,100 Afghans run between Jan. 31, 2025 and July 7 found, of the 427 respondents still in Afghanistan, nearly half face a direct threat from the Taliban. Another 427 respondents reported being in Pakistan, awaiting a pathway to safety there. Of that group, 44% said they feared deportation, and 45% reported experiencing a health crisis. Thirty-nine of the respondents were at Camp As Sayliyah, awaiting a pathway out.

“It feels like we’re in jail, punished like criminals — even though we stood with the U.S.,” one respondent who’d spent 282 days at the camp, said in the survey, according to information provided by AfghanEvac.

VanDiver stresses that the V-PRIC tool doesn’t replace legal expertise, but he hopes it will offer a starting point to help people who may be at a loss to understand their first or next steps toward reaching safety.

“Get a lawyer, open a congressional case; here are the warnings about your particular type of case,” he said. “[V-PRIC] can help people understand, based on their specific situation, what their options are.”

Frank Kendall, the Air Force’s 26th secretary who served under former President Joe Biden, said in a Thursday roundtable hosted by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that gathering experience in the field and through simulations help operators establish trust with autonomous systems, like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

“You have to accumulate a basis for trust over time, and so I think we just need to think carefully about how we structure things in order to make that opportunity,” Kendall said during the roundtable.

Earlier this week, the Air Force announced that it conducted the first-ever live-fire test of an inert AIM-120 from an Anduril-made YFQ-44A. The CCA recently completed an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight strike against a simulated target, the service announced, but did not specify when the exercise occurred.

The Air Force is scheduled to continue live-fire testing with General Atomics’ YFQ-42A this fall.

Kendall said that using the aircraft in Red Flag, the service’s leading large-force aerial combat training simulation held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, will be “fascinating,” but he worries about the force using initial setbacks as an excuse to “retreat” instead of pushing ahead.

The former secretary was optimistic that institutional support will be enough to overcome those setbacks, saying that enthusiastic operators want to see the aircraft’s full potential realized.

Kendall recalled when he once asked an Air Combat Command crew who were developing CCA tactics why there wasn’t more resistance.

“[A young fighter pilot’s] answer was, ‘Sir, these things are going to save our lives.’” Kendall recalled.

The simulations define the exercises, he added, saying that it showcases how the aircraft protects crew fighters effectively right now even as the force needs to develop more sophisticated tactics.

“The guys with the CCAs are beating the crap out of the guys without them, and not losing any manned fighters,” he said.

AI-controlled fighter jet takes Air Force secretary on historic ride

Kendall said that computerized, man-in-the-loop simulations are the best tool to assist operators in learning how to use the aircraft effectively since more trials can be completed. Integrated simulations have been used by the Air Force for roughly 30 years.

“In simulators with cockpits their sensors are showing them simulated threats as well as their friends, and then they basically fight a battle together,” he explained.

Kendall referred to a time when he took a flight in an F-16 modified by artificial intelligence. In flight, the aircraft’s testers would collect data points, he said, and run a million simulations to adjust the software overnight to complete the flight again the following day.

The first increment CCA aircraft in the program are “all the same” as weapons carriers, but in Increment II, Kendall stipulates that the force can begin equipping them with sensors and possibly distributed electronic warfare capabilities.

China is working on this autonomous system capability as well, he added, stating that air battles could soon be CCA versus CCA. Intelligence is going to play a significant role in how well the U.S. understands their systems, tactics and vulnerabilities, he said, noting that it’s a “hard game” to play.

In Increment I, the Air Force showed interest in obtaining 100 to 150 aircraft, the first phase of a longer-term goal of eventually fielding 1,000 CCAs.

At Farnborough Airshow this week in London, BAE Systems unveiled a helmet-mounted prototype it says is intended to explore how future pilots may be able to operate under battlefield conditions they anticipate to be saturated with unprecedented amounts of data.

Called Project Intuity, the demonstrator is intended to help pilots manage input from multiple sources by projecting information onto the helmet’s visor.

“As allies move towards aircraft that act as combat command centers, future operations will demand that pilots process more information from more sources than ever before,” Andrew Macklin-Smith, the company’s product line director for helmet-mounted displays, said in a release.

“Through Project Intuity, we’re addressing that challenge by integrating the technologies to allow pilots to command fleets of drones in the skies,” he added. “This system will achieve that by filtering and presenting the most important information clearly and within the pilot’s natural field of view.”

BAE did not yet say whether the demonstrator is tied to a specific program or provide a timeline for when this technology could enter service but the project comes as the U.S. is experimenting with having pilots command drone wingmen.

During an exercise last summer, Air Force pilots controlled Valkyrie drones during flight and in January, the Navy announced that F-35 pilots had used touchscreen tablets to control uncrewed autonomous drones during training.

“Modern warfare is demanding more from our aviators,” Rear Adm. Todd Evans, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, said in a release about the Navy’s human-machine teaming milestone. The exercise, he added, gave pilots “the advanced tactics they need to win future battles.”

The U.S. Air Force has for years broached the possibility of integrating drone wingmen — used for reconnaissance, electronic warfare and attacks — alongside fighter jets. The teaming, experts have said, would make the difference in between winning or losing wars against advanced adversaries like China.

In a first this year, the Air Force asked Congress for nearly $1 billion to start procuring Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, a fleet of jet-powered, semi-autonomous drones fly alongside crewed aircraft like the F-35 and F-22.

The service’s national plan pairs two CCA with each fighter jet, but testing suggests pilots may be able to command higher numbers.

The Air Force logged another CCA milestone recently when it conducted its first-ever live-fire test using the Anduril-made YFQ-44A.

BAE says its prototype is designed with flexible architecture so that novel and emerging components — such as eye tracking capabilities and new optics — can be added or replaced over time. Currently, it combines head tracking and 3D audio cueing.

According to the company, the demonstrator’s visor has twice the display area of current helmet-mounted systems and what it describes as “quad high-definition resolution.” The bigger display is aimed at keeping pilots’ eyes directed at the skies, with information within their field of view, and thus reducing their need to look down at cockpit instruments during flight.

The company said it already has more than 1,000 helmet-mounted displays in use in 10 different countries, but that this is lighter than other models. BAE did not give design specifications, but attributed the drop in heaviness to new materials and better microelectronics, among other things.

Technology tested through prototypes could eventually be integrated into new helmet-mounted systems or added to existing ones.

The goal is to “identify industry partners capable of providing a Ground-Based Launcher solution to protect United States Air Force assets,” according to a Request for Information submitted by the service. The request has a response deadline of Aug. 6.

The RFI lists requirements that suggest an air defense system that can handle a variety of threats. In addition to intercepting cruise missiles, the Air Force wants missiles that can destroy drones ranging in size from Group 1 (maximum gross takeoff weight of less than 21 pounds) to Group 5 (maximum weight of more than 1,320 pounds).

This would mean a single system that could stop everything from a small kamikaze drone to a giant Global Hawk-sized UAV.

The query comes as U.S. and allied military bases in the Middle East have been struck hard by Iranian drones and missiles.

Iranian weapons destroyed a valuable U.S. E-3 Sentry AWACS, damaged at least five KC-135 tankers at Saudi airbases and devastated multiple air defense radars.

Likewise, Russia and Ukraine have been hammering each other with waves of drones and missiles that overwhelm air defenses and deplete stockpiles of interceptors.

Not surprisingly, the Air Force wants a defense system with plenty of ammunition. Contractors are asked to “outline operational performance metrics, specifically the firing rate across all magazines and the total magazine depth, while demonstrating seamless command and control (C2) system integration for rapid sensor data dissemination and weapons cueing.”

The RFI suggests a desire for a self-contained system that is easily transportable, uses a laser illuminator for fire control and possesses integrated sensing capabilities. The RFI lists 11 “critical baseline attributes” for the Ground-Based Launcher, including cost, transportability, manpower requirements and built-in testing diagnostics for maintenance and safety.

As background, contractors are asked to refer to the 2012 Joint Staff publication JP 3-01, “Countering Air and Missile Threats.”

Even before the Iran War, the defense of Air Force bases spurred debate. Last year, a strategist on the Air Staff argued that the Air Force should stop relying on the Army for primary air defense of airfields.

He warned that expeditionary airbases lack sophisticated systems like the Patriot, and that the Air Force’s own security forces are poorly equipped for air defense.

The unexploded ordnance was from a “downed Iranian one-way attack drone,” Central Command said in a statement released Sunday.

The death of the U.S. service member in Iraq follows in the wake of two U.S. service members killed in action on Friday in an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on U.S. and partner forces in Jordan, U.S. Central Command announced.

Four more troops had to be medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan.

Those four service members have since been discharged, the command added.

“Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty,” the release stated.

U.S. Central Command originally noted that a third U.S. service member was missing, however, CENTCOM announced today that “After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today. An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing.”

U.S. Central Command is withholding the identities of the dead until 24 hours after the service members’ next of kin have been notified.

Additional information about the exact location of the attack had not been provided as of publication.

The latest casualties bring the toll of American troops killed in the war with Iran to 18.

Most recently, the commanding officer of the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards, was killed on July 1 when the MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter he was aboard went down in the Arabian Sea. Three other sailors were rescued following the emergency landing.

More than 400 U.S. troops have been wounded in the campaign, which began Feb. 28.

But many medical professionals warn it might do nothing of the sort and instead could increase service members’ risk of infertility or other consequences if testosterone is prescribed inappropriately.

The mandate is one of several recent healthcare policy changes implemented by Hegseth and other Trump administration cabinet officers that have sparked debate among experts and raised questions about what scientific basis, if any, supports them.

Hegseth has also reversed the military’s long-standing flu vaccine mandate, a decision that was walked back after a flu outbreak, while the Department of Health and Human Services removed 17 members from its vaccine advisory panel and altered its vaccine recommendations.

Five of six men’s health experts contacted by Reuters for this story said they were puzzled by the announcement on testosterone testing and concerned it may lead to unnecessary — or even harmful — treatment.

Hegseth said testing would be accompanied by advice to help soldiers make decisions about treatment, which would be voluntary.

The goals, he added, are to ensure troops have the right testosterone levels to operate at their absolute best and to improve their resilience, longevity and performance, so as to ensure the military’s combat readiness.

Four of the six doctors said there was no solid evidence suggesting that screening for low testosterone in all military personnel aged 30 and older would optimize U.S. readiness for combat.

“We hear from patients that when you treat low T, things like cognitive alertness and stamina improve. But the evidence is not concrete, and it comes from patients who were treated because they were symptomatic,” said Dr. Kevin McVary, a urologist on the medical advisory board of Rugiet, a telehealth platform that provides testosterone supplements.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter beyond its brief official statement.

TESTING RECOMMENDED FOR SYMPTOMS

The American Urological Association and the Endocrine Society advise testosterone supplementation only for patients with confirmed testosterone deficiency and symptoms such as reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, decreased muscle mass and low bone density.

Giving testosterone without medical symptoms leads to overtreatment, McVary said, which can have its own adverse consequences.

Levels naturally decline with age, starting around age 30. But age 30 itself is not an appropriate point for screening, said Dr. Haleem Mohammed, chief medical officer of men’s wellness and medical clinic network Gameday Health.

“There is a population-level decline of 1% per year after ages 30-40 that accelerates as you get older,” but the patterns are not the same for all, Mohammed said.

Most studies of testosterone replacement have been done in older men, noted Dr. Ugis Gruntmanis, an endocrinologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, who said the new mandate provides an opportunity to collect data on younger men.

He added, however, that widespread implementation of screening without preliminary study data would be putting the carriage before the horse.

FDA LIFTED WARNING

Based partly on a study led by Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, involving more than 5,200 men aged 45 to 80 with low testosterone and high risk of heart disease, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised testosterone labels to remove a warning of increased risks of heart attack or stroke.

The participants, however, showed higher rates of atrial arrhythmia — an abnormal heart rhythm — and bone fractures, a finding that may have implications for the military, Nissen said.

All of the experts contacted by Reuters also mentioned the severe impact of testosterone therapy on male fertility.

“Many in our armed forces are young men who are not done having their families,” McVary said. “If you just dole out the testosterone, the testes will shrink. And you can’t reliably count on them coming back.”

Other risks include blood thickening, prostate issues, acne, hair loss, breast tissue growth and mood volatility.

In his announcement, Hegseth said one objective for the new screening mandate is to comprehensively address Operator Syndrome, which afflicts special forces warriors such as Delta Force members and Navy SEALs and includes low testosterone along with traumatic brain injury, hormonal and metabolic dysregulation, sleep dysregulation and other maladies.

But special forces operators are not representative of all active duty and reserve members, said Dr. B. Christopher Frueh of the University of Hawaii, whose team first described the syndrome in 2020.

“These operators are at an extreme end of a spectrum,” Frueh said. “They have much higher exposures to blasts, airplane jumps, firing all kinds of different weapons, shoulder-fired rockets, machine guns.”

Other soldiers might have elements of the syndrome, he said, “but should we be screening 100% of everybody? Maybe. I don’t know.”

He believes many younger soldiers could regulate hormones through sleep, rest and diet to bring testosterone levels back up, rather than turning to replacement therapy.

WEIGHT AND LOW TESTOSTERONE

Still, medical professionals emphasize potential benefits from appropriate testosterone testing, as with other forms of medical tests.

Gameday Health’s Mohammed said military reservists in the general population may be overweight, another correctable factor that can contribute to low testosterone.

“Testosterone is one of the most useful blood tests we have to gauge health in men,” Mohammed said. “Broader screening would identify many men with reversible causes and some with true deficiency. Both groups would benefit from clinician-guided care, whether that means correcting reversible causes or starting treatment when it is truly warranted.”

The Pentagon has not provided detailed guidance on how abnormal test results will be evaluated or whether screenings will apply equally to males and females.

Frueh of the University of Hawaii said broad screening could also reveal new information about female soldiers’ hormones.

“Females aren’t going to need testosterone replacement in all likelihood, but they may need other hormonal interventions,” he said.

A third U.S. service member is missing, the command release added, while four more troops had to be medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan.

Those four service members have since been discharged, the command added.

“Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty,” the release stated.

U.S. Central Command is withholding the identities of the dead until 24 hours after the service members’ next of kin have been notified.

Additional information about the exact location of the attack had not been provided as of publication.

The casualties in Friday’s attack bring the toll of American troops killed in the war with Iran to 16.

Most recently, the commanding officer of the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards, was killed on July 1 when the MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter he was aboard went down in the Arabian Sea. Three other sailors were rescued following the emergency landing.

More than 400 U.S. troops have been wounded in the campaign, which began Feb. 28.

Ladarrion McCray, 23, and Emma Bradshaw, 22, face eight charges, including felony murder by child abuse, making false statements and aggravated animal cruelty, according to a July 15 announcement.

Prosecutors allege the couple “willfully deprived their son of necessary sustenance” for roughly two weeks in January. The child, identified in court documents as “L.M.,” died on Jan. 28 as a result of the alleged neglect.

According to investigators, McCray had recently been transferred to Fort Benning, and Bradshaw joined him a short time later while pregnant with the child.

Court records do not specify the child’s age or when the family moved into on-base housing.

Army investigators executed a search warrant at the home the day the child died and found two dogs — a male hound and a female Doberman — that “appeared severely malnourished.”

Both animals were taken to a shelter, where veterinarians determined they suffered from “severe malnourishment and significant muscle wasting.”

During interviews with investigators, McCray and Bradshaw said their son had shown no signs of illness before his death. They also said they had buried a third dog, a dachshund that died from an illness, at a park off base.

Investigators instead found the dachshund discarded in a trash can behind the home. A necropsy determined the dog died of starvation.

Court records show both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges on June 11. They were released on bond and placed under pretrial supervision.

McCray, who is currently the subject of discharge proceedings by the Army, was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation. Once separated from the service, he is to report to his parents’ home in Georgia. Bradshaw was authorized to reside at a women’s shelter in Alabama.

Neither defendant is permitted to possess pets while awaiting trial, although McCray’s release conditions were modified because his parents own dogs.

Their next court appearance is scheduled for July 22 in federal court in Columbus, Georgia. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.

At a Thursday roundtable discussion hosted by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Frank Kendall, the 26th Secretary of the Air Force, claimed there are some instances when machines can outperform human operators, since the latter aren’t “perfect.”

“When you get to the point where the AI is doing a better job of deciding who to kill than the person, let the AI do it,” Kendall said during the roundtable. “But you got to be confident of that.”

To ensure that AI capabilities aren’t outpacing the human operator in the loop, the service needs to verify and test that the tool has been designed to do exactly what it’s meant to, with specific rules it should perform with, Kendall said.

The former secretary — who served in the role from 2021 to 2025 during former President Joe Biden’s administration — highlighted that the service needs to train the human operator to use the tool in the way it was intended and allow them to have many opportunities for practice.

Intensive simulation can be used to monitor the human operators during continuous machine learning to evaluate how well they are using the tools, what decisions are being made and if the interventions made are necessary or not, he said.

For example, Kendall said that in an Army range when a rifleman is going against pop-up targets and deciding whether to shoot, “It is easy to imagine AI shall be perfect at that.”

“Operators are not perfect, and so I think when you get to that, let the AI do it,” he said.

Kendall said AI would never be afraid nor tired, unlike a human operator. The machine, he added, needs to start out better than the human, even when the human is at their best.

“When you send armed people out to do something, you run some risk because of human emotions and so forth,” he said.

The former secretary used the example of a cop pulling over a citizen. He said there’s an “awful lot” of people in America that would rather be stopped by a robot than a cop in traffic because you can program the robot to not shoot at all — or only if a certain event happens.

Kendall highlighted that versions of AI have been used in the military for years. He relayed an experience during which he boarded an F-16 fighter jet modified with AI. With the touch of a button, the aircraft flew itself, he said.

AI-controlled fighter jet takes Air Force secretary on historic ride

The AI controlling the F-16 he flew in was as good as the experienced pilot in another aircraft, he insisted. As both pilots are pulling RGs and losing altitude as a result, their 10,000 foot-floor would be hit.

“As soon as we hit the floor, the AI would pop the airplane back up and go back into the maneuver,” Kendall said. “It did it really well.”

“My lesson from that, if you will, was this is already as good as our best pilots at this at least, and if the other pilot is inexperienced or tired or whatever, the AI’s gonna win,” Kendall concluded.

In addition to problems stemming from both the destroyers and the missiles, the Navy and Army are reportedly not coordinating work on the joint Conventional Prompt Strike missile program. Missile flight testing scheduled for 2025 has been pushed back to 2027.

“Despite recent successes testing the CPS missile, the Navy faces several programmatic challenges associated with developing, delivering, and deploying the CPS missile on the DDG-1000,” warned the Government Accountability Office report. “These challenges include rising costs, schedule delays, reliability issues with DDG-1000 class destroyers, and CPS production challenges, among other things.”

In search of a mission for the DDG-1000 after escalating costs and capability concerns resulted in the program being cut from 32 ships to just three, the Navy decided in 2022 to arm the Zumwalts with CPS boost-glide hypersonic missiles. CPS uses a two-stage booster to loft a high-altitude glider that can hit a target thousands of miles away in 30 minutes or less.

Two Zumwalts have been delivered, and the third is scheduled for 2028. In addition, CPS missiles will arm Virginia-class attack submarines, while the Army uses a land-based version called the Land-Range Hypersonic Weapon.

However, modifications to the destroyers — such as installing hypersonic missiles and vertical launch tubes — has added costs and delays.

One ship, for example, needed “more cabling than was anticipated in the initial project design, as the contractor cut and removed more cabling than planned from the forward part of the ship for CPS missile launch tube installation,” GAO noted.

In addition, “the DDG-1000 class ships have unique systems, such as its radar, combat, and network systems, that are costly and difficult to sustain and maintain,” GAO said.

The Zumwalts suffer from unreliable power systems and difficulty in obtaining spare parts.

Despite some successful flight tests from land facilities, the CPS missile has also run into problems.

The cost of the missiles has risen sharply: a 2020 Navy estimate of $31 billion for 262 missiles has mushroomed into $41 billion for 224 missiles.

“Lockheed Martin, the CPS missile body prime contractor responsible for production integration, faces significant production issues that it must address to build the missiles at anticipated rates and costs,” said GAO.

There have been problems with heat-resistant coatings, substandard parts and insufficient production capacity, with the factory only capable of producing six or seven missiles a year instead of the desired 12.

Building the CPS missile has also proved too complex for some workers.

“According to Navy and Army program officials, the work instructions are largely written as engineering specifications, which the contractor provides to workers who have recently graduated from high school or vocational school,” the GAO report noted. “Navy production oversight officials said that it is unreasonable to expect workers to understand the instructions provided.”

In theory, the Army should have an easier time with its LRHW missile, which mainly differs from CPS in the launcher. Rather than the cold-gas ejection system that pops CPS from a tube before ignition, LRHW uses a hot-launch system.

However, GAO pointed out a concerning lack of coordination between the two services. For example, while the Navy is responsible for production of the missile body, the Army used its own consultant to study how to increase production.

Thus, “the Navy cannot make decisions in isolation since the Army is buying its own missiles and manages key aspects of production,” the report concluded. Without a joint development and procurement strategy, “the Navy and the Army create the potential for both additional delay and inefficient use of taxpayer funds.”

For the first time in decades, student pilots are flying solo across the country, the Army announced Thursday, as part of a curriculum change the schoolhouse hopes will create more skilled pilots.

The new aviators will prepare for the endeavor with two weeks of cross-country instruction before completing a check ride. Then, with naught but their fresh hands at the controls, the students will fly 50 to 100 nautical miles from Shell Army Heliport, navigating the national airspace without an instructor.

Second Lt. Kyler Suerth, one of the first flight school trainees in the new program, was anxious. “We are actually operating in civilian airspace the way aviators do,” the West Point graduate said before his flight in the release. “I am nervous, but every day I get a little less nerve wracked and a little more excited.”

Though he said that radio calls — and the challenge of shifting from military to civilian language — was his biggest hurdle, Suerth completed his solo flight this week.

The new model was introduced by the 1st Battalion, 223rd Aviation Regiment. Lt. Col. Andrew Bartlett, the unit’s commander, said the flight was a chance for students to combine the individual tasks they learned at the schoolhouse.

“We are asking them to think, to decide and to fly like real aviators,” said Bartlett, who supervised the program’s launch.

Flight school students will take at least two solo flights and up to five cross-country flights, depending on the weather, the Army said. Then, they move into tactical terrain flight training without the aid of GPS.

The solo flight is among the latest changes to the Army aviation pipeline as the service began an overhaul last year following a series of fatal accidents and concerns that new pilots were not developing essential flying skills.

Severe aviation accidents rose approximately 55% between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, according to Pentagon data released in 2025.

The Army also moved towards contractor-run training as it advanced at least two bidders for its rotary-wing program revamp in April.

The announcement builds on an eventful few weeks for the company’s Corsair drone boats.

On July 12, three Corsairs struck Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval base in what U.S. Central Command called the first combat use of unmanned surface vessels by American forces.

Weeks earlier, a Navy-operated Corsair helped rescue two soldiers after their Army AH-64 Apache went down near the Strait of Hormuz, a mission Central Command called another first of its kind by an unmanned surface vessel.

Founded in 2022, Saronic first unveiled plans for Port Alpha in February 2025 but stopped short of naming a site or a cost. Plans now include an initial 835-acre site in Cameron County, with room to grow to nearly 4,400 acres. It’s an investment the company puts at more than $3 billion. The site was chosen over competing sites in California and Virginia, among others.

Construction is set to break ground this year, with the yard expected to open in 2028. Initially, the facility will be capable of building vessels up to 850 feet, about the length of a U.S. Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, though future expansion could support vessels longer than 1,200 feet, the company said.

Saronic estimates Port Alpha could create up to 10,000 direct jobs over the next decade, from welding and machining to robotics, software engineering and naval architecture. The company also projects $264.5 billion in economic impact for Texas and $160 billion for Cameron County.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced the project from Saronic’s Austin headquarters, said a fully built-out yard would deliver about $750 million a year in wages, a sum he called “game-changing for the population of Texas.”

To help land the project, the state extended an $80 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, according to the governor’s office.

Last month, Cameron County commissioners approved a 95% tax abatement for the project over roughly two decades, according to USNI News. The agreement is contingent on Saronic filling 35% of the yard’s jobs with local residents, and the tax break shrinks if the company misses its local hiring targets, the Texas Tribune reported.

The deal was not without local opposition. According to the Border Chronicle, at least 40 people testified or submitted written statements against the abatement, some questioning why a company valued at $9.25 billion needed a tax break. The June 16 vote passed only after two earlier delays and hours of testimony.

Port Alpha would become Saronic’s third site. It runs a plant in central Texas that turns out the 24-foot Corsair, for which the Navy awarded a $392 million production contract in December, and last year it bought a former Gulf Craft yard in Franklin, Louisiana, where it is spending $300 million to build the larger, 180-foot Marauder.

Dino Mavrookas, Saronic’s co-founder and chief executive, did not specify which ships Port Alpha would build but told reporters the company envisions autonomy playing a role in larger hulls over time, according to USNI News.

“Those ships might not be fully autonomous or fully unmanned on day one,” he said. “But over time, as we look at building out the tech and building out the industry as a whole, there’s no reason that you can’t unman those ships completely.”

Port Alpha arrives amid a federal push to rebuild a U.S. shipbuilding base that has fallen far behind China’s. Saronic tied the project to an executive order on maritime dominance that President Donald Trump issued in April 2025, along with the SHIPS for America Act and a federal Maritime Action Plan, all aimed at reversing decades of decline in commercial and naval ship production.

“America’s maritime future depends on our ability to build again,” said Mavrookas, adding that the yard was built “to deliver ships at a speed and scale not seen since World War II.”

Saronic is one of seven companies competing for the Navy’s medium unmanned surface vessel contract, with at-sea testing set to run through October.

The company said it will work with Texas, Cameron County and local schools to build training and apprenticeship programs for the yard, but did not say when it expects to name customers or specific ship classes for Port Alpha.