Lifeboat Foundation

“We see significant progress,” in opening up DOD data, one observer said. But a bigger, multinational test is coming.

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency awarded contracts to Terran Orbital and York Space Systems to build and operate 10 satellites each for the military’s low Earth orbit communications network, the agency announced Aug. 16.

The contracts, valued at $254 million for Terran Orbital and $170 million for York Space, are for the final 20 satellites of SDA’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma program. Delivery is expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027.

These satellites will form part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a constellation of data relay and sensor satellites designed to provide global communications and missile detection capabilities.

WASHINGTON — Aerospace and defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is set to expand its radio frequency (RF) satellite constellation, aiming to capture a larger share of the market for electronic emissions data.

The company launched its first four RF sensing cubesats last year, built by Spire, marking its entry into this increasingly competitive field. SNC is now gearing up for a significant expansion, with plans to deploy a network of 20 satellites over the next five years.

Chris Morgan, SNC’s vice president, told SpaceNews the company sees a rising demand in the military sector for RF data, which can provide critical intelligence on activities like GPS jamming and enemy movements. The RF sensing market, he said, is also driven by commercial applications.

Join our newsletter to get the latest military space news every Tuesday by veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin. Get the newsletter By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive the newsletters. You can opt-out at any time. Processing… Success! You’re on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn’t process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command’s top general voiced support for the U.S. Army’s efforts to expand its space expertise, pushing back against criticism that such initiatives encroach on Space Force territory. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S.

Related: SDR: a spectrum of possibilities

NAVWAR awarded the order on behalf of the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communication, Computers, and Intelligence (PEO C4I) in San Diego.

The AN/USC-61© is a maritime software-defined radio (SDR) that has become standard for the U.S. military. The compact, multi-channel DMR provides several different waveforms and multi-level information security for voice and data communications.

Japanese officials on Monday announced the opening of a new government-run defense research institute this fall, as reported by the Kyodo News agency.

The agency, which will be tasked with developing innovative cyber war technologies, said the new project is directly modeled after DARPA, the US Defense Department’s research agency – responsible for some of the world’s most cutting-edge defense technologies.

Continue reading “Japan will launch DARPA-esque research institute for cyberwarfare” »

The US military agency responsible for developing new technologies plans to embark on an effort to rewrite significant volumes of C code by funding a new research challenge to create an automated translator capable of converting old C code with function written in the security-focused Rust language.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will hold a workshop, known as Proposers Day, on Aug. 26 to outline its vision for the Translating All C to Rust (TRACTOR) project. The effort calls for academic and industry research groups to compete to create a system that can turn C code into idiomatic — that is, using native features — Rust code. The project’s ultimate goal is to provide tools so that any organization with large volumes of software written in C can convert that code to Rust and eliminate the memory-safety errors that account for a large source of software vulnerabilities.

Without an automated system, developers are unlikely to take on the task, says Dan Wallach, program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O).

According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is a top public health risk that was responsible for 1.27 million deaths across the globe in 2019. When repeatedly exposed to antibiotics, bacteria rapidly learn to adapt their genes to counteract the drugs—and share the genetic tweaks with their peers—rendering the drugs ineffective.

Superpowered bacteria also torpedo medical procedures—surgery, chemotherapy, C-sections—adding risk to life-saving therapies. With antibiotic resistance on the rise, there are very few new drugs in development. While studies in petri dishes have zeroed in on potent candidates, some of these also harm the body’s cells, leading to severe side effects.

What if there’s a way to retain their bacteria-fighting ability, but with fewer side effects? This month, researchers used AI to reengineer a toxic antibiotic. They made thousands of variants and screened for the ones that maintained their bug-killing abilities without harming human cells.

As the Pentagon makes a push toward scaling production of autonomous systems and weapons, Anduril Industries is accelerating its own manufacturing capabilities through a new software-based production hub called Arsenal.

The California-based defense technology company announced Wednesday it will build the first Arsenal facility in the U.S., using funding from a recent $1.5 billion Series F investment round. Chris Brose, Anduril’s chief strategy officer, told reporters the firm’s goal is to consolidate manufacturing in order to “hyperscale” production across its product lines, including uncrewed combat drones and autonomous underwater vehicles.

“When we say hyperscale, we mean the ability to produce tens of thousands of a given system,” he said in a briefing. “This is the target that we’re setting for ourselves right now.”