Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Breaking Defense
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Sydney:
180 minutes to kill: Can the Air Force update EW within 3 hours of detecting a new threat?
“Our mindset has to be that we use the spectrum to kill faster, not to protect things,” said Col. Joshua Koslov. “The more things we kill, the less things that can hurt us.” → Read More
3 ways DARPA aims to tame 'strategic chaos' with AI
Combat is too complicated and chaotic for existing AI to analyze, and DARPA is trying to figure out the best way to combine algorithms with human expertise. → Read More
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon aims to 'own the technical baseline' for AI tech, R&D official says
Over 100 officers, officials, academics, and industry insiders will discuss how to make AI more reliable, from ChatGPT-style "decision aids" to missile defense and cybersecurity, deputy CTO Maynard Holliday told Breaking Defense. → Read More
Navy, Marines race for better at-sea connectivity using clouds
“I love the cloud, but I don’t have access to the cloud all the time while I’m afloat,” said Rear Admiral Stephen Donald of 10th Fleet. "So I need industry to figure out how to give me a virtual cloud.” → Read More
'Not the right time': US to push guidelines, not bans, at UN meeting on autonomous weapons
Last week, 33 nations called for a global treaty restricting “lethal autonomous weapons.” But US officials warn that such a ban would be both premature and overly narrow, preferring broader but non-binding “best practices” guiding any military employment of AI. → Read More
Surface Navy brass holding 'sustainment summits' to fix ship maintenance issues
Rear Adm. Fred Pyle said the service is "absolutely not" where it needs to be on ship cannibalization rates. → Read More
Frustration mounts for Israeli defense firms that can’t export payloads for drones
Sources said companies expected export licenses to expand after Israel publicly admitted the use of armed UAVs. → Read More
What Ukraine wants from France: Munitions, training, air defense and, maybe, fighter jets?
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov traveled to Paris for talks with counterparts, and came away with more firepower. → Read More
RAF defends decision behind 2-year tactical airlift capability gap, plans additional A400M buy
Elsewhere in a UK defense committee hearing, a military official said he wouldn't put high-dollar, exquisite drones over Ukraine. → Read More
With dreams of JADC2, Pentagon relaunches AI-driven command & control experiments
Global Information Dominance Experiments V through VIII seek to jolt ponderous Pentagon processes into the age of AI, big data, and the cloud, hoping to inform a future meta-network called Joint All Domain Command and Control. → Read More
Pentagon's annual weapon test report reverses classification, details major program challenges
The report, without "controlled unclassified information" redactions, discusses concerns with major weapons programs from ships to planes to hypersonic missiles. → Read More
'No Big Bang': Cyber successes in Ukraine are no cause for complacency in US
Russian hackers haven’t crippled Ukrainian networks, but it’s not for lack of trying. With Western help, Ukraine had spent eight years building its cyber defenses – ironically, in a way most US agencies and companies have not. → Read More
SDA hopes SABRE sensors can slash missile testing costs by 'millions'
SDA already has a lot of interest from the Army and DoD's testing community in its Space-Based Telemetry Monitoring, Electronic Support, and Alternative Navigation (SABRE) project. → Read More
New German defense minister, relative outsider, pledges 'strong' military for what 'lies ahead'
Boris Pistorius, a lawyer by trade, has been serving as State Minister of Interior and Sports in the Lower Saxony state government since 2013. → Read More
'We need to send' Putin a message: UK minister on why tanks are now going to Ukraine
The decision to send the Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv was influenced by an understanding that Ukraine now “needs the ability to push back hard in the East and the South [of the country],” said James Cleverly, UK foreign secretary. → Read More
'Pretty disruptive': With DIANA pilots planned for spring, NATO leaders focus on software and C3ISR
The Hudson Institute's Bryan Clark said the NATO innovation hub had learned lessons from Ukraine that could push it in new directions. → Read More
Ukraine gets its tanks: Poland sending Leopard 2, and other nations may follow
“A company of Leopard tanks for Ukraine will be transferred as part of building an international coalition,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a Jan 11 social media post. “Such a decision already [been taken] in Poland." → Read More
European nations eyeing Rafael-made short-range ballistic missile defense systems
According to Israeli sources, there are negotiations in different levels with Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania currently underway for the Rafael Spyder system. → Read More
With Army’s top IT official exiting, service has two key modernization roles to fill
"While so much of what we accomplished is visible now, the biggest accomplishments will not be seen for a few more years," Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer said. → Read More
Biden OKs sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine
“We're going to keep all options on the table,” Pentagon press secretary said when asked if M1 Abrams tanks could also be bound for Kyiv in the near future. → Read More