The Department of Defense's CDAO runs a procurement initiative called Tradewinds, which lets companies submit short video pitches showing how their AI products meet specific military focus areas. A judging panel reviews submissions monthly, and accepted products are deemed 'post-competitive,' letting officials bypass lengthy competitive bidding steps. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are listed as participants, though none commented, and a DOD official says some awards have been made in under a week.
wired.com
· 2026-10-07
Furientis, a one-year-old startup building mass-producible interceptor missiles, raised $25 million in a seed round led by Benchmark at a $125 million valuation. The company previously raised $5 million in a pre-seed round in May and has already secured a funded Pentagon contract to build mid-range interceptors. Co-founders Brody Franzen and Aris Simsarian bring backgrounds from Virgin Galactic, Castelion, and Virgin Orbit.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-06
A US Department of Defence official told the BBC the Pentagon has ceased using Anthropic's products, months after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled the company a national security supply-chain risk in February. Sources told the BBC that until last week Claude was still being used for research, intelligence analysis and operations tied to Iran, and the full cutoff had not previously been reported.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-10-05
Defense technology companies such as Palantir, Anduril, and SpaceX are increasingly developing and retaining ownership of software and hardware built for the U.S. military, rather than ceding control to the government. This shift raises questions about how much leverage private firms hold over systems the Pentagon depends on.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-05
The Department of Defense is notifying over 2 million current and former service members that hackers accessed personnel data through the Defense Manpower Data Center starting last October. The stolen records included Social Security numbers, names, addresses, sex, race and occupational specialty, affecting 2.8 million living individuals. This follows a separate breach last month in which the ransomware group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen FBI employee records.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-01
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new military command, the Autonomous Warfare Command, tasked with building and deploying autonomous and robotic systems across the U.S. military. Speaking at Quantico during a 'State of the Force' address, Hegseth said the command will be led by a four-star officer and cited cheap computing power and advanced manufacturing as drivers of low-cost precision weapons.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-01
The Defense Department disclosed that unauthorized users accessed a Defense Manpower Data Center system between October 2025 and July 2026, exposing personally identifiable information for about 2.76 million living people and 294,000 deceased individuals. The compromised data reportedly included Social Security numbers paired with job information for military and civilian personnel, though officials have not said how the breach occurred or who was responsible.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-01
The Defense Manpower Data Center is notifying more than 3 million people—about 2.8 million living individuals and 294,000 deceased—that hackers accessed their personal data after exploiting a vulnerability in its file-sharing system. Unauthorized users reportedly had access between October 2025 and July 2026, obtaining Social Security numbers, names, birth dates, contact details, sex, race, and military personnel information. The Pentagon is offering affected individuals 12 months of free credit monitoring through IDX, with enrollment required by August 19, 2027.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-10-01
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom, during a September 30 address at Quantico, Virginia. The new command, to be led by a four-star officer, would join the military's 11 existing combatant commands and oversee drones, AI, and command-and-control systems, with a target establishment date of October 1, 2027 pending congressional authorization.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-01
The Pentagon has begun alerting current and former service members that a personnel database containing records on more than 3 million individuals was breached by hackers. The database reportedly held sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, though the exact number of people whose data was exposed has not been disclosed.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-01
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Project Meridian during a 'State of the Force' address, tapping Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to co-lead a study on future warfare technology under CTO Emil Michael. The team has 120 days to recommend technologies for the military to develop, test, and field, and Hegseth also unveiled a new Autonomous Warfare Command to accelerate drone and autonomous systems deployment.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-30
The Defense Manpower Data Center notified millions of current and former U.S. service members that hackers exploited a file-sharing vulnerability to access unencrypted personnel records over several months between October 2025 and July 2026. Exposed data included Social Security numbers, birth dates, sex, race, and military service details, affecting about 2.8 million living people and nearly 300,000 deceased individuals, according to a Pentagon official cited by CNN and Federal News Network.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-30
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