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U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the organization that administers Americaâs Spec Ops forces, says it will soon start clinical trials of an âanti-aging pillâ that could halt some naturally degenerative effects of aging.
âWe have completed pre-clinical safety and dosing studies in anticipation of follow-on performance testing in fiscal year 2022,â Navy Commander Tim Hawkins, a SOCOM spokesperson, told Breaking Defense.
After the program was first revealed in 2019, the Air Forceâs then-Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper stated he wanted to see operational demonstrations within two years. The latest test flight of the Skyborg-equipped Avenger shows the service has clearly hit that benchmark.
The General Atomics Avenger was used in experiments with another autonomy system in 2020, developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencyâs (DARPA) Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program that sought to develop drones that could demonstrate âcollaborative autonomy,â or the ability to work cooperatively.
Russian military intelligence tied to the group Fancy Bear are using brute force techniques to infiltrate the networks of government and private sector organizations, a joint advisory from US and UK cybersecurity agencies said.
Starting next year, the US militaryâs Special Operations Command (SOCOM) will start to test out an experimental pill that it says can actually stave off the effects of aging on soldiers.
The experiment, Breaking Defense reports, is part of a push to augment human ability and keep combatants healthy and operating at peak performance for longer. And, pending successful performance and clinical tests, it could make its way out into the public as a new longevity treatment for the masses as well.
âThese efforts are not about creating physical traits that donât already exist naturally,â SOCOM spokesperson and Navy Commander Tim Hawkins told Breaking Defense. âThis is about enhancing the mission readiness of our forces by improving performance characteristics that typically decline with age.â
SOCOM is using Other Transaction Authority (OTA) funds to partner with private biotech laboratory Metro International Biotech, LLC (MetroBiotech) in the pillâs development, which is based on what is called a âhuman performance small molecule,â he explained.
âThese efforts are not about creating physical traits that donât already exist naturally. This is about enhancing the mission readiness of our forces by improving performance characteristics that typically decline with age,â Hawkins said. âEssentially, we are working with leading industry partners and clinical research institutions to develop a nutraceutical, in the form of a pill that is suitable for a variety of uses by both civilians and military members, whose resulting benefits may include improved human performance â like increased endurance and faster recovery from injury.â
Hawkins said SOCOM âhas spent $2.8 million on this effortâ since its launch in 2018.
Fortunately, automakers, suppliers and government leaders are examining things like electric vehicles and where batteries and other parts come from as they push for North American production. The Department of Energy has released a National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries, and a plan to support the domestic battery production to meet growing needs as people go back to work and school in the fall.
It is tempting to see the chip storage problem as just a technology story. But it also has real-world implications for our national security as so much of defense relies on computers and communications in the era of modern warfare.
As Americans celebrate our independence, we have to re-commit to being independent when it comes to reliance on others for goods and services that fuel our lives. We canât make everything at home, but we can make more and ensure that disruptions abroad donât reverberate, negatively, at home. As Congress continues to debate infrastructure and other major legislation, and the COVID-19 pandemic retreats, we will need to work together to ensure that we are prepared for whatever 2022 might bring.
The first five payloads from the Space Development Agency, an organization charged with rapidly infusing emerging technologies into the U.S. militaryâs space programs, are among more than 80 satellites awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral Tuesday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Established in 2019, the Space Development Agency plans to deploy hundreds of small satellites to enable improved communications for the U.S. military. SDAâs strategy leans on the rapid development of new commercial space technology, including new types of sensors and cheaper, easier-to-produce small satellites that can be deployed in large constellations in low Earth orbit.
SDA plans to launch the first tranche of 28 satellites to provide initial infrared missile detection and low-latency data relay services in late 2022 and early 2023. Twenty of those satellites, part of the âtransport layer,â will be developed by Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems for communications support. The other eight âtrackingâ satellites will be supplied by SpaceX and L3Harris for missile detection and tracking.
The artificial intelligence revolution is just getting started. But it is already transforming conflict. Militaries all the way from the superpowers to tiny states are seizing on autonomous weapons as essential to surviving the wars of the future. But this mounting arms-race dynamic could lead the world to dangerous places, with algorithms interacting so fast that they are beyond human control. Uncontrolled escalation, even wars that erupt without any human input at all.
DW maps out the future of autonomous warfare, based on conflicts we have already seen â and predictions from experts of what will come next.
For more on the role of technology in future wars, check out the extended version of this video â which includes a blow-by-blow scenario of a cyber attack against nuclear weapons command and control systems: https://youtu.be/TmlBkW6ANsQ
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And they say computers canât create art.
In 1642, famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn completed a large painting called Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq â today, the painting is commonly referred to as The Night Watch. It was the height of the Dutch Golden Age, and The Night Watch brilliantly showcased that.
The painting measured 363 cm Ă 437 cm (11.91 ft Ă 14.34 ft) â so big that the characters in it were almost life-sized, but thatâs only the start of what makes it so special. Rembrandt made dramatic use of light and shadow and also created the perception of motion in what would normally be a stationary military group portrait. Unfortunately, though, the painting was trimmed in 1715 to fit between two doors at Amsterdam City Hall.
For over 300 years, the painting has been missing 60cm (2ft) from the left, 22cm from the top, 12cm from the bottom and 7cm from the right. Now, computer software has restored the missing parts.
âWeâre excited to share that AWS has acquired Wickr, an innovative company that has developed the industryâs most secure, end-to-end encrypted, communication technology,â Stephen Schmidt, Amazon Web Servicesâ vice president, wrote. With a nod to the companyâs ever-deepening relationships with the military, and Washington in general, Schmidt added that Wickrâs features give âsecurity conscious enterprises and government agencies the ability to implement important governance and security controls to help them meet their compliance requirements.â Schmidt himself has a background in this space: his LinkedIn profile notes he spent a decade at the FBI.
Wickrâs app â like secure messaging competitor Signal â has been popular with journalists and whistleblowers; itâs also been a go-to for criminals, Motherboard notes. Itâs unclear if the proximity to the tech monolith will impact the appâs popularity for free users.
In Amazonâs case, Schmidt indicates the acquisition was at least partially influenced by the need to preserve information security while working remotely. âWith the move to hybrid work environments, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises and government agencies have a growing desire to protect their communications,â he wrote.
