The Army's Operation Jailbreak, a sprint launched in early May to eliminate manufacturer software restrictions and enable interoperability across legacy and new equipment, has already delivered command-and-control patches to CENTCOM (Central Command). The first systems jailbroken were C2 platforms and counter-UAS (unmanned aerial systems) radars, cameras, and effectors that previously could not share data with each other.

Army Chief Technology Officer Alex Miller confirmed that updates are being actively pushed to CENTCOM, though none have been used in offensive operations, given the relative pause in fighting during Operation Epic Fury. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll set a hard benchmark: if most patches haven't reached CENTCOM within 30 days, the effort will have failed.

The hackathon, running at Fort Carson with hardware from portfolio acquisition executive fires, also produced the first DoD-wide Application Programming Interface (API) marketplace for documenting and sharing system interfaces. The Army is already planning follow-on sprints that could expand to joint force and allied partners.

Colorado-based AimLock and FN America unveiled "Dune" at SOF (Special Operations Forces) Week 2026 in Tampa, pairing AimLock's Core Targeting Module AI software with FN America's Defnder medium remote weapon station (RWS) to create a system that autonomously detects and engages small drones without operator input.

Dune can be armed with a .50-caliber machine gun, proven against Iranian Shaheds and Russian Geran drones in Ukraine, and is compatible with multiple calibers, including 30x133mm cannon rounds and programmable grenade launcher rounds, giving operators flexibility based on available ammunition.

Mounted on a 6x6 utility terrain vehicle for the demonstration, Dune is positioned as a deployable last-line defense when electronic warfare (EW) systems fail. Multi-caliber compatibility reduces reliance on specialized heavy platforms and lowers the overall cost and complexity of fielding organic counter-drone capability.

Reuters analysis of satellite imagery reveals more than 80 launch pads, bunkers, and communications nodes under construction near China's nuclear missile silo fields in Xinjiang, linked to two octagon-shaped military installations built over the past six years. Analysts say the infrastructure is designed to ensure China can absorb a first strike and still retaliate with its land-based nuclear forces.

The network could support mobile missile launchers, air defense batteries, electronic warfare, and command-and-control operations, according to three security scholars who assessed the imagery for Reuters. Pentagon reports estimate China is on track to field 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, and one analyst at the Federation of American Scientists described the scale of the complex as "extraordinary."

China maintains a no-first-use nuclear policy, but some analysts warn that hardened second-strike infrastructure could enable nuclear coercion to limit outside involvement in a future Taiwan conflict. The construction spans thousands of square kilometers of remote desert, connecting the octagon installations to the nearby Hami intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo fields via roads and suspected fiber-optic conduits.

RTX subsidiary BBN Technologies unveiled PACE4ACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency for Agile Combat Employment), a communications architecture designed to automatically select the best available link and reroute traffic without operator input, maintaining uninterrupted data flow in contested environments.

Tested with Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) funding across four geographically dispersed sites, the system kept Open Mission Systems and Team Awareness Kit (TAK) applications synchronized even as jamming degraded high-capacity links, automatically shifting traffic to the next available waveform.

PACE4ACE operates over satellite links, low-power tactical radios, and commercial and military pathways, with self-healing functions that ensure continuity when links are disrupted. The plug-and-play interface enables integration with existing mission systems, targeting scenarios where communication loss in a jammed environment would otherwise be mission-ending.

The Army selected BAE Systems for its Soft Kill Active Protection System (APS) program of record, with the first phase valued at $20 million. The system uses BAE's ROOK (Rapid Optical Observation and Kill) program to defeat threats by jamming or confusing missile systems and drones before they reach ground vehicles, offering what the company calls "infinite magazine depth."

ROOK is a development of BAE's TERRA RAVEN system, which won the Army's 2019 Soft Kill Rodeo competition and was subsequently assessed for integration on Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The contract also supports BAE's Stormclaw laser-based countermeasure system, which uses directed energy to defeat airborne threats.

The award arrives as the Pentagon's fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget request includes nearly $1 billion for counter-drone procurement, driven by the demonstrated effectiveness of low-cost first-person-view (FPV) drones against armored vehicles in modern warfare. Non-kinetic approaches are increasingly preferred to reduce the risk of collateral damage in densely populated or sensitive environments.

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