JIATF-401 (Joint Interagency Task Force 401) announced that five installations will receive high-energy lasers and high-powered microwave systems under a directed-energy counter-UAS (unmanned aerial system) pilot program: Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Huachuca in Arizona, Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and Naval Base Kitsap in Washington.

The installations are strategically significant: Whiteman AFB hosts the Air Force's entire B-2 Spirit stealth bomber fleet, Naval Base Kitsap supports submarines and aircraft carriers, and Fort Huachuca is home to the Army's intelligence and IT training enterprise. Commanders and the Pentagon will finalize operational details over the next 180 days, with all systems targeted to be operational before year's end.

The pilot program follows U.S. Northern Command's disclosure of drone incursions over U.S. military installations and reports of dozens of small UAS encounters near the southern border. The AMP-HEL (Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser) and AeroVironment's LOCUST system are among the candidate platforms; a landmark Pentagon-FAA safety agreement signed in March governs the use of directed-energy weapons in domestic airspace.

The Pentagon launched "Deal Team Six," a unit of elite private-sector negotiators embedded within the Economic Defense Unit, tasked with renegotiating defense contracts to hold companies financially responsible for factory expansions, assembly lines, and cost overruns in exchange for guaranteed, steady long-term production orders from the department.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth framed the initiative as a correction to what he described as decades of contractor "double-dipping," in which companies charged taxpayers for both factory construction and the finished weapons, while executives collected bonuses despite chronic schedule delays and cost overruns. The unit formally stood up in early April and is funded at over $593 million in the FY2027 (fiscal year 2027) budget request.

George Kollitides, formerly head of defense at Cerberus Capital Management, was named director of Deal Team Six. Hegseth warned in an announcement video that companies unwilling to accept new terms would be replaced; the initiative is the operational arm of his broader effort to dismantle the Defense Acquisition System and replace it with a "Warfighting Acquisition System" designed to accelerate procurement timelines and increase production volumes.

Pentagon CTO Emil Michael and Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy Katie Sutton told the SCSP AI+Expo (Special Competitive Studies Project) that Anthropic's Mythos model is not unique, representing only the first in a coming wave of cyber-capable AI from companies including OpenAI, xAI, and Google, all of which are expected to develop comparable capabilities within approximately the next year.

Sutton argued that the real strategic opportunity in Mythos-class tools lies on the defensive side: AI that can detect and patch vulnerable code in "minutes to seconds" rather than in weeks could allow DoD to finally address decades of accumulated software debt in its legacy systems, shrinking the attack surface faster than adversaries can exploit it.

Michael acknowledged the Pentagon had made the mistake of becoming over-reliant on Anthropic products, stating that "never again will we be single-threaded with any one model." As evidence of a diversified approach, he cited last week's announcement that eight U.S. tech firms, all excluding Anthropic, had been cleared to deploy AI on classified networks, describing the move as validation of broad industry commitment to national security AI work.

Undersecretary for Acquisition Michael Duffey elevated the Navy's F/A-XX next-generation carrier fighter to ACAT-1 (Acquisition Category 1), the Pentagon's highest acquisition priority tier, placing it alongside programs such as the F-35 fighter, the Sentinel ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), and the Columbia-class nuclear submarine, signaling that DoD leadership has set aside earlier skepticism about the program's viability.

The designation comes as the F/A-XX approaches a contract award decision expected around August 2026, with Boeing and Northrop Grumman as the remaining finalists after Lockheed Martin was eliminated from the competition in early 2025. Congress effectively rescued the program in FY2026 by inserting $1.69 billion in funding over administration objections, though FY2027 F/A-XX funding remains far below the $5 billion the Air Force received for its F-47.

The F/A-XX is designed to eventually replace more than 470 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and will feature advanced stealth, extended range, and compatibility with uncrewed combat aircraft. Debate continues over whether Boeing and Northrop Grumman can absorb the F/A-XX workload alongside their other sixth-generation commitments, specifically Boeing's F-47 and Northrop's B-21 Raider stealth bomber.

France's carrier strike group, led by aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle (R91), transited the Suez Canal on May 6 and is now operating in the Middle East as part of a France-United Kingdom coalition seeking to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. French President Emmanuel Macron framed the deployment as a mission that will be "purely defensive, purely support" and "distinct from the warring parties."

The group includes air defense frigate FS Chevalier Paul (D621), one to two French Navy FREMM (Frégate Européenne Multi-Missions)-class frigates, fleet oiler FS Jacques Chevallier (A725), and possibly a nuclear-powered attack submarine. The strike group had been operating in the Mediterranean with allied frigates from Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands before its deployment south through the Suez Canal this week.

The arrival of the Charles de Gaulle coincides with an acute escalation in the Strait: Iranian fast attack craft attacked commercial vessels this week, injuring eight seafarers and leaving one vessel abandoned. Three U.S. Navy destroyers, USS Mason (DDG-87), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), and USS Truxton (DDG-103), came under fire from Iran while transiting toward the Gulf of Oman, underscoring the volatile operational environment the French CSG (carrier strike group) is entering.

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