A six-page White House policy memo released Tuesday directs the Pentagon and NASA to deploy low- to mid-power nuclear reactors in orbit as early as 2028 and on the lunar surface as early as 2030, launching a dual design competition between the two agencies. The policy was unveiled at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs by Michael Kratsios, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Space-based nuclear power would enable the persistent operation of missile warning systems, strategic communications, directed-energy weapons, jamming capabilities, and military data centers. The Pentagon has 90 days to brief the White House on relevant use cases and payloads for the systems.

Space policy analysts describe the timeline as aggressive. No nuclear reactors currently operate in space, and no operational microreactors exist in the United States. The Army has separately aimed to break ground on a ground-based microreactor at a U.S. base by 2027, offering a potential parallel proving ground for the technology.

U.S. Central Command announced that more than 10,000 American personnel, including sailors, Marines, and airmen, are enforcing a maritime blockade targeting vessels entering or departing Iranian ports. The operation spans the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft involved. Within the first 24 hours, no vessels successfully passed through; six merchant ships were intercepted and directed to return to Iranian ports.

The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, totaling approximately 3,500 sailors and Marines, are serving as the mission's flagship element. CENTCOM emphasized that the blockade applies to vessels of all nationalities bound for or departing Iranian ports, and will be enforced impartially without impeding broader freedom of navigation.

The operation follows failed peace talks between the U.S. and Iran and represents a significant escalation in economic pressure. Separately, experts are flagging the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen as a secondary chokepoint that Iranian-backed Houthis could leverage to expand maritime disruption into the Red Sea.

Photos published April 4 on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service show Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit training aboard USS Portland with the SMASH 2000L advanced fire control system, a smart scope mounted on M4 carbines that tracks drones and other moving targets and automatically calculates ballistics. Smart Shooter Inc. confirmed the optic's identification. The 11th MEU, with approximately 2,500 Marines, is currently embarked aboard the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group en route to the Middle East.

The SMASH 2000L withholds the firing signal until the optimal moment to score a hit, and can be overridden to allow manual fire. A Pentagon counter-drone task force awarded Smart Shooter a contract for these systems in March. The Marine Corps began fielding the SMASH 2000L in 2025, prioritizing units scheduled to deploy.

The fielding reflects a broader institutional push across the Marine Corps to equip all Marines, not just infantry, with tools to detect, track, and defeat small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at the dismounted level. The Corps has described the UAS threat as one affecting every Marine regardless of specialty.

REGENT's Squire unmanned seaglider completed its first flight, skimming just above the waterline in a demonstration that marks the first time a defense-specific wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) craft has flown in the United States. The Squire blends boat and aircraft characteristics, reaching speeds up to 70 knots with a range exceeding 100 nautical miles, while carrying payloads up to 50 pounds for logistics, medical evacuation, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

The Squire was unveiled earlier this year at the Seabee Museum, where officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, highlighted gaps in rapid maritime deployment capability. REGENT is positioning the platform to fill these gaps, offering a system capable of fast movement and rapid mission adaptation where conventional platforms face limitations.

The platform's modular payload architecture and speed-to-wave-tolerance ratio differentiate it from existing surface systems. No comparable production systems currently exist on the market at Squire's stated price point, according to REGENT. The successful flight adds momentum to an ongoing test campaign aimed at operational employment.

Florida-based Safe Pro Group has introduced NODE-X, a miniaturized edge computing system that processes raw drone footage without internet connectivity and generates 3D, threat-annotated battlefield maps in real time. The system uses algorithms trained on more than 2.6 million drone images and 47,000 confirmed sightings of small threats, covering 150 types of landmines and cluster munitions.

NODE-X is designed as a backpack-portable kit with a Windows-based interface simple enough for any soldier to operate, and is compatible with short-range reconnaissance drones already in U.S. military inventory. The system plots the safest route for troops in contact, identifying threats across the surrounding environment and feeding actionable targeting data to commanders.

NODE-X is scheduled to participate in U.S. Army exercises in the second quarter of 2026 as Safe Pro scales production. The company cited increasing demand signals from the defense market for AI-enabled edge solutions that can operate in GPS-denied and communications-degraded environments.

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