🕵️ The Navy is building a seabed spy submarine

Intelligence Community CIO Douglas Cossa said agentic AI has spun Zero Trust on its head, since autonomous agents need broad access to data, tools, and systems.

The government has no unified cross-agency identity system for non-human users, and the IC is redefining Zero Trust as identity plus fine-grained policy enforcement.

That redefinition becomes an IC service of common concern this year, and Special Operations Command is making a parallel shift in how it defends its networks.

Saronic opened a 30,000-square-foot test and commissioning site at the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi, where its first Marauder medium unmanned surface vessel has run trials since mid-July.

The 54.9-meter Marauder carries 150 metric tons, ranges 5,400 nautical miles, exceeds 25 knots, and moved from keel laying to on-water trials in under a year.

Additional hulls under construction at Saronic's Franklin, Louisiana yard will transfer to Gulfport, giving the company a dedicated delivery pipeline as large USV production scales.

West Point Cadet Alex Anteen is developing alternative engagement algorithms with Army DEVCOM Armaments Center engineers to match the right countermeasure to each incoming drone.

The algorithms weigh speed, altitude, payload capacity, and swarm density, using machine learning and probabilistic models to reserve expensive weapons for high-value targets.

Now in simulation against multi-axis swarm attacks, early results show better engagement efficiency and slower depletion of air defense rounds without hardware modifications.

Raytheon and Composite Energy Technologies demonstrated HADALUS launching while submerged during a recent US Navy exercise, the first time the service has seen the integrated capability in the water.

The 10.4-meter vehicle uses a free-flooded carbon fiber exoskeleton, exceeds 3,700 kilometers of endurance, and is designed to cost one-third to one-fifth as much as comparable vehicles.

The companies went from concept to complete prototype in under 18 months, pointing toward a single undersea platform that detects, reacquires, and engages in one mission.

Hanwha Defense USA made a preliminary, non-binding offer of $1.05 billion to $1.2 billion for Austal USA on a cash and debt-free basis, the company confirmed.

Austal's board approved due diligence to firm up the proposal, which excludes publicly traded Austal shares and leaves the Australasian shipbuilding business intact.

Acquiring Mobile would put a yard building Navy and Coast Guard vessels under South Korean ownership, two years after Austal rejected Hanwha's bid for the entire company.

The Navy confirmed that one Block V Virginia class boat will be built without the Virginia Payload Module and configured instead as a subsea and seabed warfare platform.

The one-off submarine will repurpose the space set aside for four large vertical launch tubes to work directly with the seafloor, a role now filled by USS Jimmy Carter.

Block V boats deliver between 2028 and 2034, replacing a Seawolf variant commissioned in 2005 as undersea cables and seabed infrastructure become contested terrain.

The Defense Department is standing up FutureTEX, its ninth Manufacturing Innovation Institute, at Gaston College in Belmont, North Carolina, to revive domestic fiber and textile production.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology Joseph Jewell said reliance on foreign manufacturing has created unacceptable vulnerabilities across uniforms, parachutes, and camouflage.

The institute will apply advanced automation and robotics to bring fiber and textile manufacturing back onshore after decades of offshore production.

Tekever to deliver AR5 surveillance drones to Portugal — Read More

Air Force robot builds C-17 part Boeing couldn't source — Read More

DARPA seeks a next-generation hypersonic cruise missile — Read More

Army looks at 50mm cannons for drone defense — Read More

Theodore Roosevelt becomes first MQ-25 capable carrier — Read More

Germany, Norway and Canada prepare Type 212CD contract — Read More

Marines 3D print raiding craft and drones in theater — Read More

Lockheed's next-generation interceptor clears two motor tests — Read More

Air Force wants AI to manage Minuteman III data — Read More

Lockheed launches Strigo modular missile and sensor line — Read More