Defense Systems

ORLANDO, Fla.—It took some adjustment to nestle the heel of the M4 rifle in the pocket of my shoulder. I lined up the iron sights with the bullseye and squeezed the trigger three times in quick succession. The rifle bucked and the…

The Navy never wanted to modernize its Ticonderoga guided-missile cruisers, preferring to spend the money on newer ships and technology. But lawmakers balked at losing hulls and missile tubes, and ordered the service to refit some of its…

The Marine Corps is pouring $269 million into a secretive project to upgrade the service’s tactical systems to better integrate across agencies, and another $715 million to design and test its new littoral warfighting systems.The two…

ORLANDO, Fla.—The Navy’s most advanced fighter jets can’t partake in a key aspect of modern tactical training: “injecting” distant or even imaginary aircraft into their systems so aviators can practice scenarios too difficult or costly to…

Aviators aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have been using simulators to practice as a group at sea—and the Navy’s air boss wants to replicate that across the strike group and beyond. “I send about 24 young warfighters down to the…

ORLANDO, Fla.—The Pentagon’s top body in charge of developing military requirements is expected to release new data standards next year that will make it easier for combatant commands and services to conduct large scale exercises in virtual…

ORLANDO, Fla.—Training models and simulations need to “move beyond the physical domains” to keep pace with global threats, said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We have some holes in our swing from a…

ORLANDO, Fla.—When the Army introduces a new combat vehicle, like the $19 million M10 Bookers that began arriving earlier this year, its Test and Evaluation Command blows several of them up. The command’s leader wants to know whether…

The Defense Department is a sclerotic monopsony whose communist approach to acquisition has the United States on a precipice, writes Palantir’s chief technology officer, who prescribes a “painful” but “necessary” reformation based on…

The Army is moving its personnel and pay system to the cloud, an effort that has begun in earnest with the hiring of Oracle to host the HR records of more than 1 million soldiers.Announced last month, the effort will move the guts of the…