Defense

President Donald Trump announced Monday the U.S. will build a new generation of “Trump class” battleships, in an effort to advance his vision of building a “Golden Fleet.” Trump, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said construction of two vessels would start “almost immediately,” with the eventual goal of expanding…

The Joint Interagency Task Force 401, established by the Pentagon as the military’s lead counter-drone organization, plans to share data with the Golden Dome missile defense project to defend against threats from larger drones, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF 401, said at a media roundtable Friday. “Our integrated counter-UAS posture across the homeland has to be tied into…

PARIS — French defense-electronics firm Thales has developed a miniaturized sonar that can equip underwater drones to detect submarines, with plans to demonstrate the system to the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy at an event on Wednesday. The new system brings a “dramatic reduction” in size and weight from traditional sonar systems, Ian McFarlane, sales director for underwater systems at…

It might seem inconceivable that the use of drones in future battles would have come to the forefront of discussions of NATO strategy in the 1950s, but that is exactly what happened when Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery delivered an address to the Royal United Services Institute in 1954. Montgomery, who helped create the foundations of NATO and was then serving as its Deputy Supreme Allied…