Defense

MILAN — Belgium has embarked on a major acquisition push to accelerate the procurement of counter-drone systems, including surveillance radars and drone guns. The ramp-up is part of the country’s €50 million ($59 million) anti-drone plan following a recent surge in illegal drone overflights near or above airports, military bases, and nuclear-weapons storage sites. Belgian defense minister…

The Air Force’s first T-7 Red Hawk trainer assigned to an operational unit landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas on Dec. 5, opening the door to the service’s new era of pilot training. A lot more work remains, however, before the T-7 is officially folded into day-to-day activities to train the next generation of Air Force pilots. The Boeing-made T-7 is the service’s first new…

The Defense Department on Tuesday launched a major push to get military personnel, civilian employees and contractors to use generative artificial intelligence capabilities, located on its own website. Google Cloud’s Gemini for Government is the first AI capability to be launched on GenAI.mil, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on social media Tuesday. “The future of…

Congress’ proposed compromise National Defense Authorization Act would authorize $900.6 billion in discretionary defense spending in fiscal 2026, which would be an $8 billion increase over the Pentagon’s budget request this summer. The NDAA language, which lawmakers released Sunday night, would earmark $162 billion for procurement spending, and another $146 billion for research, development…