Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here.
For decades, the U.S. military’s dream of high-energy laser weapons has been perpetually “five years away.”
Now, the Pentagon says it wants to finally make them an operational reality within the next three.
Speaking on a panel at…
PARIS — The United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland, together with several other countries, are in talks to set up a financial institution that would provide funding for joint multi-year defense projects, similar to the European Investment Bank but focused on…
The U.S. Navy is taking steps toward remedying ongoing maintenance delays by enlisting the help of artificial intelligence and robotic systems, the service announced.
The sea service reached an agreement with the Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, the company confirmed…
As missile and drone attacks intensify across the Middle East, U.S. forces are leaning heavily on air defense systems like the Patriot missile battery to intercept incoming threats.
The Patriot system is widely used to defend against incoming missiles and drones using radar and interceptor missiles — such as the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, interceptor — to engage incoming…
PARIS — European NATO allies pushed back against demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, weeks after Iran shut down the majority of shipping through the critical trade artery in response to the American-Israeli war against the…
SETERMOEN, Norway — Norway’s elite soldiers for Arctic warfare swear by an old-fashioned method for staying hidden from drones’ sophisticated sensors: quinzhees, or snow caves, carefully dug by hand.
Deep in Norwegian woods, some 400 kilometers away from the Russian…
CAIRO — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments as oil prices soar during the Iran war.
The president declined to name the countries heavily reliant on Middle East crude that the administration is negotiating with to join a coalition to police the waterway where…
ROME — Fincantieri is ready to build everything from corvettes and unmanned vessels to ice breakers and cable laying ships for the U.S. government as it rebounds from the cancellation of the Constellation frigate program, a senior official has said.
“We are ready to take…
After Ukraine, FPV drones could take on Arctic warfare
March 16, 2026
Setermoen, Norway — Following their success in Ukraine, Arctic nations are assessing whether first-person-view drones could be deployed on Arctic battlefields.
Roughly 240 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, two soldiers — part of the Norwegian Armed Forces’…
Ukraine is giving international partners and defense companies access to its vast trove of real combat data to train artificial intelligence models for autonomous drone systems — a move Kyiv is calling “the first initiative of its kind in the world.”
Officials approved a resolution this week launching a new cooperation framework between the state, domestic defense companies and foreign…