👁️ Eyes Everywhere: US Army Combat Vehicles Set for 360° Vision Upgrade

📬 In Today’s Defense Brief

🦅 Northrop, Kratos team picked for Marine Corps drone wingmen — Read More

👁️ Eyes Everywhere: US Army Combat Vehicles Set for 360° Vision Upgrade — Read More

🧱 Israel Develops Advanced Border Defense System With Human-Machine Control — Read More

🧠 MQ-9B Drone Picks Up a New ‘Brain’ for Data-Heavy Missions — Read More

🎓 US Aviation Academy lands $835M USAF contract to deliver initial pilot training — Read More

🎱 Plus 7 other news stories you may like

📰 Full Breakdown

📰 Full Breakdown

🦅 Northrop, Kratos team picked for Marine Corps drone wingmen — Read More

• The Marine Corps selected a Northrop Grumman–Kratos team to deliver its first tranche of “drone wingmen” under the MUX TACAIR Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort. Northrop is prime and will integrate mission systems onto Kratos’ XQ-58 Valkyrie, while also providing its Prism open-architecture autonomy software stack.

• The award is structured as a single Other Transaction Agreement with an initial value of $231.5 million and a 24-month initial performance period. Company officials said detailed milestones aren’t being released, but framed the package as a high-capability CCA at a price point intended to enable “affordable mass” alongside crewed aircraft.

• Budget documents cited in the report indicate a fiscal 2026 request of $58 million for MUX TACAIR, funding the delivery of a prototype air vehicle with fully integrated mission systems to demonstrate capabilities such as takeoff/landing and command-and-control. The program is described as rapid prototyping with a spiral, increment-based approach to add capability iteratively.

👁️ Eyes Everywhere: US Army Combat Vehicles Set for 360° Vision Upgrade — Read More

• The Army is moving to upgrade combat vehicles with a 360° situational awareness suite, built around rugged computing and visualization components that fuse multiple cameras/sensors into a continuous “around-the-hull” view. The effort is pitched as a practical leap in crew awareness for buttoned-up operations, especially in cluttered terrain and low-visibility conditions.

• According to the report, the approach centers on high-performance computing that can ingest and process multiple video feeds and present them in a more intuitive, real-time format for vehicle crews. The goal is to reduce blind spots and compress the observe–decide loop without requiring crews to manage a mess of separate displays and sensor widgets.

• The piece frames this as part of a broader push to modernize ground platforms with better onboard processing and sensor fusion—capabilities that matter most when electronic warfare, dust/smoke, and urban clutter degrade traditional visibility and comms. In short: better “eyes” and better “brain” inside the vehicle, not just more sensors bolted on.

🧱 Israel Develops Advanced Border Defense System With Human-Machine Control — Read More

• Israel is fielding a new border-defense concept built around human-machine control, combining sensors and automated functions to tighten detection and response along the border. The system is positioned as a way to maintain persistent surveillance and faster cue-to-action timelines while keeping operators in the loop for critical decisions.

• The report describes a multi-sensor approach—blending surveillance inputs into a unified operational picture so forces can spot, classify, and track threats more reliably than with standalone towers or patrol patterns. It’s aimed at reducing seams and delays that adversaries exploit, especially with small drones, infiltrators, and short-warning events.

• The thrust is “automation where it helps, humans where it matters”: machine assistance for detection, correlation, and alerting—paired with operator control for response. That architecture is meant to scale coverage without scaling manpower in a linear fashion, which is the core constraint in sustained border security operations.

🧠 MQ-9B Drone Picks Up a New ‘Brain’ for Data-Heavy Missions — Read More

• The MQ-9B is getting an onboard “brain” upgrade aimed at data-heavy missions—boosting how the aircraft processes, fuses, and distributes sensor data without leaning as hard on reachback. The article frames it as part of the broader shift toward doing more computing at the edge so crews can act faster when bandwidth is constrained or contested.

• The report highlights onboard computing as the enabler for faster exploitation: ingesting multiple streams, running more advanced onboard analytics, and pushing prioritized outputs rather than raw firehose feeds. That matters for ISR missions where collection is easy, but timely interpretation and dissemination are the real chokepoints.

• Bottom line: more onboard compute makes the aircraft more independent and more responsive—better suited for complex, sensor-rich operations where latency and comms fragility can kill the value of the data. The “new brain” is positioned as a practical modernization step for keeping MQ-9B relevant as mission complexity rises.

🎓 US Aviation Academy lands $835M USAF contract to deliver initial pilot training — Read More

• US Aviation Academy was awarded a 10-year, $835M contract to provide Initial Pilot Training for the U.S. Air Force, covering private pilot, instrument rating, and multi-engine training. Instruction will be delivered across multiple campuses in Texas (Denton, San Marcos, New Braunfels) and Georgia (Peachtree City) using the company’s FAA-approved curriculum and standardized methods.

• The company says it has been investing to scale capacity ahead of performance, including major 2025 spending and a fleet expansion featuring 50+ glass-cockpit aircraft (including Tecnam and Cessna). It also notes simulator investments, including TRU Simulation Veris AR Level 7 flight training devices for the Cessna 172, as well as new/expanded hangar and training facilities.

• US Aviation Academy portrays the award as validation of its ability to deliver consistent outcomes across sites at scale. The report notes the organization’s current footprint—230 aircraft, about 2,000 active students, and roughly 260,000 square feet of facilities—while flagging expectations for continued investment through 2026 as the training pipeline ramps up.

🌏 Other Important News

✈️ Air

• GDIT wins $131M task order to modernize USAF base networks in the Pacific region — Read More

• F-35 Controls Collaborative Combat Aircraft in Cutting-Edge Simulation — Read More

• UK public in the dark on F-35A timelines as MoD data dries up — Read More

🛡️ Land

• A New Ground Robot Built for High-Intensity Missions Joins Ukraine’s Frontline — Read More

• Unofficial first images of U.S. Army’s future M1E3 Abrams tank prototype surface online — Read More

🌊 Sea

• Canadian Icebreaker Design Picked for U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Security Cutters — Read More

🧠 C2

• Digital Data Bridge: UK ‘Solves’ Interoperability With Latest Software — Read More

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