In The News

Samuel Bendett said, “[The strikes are] evidence that Ukraine has studied Russian air defenses and can now develop tactics to identify weak coverage areas and gaps, to concentrate drone attacks on certain areas, and take advantage of the fact that many key Russian facilities do not have adequate defensive capabilities against such long-range drone strikes.”

Joshua Tallis wrote, “Thanks to programs like Replicator, and incubators like the Defense Innovation Unit and the Disruptive Capabilities Office, the Navy is on the precipice of widespread adoption of uncrewed systems. These systems bring with them the prospect of new technologies, new operational designs and, potentially, new business models.”

Dmitry Gorenburg said, "[Russia's] been quite eager to develop this Northern Sea Route. They had visions of using the route, which runs through Russia's Exclusive Economic Zone, as an alternative to the southern routes via the Suez or Panama Canals. The Arctic route can cut transit times down by as much as 20 days."

Samuel Bendett said, "AI drone control systems would likely need a human in the loop to prevent the system making errors in target selection."

Megan McBride said, "U.S. leaders have a brief window to cool partisan hatred before a retaliatory cycle emerges. Research shows that support for political violence increases when people believe the other side supports it. There’s nothing inevitable about a progression from the threat of violence to violence itself"

Dmitry Filipoff said, “[The PLA] capability poses a very serious threat to the U.S. Navy, and the way DMO is trying to counter this is by shifting the source of survivability away from defensive firepower and towards counter targeting.”

Samuel Bendett commented on Russia building ground-based robots out of hoverboards.

Dan Lawrence and Ken Novak write, "In recent years, the psychological impact associated with ‘being a police officer’ has been brought into sharp focus. However, little has been reported on absences due to psychological illness, specifically in functions more frequently exposed to Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs). This paper presents data collected from 23 territorial Forces in England and Wales covering 2019–2023 on ‘Frontline’ and ‘Response’ officer absence(s) attributed to psychological illness(es)."

Samuel Bendett said, “Ukraine is building its own supply chain for carbon fiber frames and propellers, which are easy to source domestically even if they cost more than their Chinese equivalents. Also designed locally are the wireless communication chips, which use noncommercial frequencies that are harder to jam. And it makes reusable drones that carry FPV equipment deep into enemy territory.”

Decker Eveleth said, "The sites' long history with Iran's missile program – Shahid Modarres is considered by some experts as its birthplace - and the numerous dirt berms support their assessment that Tehran is expanding ballistic missile production."

Samuel Bendett said, “The consequences, for Russian drone operators on the front line, include poor quality overall and significant technical issues, like FPVs not able to take to the air when out of the box on the frontlines. Sure, the Russians might build as many drones as the Ukrainians do, but how many Russian UAVs actually work?”

Sea Control 534 – NATO’s Navies at 75 with Dr. Josh Tallis

Samuel Bendett explained, “Adding [turtle tanks as a] type of protection to ground drones is a new trend, but not one that is surprising when the battlefields in Ukraine are filled with FPV drones and other uncrewed vehicles on the attack. We have already witnessed instances of attacks by FPVs on UGVs—both Russian and Ukrainian—so this type of defense was probably a matter of time.”

Samuel Bendett notes, “Part of the official resistance to such purely commercial products had to do with these drones’ inability to withstand electronic warfare and other countermeasures as purely commercial products.” 

Dmitry Filipoff writes, “Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) is the US Navy’s service warfighting concept. However, the concept suffers from a wide variety of interpretations across the service and needs more specificity regarding on what warfighting approaches it is concentrating.”

Dawn Thomas said, “[Santa Clara County fining nearly 400 businesses] was a far higher rate than virtually all other surrounding Bay Area counties at that time, with little evidence the fines resulted in better public health outcomes in Santa Clara than in the other counties in the region... Many people, even public health experts, struggled with interpreting the health orders and how the frequent changes affected daily activities and business status. This challenge was magnified for the business community.”