As reports emerge that President Trump will tap Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone as his new NSA Chief, let me direct you to Nakasone's keynote interview at Defense One's Tech Summit held this past July. Nakasone touches on everything from military cyber policy to the procedure for modern war games with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron. 

The interview with Nakasone begins around 3:26:30 in this video:
​ http://www.defenseone.com/feature/defense-one-tech-summit-2017/#watch-now

The U.S. Army Reserve is training 10,000 soldiers for major combat operations against a near-peer competitor like China and Russia.

The nationwide exercises named “Operation Cold Steel II” will involve intensive heavy weapons live-fire exercises with crew-served machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, systems most of these reservists will not have seen since their basic combat training.

While nowhere near the scope of the 400,000-man Louisiana Maneuvers conducted just prior to the U.S. entry into WWII, given heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the timing is of interest. 

​Click here for more.

While the services have extensive cybersecurity-trained members, and although the services are each the size and complexity of a Fortune 100 company, there are almost no software developers in all of the DoD due to understaffing issues. That is about to change.

Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Google/Alphabet, and other members of the Defense Innovation Board have routinely pointed out the terrible costs in inefficiency and duplication that comes from this startling gap in capability that would be inconceivable for any modern company.

It’s not like the military doesn’t know how to train in difficult tasks. As a young soldier in Army military intelligence, your editor spent over 18 months in intensive Russian language, Soviet order of battle and technical intelligence training before reporting to his unit.

​In this case, software developers could be trained in less than six months following coding training programs similar to those running in every major city.

​We’ll keep our eye on investable opportunities. Click here for more on this fascinating topic.

Given that the title is a quote of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it should come as no surprise that Russia’s defense industry is spending a lot of R&D effort in the artificial intelligence field.

From aerial, seaborne and land-based UAVs to vigorous debate about the proper role of AI in lethal delivery systems, Russian defense and policy planners are hard at work on the subject. While the U.S. still enjoys a technological lead in most of these systems, the development cycle times are decreasing every year.

As many readers know, this is a subject near and dear to your editor’s heart because of my current AI project, Meraglim.com, with Jim Rickards, so we will watch this sector closely for investable opportunities. 

​Click here for more details of Russia’s interesting work in the field.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new research program, Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems(DRINQS, of course), designed to extend the life of quantum sensors and devices. 

"One exciting potential application for extremely precise atomic-based time measurements is measuring gravitational fields, which could be very useful in tunnel and cave detection,” DARPA program manager Ale Lukaszew said. “In principle, existing atomic clocks can keep time precisely enough to measure gravitational field differences over the distance of a few feet, but it could take weeks to process the measurement. If we can engineer a system that doesn’t lose its coherence as fast and can be re-tuned very quickly, we could potentially make those same measurements in half an hour.”

As esoteric as that sounds, the applications can be fairly down to earth, so we will continue to monitor the field for investment opportunities.

If you have been following our essays on the latest developments in quantum computing, then you know that all modern encryption systems operate by scrambling information with complex algorithms. This works fine right up until it doesn’t.

Now all of the world’s encryption protocols are at risk, as quantum computing promises computers so powerful that what used to require several years of “brute force hacking” will be able to be broken in mere minutes. This offers great promise for the country that masters quantum technology first and great peril for everyone else whose communications and defense systems will be as exposed as an FBI text message to a mistress.

I don’t have to tell you that we are on this like a DoJ IG and will bring you investable opportunities as soon as we find them. 

​Click here for the latest efforts of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST’s) Cryptographic Technology Group

Seafaring drones that operate on the surface and underwater are in the development phase.

Powered by both wind and solar generated energy, these innovative ocean drones show great potential for naval operations.

​We’ll watch this area closely for investing opportunities.

Carbon fiber is becoming an integral part of military hardware.

It’s been used in jet and helicopter engines for its ability to withstand high temperatures. But newer applications are being tested, from robots to missile launchers, making for a lighter and stronger military.

​As always, we’ll let you know of any investment opportunities.

Small, exceptionally and electric-powered UAVs can now spend extended periods of time loitering around a target area. This loitering aspect lets them carefully and accurately select small targets even in complex urban environments.

​Their cooler and quieter power source and high speeds make them tough to detect. We’ll target around any investment opportunities that may come up.