With a revolution in machine learning sweeping the private sector, the Pentagon is focused on how to leverage those breakthroughs.

According to Breaking Defense, “Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin said last week that he wants to use it to bring together Pentagon planners and the intelligence community, allowing them to sit shoulder to shoulder and collaborate. They’ll also be tasked with working on ways to get the plodding government tech acquisition community to buy in on AI and organize the almost 600 projects being worked at the Pentagon that involve some form of AI.

” The center is one of the recommendations from the Defense Innovation Board: “This center should coordinate research in these areas across the department and liaise with other labs in the private sector and universities and should also conduct educational efforts to inform the department about the implications of these advances for the defense enterprise.”

​We will continue to follow their work and report back investable opportunities as they arise. Click here for more.

For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

The attack in Toronto that killed 10 pedestrians early this week highlights the alarming global spread of a terror technique that ISIS used effectively in Iraq and Syria.

In response, the U.S. military’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWD) is rapidly working on a new directed energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop a moving vehicle from a distance. Initially conceived as an element of force protection for critical sites, it is being reimagined for strategic placement in urban centers. 

​Click here for more details.

For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

Research teams at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the Jilin Earthquake Agency in Changchun have separately concluded that North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, tunneled 700 meters below Mount Mantap, collapsed on Sept. 3, 2017, following the underground test of a 100-kiloton nuclear explosion.

What was not discussed in the press coverage was the fact that seismologists were surprised to register a second event exactly 8 1/2; minutes later.

Longtime DTA subscribers will recall our description of this collapse in the weeks following the September test and our speculation of U.S. involvement following Secretary of Defense Mattis’ comments on possible “kinetic” options for North Korea. Whether an accident or kinetic attack, the Chinese confirmation of this collapse has revealed the weakness of the North Korean negotiating position going into the summit with the United States.

However, the U.S. media and the political leadership in South Korea are acting as though North Korea is making major concessions by announcing “the closure” of their nuclear facilities. 

​Click here for an analysis of the complex pressures facing President Trump from both the North and South Korean leadership.

For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

There is a famous observation, often misattributed to Einstein, that “computers are fast, accurate and stupid. Humans are slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together, they are powerful beyond imagination.”

DARPA is leveraging that power with a program called Computers and Humans Exploring Software Security (CHESS). Brian Pierce, director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office described the program to Nextgov. “The goal,” reports Nextgov, “is to mix autonomous and semi-autonomous cybersecurity systems with human cyber experts who can work out some of the abstract problems that computers aren’t as good at solving.”

As DTA subscribers know, this combination of human and machine intelligence is at the very heart of our Meraglim project with Jim Rickards, so we follow advances in this sector closely. In fact, we will do a deeper dive into this subject for our subscribers in next week’s essay.

In the meantime, click here for more.
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For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

“Right now in Syria, we are operating in the most aggressive EW [electronic warfare] environment on the planet from our adversaries. They are testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our EC-130s, etc.” This was the report by Gen. Raymond Thomas, commander of Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), to an audience of some 2,000 intelligence professionals.

Per Breaking Defense, “‘The Russians have redone and reengineered their entire EW fleet in the last 20 years,’ notes Laurie Moe Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who specializes in EW. After the Russians attacked Georgia, they concluded they needed to upgrade their EW capabilities, she says. ‘The Russians put in millions on upgrades after Georgia. They’ve ended up with killer capabilities, jamming in a multitude of frequencies for hundreds of kilometers.’”

More accustomed to focus on cyberwarfare, this is an alarming breach of the physical world. Click here for the summary by Futurism with links to more details.
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For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

What if you could see into the future? What if your investment strategy relied on advance knowledge of how world markets and business trends would play out? Well, it may sound like science fiction, but one team is making it a reality. The experts at Meraglim have created a predictive analytics system using AI technology to forecast market moves months ahead of time.
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Joining us today is Meraglim Founder & CEO, Kevin Massengill. He’s a former Army Ranger qualified officer, a successful businessman, and an investment visionary. His data-driven perspective on investment and market predictions is changing the game. He’s here to share with us more about predictive analytics and offer some key insights on developing investment opportunities.

While initial DOD reports stated that only cruise missiles were involved in the strikes on suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities, it turns out that manned aircraft did go “over the beach.”

The F-22 Raptors did not deliver ordinance as part of the strike package but were providing overwatch for American ground forces in Syria. According to Capt. Mark Graff, spokesman for AFCENT, the Air Force component of U.S. Central Command, "Thanks to its unique fifth-generation capabilities, the F-22 was the only airframe suited to operate inside the Syrian integrated air defense systems, offering an option with which to neutralize [integrated air defense system] threats to our forces and installations in the region and provide protective air support for U.S. coalition and partners on the ground in Syria."

​So much for Russian claims of overwhelming success in intercepting U.S. cruise missiles. If they had activated an air defense system radar, an F-22 would have responded with alacrity. Click here for more.

For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

We have recently described the coordinated and distributed technology theft by foreign students in American universities.

Now we read that in a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate and control Chinese students abroad, the Chinese are coordinating with American universities to allow the formation of branches of Chinese communist party cells.

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian has published a report in Foreign Policy of the presence and mission of PRC cells in numerous U.S. states and in foreign countries. 

Click here for more.
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For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

“Hypersonic vehicles travel at least five times the speed of sound, putting forward bases and carrier battle groups at risk,” Breaking Defense reports.

In congressional testimony earlier this week, Michael Griffin, new undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, described the advances China and Russia have made in hypersonic technology and the U.S. plans to catch up.

“Our adversaries are presenting us today with a renewed challenge of a sophisticated, evolving threat,” Griffin said on Tuesday. “We are in turn preparing to meet that challenge and to restore the technical overmatch of the United States armed forces that we have traditionally held.”

The next day, the U.S Air Force announced the first award of almost $1 billion to Lockheed Martin for a “hypersonic conventional strike weapon.” According to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek, this is the first of two programs to “accelerate hypersonic research and development.”

The second is the DARPA Tactical Boost Glide program, expected to be in prototype by 2023. Click here for more.
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For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

The terrifying in-flight explosion of an engine on a Boeing 737 commercial airliner highlights the fact that any technology can fail over time. But the calm professionalism of Southwest Airlines Capt. Tammie Jo Shults, credited with saving the lives of 148 passengers aboard the crippled passenger jet, reminds us of the easily overlooked importance of courageous and well-trained personnel operating that technology.

Capt. Shults, one of the U.S. Navy’s first female fighter pilots, is the personification of that courage and competence. 

​Click here for more.

For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.