The Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Navy’s Program Office Advanced Undersea Systems (PMS 394) have selected three vendors to prototype and develop Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) platforms.
The DIU says that undersea warfare is critical to success in the Pacific and other contested environments, providing needed autonomous underwater sensing and payload delivery in dispersed, long-range, deep and contested environments is key. In particular, the U.S. military...
Kodiak Robotics delivered a prototype of an autonomously equipped Ford F-150 pickup to the U.S. military, showing it can adapt its robotic driving system to a light-duty vehicle as well as a heavy-duty truck.
The F-150 upfitted with the Kodiak Driver contains both the autonomy hardware and software required to operate a military ground vehicle. The vehicle is designed to handle complex military environments, diverse operational conditions and operate in areas where GPS is sketchy.
The vehicle...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/kodiak-robotics-makes-autonomous-pickup-for-military
In a move to bolster deterrence in the Middle East region and ensure Israel’s security, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has taken further steps by directing the deployment…
https://gcaptain.com/u-s-sends-26th-marine-expeditionary-unit-to-israel/
The U.S. Department of Defense has officially started defueling operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (RHBFSF), it’s largest fuel storage facility located at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam…
https://gcaptain.com/dod-kicks-off-red-hill-defueling-ahead-of-schedule/
U.S. Capitol on Dec. 29, 2022. USNI News Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A mid-year budget review between the Defense Department and congressional committees could be the first step to improve relations between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill over spending, the chair of the commission charged with recommending ways to streamline the process told reporters on Monday.
When the budget is first presented, “an avalanche of information” is sent to Congress, but that slows down with additional data that is often...
https://news.usni.org/2023/08/15/new-report-calls-for-rethink-of-how-dod-presents-budget-to-congress
TuSimple filed the first of four late financial documents this week. It’s easy to see why the autonomous truck software developer gave up freight hauling. It cost more than twice as much as it was seeing in revenue. And the company has just 250 U.S. employees after two rounds of layoffs and a refocus on Asian markets.
While other startups ran afoul of Nasdaq listing rules because their share price fell below $1 for more than 30 consecutive trading days, TuSimple found another way to get put on...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tusimple-begins-catch-up-on-financial-filings
The following is the July 18, 2023, Congressional Research Service report, Hold on Nominations.
From the report
In the Senate, a hold on a nomination is a communication to the majority or minority leader that a Senator would object to approving the nomination by unanimous consent. When Senators inform their leader that they would object to approving a category of nominations by unanimous consent, such as all nominations to a particular government agency, they are said to be placing a blanket hold
https://news.usni.org/2023/07/18/report-to-congress-on-senate-nomination-holds
Sexual assault reporting by service members increased around 1 percent between Fiscal Year 2021 and 2022, according to the annual Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Report released Thursday.
In FY 2022, there were 8,942 reports, according to the annual report. The Navy reported receiving 2,052 reports, up 9 percent over the previous fiscal year, according to the Navy-specific report. Of the reports, 1,363 were unrestricted, meaning the case can be forwarded on to criminal and prosecutorial...
Rear Admiral Brendan McLane, Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic is piped aboard during a retirement ceremony for Captain Zoah Scheneman on Aug. 12, 2022. U.S. Navy Photo
President Joe Biden has nominated the next deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, the commander of Naval Surface Forces and the deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the Pentagon announced Monday.
Biden nominated Rear Adm. James Pitts to serve as the deputy chief of naval...
https://news.usni.org/2023/04/24/biden-announces-nominations-for-new-n9-naval-surface-forces
Sailors underway on May 24, 2022. US Navy Photo
THE PENTAGON — One in 10 female sailors experienced unwanted sexual contact in Fiscal Year 2021, one of the worst rates among the service branches, according to the Department of Defense’s annual Sexual Assault and Prevention Report released on Thursday.
That’s an increase from 7.5 percent of female sailors in FY 2018, according to slides from a DoD briefing Thursday afternoon. FY 2021 saw 2.1 percent of male sailors experiencing unwanted sexual...