#defence-expenditure

#defence-expenditure

"That $70 billion is all going into existing systems and technologies," said Hurst. "The industrial base support is entirely separate."

President Trump stated, 'They came to the White House a few days ago, and we had some very good talks with them, and I think they're shaping up.' He emphasized the intelligence of Anthropic's team, saying, 'They're very smart, and I think they can be of great use.'

The half-life of humanity is currently around 35 years, said Nobel laureate in physics David Gross as he concluded an evening lecture at the German Physical Society's conference in Erlangen in March.

The idea has reportedly gained support from Defence Secretary John Healey and has been discussed in private ministerial meetings in recent weeks, as ministers search for ways to bridge a widening fiscal gap without breaking Labour's tax and borrowing pledges.

The economics are hard to ignore. Shooting down a drone with AeroVironment's LOCUST laser system costs less than $10, using just two to five seconds of laser energy. Compare that to the interceptor missiles currently used against Iranian drone swarms, which cost orders of magnitude more and are in short supply across allied arsenals.

The German military also uses this airborne communications hub, which allows command staff and soldiers deployed abroad to communicate across continents. The information they share is classified, strictly confidential.

Huang, who has repeatedly defended his belief that US companies should be able to sell advanced chips in China, didn't take kindly to Amodei comparing such sales to 'selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.'

Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles stated, 'Our surface fleet is more important than at any time in decades. These general-purpose frigates will help secure our maritime trade routes and northern approaches as part of a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet.'

Hegseth's financial broker inquired about a multimillion-dollar investment in BlackRock's Defense Industrials Active ETF, which invests in global defense and security-related companies.

"Damage to critical energy infrastructure is another factor that has risen considerably and, in Qatar's case, will be costly both in terms of the cost of repair and foregone revenues from the planned expansion of LNG output, which was set to come onstream later this year and next year."

Our war fighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools. These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react. Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot, but advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds.

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is currently on a spending spree: it has more than 108 billion ($129 billion) at its disposal this year a gigantic, unprecedented sum. This is being financed both by the official federal budget and special funds, for which the state is taking out loans. This money is intended to make the Bundeswehr, which has been subject to decades of cutbacks, more powerful and modern. There is also time pressure.

But logistical consistency, like coherence and gravitas, does not characterize the new NDS. It is a document that supposedly nests within the National Security Strategy, explaining at greater length the implications of overall policy for the armed forces. The 2026 version does not do that. Rather, it restates some of the basic priorities of the Trump administration but for the most part confines itself to flattery of the president, insults, and bombast.