Pentagon rolls out major reforms of R&D, AI

In a triple-barreled barrage on Monday evening, the Pentagon released three major policy memos from Secretary Pete Hegseth, aiming to overhaul and accelerate the department’s technology efforts.

“The old era ends today,” Hegseth declared in his latest “Arsenal of Freedom” tour stop at SpaceX’s Brownsville, Texas factory that same day. “We’re done running a peacetime science fair while our adversaries are running a wartime arms race.”

The memos unveil a battery of new AI initiatives, from the break-up of the sprawling Advana database system to a new AI simulation “foundry” named after sci-fi icon Ender Wiggin. They also continue an ongoing consolidation of independent innovation organizations — which proliferated during the Obama, Trump I, and Biden administrations — under the control of the Defense Department’s chief technology officer, Under Secretary for Research & Engineering Emil Michael.

Read more at Breaking Defense