The AI War Brief

Army Buys LOCUST X3 Lasers; Ukraine's Jet Killers | Sep 04, 2026

The West spent this week trying to change the arithmetic of drone defence rather than the equipment. Marcus and Sam break down the US Army's first ever production contra

Geran-5 Jet Drones Outrun Ukraine's Interceptors | Sep 02, 2026

The cheap-interceptor era just hit a physics problem it cannot buy its way out of. Russia's jet-powered Geran-5 drones now reach up to 600 km/h at ranges near 950 km, an

Judge Blocks Pentagon's Anthropic Ban, Clears Maven | Aug 31, 2026

A federal judge just tore up the Pentagon's ban on Anthropic, clearing Palantir's Claude-powered Maven targeting system to become a permanent program of record by end of

Marines Vow Humans Stay in the Loop as Autonomy Ships | Aug 28, 2026

Four days after a Russian drone chose its own target in Zaporizhzhia, the Marine Corps put the opposite promise in writing — and a professor at its own war college had al

A Russian Drone Chose Its Own Target — Zaporizhzhia | Aug 26, 2026

The human has been removed from the last decision, and it happened on hardware you can order online. Marcus and Sam open on the New York Times forensic investigation pub

Project Griffin's Kill Switch, Yuma Laser Shoot-Off | Aug 24, 2026

When an institution starts designing brakes into its weapons, that tells you more than any capability demo. Marcus and Sam break down the Army's newly public Project Gri

Ukraine's Alexa Interceptor, Army's Hunting AI Agents | Aug 22, 2026

The boundary lines of modern defence are moving — who owns the design, who owns the risk, who owns the decision. Marines on Okinawa printed replacement truck parts durin

Ukraine Builds a Missile Plant Inside NATO — Fire Point, FP-9 | Aug 19, 2026

The most consequential defence story this week isn't a weapon — it's a chemical plant in Denmark. Marcus and Sam open with Fire Point confirming construction of a solid

Northcom's Drone Blind Spot, Ukraine's MICH 2000 | Aug 17, 2026

The U.S. military just admitted, on the record, that it cannot stop a drone swarm over American soil. This episode: Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard, deputy commander of Nor

CENTCOM's Falcon Strike & Golden Dome's Funding Cliff | Aug 14, 2026

The Pentagon isn't just chasing faster drones anymore — it's building the permanent institutions to run drone warfare at machine speed. CENTCOM stands up Task Force Falc

Pentagon's 21-Day Ultimatum — Locust Lasers & Drone AI | Aug 12, 2026

The Pentagon just gave the entire defense industry three weeks to prove it can build weapons faster — and the laser age began the same week. In this briefing: Deputy Def

Ukraine Arms the Pentagon — F10 Drones & the Jet Shahed Race | Aug 10, 2026

The arrow just reversed: Ukraine is now a drone supplier to the United States military. In this briefing, Marcus and Sam break down the delivery of 2,000 Ukrainian F10 s

AI Flies the Kill Chain — X-62 VISTA & Robot-Dropping Drones | Aug 07, 2026

The human just lost the last tactical job in the intercept loop — and on another front, drones are now delivering robots that finish the mission on their own wheels. Thi

The $150K Drone Interceptor & Patriot's Empty Magazine | Aug 05, 2026

When a price ceiling shows up inside a weapons requirement, the argument about cost-exchange in drone warfare has stopped being commentary and started being doctrine. On

Drones Now Dodge Drones — JetKiller & Gauntlet II | Aug 03, 2026

The counter-counter-innovation has arrived, and it isn't a jammer — it's a reconnaissance drone that sees an interceptor closing from behind and breaks away on its own.

Ukraine Torches Russia's Murmansk-BN EW Giant | Jul 31, 2026

A five-thousand-kilometer electronic warfare node goes dark in Crimea, and both sides race to out-jam, out-hunt, and out-navigate each other. This episode: Ukraine's HUR

Anduril's First Fury Rolls Off the Line at Arsenal-1 | Jul 29, 2026

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft race just stopped being a design contest and became a manufacturing contest. This week: Anduril rolls its first production YFQ-44A "Fur

Pentagon Creates a Drone Czar, Marines Field Bullfrog | Jul 27, 2026

The Pentagon just put one person in charge of nearly every US drone program — and that reorganization may matter more than any single weapon this week. Marcus and Sam br

Ukraine's Shahed-Killer Drone & UK's Brontanax Wingman | Jul 24, 2026

The drone war's real advantage is going to whoever iterates fastest and fields cheapest — and this week the fast movers were a Ukrainian startup, a reforming Pentagon, an

Anduril's Thunder & Lockheed's Microwave Drone Killer | Jul 22, 2026

The robot wingman just escaped the fighter world — and this week it landed in helicopters, warships, and the electrical grid. Live from the fallout of the Farnborough ai