The short-range reconnaissance drone initiative is “part of a broader Army effort to evaluate how personnel, tactics, and technologies align to meet the demands of modern warfare,” according to the Pentagon. The small drones are easy to transport and relatively easy to use, meaning they can be employed on the battlefield as a way for units to identify threats, find targets, and otherwise complete missions while reducing risk to soldiers.

The Army said in a statement this week that Utah-based Teal Drones and the company’s Black Widow system are one of the two vendors chosen to manufacture the next round of craft. The California-based company Skydio said in a May press release that it is delivering its X10D small unmanned aircraft systems as part of the second round of the program.

Since the project began in September 2022, the Army said that more than 16 brigades have been outfitted with such drones. The Pentagon is more broadly pushing an effort to build drones in massive numbers. Some defense industry sources have told Threat Status that small drones in particular are in many ways becoming like ammunition: basic, attritable pieces of warfighting equipment that virtually every soldier will soon have in their personal tool kit.

Chinese state media already have previewed some of the new weapon systems that were revealed during parade rehearsals for next week’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. U.S. and other intelligence agencies will be monitoring the parade closely.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz reports that along with goose-stepping troops, the People’s Liberation Army will show off new YJ-series hypersonic anti-ship missiles and a new, more lethal version of its DF-26 intermediate-range missile. The Chinese have dubbed it the “Guam Killer” for its ability to hit the major U.S. military hub in the western Pacific.

New YJ-17, YJ-19 and YJ-20 missiles were shown in one rehearsal for Wednesday’s parade. Another weapon previewed by state media is a new variant of a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile. Submarine warfare weapons on display will include two new extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles identified in photos as the AJX002 and a larger one hidden under a tarp. The AJX002 appears similar to Russia’s Poseidon nuclear-tipped torpedo.

While Russian forces continue to grind forward across the battlefront in a war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on oil refineries across the vastness of Russia are hacking deep into the nation’s energy infrastructure, eliminating as much as 17% of national refining capacity.

“Ukraine is hammering Russia’s ‘Achilles heel,’” retired Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and a strong supporter of Kyiv, wrote recently on X. “Apparently the Ukrainians do have quite a few cards.” Mr. Hodges was referring to data released earlier Saturday by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Kyiv’s Interior Ministry and self-described “Ukrainian Patriot” who posts open-source intelligence about the conflict.

Mr. Gerashchenko had translated a post from the Russian social media channel Nezgar. “The choice of refineries as targets is explained by their technological vulnerability,” the translation reads. It notes that modern Russian refineries were built using key components from Shell (Britain), Axens (France), UOP (U.S.) and Topsoe (Denmark).

The Space Force this week conducted a fresh launch of the X-37B space plane, known formally as the orbital test vehicle. The launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was the eighth mission for the X-37B, which analysts say could serve as a future platform for the Space Force’s so far nonpublic counterspace weapons.

The plane is conducting a variety of tests and experiments during its current mission, including laser communications demonstrations involving proliferated commercial satellite networks in low earth orbit. “These operational demonstrations and experiments comprised of next-generation technologies including laser communications and the highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space,” the Space Force said in a statement.

Lasers are regarded by experts as a key antidote to China’s hypersonic missiles. Although the Space Force did not say so in its statement, space lasers can also be used to attack satellites. Space-based lasers also could be part of Mr. Trump’s plan for a national missile defense dubbed Golden Dome for America.

The “sensing capability” to detect, identify, track and predict adversary actions — whether an intercontinental ballistic missile launch or the early preparation steps for such a launch — is “essential” to the push for a next-generation missile defense shield, writes Holly Bertrand, who asserts that without such capability, Golden Dome “won’t work.”

“A small group of elite technologists, all Americans with deep backgrounds in missile defense, have been working to meet this moment,” Ms. Bertrand, chief operating officer at California-based defense tech firm ExoAnalytic Solutions, writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times.

“Their solution is called Orbital Guardians, an integrated system of sensors and decision tools that is safeguarding commercial and government satellites today,” she writes. “It is, in effect, the prototype for the Golden Dome’s eyes, America’s space domain awareness backbone.”

• Aug. 28 — AI Safety Governance in Southeast Asia, Brookings Institution 

• Sept. 2 — Envisioning the Threat to Taiwan: A Cross-strait and Beyond Seminar, Atlantic Council

• Sept. 2 — Strategic Vision or Strategic Challenge: China’s Leadership in a Multipolar World, Chatham House

• Sept. 4 — Disruptive Technology for Future Warfare, Institute for National Strategic Studies

• Sept. 4 — The Digital Front Line: Building a Cyber-Resilient Taiwan, Hudson Institute

• Sept. 9 — From Monroe to the Golden Age: Charting America’s Path in Latin America, Alexander Hamilton Society