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A watchdog inside the Department of Veterans Affairs issued an urgent advisory Thursday over two AI chat tools currently in use by VA healthcare providers, citing “potential patient safety risks.”
Doctors aren’t using AI to diagnose patients, but the Inspector General found problems could potentially arise in some cases when doctors use artificial intelligence to analyze medical information and update patient records.

General Dynamics Information Technology will upgrade the networks at 187 Air Force bases with a zero trust-based capability, the company announced Wednesday.
Under the service’s Next Generation Gateway program, GDIT has received a $120 million task order to provide “an integrated, data-centric cybersecurity solution” to support over one million users, according to a company news release. The effort is a major IT modernization initiative designed to replace the service’s outdated network infrastructure with modern architectures based on zero trust.

Sailors are currently making key strides on the path toward achieving the Navy’s long-term goals for integrating robotic platforms, according to some of the top officials leading high-stakes complementary drone initiatives.
Surface Force Vision 2045 explicitly directs the sea service to create and operationalize unmanned surface vessel squadrons in every fleet, as part of a broader push to rapidly enable a hybrid force and equip personnel with emerging maritime drone technologies that can expand the U.S. military’s capacity, flexibility and reach.

Denmark allocated more military resources to Greenland this week with the government determined to prove it can protect its Arctic territory.

The Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) Program was established to create a new line of defense in the cockpit of civilian airliners after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Through the program, commercial airline pilots could voluntarily receive firearms training and be issued a firearm to defend their cockpit against a hijacking.
Issued sidearms are a mainstay for U.S. military pilots, who carried the Beretta M9 and recently transitioned to the Sig Sauer M17/M18, but after 9/11, the new weapons and training were for civilian pilots, carrying civilian passengers at 30,000 feet.

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer has acknowledged that he overpromised when he announced back in 2024 that the service was coming out with a new and redesigned physical training uniform for soldiers. 
The delay, according to other Army leaders who joined Weimer during the virtual town hall at Fort Drum, New York, may be for the simple reason that the service intends to focus on other things, such as getting new and better weapons systems or addressing perennial issues, like the barracks.
“Changing the PT uniform was put on pause,” Weimer said during Monday’s town hall.

During a demonstration earlier this month, the U.S. military conducted the first kinetic drone swarm on American soil, officials said, a notable milestone in the Pentagon’s effort to experiment with unmanned systems that communicate across a common operating network to accomplish various tasks.
A small group of troops gathered at Camp Blanding, Florida, on Jan. 8 where they launched four first-person view drones — some of which were packed with plastic explosives — into the air and toward a column of inflatable tanks.

When the NFL playoffs resume this weekend, only one former service academy football player will have a chance to become a Super Bowl champion next month.
Jordan Jackson, a defensive lineman for the Denver Broncos, graduated from the Air Force Academy. Jackson was not born when former New York Giants wide receiver Phil McConkey, who served five years as a Navy pilot before beginning his NFL career, shone in America’s most celebrated sporting event.

The Pentagon’s annual suicide report for 2024 is delayed because of the government shutdown, officials claimed. 
The annual report, which includes rates of suicides and attempts across the active duty, Reserve and National Guard forces, typically comes out in the fall and addresses numbers from the previous calendar year. The delay of the report’s release was covered by Business Insider, which got few answers from Pentagon officials who said they had “nothing to announce at this time.

UK and Polish leaders agreed to train more closely in attack helicopter tactics, particularly to “shoot down” air and missile threats.