Early-stage technologies and concepts that signal future shifts in capability, advantage, or vulnerability.
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Growing Cyber Threats to Commercial Aviation: Why Cyber Risk Management and Resilient Systems Are No Longer Optional
From Connected Aircraft to AI-Driven Cyber Warfare Commercial aviation is entering a new era in which cybersecurity has become inseparable from flight safety, operational continuity, and national security. The global aviation ecosystem—comprising aircraft, airports, air traffic management systems, satellite communications, cloud infrastructure, maintenance networks, and passenger-facing digital services—is now one of the world’s most interconnected…
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The Changing Face of Terrorism in the United States: Trends, Challenges, and Required Technologies
From ISIS-Inspired Lone Actors to AI-Enabled Extremism The terrorism landscape confronting the United States in 2026 is profoundly different from the post-9/11 era. The centralized, hierarchical terrorist organizations that once dominated U.S. counterterrorism strategy have increasingly given way to decentralized networks, self-radicalized individuals, encrypted digital ecosystems, and AI-enhanced extremist operations. Modern terrorism is no longer…
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The Quiet Revolution: How Russia Is Reshaping Modern Warfare with Military AI
From Soviet Cybernetics to AI-Driven Warfare in Ukraine Artificial intelligence has become the defining military technology race of the twenty-first century. While public attention often focuses on the United States and China, Russia has quietly transformed itself into one of the world’s most operationally experienced military AI powers. The war in Ukraine has accelerated this…
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From SSA to SDA: Why Space-Based Sensors Are Critical for Space Domain Awareness in an Era of Great-Power Competition
Introduction: The Space Domain Has Become a Strategic Battlespace Space is no longer merely an enabler of military operations—it has become a contested warfighting domain in its own right. The rapid expansion of satellite constellations, increasing geopolitical rivalry, growing dependence on space-based infrastructure, and the emergence of counterspace weapons are fundamentally transforming how nations perceive…
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The Cognitive Battlefield: How Artificial Intelligence Is Revolutionizing Electronic Warfare and Spectrum Dominance
Introduction: The Electromagnetic Spectrum Becomes a Warfighting Domain The nature of warfare is undergoing a profound transformation. While tanks, ships, aircraft, missiles, and satellites remain visible symbols of military power, an increasingly decisive battle is being fought within an invisible domain—the electromagnetic spectrum. Modern military operations depend upon uninterrupted access to communications networks, radar systems,…
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Beyond Silicon: The Rise of Biological Supercomputers and Synthetic Intelligence
Introduction: The End of Moore’s Law and the Emergence of Living Computing For more than seven decades, the digital age has been powered by Moore’s Law—the relentless doubling of transistor density that transformed room-sized computers into AI supercomputers capable of training trillion-parameter models. That era is now approaching fundamental physical and economic limits. Advanced semiconductor…
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Stealthy and Lethal: The Evolution of Torpedo Technology in Modern Naval Warfare
Introduction: The Renaissance of Undersea Warfare The undersea battlespace is once again becoming one of the most strategically important arenas of military competition. While public attention often focuses on hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, drones, and space systems, a quieter revolution is occurring beneath the oceans. Torpedoes—the oldest precision-guided naval weapons still in widespread service—are undergoing…
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Power from Motion: The Revolution in Piezoelectric Materials for Smart Sensors, Actuators, Sonar Systems, and Energy Harvesting (2026 Update)
Introduction: The Invisible Technology Powering the Intelligent Age The twenty-first century is increasingly defined by machines that can sense, adapt, communicate, and make decisions in real time. From autonomous vehicles and industrial robots to underwater surveillance networks and hypersonic weapons, modern systems rely on a continuous flow of information about the physical world. At the…
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Securing the Frontiers: Intelligent Border Management in the Age of AI, Geopolitical Competition, and Transnational Threats (2026 Update)
Introduction: Border Management Becomes a Strategic Security Domain Borders have become one of the most contested security environments of the twenty-first century. No longer merely geographic boundaries, they now serve as critical interfaces between national security, economic prosperity, public health, migration management, and geopolitical competition. Governments must simultaneously facilitate trillions of dollars in legitimate trade…