The military’s long-term planning has to account for the most sophisticated technology on earth, as drones, AI and space-based weapons systems become part of the ever-evolving challenges presented by Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.

Mr. Seward sat down at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium for an exclusive interview with U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, who said the science, technology, industrial and military communities must work in concert to keep the U.S. competitive.

“We really have to look at them as teammates. We have got to be on the same team. We can’t be partners that are strictly transactional,” he said.

His comments at the symposium highlight how close coordination is quickly becoming a new norm in the defense industry, especially as the Pentagon races to incorporate AI into aspects of communications, space operations and high-stakes missile defense.

It’s become commonplace in the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S.-Iran conflict and other modern clashes: Satellite imagery or cellphone videos emerge on social media within minutes of an attack or other major battlefield development, giving anyone with an X account information previously reserved for militaries or intelligence agencies.

How is that proliferation of information changing warfare itself or shaping public narratives around a conflict? How best to determine which pieces of information are real? And how is AI helping to distill mountains of modern data?

On the latest episode of the Threat Status podcast, Jesse Kallman, founder and CEO of the Atlanta-based AI company Danti, explains the cutting-edge work his company is doing to collect, catalog, analyze and present to customers the massive amounts of information being generated today. The company is at the center of the evolving movement to harness geospatial and earth observation data for both defense and commercial use. 

“I think it’s all connected. There’s kind of this data deluge problem. We just have way too much, right? And it’s not just about feeding the right data to the right model. It’s about how do I … get the right context based on the problem at hand?” Mr. Kallman said.

The commander of U.S. Space Command said Wednesday China is setting a “breathtaking pace” in its space and counterspace weapons development.

Gen. Whiting told audiences at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium that the threats Chinese military space developments potentially pose to the U.S. are no longer a future problem, but an active issue today. He said the speed of China’s space weapons development will be a defining challenge of his time in the command.

“Last year, we saw them demonstrate refueling of two satellites in orbit, possibly some kind of servicing as well,” he said.

The U.S. Space Force is working to ensure that mid-orbit refueling doesn’t give China a “maneuver advantage,” as Gen. Whiting described it, over the U.S. military in the space domain.

Ukrainian drones struck another oil refinery Thursday morning inside Russia, 800 miles from Ukraine’s border. Ukrainian forces also struck a major Russian port on the Black Sea more than 180 miles from the front lines of the conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

Mr. Zelenskyy called it a “unique operation” to strike air defense positions, piers and a seaport responsible for resupplying much of the Russian fleet operating around occupied Crimea. The attack used jet-powered drones, Ukrainian-designed and -built cruise missiles, and unmanned naval systems, he said. The target deliberately sent a message to Russia that ships around Crimea will “not be safe” from Ukrainian attacks.

Thursday’s attacks caused a fire at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries. Mr. Zelenskyy called Wednesday’s target, Novorossiysk, “the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.” Both attacks are part of a pressure campaign to compel negotiations for a peace deal, Kyiv officials said.

Kyiv said it wouldn’t target non-Russian vessels as long as they weren’t under sanctions or carrying Russian oil or cargo, according to the Financial Times.

The AI “black box” of some private companies’ closed systems is a threat to American security, argues Steven Bucci, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer and former deputy assistant secretary of defense, in an op-ed for The Washington Times.

“The usual talking point is that open source AI helps our enemies because it gives powerful tools away for free,” he writes. “A black-box system you rent over the internet forces you to trust an outside provider, its guardrails and its servers with your most sensitive data. An open model can be examined, scrutinized and reformed.”

Mr. Bucci writes that American AI companies are too focused on closed models while Chinese businesses are “making a huge bet on open models, releasing state-of-the-art systems that perform within a percentage point of leading U.S. models.”

• Aug. 13 — Six Months After Epic Fury: The State of the Conflict in the Gulf, Hudson Institute

• Aug. 17 — Beyond Pyongyang: Regional Development, Modernization and Inequality in North Korea, Stimson Center

• Aug. 18 — The Hormuz Implications for Energy Policymaking: Japan and South Korea, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Aug. 25-26 — Counter UAS Summit, Institute for Defense and Government Advancement

• Aug. 27 — 2026 Navy Summit, Potomac Officers Club

• Aug. 27 — AI and Autonomy on the Modern Battlefield, Atlantic Council