In a future conflict, American troops will direct the newest war machines not with sprawling control panels or sci-fi-inspired touchscreens, but controls familiar to anyone who grew up with an Xbox or PlayStation in their home. Over the past several years, the US Defense Department has been gradually integrating what appear to be variants of the Freedom of Movement Control Unit (FMCU) handsets as the primary control units for a variety of advanced weapons systems, according to publicly available imagery published to the department's Defense Visual Information Distribution System media hub. Those systems include the new Navy Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) launcher, a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle–based anti-ship missile system designed to fire the new Naval Strike Missile that's essential to the Marine Corps' plans for a notional future war with China in the Indo-Pacific; the Army's new Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system that, bristling with FIM-92 Stinger and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and a 30-mm chain gun mounted on a Stryker infantry fighting vehicle, is seen as a critical anti-air capability in a potential clash with Russia in Eastern Europe; the Air Force's MRAP-based Recovery of Air Bases Denied by Ordnance (RADBO) truck that uses a laser to clear away improvised explosive devices and other unexploded munitions; and the Humvee-mounted High Energy Laser-Expeditionary (HELEX) laser weapon system currently undergoing testing by the Marine Corps. The FMCU has also been employed on a variety of experimental unmanned vehicles, and according to a 2023 Navy contract, the system will be integral to the operation of the AN/SAY-3A Electro-Optic Sensor System (or "I-Stalker") that's designed to help the service's future Constellation-class guided-missile frigates track and engage incoming threats. Produced since 2008 by Measurement Systems Inc. (MSI), a subsidiary of British defense contractor Ultra that specializes in human-machine interfaces, the FMCU offers a similar form factor to the standard Xbox or PlayStation controller but with a ruggedized design intended to safeguard its sensitive electronics against whatever hostile environs American service members may find themselves in.

Fox News senior national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest on why the Army is expected to fall short of its 2023 goal on'America Reports.' Since the first brave Americans took up arms to claim their freedom in the War of Independence, our proud military tradition has sustained our nation and kept us safe. Today, by some accounts, this tradition is in danger of dying out. Some of the loudest alarm bells are coming from the armed forces themselves. The Wall Street Journal reports that most branches expect to miss their recruitment targets this year by significant margins – 15,000 for the Army, 10,000 for the Navy and 3,000 for the Air Force. The Marine Corps is on track to meet its quota, but Marine officials still described a "challenging" recruiting climate.

Marine commanders on the battlefield need access to better intelligence and AI tools for more rapid decision making, while higher-ranking commanders further from the tactical edge must accept that their picture may be less timely and complete and will focus more on pre-planning logistics, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said Thursday. Speaking at a Hudson Institute event, Berger laid out his thoughts on how the Marine Corps must continue to transform to prepare for future potential fights against highly advanced adversaries like China and Russia. First, the Corps and the military must recognize that in highly contested environments with an advanced adversary, the Marine Corps will play a different role than it did during U.S. operations in the Middle East, and must be positioned forward before conflict starts, he said. "In a very simple sense, the way that I view it is: The most forward parts of the U.S. military in a contested environment, before shots are fired, are going to be special operations units, submarines, and Marines" Berger said. "If those three are forward persistently before, how do we stitch them together into some sort of framework where they can move information? Where they can--with some overlap, but not too much redundancy--cover the playing field?"

To better retain talent in its ranks, the Marine Corps is turning to machine learning and artificial intelligence to examine recruiting data and identify key attributes of Marines who will likely stay in uniform. The military writ large has struggled to retain specialized skills, especially tech talent, so the Marine Corps has turned to tech to identify key traits in recruits to inform management choices around retention. The new tech is aimed at enabling a broader transition in Marine Corps to better focus on retention -- rather than just recruitment -- and use analytics to inform decisions aroun Marines upon their entry into service. "The intended outcome is to decrease [Marine Corps Recruit Depot] attrition and increase the success of applicants through at least their first term of enlistment," Maj. Jordan Cochran, a spokesman for the corps' Manpower and Reserve Affairs Department, said in an email.

Before the Marine Corps can fully utilize the power of AI technology and the efficiencies it brings, the service must overcome one major hurdle: trust. "We're going to have to trust artificial intelligence," he said during remarks at the National Defense Industrial Association's Expeditionary Warfare Conference in February. Whether it's "sensor-to-shooter or fuel to a frontline unit, we put humans in the loop at about 16 places because we don't trust it yet," he said. The best way to boost confidence in the technology is to have Marines train machines, he said. Gen. Eric Austin, director of the Marine Corps' Capabilities Development Directorate, said building that faith in artificial intelligence will unlock its potential.

The Marines are about to get their hands on an impressive bit of hardware: A wearable robotic exoskeleton that gives users super strength. The company delivering the unit, a defense-focused subsidiary of Sarcos Robotics developed the exoskeleton for industrial uses, including in energy and construction. An executive guide to the technology and market drivers behind the $135 billion robotics market. Still, in many ways, this is a return to roots for Sarcos. In 2000, the company was part of a storied class of DARPA grant recipients working on powered exoskeletons for defense purposes.

Meet Project Overlord: The Marines' Plan for Robot Ships to Move Their Soldiers and Supplies Earlier this year Navy leaders requested $400 million from Congress for two LUSVs in the 2020 proposed defense budget, with eight more to be purchased over the next five years. WASHINGTON – U.S. Marine Corps leaders plan to capitalize on a U.S. Navy plan to develop a Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) for long-range resupply missions, and troop transport for Marine Corps warfighters. Smith made his comments today at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Defense, Protection, and Security conference in Washington. The future Navy LUSV could rendezvous with Navy amphibious assault ships offshore to move Marines and supplies quickly where needed, at perhaps lower costs and less risk to human ship crews than is possible today, Smith told AUVSI attendees in a keynote address. Unmanned systems "are less expensive than people," Smith pointed out in his address.

A recent article in Bloomberg magazine called data science "America's hottest job." In response to increasing demand by industry, government and academia for highly trained data scientists, the University of Virginia's Data Science Institute is launching an online version of its Master of Science in Data Science program next summer. Through a collaboration with Noodle Partners, a company that provides online education management support, the degree can be earned entirely online, and will mirror the curriculum of the Data Science Institute's residential M.S.D.S. program. Currently, 49 students are enrolled in UVA's residential program and 20 more are working toward joint MBA/M.S. in Data Science degrees. The online M.S.D.S. program initially will enroll about 30 students, and that number is likely to grow each semester as the program modestly expands.

The US military has used drones in combat zones for over a decade to scout and support infantry. Now they're testing a way to give ground troops another edge: The capability to build UAVs themselves. What's more, the US Army is partnering with the Marine Corps on a test project that lets troops 3D-print particular drone parts from a tablet-based catalog, which could eventually lead to manufacturing UAVs customized to the mission. The concept is promising, and so is the flexibility: The software catalog setup lets military units print out an unmanned aircraft system for specific missions. The Army Research Laboratory expects the turnaround time to create UAV parts to be from minutes to hours.

In three minutes, the Scout drone is assembled. One minute more, and it's airborne, tossed by a Marine. The flight is short, maybe 20 minutes at the most, but the information gained is valuable, a real-time video of just who or what, exactly, is behind that building a mile down the road. With the area surveilled, the aptly-named Scout drone flies back, and suffers a rough landing, snapping a wing. The squad can print another back at company HQ after the mission, and have it ready to go in a couple hours.