The Torch
Illuminating Security and Defence Issues
Emerging Technologies
Light speed weapons? Directed energy and the future of the ADF
11 May, 2026
Directed energy weapons (DEW), including high energy laser and high-power microwave weapons, are increasingly important in counter-drone tasks across air, sea and land....
Inside Ukraine’s robot war revolution
11 May, 2026
A Ukrainian commander tells POLITICO how robotic systems are transforming the battlefield, in a development with the potential to reshape how wars are fought....
Pentagon stages first ‘Top Drone’ school for operators to hone skills
11 May, 2026
The Pentagon last month held its first “Top Drone” school for drone pilots to demonstrate their skills in a threat-representative environment....
Cheap drones are reshaping the war in the sky
8 April, 2026
How the US is fighting a war without sending ground troops to Iran — and the inexpensive drones making it harder....
Railgun Being Fired By U.S. Navy Again After Abandoning It For Years
8 April, 2026
The Trump class "battleship" has breathed new life into the Navy's railgun ambitions, which it previously shelved after hitting technical hurdles....
Caltech Team Finds Useful Quantum Computers Could Be Built with as Few as 10,000 Qubits
8 April, 2026
Theoretical discovery opens the door to building quantum computers with significantly reduced resources....
Hunt For Container Launchers Packed With Drones Kicked-Off By Pentagon
10 March, 2026
The U.S. military wants proposals for containerized systems that can launch and recover a mixture of drone swarms on land and sea....
Military AI Adoption Is Outpacing Global Cooperation
10 March, 2026
Militaries worldwide are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) while international cooperation flounders. With the United States and China less engaged at a recent AI military summit, middle powers appear to face a choice: lead the conversation or proceed into a future devoid of guardrails....
Not today, but soon: fully autonomous air combat is coming
10 March, 2026
Top Gun: Maverick begins with Rear Admiral Cain alluding to how Maverick and human pilots in general will have no place in the future of air combat. Maverick’s response is calm but defiant: ‘Maybe so, sir, but not today.’ The scene may be fictional, but it reflects current developments in military aviation as technological advances in increasingly autonomous uncrewed aircraft are disrupting long-standing doctrines developed around manned aircraft....
The U.S. DoD’s AI Acceleration Strategy
2 February, 2026
On January 9th, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) released its Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy. The Strategy promotes a familiar outcome: for the U.S. military to become “AI-first.”...